All My Children Tribute Thread

[Steve]

Thank you so much for posting these!!!! I have Erica's failed jailbreak as part of the "I Love Lucci" marathon and I was hoping to see the aftermath again.

[All My Shadows]

Those promos must have been shot over several years. Esta and The Curly One were never on the show simultaneously.

Seeing Gillian just takes me back to when I first started watching 14 years ago. If I'd known the show would be over just a decade later...

[DRW50]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrU8USbszAs

[YRBB]

Just got done with the episodes dealing with Erica's trial in 1994. It was a fun story and definitely a big Erica moment, although also the only major thing the show had going for itself. I just had to laugh and laugh when Erica decided the way to come back from the whole attempted murder mess is to return to modelling. I mean, really. There was a really touching scene following Erica's acquittal and Bianca being sent back to school where Erica quietly broke down crying in her living room. Such a beautiful, humanizing moment. I didn't think the show was capable of it, or making me feel emotion.

The other major story is Janet's return, bubbling under the surface, but it's not there yet. I am loving Robin Mattson as Janet's new face. She's very beautiful and plays the material pitch-perfectly. I'm excited to see everyone find out who she is which, based on the show's plot driven nature, should be within the next couple of months.

Other than this, the show doesn't have all that much going for it. Dimitri has just found out that Anton is his son but decided at the last minute not to tell him which I could tell you would happen a month ago when Edmund and Maria arrived in Hungary and the storyline started. There is literally nothing surprising or not guessable here. The story was spelled out as soon as Edmund and Maria overheard Corvina crying. Still, enjoyable enough, although I can't get over Corvina literally begging Edmund over and over and over and over and over again not to tell Dimitri and Edmund's response was to stare at her blankly and then tell Dimitri. He's supposed to be a nice man? LOL

Del is a weird one. He arrives in the lovely form of Winsor Harmon and sort of stalks Dixie for a few episodes for some reason but then they haven't followed through with it and have thrown him into Erica and Kendall's orbits. Maybe he just wanted material for his book, although it was never made clear.

Not sure what to say about the Terrence/Julia/Taylor stuff. Julia just generally annoyed me for almost two months, until she ran into Anton in the park and revealed a softer side to her and that helped a lot. Although, I don't know why she's so relaxed running into a six foot two man whom she barely knows while all alone in the park at night. I'd be a little worried.

Palmer and Opal are mainly used as comedic relief as they run the Chicken Shack or whatever the hell it's called. I don't know why, but it feels a little weird. Is this the best they can do for them?

I adore Kendall, although SMG continues to confuse me--I can never make up my mind on whether she's great or trash.

The show really has some balancing issues. Apart from the main stories, which get heavy play, Tad, Dixie, Brooke, even Palmer and Opal, have gotten very little airtime, disappearing sometimes for weeks on end. It has also become readily apparent that it's all fairly plot-driven. I just had to roll my eyes at Jack and Erica starting to have feelings for each other again just as Trevor and Laurel started to have feelings for each other. Somebody must have realized they needed more story soon, so suddenly Trevor's son thinks Laurel is the sh!t and oh-so-subtly points out to Trevor that she's the mother he doesn't have. Jesus, this all started like 10 episodes ago!

[Khan]

Didn't someone on this thread talk about how much James Mitchell hated Palmer working with Opal at the Cluck Cluck or did I imagine it?

[DRW50]

He did. He mentioned it in interviews. He hated it and he didn't like the Opal/Palmer marriage in general.

[Khan]

Oh, good. I wasn't sure whether I had made up that stuff. Thanks, Carl.

I don't blame Mitchell for hating the Opal/Palmer marriage. I'm sure the idea sounded cute when Megan McTavish first pitched it at a story conference. But...it just never made sense...no matter WHO was playing Opal. If Palmer HAD to be married again -- and now, I'm not particularly sure whether he had to be -- then maybe Marian Colby might have been more appropriate.

But I'm saying that as someone who was lukewarm on the Stuart/Marian relationship.

[YRBB]

Why would he hate it? He had great material about doing paperwork by the kitchen, bitching at Del and mistreating Opal! It was funny!

[allmc2008]

Palmer before hand was a much more serious character before hand. I think his relationship with Opal is when he became comic relief.

Watch this episode and the two following it and you'll see what I mean.

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[DRW50]

It's ironic that McTavish also wrote their breakup (which I thought was quite good, other than the silly stolen Nazi artwork story - it's what kept me watching AMC at that point).

Edited March 15, 2015 by DRW50

[YRBB]

I was being sarcastic. I've seen Palmer in all his mean, nasty, controlling, overbearing glory and that's why I can't easily reconcile that with him being comic relief, especially since JM played it the same lol

[SFK]

I enjoyed his chemistry with Marj Dusay's Vanessa, as I did with what little I remember of Palmer and Cynthia Preston.

[Khan]

As...crooked as they were, even they were more suitable for Palmer than Opal.

[DRW50]

1989 Digest article on actors who don't have a lot of story.

[Khan]

I still lament the fact that Chuck and Donna, along with so many other long-standing characters, were not around for AMC's last years. Bad writing or no, having the "old guard" onscreen, even on a recurring and irregular basis, would have been a comfort to me and a way to get through some very horrid stories.