Part of me still wishes there had been some mix-up at the sperm bank, or that Victor's sperm somehow didn't survive once it was removed from there. Anything to undo that shitstorm of a storyline. YRfan23 1, posts. DRW50 1, posts. Paul Raven posts. While you can argue Bell may have had a similar obsession, all roads didn't lead back to Victor during his tenure. With Alden, it often felt that way. Brad, Jill, Jack, Nikki Good times and great storytelling.
MAB seemed like a 4th gen writer who had long term appreciation of the show. The beginning of her tenure felt like someone was trying to button-up all of the loose holes around Genoa City. In some ways, it was satisfying to find answers to longtime questions such as what happened to Victor's sperm sample. However, too many other details were established that were less than satisfying, such as exploring Jill's paternity.
My recollection is that there was a shift when Hogan joined in the second year of her tenure which I no longer found appealing. Even down to the parking garages which were cause for concern when the mall first opened.
I think of writers in terms of generations, the first gen are the creators, the second gen were trained by the first but wanted to rebel against them, third gen were typically people from outside the field to give the show a fresh perspective and fourth gen are people who grew with soaps on TV and are nostalgic for the genre.
It's hard to get an idea of what kind of "writer" Maria Arena Bell really was. According to her biography, she's a novelist. How many of her novels have you ever read? How many of her novels have you ever even seen?! I'm assuming that she's actually an "unpublished novelist", which puts her in the same basket with most of us nowhere.
