Agnes Nixon

And the soap operas, for the most part, the showrunners were women.

Claire Labine and Agnes Nixon.

There was William Bell, who was young in the rest, less than a couple of those.

But he had his wife.

Two keys for Carol Burnett.

Burnett had long been a fan of the soap opera All My Children and realized a dream when Agnes Nixon created What Role for Her on the show in 1983.

Shoot.

I know she was on it.

And so layered.

You know, Agnes Nixon, who created All My Children and One Life to Live, was known for doing that.

She wrote the very first AIDS story, I think, on a soap and everything else.

But we were really pushing it.

I speak to that because that was sort of my thing.

Well, you know, the great thing about soap opera, and one of the reasons why it is difficult but also extremely fun to write...

You have time, you know, and you can, I mean, Agnes Nixon used to say, you have, it's a diamond and you turn it and you turn it and you turn it and you see all the phases of the diamond.

And that's a great little metaphor because, you know, we play Todd Manning as a horrible human being, a monster, but then you also see him as the abused child who find out all of his, what tortures him.