What would you do to improve AMC;

a) characters

storylines

c) actors

and which headwriter is the best to write for AMC

AMC needs a major overhaul. I like Kendall but do we need to see her everyday? Ditto for Zach. What are they doing to Dixie? Urgh!

AMC needs to focus on the characters the viewers care about and have the characters act like themselves, IMHO the most ruined/changed characters are Adam and Tad. Some characters are focused on way too much (I agree) such as Kendall, Zach, Jonathan, Lily, Babe, Josh. Some characters need some major airtime such as Simone, Brooke, Livia, Reggie, Dani, Palmer, Opal & Ruth. Put Tonya Pinkins(Livia), Jill Larson(Opal) and Lee Meriwether(Ruth), or original Ruth, Mary Fickett on contract. Bring back Eden Riegel(Bianca) and Richard Shoberg(Tom) on contract and some other past faves. Reduce the airtime significantly of Colby (whom I do like but quit writing her so irritating) and Sydney (and take her off-contract). Also bring back Bill Christian, or at least re-cast Derek (Charles Parnell is so one note, smug, arrogant and [!@#$%^&*] and that's it). Axe Jonathan, Annie, Terry, and possibly Krystal, Babe, Josh, Sydney, Erin and the up-coming Sean.

AMC needs interesting characters fast! And good, solid, compelling stories. I think something that would immediately reinvigorate the show is if Greg and Jenny came back somehow. Jenny has really been alive all this time. And a well thought out reason for her leaving Greg and letting him think she has been gone.

I would LOVE flashbacks of the old love story. That was one of the best love stories next to Luke and Laura.

I would watch immediately!!! I would have to see them again.

I would fire the following people. Julie Carruthers, and Megan McTavish. Frons would be put on probation, he has potential but just gets lazy in my oppinion. Frons can be good when he wants to be.

Where does one even begin?

Pretty much everything needs to be the exact opposite of what it is. The characters that are front and centre need to be backburnered (or fired), the characters that have been backburnered need to be put front and centre.

Sidenote: In SOD JHC says that Brooke is just a "supporting character". Not that she's just a supporting character at this point in time, but that she will always be (until December probably when she'll be an "exiting character" ) What a slap in the face to Julia Barr on her ANNIVERSARY year!

The types of stories (and I use the term loosely) that are being told are better left to Passions. They need to tell the exact opposite type of story. Oh I forgot...only GH can do social issues stories...or be of any quality whatsoever.

Anybody could replace McTavish. A five year old could do a better job...and I'm not even being sarcastic. None of the stories on AMC make any sense. Hey, just make the kid playing Emma the new headwriter. Then we'd probably see some cohesive, competent writing.

For headwriter, I want a Lorraine Broderick/Richard Culliton combo.

Storylines:

Annie is diagnosed with a terminal illness, so she tells Tad that Emma is really his daughter, Kate. Tad has to decide whether to share the news with Dixie after Annie's death.

Dixie reveals to Tad that Ian wasn't her lover but her psychiatrist. She had a complete breakdown in Europe while searching for Kate. Tad chooses to tell her where Kate is and they fight Terry for custody.

Ryan has flashes of his childhood without a younger brother & sister. Kendall urges him to seek counseling and Ryan goes to see Simone's dad who helps him remember being hypnotized by David. David admits that he & Greenlee created the Jonathan & Erin as Ryan's siblings as part of Green's plot to break up Ryan & Kendall. It turns out Jonathan & Erin are brother and sister con artists from New York. When Jack overhears Ryan telling Erica about it, he has Jonathan brought up on murder charges for Edmund, etc. Jonathan is executed onscreen with Maria, Sam, Maddie, & Julia watching his demise. Lily apologizes to her father for trusting Jonathan over him and Erica apologizes to Jack, too, for ever doubting his attitude toward the younger "Laverys." Sam sticks around town and starts dating Lily, Jack is cautious but reluctantly lets Lily see him.

David dates both Di and Julia (initially to destroy her relationship with Jamie).

