All My Children Tribute Thread

[DRW50]

There was a thought that the show had become bloated and aimless in 1988, and needed fresh blood. Lainie and David, among other characters, were an attempt to go back to the show's days of beautiful, angst-ridden young people. Many older actors were fired or chose to leave through lack of story.

Eric sold his Enchantment stock to Natalie, betraying Erica and costing her her company.

[allmc2008]

Here is Episode 2!!

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[DRW50]

Thanks again.

[You're Soaking in it]

1988 was an off-year for pretty much all the soaps, as that was the year of the WGA strike. I say "the," because it really felt like the longest, most painful one I can remember!

ETA: It was the longest ever writers' strike. I just looked it up. It ran from March through August, which likely negated everything we saw on-screen from mid-Spring until well into the Fall...

Edited July 18, 2013 by YurSoakinginit

[EricMontreal22]

The weird thing is they brought in Margaret DePriest (and FMB I believe) to sorta restructure the show--and then moved her to OLTL to, I assume, try to do the same. I have no idea why ABC was so into DePriest.

[ghfan89]

Didn't DePriest write for the heyday of GH with Luke and Laura etc? Might be why.

[EricMontreal22]

She may have. She certainly wrote some of DAYS biggest stories. TO my mind I think of her as someone who does camp well--which is why she seems an odd choice for AMC (which of course had camp elements but not in the same way GH or DAYS did.) I liked her era at Sunset Beach--and have always wanted to see some of the soap she co-created, WHere the Heart Is which is described as pretty campy.

[DRW50]

DePriest had also brought the ratings up at AW during her 86-88 stint, I believe, although I'm not sure. She'd also heavily restructured the show.

There was a feeling that the show [AMC] had been drifting since 1984 or 1985. I get the idea that 1987 or so broke some of this away and they thought they'd turned the corner, but then 1988 crashed down.

Edited July 18, 2013 by DRW50

[EricMontreal22]

There's a full week of 1987 episodes on youtube (which I find fascinating--it seems rare to be able to find a full week of full episodes of any show from before the 90s to really get a feel for character balance, etc.) It's very good, but all the stories are extremely islanded from what I can tell.

[allmc2008]

I find it weird that there are more consecutive AMC episodes in general from the 80s than the 90s. Just wish there were more 70s.....

[quartermainefan]

Travis was injured... Is this when he hired Nicolas Coster and some other guy to kidnap Bianca or something, only they really did? Something like that happened.

[Pine Charles]

Life for Erica with her husband Travis and precious little girl Bianca was happy for a while, but came crumbling down when Travis's jealous brother Jack joined forces with Adam to attempt a hostile takeover on Travis's businesses. Adam failed, but Travis was financially ruined. Travis came up with a scheme to help pay his debts. He hired a man named Steven Andrews to "kidnap" him so the insurance company would pay for his return. The plan backfired; Steven wanted his share of the money and he kidnapped Bianca for revenge. Travis was able to get Bianca back, but he lost his wife in return. Erica, furious for Travis for putting their daughter in jeopardy took Bianca to Sea City. Hoping to establish a new life there, Erica applied for a job as a waitress using the pseudonym "Sally". Erica took up residence at Jean's Boardinghouse where unbeknownst to her a fellow houseguest named "David Gillis" was none other than Bianca's kidnapper "Steven Andrews". Erica and "David" grew close and became lovers and had planned to run away to the Riviera but Travis stopped them. Travis and Andrews got in a fight, Andrews was shot and Travis suffered a major head injury. Erica realized she still loved Travis and attempted to start a new life with him. But things took another turn for the worse, when on his way home from Sea City, Travis was mugged and assaulted which left him disoriented. When Erica found him, he had no idea who she was.

Edited July 19, 2013 by Pine Charles

[ghfan89]

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[allmc2008]

Thanks Again!!

[allmc2008]

Another Video!! part 2 of 2 of the last video!

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