EricMontreal22

I still remember at age 14, with a twin sister who was having trouble with LSD, Timmy spending Christmas on a park bench and he saw the lamp post singing cuz he was on LSD... It was pretty funny--though far less dumb than JR and crew's giggly Ecstacy issue under Passante in 2001...

I doubt to this extreme--it's a primetime soap so amped to the top level, but I'm sure there's some element...

Ugh, I just assume it was natural casues. How awful.

hat ws a McTavish story, right? I hated Kale as Sam--I didn't ind Laurence in the role for whatever reason, I guess I find him a more appealing actor, but the role was useless by then anyway. Speaking of Alison, when she returned under RC, did we ever get an explanation what her secret was? I can't remember the end of her character.

How did Kay pass away?

That makes sense, if Bill was EP till 96 especially he would have a lot of say. I know fans weren't all pleased with Kay as HW at Y&R, but I still think she belongs there...

Julia Barr went to adiet center? hgrmm, I had no idea she was friends with Broderick (who I believe was at GL when that came out). Which makes me remember I forgot to comment on the hysterical line in that older issue about many of the female actresses living on carrots and yogurt. I'm sure many still do, but they probably wouldn't have it advertised... AMC did still have some cute character moments all through McTavish's last run, which I think that's from, though they got more and more rare. Nice to see mentions of characters like Craig, Lucas, and the pretty useless Stephen (I always wondered how he got the name Andrew Jackson) . And man I HATED Lawson as Charlie--just looking at those pics irks me.

Broderick and her baby switch stories...

wasn't the odd team up of Whitesell/Broderick the HW team under Tomlin? I know he does story sometimes, but...

Wiki (which doesn't always get this stuff right) says 1993, but I suspect he had at least some help from his dad at first--at least as a consultant as he was still EP. Here are some random credits from there: Kay Alden Associate head writer (2007-2008, 2008) Interim head writer (2008) Co-head writer (2008-present) Bradley Bell Executive producer (1996-present) Writer (1987-1993) Associate producer (1990-1992) Supervising producer (1992-1995) Head writer (1993-2008, 2008-present) Maria Arena Bell Fashion consultant (1989) Script writer (1989-1992) William J. Bell Executive producer (1987-1996) Head writer (1987-1993)

I never realized Brad Bell took over relatively early--6 or so years into the run. Did people like his work more when his father was still alive (and able to work or consult?)

Carol Burnett had a brief cameo before she came on as Verla, right? I wonder how long it took her to fill her promise. It sounds liek the soap press was starting to come around to AMC--it was only a few years earlier that there was that review blasting it.

Original Brooke! So was that from 1977 then? I'd love to see that Mike Douglas episode.

I see it as a tad irreverent, but done with love.

Even the Tea Garden in Pink Heaven? (which must be online...)

Oh I thought the rhymes were meant to be "beautiful/unreal" "comprehension/inpiration" cuz of the form of the poem... I agree it's kinda charming though to see features like that. I think Melody as Natalie was the final straw--the role was destroyed after some fun, but regressive, woman in distress stuff. Robin M was actually a big relief for fans (at least for myself) at the time as Janet, though I started to miss Collins.

I hope Hatch didn't intend to write a poem that rhymes--maybe it's the Sondheim fan in me but none of that does, it's all kinda sorta rhymes... That Ceara promo is hilarious--and completely against how I've ever seen the character, so I guess she did change a lot. I wonder what part Genie thinks was such great writing... I agree with you about Collins--her voice and persona. I know she has said now that she could never play Natalie because she's too frumpy (which, if she means it seriously, is a comment that I hate), but I think she still managed to make the character strong, and her and Trevor had a charming Tracy/Hepburn relationship.

She was definitely involved in the climax of the story.

Erica the Showgirl her first big story after mctavish's return, is a story I always forget. It was awful in that it was so campy, it introduced the show to Zack (who she actually ahd chemistry with then) and just out there--but it would have been golden if we had had been given ONE scene of Erica in the showgirl routine or at the least in a rehearsal. Sigh. But it did lead to the great intervention which was nearly spot on--I would just deduct points for the unecesarily nasty addition that her dad didn't even lead to her rape from neglect and a creepy friend, but actually sold her into it. AMC fans always seem to disagree if it's Sea City or C City. I used to think Sea, but now it seems it was C City which was interchangeable with Center City... I missed much of Natalie and Jeremy but even when they had been paired up with Trevor and Ceara, they did seem to always have a connection, more than Jeremy and Erica did at that time, from what I remember. But I did always like Natalie, and liked her with Trevor, although aside from avoiding Janet she didn't have a ton to do by that point. Still, even as a watcher just from 91 on, I was taken aback by Melody Anderson playing the role as suh a damsel in distress (though I, oddly, liked the Carter Jones story). It waqs my first major soap recast which is part of the reason I found it just so wrong--but I realize it was a poorly done recast. (the other recasts from around then I remember was the DA who ended up with nice and cute and boring doctor Steve, who had a strange name like Daylen--who led into the Carter story as he was her ex, and the infamous Laurel recast from a femme fatale blonde we saw maybe four times to who she became).

