All My Children Tribute Thread

[Khan]

Not really. Did Natalie change over the years? Yes. But you could argue she matured, too; and if she had stayed the calculating bitch, I think people would've protested anyway. Thanks to Kate Collins' performances, I think, Natalie never lost her sense of sophistication. If anything, Janet's ability to dupe Trevor made him look like the fool.

[DRW50]

I should watch more of 89-90 before I really say - it's just some of the material of that time (Trevor and Jeremy brawling in the museum, insta-psycho Marissa and Jeremy's insta-child, Billy Ray's machine gun spray, Adam wanting Dixie to be in a mental institution, Palmer and Mr. U, Erica and Barney the Clown), all coming around the same time, seem so alien to what I think had made AMC a success in the 70's and 80's.

Edited February 12, 2012 by CarlD2

[Khan]

No doubt, Carl, TPTB felt those (and other) stories were the best way of combating the gradual viewer erosion that had been occurring. For all her weaknesses, however, even Maggie DePriest seemed capable of striking that balance between the more outrageous and the tried-and-true. Viewers might've thought the old formula was getting stale, but that didn't mean throwing out everything and turning AMC into a completely different show.

[DRW50]

I don't ever know how to feel about McTavish because I think she can balance light and dark very well, and anchor her gimmicky stories. Then other times, she's just too much. For instance, one early 1995 episode I saw had Julia struggling with whether to have an abortion, Maria mourning over not being a mother, talk of Dixie sacrificing her ability to be a mother, and Gloria losing touch with reality over the death of her child.

What I've seen of 92-94 seems solid, sometimes very good, but if I were a longtime fan I may have felt different. I also wonder how longtime fans felt about the cheating story with Tad/Dixie when he was with Brooke.

[DRW50]

Please register in order to view this content

It seems very plot-driven that Brooke would think Hayley would poison Adam, although they do a good job in this episode of showing Hayley's very mixed feelings about Adam (in later years it just seemed like non-stop Adam bashing from Hayley for the sake of it).

I do wish they'd actually done something to make Adam look like he was ill.

I wonder if they should have tried to get James Patrick Stuart again in later years. He has such a natural talent and charisma.

Charlie almost looks happy when Brooke says Hayley is poisoning Adam. Such bad acting.

Edited February 13, 2012 by CarlD2

[DRW50]

Geez, these scenes with Julia and her friend in the hospital made me tear up a bit. At first I was annoyed that for whatever reason all the ABC soaps at this time (minus Loving) had stories about heroines who were watching people die of AIDS (it seems, for lack of a better word, trendy), but these scenes are beautifully acted and written, and bring back too many memories.

By the time I started watching AMC I felt like Julia had no personality beyond being Noah's girlfriend. At least here she seems to have some type of view of her own.

The show seems so incredibly heavy at this time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKUHFF0iKLc

[DRW50]

Holy crap, I can't believe Cecily was actually trying to pass herself off as a high school senior! Then again, she didn't look much older than Brian Gaskill...

I guess these were some of the plans for Cecily which later seemed to be scrapped. Were they trying for Cecily/Del? Oh, it looks like they were pushing Cecily/Charlie even here. Bleh.

I never knew Joel Fabiana, dull as ever, was on this show.

At least they had a few fun scenes with Joe and the kids, goofing off. You saw that with Joe very rarely.

Edited February 13, 2012 by CarlD2

[Pine Charles]

Please register in order to view this content

[Pine Charles]

Please register in order to view this content

[Pine Charles]

Please register in order to view this content

[Skin]

I'll disagree about this point. I don't think AMC ever lost it's family values in story telling. There was always a sense of familial unity on the show in some form, even in the later years. I will say the one thing that did suffer on AMC was it's overall sense of community/environment and it's friendships. Even with AMC's more campy storylines there was always some heart to them it was very rare to find a character who was truly bad on AMC because there was always some form of redemption given to the characters and that was almost always done on the basis of love and family. What you are talking about to me sounds more like OLTL then AMC. OLTL was always the show that was the colder, grittier, risk taker where evil had a face and had several names and in some cases flourished. That was the show where damaged characters truly thrived. AMC was never played that way to me. AMC was for the most part always bright and happy even at it's darkest it was still significantly brighter then OLTL at it's darkest.

Edited February 13, 2012 by Skin

[SFK]

Brooke!! That was hot as [!@#$%^&*]!

[DRW50]

June 1974 TV Star Parade

[DRW50]

[Pine Charles]

Imagine if Erica walked in ...