AMC: The Pratt Post-Mortem

[Ann_SS]

As others have said, Pratt's tenure had some high points and some low points. Overall, I found AMC watchable outside of Ryan, Kendall and Zach. However, it is drama around Greenlee's return the most right now.

[Adam]

Yes! Totally. I forgot to mention that. I am so glad he saw the value in Opal, however I did grow a bit tired of her running around town all the time saying doom is upon us.... it got kind of old. However, as R Sinclair said.... it fit the mold of what Pratt was trying to accomplish; pure and campy trash which was great!

Erica, you brought up some very valid points too. While the whole Reese/Bianca thing was handled poorly, I felt it was a collective effort not just Pratt. Eden only wanting to do 4 months, JHC saying the fans were rewriting it in their head.... like calling us delusional. I felt the whole Pratt Falls youtube series to be quite the spectacle and was funny for like two seconds, but really missed the mark. Obviously if I tuned out for a while he wasn't the greatest thing ever, but he didn't damage the show like McTavish did. He repaired it in some ways and left it int quite decent shape for the current egime change.

[dragonflies]

He did to a point, but then like he always does, he went overboard with the "visions". He made her seem like Chicken Little with the "Sky is falling" stuff all the time.

[R Sinclair]

The sky might really be falling, because I actually... agree with you?!

OMG! :lol: I love it!

[Cheap21]

Yeah it got annoying when people were planning on getting married and she'd show up to tell the bride, "you're gonna die" And then they had her practically having heart attacks over her visions. Still, with that said, its alot more and better than what other writers have given or rather not given her over the recent years

[R Sinclair]

A little of that went a long way.

[EricMontreal22]

This is a great point. The soap press' critique of the show under him didn't even seem to be relevent--constant talk about how it was so dark and havey and depressing I think was just that they read major plot points (Josh is shot and his heart used, Stuart is shot, etc) and knew that Pratt's GH was very dark and assumed that was the same as his AMC. It was lighter than the show probably has been since 2004, IMHO. I do think he isn't the best at writing women (to put it mildly, though I find it funny that some fans seemed to love his work with women on Melrose and not on AMC, when if anything the AMC women were far less skanky--but as you and I have said they are very different shows). But it's not like he's had a psycho stalking the town, erasing his daughter's memories so he can have sex with her if only her boyfriend can rescue her in time (hello OLTL) or some stories that have been at least as ugly as any of his worse work.

Don't get me wrong, there was a lot that he did that I did NOT like, and I certainly think he was fired probably at the right time (as I said, I'm not sure what another couple of years of him writing the show would be like, but I could picture it spinning out of control even faster than a McTavish tenure). But the way the soap online and offline press vilified him was bizarre. Yeah he said some STUPID things in interviews but they all do--I do think the Reese/Bianca mess was, partly, due to many factors as has been said, and I actually found the Pratt Falls videos a waste of time and not particularly clever or revelatory...

Word to both of these comments--well said. I can think of endless stories that had interesting setups and crap follow through, though you did the major ones (but the fact that he set up Randi, even Marissa with potentially interesting/controversial introductions and within a week or two they were bland heroines--in both cases it's partly the actors fault but it's also the writing. I think Pratt's style of plotting just works far better for primetime soaps where you can get away with that much more--even his stint at Santa Barbara, I never watched, but wasn't the criticism of Santa Barbara always that they did better with witty ideas and short term plots than anything long term?).

And yeah, I liked his writing for Annie and for David a lot as well.

[EricMontreal22]

I think this just shows his great falling--he really can't write anything deep. Hence the campy, often fun show (ie Melrose) but poor follow through and development of character, etc.

[Adam]

I think what pissed me off the most was what that he seemed to be developing pretty good story for the Hubbards and bringing Laura Koffman on as Rebecca, then almost immediately dropping it. Never any real explanation. I was really disappointed in how that fizzled. After that.... the Hubbards were on quite a bit, but weren't leading any real story. It was really disheartening. I hope Broderick and then David and Donna find something worthwhile for them to do.

[DeeeDee]

Pretty much.

