AMC: January 23, 1990; The Why And Whatnot Of `Amc` Fans

[ghfan89]

The Why And Whatnot Of `Amc` Fans

January 23, 1990|By AMY WILSON, Staff Writer

Sixty-five people called with 65 opinions. Silly us to think we`d have consensus. Nevertheless, we did the best we could to make sense of what you said, though, admittedly, we`re easy. Some people voted twice for one category -- we let them -- or not at all for another -- we let them -- or you went on and on about some things that we could not categorize much less figure. We let you do that, too. In the end, one way or the other, we had winners and whys:

THE BEST STORY LINE: Anything with Erica -- admittedly a generic story line if we ever saw one -- won over anything specific. To indicate how divided you were, of 65 people who called, Erica won this category with a mere 13 votes, which included three votes for the Erica/Jeremy/Natalie menage and one for Erica`s trip to the fat farm.

Coming in second: Tad and Dixie. Seems the redemption value on Tad worked in his favor. Also in second were three very charming couples: Tara and Phil, Jenny and Greg, Mark and cocaine.

Why: Debbie Davis of North Lauderdale liked it ``before Erica got bad.`` Which kind of misses the point we think.

Virginia Cloonan of Margate: ``The most exciting was when Dixie was being gaslighted by Adam.`` We don`t know what this means either.

Carol Snyder of Tamarac: ``When Erica and Jackson were in a plane crash while they were looking for Travis, and Erica kept saying no and Jackson kept saying yes.`` We do know what this means.

And the why-is-she-calling-and-ruining-all-this story line award goes to Alice Pesh of Fort Lauderdale. ``The writers are really scratching for ideas. Opal is absolutely ridiculous. I just want to to turn it off sometimes. Erica was always a vixen; now she`s a wimpy crybaby. Quite frankly, I never really liked her.`` So there.

THE BEST COUPLE: The very fun Cecily and Nico won with 13 votes. The star- crossed Jenny and Greg made a run at them, but garnered only 10 votes. Old- timers liked Tara and Phil; Mary and Jeff did well, considering that everybody remembered them differently. Erica and Travis, who scored remarkably well elsewhere, inexplicably got only one vote for best couple. It made us worry but not as much as when Tad and Hilary were nominated. (Tad and Hilary?!)

Why: Natalie Pavelka of Davie remembered that Jeff and Mary got married in real life. (Still are.) ``He ended up in cowboy shoes and she did those pantyhose commercials with those skinny legs which make me jealous.``

Natalie waffled. ``Or Tara with Phil. I was in love with the original Phil.`` Ladies, that was Richard Hatch. (Insert loud scream here.) ``Phil came back from Vietnam and she thought he was dead and she was married to Chuck and they have a son who was Phil`s. Really, what would you do?`` She`s got a good point.

Patrick McWilliams of Fort Lauderdale liked Jenny and Greg for the reasons everybody else did: perfect for one another, overcame so many obstacles, ``they had a great charisma together.`` Debbie Davis: ``They were the most purest.`` She was right.

And Connie Trumbo of Boca Raton liked Tad and Dixie because ``it`s so good to see Tad tied down.`` Amen.

THE SADDEST MOMENT: Jenny`s death by jet ski -- ``so young,`` ``so beautiful,`` ``so unfair,`` 20 people said. Jenny`s demise beat out Laura`s -- Laura being Tom and Brooke`s child who died unexpectedly in a drunken driving accident in a car driven by Barbara who still blames herself, God bless her (15 votes). Lots of folks (14) were moved by Cindy`s death from AIDS, though that was expected.

Why: You take this hard. When Jenny died, Natalie Pavelka of Davie and Mark Jackson of Fort Lauderdale couldn`t go back to work. (And Mark is not some pushover. He said it was ``bad when Mary Kennecott died.`` He then added that ``but, of course, she was a doormat.``)

Kathi Moore of Coral Springs said her husband threatened to quit watching when Jenny died. He didn`t.

Hal Altschuler of Fort Lauderdale said, ``I would crawl across broken glass for Jenny.`` Enough of Jenny.

Kathy Shaddow of Deerfield Beach was saddened by Laura`s death. ``She was such a cute thing and so few kids act well.`` OK, so she`s practical.

