- No matter how hard I try to live in the present and meet
the challenges of the here-and-now, every once in awhile the past rears
its haunting head.
-
- Today, while doing a Google search for information about
soap operas to pass on to a student, I encountered a familiar name that
I hadn't seen or heard anywhere but in my own head for more than 25 years.
-
- The name of My Friend The Daytime Serial Producer.
-
- It's the little things that drive you crazy, and show
business has more than its share of both craziness and little things. One
of the little things that used to drive me crazy was the way I came oh-so
close to having what I thought would be a Dream Job, courtesy of My Friend
The DSP, only to lose it after I'd thought we'd clinched the deal.
-
- What happened 'way back there in 1979 was that I got
a phone call from My Friend asking if she and the Head of Daytime Programming
at a major TV network could come over to my place and talk about me taking
over as head writer of their flagship soap.
-
- I wasn't a soap opera writer (which was one of the reasons
they wanted me; they thought someone with my primetime background would
do new and interesting things for the genre), but I'd always been intrigued
by the realism soaps demonstrated.
-
- Well, OK, maybe not real realism, but the appearance
of realism as in, "Look, Ma! No bullets are flying! Instead of life
or death we're worrying about money and love!" I liked the idea of
being able to explore genuine human emotions instead of hyping up crime
after crime.
-
- And, frankly, I liked the huge paycheck that went with
that exploration because at the time the brainiacs behind soap opera scripts
were the highest paid writers in TV.
-
- My Friend the DSP and the Head of Daytime Programming
came to the house on a Saturday, and we sat in the sunny living room, discussing
the kinds of changes they wanted in the show and how I might make them.
-
- Oh, and my then-wife, Mrs. B the First, was there, too.
Sitting on the floor and eagerly offering her opinions and advice.
-
- Which, I'm afraid, wasn't a good thing. Our marriage
was very troubled at the time (and ended soon after), and even inward-gazing,
self-obsessed television executives could feel the tension.
-
- That would've been bad enough, but couple it with the
deep-seated (and, I believe, irrational) showbiz perspective of, "You're
not in the business, you're just a spouse, so why the @^%$ should we talk
to you?" and you're in the middle of a seriously serious situation.
-
- Still, I was convinced that I'd demonstrated my charm,
intelligence and talent more than amply, and that a big money offer would
be on my doorstep any second minute day week?
-
- No offer came.
-
- A year later, after the inevitable divorce and all its
suffering, a friend of the HDP told me that the reason the job hadn't worked
out was that My Friend the DSP had disliked my ex-wife so much that she
couldn't bring herself to do business with me.
-
- Ever.
-
- After all, seeing me might make My Friend think of her.
And wouldn't that have been a terrible thing?
-
- Over the years, I've often thought about that experience,
wondering what would've happened if Mrs. B the First and I had been happy
on that day (and in general, too, but that's a whole other obsession and,
yes, still filled with suffering). And, whenever some further conflict
arose with Mrs. B the First, I'd find myself reaching for the story of
how she'd "killed" that deal to use as a kind of weapon against
her.
-
- I never did use it though. Because I knew how much it
would hurt my ex. And I had no reason to want to hurt anyone that way.
-
- Especially someone I once loved.
-
- Which brings us to today, and the Google search where
I saw My Friend the DSP's name, and also the name of the head writer who
changed daytime serial storytelling forever when she took over the show.
-
- The two women's last names were the same.
-
- The new writer was the Producer's sister.
-
- Was I ever really in the running?
-
- Could what I brought to the table truly top kin?
-
- Not on any planet I know.
-
- The past is dead. Long live the present!
-
- For now, anyway.
-
-
-
- Copyright C 2007 by Larry Brody. All rights reserved.
-
- Author Larry Brody's weekly column, LIVE! FROM PARADISE!
appears on his website, www.larrybrody.com. He has written thousands of
hours of network television, and is the author of "Television Writing
from the Inside Out" and "Turning Points in Television."
Brody is Creative Director of The Cloud Creek Institute for the Arts, the
world's first in-residence media colony. More about his activities can
be seen on www.tvwriter.com and www.cloudcreek.org. He welcomes your comments
and feedback at <mailto:LarryBrody@cloudcreek.org>LarryBrody@cloudcreek.org.
Brody, his wife and their dogs, cats, horses and chickens live in Marion
County, Arkansas. The other residents of the mythical town of Paradise
reside in his imagination.
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