AMC: Pratt Is History...

[EricMontreal22]

Yep on his damn yacht (which Passanante loved--the site for Libidizone, and her trendy net story "Impossible.dreams.com"

I completely forgot about Ryan and Mia.

[R Sinclair]

Incredibledreams.com... and damn, you dislike anything internet related.

[EricMontreal22]

HAH I don't but did YOU like that storyline?

[R Sinclair]

I didn't like anything Passanante scribbled.

[EricMontreal22]

No, unless she miraculously wrote some of the stories I've credited to Agnes during their time as co HW (but Passanante doesn't seem like the author of a story about Marian trying to fit in with society and being mean to Opal in the process) I don't think Passanante had one decent story or new character (well except for that hunk Markus )

[LeClerc]

I'll give Passanante credit for one thing: the stuff with Erica helping Brooke try to get David out of jail so he could save Laura's life. But that doesn't really count as a story per se. And I think that was when Michael Conforti briefly joined her as co-HW so maybe that was him.

[LoyaltoAMC]

Well we all know Agnes wrote Bianca's coming out story. I remember the Marian/Cpal thing too, and wasn't it attached to Vanessa, the new Mrs. Cortlandt, also trying to gain some social status in Pine Valley? I remember her cozying up to Brooke to try and get Phoebe to confirm her for membership to one of her clubs. That all seems "very Agnes" too. She also wrote the David/Erica pairing, I believe. My guess is that she also wrote the sketchy Jack/Brooke flirtation that went nowhere and the return of the Glamorama. Passanante's stuff while Agnes was still credited as HW had to have been the Dillons' horrible exit story, the introduction of Leo, and most of the Chandler stuff...Marian locking Adam in the safe room, Paolo the gigolo. I would also add Stuart's "death" but I don't recall if Passanante was writing solo when that happened. Looking back, I don't think Passanante was as bad as Pratt.

[R Sinclair]

That's a rather... strong statement.

[Pine Charles]

Mindy, Heather, and Shannon, anyone?

I'm actually ashamed I still remember their names they sucked so much.

[LoyaltoAMC]

I do think Passanante is a better writer than Pratt, in general. Yeah, her AMC wasn't very good, but from a purely technical standpoint, she gets the genre and I believe she has a degree of respect for it, unlike Pratt, who I think hates and is embarrassed by traditional soap storytelling and structure. I've always gotten that vibe from him, as well as from Frons and Guza. They apply elements to daytime that are used in primetime and film, and this approach does not work.

[R Sinclair]

OMG! You want to talk about an abundance of new characters? Gordon Rayfield/Anna Cascio had NOTHING on Passanante.

Heather, Mindy, Shannon, Marcus, Kenny, Sweeney, Sweeney's dad, Gabriel - the black boy who was raised in a cage and forced to eat dog food (ugh!), the never before and never again seen rogue police commissioner that was running rough shod over Derek and his precinct.

[EricMontreal22]

And Marcus and Dogboy! LOL

[EricMontreal22]

I thought somewhere it was said Leo was an Agnes creation? Certainly that was one of her less successful stories she created Becka and Greenlee kinda as a modern Tara and Erica but Becka was such a boring character--I thought Leo came from that but could be wrong (I know Scott was more of the focus between the girls back then)

You're right though and I agree--my comment about maybe Passanate wrote the best stuff of that period was a joke

Who was Sweeney and his dad?

Yeah that teen scene stunk (with them all giggling and doing E in the woods) but most of her new characters were in that story--unlike Rayfield which maybe is why people forget them.

[R Sinclair]

Leo was tossed into that, more than he came from that, I think. Because that Greenlee/Scott/Becca crap was going NOwhere!

I semi-blanked out on this for years until this topic came up, but Sweeney the drug dealing teen was beat in the head with an oar at the boathouse and subsequently killed(?). Sweeney's Dad, held Tad hostage someplace and somehow the Dad got killed or something. Like I said, the Passanante period was extremely hard to follow because there were no links. Things just HAPPENED out of nowhere. For NO reason! Like Tad showing up out of nowhere at David's massage appointment, choking him with a towel and leaving -- when just two scenes before, Tad was in another scene with someone else across town?!? A fire at SOS broke out in the office at the end of one episode, and the next episode it was a new day and everybody's over it because everything happened off screen. Like Hayley being on trial for Arlene's murder, while Mateo finds Arlene in the Caribbean alive and well and then he gets knocked unconscious in act five, and shows up in Pine Valley at the courthouse with Arlene in act six?!?!

And I'll go along with that all of those characters were more forgettable than Boyd, Carlos and Henry (Joni and Laurie were Culliton's) and part of the teen scene, but I won't say that all because they were forgettable means they were less intrusive. Stories were built around them -- recurring characters!! Shannon and Marcus' five second teen abuse storyline?!? Gabriel and Rosa's "love story"?!? OMG! Kenny's in the hospital after almost dying from a drug overdose!!?!?

[EricMontreal22]

I thought it was Marcus who ended up in a coma in the hospital? No matter--you're right they stunk and did waste a lot of screentime (this was aroudn the time Jean had that other great storyline playing out "Laura is a Psycho".

And I bet you're right that Leo was put into the Greenlee, etc mess cuz Becka/Greens/Scott was going nowhere though Agnes also had him interacting with Bianca pretty early on (which I liked). I remember the Tad Sweeney's Dad mess now--but had literally blacked it all out. Passanate didplay the show with very oddly placed plot points--no flow.