Jamie realizes he's gay and develops feelings for Del, who is shocked to find himself being drawn to Jamie, too.

Kelsey returns to Pine Valley to get to know her son. She replaces Erin at Fusion (Erin goes off to Statesville), where she clashes immediately with Babe. Kendall and Kelsey team up to remove Babe from Fusion permanently.

Erica and Jeff are disappointed when it turns out Josh is not their son. Dr. Madden paid off a lab tech to switch the test results. Greg's assistant Hazel reveals that there was no donor #1, either. She didn't want to turn in her employer because she had a crush on him, but Madden was really infertile and couldn't accept it. He believed he had fathered thousands of children, when in reality Hazel made sure they all had the sperm of another donor.

Zach goes to prison for killing Greg Madden. Kendall takes time off from romance for awhile.

Ryan reevaluates everything he's done since returning to Pine Valley and apologizes to Kendall. He vows to win her back, but he also finds himself attracted to Kelsey.

Adam divorces Krystal after Babe tells JR how she and her mother used to work the truck stop circuit. Babe rationalizes her mother putting her to work at the age of 13 since they needed the money and she was getting her period. Ostracized, Krystal leaves town permanently.

Adam decides to date Brooke, but she's spending a lot of time advising Jackson on how to deal with his kids and with Erica, who is jealous. Erica decides that if she gets Jeff to date Brooke, she'll leave Jackson alone. Meanwhile, Adam plots to keep Jeff & Brooke apart.

Against Palmer's wishes, Opal takes Petey out of military school to attend Pine Valley High. Petey is immediately smitten with Colby, which upsets both their dads. Colby shows more depth when she admits the reason she wants Adam to spoil her is because she and Liza lived very frugally on the run. She missed out on what she perceives as the good life that JR, Skye, and Hayley had and she's jealous. Unbeknownst to either of them, both Adam & Palmer separately start paying Sydney to break up Petey & Colby.

Adam is also enraged when JR & Babe move out of his mansion and in with Palmer, who promises to never betray his great-nephew. Palmer grooms JR to take over Cortlandt Enterprises.

Aidan & Simone leave town together.

What would you do to improve AMC;

The first step to fix what is ailing AMC is to do an overhaul on the writing team. Firstly, FIRE the headwriter and evaluate the remaining staff. If the writers are not strong character writers then they need to find a new job as well. Sci-Fi Channel would be a good place for some of them to drop their resume.

All My Children needs to concentrate on character driven stories and that will truly draw in new viewers, keep the viewers they have and could actually bring back fans that have left in disgust. Too often the folks in daytime are looking for the "quick fix" with plot driven drivel, outlandish situations for cliffhangers, fanbase wars and sensationalism that rivals anything the National Enquirer has ever published.

a) characters

Get rid of Dixie. Really kill her with absolute proof that she is dead. Tad needs something good to happen to him and it is obvious they will never let that happen until the woman truly dies.

Get rid of Colby. Her SORASing is the worst I have ever seen.

Bring back some members of the Cambias family but do it responsibly. We don't need to see that Michael Cambias was accidentally cryogenically frozen on the meat hook and comes back to life. We COULD see a Cambias cousin that looks remarkably like Michael come and wreak havoc in Pine Valley. Build another family dynasty in Pine Valley a la Chandlers, Courtlands, Martins and Wallingfords.

Build a few really good core couples and create internal drama where these couples support each other and work through their problems together. It's too easy and redundant to keep bringing a couple together and tearing them apart a week later. There is no investment in the couple, the characters of the couple are destroyed in an attempt to bring cheap drama, and the fans end up not caring about anyone on the show in the process.

