EricMontreal22

Wow his humour sounds kinda... pretentious.

LOL It's probably partly that I'm still drunk from last night, but I swear I almost cried when I realized this thread had been moved to this forum.

This REALLY needs to be in unpopular opinions. The Laverry curse was played out (years later) but made some sense on paper. as Chris' ever? At anyrated his yokel delivery was horrible--if Carlos had been mor of a major character, Chris and he would be at my bottom of worst soap actors. I am sure he was a good actor in some life but he and Erica were so awful-the nadir of Cullionton's run (which otherwise had un-touched potential)

I think that's very much true... In the OLTL tribute mag Paul Rauch gives Michael Schnessel a HUGE amount of praise, making him sound like the most brilliant writer who ever lived. I wonder if that was one reason he was at such a loss after his passing.

It came up when I was looking for an opera singer with the last name Valentini actually... Very random. And yeah--I can totally see why a number of people, especially who had been sucked in by the Rauch era, fled in 1990, as we've discussed. Of course he also says he started watching in school and it sounds like, like many, he stopped when school and college were done and work started.

Has this been posted? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY6rd8CfRT0

Ugh I expected an element of forced camp (ie unlike the true--in other words unintended--camp which was part of the appeal of the original), and to be disappointed, but this stykle of humour sounds AWFUL, even less than I expected. It sounds like the trailer makes it all about an old vampire coming to in the 70s making jokes about how he doesn't understand the real world. A vampire version of some crap like Encino Man. Sigh

I can completely relate to that...

And you know that I did like Greenlee particularly back then, one thing we'll just never agree on That's fair enough. I think calling it a return to form was definitely too much, though I did feel like some of the AMC "feel" that I found eroding was coming back (mind you for me much of that feel was the early 90s when I became a fan--and as you you also know some AMC fans feel that the AMC feel was gone much earlier by the late 80s). And I did love the Marian story, I just wish it had been featured more. While I admit it's easy to not put any blame on Agnes, I do know when she returned by then she did basically say in her typical subdued way that she couldn't be as fully hands on as she used to be for a myriad of reasons--which I guess is why she always had co-headwriters though Elizabeth Page was at least a better fit than Passanante. There were things I think Agnes tried but didn't work--like Becka (who of course was part of the Greenlee story too, and it seemed like an attempt to do a 1960s/70s classic nice girl heroine that just never worked) and the Brooke Eliot story which I've admitted I DID like but fans largely hated and that seemed to cause its abrupt end--although fans did seem to like the fact it refocused Brooke with her homeless shelter. I think part of the failure for these plots actually might have been that Agnes Nixon wasn't completely involved or invested--a lot of this time, as much as I enjoyed it, did feel half baked. Maybe the network also wasn't too impressed with such low key storylines, which I suppose could have led to Passanante being hired.

Bianca's coming out *was* well done I think--by that point that seemed to be, from comments made to the magazines anyway, the only story Agnes Nixon was really actively involved in. (I could be wrong though--are you discussing later)? It is true that ABC Daytime was starting to get muddled creatively around this time in general--falling ratings on all soaps were, I suspect, allowing increasing network exec interference, the Disney buy out didn't help, etc. When Nixon and Page first came out the major change really was more little character scenes--and I appreciated that. But they didn't last into the Passanante era (to put it mildly), even Passanate as co-HW really--and I don't think they did anything for the ratings.

I don't care if I'm wrong, i thoroughly give the candy cane stoiry to Jean Passanante and not Nixon... I think the changes, even if many were superficial or minor were in the right direction--they just needed to go with them for a while longer. Not to mention that I doubt ABC Daytime would have paid the money to license the actual Supremes original...

Yes, I'd kinda given up on looking for more Loving--great to see anything more!

Did Joann Dorian ever play any major stories with Vicki? I know for a while after Gillian left it seemed Vicki was backburnered (though I believe very very early in Erika's run she had the whole gaslighting storyline with Francesca James as Marcie). In the OLTL tribute magazine Erika seems to imply she tried hard to get Larry back for the finale--I wonder if they ever considered it. I guess he was just seen as eventually too much of a nice guy, and was aging, to be leading man, but really they shouldhave worked harder to move him into more a patriarch position then.

The dialogue in hindsight is pretty substandard, especially considering often even at its worst AMC had above average dialogue--but I felt the same way. I liked the change it signalled and by that point really I don't think there was any big loss or disrespect to history by converting Cortland Manor which seemed to be the main upset. To be fair, I believe by the time it was phazed out (and much of the attempt to return Pine Valley to a smaller community with class issues) AN had handed over most of the writing to Jean Passanante who was credited by then. (I still would love to know how AN worked with JP and reacted to some of her stories).

There's some controversy over that--due to them not counting the free download people who pre-ordered the album get. The Uk still has a somewhat healthy CD single market, and I wonder if it was a mistake not to release this physically.

My friend in New York went to see Robin in Love, Loss and What I Wore and met her backstage. She signed his OLTL book (he's gotten every AMC and OLTL soap star he's seen on stage--which has quickly added up--to sign) and apparently talked to him for ten minutes and was thrilled to have (her words) "Such a sweet gay man gush over me". LOL He had nothing but good things to say about her, and said she was by far one of the best women he saw in the play (he's seen it many times--including Kim Zimmer). His friend who went with himn, a theatre snob who looks down on soap ac tors, admitted that she was outstanding.

And I guess Chris H as Chuck lasted less than a year... It's always funny to read the big introductions in the soap press for actors who barely lasted. I found a soap magazine from 2003 that both proclaims the guy who played Carlos (arguably the worst male actor they've ever had--my mother who, for some reason, is kind to a fault when it comes to soap acting actually said "he really is NOT a good actor" about Carlos, which coming from her is pretty major) is set to be the show's center hearthrob, and the high hopes for the America's Sexiest Man winner (who I don't think even got more than one scene--and is kinda scary looking from the photo, complete with two nipple rings which seemed odd for AMC to me--thank you Frons for that innovation, maybe he voted for him).

