I don't remember that at all. R&C seemed invested in Mia&Edmund and Rayfield definitely seemed to be invested in that boring ass Maiden (Maureen/Aidan)... but that was nipped in the bud when McTavish came back because Maria got her memory back and then started having her eerie relationship troubles with Edmund (eerie because John and Eva were going through a rough divorce at that time). I do believe McTavish wanted Tad and Liza together because she was always pushing their BFF status during her 1998-1999 tenure as well. As far as Tad and Dixie were concerned, Dixie had been "dead" for over a year by the time Meggie showed up and Cady was kicking ass as Rosanna Cabot on ATWT in 2003, marrying Craig Montgomery (I know because I actually watched Cady's Rosanna marry Hunt Block's Craig around the same time). So I don't think it was in her mind to save Tad for Dixie at that point in time. Again, just my opinion.

The hints of Tad & Mia I think only started a couple of weeks before Megan's work started airing again. I would never even have thought anything of the scenes (which I don't even remember now) except Amelia Heinle had come out a few weeks before and said that, now that Edmund & Mia was done, they were going to pair her with another established male on the show.

It was the most unwatchable AMC I have ever seen.

I think I would take AMC 2003 over AMC 20006-08, especially like Summer of '06 when Madden was in the Box, Colby was annoying, Saint Babe was at her "best." AMC 03 was bad but it would be a few years before we would lose well, everyone.

I saved it on video, it blew me away so much--that's the scene I was trying to explain above. It was just a stunning display of acting and story that somehow made the kinda mess with Leonora dieing story, and the Anna David relationship, what was keepign them together, why it had to end, etc, all make sense.

The July 4th episode WAS the first one that Megan got full credit for (onscreen). And all your reasons are exactly why it was such a fbreath of fresh air--I remember even those on here who HATED McT and were so unhappy to have her back, conceded it was a great first ep back.

ANCHistory I agree with so much of your post--although Liza and Adam did get a minor storylien with their counsellign with Lysistrata.

"Oh, Rayfield most definitely wanted Tad and Liz back together. He had them going on dates together, like how they once went to the movies together and ended up spying on JR and Laurie, who happened to be seeing the same movie. "

I'm 100% that was Adam and Liza wasn't it?? It was one of the things Lysist told them to do to try to save their marriage? I also remember her throwing water at Adam as part of the therapy, etc. Youa re right that they were heading into a Liza/Tad redux though--but ti was always very much a C storyline

Edmund started on his SUPER nasty under R&C (it was they, I believe, who had him trying to drug Maria in case it would bring back her memory, locking her up, etc--there wasn't much of a place to come back to for that character after that). So yeah that Maureen mess started with Culliton, but. While McT was a bit of a mess with her Las Vegas storyline (I still say I wanted a big production number with Erica) to say the least I liked how she tied Zach into both the Cambias and into Maria/Maureen's story even if the followthrough for that was a disaster.

(Like I said most of McT's early decisions seemed to be to try to save some of the R/C mess--giving Carlos a brother--although he was only slightly better than carlos was an attempt to salvage that...)

Since we're discussing disastrous regimes--what's the view on here of Culliton? Given his track record--both as an AMC writer for years and on other shows I have to wonder if he deserved more time. The Proteus story (which still makes no sense to me) was a mess, and he was infamous for dropped characters (Timmy Dillon's return along with Arlene's, etc) and back then we didn't have Frons to blame... He still gave us some killer moments and some great returns (Kendall) which is more than Passanante did... And I'd still be more keen to have him ont he team than Pratt who worries me so much...

I think Culliton is mostly reguarded as a failure though I liked much of 2002 especially the Summer of 02. Leo and Greens were a great couple as were Anna and David and there seemed to be a lot of interation between the characters. Proteus was long BUT it featured lots of characters. We'd even see Marian and Myrtle some of the time. Then Proteus started to get really confusing Brooke started to lie about Maureen and mostly the show went to [!@#$%^&*].

The Everyone Is Related To Leo show was horrible.

Culliton was a step up from Passanante, in my opinion, but that wasn't saying much. I didn't enjoy a lot of his tenure. WAY too much revisionist history and WAY too much Greenlee. She had her fingers in the pot all across the board. A LOT of things were dropped under his writing regime as well. He did, however, bring sense of humor back to the show. I initially liked his first three months, but then Frankie Stone was murdered and then that's when the BIG HOT MESS ball started to roll... and then Erica went on trial, and that ball gained even more momentum... followed by the blatant FORCED pairing of Rendall... then we got to the summer of 2002 and I was sick of it all.

Yeah that makes sense to me--and that was pre Frons interference. Wasn't his era on GH pretty well received? and he did have a big history as staff writer on AMC, but...

my view of his time on AMC is kidna fuzzy cuz that was the year I spent six months in Europe, and then did a big move to Montreal, so I missed a lot of stuff though I tired to keep track. Maybe that's why Proteus makes so little sense to me, although I suspect it wouldn't anyway. Wasn't Proteus before Frankie Stone?

Anyway... He really did do a LOT of revisonist history (i'd say in his one year on the show more than McTavish even) and dropped characters which strikes me as just sloppy--but I agree about the humour and definetly agree it was a step up from Passanante

As for Rayfield writing the Tad based Fan February episode--it was largely brilliant. Maybe they shoudl call him back once a year for comic episodes that's it...

The Everyone Is Related To Leo show was horrible.

HAHAH and confusing--again, that seemed to be a CUlliton specialty. Was that lawyer who turned out to be Kendall's half brother (or did he?) under CUlliton? Trey Stone or something?

Was that lawyer who turned out to be Kendall's half brother (or did he?) under CUlliton? Trey Stone or something?

Ben Shepherd aka James "Trey" Kenyon III. I still don't get why Kendall was pissed that Reggie turned him in for FRAMING HER for the arson that burned down Erica's house (which I miss...that set was fabulous).

I miss it too

The Everyone Is Related To Leo show was horrible.

YES! OMG! Right there! That's it! I LOVE you for that!

The Richard Culliton era was schizophrenic. It had some good potential - like Simone and her dad, Kendall's ORIGINAL story (which was supposed to be a mystery that would bring Del back to town), and Mary Smythe. But then you got Proteus, the extended du Pres family, Maggie/Bianca back and forth of doom, no-purpose Tim Dillon, horrible person Frankie, and Leo's death.

I loved and miss Mary Smythe. Greenlee needs her back, and AMC really needs an over the top older woman on the show now (the way OLTL has Dorian)

And just wanted to point out - the thread in Cancelled Soaps folder, Where the Heart Is and writer M. DePriest has become quite a thread on different eras in AMC's writing history, oddly enough, startign with the brief time DePriest wrote for Felicia Minei Behr in the late 80s--so check it out