EricMontreal22

Oh wow, I totally forgot about all that... I think you're right that it reads as a proposal. And yes, soap bios probably aren't a big deal--unless you're Susan Lucci or Agnes Nixon (whose book I wish was a bit more dishy like this... A bit...)

It'd be well deserved. I won't deny that. My only issue with him being chosen for the show as part of America's Sexiest Man (well aside from that I found the whole reality angle gross) was that when he actually spoke on camera he... became less sexy. So not idea for someone who actually was meant to act on the show (maybe he was better on stage--some actors are.) I mean I guess at least they didn't choose this guy

Yes

I think the short term story arcs were actually Gottlieb's idea, from what I recall from the oral history. But it wasn't really until Josh Griffith came on as associate and then co-headwriter that Malone seemed to understand a traditional soap storytelling model.

LOL the only McTavish cage storyline I can think of is Hayley many many years in your future as part of McTavish's dismal second stint. He wasn't one of the actors who was nude, was he? (I can't remember the character names--I saw the revival.)

It's interesting--in that era the ABC soaps did use movie score tracks, maybe most memorably AMC having the Halloween theme when AMC had the helicopter prison escape (Erica trying to get Jeremy out I think?) The theme from Somewhere in Time also shows up on OLTL and AMC episodes from this time.

❤️

Oh wow--I know that play but had no idea he was ever on Broadway... Is this the same Maximillian? https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/maximillian-alejandro-116499 Speaking from experience? (I'm teasing to be clear...) https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/maximillian-alexander-heartthrob-or-ladies-man-0/

He was part of the Sexiest Man reality competition they had (he's not in this video...) And yes, I think he was with Simone. Juan Pablo was his brother who was a better actor so basically seemed to replace him (still not the best story...) Yes But not a bad seed. I think both were killed off--though I admit I can't remember.

Oh boy... I forgot DePriest wrote that storyline. No spoilers except to say McTavish kinda retcons it in one of her biggest storylines... Exactly. I can't think of one good storyline from Higley.

Noooo. I still stand by how enjoyable a lot of McT's first stint at AMC was. And even when she came back in the 2000s for a brief time the show felt like Pine Valley again. I can't think of any good writing from Dena... I also have loved reading your posts. I have no idea who was being rude about them (either I can't see their posts or they've been removed) but I want to stress that it's not how most of us feel.

Yeah one of the stupidest things I have ever done was ask Hal if he had read this. I think he was a good soap writer and when I interviewed him he was so sharp in his insights about what made a good soap. He also was friends with FMB which I'm sure didn't help his relationship with McT

The movie theatre set looked exactly like something out of Saved By the Bell. You're forgetting Lysistrata the therapist who counselled Adam and Liza who I admit I found kinda funny, but then they tried to make her a thing and have her date Tad. There were so many bad casting calls but Carlos (whose actor inexplicably won the reality contest America's Sexiest Man) gets my vote for the worst casting ever on AMC. And Bianca's anorexia storyline was left over from Broderick's run...

Isn't it wild. I know that memoirs can be filled with scandalous info, but (despite her crazy introduction) I have no idea how she thought this would make it to print. Given Washam's comments about McTavish and that she basically caused him to leave the writing team, I can't imagine he hired her, unless it was a case of buyer's regret.

Here it is https://mega.nz/file/AGgAlTJL#30UD8WxSgSPuzUiKO6mRtLPjTH5kuAAnQ46-t06HwYA

You're right. To be fair, her last run was under Biran Frons' idea that the show should be a daytime version of Sex and the City.

I agree. I do find her story projections that were made just before she was let go (in 1999) amusing though. To be fair, I thought her first stint was mostly great (I know some long time fans disagree) and actually kept up that Gothic quality. And when she returned in 2002 for a *brief* moment the show felt like AMC again.

I think this was completely true--as a fan of both shows. AMC was going through a sorta (?) better-than-it-had-been stage, but OLTL was at a low point, so... From McTavish's own words:

Send me a message and I'll dish... It's ridiculous (and for some reason in the Agnes Nixon archives at Northwestern)

Where do you think she did her worst? After AMC, ABC seemed to move her to OLTL for a bit, which was in a terrible era at the end of the Rauch era (but from what I've seen, she didn't do much to help or hinder, either way, as a co-HW.) She did go to Sunset Beach and I remember thinking her period on that show was its best, but it's obviously a very different soap from AMC. McTavish's ridiculously hateful soap memoir draft, Tap Dancing in the Cuisinart, would give some credence to that, though of course it's hard to read in it from an objective perspective (she says that Felicia Minei Behr hated the idea of a Pine Valley hurricane claiming that the network wouldn't give them the money to pull it off, and that hurricanes wouldn't hit the East coast in December anyway, until brilliant McTavish did some research and contacted the network execs and proved FMB wrong and ABC insisted on it, and it led to, in McTavish's words, AMC's best moment of all time. I mean I did like a lot of that storyline, but no wonder FMB fired McTavish months later...)

Watch it Jonathan Who is this Rosanna woman?? Lucci holds her own with great dignity and knows her stuff--mentioning Tonya's Tony wins, etc--but never mind how rude the final question is "It's time!!" Jesus Christ. She also doesn't seem to know anything about this play, let alone how theatre works.

AND some research shows you're right--Phantom Erica was one of Agnes' first storylines when Agnes Nixon returned as official HW in 1999. McTavish v.2's main story for Erica was the resurrection of Mike Roy which I think most found to be a bust (and as a teen to me meant nothing as I had no idea who this Mike was--)

Do I have Phantom Erica in the timeline confused? Of course maybe Agnes suggested it as she was still an active part of the writer's room even when not HW, in the 1990s Nazi art WAS McTavish though 100% (I think Hayley's psychic bleeding tattoo was too, with someone from Adam's past wanting revenge, etc.)

Ah, that's fair, because I totally missed that detail--because the times I looked around, she was the only one I saw.

I don't mean to snark on an episode I mostly enjoyed but I love how understaffed this country club is when they host events (I already felt this way for the wedding but more here.) Was "Sherrie" the only server around at all? And she was a temp at that (I'll let it pass that there's no way she would have gotten that job so quickly, etc.) Wasn't it established in a previous episode that Vanessa is friends with Nicole as well and not just Dani? Where was she? I laughed when Nicole invited her family up at the end and with the family all now on stage, literally the audience that was there for apparently a Big Deal award cleared out so there was about 1/3 left...