AMC: Pratt Wants to return AMC to it's Glory Days

[Skin]

I don't really know what to say about RPG's rendition of Jake. He isn't bad but he isn't great. Ultimately he is able to make his performance as Jake viable since the previous Jake has long since vacated the role years ago. However he looks NOTHING like a Martin and that shows soo much (and soo badly) when he is in scenes with Tad and Joe. That being said I am not interested in Jake's storylines. At all. I don't care for his relationships with Greenlee or Aiden. But that doesn't have as much to do with RPG as it does with watered down Greenlee and horridly banal performances from Turner.

[quartermainefan]

It doesn't have to be that way. Erica, Tad, Adam have all been around a lot longer than Zach. The difference is the writers didn't showcase them every minute of every episode the way they featured these 4 four bores. That seems to be the ABC way though, pick a handful of characters and showcase them til you beat them into the ground, and give nobody else a story. On AMC it was those four, on OLTL it was that red headed girl who everyone is polite around and calls a Buchanan, and Todd and Blair. On GH it is Sonny, Carly and Jason. ABC is just a messed up network where Frons has this worldview that has no room for ensembles.

[Juliajms]

I don't think that's as true for OLTL these days. For awhile it was the T&B and John McBain show, but now John and Todd aren't the center of the show and really haven't been for months. Blair certainly isn't either. With any luck it will stay that way. As for Natalie, I don't think she's featured any more than Jess. They are a big part of the show, but their air hogging can't be compared to Sonny/Carly and Jason any longer.

[jjjg]

They don't need a GL supercouple, they need AMC's. Get back Dixie.

[GaerielSky]

I stopped watching when they killed Dixie, but came back for her return and loved Angie & Jesse, but the rest of the show was so damn awful they weren't enough to keep me watching once they sent her away and told the audience to "let go and move on" rather rudely.

I've been keeping up with the show online and reading Pratt's stuff doesn't instill a lot of confidence for me. I LOVE that he's making Adam front and center. I love that he mentions FAMILY again. Of course, this is just like an election - he'll say stuff that will NEVER come to fruition just like B&E did. Moon and stars now will come down to a little blip when all is said and done. Maybe that's on Frons and the other big wigs at Disney with their heads up their asses but they need to STOP micromanaging "Aidan Turner is a star!" "Ryan & Greenlee are fantastic together!" and let the show writers WRITE.

That said, the Jake & Taylor pairing being HEAVILY promoted is already giving me agita. We need AMC back, we don't need to set our sights at being GL, look at where they are in the ratings! I mean, come on! If I were going to heavily publicize a pairing joining our show, I'd be damn sure it would be one from Y&R! I also HATE when they TELL the audience who is going to be paired with whom. Why aren't things ORGANIC anymore? Shouldn't we be watching and go -oooh, they have chemistry, I want them together! These days when we do see that chem, we're told TOUGH, they're already pairing those two with other people and we need to swallow that crap and ask for more. I'm tired of it. There's no enjoyment of that. There's no payoff anymore for watching this drivel. They're tossing their AMC audience out the window for the GL audience that followed RPG and BE over. There HAS TO BE more AMC fans than transplants! Yet, we are being ignored and set aside for the audience they want. And they wonder why there are so many former viewers.

I want all of our women stronger.

I want a balance between bitches, sluts and good girls.

I want heroes I can actually root for.

I want characters to remember their past history instead of operating in a vacuum.

I want people who should hate each other, to hate each other not to kiss ass because character x is a Frons fav.

I want natural, organic feeling to their microcosm.

I want conflict, action, and reaction. When someone does someone else wrong... there has to be consequences, not "I love you, it's ok."

I want the men to have their testes back.

I want Adam and also Erica to be forces to be reconned with. Equal pillars of power.

I want there to be a grounding "good" couple - like Angie & Jesse - who are the moral compass.

I want friendships between characters - who should be friends - not ones who SAY they are and stab each other in the back.

I want to see Palmer, Ruth, Opal, Joe, etc.

I want the sextet to stop always being together - diversify people!

I want ROMANCE (not sex)

I want to see a love story unfold.

I want HUMOR.

I want to know what Pratt's going to do with Angie & Jesse, Tad, JR, Kate...

AND I WANT DIXIE BACK - ALIVE.

[xtr]

And Lulu who is more propped than Sonny and who is also on way too much. IMO, there is nothing likeable about her. I think she's horrible and a huge waste of time.

I agree that really seems to be no room for ensembles on ABC soaps, with the exception, of OLTL which has gotten better about featuring more of it's cast. AMC and GH like to focus mostly on the same few characters, to the detriment of both shows.

As far as the big four goes on AMC, I am actually a fan of some of them. But they are all simply on too much, and are not written very well or very poorly written and it's hurting the show and their characters.

I love Zach, but he's overexposed and basically babysits Kendall and Greenlee.

I like Ryan, but he is also on too much. His love life is one big mess, and he's way too fickle, and is constantly changing the love of his life. He has no chemistry with Annie and I don't think that many people want to see him reunite with Greenlee. He hasn't had a storyline that works for him in quite some time.

I don't like Kendall, she's overexposed, and very annoying. Her being a Greenlee worshipper and a cheerleader for Rylee is not entertaing at all.

I don't care too much for Greenlee but I find her less annoying than Kendall. I think she should be paired with Jake, I like their chemistry.

I think all of these characters, need to be written better, and their air time needs to be reduced significantly.

[leevo64]

I am looking at Pratt's stuff with cautious optimism, because his work on Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty has been good, and because of GH.