I admit as an 11 year old I found it absolutely chilling. I'm not sure if now I'd laugh or not--I tend to get wrapped up in those kinds of stories unless I find them really offensively done, which, despite now realizing it does sound liek Ceara's character was a flop, to put it mildly, it doesn't seem the story was done that way.

HA thanks--I can find the others from there. Such a great clip, and I actually kinda remember nearly all the scenes. Ihave to say the one thing I don't miss from that era, in hindsight (it never bothered me then) was the music. It got worse during the Behr/broderick era where it seems to just play on and on, in a way it sounds more dated than the 80s music does.

No worries, I'm glad you didn't mind me posting it. It's funny, this was probably JUST before I became hooked on the show and I remember my sister's best friend who used to watch for years with her mother and father (she stopped watching shortly after I started watching lol, though her parents still watch) all loved Opal and Palmer. Of course I had no history with the characters, but I assumed everyone must have. I wonder if introducing the merricks' soon after, which was so modeled on the Cortlands in some ways, was an attempt to brign back some of that gothic power trip now that Palmer had been seemingly calmed down... She does seem to think the Ceara incest story was written well from a plot pov but not character--I wonder if Ceara was introduced under Depriest or Nixon--when she was a femme fatale. I only saw the fall out of that storyline, and at the time I remember being enthralled by it but I didn't know the character too well, I was 11,and it was the kind of thing I had never seen talked about on tv before, so... Those all probably played a part. And yes it des seem very odd they got rid of both Charlie and joey literally within months after this. I wonder if there was some reason.

HA. I think I missed it--there were months where Iw as never here back then. A lot of what she says I think is true--though it's interesting that several of the characters and actors she really lvoes and sees having a big future--didn't--and some she sees as burning out too quickly, etc (Opal, Hayley...) did.

