All My Children Tribute Thread

[Pine Charles]

Tom was the epitome of a “mean drunk” - 
and I concur with the person who said he appeared possessed when his rage came out.

The mediocre Deidre Hall should’ve taken notes to appear more convincing.

But back to Tom....

He was also a devout Catholic, who balked at his wife taking contraceptives because she was career-oriented and didn’t want to be a mother at that time. 

Did he even know about Erica’s early ‘70s abortion??!!
I think not, as he probably would’ve stoned Miss Kane to death if he knew!!

 

(Btw, I liked the Barbara character.
Yeah, she should’ve walked little Laura across the street, especially considering it was evening hours.... but she had a deadline on that goddamn report!!)

Edited March 3, 2021 by Pine Charles

[Jonathan]

 

LOL, yes that was me who said Tom looked possessed. And Barbara, don't get me started. She deserved this Erica Kane slap and more.

 

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[Pine Charles]

Early Babs reminded me of Sigourney Weaver’s character in Working Girl.

[Jonathan]

 

Yes, the curls.

[Pine Charles]

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[DRW50]

That "raging bitch" line is an absolute classic. Few in daytime, primetime or film could sling a one-liner with the precision Susan Lucci could. 

[Jonathan]

 

 

Standing ovation for La Kane and La Lucci. Pine Valley needs to happen just so Erica can sling these one-liners again.

[DemetriKane]

Yes! Yes! Yes! You nailed it! I love Agnes but I do believe that’s a main reason she couldn’t hold on to a lot of her young talent. Love and marriage isn’t meaty enough for me to stick around for decades. 

 

Sybil should have always been a threat especially having Cliff’s child. 
 

I don’t think they explored Nine enough in the business world. I had hopes to see her conquering that world the same Erica and Brooke did in their fields. Of course struggling in the beginning because it was a boys club.

 

I agree about Cliff not having family besides his sister small stint. I wonder why Agnes dropped her decision in making him a Martin. Being a martin already give me story possibilities, and would give Ruth and Joe something gritty to play.  Imagine Tad the Cad coming between! I always wanted them to play on Tad’s insecurities of being adopted and not being a Doctor too. This would have been a great way to bring it out.

[Pine Charles]

Who are YOU to tell Erica Kane about ‘GLAMOUR’??...  I wrote the BOOK!!

 

 

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Edited March 3, 2021 by Pine Charles

[Jonathan]

 

[DemetriKane]

she looks good

[Faulkner]

Also mentioned in the GL thread:

 

 

[Pine Charles]

RIP
Ray Gardner was TERRIFYING!!

 

(Btw, I always figured he was older and had passed away years ago)

 

 

Edited March 5, 2021 by Pine Charles

[Chris B]

There was a Youtube channel I had found with playlists for 87 through at least 90 with a good number of episodes per year and Youtube deleted it! I was just at an episode in 88 where there was an explosion at a party. I literally watched maybe a month and it was getting so good before Youtube deleted it!

[DeliaIrisFan]

 

That channel went up to 1992...I know, because I had been binging the Natalie-in-the-well story in recent weeks, for the first time.

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I found this period fascinating, in part because the backstage drama I've read about was so obviously spilling over onscreen.  The show was clearly shifting its focus, but there were still elements of Pine Valley being a community where people had to deal with real/mundane day-to-day things amid the melodrama.  It was clearly not going to be sustainable, but it made for compelling viewing while it lasted, and the Natalie story was the over-the-top, garish centerpiece of all that.

 

In some ways, this was both the smartest and dumbest evil twin story I've ever seen on soaps.  On the one hand, Janet and Natalie weren't even actually twins, but unlike other stories involving long-lost, never-explained doubles, Janet didn't even have the element of surprise.  On the other hand, at times the scripts were overtly making fun of the plot holes.  I couldn't help but think of Wisner Washam's very candid comments about Megan McTavish some years back—I can only assume there were factions of the writing team who hated the direction this story represented for the show, but some of those writers were still officially in charge, so I guess they managed to get their digs in via the dialogue.

 

I also recall reading that Collins and Kiberd allegedly did not get along off camera, which also came to mind watching this because some of those scenes between Trevor and "Natalie" were frankly uncomfortable to watch.  But I have to admit part of that discomfort was due to watching this almost a year into COVID, especially with that chickenpox plot device.  In some ways, right now we are all Trevor and Janet, at once getting the sense that our loved ones have been replaced by hateful doppelgangers while resenting the universe for sending us a contagious disease on top of everything else.  So they sort of tapped into something more emotionally real than many soap "newlyweds" have managed to reflect...

 

Does anyone know if Nader was intended to be paired with Lucci all along, or was the show actually trying to make Dimitri and Natalie happen in order to move her and Trevor out of each others' orbits permanently?  Unfortunately if that was the intent, I can't say Natalie and Dimitri and Helga at WildWind made for compelling viewing (I wished I'd skipped ahead to Janet's exposure or Will's murder).  Those scenes also were like a parody of a soap opera, much like the evil twin trope, except there wasn't a character like Janet or Hayley around to provide MST3K-esque commentary.

And speaking of Hayley, I dare say unlike any time I can recall in decades of watching various soaps—including when I was a teenager myself, eons ago—I actually found myself looking forward to a teen character showing up.  Whatever it says about the storyline, Hayley was officially the smartest character living in that house, and she was actually fun.  It's too bad most of what I saw of the way Hayley was written as an adult was so spiritless—clearly someone at ABC remembered that Ripa could do humor, so I don't know what happened there.

Edited March 6, 2021 by DeliaIrisFan