GL Pulls a Wheeler
Soap Opera Weekly: Ellen, why did you hire David?
Wheeler: Well, look how cute he is (laughs). No, I had been here before [as a director and a producer] and Dave had been a breakdown writer. When you got one of Dave’s breakdowns you were always so excited. Just the fact that it said his name, you would say, “Oh, my goodness, this is going to be a great breakdown.” What made it a great breakdown was that he understood the show so well and could write from such a place of character, history and story. I always gravitated to his breakdowns. So I felt we had some of the same sensibility of how we saw soap opera, storytelling in general, but certainly how we saw this show. So when it became a discussion, Dave was the first person…really the only person on my list.
Kreizman: I’ve been around for a long time, so everybody knew me. It wasn’t like they were dragging me from the streets. I started as an intern here when I was in college. I fell in love with the medium, how fast it moves, and how you may have one show and you don’t love it but you have another one coming the next day. Also, how long you have to tell stories and develop characters.
Weekly: What are some of the biggest changes you guys are going to be making in Springfield?
Kreizman: We want to focus on the core families. We wanted the show to be like what GUIDING LIGHT was in its heyday. A lot of people say GUIDING LIGHT was at its best when it was telling story with heart, based on the character and the families.
Wheeler: The families…it really comes back to that. I was looking at the headshots of the cast up in my office this morning and realized each row is a family unit. As I was looking at it I was going, “Wow, that’s great. I can look up at that board and the top row has this story and the next row down has this story. We have a story in place for each family.”
Weekly: When did you realize you had to make a change? Did the ratings hit a certain low point?
Wheeler: No, no it wasn’t anything that made me say, “Oh, I have to make the change.” It was a feeling that I had that I wanted someone who had a very similar feeling, similar approach to doing soap operas, and I knew I had that in Dave. I think all of us thought that that was going to be the best thing for the show — [having] two people who were looking at a show from the same position and wanting to achieve the same things. It makes everyone below you feel that symbiotic thing, and they want to work together too.
Weekly: Ellen, how is this different from AS THE WORLD TURNS, where you directed?
Wheeler: I’m the boss.
Weekly: David, would you ever write Ellen into the show, and Ellen, would you let him?
Wheeler: (cutting David off and smiling): No!
Conversation
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