Part Two: Catching Up With B&B’s Master Poet Patrick Mulcahey
Previously in SOAP OPERA UNCENSORED: He’s regarded as one of the — if not the best — writers in daytime-TV history. After a brief stint on TEXAS, Mulcahey made a name for himself in arguably his most memorable and entertaining stint on cult soap, SANTA BARBARA.
Before penning the NBC serial, Mulcahey went on to work alongside one of the masters of the genre, the late, great Douglas Marland on GUIDING LIGHT in 1982 making him one of the most coveted writers in the business.
Ten years later, he would return to Springfield to write scripts (and subsequently co-head write) during one of GL’s greatest creative eras.
He next jumped over to GL’s timeslot competitor, GH, for a relatively lackluster gig but it was Mulcahey’s next career move that surprised many: after a break from sudsy drama, the Yale University grad found a permanent home penning scripts for B&B, daytime’s campiest soap. With Patrick’s help, an Emmy-less Brad Bell finally went on to win two consecutive Writing Emmys and three back-to-back Best Drama Series Emmys.
The five-time Daytime Emmy Award winner is also one of the business’s nicest and coolest guys. His peer, Michele Val Jean, who writes with Mulcahey on B&B, attempted to describe his unique talent and style that is as poetic as it is recognizable to UNCENSORED:
“Patrick is the Tennessee Williams of daytime,” she pronounces. “He set a standard with the Capwell Dinner Party from Hell on SANTA BARBARA many years ago that I have tried (and sadly, failed — even on my best days) to live up to. He is my writing idol — but better yet — he is my friend, and I love him dearly. Colour me beyond thrilled to be working with him again.”
In part two, Mulcahey explains the magic that is Katherine Kelly Lang, teases Stephanie and Brooke’s end game, his best daytime-TV moments, remembers the late, great James E. Reilly, and his thoughts on what’s happening behind-the-scenes on Y&R!
Can we expect more integration on B&B? The show is not balanced…. which is one of biggest criticisms lobbied against the serial these days.
We know we do that from time to time. We don’t like to start a story and interrupt it for three days with another story and then come back to it. We like to see a story movement through so that’s arguably something the audience may hold against us but we know we’re doing it.
Can we expect your biggest star, Katherine Kelly Lang, back on the front burner?
Yes! Katherine Kelly Lang is incredibly important to us. She’s fabulous; she’s incredible. She sells everything we give her. We put Brooke and Ridgeback together — and they were going to stay together. So that posed several challenges, but now we can use her in new ways because Brooke’s free [of Ridge]. Don’t worry: Brooke’s never going to become “Grandma.”
Whew. When I learned of Ronn Moss’s exit, I was very excited because Ridge leaving the canvas could provide B&B with the ultimate, character-driven reboot. What happens when Ridge is out of the equation? This man’s relationship with his mother has seemingly defined the show’s DNA. What do Stephanie, Brooke and Taylor do without Ridge? But I was stunned Brad didn’t kill him off in a presumed-dead storyline. And it’s not like B&B uses the presumed-dead plot crutch like other soaps — so you guys can get away with it. I think with Ridge being out there alive won’t allow the characters, especially Brooke, to move on.
We could’ve done that, yes, but you’re underestimating the impact of Ridge’s death on the entire canvas: the grief, all the mourning, and all the searching for Ridge, which would be obligatory because that’s where the characters would be. I actually like the way Brad has accounted for Ridge’s absence. His absence gives our characters liberties that they wouldn’t have if they had to deal with his death.
One grievance I have against the show is that Ridge is regarded as the man who raised Hope – and that’s not true. In fact, Nick raised Hope and rather quite beautifully, I may add. As a huge Brooke and Nick fan, I was insulted. Why does the show do things like that?
