All My Children Tribute Thread

[j swift]

A recent discussion in the Loving/City forum inspired me to revisit the history of Devon Shepherd.  According to contemporary sources to the plot, Devon never actually kissed Dr. Lynn Carson, PhD. I'd be eager to know if anyone recalls it differently.  My visual memory of Lynn was that she was always dressed in office-realness drag of the 1980s.   And, that Donna Peskow never toned down her New York accent.

Meanwhile, has there ever been a more boring offspring than Devon?

On paper, she had it all.  Teen pregnancy, alcoholism, brief foray into bisexuality, adultery, Devon was always down to clown.  But, she was an eternal meekly mouse, with those tiny braids and that namby-pamby vocal tone.  Mr. Shepard must have been a huge nerd, because Devon inherited none of her mother's charm or elegance.  And, don't get me started on her terrible choices for romantic partners.  One can hardly blame Ellen for forgetting about Devon and pretending Julie was her daughter.

Please register in order to view this content

Side note: Devon fell for Cliff Warner after he performed the Heimlich Maneuver on her daughter Bonnie and saved her from choking in 1984.  I don't know why this caused me to go on a side quest, but, the Heimlich Maneuver is a relatively recent innovation.  Up until 1986 the government still trained food workers to slap a person on the back in order to dislodge food.  Heimlich's treatment was superior, and in an effort to make it policy, ABC and the other networks agreed to air pro-Heimlich content starting in 1984, according to TV Guide.  So, Cliff was responsible for training mothers at home how to stop their kids from choking.  

Edited Tuesday at 12:16 AM by j swift

[DemetriKane]

I agree with all of this.

Please register in order to view this content

[Jonathan]

Devon was definitely milquetoast. What was shocking is that the character left the canvas and then the writers decided to bring her back years later. Same actress!

[Wendy]

I don't remember ANYTHING with Devon and Cliff! I do remember Liza fixated on him (around the time Angel Haining took over the role briefly as Marcy Walker left for Santa Barbara!), but not a thing about Devon. Shows how memorable it was. LOL!

I do have a very hazy memory with Devon and...Wally, was it? I think that was his name, Devon's husband! (Mom watched AMC from jump, and wee little me got into it!) But I do remember poor Tricia Pursley just played Devon as a sad sack.

[DRW50]

I have seen little of Wally, but I always think of the backstage story Julia Barr (I think it was Julia) told where he hated his character and storylines so much that at one point he put some form of clown makeup on in his dressing room to show his feelings.

[DemetriKane]

When you think about it, someone who stayed on for as long as Devon must have some fans out there. She also had an alcohol issue.

I saw a host of episodes with her and Cliff on YouTube. I wanna say that’s who Cliff was entertaining while Nina had the affair with Steve. 

Do you believe she lasted so long because Brooke left and they kept recasting Nina? 

[DRW50]

Wasn't Taylor Miller still playing Nina during the period that Devon was on the show? She was also written out around the time Julia Barr left and Brooke was recast.

I wonder if they brought her back because being the doomed non-Nina love interest to Cliff was something they didn't want to give to a woman they cared about, and they didn't want to create yet another Kennicott relation. Then having her for the Lynn Carson story also made sense because if there was intense viewer backlash, she could easily be written out.

[DemetriKane]

Yeah, you're right, Taylor Miller was still playing Nina. So your reasons for those story choices make more sense. 

[DeeVee]

There were two actors who played Wally. I wonder which one it was. TBH, from what I remember of the storyline and the character, either could have done this. It was a thankless role. Devon couldn't stand sleeping with him, so she would fantasize about making love to bad-boy Sean while they were doing it. Then he'd be all, "WOW, that was GREAT! Whatever you were thinking, keep doing it!" That had to shred any actor's ego, LOL.

The second Wally was paired with Betsy Kennicott for a while. If you thought Devon and Wally were dull, that's nothing compared to Betsy and Wally.

[DRW50]

I am glad you brought this back up as it made me remember that the story was about Daran Kelly (Dan Kennicott). Sorry. I guess Dan didn't exactly set the world on fire either.

I see that three actors played Wally, one of whom (Nigel Reed) would go on to play an even more thankless role on GL...no wonder he left the industry.

Was his 1984 return for any reconciliation with Devon? They don't mention the reason on here. 

Wally McFadden

[DeeVee]

I always thought it was a bit odd that they brought in the brother and sister of a character who had been killed off ages before, and who was the wife of a character no longer on the show (Jeff). They were really dull. I would think the reason he hated playing Dan was that he was Brooke's plaything while she was waiting around for a more exciting lover. Just like Wally, he was portrayed as a dullard and a bust in the bedroom.

Many, many moons ago, I saw Kelly on Broadway in the play Deathtrap. He played the role Christopher Reeve played in the movie. I remember recognizing him from the show and thinking, wow, he's a way better actor than I thought he was! He probably had a good theatrical career after soaps.

[j swift]

If the actors in question had studied Agnes Nixon's character naming conventions, they could've saved themselves a lot of disappointment.

In Pine Valley, there's no way that Wally is going to win in a romantic entanglement with Sean.  Just as Dan Kennicott was never going to be as intriguing as Benny Sago.

She was more subtle than Bill Bell, and I can't be certain she even personally named all of these men.  But there is a pattern to be studied. Cliff Warner wasn't as emotionally driven as his name would suggest, but we knew Sean and Linda meant trouble before they even appeared on-screen.

 

[Khan]

Wasn't there talk of bringing back Dan Kennicott at some point?  Like, sometime during the late '90's or early '00's?

[DemetriKane]

How did you guys feel about Devon with Mark Dalton? 

I believe so. Brooke needed a storyline that played on her history at that time. I could have seen Brooke fall for him now that she has grown up.

[DRW50]

That would have made more sense than Brooke's other love interests in those years (including the man who killed her daughter).