Was LB the one who put David & Anna together?

^ No, that was Richard Culliton. LB debuted David, then she laid the groundwork for VI's long-term return before she left in late '97.

And the whole Anna and her twin stuff was under Passanate wasn't it? When we had such classic characters as DogBoy

Extract from Sara Bibel's column:

All My Children fans will have reason to be thankful this Thanksgiving. Friday AMC fired nearly universally reviled headwriter Chuck Pratt. According to Daytime Confidential, Lorraine Broderick, who wrote for the show during the 1980s and 90s. With the possible exception of Dena Higley on One Life To Live, no one has done more to wreck a soap in a shorter amount of time. Under his pen, police chief Jesse covered up a murder. Liza returned to town deSORASED twenty years and immediately had sex with Zach without so much as exchanging first names with him. Jake and Amanda schemed to convince David his child was stillborn. The whole town participated in a weeklong dance marathon. Marian went insane for no reason. Instead of giving Bianca and Reese a groundbreaking lesbian motherhood and marriage storyline, he made Reese obssesed with Zach. Stuart was murdered and the mystery turned out to focus mainly on Zach hiring someone to impersonate Kendall in prison. Is it any wonder that Thorsten Kaye decided to leave the show? His character was among the most ruined. In fact, Pratt managed to render nearly every character on the show unlikable. Those who escaped unscathed tended to be saved by the backburner. He reveled in darkness and misanthropy, somehow thinking that people wanted to watch unrelenting bleakness during lunch. The most disheartening part of all of this is that ABC had to sign off on every single bad decision. The network that micromanages every episode had no problem with him killing the heart of Pine Valley or Zach tearing off Liza’a panties. Of course, the network’s executives also greenlit Dixie’s death by pancakes. ABC has been mishandling the show for years. I was stunned that ABC chose to let Pratt go, given the network’s track record. I assume that low ratings were the culprit, though perhaps the show’s upcoming 40th anniversary was a wake up call. I hope that the decision to hire Lorraine Broderick is an acknowledgment that AMC needs to return to its roots.

Broderick has a difficult task on her hands. She has to rehabilitate numerous characters while coming up with compelling storylines that will win back the audience. Carlivati managed it on One Life To Live, though the ratings have not reflected his accomplishments. Broderick’s task is complicated by the show’s move to L.A., and its resulting cast changes. In my humble opinion, Broderick needs to restore the family units first, making the Kane women, the Martins and the Hubbards moral and rootable again to contrast with the morally grey Chandlers. Next, there needs to be some actual love on the show. Zach and Kendall have been the show’s leads for the past few years. Zach’s departure means that Kendall is going to need a new love interest, someone other than Ryan. I would love to see her in an epic romance with an interesting new character. Most of all, Broderick needs to bring back AMC’s light, optimistic tone. It used to be a fun show with plenty of comedy.

Excepting Rayfield and Cascio (and then McTavish and Pratt, who are on a whole different level), I thought Passanante's run was AMC's nadir. Alex, Gillian's death, the reality show producer/black ops assassin, Anthony Addabbo Dimitri, Gabriel the dogboy, the apparent plan to give Edmund Anna Devane as a consolation prize for losing Alex, you name it (thank God they came up with David/Anna). Plus endless storylines which seemed to revolve around all the hunks lining up to impregnate Liza when let's face it, she already looked pregnant. It was just lame as [!@#$%^&*] on so many levels.

Edited November 23, 200916 yr by Vee

You should have seen some of the reaction to her on the boards years ago. She definitely had her share of detractors. I believe there was even a spoof website which featured a Brooke English "choose your own adventure" game. For instance, when Jamie goes missing, you can choose to be upset, or have sex with your boyfriend. Or if Laura is having a problem, you can choose to care, or choose to make a cruel remark an go have sex with your boyfriend. They also had the shelter she ran as having BROOKE ENGLISH HOMELESS SHELTER in big neon letters, and she would get angry when she'd walk in and they wouldn't fall at her feet. There was also a segment where she got tipsy at a bar, Michael Delaney took her home, and she insisted she could "turn" him.

I remember this! I remember one of the websites had a gorgeous picture of La Barr with "This is how Brooke's fans see her." Then, there was a picture of like...some kind of scary, winged creature with multiple heads with "This is how we see her." Funtimes.