It’s like Samuel Johnson said about a chair: you don’t have to know how to make a chair to know how good it is. If that’s your takeaway of the show, I’m not going to argue with you about it. Listen, I haven’t been watching the show as long as you have. I’ve only been watching the show for — what? — seven years. I sort of thought that Brooke and Ridge were together sometimes and Brooke and Nick were together sometimes. You do notice that we have Hope call him Ridge [not] Dad. We all love Jack Wagner very much but we knew we had too many characters. Instead of having Hope always say, “I know Nick raised me but I consider you my father, too,” we assume the audience knows that.
Do you feel like there was a B&B backlash this year at the Daytime Emmy Awards because of your prior winning streak in Best Drama and Best Writing?
No, I don’t think so.
I saw your reels and I thought they were better than what was nominated. An industry insider told DIGEST that no one wanted B&B to break the SANTA BARBARA record for most Drama Series wins.
Well, I guess you know then. I didn’t feel that way. I’ve been doing this for so long and we all know each other as we move from show to show — and we’re all very collegial. We’re all in this together. We don’t want any more shows canceled or for anyone to do poorly. We want all the shows to do well. I assume everyone reciprocates that feeling but maybe not.
Let’s talk about the Texting and Driving storyline. While I wish you had given the story to another actor….
Nelson, that’s what you have to do when you want a more balanced show: you have to utilize your contract players.
I know. Which is my point: I don’t think I have ever seen so many black people on B&B before — or on a recent soap! Not even Y&R. Bravo. And now you have the gays representing, too. How important is the social issue dynamic to the B&B fabric now?
Sometimes it’s very organic. I think the lung cancer/homeless story we did with Brooke and Stephanie, well, there aren’t many things I’m prouder of than that. I thought the storyline was wonderful. It was very integrated and it used the show’s past. But, sometimes, I don’t think we are as successful as integrating the social issue dynamic into the show. For example, the story about foster children aging out of the system was kind of truncated in that we couldn’t keep the [actress]. Someone watching the show could argue that story didn’t earn its keep — and they might be right about that. But you know, Brad and his wife [Colleen] are very socially involved people.
Yep!
This is honestly not about, “OK, let’s shoot for an Emmy.”
What was your best writing experience? Doug Marland?
My career has been so long at this point so I have a lot of “bests.” Doug was definitely my best teaching/mentoring experience. I had the rare opportunity to come up through the theatre, which very few TV writers that I know of have done. Douglas was like my first big soap opera job —and he showed me what we should be doing. And then SANTA BARBARA gave me my “head," in the sense of letting me loose, setting my imagination free. I was given an astonishing liberty by Jerry and Bridget Dobson, and I was determined, A) not to waste it, and B) not to abuse it. — and the first show that actually trusted me to actually write a soap on my own. Yes, I went a little bit crazy….
Thank God you went crazy!
Working with Nancy Curlee on GUIDING LIGHT the second time was also a really strong time, too. That was a really strong collaboration between Nancy, Stephen [Demorest], and myself. We had a good meeting of the minds.
Wasn’t James E. Reilly there, too?
Jimmy was there for a while.
What was he like?
Omigod, you could not meet a funnier person if you tried. You couldn’t talk to him on the phone without needing oxygen because you were laughing so hard. He had stories about everybody. And he was completely irreverent. I really loved Jimmy. I really miss that guy. The fact that I can no longer call him up in the middle of the day and have a good laugh really upset
s me! [Laughs]
I wonder what daytime would be like today if he were still alive. I’m most certain he would’ve returned to DAYS. I often wonder if he would’ve kept up the outlandish stories or returned to what he did so well on GL.
Let me say one more thing about my “bests” because B&B is the best writing situation for me. I have never been in such a stable situation as this one. You know I loved my work on SANTA BARBARA, but it was a new story, a new cast of characters, and a new set of executives every month. And Brad is so not insane. The people I work with are so nice, stable and easy to get along with that this is a great writing situation. If B&B is the show I ride out the rails with, I’ll consider myself very fortunate.
Does your job give you some great highs when you knock out one of those brilliant and identifiably Patrick Mulcahey scripts?
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Nelson Branco's SOAP OPERA UNCENSORED: Issue 47 Page 3
