ellabelle

I guess it depends on how you view Trey/Ben. If you think he was an abomination of a retcon who never should have existed because the idea of Vanessa seeing Richard Fields rape Erica and do NOTHING about it other than place her own baby for adoption was an unneeded horrific retcon to Erica's rape story, then maybe it's better to forget him. Would he have an interesting dynamic with Kendall, Greenlee, David, Ryan and Bianca? Sure. Is it worth it to explain to newer viewers how he came to be and why Erica hates him? I don't know. I'm undecided.

If they'd cast a different actor to play Jane Campbell's Ben in 2011, then it could have been interesting to find out that Trey/Ben was the one who caused the accident that killed Jane's daughter and that he'd been secretly working for David. To me, that would have been an interesting twist.

As far as bringing villains back though, I think ABC erred tremendously in never bringing back Marj Dusay as Vanessa. I'd have rather had her come back for a short stint than Trey/Ben. I'd have also welcomed back Michael Sabatino as Jonathan Kinder. I assume TPTB thought Jonathan was too similar to David Hayward, but I still think it would have been interesting to have him come back to PV at some point, bent on revenge against Erica, Janet and Skye. Heck, I'd have been fine with him coming after Erica and KC's Janet in the mid-2000s.

Makes you wonder what if the actresses switched roles

Susan Lucci was and is Erica to me. I don't know that I'd feel the same way about the character if another actress played the part. I watched AW for bit in the early 90s, and I didn't feel any particular pull toward VW or toward Rachel. I started watching AMC around the same time, and I was immediately drawn in by Erica. So for me, a different actress would have changed everything.

Thank you so much for sharing that DRW50! Is this from SOD or another publication? Amy, I'm guessing early 1979? Tom and Erica married in late September 1978, and the article talks about a photoshoot with summer looks.

I always thought that ET looked forever young but it looks like her age is finally starting to catch up with her. Like dang, she looks 50.

Also didn't realize she and RB were friends

Um, no. She does not lot look 50 unless by "50" you mean in the botoxed way Hollywood does 50 so that 50 year old women look about 35. Erin Torpey is 33. She has some bags under her eyes in that photo, and it looks like she's developing lines around her eyes and mouth. I'm 36, and I don't have lines like that (yet), but I'm also paranoid about sunscreen and taking good care of my skin. Rebecca Budig is 41. They both look like they could be late 30s. Most of my female friends are in this same age range of late 20s to early 40s, and they all look more or less like this, give or take a line or two.

I think I would like to know what the initial inspiration was for AMC. When she decided that day to create her own show, what came to mind first? Was it the town of Pine Valley? Was it any particular character, family or story? Did she draw anything from her own life (beyond Erica's relationship with her dad) or from novels she had read?

Oh that's good too! I'd love to hear more about where she drew her inspiration for the show as a whole and for various characters over the years.

Quietly it might be best for the Democratic nominee if the Republicans do take over the Senate in November...it makes much more easier to paint and tag the dysfunction in Washington on the Republican Party and their eventual nominee. Esp if it ends up being a Republican Senator such as Cruz, Paul, or Rubio.

That being sad I still don't want that to happen cuz I wouldn't be able to choose which Democratic Senators to sacrifice.....if up to me it'd probably be Begich and Pryor since I love Landrieu and Kagan.

I thought Begich was in pretty good shape? I'm in Arkansas, and we definitely want to keep Pryor. Tom Cotton would be a disaster.

I don't know, but how long did Trevor and KC's Janet last as a couple before she left the show?

They were never together.

Kate's Janet left in 1992 when she went to jail for killing Will Cortlandt. She returned in jail in 1994 with a new face, played by Robin Mattson. Trevor ended up marrying Laurel, who was then shot and killed. Trevor and RM's Janet married in May 1998, I think. They left town together in 2000 or so. Janet came back a few times after that, beginning in 2006 or so, played by KC, and it was revealed she'd killed Trevor and stuffed him in a freezer.

So since we're discussing Agnes' book and tell-all books, what do you hope to read about in Agnes' book? What would you like to know more about in a tell-all book?

For Agnes' book, I'd love to know, specifically about AMC:

- What stories she found the hardest to write

- What characters she created and ended up not liking very much or if she created a character who then went another direction because of the actor/actress cast for the part

- How much interference she had in story-telling from TPTB at ABC, from the EP, and from the actors

- Who were the actors who tried to dictate story over the years and what did they want?

