All My Children Tribute Thread

[Darn]

Can someone tell me what was Mark Consuelos doing in 2002 that they could get Kelly Ripa back for Maria's return but not him? Or were they both still on contract during this time and he was sick or something?

Edited July 4, 2020 by Darn

[Jonathan]

 

I believe he was temporarily recast because he was out shooting a movie.  Mateo was in the thick of a few storylines so it was impossible to write him out.  During this time, Kelly was still on contract at AMC and simultaneously doing the talk show.

[Darn]

 

Ah, thank you! For some reason I thought she left in 2001.

[SFK]

 

@ellabelle used to post here, she was a fellow Erica fanatic. I miss her contributions.

[Planet Soap]

Apparently Strahan Sarah & Keke has been cancelled by abc. There goes another dead program in AMC's timeslot.

[All My Shadows]

How long before ABC just gives up the timeslot?

[soapfan770]

 

This always intrigues me, mainly because Brian Frons refuses to give any interviews in the same fashion Goutman for ATWT yet  since they're college professors nowadays no one even bothers to mention that in era in workshops. 

[Planet Soap]

 Yet, ATWT and Guiding Light's repalcements The Talk & Lets Make A Deal have some how managed to last a decade now, compared to ABC daytime's programming instability.

[DRW50]

 

The Talk benefited from being a pet project of the head of the network, and is now likely just still there based on inertia. I am surprised Let's Make a Deal has lasted; it must be very cheap to make.

[All My Shadows]

I think the difference between post-soap plans from ABC and CBS is that ABC/Frons was so gung ho about how viewers wanted a "new" type of daytime that was mostly free of those moldy old soaps and game shows, characterized by "fun" and "quirky" food shows and...well whatever-the-fck The Revolution was supposed to be. CBS, on the other hand, cancelled the world's oldest soap and replaced it with the second-oldest game show (but it's cheaper) and then cancelled another soap and replaced it with a talk show that ripped off a show on another network (but it's cheaper). They played it safe.

[amybrickwallace]

Still, CBS Daytime has managed to cross over their stars to the other shows not in their chosen genre. You can see the Talk ladies and someone from Y&R and B&B occasionally give prizes away on LMAD and TPIR. Wayne Brady and Sheryl Underwood appeared on B&B. Of course, the hosts of the game shows and the soap stars have all been on The Talk.

 

As for ABC giving up the 1 PM slot, I say they should...though I can't think of anything affiliates airing would be any better. Who knows?

[All My Shadows]

Some might welcome the spot for another talk show, but I figure most central time zone affiliates would slot an hour newscast there.

 

Or they could bring back AMC and OLTL as 30-minute soaps. I know, I know...but look, the buzz surrounding such a return would surely bring in higher ratings than anything they've had in that timeslot in a long, long while.

 

I actually just did some quick reading up, and it seems the show really wasn't cancelled so much as it was reformatted to focus on pandemic news. Still, I wonder how long that lasts as it was only created in response to the pandemic. They've already widened the scope to include non-pandemic news. There's no brand being built with this at alllllll.

[Manny]

I always thought that for all four soaps (GL, ATWT, AMC and OLTL) before cancelling them, they should have at least tried going down to 30 min. It would slash the budget and maybe make it a tighter show more appealing to viewers with less filler. Shame that either CBS nor ABC even attempted this before just pulling the plug.

 

I think it could have worked, since a lot of people said they don't have as much time to watch soaps (so 30 min is better than 60 min) and with tighter cast and less filler it could make for more interesting and dynamic stories.

Edited July 7, 2020 by Manny

[DRW50]

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@SFK @Jonathan @All My Shadows

Edited July 7, 2020 by DRW50

[All My Shadows]

Thanks for the tag, Carl, I love it!! Dick’s smarmy style matches up against Erica’s opportunistic vitality - I bet that was a fun arc.
 

It’s a damn shame that we don’t have even a tiny fragment of a scene at the disco anywhere. Though it was only on for a relatively short time, the experience drove so much of who she would be going forward.