AMC: A New Interview

[All My Shadows]

I respectfully disagree. The kick ass May sweeps that you speak of included such darkness as Leora Hayward's death, Chris Stamp's death, the whole gang war mess, and Michael beginning to display sexually violent tendencies with Kendall and Erica. We also had more boredom with Maggie and Henry's university cheating and the dreadfully wooden Carlos paired with Greenlee. Remember when Carlos brought Greenlee to The Pit to show her how the "other half" lived? And he started lip-syncing to some random song. And we mustn't forget the Fusion's Sexiest Man Contest.

I admit that June 2003 was much better and lighter. We had the all-too-brief flirtations between Joni and Reggie and also Simone and Kenny, we had Edmund and Maria reuniting (me? not a fan of them at all, but others were, so yeah...), the rivalry between Erica and Mary was in full force, Henry finally left town, Laurie finally left town, etc. That was a good month. The gang war crap with Reggie was still going on, but it was pretty much done by the end of the month.

This is not to say that McTash's return was all sunshine and smiles. It was dark. Oh, it was dark. But in that darkness, I found that the theme of family and relationships was more in place. We saw characters back to interacting with each other as friends and relatives, not just as people that they were in storylines with. I distinctly remember Brooke bringing Anna to some kind of support group for people who lost their children at a young age. There was more of a togetherness with the community of Pine Valley than there was under the previous writers. Too much separation with the characters under Rayfield and Cascio.

There were things that McTash dropped, though, that I wanted to see more of. Joni and Reggie were a fun young couple and I wanted to see more of them, but before long, Joni was gone and Reggie was backburnered.

[R Sinclair]

There may have been too much separation of the characters, but at the same time, I felt it was more of an ensemble show under that writing regime. It wasn't the same six characters featured every day. But I'm sure it's just my preference. I like variety and I like seeing characters have their own lives. Maggie, for instance under that regime, had her own life. She was in college. She had a boyfriend. She was studying pre-med and then of course she had scenes with her family (David and Anna). Once McTavish came back, Maggie was taken out of her own life, thrust back into the Lena/Bianca relationship, dwindled down to supporting Bianca's drama and then was backburnered completely while Babe became Bianca's best friend. Simone -- another periphery character under Casico and Rayfield that was featured strongly. She added an element to the story that only Simone could add. She was defined as wild and impetuous and always coming up with crazy ideas that saved Fusion at the last minute. She was being wooed by Kenny, flirting with Officer Lyman. Then McTavish came back, and she was relegated to being almost non-existant while Kendall and Greenlee acted like they ran the company all by themselves.

And Michael Cambias didn't start out as a sexually aggressive character under Rayfield and then Cascio. That element came in after McTavish wanted to introduce the Legacy of Rape with the Kane women. Up until that point, Michael was just a failure who was always trying to gain Daddy Cambias' respect. Then McTavish came along and he became this evil monster.

Even though there were the darker stories of Leora's death and Laurie's weird relationship with her alcoholic father and Chris Stamp's murder (which was written beautifully, by the way, with him taking the bullet for Maddie), there was humor and levity I found in some of the show as well; Simone's running joke of always getting arrested; Tad and Lysistrata; Myrtle tagging along on Bianca and Lena's first date. I had hoped that with the correct writers, it would come back... but it hasn't. It's just been depressing McTavish, boring B&E and now we have spread eagle Pratt coming...

I said all that to say considering this time period to be one of the worst times of this show is unfair. That title goes to Jean Passanante's fall 2000-fall 2001 era.

[Kubla Khan]

R Sinclair, excellent post about Rayfield/Cascio's reign. The show was a lot more balanced, character-wise and story-wise. The show had plenty of light hearted and fun moments to go with the dark moments as well.

It's a soap opera, after all. "Dark storylines" are bound to happen and will always be apart of soaps. Megan McTavish, OTOH, takes "dark storylines" to a whole new level -- and every single character under her pen is wallowing in some kind of misery. It's too much after a while.

Although I have to say that Rayfield/Cascio did indeed write Michael Cambias as a sexual predator. He went after Kendall and tried to rape her. After he failed at that, he tried to rape Erica in her office. McTavish took over when Michael was in jail for that attempted rape. He was then released from jail, and that's when he went after Bianca.

