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AMC and OLTL Canceled!


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To read the news on here this morning was numbing. I had time to let it settle in as I waited to get off work today. It is really, for me, in terms of entertainment, the saddest day ever.

I started noticing All My Children when I was very small, along with Ryan's Hope. I remember the opening credits of each show (the hand opening the photo album; the baby being held in the air) caught my attention... Then I remember Erica. I noticed Erica before I noticed any other character... I later noticed Phoebe, who was colorful in her own right. It was a superficial fascination, because I was probably just too young to understand or have interest in what was going on.

Then I started to notice Jenny, played by Kim Delaney... and really began to pay attention. Greg, Liza, Nina, Cliff, Jesse, Angie, Dottie, Tad, Hillary... Little did I realize I was witnessing what would be considered a golden era for AMC - and that this would be my initiation into watching soaps. The residents of PV felt real to me, as if I or anyone could know them, their lives, and their experiences. Watching AMC often left me feeling entertained and, in some ways, enlightened about people and issues.

Within a couple of years, I happened to catch an opening credits sequence I had never before noticed... and I thought it was - at the time - remarkably innovative for a soap opera.

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Its mere energy and upbeat sound led me to stay tuned in. I then began a new relationship with a very different show. One Life to Live, Llannview, was truly a different world than AMC's Pine Valley. I loved them both for what set them apart. With One Life, I was caught in a wave of Tina, Cord, Viki, Clint, Maria, Asa, Delilah, Bo, Didi, Dorian, Cassie... The show was fast-paced and imaginative, but you could count on the characters to stay true to themselves. I was perplexed as to how I (and seemingly everyone else who watched) could root for Tina, who caused so much trouble... yet you couldn't help but want to see her find happiness. I was mesmerized by Erika Slezak's skill at playing two different characters fused into one tortured person.

Both shows, I feel, affected the way I looked at people and the way they related to one another... So whenever I got bored in class, I would write my own story - based on my real-life friends in school, but placing them in heightened situations - make that, grown-up circumstances. Friends would catch on to what I was doing, and I shared the stories... a few complained of how I wrote them! But for the most part, they were excited to see what I would come up with next.

I knew I wanted to write. I loved it. I ended up pursuing just that. I moved across the country, auditioned some story treatments... I ended up working for a soap magazine. This was over a decade ago. Say what you will, because I know there's some disdain for the soap press here - and I understand the complaints. But looking back on my experience, it was the time of my life. I learned more about what goes into making a soap, the politics of what happens behind the scenes, and the wide array of personalities of the actors on our screens. It was, and is, incredibly fascinating, whether the news is good or bad.

Eventually, I ended up working in a different location, alongside different people - and I learned another angle, and it seemed to be a place that entertainment media was trending toward - and I decided, my choice, to get out. As a writer, my intention was never to become part of a publicity machine for actors or shows. I wanted to create... so it wasn't for me. (Today, I teach students with Autism... but I still love writing, and still pursue it in different ways!)

Throughout this whole journey, my love for AMC & OLTL was always there. Sure, I stopped watching sometimes because a show lost its way. (I was around when then ABCD-VP Felicia Behr called Megan McTavish's OLTL "unwatchable" - and later, when a certain actress still on the show said off-record that most of the cast & crew were pretty much rejoicing that then-EP Jill Farren Phelps & McTavish had been transferred over to GH... ) Though there are fast-forward moments (let me just lay it out there... James Ford / Nic Robuck does not generate romantic chemistry with women for what should be obvious reasons!), I'm still tuning in daily for OLTL. I really enjoy so much of it... AMC was great early last year under Lorraine Broderick, then Kreizman & Swajeski just let it all drop to the floor. It's like they're those people that show up at a party and suck all the energy out of the room. Just really, really boring.... Thankfully, Broderick's back, and I'm tuning in to see how she'll wrap things up. I saw someone else here doubtful of her ability to do that effectively. I disagree, and I'm very optimistic. I think she will write a wonderful final chapter for Pine Valley.

Last year, when Broderick's transition work was airing, I visited NYC and had lunch with a former colleague. We were both admirers of LB's previous stints on AMC, and were really impressed with what she'd done in such a short time after taking over for Charles Pratt... My friend / colleague, she was particularly concerned, though, about what K&S would do with the setup Broderick left them (I didn't realize just how right she would be). And my exact response was that, if AMC were to be cancelled, that it was my highest hope that Broderick would be the one to pen the show's ending. Interesting how things work out.

Sorry for the long post... Obviously, I had a lot to say - things I had been conservative about mentioning here before. Now I feel more comfortable saying them... and thank you for letting me get this all out.

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ian, I hope somebody is paying you good money for your typing skills, very impressed and thanks! I loved when she got into the Chelsea thing. Calling her hotline did make me feel better, she is hurt but remarkably positive. And she's going to make a killing selling that Upper East Side townhouse of hers. Even in this market.

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I can bet you Robin Strasser is GLEEFUL that she took her house in Bel-Air off the market. So now she'll move back to Los Angeles, enjoy that lifestyle, hopefully get some kind of work and either lease or sell her Manhattan townhouse...if she did that, she'd be set for life.

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Stephanie Gatschet

It's a sad day in Pine Valley. We're all still trying to absorb the news... Thank you all for your support! #AMC has the best fans ever. xo

Oh wow Chris Jericho tweeted this:

I can't believe they're canceling All My Children!! I watched EVERY single episode from '83-85...Greg and Jenny were my faves. How bout u?

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