AMC: Pratt's bible

[LoyaltoAMC]

As far as Tad paying for his crimes, once again focus groups are to blame. When she exited AMC last time around, Cady McClain, in her blog, wrote about the whole Tad/Madden situation and how out of character it was for Tad, claiming that she was told that ABC's research showed that the viewers didn't really care if Tad was a killer. That's probably why they never followed up with any redemption story for Tad...no interest from their precious focus groups. These are also the same groups that didn't care if Tad and Kathy were reuinited, prompting Frons' comment last month that he was very surprised that "actual viewers" wanted this story to happen. JFP has said that ABC lives and dies by its focus groups, which is a shame, because these people aren't long-term viewers.

[AMCGio83]

It's not that sonny shooting Carly is ok because Luke raped Laura te problem is that Luke and Sonny are the heroes of the show. To GH's credit, Luke and Lucky dealt with the rape issue beautifully in the 90s but Sonny and Jason are ALWAYS painted as morally superior.

Now take another story. Erica kidnapps baby Maddie. This is a story everyone hated BUT at least we had a clear sense of who the victims and villians were. Erica di it. There was no question that Erica was wrong, her actions were selfish and eventually this became clear to her, she went to jail and Maria NEVER forgave her. I think we were meant to understand Erica while still understanding her actions were dispicable. And it was very satifying, though I love Erica, to have seen her go to jail and Maria have the child returned.

Flash foward to Babe kidnapping Miranda. She was still saint Bab when it was all over and she and bianca: BFFs forever. The angle there was always well, Babe did a bad thing but she's a good gal and we should forgive her. Hey, Bianca did! Again, rather than letting the character's redepmtion take it's course naturally as Sinclair pointed out happened with Janet, the writers just threw in an all's well speech on Bianca's part and expected us to follow suit. I think had Babe gone to jail and had she become the town parriah for a while, there might have been some real growth for the character. Instead, she sleeps with Josh in a kiddie pool because JR was mean to her or something. Again, it's never Babe's fault and again,it's not characterization but manipulation. It's a huge problem in daytime this "training" of the viewers but AMC seems to have made it part of the local flavor.

[detroitpiston]

TV Guide is doing an interview with Pratt next week, where he talks about his plans for the show. Michael Logan specifically mentioned Fusion.

[NYC123]

Hmmm..The interview should be interesting

[detroitpiston]

He talked about Taylor and Jake in this weeks article. He says their story is basically like Army Wives.

[NYC123]

Is there anyway I can see the article? I want to see what Pratt does his first couple of weeks.

[Sylph]

Do you have the quote? And will the interview be published on TV Guide's site or in the paper issue?

[MarkH]

Tvguide.com has taken to putting up the print articles by Logan 1-2 weeks after they appear.

Last I checked, their most recent online posting was to announce that Cindy Lauper was appearing on ATWT. Since the print run of that story was in mid-June or earlier, I anticipate that the Pratt interview will appear online, but not till later in July.

Thus, a nice paraphrase of the source would be much appreciated, Detroitpistonfan .

[detroitpiston]

Here you go Sylph.

"The story is certainly influenced by the success of Army Wives," admits Pratt. The goal is to present the kind of debate that's going on all over the country in a way that's entertaining and relatable, and without taking sides."

[Sylph]

Thank you! I like Army Wives (among other things, because the show features one my favourite writing teams - Elisa Zuritsky & Julie Rottenberg), but I don't like Pratt photocopying it. It might be good, though.

[NYC123]

I am glad that Pratt is not taking all the credit. But first Taylor McBride, now this SL. Well I hope it works out!

[detroitpiston]

Oh and hears another interesting quote.

"Like many great romances, this one will be born of conflict. Jake and Taylor's relationship, not unlike our current presidential campaign, is a clash of ideas----the liberal versus the conservative."

[Sylph]

How long exactly is this weeks Pratt feature?

[detroitpiston]

I'd say about one seventh of the page.

[cct]

I don't mean to harp on something that we've steered away from (Army Wives?); however...

Many people will say that Tad has not paid for burying Madden alive. First of all, as Cady said, this was totally out of character for Tad, no matter how badly he wanted to find Kate. One of the things I can't stand about McT is that she could've had two intriguing murder mysteries (Who shot Michael?; Who buried Madden?) and because she didn't have the foresight (read: Balls) to think ahead, it ends up being two unlikely people (Oh well, poor Bianca just blacked out. "I decided along the way it had to be Tad.") So by no means take this as my endorsement of the actions or repercussions. However, by virtue of the previous posts in this thread, wasn't Tad "redeemed" by also making it his only tie to finding Kate...therefore losing her all over again. Seems to me this is justification along the lines of "breast cancer" and "miscarriages." Hm?

And as for the redemption of Babe mentioned above, I think selective memory is usually involved here. First of all, the real forgiveness by Bianca still didn't happen until Eden Reigel came back to the show once she left two years later. Although there were interspersed conversations here and there between the two characters, Bianca never said she forgave Babe for quite a while. Also, with the character off the canvas it was more difficult to play all the beats of this forgiveness. (I'm probably going to hell, as this post is starting to sound like I forgive McTavish--I don't). It was all rushed, with the whole idea of "If Bianca can forgive her, we can too," behind it. Not that it was perfect or justifiable, I just don't think the Crazy Internet Fan Base remembers certain events.

Plot in sacrifice of character sucks.