All My Children Tribute Thread

[amybrickwallace]

Thanks for all that info!! Small world about how he and Alice Haining ended up on the show together briefly after having known each other through community theatre.

But it was Charles Frank's Jeff who married Erica, right?

It would be so awesome if there was an AMC horror movie, like the DS movies. It would have to do with Bobby Martin's revenge. I can see him taking on his dad Joe and the adoptive brother (Tad) who stole his spot in the family. It could be something in the Baby Jane mode, but with the guys. I'd watch it!! LOL

[DRW50]

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[DRW50]

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[Khan]

Yep.

[amybrickwallace]

Thanks!!

[Vee]

1996: Laurel is shot on The Cutting Edge.

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I was one of (very, very) few people who was fond of Laurel, probably because Felicity LaFortune was practically a dead ringer both physically and in delivery to Hillary B. Smith from OLTL (she ended up subbing for HBS on OLTL during the JFP years). One of my first big stories as a kid watching AMC was the whole Janet/Jane Cox caper with her terrorizing Laurel, and I was sad to see her go. I remember being iffy on the whole Michael Delaney story even then - I found it forced and sort of shoved into the story with characters we'd never seen before (I hadn't really been around for OLTL during the Billy Douglas story). I think I was too hard on the show at the time because I was so into OLTL and GH by then. It plays much, much better today. And it's so well-shot, with the swooping camera even while Tim and Amanda are backstage watching.

Both Ben Monk as Kevin Sheffield and Chris Bruno(?) as Michael are much hotter than I remember, but I was like 13 or 14. I remember being so outraged that AMC had hired Brian Gaskill from Models Inc. and was trying to pass him off as a high schooler - it felt so phony to me, the whole PVHS setup used to remind me of Saved by the Bell and I thought it was just plastic and cutesy compared to how OLTL or GH treated kids. Again, all of that plays much better today too. It's really good stuff.

Liza wasn't yet defanged here. "I want blood!" I remember loving her affair with Tad and thinking she was fantastic (meanwhile, Cady McClain's hair continued to spiral down into the abyss). Almost immediately after they put Liza with Adam - a pairing which worked at first - I thought she quickly turned into a frumpy, dour woman in mom jeans and never really recovered while Marcy Walker was still there.

I cracked up at Opal somehow bringing the discussion back to Bobby's bad grades and need for tutoring. Classic. I miss her and the show so much these days, after last year.

Edited September 5, 2014 by Vee

[DRW50]

I don't think you were being that hard on it - the teen set was not very good (which is one of the reasons they were backburnered and written out after about a year), but I do think the actual coming out story was decent. At the time I thought some of it was a little trite, but now I realize what a risk they were taking. No way would a soap now tell a story like that about a high school teacher.

I thought Michael and Kevin were hot, as was the guy who played Jason Sheffield, and then Michael's boyfriend, Brad. And the guy who played Scott.

Lots of hot guys.

[Vee]

I don't remember much about Kevin or any boyfriend, I just remember the claim that he was last seen at the carnage at Holidays after it was blown to bits, which is a shame. Billy Douglas got a better send-off than that.

I think it was a bit afterschool special, but that suited the tone of AMC, which was always more (IMO) suburban and wholesome - and there's nothing wrong with that. But when you're a kid and you're gravitating to the grittier or more action-packed shows (OLTL, GH) you find that somewhat trite, or at least I did. I like it much more now because I understand the show better. Some of it is a bit overly earnest and '90s, but I prefer overly earnest AMC to cynical and Fronsian AMC. I think so much of the best of AMC (and for that matter, a lot of the early '90s OLTL I grew up with) is about being deeply earnest.

I don't think all of the teens were bad - I adored Kelsey.

Edited September 5, 2014 by Vee

[ellabelle]

I ADORED Liza during this period. Marcy Walker looked gorgeous, and she and Tad were unbelievably hot together. I never liked Dixie, and I hoped they could draw out Tad/Liza as long as possible. I thought she had a spark with Michael Sabatino's Jonathan Kinder too, but the storyline had them as adversaries before he was written off. Liza/Jack could have been interesting too in the mid-90s. Once Laurel ended up with Trevor, Jack was partner-less until mid to late 1997 when he temporarily reconciled with Erica.

[DRW50]

I was talking about Michael's boyfriend Brad.

Kevin dated a waiter we saw once or twice, but that was about it.

I will say in one of his last appearances they worked in a casual line where he joked that he would use a pair of handcuffs with his boyfriend...I wasn't really expecting that.

Edited September 5, 2014 by DRW50

[Khan]

I might have been hard on Laurel at the time (I can't remember) but in retrospect, she wasn't as awful as one might have thought. I only wish they had kept the Dillon family interact. AMC needed a solid, middle-class family to contrast with everyone else in Pine Valley.

[ellabelle]

Agreed. I couldn't see her lasting long with Jack, but I had a hard time with the idea of Trevor falling in love with and marrying Janet, no matter how much I liked Robin Mattson's Janet. A more realistic story would have been Trevor and Laurel raising Amanda and trying to keep her safe but still finding a way for her to understand who Janet was and having some sort of relationship with her.

Going back further than Laurel's death, it supremely irritated me that he pursued Erica and finally got her to agree to marry him again, and then he ditched her. Yeah, I know, she wasn't over Dimitri and probably would have ended it with Jack at some point or Jack would have come up with some reason to get mad and call the whole thing off, but I really would have liked a more fully developed triangle with Jack, Erica and Dimitri.

[ellabelle]

Fifteen years ago this month, Joan Rivers appeared on AMC, running into Erica and David in NYC:

 

 

 

[danfling]

I think that ending the Dillon family's storyline was a huge mistake for All My Children. I liked Laurel (as played by the second actress; I did not like the original), but her death was a very interesting development.

But writing off Trevor (although I know that the actor wanted more money to continue to play him) was stupid. There should have been a recast, although that actor would be difficult to replace.

I think that ending the Dillon family's storyline was a huge mistake for All My Children. I liked Laurel (as played by the second actress; I did not like the original), but her death was a very interesting development.

But writing off Trevor (although I know that the actor wanted more money to continue to play him) was stupid. There should have been a recast, although that actor would be difficult to replace.

I think that ending the Dillon family's storyline was a huge mistake for All My Children. I liked Laurel (as played by the second actress; I did not like the original), but her death was a very interesting development.

But writing off Trevor (although I know that the actor wanted more money to continue to play him) was stupid. There should have been a recast, although that actor would be difficult to replace.

I think that ending the Dillon family's storyline was a huge mistake for All My Children. I liked Laurel (as played by the second actress; I did not like the original), but her death was a very interesting development.

But writing off Trevor (although I know that the actor wanted more money to continue to play him) was stupid. There should have been a recast, although that actor would be difficult to replace.

[amybrickwallace]

I thought "Uncle Porkchop"'s bond with his niece Hayley was the sweetest thing.

Edited September 5, 2014 by amybrickwallace