All My Shadows

The canvas felt so thoroughly utilized throughout the first 18 or so months of the Carruthers/McTavish run (well, putting the starting point at when McTavish returned). Even before the baby switch, which pulled in almost everyone, there seemed to be so many different characters on each day, and so many relationships were showcased. Brooke, of course, was the biggest absence, and I will never understand why she was cast aside so dismissively. To me, the show looked better in the Burke/Culliton era, but it was a better show during the first year or so of Carruthers/McTavish. Re: JFP. Lol. Like DaytimeFan said, one thing AMC had going for it was EPs who were perfectly content with producing All My Children with no strong desire to turn it into something else. Behr, James, and Burke were clearly passionate about soap opera and all of its conventions. JHC was passionate about not stepping on toes and keeping the show running. Phelps seems to be passionate about courting attention and glory at any cost.

Idk why I didn’t realize the obvious change was from JDB to JHC. The show was still so lush and colorful in all of these 2002 clips, and in hindsight, it really balances out the not-so-great storytelling that was going on at the time (they are NOT my faves, but these Edmund/Maria videos are hiding all of the utter shite that was this era). JHC’s show was either brown af or bright af. There was just no color, and I forget how lifeless the sets were until I see these from just a year earlier. Was it JHC who gave us the ugly brown Chandler “mansion” to replace the set with the dual staircase?

I just went down a small rabbit hole watching some from that channel, and I missed so much of that music. It's funny to look back and see a marked difference between in how 2002 era AMC looked and how (just randomly picking a year) 2009 era AMC looked. I always correspond the drop in the show's look to when they very rapidly phased out sets like The Valley Inn, BJ's, and Myrtle's and Brooke's houses. Not 100% sure of when all of that occurred. One of the videos has Dylan Fergus as Tim Dillon, and I was curious as to what he looks like now. Just Google it, y'all.

Ah okay, thanks. I remember seeing that clip posted here back then. I guess I forgot how tired she was by that point. It's crazy how just three years earlier, she was still somewhat active in working on the show.

When is that from? I don’t think I’ve ever seen her that worn out. Rest on, our sweet legend.

Idk what you’re talking about, a cockroach scurried across the wall and obviously caught Phoebe’s eye. Duh, SFK!

Honestly, that's all I remember from when I watched it. It really seemed like they had no idea what to do with Tom for a very long time after the initial triangle he had with Brooke and Erica in the 70s. I think they ultimately did good by putting him with Skye later, but even that didn't last long.

They are seen throughout episodes from 1982-1983 as Jesse’s guardians, and Nancy is seen for about a year after Frank’s death by heart attack. I haven’t seen anything with them from their 70s stories.

I adore Skins so very much! I might have to give those first two series another watch again soon just to see how it hits me this time around. I originally watched as a teen, and I was in love with Tony, and I believed in the fantasy of Tony/Maxxie, but my god, one prolonged experience with a sociopath in real life made me detest the character beyond words. Just the thought of him makes my stomach turn a little. Sid, however, is an angel. Nick Hoult is wonderful, though. He was the breakout star of The Great.

We need to nominate, vote, and officially bestow a maiden name upon Mrs. Mona S_______ Kane Tyler, then. Something classic but not boring, unassuming but not without a little bite. I have some ideas that I shall keep to myself for now. It would have been interesting to give her a long-term foe who was older than her. All of her major rivals were near her age or younger. Queen Margo Flax and Sara Kingsley are the only two that I can think of who were older. She and Ellen weren't the best of friends, but I don't recall them having many reasons to sling at each other. I don't count Phoebe because any words they shared were really extensions of Phoebe vs. Mona and Brooke vs. Erica. You could really go in any direction with Mona's family. Were they embarrassingly poor and low-class, explaining why Mona and Erica had no regular contact with them? Were they even richer than the Tylers, looking down on Mona for not being woman enough to keep Eric and ending up as a single mom? I've wondered these things from the moment we saw Erica's "birth" in the ABC finale. Who else was there? What was Mona's mother like? Did Erica ever know them as a little girl? Can you imagine a Margaret Hamilton type as Erica's grandmother who proves that "it skips a generation" and is brutally critical of all of Erica's crap? Any of these options would have given Fra Heflin some good stuff to play besides flopping her hair around and giving us "Oh Erica!"

Yep, they were married by September 1978 and were guests at Erica and Tom’s wedding, where Frank tried to throw some weak ass shade at Erica over being late to her own wedding. They’re at around 1:20.

