AMC: Frons Courting McTavish?

[DRW50]

Oh that's right, I remember the tea stuff. For some reason I thought that was Pam Long.

I enjoyed that too. At the time I hated the stuff with Blair and Kelly and with Todd/Tea and all the Hayes overload, but watching some of the other stuff now is more entertaining. It was also nice to see Carlotta have something more to do, including the story with the magically disappearing HIV-positive teen.

[Vee]

I wouldn't mind seeing Eli Traeger (a.k.a. Eli the AIDS Boy) brought back to bring some new stuff to the Vegas, along with Jamie. Unfortunately, the name "Eli" now carries some striking connotations.

[Kylie]

I feel like there's also so much, "She did this to so and so" or "she wronged this actor/character/fanbase" that we lose site of the fact that she broke AMC on a very fundamental level. Yes, Josh bothers me more than anything else, but even in my hate for Dixie I thought the pancakes were horrible. I HATED Trevor in the freezer, and I hated Edmund dying the way he did. It was like with each one of those plot points she killed a little bit more of what made AMC, AMC. For me, while K&S are hacks, they don't seem to be doing with the malevolence that Megan did. All I can think of when I think of Megan (I have the actual quote somewhere) is her telling us, about Josh, to shut up, stop whining and deal with it. Ie. It was her show, so butt the hell out! IMO that's someone who had no respect left for the show, and didn't care if she was ruining it's history and what it made it great, as long as she got to do what she wanted.

[Vee]

Yeah, the Edmund thing left a very bad taste in my mouth. It seemed so cruel and gratuitous, as did Dixie and Bianca. Edmund and Maria had been a tentpole couple for years - and to top it off, he was killed and slandered for Zach and Maria, who ultimately went nowhere as Maria left in shame and disgrace.

[EricMontreal22]

Yeah there was no purpose for Maria anymore. Of course that mess with Edmund started under Rayfield (who had Edmund locking Maria up, drugging her to try to get her memory back, etc) but Megan certrainly didn't improve it--and then for Jonathan to kill him... Why again? I don't remember if there ever was even an explanation--I thought when he went crazy he was still targeting his family and Ryan's close ones...

[Vee]

I think Maria could have gone on for years yet, but after waiting years for Eva LaRue to return they fucked her over out of boredom and short attention span. Same with John Callahan, who may have screwed himself with some BTS nonsense. Let's just say the business with Mia onscreen was deeply embarrassing to watch. But both or either of them, together or separated, could have done their own [!@#$%^&*] as well as supported Sam and Maddie in teen storylines, a teen sphere the show does not have today, and done well. Edmund and Maria were a tentpole supercouple to me when I was a kid watching the show.

[EricMontreal22]

Agreed, and with Dimitri no more, their role was that much more important IMHO. What's the Mia story?

Of course and then McTavish (and Pratt) did the same thing with Julia who NEVER even got somewhat of a storylien till her deathbed--yet was a hyped, popular return.

[Vee]

It was widely rumored that Callahan and Amelia Heinle were allegedly gallivanting around together on the heels of their stupid Edmund/Mia hookup onscreen, leading to the Callahans' divorce. I actually think the pointless Mia character might have more purpose now if they recast, and they could use her and re-purpose her to give Luner's Liza more immediate roots on the canvas. What's more, she and Frankie have a child.

I also wonder at times if they might not recast Dimitri again to add a new power broker, though Michael Nader was the one and only for me. And yes, Julia was a waste. Sydney Penny looked rough and the attempt at a Zach/Julia flirtation didn't work, nor did anything else.

[DRW50]

I'm not sure where you could go with Maria, because she was a generic self-righteous heroine. Eva La Rue is a charismatic actress who is good within her range, but I never felt she worked as a major heroine - she was too cold for that - and AMC had moved on in her absence. I actually thought she was far more interesting as a damaged woman in her return stint, but the show didn't properly use her.

Edmund/Maria were lucky to fill a void in the few years they were a major part of AMC. The show had few supercouples at that time. I mostly remember Edmund either sighing or grabbing her arm as she wept for years on end about infertility (cured magically when she had that awful "grief sex" with his brother). Edmund mostly worked because of Callahan's charisma, which seemed to be gone by the end of the 90s. He should have left years before he did, IMO, and he and Maria had lost their spark by the time of her return.

I agree with those who feel that a lot of AMC was destroyed by Mctavish in her last run but for me it wasn't as noticeable when I watched because I thought a lot of the heart of AMC had already been destroyed by some of the 1997 stories, and by some of the most wretched of the late 90s/early 00s (destruction of the Dillons, Gillian being shot in the head, Dogboy, etc.) The show seemed so empty to me when McTavish started again in 2003. It's just too bad she trashed anything she had built up.

[Vee]

Well, sure, but I liked her.

I thought so too, but they took Zach from her and that was it. This is not to say Zach and Kendall were not a superior couple, but it was disloyal to LaRue who was a valued heroine, and they never really bothered with her again.

The show was already terrible when Megan came back, yes, but a single homophobic, hetero-centric act - the rape and pregnancy of Bianca - drove me away from the show as a viewer for years until she left. I kept tabs but did not watch an hour until she was gone. It was that vile and offensive to me. And she did such damage. Where are Sam and Maddie today? Who lives in Wildwind? Edmund can never come back even to visit them should they be recast, and while yes, he was a joke as a romantic lead by the end, those tentpole elders are important to see or know they exist, even if only in guest spots. Look what's become of the Quartermaines on GH without Alan. What about James Kiberd's Trevor, in a similar guest role which can now never be done? Or Tim Dillon? Or Dixie? So many wastes, to me.