...WHAT?!

After Pratt left GH and Guza became sole head writer the show went from being an unbalanced but well-written camp-fest to a piece of junk. Pratt had the wrong idea about GH - that it was somehow Melrose Place with organized crime - but at least he had a flavor, a vision. From what he has said it sounds like he GETS All My Children more, which can only be a good thing.

[Sylph]

Chuck, honey, could you PLEASE stop talking about Ugly Betty, Army Wives and the rest?! PLEASE!

[brimike]

Ummm... is a new head writer going to say "I DON'T want to return [show] to its 'Glory Days'?"

And yeah - he needs to stop referencing his past "work" on primetime shows, especially when the biggest contribution he made to one of those shows is the FREAKIN' TITLE. NOTHING MORE.

[Southofnowhere]

I'm no expert but didn't kendall grow up in a working class Family close to the FL swamps? She's only realy has any cash for about 3 maybe 4 years!

[brimike]

Yup. Even the "non-experts" know this. It's like the third or fourth interview I've seen where he refers to them as "spoiled rich girls". Amanda too. Nothing could be further from the truth. Except in Greenlee's case.

[DavidEvanSmith]

When did it become considered "writing" to copy formulas and completely replicate established ideas? If I'm going to sit down and take over writing a soap that has been on for 38 years, am I REALLY going to have to decide "Well, I want an Ugly Betty story over here... an Army Wives story here... a Grey's Anatomy story here..."

When did soaps stop doing their own thing, creating their own sensations, and just resign themselves to trying to cash in on proven primetime and cable "hits"? Fusion was originally designed as a sex and the city ripoff anyway, so remaking it into Ugly Betty is further bastardizing a concept that wasn't all that strong in the first place. Do we REALLY want to see people getting work done at the office? Honestly? Realism is a little overrated, I think, because having a group of characters working for the same company IS only supposed to be a device to spark interactions and overlap stories and create dramatic situations. Fusion really shouldn't BE the story.

I won't even really get into Gus/Harley redux on AMC. I really think AMC should be focusing on developing these two characters separately, giving them each legs to firmly stand on IN CASE the pairing doesn't catch with the audience, because the actors are talented and would be an asset to any cast. I almost would have preferred Ehlers as a Liza recast because it would have FORCED interactions between Ehlers and a countless number of other cast members, and Jake would have been secondary to establishing where Liza's been and what she's been up to. But no. Jake really hasn't done anything since coming back to AMC, which tells me he was really just sitting around waiting for Ehlers' contract to be up at GL so he could start acting again. AMC is telling the audience that we have to like Goldin and Ehlers together, and that would make any audience take a step back and say "why should we?! We watch AMC and like Erica, Tad, Adam, Kendall, etc." So with Ehlers as a new character/blank slate, she really doesn't need to be developed at all and can just exist in reaction to Jake. Well I guess I did end up getting into Gus/Harley redux after all, LOL.

AMC isn't just about family, it's about community, and all I'm hearing from Pratt is "Taylor/Jake (who cares), more Adam and Erica (depends on HOW we see them, not how often we see them), more Fusion (is it necessary) and more Annie/Ryan/Greenlee/Aidan/Kendall/Zach (as if we REALLY need that)." Where are Angie/Jesse, whom AMC heavily promoted as coming home at the start of the year? Where are Tad and Krystal (not that I even care if Krystal contracts a fatal illness)? Where are JR? Babe (who really needs to be reverse-recast because Havins was the only good thing about Babe)? Josh (who's now bumped to recurring)? Amanda? Who else is even still ON this show?!!! Randi? Carmen? And the teens (that no one cares about)? Oh yeah, there's Jack (who doesn't even have another viable love interest on the canvas if Erica goes for Samuel "who gives a flying..." Woods. Could we really see Erica marrying Samuel and being the politician's wife (again) and playing nuMom to Dre Woods? REALLY? They're investing in PodErica.

AMC is a really troubled canvas, and focusing on more of the same is not what's going to help this show.

[Pine Charles]

Does this guy think Kendall was raised by Erica Kane? He must not have studied the show's history very closely. Kendall grew up in a Florida trailer park.... and she spent most of her time in Pine Valley living at the Pine Cone Motel. She's a bitch.... but not a spoiled one.

[leevo64]

Ya know Dave, I love it when you put things into perspective You are right about everything you said. But who (besides a certain OLTL writer who people are starting to get pissed at me for mentioning so much) is going to do any soap justice nowadays? It's probably not going to come from anyone currently in daytime...

[cct]

About GushcumTake:

This is Super Couple Syndrome in spades. TPTB do not recognize that true supercouples come from the fanbase not the other way around. David has it spot-on when he says that Taylor needs to arrive on canvas and interact with all types before settling in with the Jake character. Who knows? We may find BE has great chemistry with someone else as well, and hence, a wonderful triangle is born, one we can root for. I already think Jake and Greenlee are smoking (plus have history) and Jake and Amanda could be fun too.

AMC is rooted in family/community and social issues; that is their core. The idea to comment on the situation in Iraq is to be applauded, as this is an unmined territory for many programs, daytime and prime time. The potential is there with Jake's Save the World Mentality and (apparently) Taylor's Rah-Rah Military Attitude. I am actually looking forward to how this will play out. It is on shaky ground, however, because of (a.) the way it is being marketed (smacks of Real Greenlee) and (b.) the fact that many of you have no faith in Pratt. Apparently Pratt does camp and mobs well, but is not so great with character-driven pieces.

(Deep breath)