I have trouble believing that. I have a LOT of trouble believing that. Unless it's contractually agreed that any and all characters the writer creates while at the show belong solely to the show/company...

No, I changed my mind. The snubbing was totally personal.

LOL was it personal with poor Mary F too?

Well Claire Labine in her recnet interview said ABC never had any deals liek that re character use with any of the shows she worked on. It wouldn't surprise me if for a soap owned by ABC they'd put that clause into the contract (I'd think with soaps if every writer for every character created still got paid it could get VERY complex with some writers even arguing about who created whom)

I thought Joe was with Tara.

In one clip but there was one clip, taken from the ep 41 I believe on Agnes site, which ws a scene of Ruth and Joe and they cut any shot of Ruth's face.

I expected more when I saw people raving about this garbage. What a waste of everyones talents! Why waste time on Marissa and Not!Liza when Marissa is brand new and you can't show any clips with that Liza? What purpose did they serve? I also hated the format of everyone sitting around, disconnected, with no sound clips and pictures. Boring. I understand people were filmed in LA and NYC and on different dates, but surely they could've worked things out where you could group people together and have some real scenes to move forward the plot. Considering that's it I thought it was terrible.

Hopefully the entire year is a return to form and we can look at the entire year as a tribute. I think thats the best way to celebrate a soap anniversary. Bring back a couple major characters, acknowledge your core families and explore history. That doesn't mean re-writing or bringing in long lost children, but just acknowledge the past while moving forward. Hopefully that's what the temp and permanent HW have planned.

First anniversary episode for any soap? I know As the World Turns celebrated Chris and Nancy Hughes 50th wedding anniversary for the show's 25 or 30th. It was a big celebration that lasted a week or two maybe. I'm sure by that point Ryan's Hope or Guiding Light or even DAYS had probably done something at some point.

On the subject of images with recasts and what not, I feel like if you're acknowledging the history of the show, then acknowledge the actors. Viewers aren't dumb and know roles were recast. I think we can handle it. Also, didn't they show a flashback of old Mary with Joe? I doubt many newer viewers would notice honestly. Had they shown clips of Marcy Walker as Liza while acknowledging that it is Liza, viewers would understand. I loved when OLTL had the flashback of Asian!Blair.

I totally agree with your last point, though (with some exceptions like that Asian Blair one which was kinda done as a joke aside) the soaps don't seem to agree--in the AMC trivia book it even said for the 20th anniversary ep they couldn't show some clipsthey wanted to because Walt Wiley was an extra in them and he now had a role on the show--I agree it wouldn't matter to viewers, they're smart enough. But oh well.

Re first anniversary ep--that's simply waht I read I thought I could be wrong--maybe they meant first clips heavy anniversary ep or one that was self contained (as the 20th ep was--the 25th, 30 and 35th ones weren't with some scenes continuing the overall story)

I get your disappointment though I disagree--I didn't expect the concept to work this well or frankly anything this good from the current regime and like Cheap said, IMHO it was better than the OLTL or GH (by far) 40ths. Maybe that's taking what I can get, but... That said you're not a regular viewer are you? Not to sound TOO patronizing, but the other people on here who have most disliked the anniversary ep, ironically have been people who have admitted to not watching much at least recently.

AMC has done clip-filled special anniversary episodes marking the 20th, 25th, 30th, and 35th year marks, not to mention a 10,000th episode special. Nothing will top the daytime 20th anniversary episode starring the remaining original cast members, or the week-long 25th anniversary episodes AND primetime special hosted by Carol Burnett (and release of a coffee table book), AMC's ultimate anniversary experience where they brought back everybody and their brother and showed a million classic clips. Longtime fans have been spoiled, we've gotten our clips, yesterday's episode still gets my thumbs up for trying something a little different, why should they do the same old brand of clip show everytime? And seeing as how much of AMC's more recent history is hardly worth mining for clips, I was satisfied with how it turned out. Yes, there are characters currently on the canvas who I could care less about, but if they are on contract, I get it and can bear through it.

I want a volume two of the coffee table book (even if half the stories are barely worth revisiting lol).

I agree precisely with what you said, down to not being too pleased to see some characters there but since they are contract roles I get why they were there. As was said elsewhere in the age of youtube clips episodes don't hold as much lustre, either.

Not to sound TOO patronizing, but the other people on here who have most disliked the anniversary ep, ironically have been people who have admitted to not watching much at least recently.

Maybe this is a case of you Pratt victims have been so beaten down by bad soap, you guys think this looks great! We who just tuned in hoping to see a clip of Benny Sago or Natalie in a well or whoever, well...Peggy Lee used to ask "Is that all there is?"

Maybe this is a case of you Pratt victims have been so beaten down by bad soap, you guys think this looks great! We who just tuned in hoping to see a clip of Benny Sago or Natalie in a well or whoever, well...Peggy Lee used to ask "Is that all there is?"

