All My Children Tribute Thread

[Khan]

 

Yep.

 

 

I think it was Nixon.  She always believed that Erica's insecurities stemmed from her father's absences, so having Eric back full-time in her and her daughter's lives probably flew in the face of that.

 

I think it was unfortunate how that storyline ruined Travis and Erica's relationship.  Susan Lucci played so well off Larkin Malloy, but there was no way those two could ever reconcile after what he had done.

Edited April 10, 2018 by Khan

[You're Soaking in it]

 

I'm so glad you mentioned that, Khan! There were times I thought I was the only one who really enjoyed Travis & Erica together. I thought there was a maturity and depth to their relationship that I hadn't ever before seen for Erica. And you're right: That scab-writers story, which suddenly turned Travis into a pathetic & insecure jerk, and had Lionel Lockridge sniffing around Erica, really did derail their train. 

[Khan]

 

Well, I will admit that part of the reason why *I* enjoyed Travis and Erica as much as I did had to do with Larkin Malloy.  I'd been a big fan of his from GUIDING LIGHT (LOVED him with Kim Zimmer's Reva); and from EDGE OF NIGHT, where the few memories I'd had of that show were of him with Sharon Gabet's Raven.  Ergo, pairing him with my all-time fave actress was like heaven to THIS junior soap fan.

 

In retrospect, I wonder if AMC's writers were indeed transitioning Erica into being a more mature, less insecure person.  Not only did you have her relationship with Travis -- which, as you've said, had more depth than what we were used to for Erica -- but you also had Bianca's birth and Eric's return, two events that were sure to shake up Erica's life profoundly.  Plus, once you've done all the crazy things you could with Erica -- like run off to Hollywood, drive a race-car, stage a prison break and helicopter escape for her boyfriend, and, of course, stare down a bear in the woods -- where ELSE was there to go with her?

 

Unfortunately, after all the progress that the show had made toward solidifying Erica, I feel like they gradually had her regress -- by having her father betray her and then leave town, by having Travis betray their marriage with his and Barbara's affair (although, granted, it was done in order to save Molly's life), by having the court award custody of Bianca to Travis when Erica and Jack's affair came to light, and eventually, by retconning Erica's own history with Kendall's introduction.

 

Ironically, I think I read somewhere that Steven Andrews/Dave Gillis is Nic Coster's favorite soap role.

Edited April 11, 2018 by Khan

[DRW50]

 

I feel like the show just kept regressing or setting Erica back for story purposes - losing custody of Bianca, the Kendall arrival, the pill addiction, stealing the baby, the facial scars, etc. Some of these stories were very good, but I think they only got as lucky as they did with the stories not taking more of a toll because Susan Lucci is such a charismatic actress and by that time Erica was more of of a touchstone than a character anyway. By the time of the unabortion they seemed to completely be out of ideas for the character. I wonder if Susan may have been better off leaving in the early '00s, after she won her Emmy. 

 

Then again, she got another decade of publicity, was known as being a team player, and went on to solid roles after AMC ended, so I guess we can't say she made the wrong decision...

[Dax7000]

I largely disliked the Travis years with Erica. While I agree it added some nice growth to her character, I found Travis to be largely self absorbed, temperamental, self righteous , hypocritical and generally irritating. I didn't think of Jackson as much better. The fact that Travis- a man literally responsible for getting Bianca kidnapped, then later responsible for her going to the hospital due to his ignorance regarding kids and medication- was somehow able to wrangle full custody was one of AMC's most absurd stories. 

 

I felt they really tried to basically ruin Travis with the Barbara baby story. He had a good reason, but his intolerance of Erica's daring to be upset was ridiculous. Add to that the way he used Bianca as an excuse to make Erica let him back in the house, then threatened to walk out on them at Christmas if Erica didn't try to forgive him...ugh. The character was disgusting by that point. 

 

I felt AMC never did the best job of balancing the ambitious Erica that ended in the mid 80's with the late 80's wife and mother Erica. The Montgomery brothers  dulled her in my opinion, and I especially disliked how they, along with Barbara, would out vote Erica and talk down to her during Enchantment business. Erica's career ambitions were often my favorite part about her, so I missed that. She was just kinda a sometimes hilarious man chaser without that.

Edited April 11, 2018 by Dax7000

[Khan]

 

Agree.

 

Sadly, I agree with this as well.  (I say "sadly," because I truly hated seeing AMC waste Larkin Malloy the way they did.  IMO, Travis had long-term potential, but it just seems like several wrong-headed story decisions derailed him as a character.)

[Soaplovers]

I don't recall Erica with Travis (since I was too young to watch the show at the time they were together)... I do recall Erica with the younger Charlie with Ruth/Mona freaking out over the two as a couple (little did I know that Erica had bedded three generations of men... Nick/Phil/Charlie).  

