AMC: MMT has some nerve

[DevotedToAMC]

I just wonder when the strike will be over....did they not picket the entire time?

[dragonflies]

No excuse, sorry. If Carlavati can turn things around at OLTL, then B&E should have been able too....

Sure McTavish destroyed alot of things, but so much for B&E's "We're not going to create more plot holes, but close up the ones McTavish left" Yeah how'd that work out for ya? AMC is one big plot hole

Kay Alden already said they're not going to change that. They considered it, but in the end decided against it, cause they didn't want to rehash all of it for the audience.

[EricMontreal22]

Kay Alden was right. While the unabortion was a huge mistake and I think they all know that (really thought JHC shoulda stopped MMT--I'm not blaming more than MMT but she deserves some of the blame). I think it would be deadly and confusing for the show to now backtrack and rehash that whole storyline (with Jeff gone no less) it wouldn't do anything to improve ratings...

I still think Rayfield left the show in pretty sorry state--and as much as I love B&E's work at Loving and City I wouldn't put it past them to do some damage if they last much longer -- sci fi twists like cloning Reva, etc?

I dunno, to be honest I've enjoyed the show much more the past few episodes, weeks so I have some hope but...

[DevotedToAMC]

I just wish that McTavish would wind up in the landfill one of these days because then, for once in her life, she would not look out of place

[EricMontreal22]

I know i'm insane but MMT has given me too many moments I loved to wish her ill--though I don't want her EVER at AMC again at least as HW. I dunno if I would even be a soap fan if it wasn't for her first era sucking me in, and many of my fave characters (all the way back to the Merricks and their Jane Eyre gothicness) were hers

[DevotedToAMC]

Actually I have to give her credit because she has given some great stories on AMC. I can list some that I really liked (also, I do not believe her first run was driven by Felicia Minei Behr and/or Agnes Nixon. She was in charge of the dialogue as well as developing story and seems as if Nixon and Behr just approved or disapproved the stories)

FIRST STINT

1. Tad with amnesia and Tad/Dixie reunion

2. Kendall coming to town

3. Wildwind (Edmund/Maria, Dimitri/Erica, Natalie, Dimitri and Edmund's ties to Hugo, Helga, Angelique, Anton/Kendall)

4. Natalie in the well

5. Who Killed Will

6. Del coming to town and his history with Dixie

7. Janet Green returns as Jane Cox

8. Noah/Julia and their first days

9. The tornado

10. Adam/Gloria/Stuart

11. Brooke's ectopic pregnancy

12. Brooke/Edmund/Maria

13. Tom/Livia and adopting Jamal (tie in him divorcing his father)

14. Opal/Palmer

15. Lily's autism

16. Julia's rape

17. Mona's death

SECOND STINT

1. Bianca's intervention with anorexia

2. Brooke's trial

3. Stuart/Marian

4. Ryan/Gillian

5. Hayley/Mateo/Raquel

6. Dixie's return and Tad/Dixie

7. Holidays explosion

THIRD STINT

1. Bianca's rape

2. Babyswitch

3. Edmund/Maria/Zach

4. Zach/Kendall

5. Satin Slayer

6. Zoe/Bianca

7. Edmund's paralysis

8. David finding out Babe is his daughter

9. Janet's reign of terror

10. Mardi Gras Ball

11. Krystal's baby's paternity

12. Erica's intervention

13. Reggie/Danielle

14. Garrett's pedophile behavior with Danielle

15. JR/Babe

16. Michael Cambias murder trial (just the trial)

17. Bianca hiding her pregnancy from Erica

18. Jack/Erica and Kane/Montgomery families merging

19. Jonathan/Maggie and domestic violence

20. Lily/Sam

21. Fallout from Edmund's death

22. Di pretending to be Dixie

[EricMontreal22]

"also, I do not believe her first run was driven by Felicia Minei Behr and/or Agnes Nixon. She was in charge of the dialogue as well as developing story and seems as if Nixon and Behr just approved or disapproved the stories)

"

