AMC: Pratt Is History...

[Pine Charles]

Wait. Who was the writer when Rosemary Chicken, Cherry Punch, and Lola Skirts were on?

I loved those bitches.

[R Sinclair]

Lola Getz.

Rayfield/Cascio

[Pine Charles]

Aaahh, Lola Getz. Thank You.

I hated Rayfield solo, but I think the show improved when Cascio came on.

I loved when Rosemary, Cherry, and Lola stormed the courtroom in support of Simone. LOL

[Vee]

Okay. I found it soulless and lacking identity because the show was so obviously written by corporate mandate, to push some head honcho's "big idea" regardless of whether it fit the program, and nothing else. Brian Frons came to ABC in fall 2002, and his big plan for AMC: Turn it into Sex and the City. Fusion, women together, regardless of whether they had any place together in stories before, hot sexy guys, the Sexiest Man contest, etc. And teens. And nothing else. And that's what we got: Boyd! Carlos! Michael! Aidan! Henry! Even Kenny, who I swear acted like he had Downs' Syndrome! Love them, you must love them! These jackasses, save Aidan, were all introduced en masse, promoted as a group, and then seeded among the eligible, ravenous ladies. Meanwhile, all the new teens sprouted up from out of nowhere as well, especially the fake-ass JR and Joni and Laurie, and suddenly, just like with the Sexy Men of 2003, we were expected to follow their exploits 24-7. Greenlee was all about Carlos, Kendall was all about balding Michael (pre-villain turn), Maria was all about Aidan, Maggie suddenly wanted Henry, Boyd floated around, and so on and so on.

This was astounding in that this huge newbie spread and sharp change in story focus has, IMO, never been done before outside of ATWT under Black/Stern, and never done since, with such a lack of interest in subtlety, context, or integration into the show. It was literally like a totally different, plastic program overnight. It did not resemble AMC. It was corporate and alien. And it fell apart very fast.

Megan McTavish's work has a soullessness to it; I boycotted her AMC when she raped Bianca and did not come back until she was gone. But that's about nasty, vicious writing, not something without any real point of view whatsoever. The latter is what I call 'lack of soul,' whereas Megan not only knew AMC, but knew how she wanted to hurt it, or in her view, help it.

[EricMontreal22]

You won't like my answers, but I guess maybe it was more how the stories were told? This is very vague I admit, but it didn't feel like AMC when I watched--it felt like something else (and yes even at its worse the apst few years AMC has felt more like AMC to me then it did then). I liked someof the comedy (lysistrata) but that was it--otherwise it felt liek the storytelling was very surface (and yeah maybe that was good compared to the way McTavish tended to like to wallow in somethings).

[EricMontreal22]

I liked her with Kenny as well....

[EricMontreal22]

Agreed--though Aiden was introduced right at the end of Culliton's era I think...

[DeeeDee]

The way The Fusion Girls shared men was nasty.

[R Sinclair]

Who did the Fusion Girls share? Greenlee was with Carlos, Mia was with Jake, Simone was flirting with any available penis carrier and Kendall was in a triangle with Michael and Boyd.

[Vee]

At one point most of those Frons's Sexiest Men dudes, particularly Boyd and Michael, were pretty much shareware.

And let's not forget that Simone initially came on as "dark, mysterious Latina spoiler for Hayley and Mateo, #12." IIRC she only became goofy, man-crazy Simone overnight when Frons took over and needed a "Samantha" for his SATC ripoff girls. I grew to like Simone, but I'm just saying. That character shift is one of the only things about that era that worked. I'm hard-pressed to name much else, save perhaps Reggie and Joni, which was dumb luck. Pretty sure Cascio and Rayfield brought Reggie on, and at the time he was so shoehorned, like, 'hey, I just watched a Diff'rent Strokes marathon, let's give the old white guy a black kid! What is the old guy's name again? Josh?' And then Ellen Bethea was storming around the sets with crazy hair glaring at Jack saying things like, "Reggie is a troubled young man."

[R Sinclair]

I guess I have no taste. I really don't see those 20 weeks as being as awesomely bad as you people are making it out to be.

[DRW50]

At the time I was very annoyed at Trey leaving, and Reggie turning him in after he helped Reggie. Then he was just forgotten. There was no reason to be annoyed, I guess, since Trey had done a lot of bad things, but I couldn't help it.

Did they have any plans for the Bethea character?

I didn't think the show was extremely bad, just very amateurishly written. I think it was a very earnest effort to completely remake AMC, not too far off from Pratt, but not as ugly or nasty as his tenure, so you could see more of the good points. With more time they could have found their footing, but I can see why people say it wasn't like AMC. I wish they'd had a co-head writer who had history with AMC and some ability.

[DeeeDee]

Greenlee, Kendall, Mia, Liza & Annie had Ryan

Greenlee, Kendall, Mia, Di, Erin & Annie had Aidan

Greenlee, Mia, Amanda & Liza had Jake

Simone, Mia & Randi had Frankie

Kendall, Babe & Amanda had JR

Liza, Simone & Di had Tad

Dani, Babe & Greenlee had Josh

Kendall & Simone had Ethan

Kendall & Simone had Boyd

Kendall & Amanda had Jonathan

Babe & Amanda had Jamie

[EricMontreal22]

I didn't like how Trey disappeared either.

I think I pretty much agree with your assessment (i'm not sure why they thought AMC needed such a remake though--though it had been having some tough times). *sudden flashback to the awful Saved by the Bell type scene with Liza and Adam and JR and that girl with the alcoholic dad sitting by eachother in a tiny movie theatre* I don't see that much similarity though with the mess of Pratt--he largely has been using established characters and initially made some effort to center the families, etc.

I agree with Vee, one thing that did work was making Simone a flake (though I liked that McTavish centered her a bit even if she didn't know what else to do with her)--Culliton having her first be a sexy seductress spy or whatever, and then someone who was CONSTANTLY crying. Some of the humour under Rayfield did work.

[R Sinclair]

Yeah...?

Erica, Liza, Krystal, Annie had Adam

Kendall, Annie, Greenlee, Erica had Ryan

Erica, Krystal, Amanda had David

Ryan, JR, Zach, Aidan had Kendall...

It's not a trend specific to the Fusion Girls.