All My Children Tribute Thread

[Khan]

Janet was not Natalie's identical twin.

[j swift]

Was Gilbert identical?  And do we think Natalie knew of Gilbert?

[Khan]

It's hard to say whether anyone knew of Gilbert since I don't think he was even mentioned before the Jeremy/Gilbert storyline.  (If he was, I don't remember it.)

[Kane]

I'm pretty sure that Jeremy inherited it all and then split it with Tim, putting his portion in a trust. It wouldn't have been very like Jeremy to keep all the money and not share it with his brother, particularly the brother he originally thought was his son.

Speaking of twins, the great pitch/poor execution thread had me thinking about the Tad/Ted story, which I've always thought could have been an interesting story if the show hadn't been so timid about what happened to Ted when he was abducted and had actually explored his trauma and fleshed the character out instead of just sacrificing him at the altar of Tad and Dixie.

[j swift]

Wasn't Alex married to Natalie at the time of his death? 

Edited February 19, 2022 by j swift

[Khan]

Ted Orsini's backstory was so damn confusing.  Were they trying to say he was Ray Gardner's son/Tad's twin brother, whom Ray abandoned in the same way he'd abandoned Tad as a child?

[Vee]

Why did I think Agnes was involved with the Ted Orsini thing? Was she? I know she supposedly had input on adding evil Robert Gardner to the Angie/Jesse story, played by the great David Rasche. But that little connection went nowhere other than "Gardner=bad".

[Khan]

She might've been.  Wasn't she still "Executive Head Writer" at that point?

I remember Tad and Ted shared memories of someone (Ray?) wearing a gold watch on his wrist and locking them in a trunk of a car, so I assumed that the two men were related somehow.  But those and other clues just didn't seem to add up to anything in the end.

It's sort of like that other story about Janet hiring a Will lookalike to terrorize Dixie or something.  Megan McTavish, still in her first run as HW at AMC, would come up with these bizarre ideas that were tough to explain.

I'd blame that on Brian Frons' trademark interference and James Harmon Brown and Barbara Esensten's trademark shallowness.

Edited February 19, 2022 by Khan

[DemetriKane]

Definitely Frons interference.  Eatensten and Brown had a slow start,  but things were looking up in 2008 before they got hit with the writers strike. once that was over they were fired! I always felt the storylines they were telling had a bigger purpose.  May sweeps was so good, for about 3 weeks AMC was actually going places. Robert Reign of terror wasn't complete.  Still so much story to tell there.

I just always wanted a story about Tad doing something with his orsini money.

[Kane]

She was, but she either got cut out of the will or was only left a small amount. Her being in need of money was why she became Palmer's nurse.

I don't recall Ray being part of it - but it's been a while, so my memory is a bit hazy. My recollection is that they just happened to look alike.

[FrenchBug82]

That's not how I remember it. She was left wealthy after he died.
Alex wanting to rewrite his will after finding out about Jeremy and Natalie but dying before he got to do it was a plot point. And so she was rich.

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From my quick research her money problems stemmed from part of the estate being given in trust to Timmy after it was found out he was Alex's instead of Jeremy's. 

Edited February 19, 2022 by FrenchBug82

[Kane]

I stand corrected.  My recollection was that she didn't come into significant money of her own until later.

Natalie knew all along that Timmy was Alex's, right? Or did she really think there was a possibility that Jeremy was his father?

[ghfan89]

I am not sure if the Ted and Tad thing was Agnes's idea. Only because I remember reading the first storyline McTavish pitched and had a hand in was the whole Trevor marrying Janet while Natalie was trapped in a well story. Then again, Agnes was still listed as HW at that time. I think Tad's initial return from the dead the first few months and the building to him and Dixie seeing each other was well written, but then somewhere around that spring or summer it became really dumbed down, and their subsequent romantic reunion that fall was lackluster by comparison. Ted Orisini never seemed fleshed out beyond a point point.

[j swift]

I watched this excellent video last night.  At first, it seemed like Natalie didn't know, because this was before DNA testing was available, so they could only do a paternity test once the baby was born, and Adam tampered with the test in order to manipulate Erica.  But, then there is some confusion about whether Jeremy was able to "perform" during the event when Timmy was conceived, so Natalie must have known that Alex was the father.  Either way, Natalie calling Erica "barren" was so funny to me, because it doesn't seem like the language either woman would use.  And from this compilation the pregnancy seemed to last a very long time.

Also, I loved Erica's purple art-deco house (I'm sure it had a name that I have forgotten), but the dimensions were difficult to determine.  It seemed like the two story living room would have left very little room for large en-suites up that very graceful staircase.  Was it the perfect house for a barren/selfish woman like Erica because there was only room for one primary suite?  I know there was no visible kitchen, but were there meant to be other bedrooms on the ground floor?

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Edited February 19, 2022 by j swift

[Khan]

I wanted a story that tied up the loose end that was Ted Orsini.  Even if it was some silly plot about Ted kidnapping Tad and taking over his identity, it was better than leaving him to wander those woods forever.  (I'm not saying I enjoyed Ted; I just hate loose ends, lol.)