All My Children Tribute Thread

[LeClerc]

He mentions they had his resume on hand and put it back in their desk afterwards, so my guess is the "she" was casting director Judy Blye Wilson and the "he" was assistant casting director Bob Lambert. Not "execs" per se, but that's probably how they seemed to him at the time. 

 

[Faulkner]

Good guesses. It’s easy to take titles so literally (when in reality people often don’t).

[ghfan89]

Cady McClain on some of the behind the scene politics of 2006, which lead to the pancake death

 

 "I made the mistake of saying what I wanted. Sometimes with a show, you've got to smell the atmosphere, and you've really got to consider the politics, and see what is happening. It's taken me a lifetime to learn this, but I did not recognize there was much heavier network influence at the time, that was playing heavily into the politics behind the scenes. 

So when I was taken to lunch, I was asked "What kind of stories do you like, Cady?" and I was like "You're asking me?" Instead of saying what I should of said, "Whatever she wants to write is going to be great." What I did end up saying was "I like social justice storylines. I really loved anything what Agnes was doing in the 80's with AIDS and homelessness." 

And I just watched the writer that shall not be named look at me like she wanted to kill me because she had a story already. It just didn't enter my little pea brain that I was making that story go away by what I was saying. I didn't even realize I had that power at that time. I had no idea. 

So, that became a very difficult year because I think she was very angry with me, for ruining this great story idea that she had, and I got the brunt of that, and I've talked about that before. I don't think it was right or fair personally to take your anger out on an actor, but I've seen it done before. If somebody doesn't like you, and they have to write for you, that's going to be a tough year for you, and it was for me.

I literally had to do a "I wanna kill myself" story for three months straight. And going to work, and doing monologues about how much you want to die is really hard on you personally. We play on a field of emotion, and you can't help when you're doing a very difficult storyline everyday, to take some of that home with you.

After three months, I began to get angry, as anyone would that would be forced to do something that was really painful. It almost felt like torture. That's not a good feelings, and you get snarky and bitchy and angry yourself. Then I had an epiphany, which was "Cady, just let it go. Just shut up, and go do your job. Just entertain people and don't let this get to you." 

By the time I had made that turn, I had a conversation with that writer that did not sit well with her. It wasn't like I was an a-hole, I was saying "Could you please consider..." I was polite, but I wasn't totally in line, which is what you have to do in a job like soaps where they are writing a script five days a week. Its an enormous undertaking for writers.

So, by the time I had my epiphany, she had already made up her mind, and poisoned pancakes was going to her final word on the subject. Which I have had to live with ever since."

 

Full interview

https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/cady-mcclain-guests-on-digests-podcast/

 

[Vee]

She speaks highly of AMC 2.0 on there too, which makes me happy.

[Soaplovers]

 

If you're talking Cady...it makes sense because without Tad on the show, the show had to write for her.

 

She got to play a mother's guilt, forgiving Billy Clyde Tuggle (great scene), and she had chemistry with that doctor that had a secret from the past.

 

[Jonathan]

 

 

So am I reading into this correctly?  Was Megan McTavish jealous and threatened by Agnes Nixon and her writing?

[DRW50]

Watching this (very jumpy) clip, I can't help noticing how maturely Erica is written, and how many times after this they would needlessly regress Erica in order to have her re-learn the same lessons over and over and over.

 

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[Jonathan]

Oh gosh Laurel and Felicity LaFortune were annoying!

[DRW50]

 

Yes, the mugging is unbearable. Sometimes as I get older I think I fell into the trap of rooting for the "bad" or "misunderstood" character (Janet) and being too hard on the "good" character, but no, she still annoys the [!@#$%^&*] out of me.

[Jonathan]

 

I hated that character so much.  Laurel lacked a POV when she was played by that very weak blond model/actress.  When La Fortune stepped into the role, the character became worse.  She turned into this mousy, boring person who made my eyes roll every time she was on screen.

[titan1978]

I thought everyone like Laurel.  I seem to recall people being upset when she was killed.  I wasn’t.  I didn’t enjoy her at all.  And truthfully, I didn’t like Trevor either!

[DRW50]

 

To be honest I've seen very few fans who ever liked her. I did like Trevor, but mostly in his quieter moments.

[Faulkner]

Hated. Laurel. 

[All My Shadows]

I don't think I've ever come across anyone who liked Laurel, even if just a little bit lol

[Jonathan]

 

I liked Trevor.  But the character left a bad taste in my mouth when he ended up forgiving Janet (Jane Cox) for her past misdeeds, falling in love with her, and MARRYING her.  Ugh.  I could not stand the Dillon family as the Brady Bunch.  Made zero sense.

 

Like I've said numerous times on this board, I'm all for redeeming characters and second chances, but I could not accept the fact that Trevor married the reformed psycho bitch.

Edited September 14, 2020 by Jonathan