I think she was good at some parts of ATWT. I liked that Andy returned and had some decent story. I liked that Lily had matured. I liked some of the other moments. I liked the idea of the Tom/Margo breakup, although they completely destroyed Emily's character in the process. I don't know if she got ATWT. Or FMB didn't. There were so many new characters, they fired Daniel Markel for no reason and brought David back as an all-seeing, all-knowing sociopath, Reid, whose abs were more interesting than his personality (the Spencer Trueman of his day), and there were other odd decisions, like having Kirk and Sam vanish, having Denise come in as a bitter shrew who had sold her baby (which meant fans never really liked her when the show tried to redeem her later on). Too much Molly. Too much Julia. Too much Eddie. Trashing Lyla and making her into a bad mother who only cared about putting Katie in kiddie pageants. Some of the stories did work, but I think Penny Hughes summed it up best when she came back for Nancy's birthday and said, "Who are these people?"

I've never really watched AMC much being the ATWT fan than I am I do remember Broderick's tenure. It was ok, not very good for the most part. Sure there were some good moments but not that many. Too many anti-climaxes, continuity blunders, and plot-driven stories. Having Kirk and Sam just vanish was such an odd plot twist especially since Sam's daughter Georgia had just come to town. It could have been an intriguing mystery but after like two weeks everyone stopped caring including Georgia and Lucinda. Yes too much Molly as they paired her off with every guy and then had her crash the wedding we fans had been waiting for, Holden marrying Lily as played by Martha Bryne. James/Lucinda didn't work. The transformation of David into Reid didn't work. Brad Snyder didn't work. A messy and uneven tenure if you ask me. Broderick, FMB, and MADD had all just come over from ABC and I don't think they fully grasped what ATWT(or GL for that matter with B&E) were.

Plus endless storylines which seemed to revolve around all the hunks lining up to impregnate Liza when let's face it, she already looked pregnant. It was just lame as [!@#$%^&*] on so many levels.

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=NoZeNsIkRgchttp://www.youtube.c...h?v=5rn-jbrvjMc

Some closing credits with previews...LB style...lol

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=sOB6dIYWbJMhttp://www.youtube.c...h?v=NoZeNsIkRgcMore

Well, I strictly meant stylistics. Compare JHC's AMC to JDB's AMC in terms of tone, look, sound, etc. JDB's felt closer to old school AMC than JHC's has *ever* felt.

The cheap sets and horrible lighting currently are one of the MAJOR flaws in this woman's "production values."

While I do get why McTavish is the top name used when people discuss the destruction of this show, I think the EPs at the time really do deserve as much of the blame (in fact when McT came to the show, briefly, the show was somewhat revitalized). It's just another example of how messed ABC Daytime isthat JHC has remained so long (and Burke fo rthat matter)with NO signs of improvement to the show.

You continue to believe that myth that she "revitalized" the show.

Kevin and Kelsey were awesome.

I could really relate to Kevin.... and I loved Kelsey as his confidant.

Why were they let go?!

McTavish got rid of them both.

Woah I do not remember this at ALL. Funny though that then McTavish brought in a black son for Opal.

I don't remember that either.

He came in in late 1997. He was played by Norm Lewis, I believe. I think he worked for the DA's office and was hinted at being Belinda's love interest. He was also involved in that plane crash story. They had some moments with he and Palmer and some hints were dropped. I think something was also said in the soap press.

Then when McTavih came in the character dried up. I think he was recast. He prosecuted Brooke, but after that, disappeared.

Keith McClean. I remember him.

I think Broderick did a good job of showing that some of the "good" characters were prejudiced while some of the more bad old school ones, like Palmer, weren't (slightly ironic since Palmer's portrayer, JamesMitchell has been basically as out as a gay man as is possible to be since at least the late 40s when he was dancing in Billion Dollar Baby)

It was Opal that was made the bigot in the storyline. James Mitchell wasn't comfortable playing homophobic, or so the legend goes.

It's really important to make the best impact that they get Ed Scott as EP immediately. His work on Y&R hasn't been touched since he left and he did wondered at DAYS. Just look at their Emmy tape which rested solely on him. He also brings talent with him so not only will the show look professional again, but we'll have strong actors cast in roles! Giving DAYS Marnie Siatta was such a gift. I'm still pissed she's not at Y&R. She cast so many great actors there and has proven at both shows that she knows how to cast for the show. Scott also focused on performances at DAYS and was really a big part of the current success. He may have had problems with Sheffer being a mediocre writer, but he made up for it in other ways.

If AMC goes to LA with that same ole hack or replace her with Lisa de Cozette then it's a waste of a trip. They should've just moved them to a dungeon in New Jersey.

Big problems with Ed Scott are:

1. Disrespect for WGA rules.

2. Questionable story sense.

3. Reportedly being a j*rk, egomaniac and control freak (in a bad way).

Huuuuuge, massive problems that eradicate many good things he did.

Sylph for Executive Producer!

Ed Scott did a great job but, yeah, some of his traits may be too much of a problem.... Wasn't he the one who insisted that Donnelly is ousted?

I think I'd prefer Shaughnessy to come back... he did some fantastic stuff with the show.