All My Children Tribute Thread

[Pine Charles]

Dan Kennicott can be seen in this promo from 1978 (he's chatting with Brooke):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op8elfnLkko

BTW, that chick in the Ryan's Hope promo annoys the hell out of me. "I thought it was a marriage of con-VEEN-yance!" God, shut up.

Edited January 18, 2012 by Pine Charles

[DRW50]

That's the divine Sarah Felder - I loved her at that time, saying and doing the wrong thing at all times.

I actually kind of like the idea of the Will double story, Janet haunting Dixie with her past. It was a way to give Dixie and Tad problems without more affair or breakup stories. I do think Janet may have had a little too much boiling over at that point.

I have an article somewhere about Daran Kelly's world travels. I don't know how fans felt about him, I mostly remember him for the story Julia Barr told, where he constantly complained about the role, and even put rouge on his cheeks to signify (this was in her dressing room I think) that he was a puppet.

[Jonathan]

Interesting that Erica brings up abortion concerning her baby, Bianca.

[ellabelle]

Susan's son was born in late Feb 1980, so she was likely off for most of the spring of that year.

[ellabelle]

Agnes later said that they wrote Erica as having doubts about the pregnancy and being unsure about being a mother to create drama but that the intention from the very beginning was that Erica most definitely WOULD have that baby - there was never any question about it. Susan was told as well that Erica was definitely having the baby, but apparently she did have to wait around for a while for the writers to decide whether or not Erica was going to be a good mother.

[EricMontreal22]

I had no issue with the Will double story myself (again I was I guess 14/15 when it happened and maybe less critical than I would be now, so take it with a grain of salt). It probably was smart of Broderick to cut down on Janet "boiling over" and make her sympathetic when she came on. Was Seabone and all that gone by the time of the Will Double? I have some of that mixed up in my head.

Pine Charles thanks for posting that! It's great to see how Brooke grew--she really is a troublemaker and a snob when she came on (at least with Barr)--like in that 78 wedding episode, you see her start to grow out of that in the '80s episodes I posted--it all feels quite natural, even if poor upright/victim Brooke caused some story issues much later on (though she was always a fave character of mine despite some bust stories).

Here's the last of the three episodes from Palmer's 1980 Masquerade I have-this one is 10 minutes shorter because most commercials were skipped... Enjoy!

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Edited January 18, 2012 by EricMontreal22

[DRW50]

I think Seabone left in summer 1995.

I can see where AMC had lost something of itself by early 1995 but I mostly put that on the Janet story sort of spirraling out of control. Aside from fixing the Janet story, and bringing back Liza in a good soapy fashion, I'm not sure if AMC changed all that much, in terms of improvement. The show mostly seemed to move away from OTT stories for about 5 or 6 months, which was a good idea, although the teen influx canceled some of that out. But I was surprised when I finally got to see these episodes at how OK they are. I thought that AMC was in some type of hell in McTavish's last 1995 months. Now I can kind of see why the ratings didn't really go up after she left, and actually declined.

I wonder if she or Broderick "got" Noah and Julia better. I'd say I prefer him more in the McTavish episodes, but that may just be because this was before he really took off. There was a lot of arrogance, and huffing and puffing, in his last year. I thought most of his last year of stories sucked a$$, aside from the very last one, with Leslie Uggamms and Randy Brooks.

Edited January 18, 2012 by CarlD2

[EricMontreal22]

OK so he was involved in the Will plot (was it his plan at all?) or at least him talking about Dixie's guilt re Will helped it.

The rumours of McTavish's first tenure ending ina huge mess like her others have are *greatly* exagerated--well at least I've always felt so though I've only had the chance to catch up with much of it--now actually. So I'm glad you seem to agree. I mean maybe it's hindsight--I do get some of the criticism but there seems to be a common wisdom when discussing her work that she went completely "unabortion, burried alive killing" out of control in that run, and the show still felt largely like 90s AMC identiy (even if that slipped away throughout most of the nineties I wouldn't blame her so much as cast aging, and other cast issues, as well as a changing soap climate, including their timeslot rival in many places suddenly climbing--Days).

[DRW50]

I think Seabone came back mostly for the Del story, and I guess Will. Wasn't he also involved with Opal briefly?

I know Marlena de la Croix complained about the show becoming too OTT - a lot of focus seemed to go on Janet getting the experimental plastic surgery as a way to get out of jail.

I think a lot of it just had to do with network pressures, more than anything. Broderick was in no time at all heaping up horrific wacko stories, some of which she clearly fought against (she was one of the reasons they backed out of the Janet-is-Brooke storyline).

[EricMontreal22]

Yes, I prefer Broderick's tenure over you, but there's no doubt she was pressured into big shock stories--some I felt worked (incorporating Laurel's shooting into the gay story) others (voodoo is an obvious example but there were many) didn't.

I thought the Janet plastic surgery story--as much as by AMC levels it may have been OTT was well received by fans... And yes, I think Seabone was involved with Opal.

[Pine Charles]

A part of me would have loved the "Janet-is-Brooke" storyline... but I guess it's for the best that it never happened. I actually do remember the very first parts of it - like Janet trying to get a lock of Brooke's hair and recording her voice. LOL.

[DRW50]

I think they went too far with the bomb storyline and I think they should have worked harder on redeeming Janet instead of building up the crazy (there are some little moments but not enough). Other than that there's really nothing OTT on AMC at that time, and most of the story worked.

I think one of the bigger problems may have been struggling with what to do with longtime characters who had run out of story (Brooke, Palmer, Adam, Jack), and what to do with various popular, happy couples (Erica/Dimitri, Edmund/Maria, Tad/Dixie). And that continued to be a struggle even under Broderick. The show had also failed to bring in a lot of good fresh blood (I guess the most popular new characters who stayed around more than two years were Edmund and Maria, who were soon ruined/squandered by the endless babymaker melodrama).

It's interesting though, when Marlena and others praised AMC for going back to its roots, because, as you mentioned, there's still a lot of hysteria in the writing. I think this worked to great effect in the Michael Delaney story and the ripple effect it had. Other times, it was just ugly (like Papa Santos going to have Anita's hymen checked).

[Steve]

Thanks for posting that! It's weird to see the show in color back then because so few color clips still exist.

Me, too!!!!

I had almost forgotten about Wally & Devon. I think she worked better as a lesbian.

I remember Jeremy & Skye and I think Skye met Travis while they were both at Oak Haven.

I'm pretty sure Cliff & Nina were married around Labor Day 1980, so early September.

[Cheap21]

Old video I made for Kendall during the Cambis murder story

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7teYzMNP13E&feature=youtu.be

Edited January 18, 2012 by Cheap21

[DRW50]

What was Travis in Oakhaven for?