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AMC articles, interviews, behind the scenes


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I think the Martins family was lucky that MEK as Tad became as popular as he did as I think they would've ceased like the Tylers did. Other than Chuck, there wasn't many Tyler's left in the 80's. Phoebe's other kids, Linc, Anne were gone by then.

That's an interesting point. AMC did tend to move into the larger than life 80's. I do remember Agnes Nixon saying the Cortlandt Masquerade was one of the highest rated episodes AMC ever had, so I don't necessarily blame them from a business perspective to try and move in this direction. Also lots of stories starting taking place in NY like Erica becoming a supermodel.

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GH fan, I do not know how accurate it is to say that Lincoln and Anne were not popular. Anne was very popular, even outshining Tara and Erica when Judith Barcroft assumed the role. It was the subsequent recast, and the change of focus of the show from the "small" town to "big" town families that lead to that character's ousting (and death). In regards to Lincoln, I think that he took suffered from the shift in focus. The ironic piece of this was that Anne was the "Big Town" girl in the beginning, the reluctant debutante who sought exile in New York to escape the provincial upbringings of her hometown and her mother's overbearing care.

The writers, Washam included, I think missed the boat in building the next generation for the direct Tyler family. In a way Charlie was supposed to fill that void, and he did throughout the 80's. I wish they would bring that critical character back to canvas.

The sustainability of the Tyler family was really tied to Brooke. The Tyler home became a rift-raft cast of adopted/surrogate family members by the mid-80's with Benny, Edna, Dottie, Hillary, Emily Anne and to some extent Opal, Donna and Tom filling in the Wallingford Estate. Not that there was anything wrong with this... it was just sad to not see more direct blood Tylers filling in the ranks (especially around the time of the Greg, Jenny, Liza, Angie, Jesse story time).

I did love the dichotomy of those days. Where you consistently had a crowd running around Pine Valley, New York and Center City. It did provide a dimension and realism to the idea that Pine Valley existed somewhere along the Pennsylvania Main Line. I think that the segmented cast made the big events that much better, because it was a rare occasion where the whole canvas got to interact. Old relationships long left unexplored were revisited (e.g. Erica's agent Olga revealing that she was Lars' sister at the Cortlandt Yacht Party) and the cast groupings would be shifted around a bit and new stories launched (like throwing Devon into Cliff's orbit, or the Nina/Benny relationship after his wedding disaster to Donna).

The issue with the "events" now, is that the separated pieces of the canvas are not integrated. Instead, those who had B Stories now act as glorified extras. The random "run-ins" between old lovers, relatives once removed or one-time rivals are all ignored and that same over played characters are front and center saying the exact same dialogue they said two days before, but this time in prettier costumes.

I guess I need to get off my soap box now. Heaven knows that I have been unable to really throw myself back in this show since the terrible B&E reign of terror (with that brief and welcomed Lorraine Broderick 2010 run).

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Thanks for sharing that Julia Barr article. It feels like they are kind of getting in digs at her (lack of drive, saying she looks like a kewpie doll on the Boardwalk, etc.) while being positive. Odd.

I always wondered why AMC cast Chris Lawford as Charlie. To me that aged the character quite a bit and for no real purpose. They could still bring Charlie back now, although I realize that won't happen.

What did you think of Gwyn Gillis as Anne?

While Rosemary Prinz is still with us I wish they'd bring her back and have her introduce some new Tylers or something. Or some of Ruth's and Ann's family. Lee Meriwether could also appear briefly with Rosemary. That would have made more sense to me than making Caleb a Cooney when Palmer and Adam are gone.

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Chris Lawford was definitely a stunt casting, especially since the show had only a year prior thought that there was not any storyline potential with Charles Van Eman in the role. I think that Chris was a decent actor. He could not keep up with the awesome Brainard/MEK comedic timing. I think it was a big criticism of the MMT mid-90's era that the strong Martin boy bond, especially with Joe, was not as heavily featured. He was given a storyline on the platter with Rosa Nevin's return. It was only Lawford's to blow, and he did. Carmen Thomas-Paris told me that Rosa was brought back by AMC b/c the show got so many requests for her return. It is sad to see how quickly her screentime and storylines diminished.

Gwynn as Anne was...a plot device. Judith was a leading actress, Gwynn was not. She could no hold her own against the likes of Ruth Warrick, Kathleen Noone or William Mooney. The worst part is that she needed to play so many subtleties as the recovering Anne. She overplayed the mental recovery. I think the writers recognized this and that was why Anne almost miraculously recovered. The chemistry with Mooney was not there, which was so unfortunate because Bill and Noone were amazing together and sacrificed for the fan favoured reunion. I was really sad to see Anne die, which was the point. It was a beautiful series of episodes and gave many of the vets some wonderful material. I would say that she very much was the "Melody Anderson" of her time.

I wonder if Rosemary would ever return to AMC. It always seems like was strong-armed into doing the role and did not favour her time there. Also, so many of the players that would mean anything for Amy are long gone.

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Yes. I commented on this a while back. He should come back, especially with Joe gone. What I asked before is, would they make him younger than he's supposed to be? The show doesn't really like to add old people, so they would probably make him just slightly older than Tad. Maybe around Caleb's age, whatever that is.

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I'd like to see him back too--and I liked the main actor who played him (didn't he return to OLTL as a lawyer again--this was after his first appearance on the show as a lawyer). It's also too bad that with Brooke gone it seems hard to bring back ANY Tylers. Of course I also wish they had done a better job bringing back Jeff Martin.

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And keep in mind, also, that ALL of the soaps (virtually) moved into the larger than life 80s wioth Big Businesses popping up (in these small towns and suburbs, no less) etc--even Ryan's Hope (apparently much to its ruin). Some of this was due to expanding to an hour--Agnes mentioned in All Her Children where she says eh'll never move to an hour, how they'd need a much bigger canvas and setting, some of this was the General Hospital effect, some (a lot) was I think inspired by the success of Dallas, etc (One Life to Live being a particularly telling example of this with the introduction of the Buchanens), etc. I really do think Agnes hoped to get back to the 1970s AMC with Loving for the first couple of years anyway--and despite many of those early eps (well the ones I can find) being classic soap gems, we all know how that worked.

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Bill Mooney, the actor that played Paul the longest, is now living in Colorado. He is still active on the speaker/story teller circuit. Here is the interview that i did with him two years ago: http://pinevalleybulletin.com/Features/InterviewMooney.html

Mind you, Bill gave me a call within 24 hours of my interview request. What an amazing guy. It was funny because I was interview he, Dick Shoberg and Carmen Thomas-Paris back to back, and they each told me a message to tell the other. It was like telephone.

Bill's backgorund prior to AMC was very interesting. I also loved that they brought him back to Paul on OLTL. He has aged quiet gracefully.

In terms of the current canvas, I think it would be a great opportunity to introduce an Asian family to AMC. Paul was MIA in Vietnam when AMC started. Perhaps, he could have met a woman and started a family prior to being saved and returning to PV. That son would be around Tad's age, and would have kids of his own.

Also, I believe Opal at one time target Paul as her object of affection (or rather victim). How great would it be for Opal to be a romantic storyline again.

...and Bill Mooney's voice, swoon, is classic Hollywood.

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I had a subscription to this magazine and was sad when it was dropped. One issue had a pull-out family tree of all the families on AMC and I wish I still had it.

I always marvel at Walt's hair in photos from this time...business in front...

I think the issue with the Loving and AMC crew is interesting. Mostly Phoebe, Donna and Chuck even though they were already being phased out by this time.

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