- What her writing process is like

- What plans she had for AMC 2.0

- What ideas she had for the show over the years that didn't happen for one reason or another

- Any stories she wished she'd told differently on the show

- What she thought about the stories other writers wrote

- What she plans to do in the future and what future, if any, she sees for AMC

For a tell-all book about AMC, I'd love to know:

- Who is most or least like their character

- Which actors or actors/crew were romantically involved behind the scenes

- Who tried to interfere with the writers?

- Who tried to use the fans to stir up drama and drive story

- Who (aside from Michael Nader) was dealing with addiction behind the scenes

- Who were the biggest divas/pains to deal with behind the camera

- Which stories or pairings did TPTB think would be big hits that were flops and vice versa

- Which supercouple pairings really disliked each other off-screen (aside from Kate Collins and James Kiberd)

- Funny mishaps or bloopers on set

- Interesting stories from fan events

It makes me smile to know that Agnes is writing a memoir. I think it's long overdue, and I'll happily pre-order it when it's available! Unfortunately, I don't know we'll get any dishy, gossipy stuff from Agnes either. I think it will be interesting and insightful and hopefully will contain gems of wisdom about writing and being a writer, but I'm not going to hold my breath that it will be a tell-all sort of book.

Damn it, SOMEONE needs to write a tell all about AMC!

I don't think Maher has been considered a liberal darling in ages. I know some of the leftist lefties who ever left-ed and most of them think Maher is basically a dick who occasionally/frequently makes good points. Personally, I kind of wrote him off after he got all butthurt on Rush Limbaugh's behalf because he thought it wasn't fair for us to contact sponsors after the Sandra Fluke comments. It became clear then that he's he's just another hypocrite who loves the power of free speech but doesn't want to deal with the consequences of using it poorly.

^ This, pretty much. I'm very much a liberal Democrat, and "a dick who occasionally makes good points" is how I'd describe Maher. Some of my libertarian friends really like him.

Ellabelle, Vincent put up your clip of them and Joan on his FB page.

Yes, we saw it! The clip we posted from that episode is actually about 15 minutes long. Vincent clipped down just the section of the show Joan was on and added his own brief tribute at the end. A dear friend and I set up a Facebook page to go along with the YouTube channel, and Vincent "liked" the page and a bunch of posts on it a few months ago as well. It was a lovely and very unexpected surprise.

I've never met him, but he seems very nice in his online interactions with fans. He was far nicer to Linda (remember her??) than I would have been.

^ Yes, Susan's daughter, Liza, shared a photo of Susan and Joan on instagram recently and spoke of their friendship. Joan even attended Liza's wedding.

I'd love to see your Regis and KL interview, if you're willing to share or upload it somewhere!

Fifteen years ago this month, Joan Rivers appeared on AMC, running into Erica and David in NYC:

 

 

 

I might have been hard on Laurel at the time (I can't remember) but in retrospect, she wasn't as awful as one might have thought. I only wish they had kept the Dillon family interact. AMC needed a solid, middle-class family to contrast with everyone else in Pine Valley.

Agreed. I couldn't see her lasting long with Jack, but I had a hard time with the idea of Trevor falling in love with and marrying Janet, no matter how much I liked Robin Mattson's Janet. A more realistic story would have been Trevor and Laurel raising Amanda and trying to keep her safe but still finding a way for her to understand who Janet was and having some sort of relationship with her.

Going back further than Laurel's death, it supremely irritated me that he pursued Erica and finally got her to agree to marry him again, and then he ditched her. Yeah, I know, she wasn't over Dimitri and probably would have ended it with Jack at some point or Jack would have come up with some reason to get mad and call the whole thing off, but I really would have liked a more fully developed triangle with Jack, Erica and Dimitri.

Liza wasn't yet defanged here. "I want blood!" I remember loving her affair with Tad and thinking she was fantastic (meanwhile, Cady McClain's hair continued to spiral down into the abyss).

I ADORED Liza during this period. Marcy Walker looked gorgeous, and she and Tad were unbelievably hot together. I never liked Dixie, and I hoped they could draw out Tad/Liza as long as possible. I thought she had a spark with Michael Sabatino's Jonathan Kinder too, but the storyline had them as adversaries before he was written off. Liza/Jack could have been interesting too in the mid-90s. Once Laurel ended up with Trevor, Jack was partner-less until mid to late 1997 when he temporarily reconciled with Erica.

Interesting about Bergman possibly being Jeff. I was going to say that I thought Peter Bergman was too young to play the part, but I checked and he's actually only about 6 years younger than both Charles Frank and Susan Lucci. I wonder what led TPTB to go with the character of Cliff instead.

^ I think Charles Frank was the second Jeff Martin, but he played Jeff during his marriages to Erica and Mary. The original Tara, Phil, Jeff and Chuck were all recast.