It's no secret that Agnes was more involved in the show then (though she spent much of 93-94 HW Loving before she passe dit on to B&E) and that FMB rocked as an EP and was VERY hands on (the way an EP should be and not Brian Frons). But I agree, it's a bit unfair the way some people like to give all the good stuff credit to other people (even when JHC first came on as EP on AMC I remember a lot of people giving credit to every story point they DID like, to her and not MMT). This largely proves that to be fairly consistant MMT needs a good, strong EP (even at OLTL it was obvious she was just following JFP's story ideas since the story changed so little from when she was HW and EP)--and of course by late '95 MMT got unwieldy, as she does and FMB brought in Lorraine Broderick (which was smart creatively but didn't help ratings...)

I agree with most of your "positives" but I thought Raquel with Hayley and Mateo was bad... And I'd add to the first section, off the top of my ehad, Gloria dealing with her abusive, nut of a mother and it helping her get past her sexual problems/neediness, as well as Livia/Tom and the racism storyline (involving Terrance being beat up, etc--the first successful soap pairing of a white man with a black woman). And Hayley/Brian--even Ann Li.

Also, I think your listing of her story highs during her third, recent stint points out that she really needs someone to back her stories up liek a good EP--all the point syou mention wer egreat but often handled sloppily (or dropped somethign I can't help but think was Frons telling her who to write for)

[Cat]

BWAHAHAHA re: MMT vs. Brown & Essensten. That's like [!@#$%^&*] calling diarrhea crap.

[juniorz1]

Thank God Megan spoke out. The world could use a few more buffoons like our lovely McTavish. It's the most entertaining thing Ms. McTavish has done in the last 4 1/2 years.

[Kubla Khan]

Agnes was heavily involved with the show in a HEADWRITING role until she left in late '97 (when Broderick was fired to make way for McTavish's return, Agnes had enough and left). That's why when AMC won all those Writing awards in the '90s, Agnes was there to accept & speak. McTavish & later Broderick certainly focused on more of the day-to-day writing activities, but Agnes played a huge role in creating, shaping, and developing the stories. That's why McTavish's first "stint" with AMC is so well-regarded, and every stint after that has been a royal sh*t storm - she wasn't top dawg from 92-95!

Megan was fired for a reason in '95, though. Why on earth ABC thought it would be a good idea to bring her back two subsequent times is beyond me.

[Adam]

Two new head honchos at ABC Daytime? First Shapiro and then Frons?

I get her being a strong guild member speaking about about WRITERS that have gone fi-core, but singling out the people who took her job, it just reeks of bitterness and jelously. As someone said before, her calling out B&E is pot, kettle, black nuff said.

Aside from the destruction of Zendall at the expense of Greenlee, B&E really haven't done anything that revolting or bad.... I mean the rest of the show right now if you take Zach and Kendall and Greenlee out of the equation is pretty damn good. 5 times better than McTavish's daily drivel post Christmas of 2004....

[DevotedToAMC]

I am not saying she was top dawg her first time around but that she should also get credit for the great years she wrote. I also found that, for the most part, her third stint was rather good and listed the stories I liked

[Kubla Khan]

Actually, Pat Fili-Krushel was the one that fired LB and rehired MMT. Shapiro didn't arrive on the scene a good 10 months later, and was quite vocal about how disappointed she was with McTavish's AMC. Of course Angie fires Megan but gives her a job at OLTL months later.

I don't care if Frons never worked with Megan before, he is smart enough to know what her track record was.

[EricMontreal22]

I knwo she was sitll very involve dbut even for the 14 months she was HW Loving she was also HW AMC? I still think megan deserves a good chunk fo the credit for 92-95 reagrdless but I do aknowledge Agnes was there consulting, agreeing to stories, etc (and FMB played a big part)

and ugh in some ways Shapiro really created the probs that Frons has perpetuated (ok many ways...)

[Adam]

I think she dangled that rape story bible in his face and he ate it up. It proved right because her initial 18 months breathed life into AMC again both in terms of ratings and recapturing some of AMC's essence, only to majorly deflate as quick as it inflated.... and left Megan scrambling her her final 2 years on the show throwing almost everything at the wall and none of it sticking.