If you are going to bring a white hat (romantic lead) to the edge, do more than gloss over his recovery when you are ready to bring him back into the romantic lead fold. Ryan, for example, is supposed to basically be a good guy and the writers spent a lot of time bringing him to the edge. His breakdown was serious and destroyed a lot of his character in the process. He acted completely unRyanlike but had several reasons behind it including the discovery of his genetic link to a child abuser and "killing" his brother to save his wife. I can understand that but it takes more than a couple of I'm sorries to fix the issue and all the sudden Spike makes it better. I would have LOVED to see Ryan's journey back from that edge and it involving a lot of self realization, some backslides and self doubts in the process. I really like Ryan and this could be great material for Cameron Mathison if given a chance. I can accept him now but I really feel cheated out of a great story for CamMat.

Good drama will always write a character in character. The audience has to feel like they really know who these people are and how they will react in any situation. Also, make sure that actions in one scene don't completely contradict was was written one scene before. If the audience watches and says "WTF??" then the writer failed. That's part of the soap bible for a reason.

b)storylines

Family based drama is where AMC built its name and its fearless approach to controversial social issues will tug at the heartstrings of the viewers desparate for good drama.

Get rid of the science fiction crap. We need to undo what's been done. I want to like Josh and I really like Colin Egglesfield but I am so completely horrified by the origins of his character that I still find it difficult to watch any Josh scene without the words "transplanted embryos suck" running across the screen in my head.

Have a truly bad guy create havoc in Pine Valley for a while. You don't have to destroy your leads if you truly have someone really bad being the antagonist. They may not have to remain bad forever but if you brought in someone new, let their motives be questionable. They could be truly bad too. Helena Cassadine or Cesar Faison are two big bads on GH that I just love seeing onscreen. Dorian Lord used to be one of my favorite biotches back in the day. I loved to watch them and they were great for helping the heros remain heros, adding pathos, and showing people what bad really is. Our heros can have some grey, heck we like them that way, but without a pure demon, the grey allows the heros to lose their hero status.

I have always maintained that familiarity and that home feeling that these characters and places are the hook of daytime drama. Create stories that threaten the status quo but never completely change the core of who the people are.

c) actors

Other than firing a couple of the actors for reasons mentioned above, I have no complaints about the actors. These guys all seem like great people. With the exception of one newbie, they are all gifted and talented and I don't want to change any of them. I support them all and I thank them for all of their hard work and their desire to bring a quality show to us each day. They all seem to care about the job they do and the fans that appreciate them for it.

Basically all that really needs to be done is trim the cast of all the dead weight, re-write some of the damage that has been done (Josh's existence etc) fire the HW, get back to the family, socially relevant storytelling AMC is known for. Oh and above all have character do what they would normally do. Character driven storytelling was the only kind AMC did at one point.

Basically all that really needs to be done is trim the cast of all the dead weight, re-write some of the damage that has been done (Josh's existence etc) fire the HW, get back to the family, socially relevant storytelling AMC is known for. Oh and above all have character do what they would normally do. Character driven storytelling was the only kind AMC did at one point.

I agree completely. I don't have anything specific to add, but since I'm here...

JOSH AND JAMIE! LOVE! NOW! AND SEX! LOTS OF IT! EVERYWHERE!

Fire MMT. At this point I'm pretty flexible with who could be the new HW, as long as the TrashBag's reign of terror ends.

Josh. Josh. Josh. He needs to not be fetus. Or he needs to be killed. Or shipped off. He just needs to be off my screen. AMC needs to admit that they screwed up. That this storyline has been a flop from the beginnning (look at the ratings for the week of their amazing wonder fetus reveal, says more then I ever could), they need to cut their loses with Josh and move on. I don't want Colin to be fired. He's amazing eye candy, and he's really starting to grow as an actor. I just can't look at him, knowing that he's playing Erica Kane's only son, who happens to be yet another violation of her body.

Vets. More vets. I'm so damn tired of these newbies that I don't give a rats ass about. They should have brought Colby back still little, and let Adam raise her. It would be such a change to see Adam as the custodial parent to a child who still needed to be shaped and molded.

Give Kate to T&D, and then get them or at least Dixie the hell off my screen. I hate that woman with a bitter, burning passion. At this point, I think Tad should take Kate, and never let Dixie anywhere near her.