Thanks. He also appeared on Oprah in a segment of Erica's many men a couple of years ago. That was fun.

I think he did this twice! Oprah devoted an entire episode to Erica and her men in 1990, and it was FABULOUS. It used to be on YouTube, but I think the user took it down. Women in the audience were losing their minds over all these men! It was so funny!

And yes, Charles Frank was there when Oprah surprised Susan with all of Erica's husbands in one place in 2011. He's obviously aged quite a bit, but he's still handsome for an older man. He's definitely aged better than, say, Larkin Malloy, has.

Thank you, danfling! I knew about the Jeff/Christina relationship, but I wasn't sure what Jeff was doing in PV in the 80s, beyond Erica's dream.

Here's a question for everyone - according to the character profile on SOC (which I realize could be wrong), Jeff Martin was back in Pine Valley in the late 80s. He was played by Jeffrey Byron from 1986-1987 and by Charles Frank in 1988. Does anyone know what brought him back to PV in the 80s and what his storyline was while he was there? Why did he leave in 1988?

I enjoyed the gothic sequences with Adam and Erica, which genuinely made me afraid for Erica.

I am so thankful to everyone who has uploaded 80s AMC episodes to YT. I adored Adam and Erica's second marriage for the comic value - and because Susan Lucci and David Canary play so well off each other - but I didn't fully understand why she loathed him so much until I tracked down 80s AMC episodes. Even reading recaps from that era didn't fully tell just how creepily obsessed Adam was with her during their marriage, how much worse it got after she left him and Mike died, how he kidnapped her and threaten to rape and kill her. I don't care how over the top the fantasy sequences were (cough, Adam as mad scientist, cough) or how ridiculously 80s the hair and makeup and costumes are, I can start watching mid-80s AMC and fall in love with the show all over again. It's incredibly watchable, even today.

George RR Martin says some fans have already figured out the ultimate book ending.

http://www.avclub.com/article/george-rr-martin-says-some-fans-have-already-figur-208060

Actually, the new Linden House debuted earlier in the year - maybe April or May? There's an episode online where Erica runs into Jack at a train station and admits that she's watching her budget. She comes home and tells Mona that she loves the renovations on her house, but she's not sure she should have splurged on them right now because the modeling jobs aren't coming in as fast as she thought they would. I loved the renovated Linden set in that it was definitely overdue for a facelift, but it always drove me crazy to see brand new sets that were supposed to be in the same house, but they'd moved fireplaces and stairs and major things like that because IRL, if you want that big of a change, you might as well just buy a new house.

IIRC, Frances Heflin died in late May or early June. It was the beginning of the summer. I remember reading about it in a soap magazine and wondering how they were going to address that, if they'd recast or if they'd have Mona died and if so, when that would happen. I don't know if Susan had her surgery already scheduled for that summer before Fra died or if she died and everyone decided it would work best if Erica came home after being gone and found her dead. The episodes around Mona's death and funeral were just so sad to watch. I imagine that after working together for decades, it must have been hard on the veteran actors to film those scenes.

Ellabell, I appreciate your opinion. However, I still contend that Tom and Erica belonged together and that Tom was the true love of Erica.

And I certainly respect your opinion as well, but you didn't really explain WHY you feel that he was her true love, and I'm genuinely curious as to your reasons.

I was born the year they got married, so obviously I didn't watch AMC then - what I know about that period of the show is based on old episodes I've seen and old soap magazines and books I've gathered. My understanding though is that she wanted to marry Nick, but he backed out after proposing when she was in the hospital with pneumonia, so she latched onto Tom instead. When Nick called right before the wedding, she had hoped it was to beg her to run off with him when really he just called to wish her well. Mona was so upset over Erica marrying Tom when she didn't really love him that she threatened to boycott the wedding and only caved and attended at the last minute. Yes, they had a gorgeous wedding and beautiful on location reception, but from what I've seen, Tom was mad that Erica was trying to get back into modeling, and of course, he was furious that she claimed to be trying to conceive a baby with him while secretly still taking birth control pills.

I really do want to know why you think he was the love of her life because that just doesn't fit with what I know of their relationship. My perspective is that Tom was a really good, decent guy who loved Erica as wholly as he could, and ultimately he could have been very good for her IF they'd been together when she was ready to have a child and settle down, but when they were together, she was still emotionally attached to Nick, and they wanted very different things, so I'm not sure how that equals "love of my life" for either of them.

Best FOR Brooke? Tom.

Best for a complicated, dramatic relationship that makes for entertaining television? Adam.