I liked R&C's writing of the Kendall/Michael & Erica/Michael scenes. And R&C managed to turn Erica's attempted rape into a significant moment of growth in Kendall/Erica's relationship, once Kendall stepped in and knocked Michael out.

Here are the scenes where Michael tried to rape Erica. I thought they were well done.

[detroitpiston]

^^^I forgot how buff Alicia Minshew was. Thanks for sharing that clip. I haven't seen that in years.

[EricMontreal22]

I do agre the show was going in potentially interesting directions with once Cascio joined. And she should ahad more time I guess--but the show was getting so unrecognizable, at least to me. As soon as McT came in suddenly we saw Myrtle! We saw these characters who jsut weren't around at all. We had some fun lighter scenes (not enough but Simone and Myrtle sharing spiked lemonade was one scene I still love). We had some amazingly written long scenes--I still remember one early in her run between Anna and David comign to terms with the losts of their baby, what it meant ot their relationship, etc which I really felt shoulda won them an Emmy.

I do agree that McT as she went along started making if anythign the characters too connected--people there didn't seem to have their own lives, and this got worse as her regime went along (as did most things). But the change in the first few months--and not just darkness (the show had a lot of that the previous sweeps already as people said) was stunning. The level of dialogue also, at least at first, improved under McT--we got longer scenes where dialogue and drama was allowed to play out, sometimes for a whole "act" from commercial to commercial--just a lot of things as a soap fan I'd missed.

McT even briefly tried to save some of the flops--liek Carlos (the worse male character/actor on the show EVER?) by givign him a slightly more tolerable brother, cutting out the stupid "he's writing deep secret love letters" story etc etc.

Michael Cambias IMHod efinetly was heading into some sexually weird character under R/C already, not just cuz of the using Lena thing (which was an interesting story I admit). Yes, McT made him a monster. That said I honestly don't remember the Summer as all tragedy all darkness, all rape all the time but as pretty good soap opera. McT took his rape attemtps and went with them.

[All My Shadows]

Okay, that's an excellent point and I agree with you there. There was more definition to who was leading and who was supporting during McTavish's run, and sometimes that was good, sometimes that was bad. I enjoyed seeing the characters doing their own thing (this makes reminds me that until Cascio came in, Joni had been pretty much written as a supporter for Laurie, but then she started her thing with Reggie, where she actually had a meaningful presence), and in that period, we did get to see more development of personalities, without a doubt.

R&C introduced the legacy of rape. McTash was the one who jumped on it and watered it so that it would grow into this colossal thing. Michael attacked both Kendall and Erica in June of '03, the month before McTash returned from the dead.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for reminding me of Strata! I fricken loved her and wanted them to keep her around for a while, maybe even delve into her character. But alas, like you said, McTash took her out.

What, you didn't like Ryan boning Liza on the sands of the Pine Valley beach? LOL

[Jonathan]

Wow, that scene with Michael, Erica, and Kendall was really great. Susan Lucci was fantastic.

[Vee]

Yes, the Rayfield/Cascio show was the worst AMC I have ever seen (and yes, I hated the Lena/Michael crap early on). But Megan McTavish's return to AMC that year was the only time I have boycotted AMC. The day Bianca was raped, I turned AMC off, and did not watch another full episode of the show until last year - after her name was off the credits. No compromise. It was disgusting.

[EricMontreal22]

Shame you missed some of my alltime fave AMC moments. not too many, but.

[EricMontreal22]

I LOVED Lysistrata too--first her therapy with Tad and Liza and then with Tad.

And yeah Passanante's era is still my all time least fave. Maybe cuz it lasted longer than Rayfield's solo run, maybe because it came out of Agnes Nixon's wonderful, brief return as HW, but, Passanante made the show into a ridiculous cartoon. Worse teen set ever (worse than Henry, etc) with Mindy, that jock who was in a coma, etc. Blah. Libidizone (which happened i believe while Agnes was still finishing up the Bianca story which made for a VERY schizophrenic show, ghost Gillian, incredibledreams.com etc etc etc etc etc. And amongst rumours that Passanante was to be fired, she just broke her contract and LEFT to join poor ATWT, leavin AMC floundering with no writer till Fall. lol Horrible I still just laughed when I heard she was HW on a new show.

