EricMontreal22

Please don't taint my pure image of our Jonathan

Cruel! lol I didn't really start watching until she started being slightly redeemed though... It's funny watching Chuck in that 1980 episode--the days when a fit male soap body didn't have to include a six pack...

I think it's too easy and unfair to criticize Daniel's acting (well the actor's I mean...) It's perhaps the most thankless role on the show, I don't honestly know how anyone could play it better...

My brother has a DVD/VCR combo machine I use. I really need to get down and do the final 4 months of City, etc... The only other truly old AMC I have is two tapes of edits someone sent me in the early 90s from 1983, but I think most of the episodes are now on youtube (although it does contain a lot of the lesbian storyline so maybe there would be some interest there as I think that's not easily available...) Aww I loved her, especially during the Adam Stuart story. For some reason I always felt like i could relate to her (which as a 12 year old boy is kinda a scary thought...)

LOL That's my video (I'm Eric Henwood-Greer)! I was just going to edit the video description and title now and then saw you posted it,. LOL Yes, May 28, 1980. Me too--sadly that's all I have, but glad you're getting so much out of them. I'm going to go to my brother's this eekend and digitze some more of my VHS's Yes her mom was clearly modelled after Piper Laurie in Carrie. She was on maybe a week but made a huge impression on me for some reason (I assume it was early in Gloria's run and was partly to make her more sympathetic--or at least explain where she was coming from).

I'm glad Emily at least saw SOME of the light to all she was destroying in the process. The one thing I'm not sure I buy is that Amanda (Fake Amanda) so easily and quickly believed her and agreeably left town

AMC probably in general was one of the tamer soaps, it's true. I do remember around this time there was more though (I also remember a ton of ridiculous scenes when Alec was into Gloria and first came on, of him working out shirtless in the CHandler gym and her ogling him lol)

Considering all the factors with networks, etc and the lesbian angle, I agree.

Nipplegate is one factor. Network tv got so tame when it came to sex since then--remember how just before GL and Y&R experimented with male rear nudity--as did even the family show Once and Again). But in general late 80s/early 90s soaps had a LOT more graphic sex than anything since--I remember around 91 or 92 seeing a Donahue episode where peopple discussed how soaps were softcore porn that children could watch at home and how horrible it was. I admit too many sex scenes on a soap, or even embarassing excuses to have shirtless men can annoy me, but sometimes I wonder (AMC for its past few years seemed to go out of their way not to have any male partial nudity--even for people like Ryan and Griff who seemed hired at east partly for their abs--Griff I think took his shirt off about three times in a year lol--of course watching OLTL right afterwards made the disaprity between shirtless guys on the two shows even more obvious).

Yep near the endof the era when soaps would still fairly routinely license "real" music and not someone either you had never ever heard of, or some generic fake club music, etc. I was in Jr High and I think I felt kinda dirty about it too (not that I didn't like it ). My mom around then would start watching sometimes with me and I know sometimes if I knew what stories would be featured I'd go out of my way to make sure she wasn't watching (oh the innocent days before any teen or preteen could access far worse material with the click of a mouse...) I agree with Carl, some content like that has become a negative soap cliche (and the kind of thing that primetime soaps, particularly by the time of Melrose Place, would take from daytime soaps and emphasize to the utmost), but when done right it's hard to argue it's soapy appeal.

Maxwell--who I love--was camptastic in the role! LOL it just got pretty ridiculous--even as a teen I felt that, but a part of me enjoyed that, LOL. The middle Pierce wasn't remotely memorable and I wonder if they ever even thought about keeping him around or if he was a stop gap. it's too bad that the first Pierce had to be left go, I did like him and with Janet, but it was understandable after his behaviour. (That essay on soap viewers in Worlds Without Ends in its section on gay fans says that the most watched soap at the time--this was '96--amoing gay men by far was AMC but the essayist found it interesting that more women responded to Michael Delaney as one of the most appealing and attractive men on the show--apparently by a wide margin the one gay men surveyed fou8nd the most attractive was the first Pierce). Alec and Arlene were great together I think. Yes the story was borderline sleaze but so well done...

It is isn't it! I think I've been brainwashed to think any early AMC (or OLTL, etc for that matter) must have that fuzzy, archaic, B&W kinescope look. It's always fascinating to me these soap characters and couples who often lasted for YEARS and were never really A story material. I think soaps used ot have more of this--and it helped add to the secnse of community (I mean, I doubt Devon and Wally ever made any soap rag polls as fave couple). Of course OLTL with its quick changeovers seems to have a TON of such characters. Thanks!

I do too--Ifind the vocal version just a bit... much. It's not like that super bombasitc first vocal Loving opening but... I do get the nostalgia fans have for it. I really liked Riley--I'm glad the actor has had continued musical theatre success because he was wasted (unless you count finding out his dad was a psycho gay murderer not being wasted...) I was going to say he was created as part of Malone's Love Crew but actually I guess he wasn't - he was Flash's friend lol (again wasted--why would she go for Priest Joey instead?)

Yes, I prefer Broderick's tenure over you, but there's no doubt she was pressured into big shock stories--some I felt worked (incorporating Laurel's shooting into the gay story) others (voodoo is an obvious example but there were many) didn't. I thought the Janet plastic surgery story--as much as by AMC levels it may have been OTT was well received by fans... And yes, I think Seabone was involved with Opal.

OK so he was involved in the Will plot (was it his plan at all?) or at least him talking about Dixie's guilt re Will helped it. The rumours of McTavish's first tenure ending ina huge mess like her others have are *greatly* exagerated--well at least I've always felt so though I've only had the chance to catch up with much of it--now actually. So I'm glad you seem to agree. I mean maybe it's hindsight--I do get some of the criticism but there seems to be a common wisdom when discussing her work that she went completely "unabortion, burried alive killing" out of control in that run, and the show still felt largely like 90s AMC identiy (even if that slipped away throughout most of the nineties I wouldn't blame her so much as cast aging, and other cast issues, as well as a changing soap climate, including their timeslot rival in many places suddenly climbing--Days).

I had no issue with the Will double story myself (again I was I guess 14/15 when it happened and maybe less critical than I would be now, so take it with a grain of salt). It probably was smart of Broderick to cut down on Janet "boiling over" and make her sympathetic when she came on. Was Seabone and all that gone by the time of the Will Double? I have some of that mixed up in my head. Pine Charles thanks for posting that! It's great to see how Brooke grew--she really is a troublemaker and a snob when she came on (at least with Barr)--like in that 78 wedding episode, you see her start to grow out of that in the '80s episodes I posted--it all feels quite natural, even if poor upright/victim Brooke caused some story issues much later on (though she was always a fave character of mine despite some bust stories). Here's the last of the three episodes from Palmer's 1980 Masquerade I have-this one is 10 minutes shorter because most commercials were skipped... Enjoy!

All the UK soaps seem to have a bit more of that now, but Emmerdale in particular was never about that really...

Right I forgot about that--I remember some comic scenes between all the brothers at the Springs or somewhere but that seemed to be their only real purpose--and maybe a desire to have a group of younger hunks. Speaking of, queerty posted a tribute to the more often than not shirtless men of OLTL. Annoyingly it focuses mainly on the last little while where I found it beyond ridiculous, but... http://www.queerty.com/photos-the-shirtless-hunks-of-one-life-to-life-in-memoriam-20120116/

Besides which, it's on a night where it works well as counter programming. It's true that ABC on Sundays has far more soapy shows than the other stations as well, but I think the competition is stronger for some similar viewers (and depending if Smash can live up to its excellent pilot--and that'll be very hard I admit--they might have more...) And as YRBB said, ABC has had a tough time with Wednesday dramas--I think it would be foolish to move Revenge, especially after just one season.

I am so dense--I just remember where the actor who played Declan first annoyed me--he was Starr's first crush (Travis?) when she ran away on One Life to Live lol. And he seemed like he was trying to act like a grown up James Dean (poorly) even back then.

Will double--part of the beginning of the end of McTavish's first reign... (I admit in hindsight I can see why Behr and others felt she was losing control, but at the time I was still loving the show). Nelson Branco or whatever--obnoxious Canadian soap reporter.

I've never seen a pic of Dan Kennicott--or heard the role was hated. Tom and Brooke loved each other but it always seemed much more like a deep friendship love.

OK re your question about where Erica was (I think it was you and not SFK) I assume they did say she was on a modelling shoot in NYC (and I think she was on maternity leave--wasn't this around the same time Slezak was replaced due to her maternity leave on OLTL?). The famous Cliff/Nina wedding episode is from later 1980 (I want to say Summer--anyone know for sure?) and in it Tom and Erica have a fight because she wants to stay in New York to some fancy dinner with Brandon Kingsley.

Oh dear, I never noticed how awful/hysterical those two look in the photo till now... Liza had a scene with Marian/Stewart (wait--I think she did?) So I agree

I didn't even remember Linda till now. Yes, for whatever reason (I guess Luna was gone by then, and his other siblings who never did much?) they seemed to have no use for him after that triangle, which made me angry.