[DRW50]

I *wanted* to like Maria, but the show for me really overdid her tragic heroine stuff. I also hate baby obsession stories and always have, so the year she spent focusing on babies was too much, the last straw being that melodramatic hysterical meltdown in the airport when Sam was taken from her.

I feel like they would have gone with Zach/Maria if they thought La Rue was staying. La Rue hated her whole return stint and was probably just waiting to go. Kendall has always been a second choice heroine for AMC, at best.

I can understand what you mean...I had very mixed feelings about the rape storyline, not so much through homophobia (so many of AMC's heroines have been raped, in a sick way it was almost a rite of passage on AMC for about 15 years), but through the laziness of raping this character who could have been fascinating, strong, complex, without being a victim. It's disgusting that McTavish felt she had to rape Bianca in order to make her an important character. Yet in some ways that is what happened, in that Bianca went from being an aimless character to being the heart of the show, being an incredibly sympathetic and empathetic figure on a show which had not had that in a number of years. I hated the shell games used to move away from Bianca having romantic relationships with other women, yet, sadly, the show still told more stories about her feelings for other women more than they have since (first there was Zarf, then Reese which was mostly about Reese/Zach, and now, nothing).

I think the problem I had with Edmund as a tentpole character was I didn't see him as such. I thought he worked as a dashing figure, with some sparkle and humor, which all seemed to go by the wayside. I saw Dimitri as more of the tentpole figure, and a strong, solid presence. I think that AMC should have worked hard to genuinely recast Dimitri, instead of just casting a filler actor until they could dump him.

I sort of feel like most of what you mentioned was going to happen no matter what. Sam and Maddie were probably never going to be important characters because Frons doesn't like legacy characters. So many of them have been introduced and then dumped over the last decade, and of course this happened even before Frons (Tim Dillon, then that poor recast of Frankie). I don't think we were ever going to see Trevor again - I know it's not the same situation, but if they couldn't bring back Carmen Thomas when she and MEK both asked for this, would they bring back James Kiberd? They might once to have him sit in the background at a wedding but I'm not even sure of that, as that might threaten the idea of Jake or JR or whoever else over the years being the only important person in Amanda's life.

Reading this stuff back I sound like I'm excusing McTavish's mistakes. I'm not. I am just so cynical towards what AMC has been over the last decade or so that I feel like most of this was happening regardless of the headwriter. I do blame McTavish for some of the really sick and ugly stuff she perpetuated, and I can see where she destroyed Dixie, did some horrible and unforgivable things to Tad, among other stories. There was no need for Edmund to leave as such a monster. I tend to see her as taking what was pushed on her and twisting it into an even uglier state, as I don't think she would have, on her own, necessarily seen Edmund as some sort of monster (she loved the character in her first two stints as headwriter), or banished Brooke, etc.

[EricMontreal22]

I sometimes feel guilty for never finding the rape of Bianca as homophobic (as a shocking story that also allowed them to conveniently not give her a love interest for a while, yes though), but I do get where others are coming from...

I actually really liked Maria and Edmund. Not sure why in hindsight but I guess they remind me a lot of when I was getting into AMC--I love the whole Edmund story when he came to town (climaxing in that great Budapest shoot that doesn't seem to exist AT ALL on youtube), and I always liked Maria back then--even her brief story with Del. So I was upset when they basically decimated (after wasting) both characters--and I admit I'd be all for somehow bringing back the Merricks, but it seems a lost cause now. (I agree with Carl though that Edmund worked much more as a somewhat dashing figure--not a true tentpole...)

I also liked Julia, so was happy when she came back but that quickly dissipated too. It seemed they were flirting with two decent ideas for her--one was that a bunch of the younger characters with no real home would live with her at Wildwind--they gave that a couple of somewhat charmign scenes and then basically dropped anything about it--and the other was briefly it seemed she was going to turn Wildwind into a sort of community clinic--another idea I thought had potential but like a ton of McTavish stories in her last couple of years (good seeming and bad--which is why her last year to me didn't even feel like typical off the hinges McTavish it was just a mess) it was quickly forgotten

[EricMontreal22]

I'm not gonna excuse this era of McTavish's (though like I said I disagree somewhat abotu Bianca's rape) but I don't blame her for Sam and Maddie at all--Sam anyway. They kept him on the canvas staying with Brooke, and had some interesting stuff and then he was dropped SO suddenly it was like someone suddenly told her to get rid of Sam so Lily and Jonathan could hang out...

Caleb lives in the odd lookign WIldwind--David bought it before him (which I thought was a good fit actually)

[DRW50]

A lot of that stuff seemed like network interference. Like how quickly Bobby was dumped.

[JackPeyton]

I think that a driving force in having Bianca raped was that they would then not have to pair her in a relationship, let alone one that leds to sex, and could use her being preg/having a newborn baby and damaged due to the violent rape. However, if McT did this on her own or was told they can not play Bianca in a relationship is unkowen. I also think that they did get some incredable story and kane woman relationship scenes but that doesn't take away from what the point of it was. I do think they could have made Bianca that moral center character she became after the rape without the rape. Not to mention how brutal it actually was.

As for Maria i loved her. She was high and mighty and thought she was morally superior to others, but i did not mind it at all. I really wish she had not been thrown under a bus by a string of bad stories. I could totally see her still on AMC today.