I haven't been Prattinized, and I loved the hour.

Like what's been echoed, the show came off as something for long-time fans and newer fans who are very familiar with the show's history (me!). I didn't need to see full clips of anything because, for me, just seeing the brief glimpses and hearing the characters talk about certain things brought up everything I knew and appreciated about the original storylines. For example, I didn't need to see Myrtle clips to get a little teary-eyed when people talked about her. And I didn't have to see full clips of Opal at the Glam or the Chicken Shack to get a little smile on my face when it was mentioned. Of course, YMMV. I can understand why one would be disappointed with it.

Something that I really liked was how every single era of the show really as touched on, even the not-so-good eras, because it was a celebration of 40 years, not just 30 good years or 25 good years. I liked seeing early Krystal clips and early Greenlee clips. Yes, I know, I'm alone on that lol. But really, OLTL's anniversary "tribute" was basically lame knock-off storylines, showing a snatch of the original opening credits for a day, and bringing back some fan faves for said lame knock-off storylines. The first ten years of the show were completely ignored, aside from the original opening.

Edited January 7, 201015 yr by All My Shadows

I agree AMS, the mere mention of people and places can be very evocative. Just hearing the name "Mona" brings a flood of stuff back, I don't need to see Erica barreling into Dr. Tyler's office sending Mona into a tizzy for the umpteenth time. Any fan for the last twenty years will tell you that you begin to see the same clips over and over again, I mean, if they aren't going to break out some new stuff, why bother? And if it's a history lesson you're looking for, well there's always YouTube.

quartermainefan, I know there are tons of "new" old clips that I'd love to see, but I've come to rely on people like HamiltonBernique over at YouTube for that classic material.

Edited January 7, 201015 yr by SFK

I love how people who think this episode is awful basically keep singing the same song -- about wanting this to be a clip show. Yeah, let's watch Erica and the Bear for the 1,000th.

Either that, or wanting eight characters who have been gone for years to all of a sudden drop in mid-story, give a whole bunch of expository dialogue about their lives off camera that we'll never get to see, and then leave because the actors have no desire to stay past their guest appearance. Only to have people still complain in the end, "they should put James Mitchell back on contract! Those idiots!"

This was an episode with characters, past and present, celebrating the unsung, resilient main character of them all -- Pine Valley. And some of you are gonna sit up here and imply I don't know good soap opera because I enjoyed that over some redundant clip show? Oh, sit down!

I just watched it and I'm not sure how I feel. On the one hand, I LOVE the interviews. They were great. On the other hand, there was a lot of talking and not much flashback-ing. I think they could've tweaked it by cutting out the redundant segments of the current cast members that are irrelevant to the 40-year history (Marissa, Randi, Krystal even) and shown more clips. I didn't like seeing clips from the past five years primarily. I didn't think we'd see Marcy's Liza, but it's sad we didn't even get mentions of Liza's history aside from her marriage to Adam. They could've at least mentioned the triangle with Marian (who was also exempt aside from one picture). In general, they did a good job with balancing past characters with present, but I think if there were more past cast members stopping in, we'd have gotten more out of it. I applaud them for doing a wonderful job with what they had to work with though. Kelly Ripa did a phenomenal job.

I know, right! I love that AMC was able to get away with all that, the audience understood Opal so they knew not to take her too seriously.

Yeah, LOL. I'm sure if Dr. Joe said that stuff people would be pissed, but with Opal it was okay.

And, yes - that campaign song! haha!

DL's Opal and Phoebe were the 2 funniest soap characters EVER.

They have the rights to their likeness for that specific, contracted episode. Once no longer on contract, the show has no rights to that actor's image or likeness and need permission to use it in new episodes. Even if it's a flashback or clip of footage the show owns, it's being used in a new episode which means a new agreement needs to be arranged.

It's like the whole Constance McCashin situation when Knots Landing did their reunion special five years ago. They showed a clip where her face was blurred out because the money they wanted to give McCashin wasn't to her liking, so she didn't let them use her image.

Hypothetically, if Alexa Havins is going through her Brady Bunch Kids moment and doesn't want to be associated with All My Children, if they went ahead and used her image in this episode anyway... LAWSUIT!

It's no secret I'm involved in the performing arts and I've had to sign numerous releases, because I was simply in the same room with a rolling camera of a professional nature.

Thank you. I totally get it now.

I love how people who think this episode is awful basically keep singing the same song -- about wanting this to be a clip show. Yeah, let's watch Erica and the Bear for the 1,000th.

Either that, or wanting eight characters who have been gone for years to all of a sudden drop in mid-story, give a whole bunch of expository dialogue about their lives off camera that we'll never get to see, and then leave because the actors have no desire to stay past their guest appearance. Only to have people still complain in the end, "they should put James Mitchell back on contract! Those idiots!"