Yes, I totally agree, especially since Phoebe was so proud of her family's history in PV. They introduced Brooke at just the right time to slowly integrate her into the cast and make her Phoebe's tie to the core of the show throughout the 80s and 90s. They might have also had Anne and Paul's daughter Beth Martin live - would she have been the only true link between the two original core families? Even if they'd had her raised by Paul off-screen, they could have avoided SORAS and had her be a major player in the late 90s and into the 2000s. I do wonder if we ever saw more of the Kennicotts as a family unit. It seems like they were never on all at once - you had Mary, then Dan, then Betsy, then Katie. I think there was overlap with Dan and Betsy. Not further exploring Mona's family is easily one of the show's biggest missteps. I think we've mentioned it before, but did we ever even hear Mona's maiden name? I'm sure it might've been mentioned during the first five years, but her family was a complete blank slate. Any writer at any point could have taken advantage of that, but no one ever did, and it's not like this was some obscure branch of the show's history. It's Erica's family!

I can't imagine Betsy and Frank together. Perhaps there was a minor character named Betsy that he dated before Betsy Kennicott came along?

You're welcome! I just edited my post to share what I do know about the Philip saga. If you haven't watched the two 1977 episodes that are out there that were included on the DVD set, watch those, too! There is early Spaulding drama there, too.

Philip, biologically, is Jackie and Justin's son from a marriage that took place before any of the characters came to Springfield. Someone else who knows more about it than I do might be able to share the details of the rest of that backstory, but I think the gist is that Jackie gave Philip up to a doctor who in turn gave the baby to Alan, who had Elizabeth believe that the baby was theirs to hide the fact that their actual child was stillborn. Roger is on trial for raping Holly. You might've just missed the episode where it actually takes place (March 6, 1979). Definitely go back and watch that one. It sucks that there aren't more consecutive episodes from throughout the time, but it's so easy to follow the stories, even with the large gaps.

I just watched this a few weeks ago, and I agree with everything you said. CP played Jackie's disgust with Alan so well as she watched him feed all of that Mike hatred to Philip, and then you remind yourself of the inner conflict she's facing, knowing that she's pregnant with his child. There are so many interesting characters on the show in this period - I'm currently obsessed with the deliciously shady Diane Ballard. She's that great archetype of the coolly calculating torch-carrier, devoted to dirty dealing in the name of the object of her affection. I don't know if she wants to be with Alan more than she just wants to be Alan.

I took a very long break from the show after getting to 130, and I'm probably around the same place as you are now. I feel like it's losing some of the human drama/comedy in favor of more satirical social commentary, and it's suffering because of it.

@DRW50 What utter crap! I never did get the fascination with those types of games with the mean-spirited, self-hating host basically sh!tting on everyone on the set while also humiliating the contestants. It really all comes across like some sick fantasy of an unhappy teenager. Then you have the programmer - "Oh, Freddie Starr is SO outrageous!" Poor thing doesn't realize that so much of late 90s culture had a shelf life of about three months. I do love the concept of this particular show confronting the people responsible for the game show and telling them "This is stupid, when is it going off the air?" Jeopardy! will be rerunning episodes from its first decade next week, including the 1984 premiere. The following week has some Celebrity Jeopardy! repeats, including a Donna Mills sighting!

Oh mannnn, Billy Clyde and Jewell I loved them keeping Adam holed up in their trailer. That episode has both the terrible Nina recast and the terrible Liza recast. Wowzers.

MEK really isn’t that far off, though, I think he was born in 1958 or 1959, so only 4-5 years off of Tad’s established age. I think Tad managed to escape any kind of SORASing or de-SORASing bc he was introduced as a 10-year-old in 1972-73. But god he does look a thousand times better these days, and it sucks that we don’t have him as Tad on our screens regularly anymore. He was so checked out by 2005, probably earlier. I bet he’d be a lot more dynamic now.

Linda Cristal, Who Starred in 'High Chaparral,' Dies at 89 I just heard about her passing. It's been a long time since I really dug deep into the classic westerns, but High Chaparral is a favorite, and Linda's portrayal of Victoria is one of the genre's best.

Wasn't 90210 also supposed to be "Potomac" with the zipcode to reflect Darren Star's actual backstory? I feel like I should know more of these and might have forgotten some over time. Like, something is vaguely telling me that "I Dream of Jeannie" was originally "The Lady in the Bottle" or something like that. "One Tree Hill" was "An Unkindness of Ravens," playing on the unique collective known for the Tree Hill High mascot.

I'm watching the 35th anniversary episode, and I've seen it a million times, but something just occurred to me - when Tad and Erica surprised Joe with his anniversary party at the hospital, it really looks like Ray MacDonnell was actually surprised and wasn't expecting the episode to somewhat be built around him. Was that ever established or discussed in the press at the time?

I did notice that everything went away today. I was actually watching your GL ep from 6/01/79 while you were privatizing your videos. I hate it when those people ruin it for everyone because this is content that is so very hard to come across. Everyone should just be appreciative of your willingness to share.

@BillBauer, you're doing GREAT work bringing all of these back to YT!!