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James Harmon Brown and Barbara Esensten

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Name
  
James Brown

Role
  
Television writer

TV shows
  


Died
  
November 14, 2012, Los Angeles, California, United States

Education
  
University of California, Los Angeles

Awards
  
Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series Writing Team

Nominations
  
WGA Award for Best Daytime Drama - Television

Similar People
  
Agnes Nixon, Megan McTavish, Patrick Mulcahey, Lorraine Broderick, Courtney Simon

James Harmon Brown and Barbara Esensten are American television writers, primarily working on soap operas. The duo have worked together for over 20 years, starting on the prime-time serial Dynasty. Together, they created the soap opera The City, a spinoff of Loving. On November 14, 2012, Esensten died at the age of 75.

Contents

Controversy

Brown and Esensten are somewhat controversial; their writing has been criticized as often drifting into the absurd and sci-fi. When the two wrote for Guiding Light during the later part of the 1990s, the show's primary herione, Reva Shayne, was cloned, and when the duo would later write for Port Charles, vampires were introduced, along with other supernatural creatures. When the two took over as head writers at All My Children, the show plummeted to record lows in the ratings. The show reached a record low of 2,144,000 viewers on November 2, 2007.

Because of the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike, Brown and Esensten went financial core within the guild, allowing them to write for All My Children because of financial strains brought on by the strike. Megan McTavish, the writer they replaced at All My Children, was displeased. "These are not youngsters struggling to make mortgage payments or feed their children. Their sole intent now seems to be piling up more money for themselves," she said.

Positions held

Dynasty

  • Co-Writers: 1987-1988
  • Executive Story Editors: 1988-1989
  • All My Children

  • Co-Head Writers: July 26, 2007 - January 14, 2008; January 30 - August 26, 2008
  • Script Writers: July 20, 2010 – September 23, 2011
  • Days of Our Lives

  • Script Editors: November 2006 - May 2007
  • One Life to Live

  • Script Editors: October 2004 - October 2005
  • Port Charles

  • Co-Head Writers: November 2000 - July 2003
  • Guiding Light

  • Co-Head Writers: 1997 - 2000
  • Loving

  • Co-Head Writers: 1994 - November 1995
  • The City

  • Creators
  • Co-Head Writers: November 1995 - March 1997
  • Awards and nominations

    Daytime Emmy Awards

    WINS

  • (1993; Best Writing; Guiding Light)
  • (2012; Best Writing; Days of Our Lives)
  • NOMINATIONS

  • (1999; Best Writing; Guiding Light)
  • (2006, 2009 & 2012; Best Writing; One Life to Live)
  • Writers Guild of America Award

    NOMINATIONS

  • (1995, 1996, 1998 & 1999 seasons; Guiding Light)
  • (2006 season; One Life to Live)
  • (2008 season; All My Children)
  • References

    James Harmon Brown and Barbara Esensten Wikipedia


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