All My Children Tribute Thread

[ellabelle]

I think Mafia Princess might be the only MOW SL did that I haven't seen. "Secret Passions" was shot around that same time too, and it also stars Susan's future AMC co-stars, John James and Finola Hughes. It's a cheesy movie, but it really should have been proof to TPTB that SL and JJ did not have a whole lot of chemistry together.

[DRW50]

I'm not sure how much of it is online. Here's a clip.

I guess Susan had experience at playing teenagers at an older age...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6zE9y6cThA

Edited October 2, 2014 by DRW50

[amybrickwallace]

Was John James always the first choice to play Jeff Martin when the role was revived? I wonder if Charles Frank was ever asked to come back.

[DRW50]

I doubt it. I think they just went for something of a name, one who was in the age range.

It's too bad. He brought little to the role.

[ellabelle]

Judging from Charles Frank's appearance on Oprah in 2011, he'd aged quite a bit - as one would certainly expect over 40 years! I assume that he was judged as 'too old' to play Jeff Martin circa 2006. John James is 58, and Charles Frank is 67. I didn't dislike John James as Jeff - I just thought he had minimal chemistry with Susan Lucci, and their 'romance' was not all that believable.

[amybrickwallace]

I wasn't watching the show then, but how did he come across as a member of the Martin family? Did he have a believable rapport with Ray MacDonnell, Michael E. Knight, etc.?

[ellabelle]

John James didn't have the same joking rapport with Tad that, say, Ricky Paull Goldin's Jake did later on, but I thought he interacted well with Ray McDonnell and it was believable to me that they could be father/son. I really disliked though that Jeff basically encouraged Josh's creepy stalker behavior with Babe. Granted, Jeff did so because he wanted a relationship with his son, and he could hardly chastise Josh for chasing after a married woman when he was basically doing the same thing with Erica.

The big issue I had with the whole Jeff/Erica story was that by the time Jeff and Erica's marriage ended on AMC in the 70s, they were DONE with each other. There were no lingering feelings. I mean, Erica then was not all that unlike SMG's Kendall circa 1993/1994: Erica was going to ditch Jeff to be with her modeling agent/lover Jason Maxwell until Jason dumped her and ended up murdered. Erica wasn't exactly truthful about the status of her marriage when talking to the police, and Jeff ended up on trial for Jason's murder as a result. By that point Jeff and Mary had fallen in love and just wanted to be together. Joe paid off Erica to testify on Jeff's behalf and sign divorce papers, but the bribery came out during the trial. It eventually came out that Mona had accidentally shot Jason, and Jeff was set free. This was well after the abortion that MMT later un-aborted. When Jeff first appeared on the show, he basically told Erica he was shocked they had a son, that she called the shots before but that he was going to get to know his son, and oh yeah, she looked fabulous. I could maybe see that discovering you share a child with your ex might make you feel more attracted to that person, but based on what I know of their history, them having an affair struck me as rather unlikely.

I will say though that Jeff and Erica did have some interesting scenes. There was a scene in the fall of 2006 when Erica was moving into the Valley Inn - she ran into Jeff in the lobby and they had drinks (hers non-alcoholic), and they had a really mature conversation in which she admitted that she no longer drank because she'd dealt with addiction (he was shocked), and she basically said that she'd been divorced so many times that she'd gotten used to being on her own and that living in a house with a husband and a bunch of teenagers was really stifling, and she felt like she wasn't really herself anymore and that she needed some space to clear her head. While running away from your husband and your marriage isn't exactly great, I did think it was one of the more honest conversations I'd seen her have with anyone in a long time. Jeff was sympathetic and I think fairly impressed that Erica had grown up quite a bit in the years since he'd left town.

That scene was followed a few weeks later, right before Thanksgiving, by a scene with Jack and Brooke in which Jack was saying how much he loved having Sean, Lily and Reggie all living with him, that he loved all the noise and the chaos of having a bunch of teenagers underfoot, and he loved having a big family around him. The juxtaposition of those two scenes... it was painfully obvious that Jack and Erica wanted really different things out of life, and if you look back at those scenes from late 2006, the implosion of their relationship in 2011 makes sense - they want different things and different lives. Ultimately I think the Jeff/Erica fling just served as a way to break up Jack and Erica yet again. I really did enjoy their "New Divorce" reality show the following year because it was kind of funny, but it would have been nice to see more open and honest conversations between them, at least acknowledging that they have very different wants and needs and trying to find a way to reconcile those.

I thought it was terrible that Josh didn't have a proper funeral with Jeff there to mourn his son.

[amybrickwallace]

Thank you for sharing all that. I know that John James' run on AMC was not successful, so thanks for explaining why.

[John]

I believe John James only agreed to do a year max and thats why he left

[amybrickwallace]

I thought he was asked to go back to ATWT, unless my timing's off.

[danfling]

When Jeff returned to Pine Valley around 1975 or 1976, he was being played by Robert Perault. Initally, there was a lot of talk between Jeff and Mona. Mona seemed to wish that the two could get back together.

Then, later, when James O'Sullivan was playing the role, Jeff had fallen or was falling in love with Christina and Erica was trying to marry Tom in the Roman Catholic Church. Jeff and Erica had quite a few scenes together, but they were definitely not in love by that time.

[amybrickwallace]

Sounds interesting! I wonder how many of these episodes are online, if any.

[John]

He did go back to ATWT but that was in July 2008 and the return was brief

Edited October 4, 2014 by John

[amybrickwallace]

When was he on ATWT the first time?

[soapfave06]

2003-2004.