This was an episode with characters, past and present, celebrating the unsung, resilient main character of them all -- Pine Valley. And some of you are gonna sit up here and imply I don't know good soap opera because I enjoyed that over some redundant clip show? Oh, sit down!

THIS! What an amazing post!

LaRue & Consuelos knocked it out of the park.

I agree. MC was surprisingly really good.

laRue is easily one of AMC's best they have ever had. I loved seeing her again.

I guess they had the fans' "best interests" in mind, but it seemed like they barely showed AB's face when they flashed back to Babe. Am I imagining this? Like, "If we just show the back of her head, you can pretend it's Alexa." And it dawned on me that JL as Opal was speaking so sweetly about her onscreen daughter (she said "Jen-nay" like Forrest Gump ) that she never got to work with, it's crazy how long it's been.

When she said Jen-nay the first thing i thought about was forrest gump, lol!

OMG! Naomi from Mama's Family was the original Opal? I never knew this.

As for today's show...

I like the concept but it was wayyyyy too heavy on current stuff for my liking (and this is coming from someone who has only semi-regularly watched this show since 2007). I want to see clips of Greg and Jenny and Cliff and Nina and all the classic characters that I've only read and heard about but never watched when they were around PV. Or even just more classic clips of people still on the show like Erica and Tad and Jesse and Angie and Adam. I mean for a 40th anniversary show I just felt like Erica wasn't on that much at all. In fact, it seemed like the two people that were featured more than anybody on this were JR and Babe(!!!) which was just kind of mindboggling to me. I mean, JR at least has been on for a while and is the spawn of some popular characters but the Babe they used was a recast only on four a few months. It was just a ridiculous. And then forcing JR and Marissa on us? Ugh.

The last thing that really bugged was the shoddy production values for all the title cards when Hayley came on to introduce a segment. What was the point of putting together the doc as if it was a school presentation put together on Windows Moviemaker? Isn't Hayley supposed to be someone professional talk show host? You'd think she could get some better production values and graphics... especially ones that don't include Lucida Calligraphy. This was a documentary, not a [!@#$%^&*] wedding invitation, Hayley!

I had the same reaction about naomi/opal when i first found out

I think the point of this was to celebrate the history and the anniversey, do something and try something new besides another damn clip show (hello, in the day of youtube clip shows are pointless IMHO) and to maybe show people who are tuning in again some of whats going on. And JR & Babe were hardly featured more than anyone else.

IDK, have you seen morning talk show openings and titles cards? damn most of them are awful (yes im looking at you, The View)

Maybe this is a case of you Pratt victims have been so beaten down by bad soap, you guys think this looks great! We who just tuned in hoping to see a clip of Benny Sago or Natalie in a well or whoever, well...Peggy Lee used to ask "Is that all there is?"

Maybe its just some people enjoying the episode. Shocking, i know, but very possible.. No?

I love how people who think this episode is awful basically keep singing the same song -- about wanting this to be a clip show. Yeah, let's watch Erica and the Bear for the 1,000th.

Either that, or wanting eight characters who have been gone for years to all of a sudden drop in mid-story, give a whole bunch of expository dialogue about their lives off camera that we'll never get to see, and then leave because the actors have no desire to stay past their guest appearance. Only to have people still complain in the end, "they should put James Mitchell back on contract! Those idiots!"

This was an episode with characters, past and present, celebrating the unsung, resilient main character of them all -- Pine Valley. And some of you are gonna sit up here and imply I don't know good soap opera because I enjoyed that over some redundant clip show? Oh, sit down!

Gosh, i am kinda in love with you!

And soap gods please help me.. because... i... well... i like rygrannie.

I love how people who think this episode is awful basically keep singing the same song -- about wanting this to be a clip show. Yeah, let's watch Erica and the Bear for the 1,000th.

Either that, or wanting eight characters who have been gone for years to all of a sudden drop in mid-story, give a whole bunch of expository dialogue about their lives off camera that we'll never get to see, and then leave because the actors have no desire to stay past their guest appearance. Only to have people still complain in the end, "they should put James Mitchell back on contract! Those idiots!"

This was an episode with characters, past and present, celebrating the unsung, resilient main character of them all -- Pine Valley. And some of you are gonna sit up here and imply I don't know good soap opera because I enjoyed that over some redundant clip show? Oh, sit down!

You read Sara Bibel's blog post on this episode, didn't you?

You read Sara Bibel's blog post on this episode, didn't you?

What the hell is that supposed to mean?

What the hell is that supposed to mean?

She made a lot of the types of complaints about the anniversary episode that you so eloquently spoke out against. She even made the ridiculous comment about how the show needs to bring James Mitchell back.