All My Children Tribute Thread

[soapfave06]

Got some 1991 episodes with Janet having Natalie in the well. Love the tone of the show during this period and it's insane how diverse the canvas was in 1991 in comparison to when I started watching in 2006, or even any soap currently on the air. You have Livia, Derek, Terrence, Mimi and even An-Li. Its insane how few Asian characters have been on daytime. How jarring was it to have Mimi, Livia, An-Li and Terrence off the show within just four years? Of course they were all relatively new but they really laid out some permanent groundwork there. 

 

And the entire Janet/Natalie story is so well done. I would love to have seen Kate Collins Natalie around for Robin's Janet. 

[ghfan89]

There was one episode where Natalie's ghost came to visit Janet (RM's version) in the late 90's. It was cool to see the two actresses together, but I think that was the only instance that happened.

[DRW50]

 

It was. I really liked her returns as Natalie. Still never sure about the Janet returns...

 

I remember a lot of talk from fans about how she never did appear with James Kiberd in any of them. I think she may have once but if so not for long. 

 

You could see them trying for genuine diversity rather than tokenism. It's a shame that with the general decline of ratings in the mid-90s AMC was another soap that decided to retreat and regress. 

[Soaplovers]

I actually liked when Natalie appeared opposite of RM's Janet....both were tall, somewhat aimilar body types...and had great chemistry.  Short sighted to have the show kill off Natalie.

 

In the other forum, there was a topic of characters never interacting much on shows...people said AMC didnt have that problem...but the 80s especially...things were islanded...isnt that one of the reasons depriest came on for her short stint?  She started Jack/erica....tad/dixie....right?

 

In the 80s...Erica was usually islanded in her own story...I dont recall her interacting much with a lot of the characters in the 80s....such as jesse/angie...nina/cliff...etc.

 

 

[DRW50]

 

I think she was likely brought in because the cast was bloated and there were a lot of stories. Personally I preferred that and I think the material of 1987 and some of 1988 is much richer than anything after, but I can understand why they did it, I guess. 

 

Erica was islanded, yes. I think she was mostly in New York for a year or more at one point. 

[soapfave06]

I'll have to try and find those Robin/Kate scenes on YouTube. 

 

Didn't ABC and Disney converge at the same time? Was it the declining ratings or Disney that caused the white washing of the ABC Soaps?

 

 

Also-Does anyone know exactly when Kate Collins left in 1992? I found an episode with the recast from early September but wanted to see Kate's last episodes. Thanks in advance!

[DRW50]

 

I figure it wasn't long after Natalie married Trevor. 

 

Disney bought ABC in early 1996. This started influencing their lineup in spring or summer 1996 - that's when you started haring Super Soap Week at Disneyworld and around the time they had things like the Disney-themed wedding for Julia and Noah that some fans enjoyed and others felt was inappropriate for the characters. 

 

The whitewashing started in 1994, although part of that was down to actors leaving (and others, like Dondre Whitfield, were fired for speaking out). 

[ghfan89]

soapfave06, here's the first part of the episode with the Janet/Natalie scenes

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and Natalie was recast the summer of 1992. I don't know the exact dates, but the storyline was when Natalie ended up in a fire and woke up in bandages on her eyes as the recast.

 

AMC wasn't really the same show after the Will Cortlandt murder story, which I think is also around the same time McTavish took over as head writer.

Edited December 18, 2016 by ghfan89

[soapfave06]

Thanks for sharing that ghfan89! 

 

Really wish they hadn't killed off Natalie. i would love to see a long term story with Robin's Janet and Natalie but how absurd for Natalie to tell the sister who imprisoned her to marry her husband. 

 

Although with how the 90s ended I do wonder if Natalie would have had a place on the show anyway. Watching the '91 episodes and I love the family unit they have built up with Trevor/Natalie/Timmy/Haley. 

[All My Shadows]

I was watching random cast crawls from the 80s and 90s, and came across Bill Christian playing "Officer Rick Frye" in July 1990. All this time, I've only ever seen him listed as joining the cast in 1991, and never have I heard of Derek being called "Rick" early on. I'm assuming he was originally meant to be a short-term character.

[ghfan89]

^Derek was there as early as fall 1990 at least because he was injured from trying to help Tad save Dixie from Billy Clyde.

 

Here's a Christmas episode from 1987

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[Graham]

My AMC nostalgia grows especially strong at Christmastime. So many classic, cozy holiday episodes.

 

How lucky were we this have this show in our lives...

[All My Shadows]

Erica's modeling theme! In pristine condition!

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[Soaplovers]

 

I dont know if she would have fit on the show by the mid to late 90s....the show watered her down as a character in the early 90s.  If you saw Natalie in 1986 vs. Natalie in 1991/2....it was almost a completely different character in some regards.

 

I do recall the ball at wildwind in early 1992 when Natalie was engaged to dimitri...she and Erica exchanged barbs....and that Erica and Dimitri didnt care for one another (he was trying to take over Enchantment)...and Erica was going around talking to derek, Mimi, etc....asking for any help to save her company.  I miss gatheringa like this because charactera interacted that normally didnt.

[Jonathan]

 

 

OMG,  YES!!!!