Some love stories, damn. Or a nice hot, affair. And not just some random affair. One rooted in history, and character's pasts with each other.

I could keep going, but eh. Until MMT's reign of terror is over, it's pointless.

They need to bring back "Love in the Afternoon". There are no happy couples on the show right now. You have a happy Zach and Kendall, and JR and Babe for a day, then it's back to two weeks of angst. Krystal loves Adam, but slept with Tad. Jack and Erica are having difficulty with their children.

I really believe a new HW is warranted. It's hard to stay invested in a show, where you don't recognize the characters from day to day, or actually scene to scene.

I used to love to hate Adam and David, and now they are both becoming saps over the women they love. There are no bad guys anymore, just bad s/l's and characterizations.

It's really time to have a little happiness to balance all the darkness. JMO

Fire MMT. At this point I'm pretty flexible with who could be the new HW, as long as the TrashBag's reign of terror ends.

Josh. Josh. Josh. He needs to not be fetus. Or he needs to be killed. Or shipped off. He just needs to be off my screen. AMC needs to admit that they screwed up. That this storyline has been a flop from the beginnning (look at the ratings for the week of their amazing wonder fetus reveal, says more then I ever could), they need to cut their loses with Josh and move on. I don't want Colin to be fired. He's amazing eye candy, and he's really starting to grow as an actor. I just can't look at him, knowing that he's playing Erica Kane's only son, who happens to be yet another violation of her body.

Amen Amen Amen.

Get rid of the fetus.

The one thing I DONT think AMC should EVER do is fire JHC........She is one of the best Producers we have in the soap opera business and anyone who thinks different lets talk becuz in the ailing years of Port Cahrles she almost siglehanded changed everythig about that AMAZING show and they/we shouldve won that year that PC was up for an Emmy for best show...It would still be with us today.....

If you never watched it then you cant imagine the hard work and effort these people put into saving it...And yet a show a lame as Passions is still on ???That flabbergasts me........

JMHO Love Kayla....PS and if JHC wasnt on AMC then awesome people like Thorsten Kaye and Ian Buchanan and even Bobby Eakes might now have come to this show when JHC took over.......

ITA with what someone said about bringing back romance.....I mean I dont think we need every couple jumping into the sack or whatever...But when shows loose people I often wonder if bringing back the passion and romnace is sometimes the element that soaps need to find their way back........

No matter what people say........we love soaps becuz we are beautiful passionate people who not only love character developement but smooches! And if you wanna deny that...fine but I love amor baby!

haha alove Kayla

The first thing I would do (and sorry if it offends anyone) but I would fire both JHC and MMT. I would get Agnes Nixon to come back for awhile and work with the new writer to try and fix some of the damage done.

I would not necessarily have a mass firing but some of the storylines need to be wound up and some things fixed.

I would put Brooke back into a story.

Put diversity back into the cast. I would get rid of both Jonathan and Erin and maybe even Ryan eventually. The Lavery's have burned too many bridges for me.

I would reunite Tad and Dixie & get Kendall & Zach together. Give Erica and Jack something together.

Bianca needs to be brought back. If Erica's makeshift family is what the show wants as the main family - they need to restore it. Let Reggie be seen more. Get Lily away from Jonathan. And let them be seen as a family.

Ruth Martin needs to be brought back. Bring back Jake too. And let all the Martins and Erica's family truly deal with Josh being their son. The damage has already been done. The next writer doesn't need to try and undo the story. Just deal with the fallout of it and try to make it work.

If Colby stays in town then Liza needs to be brought back.

Babe & JR need to be apart for good. And JR needs to finally pay for some of the damage he has caused over the years. Even though I don't watch like I once did, I keep up with the show. And the character of JR has forever been ruined at this point for me. I can never accept him with Babe - ever again.

The show just needs to once again focus on family and on romance - esp. young love. And it needs to get back to it's core. And back to the things that made the show special: diversity, young love, a sense of educating while entertaining, etc. Things the show has left far behind.

And quit rewriting history. And no more children for Erica.