[Vee]

I've said this before: I liked some of his early ideas. I thought introducing Bianca with Tamara Braun's Reese, revealing them during the tornado and throwing in the twist of a second child for Binks was genius. I liked the idea of the underlings taking Fusion from Kendall and Greenlee, which was never properly executed. I loved Adam and Annie. But that's it. About three or four months in the show was [!@#$%^&*].

The only reason Reese came on with Bianca was for male titillation; in reality, Pratt desperately wanted to recreate Sonny and Carly with Reese/TB as Carly and Zach as Sonny. Braun saw this, which is why she left. Pratt then tried to do Zach/Carly again with another old friend, Jamie Luner as FauxLiza. Her story has never made a lick of sense and everything involving David, Marissa, and Jake is unwatchable. As was the vicious "Jesse the bigamist" storyline which went nowhere and did horrible things to those characters' historic image on the show. As was Randi. As was his proposed Jesse/Randi storyline. The man is a toxic hack. He has been for years and he was a cancer on the show that made it the worst AMC I have ever seen, and that's saying something. The few good ideas that slipped through the filter were utter flukes, and even something like Adam/Annie has been a mess; can anyone get a handle on who or what Annie is, or what she really feels about anything or anyone? Pratt fit her into a "Kimberly Shaw" archetype and left it at that; "crazy whore." This kind of inconsistency in characterization fits the quote Michael Knight attributed to him - where Pratt supposedly said he had people behave wildly out of character every couple of weeks because he 'didn't want the audience to get to know them.'

No tears or bouquets for Charles Pratt. Let's not revise history, as we so often do in Internet fandom.

[DRW50]

I agree with you, Vee. I think some ideas were good and I'm glad he used Opal so much, there were some strong moments, but a lot of what he came up with was poisonous to the characters involved as well as very shallow. I also think he eventually did a lot of damage to Annie, further muddling her character and twisting the ambiguity of her relationship with Adam further and further into Adam being a desperate old man whose money and nephew were ripe for the taking. I have a hard time watching any scenes with Annie and the Chandlers, even though MCE is a very strong actress.

Some of what he said was blown out of proportion, about blaming Eden Reigel. Other comments deserved the criticism they received. Going to the press to criticize your cast and tell them to look out because Jamie Luner is coming -- that was fatalistic even for a soap headwriter. And then look at the entrance he gave her, legs spread and panties lowered on a blackjack table. I don't know if any female newcomer has ever had a more difficult burden to overcome.

[NYC123]

To be honest I enjoyed most of his stories at AMC. As many have stated Pratt was 100x better then B&E and McT. When he was the HW at AMC it was entertaining and not the boring crap B&E put on our screen. He didn't make Zendall the couple of the show (THANK GOD) and he balanced the show. He used the vetern actors like Susan, David, Michael, Jill, ect. I felt that his stories were godo but the payoff was just horrible.

The only thing that REALLY bothered me was the death of Stuart. I felt that was uncessasary! That was stupid and took too long to solve even though we did have come good scenes like Mirian at the courthouse shooting Marissa. Also some of the characters he created was just boring...Marissa....

But overall I would have gave him a C on his tenure at AMC. Much better then B&E, McT but not the best AMC could be.

[All My Shadows]

I liked what he did for Erica and Opal, and I liked his early work with the Hubbards and the Chandlers/Petey. Really, I liked most of his early work. Somewhere along the way, though...oh no. It felt like the life was sucked clean on out of the show and it was pretty unwatchable for me. No unwatchable as in "Bad! Horrible!" unwatchable like McT's last two years were, but more along the lines of B&E, where the show was just damn boring.

[Adam]

Yeah, me too. After June... I lost interest. Like I still would watch if I was home, but I worked tonnes this summer.... and never was really compelled to set my DVD recorder. I still checked this board everday to see what was going on. I think the biggest thing was the show became overly focused on Zach and Kendall again..... and by that point I just wanted them gone. Adam and Annie also pissed me off. I was an early supporter of them, but the way it was written really turned me off. He started off so strong with Adam having him sabotage Fusion, have fun with Erica.... then made him into this whimpering mess. I hated it.