All My Children Tribute Thread

[ellabelle]

^ That's such a great picture! Did Annie stab anyone other than Erica? Because I think Erica may hold the title of Queen Stabs-a-Lot: Dimitri, Zach, David, and when Adam kidnapped her in the 80s, she got her hands on a pocket knife and was planning to use that on him. She has a long history of being stabby.

[Cheap21]

LOL...I think Erica is the only actual stab victim but if I recall correctly she had a fantasy of stabbing Ryan and maybe Aidan too. She did hold scissors in her hands and thought about stabbing Marissa. Here's her Ryan fantasy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGfwogxSAl8

[Skin]

She also killed Ritchie with a tire-iron. Who knew Annie had it in her?

[EricMontreal22]

I forgot all about that woman from Passions playing her shrink--because she was an ex of Richie's or something? I wish B/E had played up the "is Annie crazy or is Richie crazy" angle--it had some good moments...

[Pine Charles]

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[Khan]

The beginning of the end, as far as I'm concerned.

[Pine Charles]

Why?

[ellabelle]

I can't speak for Khan, but for me, Natalie in the well was the beginning of the end for Natalie. Trevor had no idea that Janet wasn't Natalie, to the point that he fathered a child with Janet. Natalie then got into a blah relationship with Dimitri, Janet murdered Will, and then Natalie had to deliver Janet's baby. And we were all supposed to just go along with the idea that sure, Natalie would get back together with Trevor and live happily ever after raising the child conceived as a result of all of this.

I liked the b*tchy, scheming, selfish Natalie who fought with Erica over Jeremy. I felt like her character was so watered down to be with Trevor in the first place, so the whole Janet storyline just really ruined Natalie for me as a character by making her seem so weak, and it made me hate Trevor even more. I never really liked him, but that just sealed the deal for me.

[ghfan89]

IA that 80's Natalie was more interesting than early 90's Natalie, but in terms of the show as a whole I think this might have been the beginning of McTavish's sensationalistic plots.

[DRW50]

Would you say this was that much more sensationalistic than the stuff with Silver stalking her and Natalie and Palmer putting Silver in a toy chest, or that weird stuff with Marissa Rampal?

Could you also say the character lost most of her individuality after the rape story?

[ghfan89]

Yes, I think you could say that, as that is where her victimization began. Though I still enjoyed Natalie up until the Trevor period, which she became even more transparent to justapost the 'crazy' Janet.

Depriest did have some weird OTT plots during her brief stint, I was just assuming Khan was talking about the shift from Nixon to McTavish, as thats when AMC lost its 80s vibe.

[DRW50]

To me, although I haven't really seen anywhere enough to say, the show lost that vibe when they dumped Broderick after 1988. The 1989 episodes I've seen (again, few and far between) are, in some ways, quite shocking and alien.

I think McTavish had a lot of ridiculous stuff and too much shock value, too much short term (like Will raping Gloria, Will being murdered), but I think it still manages to have something of a sense of AMC.

[Steve]

With all the love for the Natalie in the Well story on this board, I thought I was the only one who felt that way! I loved Natalie when she was fighting Erica for Jeremy and when she was involved with Palmer & Ross but I hated how weak she was in the Janet storyline.

In 1989, AMC went through a change in focus, but imo it still felt like AMC. The big difference for me in 1989 AMC and what came later with McTavish was how dumbed down all the characters got under McT. The worst example for me was Brooke who was smart enough in 1989 to dump Adam and use the money she got from him to open a women's shelter, but with McT head writing years later, Brooke was too stupid to call either Tad or Trevor when she went to confront Jim Thomason.

[Pine Charles]

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Ov5M18yDBoA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Edited February 11, 2012 by Pine Charles

[Khan]

Because as OTT as some stories had been in the past, none required suspending disbelief as much as Natalie-in-the-well did, or made characters look more foolish. Plus, it seemed as if ALL MY CHILDREN had begun to lose that warm, homey quality that once made it so special (and quite frankly, carried its fans through the more ridiculous periods), devolving into the cynical and gimmicky mess that, over a period of time, rendered it unrecognizable and vulnerable.

Precisely.

Edited February 12, 2012 by Khan