[Angela]

No question. There's an interview out there where Megan McTavish is actually talking about the scene KK posted and talking about how she was watching that (specifically the part where Erica hugs Kendall later on) and how she said to herself that she wants to be there writing this stuff. Michael attempted to rape Kendall before his humiliation at the Valley Inn and attempted to rape Erica right after it. He was written with a poor attitude towards women from almost the start, way before McTavish got her job back. McTavish got her job back by finding out the plan was for Kendall to be raped and putting out the idea to make it Bianca instead. Initially, I think she/Frons were thinking about the Kane family dynamics a lot more than keeping Bianca asexual.

AMC was awesome in May, June of 2003. I loved McTavish's first year, it wasn't as good as May, June of 2003 but it was one of the better products being put out there by the soaps at the time, at least from the perspective of somebody who had just escaped the DAYS hole, lol.

I loved the Erica, Kendall dynamic (the push and pull) since 1993 and was impressed at how she made Bianca, Kendall the more dominant relationship there. I was not expecting that at all. Great material for all three women (she gave Susan Lucci so much good complex s**t; that week where she told Bianca, Kendall and Jack all "the truth" - amazing work) and she brought a unity to the town that was nice that first year. It was a story of rape legacy but it was also a story of redemption and family and friendships and love and all that good crap.

I think she really jumped the rape legacy shark in July of 2004 by making Erica's father a rapist dealer. Ridiculous. It (the show in general) continued to go downhill fast from there. McTavish is a hack but she can do a good first 12-16 months, at least IMO.

So dammmn cold-blooded, but good soap (Erica decimating the kids), heh:

[EricMontreal22]

Agreed completely Angela (though I think mcTavish is a talented hack who just needs strong guidance--and prob short working terms lol). It always kinda bugs me when people complain that it's glorifying rape, or using rape to make Bianca asexual, etc. Of course it's upsetting that Bianca would be raped--more so than Kendall as awful as that is to say, but it's if anything more because of Bianca's character and her dynamic, love among all the other characters than her sexuality.

[All My Shadows]

ITA Angela! (almost called you Rugrat lol)

I never bought that the idea for Bianca's rape was "Let's turn the lesbian against sex in general." I always thought that the intention was to use the rape as a way to finally bring these three women together, and using Bianca was most practical thing because A, Bianca shares the rape experience with her mother (that sounds horrible, I know), and B, Bianca giving birth to a 'child of rape' connected her with Kendall. Kendall and Erica's connection, I think, was purely R&C with the thunderstorm scenes out in the rain.

McTash is best as an interim writer. If she watches the show long enough and knows enough about its history, she can come in for a year and set up some interesting tales for the real headwriters.

I think two of the finest hours of soap opera that I've ever seen were the episodes surrounding Erica's intervention. It was incredible...just Erica, Bianca, Jackson, Opal, Myrtle, and Mark for two days straight. I'll never forget the kick ass promo picture either.

[Jonathan]

Oh I thought that was an excellent episode too. I was pissed Susan Lucci was overlooked that year in they Emmy race.

[Angela]

I wouldn't have minded, I'm more (in)famous as Rugrat anyways

McTavish's eagerness to play the relationship between the three women was palpable, there was no question for me that the Michael Cambias story was much more about those dynamics then anybody (McTavish specifically) being afraid of anything or avoiding anything. The story (stories) that carried on after this one "finished" for Bianca, now that's another story - I did feel it was more about avoidance.

McTavish did the thunderstorm in the rain. Kendall and Erica having these sort of tender scenes ("I'm okay because you're here with me") while Michael had Bianca cornered. Kendall and Erica had gotten closer during May, June with the MC take down and it was interesting to play that mixed with the wounds being reopened for Erica once McTavish came in.

The episodes lost me with the Eric Kane twist. But definitely had excellent moments in it.

Some of the Intervention: