All My Children Tribute Thread

[DRW50]

 

I have no idea how the general audience felt about her. I did not care for her, and I don't think there was much upset when she was gunned down. 

[ghfan89]

I never cared for Laurel, but I thought her murder storyline involving Jason, Michael etc was well done. I was watching some of those episodes and it's like two different shows. This was a good story, but then you had the Jamaica stuff with Noah/Julia/Mateo/Hayley/Taylor which wasn't interesting at all.

[DRW50]

 

I remember some claims that the latter was network interference, I don't know. All I know is that I found all the Julia and Noah stuff boring and he annoyed me a great deal. I get the feeling that may have been one of the storylines McTavish was better suited to write. She had a very specific style (for better or worse...). I think if she and Lorraine Broderick had ever been co-headwriters they would have been a perfect fit for AMC.

[You're Soaking in it]

 

That's been said many times. The problem is that McTavish, by many accounts, could become impossible to work with. She wasn't open to deviating from her style, or collaborating with another voice to create a new voice together. 

 

Former head writer Wisner Washam outright blamed McTavish for driving him off AMC in the early 90's, and it's been long rumored that McTavish had green-eyed monster issues toward Broderick that ultimately caused LB to defect to Guiding Light a few months after Washam's exit.

 

There's an interview McTavish gave during her last AMC stint, where she throws the most petty shade at Broderick... something along the lines of, "You can win all the awards in the world, but they don't mean anything - it's ratings that count." (Broderick had won 4 Daytime Emmys as All My Children's head writer - 3 of those consecutive in the mid-90's... and McTavish? ... Zero.)

 

So yeah. McTavish likely wouldn't have shared head writing duties with anyone, least of all Lorraine Broderick.

[DRW50]

 

I've read that too. It's unfortunate, especially since Broderick (presumably not through her own choice) ended up churning out McTavish-esque material for much of 1996 and 1997 anyway, which was not her strong suit. It ended up being the worst of both worlds. 

Edited April 9, 2018 by DRW50

[ghfan89]

1996 wasn't Broderick's first attempt at science fiction. LB also did that whole Damon Lazzare hypnotizing Silver story in the late 80's. Although you maybe right about it being network mandated given the popularity with DAYS at the time.

[DRW50]

 

It wasn't just the Jamaica stuff, but also things like Janet taking Brooke's face (which I assume she must not have wanted to do in part because I think Robin said when they rehired her that Broderick came up with a story to keep her around - didn't she say that?), and then all that mess like Dimitri sleeping with Maria, and the baby stealing, and the Jim Thomasen stuff with his past history of exploiting Laura, etc. 

[Khan]

 

Agree.

 

But, ya know, even if I've never thought much of LB as a HW, I'd still take her brand of wackiness over MMT's any day.  At least Lorraine tries to ground her in some emotional truth.  To me, Megan McTavish was all plot, all gimmick, all the time.

 

I STILL would LOVE to know what he meant when he said she had a "big mouth."  Did she "runteldat" on him to Agnes Nixon, or FMB, or the network?

[BetterForgotten]

It may be an unpopular opinion, but I find Wisner Washam's AMC vastly superior to Nixon's (yes, I know he's her protege) and everyone else that came after him...

Edited April 9, 2018 by BetterForgotten

[Khan]

 

Actually, BF, I agree.  People tend to give Agnes Nixon credit for AMC's early-to-mid-'80's golden era when, in fact, it was Washam who handled the actual HW'ing duties.  Yes, Nixon kept her hand in, so to speak, but I get the impression that she spent the bulk of her time on other pursuits (LOVING, her prime-time miniseries, etc.).

[Soaplovers]

Laurel wasn't a horrible character, I just think her type of character would have fit in better on the show in the 80s then in the 90s.

 

Lorraine B. always had a quirky side.. pairing Janet/Erica/Skye as a witches of eastwick trio was inspired and funny... while Skye accidently saw Dimitri/Maria together and being conflicted about it because of her friendship with Erica and her crush on Edmund.. with Janet being her sounding board.  There was a lot of good stuff within the wacky.

 

With that said, I loved how judgmental Erica was to Annie.. and even when both were in Oakhaven.. Erica still kept acting like she was above Annie while Annie pointed out to her that they were both in a mental hospital and that both stabbed someone.  I loved Annie's facial expressions and reaction when she found out about Erica/Janet hiding Kinder's body and remarking 'And I'm the crazy one'.  If only she found out about Erica stabbing Dimitri and also kidnapping a baby.

Edited April 9, 2018 by Soaplovers

[amybrickwallace]

 

Every soap fan worth his/her salt knows that never works...at least not long-term.

[You're Soaking in it]

 

Franscesca James deserves partial credit for that time....  a sudden, overdosed injection of plot drive (FJ called it taking characters to the edge) that made our heads spin. 

 

But unlike McT's bag of tricks, there was consistent character exploration in between, very much Broderick's style. In spite of the events that the story surrounded (which I also disliked - Maria sleeping with Dimitri, Janet turns her obsession to Brooke, etc.), they included gripping scenes along the way... and usually led up to power conclusions - all with shedding layers of character, character, character... Edmund taking Sam from Maria's arms to give back to Kelsey, Erica hearing Dimitri tell Maria things were better off that the baby died, Erica returning the baby to Maria, her taking responsibility at the end of her trial, Janet's road to redemption, Kelsey & Kevin's friendship & the conversion therapy story... 

 

Felicia Behr as EP was much better for AMC, and it was a mistake to replace her with FJ. Behr achieved a pacing and balance that felt just right. Disney bought ABC, saw that the ratings weren't quite as good as prior (no soap's was), and really jumped the gun here. Dumping Broderick for McTavish 6 months later, thinking that was going to solve their issues, made things even worse.

 

 

I wouldn't call that sci-fi as much as psycho-fi, lol... Silver was being drugged, as well. I actually found it fascinating to watch. Broderick's work has at times touched on a "gothic" feel to some stories. I enjoyed it.

 

What was terrible was Erica's story that came out of the WGA strike. Travis, and the fake kidnapping, and... honestly, I can't even piece it all together correctly. 

[Pine Charles]

Was that when Erica was working as a waitress (“Sally”) at a diner??

 

[Soaplovers]

The writer strike in 1988 did no favors for a lot of the stories... so when Lorraine Broderick/Victor Miller were demoted in early 1989... they were probably unable to clean up the mess left during the writers strike.

 

I will say Margaret Depriest in her ten month stint as headwriter did some good and not so good of things for the show.  She resolved the Cliff/Nina story, paired up Tad/Dixie, started Jack/Erica (which was fresh at the time), and while I think the Eric as a clown story was strange... in a weird way.. I think it actually was needed because she was a new parent and probably felt more then ever she needed to find her father.  Did Depriest, or Nixon, write that her father Eric betrayed her by selling his shares to Natalie (her rival)?

 

Also, I had no idea that Jeremy/Skye were a couple...I guess Nixon ended that when she came back on fairly quickly?  I