AMC: What would you do to save AMC?

[EricMontreal22]

That's too bad--I hope you come back though I know a break sometimes can be a good thing. Trust me, I don't mind bad things beign said about AMC--and I don't think the show is in good shape though I am optimistic (and have enjoyed the past few weeks quite a lot even with my pconcerns)

[whyamcwhy]

I think Kylie's post makes a lot of sense. Until TIIC acknowledge that AMC has a lot of problems, it doesn't matter who is or isn't on the show. Someone needs to come in and clean house. Get rid of Carruthers and a lot of the writers on the staff. I am not sure if B&E are just really weak writers or if they are not being given any choice in what they write. Maybe go ahead and get rid of them. Refocus AMC and start acting like it is life or death for the show. And it really is because it will be very difficult to gain back audience once they have lost them.

One thing that really bothered me about B&E when they did some of their first interviews was the fact that they thought AMC was in really good shape. They were happy to be taking over such a strong show. The reality was AMC was slipping and very fast. Too many years of McTrash and all the other idiots. Someone needed to come in and make major changes and shake ups on the show. Instead, they keep all the same writers. They continue in the general direction that McTavish was going but at least McTavish tried to throw in shocks and surprises once in a great while. Don't worry....I still hate McTravesty!!! These new writers are playing it WAY to safe and they are becoming boring and predictable. Frankly, I am worried about the future of AMC.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I never watched much of The City, but I read an interview with Harding Lemay where he said ABC asked him to unofficially consult on the show and he found it horrible. I don't know how much of his interpretation is true though.

Here's what he said:

[Khan]

So, how long before PGP Classic Soaps slams Harding Lemay's legacy, too?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

They have to slam Irna Philip's first...

[Faulkner]

I think this describes AMC to a T. Even though Erica and Adam are parents, they are emotionally the age of their children.

[EricMontreal22]

Yeah I've read that before. I have a huge amopunt of respect and admiration for Harding--and loved his book 8 Years in Another World. But... He's dead wrong. They did have agenerational thing but it was minor--I agree there, and I wouldn't want that at AMC. Although when Sydney was replaced with Tracy Q (who may not actually be much older but seemed more mature) they added a sorta mother hen figure, albeit a brilliantly warped one. But you had people like Buck and Tess entering their 40s, Angie and Jacob, etc, then the younger really clueless people trying to feel their way liek Ally, Zoe, etc.

What Harding failed to see was how it managed to have a true sense of community and friendship with the community being the tenants of this building--which was quite remarkable I felt, and handled better than most soaps at the time. It also managed to inter weave a large amount of types of stories (from topical to mor emelodramatic) really well.

Harding Lemay was a consultant on OLTL in the very late 90s. It was pretty awful. I wonder if that says anything (sorry--cheap shot but...)

E

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I agree and in the same interview he praised that hack Jill Farren Phelps, since he consulted at both AW and OLTL during her EP tenures on both soaps. Jill is believed to be the one who put the final nail in AW's coffin and her OLTL tenure was considered the worst soap on television at one point.

[EricMontreal22]

"One thing that really bothered me about B&E when they did some of their first interviews was the fact that they thought AMC was in really good shape. They were happy to be taking over such a strong show. The reality was AMC was slipping and very fast."

To be fair I saw that more as B/E not wanting to hurt any feelings or create ennemies...

[Y&RWorldTurner]

The City kinda struck me as a daytime version of Melrose Place that was set in New York City. Like Melrose, it didn't have a strong multi-generation aspect, there was a key apartment complex, there was the resident queen bitch, ect.

Though, Sunset Beach was like Melrose Place set closer to the beach and that didn't really have the big core family aspect and didn't last long either.

Maybe Lemay was right in his reasoning, since soaps like The City and Sunset Beach never caught on.

[TC]

Not a cheap shot at all. My impression of the once brilliant Lemay is that he burnt himself out.

[Khan]

Apparently, my ideas are too..."McTavish-esque," so they're gone.

[EricMontreal22]

ALL the Chandlers gone? Marian gone?

I dunno if you got rid of all thos echaracter sover 2 years it might work--any shorter span of time and I think we'd have another Valentine's Day Massacre on our hands

[EricMontreal22]

I know I'm gonna sound like I'm obssessively definding the City and maybe I am but...

I think that's wrong, though ont he surface kinda true. Sunset was much more like a SPelling primetime soap (though it kinda found a self referential style of its own). I think it's true that that style of soap doesn't last long on daytime where we need a bit more "reality" (passions aside I guess) and family relatability to watch dialy.

As for the City--it very much was a modern take ont eh Agnes Nixon formula (which is perhaps why she co created it and was listed as story consultant). The Complex was a way of making a little community within a major city like New York--so the complex had the rich loft, poorer people's apartments, a fashion mag studio, the bar for people to meet, a clinic, etc... The characters were nealry all down to earth, middle class and relatable--with a lot of social storylines thrown at us (at first not too subtly--the transgendered one, a daytime first I think, was handled way too quick). ABC gave it just over a year before they canceled it. It's last 6 months it was the ONLY soap on ABC to see its ratings climb (admittedly slowly) with each week just when the res tof ABC daytime was starting to fall...

E

[TC]

I'm going to take up this cause. That show had a lot of potential, but being a half hour in a bad timeslot, it suffered.

I never saw it in English, only in French. It used to turn up on the French stations here quite often (as did SB, Loving, SuB.) In fact I'm not even sure it was ever broadcast by the local ABC affiliate during daytime. Seems to me I sawr it at 1:00 am.

I loved the whole concept of it.

Sure, Lemay had "a" point, but we seem to have forgotten how refreshing a half hour show can be.