I just learned that Hogan Sheffer has been fired, along with most of his writing staff.
I know Hogan wasn’t perfect, but for a little while after Ed Scott came on board, they seemed to have reached a good working relationship. I even felt the plots were improving—the Ford Decker story had better follow-through and even a fairly good payoff. And with Hogan there was always the seed among the chaff–the occasional brilliantly written scene that kept me hanging on (and made his poor plotting even more frustrating).
Dena Higley started under Sheri Anderson and worked for Days for twenty years as an associate writer. That sounds good, but she was headwriter very briefly in 2003 (before being fired) and has been called JER-lite. She is also held in contempt by OLTL fans, where she was headwriter until recently. She was fired, by the way.
I always said that my “line in the sand,” what would make me stop watching, would be if JER came back. Is that what I’m getting?
I know I should say I’m going to wait and see, but I’m very, very scared about this. I don’t want to see my favorite characters slowly destroyed.
Why, Kenny, why?
Spoiler Free Days 
I wonder if Hogan will come out and speak the truth of what really happened behind the scenes last year. He probably shouldn’t, seems like it would make it difficult for him to get a job. But I’d love to know the real truth.
I find it hard to know what to make of it too. I’m kind of scared for the future though.
As for what went on behind the scenes, I hope someone is spending their downtime when not on the strike picket to put that into book form.
Yeah, to put it plainly, this sucks.
(I meant to comment on one of your last posts — if the information about Higley’s tenure at Days comes from wikipedia, I think that article is wrong. They have her at Days and also being nominated for awards at OLTL in the same years. It looks like she might have spent as little as two years at Days in the eighties, though of course it would be nice to find another source to back that up.)
I wonder if Hogan will come out and speak the truth of what really happened behind the scenes last year. He probably shouldn’t, seems like it would make it difficult for him to get a job. But I’d love to know the real truth.
I’d love to know, too. And if I was Hogan, I would be sorely tempted. His reputation has taken a huge hit from his time at Days, and undeservedly, IMHO.
I can’t find anything good in this news. Because I am an eternal optimist, I can hope that it’s not as bad as it seems, but that’s about it.
I join the calls for Hogan to tell the world what really happened. As lska pointed out, it might be in his best interest given the hit his reputation took when Days went into the ratings free fall.
I think that there is a (slight?) possibility that this “firing” is just a bit of legal wrangling associated with the strike. I have seen some commentary that producers have the right to discharge employees after 90 days. While employees retain the right to strike, employers also have the ability to remove them from their positions for the duration of the action.
Just a possibility…
I really hate Hogan, but I am not happy about this. What can Corday be thinking?
Question: I remember that shortly after Hogan started, several writers were fired and new ones were brought in. Anyone know if those are the ones that were fired this time?
Well, lascuba, I did a little research and all the writers I was able to get dates of hire for were added since 2006 (some had written for Days before). So for the most part I would say they are Hogan’s team.
lska, it was indeed from Wikipedia that I got the dates for Higley’s tenure with Days (1986-2003) as an associate writer. I saw the OLTL awards dates when I went back there just now. I heard somewhere, can’t remember where now, that she was Sheri Anderson’s husband’s assistant when Sheri hired her at Days. I know I saw Higley’s name in the credits of an episode from 1988.
I just googled her to see what else I could find out and, whew, that was a lot of hate from OLTL viewers.
My latest hope is that Higley is merely a fill-in scab and a new head writer will be hired when the strike is over.
BearlyAmusing, there is some type of clause that stipulates the 90 days thing, I remember reading something about that. The other thing I keep hearing is that the strike may be resolved soon, and this way Kenny doesn’t have to buy out Hogan’s contract. He can just fire him.