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Four-time Emmy winner John Conboy was named Executive Producer of Guiding
Light in December of 2002. Previously, he produced Love is a Many
Splendored Thing, The Young and the Restless and Santa Barbara,
as well as created the Washington D.C.-based Capitol. Six months
into his latest stint, Mr. Conboy sat down with SoapCity for his first
ever exclusive chat outlining this award-winning visionary's plans for
daytime's longest running drama.
SoapCityAlina: After all that you've achieved in your career -- you
are widely credited with changing the entire look of daytime drama --
the logical, first question is: Why GL? Why now?
John Conboy: I watched the show for about five months, and the cast
blew me away. (New head writer) Ellen Weston and I talked back and forth
for a long time before I made the decision (to take the job). It was a
fairly large decision for me to make because I live in California now.
But when I got here, I was so astonished by the welcome that I got that
I know I made the right choice. I love it. This was a lovely chance for
me to, one, get back to New York, two, get back to CBS and three, work
with Procter & Gamble for the first time.
SCA: Fans seem to know what a writer does, what a director does, what
a set designer does. But I think a lot of them wonder: what exactly does
a producer do? What does it mean, your title, Executive Producer?
JC: It means very little, as long as everybody else is doing what
he or she needs to be doing. I'm their tour guide. I'm their leader. One
of my jobs is to keep people working with me five days a week, 52 weeks
a year and to keep them wanting to do it.
SCA: I mentioned your changing the look of daytime. Y&R was the
first show to feature a more youthful cast, not to mention brighter lighting,
hipper clothes, flashier sets. Everything that we take for granted on
daytime now, you pioneered. Do you have a vision for GL as well?
JC: I don't think that my vision has changed. I do think that my taste
has changed over the years, as far as coming into the 21st century and
by my exposure to other things. But, at the end of the day, no matter
how sharp you get the show to look, you're still talking about a love
story. If you watch it carefully, most of what our people do on my shows,
they do because they love someone. I'm not doing anything different on
Guiding Light than I've done before. This is the style that I choose
to do, and so I did come in and say (technically), "Let's do this."
I have a lighting designer who is a genius. I have directors who were
just waiting to get some stuff to do. And I have a brilliant cast. I said
to all of them, "I am only as good as you are, so don't screw it
up." I would love to do a movie a day on this show. I would love
to have enough money to do the kind of production that I want on the show.
Actually, because of the skill of the people we have on the show now,
I'm very happy with the look of the show. I would love to go out to Niagara
Falls, or sail to Europe, but if you tell a really good story, you could
do it in my office.
SCA: You said that you watched GL for five months before deciding
to take the job. What did you see on-screen that you knew you needed to
change as soon as you got here?
JC: I think a lot of people who were on the scene needed stories,
which they didn't have. That was my major concern. Now they've got them;
they've got wonderful stories. The direction we are going in, everybody
is going to be involved in one of the big stories coming up. Hopefully,
we are going to involve all the adults and all of the younger people in
the same story. I think it is important that you put your core characters
with the younger people, so that they intermingle and work together. The
baseball story that I'm doing with Shayne, for instance, is a story that
so many mothers and fathers go through. I think it is going well. We're
really going to play baseball and have some fun with it. And I think the
Reva story is going to be huge. We have a big surprise on that story coming
up. I'm also introducing another young character, a Latino boy. I'm looking
forward to that introduction. And we are very excited about Bradley Cole
being back. I think he's a terrific actor. He was enormously popular,
we did a lot of research on him, and so we created another character that's
working wonderfully on the show.
SCA: How important is fan input to you?
JC: Thank God we've got fans that have watched the show for a long
time. There is an enormous history here, and the fans are the first ones
who will tell us if we've got it right. Lots of fans write two or four
times a week. One particular person will write several times, and they
are very articulate. They know the show. They tell me what they like and
they tell me what they don't like. Of course, I try not to give them what
they like!
SCA: That's certainly a very provocative statement! What does it mean?
JC: It means that if you want it, and if I give it to you, then that
story is over. When I was doing Y&R, we could keep stories going for
years. Of course, the audience now is a different audience. We used to
say it was the MTV audience. Now, God knows what kind of audience it is!
But whatever it is, we need to keep them alive, bright and entertained.
I want our audience to watch us five days a week. I want them to enjoy
watching our stories as much we enjoy telling them!
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