Except, to me, JER's dark was often more... I dunno, I guess I'm thinking about when Passions became all about rape rape rape and hermaphrodite incest. While McTavish certainly liked rape, for the most part her dark stories seemed to have her at least trying to do something credible and maybe even well meaning (even when it was a complete missfire and in such awful taste like Tad burrying someone alive). Certainly her 90s run was helped by both FMB and Agnes Nixon being more involved. I also think '98-99 she was encouraged to go more out there due to AMC still trying to get their ratings up and being influenced/dominated by DAYS craziness--as was some of Broderick's run. Hence the sudden jump on telephatic tattoos and stuff. And I agree with the last while of her 2003-2007 run, it just got way too bleak (which is why I do believe the rumours of her using her soap bible Purgatory for story). Does anyone know what month they are currently in on SoapNet? Wiki lists McTavish ending Feb 2007--and then says no hHW listed from May to July when B/E came in--so I wonder about March and April. I remember at the time (as I've mentioned) that it was said more and more that McTavish was no longer even writing the stories, and things did seem to fall apart--and not even in her usual OTT fashion, just more like nobody was even there. I agree--I would have been fine with the role being expanded but for such a brief little PSA type thing, it was well done and acted. I wonder if Agnes or someone put pressure on making him gay--of course they may have known they were working on a gay story anyway and it was a warm up, but Agnes Nixon has spoken about the mixed reaction to having Cindy have AIDS. Many complained that it should have been a gay man as that was more common. Her argument--which frankly I think is justified--was she wanted people to know it wasn't just a gay disease which in '87-'88 was still something many honestly didn't know, she also said in that '88 Paley Center video that she was trying to do a gay story but didn't want it to be an AIDS story, something I can respect too (as a teen dealing with my sexuality, I found it a little depressing that it seemed like for a while whenever a gay character would pop up on TV it was for an AIDS story). Pine was great, and who I still think of in the role. I think someone else played him more recently. The 90-91 or so era Nixon wrote seemed to have a few characters they weren't sure about. Right. Tina is one of several AMC characters who would absolutely never cross my mind--and I have to mentally search my brain for a bit. She worked at SOS or something right.

I loved the Adrian/Opal stuff--some of the best material during that hated McTavish run (which in hindsight doesn't seem as bad, I hate to say lol) Did he get an actual exit with Belinda? Terrific episode! This is literally about a month before I started watching--such a great group of characters. Why did they drop CHarlie--he's not brilliant but not terrible and at least looks the part. (I still can't believe how long Lawson lasted in the role). He must have been dropped soon after this as I honestly don't remember him on the show at all--just my friends saying when new Charlie came on how horrified they were with the recast, LOL. Agnes Nixon was official HW at this point, which brings up something. The Nataliein the Well story WAS officially credited to Agnes nixon, though McTavish had apparently become associate HW by then and you can sense herinfluence. It wasn't until May 1992 (which I think was the Who Killed Will climax which I've read was largely Megan's story--and she did copy tons of elements of it for the Who Killed Michael story) that McTavish was official HW. Even as a kidnew to the show I remember being shocked not to see Agnes Nixon, who Iknewabout as I had already read Al lHer Children from the library, no longer listed in the writing credits--though she did still always go up to take the writer Emmyback then and aparenbtly was official listed as Exec HW.

So do I. While in the past decade AMC had some really dire times (as did all soaps), they still seemed to manage SOME sense of warmth and family--granted many times better than others, and I suppose it could be said this started in the 90s. Still I found for the most part McTavish's first run wasn't all that out of character from classic AMC--it had changed like all soaps had by then, but that's one reason I never truly get people who have said AMC more than other soaps lost its identity. At any rate, I know Khan and others feel differently, which is fair (I know KLhan and I disagree on the merits of Gottlieb's OLTL as well)

McTavish';s 1995 run WAS heavy and/or over the top. I think this may have been the real reason ratings were slipping, allowing Behr to fire her. Wasn't there at the time some campaign to feature more AIDSS education sotries or characters on TV? I swear there was something like that... Of course it tied into Julia's genuine scare. They definitely were trying Cecily with Del. It woulda been better than her and Charlie, but like I said I had no love for her (only years later seeing some of her 80s stuff did I get the appeal). Fabiana played Chandler lawyer Barry Shire for YEARS--I think he was replaced for some reason ten or so years back. Ha how long did he last?

They claim in this EW interview about the episode that it was always meant to be Tyler--in this case I believe them http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/02/16/revenge-engagement-party-episode-burning-questions/

Thanks so much! Not a great review, lol but great to read. I've read many shocked about Matt's sudden leaving, I think it was due to the creative team change. I have a few episodes with him (from Nov 1991 I believe--when Ceara and Jeremy were visiting) one where he does drugs to escape his memories, another in court where on the stand he points out his father as the rapist.

I don't want to turn this into a Gaga vs Madonna debate (both are my girls, though my heart is more with Madonna since I've been collecting all her singles and alb ums from the age of 12 or so--I'm annoyed Give Me All Of Your Luv will be the first time she doesn't have a physical CD single--and I prefer Kylie and Mylene Farmer, not to mentiun Donna Summer, to either anyway) but this article, while it raises good points for *now* conveniently seems to forget some of Madonna's tiresome, pretentious periods of the past. I don't mean her more adult contemporary ballads (I love the Something to Remember collection), but rather when she was her most insistant on playing the guita, and not too well, or other way too serious endeavours.

Actually a ton of 60s pop (girl groups especially and some Motown) was infamously lip synched live.