Pam McMillan of Davie believed Kate Martin`s death was the worst because the actress who played the part for many years died in real life. ``She touched everybody`s life, more so than even Phoebe. She was Gran. She was -- I don`t know if there are any like her left -- but she`s what you`d conjure up if you wanted a grandmother.``

Diane Maxwell of Delray Beach was touched when Tad visited Kate`s grave. ``He said she believed in him when no one else did. My own grandmother had just died. It helped me.`` We could think of no higher compliment.

THE BEST HUSBAND FOR ERICA: Twenty-four votes for Travis Montgomery, 18 for Mike Roy. Nobody else -- there were four others -- came close. Tom Cudahy got 4, Adam got one. Jackson Montgomery got two though he has not made it down the aisle with anybody yet. You people are not, it seems, sticklers for detail.

Why: Mindy Theterson of Fort Lauderdale said she ``liked the way Travis looks with Erica but the way Adam acts with her.`` Pam Van Lint of Fort Lauderdale did not equivocate: ``I haven`t really liked any of them.``

On Travis: You thought there was magic there. Though the cynical Chris Marcotte of Fort Lauderdale was less generous, ``It was the first time Erica was more in love with someone than herself.`` Sue Owens of Coconut Creek spoke as plainly when she said that ``Travis was so cute but boring. I could get over him being boring.``

People, this man was more or less responsible for having his own child kidnapped. Is it just us, or shouldn`t that disqualify him from the best-of- anything category? Maybe not, but Hal Altschuler found something else that did. ``Travis is too good looking. People don`t look like that in real life.``

THE BEST LOVE SCENE: Hard to believe but true, we had a five-way tie with five votes each for Tom and Erica in St. Croix, Erica and Jackson in Paris, Travis and Erica in South Carolina, Erica and Jeremy in Canada and, for the less well-traveled, Nico and Cecily in a Pine Valley shower.

Why: The sentimental vote went to Stuart and Cindy. Why? No sex.

Chris Hightower of North Lauderdale: ``It was just romance. I watch with my 13-year-old and sometimes that can get embarrassing but this was a relationship a 13-year-old should see.`` Claire F. Judin of Fort Lauderdale said, ``You don`t find many loves like that.``

Votes we can`t explain: Keith Richards of Boca Raton liked Tad and anybody. (Tad once bedded a mother and a daughter at the same time. ``That was pretty cool. Tad was so sleazy. That`s why we root for him.`` Men.)

Sue Owens of Coconut Creek and Sharon Demidio of North Lauderdale conference- called to say they liked anything with Jackson. ``We went to the mall and saw him. We thought we`d die.``

David Kimmey of Coral Springs thought, ``All love scenes are about the same. Nobody gets naked anyway.``

No matter to Debbie Cantor of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. ``I don`t pay attention to love scenes, just let them get on with the story. You know, the meat of it. I don`t know who they`re trying to appeal to, get on with the action. You can watch sex on cable channels.`` She was serious.

And misguided. Witness 14-year-old Gia Damone, also of Coral Springs, who liked the shower scene best. We asked if she`d learned anything. She giggled. So did we. We moved on. She let us.

ABOUT ERICA

-- ``God love her.``

-- ``She`s the someone who taught all those other people on all those other shows how to be a vamp.``

-- ``She never gets any older. She`s the Dick Clark of daytime.``

-- ``She annoys the hell out of me. She`s a little old to be so kittenish.`` (This from the same woman who called Nina a nymph. And not the sea kind.)

-- ``I love her clothes.``

-- ``There`s a little bit of Erica in all of us.``

-- ``I know she don`t act good but why don`t they give her an award?``

-- And, ``She`s a pain in the butt most of the time but she carries it off.``

You gotta be grateful for small things.

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1990-01-23/features/9001200921_1_erica-votes-tara

[Khan]

WTF?

[Gray Bunny]

What a shock. Soap fans portrayed as dumb and barely able to identify fact vs. fiction.

Then again, maybe intelligent soap fans are a minority.

[DRW50]

Travis and Erica were still a fresh memory at that time but Erica and Mike doing so well surprised me a little. I always liked Erica and Mike, even that 1998 return many did not care for. Surovy and Susan Lucci had effortless chemistry, which Lucci has not had with a lot of leading men.

It's too bad they did such a poor job with Cecily's return. I'm still not sure why they ever brought her back.

Surprised to see so many votes for Jeff and Mary. I wonder if they're still together in real life.

[AMCDYNASTY]

All of this seems very interesting to me.

[DeeeDee]

LMAO