 

With that said, I liked Erica with Dimitri... the 90s (well most of them) seem to find a good balance between shallow/ambitious Erica and the loving wife/mother Erica that the 80s had trouble finding.  It's a shame the show ruined them as a couple (breaking them up and reuniting them three times between 1992 and 1997 takes the magic out of a couple).

 

 What was interesting was that in the Jack/Erica coupling.. she was the star of that coupling... even during the years that the two weren't together.. she was still front burner and paired in other relationships with varying degrees of success.... Jack, on the other hand, could never find another female to successfully couple with.  The show tried in the early 90s (Ceara, Brooke, Angelique, Laurel, even flirting with Gloria)... but none of them took... and I know they tried pairing him with Carmen in the 2000s (which was a big mistake.. deepsixing the strong Carmen/Erica friendship and wasting the potential of the Carmen character).  

 

Which makes me think perhaps Jack should have been written out years earlier..imho

[Pine Charles]

I tend to agree.
Was his pairing w/ Laurel popular at all??  I remember reading there was a bit of an uproar when Jack had the one-night fling w/ Erica in 1994 in NYC.  She was estranged from Dimitri at the time due to the stabbing/Kendall drama.

Edited April 12, 2018 by Pine Charles

[Khan]

I don't think anything that had anything at all to do w/ Laurel was popular with the majority of AMC's fans.  Which is a shame, I think, because Felicity La Fortune isn't a terrible actor by any means.  She was just saddled with a character that began with no real definition, acquired a backstory (the con-artist thing) that came COMPLETELY from out of nowhere (and cost us a longtime character, even if the original actor had long since left the show), and then gradually faded into the background as part of the beloved-but-definitely-doesn't-fit-with-the-rest-of-the-show Dillon family.

[Soaplovers]

 

Felicity La Fortune was a good actress.. but the 1990s type of soap wasn't a good fit for her.  She was much more at home with the 1980s type of soap, which was upper class/larger then life in terms of structure and character.

[Vee]

I was one of maybe two people on the planet who liked Felicity La Fortune on AMC. She was beyond unpopular. But I think I only liked her on the show because she reminded me a lot of HBS/Nora on OLTL (and in fact, subbed for Hillary one day in the early 2000s).

[BetterForgotten]

Felicia Minei Behr hired quite a few actors on AMC that she worked with on Ryan's Hope, didn't she? 

[j swift]

 

I disliked Travis/Erica because of how it differed from Sky/Raven.  Sky and Raven were a team.  Two scallywags who stuck together through mystery and mayhem.  Other women or men never had a chance to try to seduce them because there were in love with each other.

 

It was an Agnes Nixon trope that selfish people change through the love of a good partner; but I think it is poppycock.  Erica needed someone who loved her for her strengths, not someone who tried to strengthen her.  Jack, Nick, and Adam loved the ideal of Erica more that the real thing.  Travis, Phil, Jeff and Tom tried to remodel her after their own ex-loves.  Mike and Jeremy were just adventurous flings.  I don't think any of them were "end game" lovers.

 

Erica's relationships with women changed over time.  After years of bitchy cat fights from Tara to Brooke, Erica found friends like Opel and was very loyal.  I never understood why they played Phoebe's forgiveness of Erica off stage once Mona died.  Suddenly, Phoebe allowed Erica into the country club without a fuss after years of excluding her.  However, I can't think of a single guy who really had a lasting effect on Erica's personality.

 

BTW the Erica kidnapping story reminded my of a SOW article about a remote in NYC of Erica shopping for the baby.  As I recall, even the charm of baby shopping in spring in NYC did not change their negative opinion about the story.  You have to hand it to SOW that they never held back their critiques. 

[You're Soaking in it]

 

I think just Nancy Addison as Marissa Rampal (recast for Nicole Orth-Palavacini) - and Felicity LaFortune, and that was to replace Kristen Jensen once McTavish finally figured out what she planned to do with Laurel (and that KJ was not the right vibe to pull that off). Walt Willey (ex-Joe Novak, RH) joined AMC while Ryan's Hope was still airing. I can't remember anyone else off-hand.

 

 

I liked Laurel. And then I wasn't all that heartbroken that she was killed. I was more glad that Janet wasn't the one who killed her!

[Leoruby]

 

This reminded me of something I was curious about. Erica's positive interactions with women who weren't blood. Her and Ellen seemed civil in the episodes I've seen. Then there's Opal's daughter Jenny who was close enough to Erica for La Kane to be ticked she wasn't her maid of honor. Was there anyone else? I ask because Erica had like three weddings prior to Jenny's arrival. What characters were her bridesmaids?