Carl posted this entertaining read about AMC in 1991 in one of the threads now in the archive, that I came across by chance. I hope he won't mind me re posting it here: ALL MY CHILDREN Has a Better Half Even the Strongest Stories Need Support By Donna Hoke Kahwaty Report Card Acting: B- Continuity: A Plotting: A+ Character Development: C- Couples: B ALL MY CHILDREN has come full circle, rising from sixth place in the ratings - where it often found itself in the past two years - back up to a solid number three, and sometimes even number two. No doubt the release of Head Writer Maggie DePriest, and the subsequent reinstatement of creator Agnes Nixon as head writer, helped accomplish the jump. Under DePriest, AMC was floundering. Stories and characters - even those who had been on the show for years - were not well-defined. Watching ALL MY CHILDREN was like watching the antics in your office - you know the people, but their conversations aren't particularly interesting on a day-to-day basis. Likewise, one only needed to tune in to All My Children once in a while to see what everyone was up to. And the truth is, it wasn't much. And it got worse. Erica went on the run, Skye tried to kill Barbara and Silver's ghost plagued Natalie. The show was on a downslide and losing viewers. Good plotting returned along with Nixon. Stories no longer meandered, but steadily moved from point A to point B in classic soap opera fashion, branching out to affect other characters and kick off new stories. Nixon is a master of the ripple effect. She began the Jackson/Erica/Travis triangle (Walt Willey/Susan Lucci/Larkin Malloy), which was an instant hit, delivering the tension that a daytime love story needs to survive. Introducing Barbara (Susan Pratt) and Tom (Richard Shoberg) further intensified the drama. Barbara's daughter by Travis had leukemia, and her only chance of survival was another child conceived by the couple. As a marriage-busting ploy, it beat having a wife return from the dead. AMC's plotting is such a major strength, in fact, that reading advance story is as compelling as watching the show. But it takes convincing characters as well as good stories to make a show work, to make it compelling to watch. In this respect, AMC is only half working right now. While the plots are foolproof, the characters are often wanting, and not interesting enough to watch for themselves. All My Children has a habit of bringing on new characters who are not fully developed. They hire actors to play out a story requiring one dimension, and, when that story is over, the character has nowhere to go. At this point, AMC usually takes one of two paths. Option one: Give the actor a story that is completely wrong for his/her character, thereby confusing the viewers as well as the actor. Caera's (Genie Francis) incest story is a perfect example. She was brought on as a femme fatale, and now she's a victim. It doesn't wash. Dixie (Emmy winner Cady McClain) would have been a much better choice; her father, Seabone Hunkle, was a louse, and viewers care about Dixie. Instead, the exceptionally talented McClain is wasting away following her front-burner year (and why hasn't Will [Patrick Stuart] had a decent story since he's been back?). Opal's (Jill Larson) relationship with Palmer (James Mitchell) is another bad move. Opal has taken away Palmer's edge, which he had always maintained, even when he was in love. He no longer spars with Myra (Elizabeth Lawrence); he's just one more casualty of the AMC Emasculation Syndrome. And Opal whines too much. AMC's second most popular bad character remedy: Recast with someone who will fit the story better. The most recent example is Brian Bodine (Matt Borlenghi). The original Brian (Gregory Gordon) auditioned twice for his part; AMC should have been sure of him at that point. Why weren't they? Probably because the character was never fully developed. He probably still isn't, and may well go the aimless route of David Rampal once the Hayley/Brian love story is over. A tendency to rely on larger-than-life eccentricities to make new characters interesting also creates a problem for All My Children. Once the story that fits that eccentricity is over, the character blends into the mainstream, often without a solid identity. Witness Opal, Hayley (Kelly Ripa) and Trevor (James Kiberd). All three started out unique and ended up shadows of their former oddball selves. Had they been more developed from the beginning, this wouldn't have happened. Characters wouldn't take 180-degree turns, like Barbara did when she met Tom. She lost all her verve. How is anybody supposed to identify with a character who has no direction? Character personalities should be developed in and of themselves, not merely for the sake of a particular story. And when AMC wants to push that pet story, they have a predilection for ramming the new characters down viewers' throats (before they've been given a chance to care about them), to the detriment of its proven actors/characters. Phyllis Lyons (Arlene), Kelly Ripa and Genie Francis are talented, but they take up more than half the show. To watch them is like turning on a movie in the middle; you don't really know enough about them to be engrossed in their actions. But that doesn't mean that stories about the children of alcoholics, or incest stories, are not well-developed ideas; they are. AMC just needs to develop characters equally well. And they must introduce new characters gradually, like they did with Katie Kennicott (Greta Lind). By the time she got involved with Joey (Michael Brainard), she was familiar. Likewise, Joey was introduced slowly before he got a front-burner story. Joey is one of AMC's backbone characters - those played by actors talented enough to imbue their characters with personality and depth with little direction from writers. Michael Brainard is in good company: Brooke (Julia Barr), Tom, Adam (David Canary), Erica, Jack and Natalie (Kate Collins) are all vertebrae in the Pine Valley backbone. No story is completely lost as long as one of those characters is in place, and that is to the actors' credit. These thespians know how to deliver, to make any scene work. The anguish of Michael Brainard's Joey overrides Emily Ann's (Liz Vassey) one-note obsession and Katie's too-good-to-be-true morals. David Canary makes Adam's desire to win over his child believable, and helps to obliterate the horrendous acting of the students at Pine Valley High. How old is that Z (Brian MacReady) character anyway? He looks thirty. AMC has trouble doing credible teens. Canary is aided in his plight by Phyllis Lyons (Arlene), a talented newcomer. Lucci is similarly fortunate in working with Charles Van Eman, who makes lovesick Charlie very appealing. It's too early to tell how Kate Collins will fare in her dual role (Nat and sister Janet) but she certainly is talented enough to pull it off and All My Children is to be commended for giving her a chance to demonstrate her versatility. And, of course, the Tom/Jack/Brooke triangle was the triple crown. It was a perfect set-up that couldn't miss with these three actors in the saddle. This triangle could never have developed if AMC didn't cultivate normal friendships among characters. Donna (Candice Earley) and Natalie, Jack and Tad, Brooke and Jack, are just some examples of characters who are actually friends. From real relationships come real stories - stories that make more sense, and flow. Jack and Brooke have been through as much as some super couples and All My Children - a good matchmaker - is always quick to recognize when a couple belongs together because of history, as well as chemistry. But history, or continuity, has forever been an iron strength of this show. AMC rarely misses. In large part, this is because Agnes Nixon never removed her hand from the till. When Natalie fought to get a fair divorce from Adam, Stuart saved the day by threatening to reveal another time when Stuart stood in for Adam. That Stuart, not Adam, secured Adam's divorce from Erica is a little piece of information viewers may have forgotten about. but AMC didn't; they saved it for precisely the right moment. All My Children is also very good about remembering characters long gone, as if they were real people. It's not unusual for Enid (Natalie Ross) to mention her son, Greg. Phoebe (Ruth Warrick) talks about son Lincoln often, and, when Brooke lost her daughter Laura, Phoebe recalled the loss of her own daughter, Ann, who died years before. It's natural to do this, but most soaps don't. One of AMC's strengths used to be humor, but lately, some of the most laughable things surely aren't meant to be, e.g. Hayley's drug trip on the roof or Ceara's flashbacks, in which Genie Francis sported pigtails. All My Children needs to make better use of naturally funny actors, like Walt Willey, Charles Van Eman and Louis Edmonds (Langley) - who isn't used nearly enough - instead of trying to artificially create humor with characters like Opal. It comes across flat. Scenes like the one where Jack babysat for Jamie are infinitely more funny. While it may seem that All My Children has a lot of problems, they aren't that far-reaching. If the show took the time to more fully develop characters, and then hired more fully developed actors - rather than the inexperienced performers they tend to cast- to play the parts, it would be top-notch.

They must have gotten divorced because they no longer worked on the same show...