All My Children Tribute Thread

[Contessa Donatella]

Well, what Chuck Pratt said to the actors is something I would consider to be sabotage!

[DemetriKane]

Let it go, baby. 

[Contessa Donatella]

Gotta ask, who is this to?

[DemetriKane]

You.

[Contessa Donatella]

Oh no, Mr. Bill!!! 

Seriously, are you a Chuck Pratt apologist or have you not read Lucci's book, or what? Inquiring minds ... Obviously you're entitled to whatever pov you're in/at.

[DemetriKane]

We're all entitled to our opinions but that's not why I said Let it go. I don't believe there is anyone viewing this thread who isn't aware of Pratt’s history with the show. 

I called you out only because I saw you mention the Pratt situation just a few weeks ago. 

It's very disheartening to constantly see that every time AMC is brought into the conversation. 

[Contessa Donatella]

I mentioned him only because it pertained. Basically, the end times of any show that you loved that was canceled could be disheartening & even depressing for good reasons within context. But, truly sorry to be a Debbie Downer. 

[All My Shadows]

I managed to forget all about this until now. I was so checked out of AMC by 2006-2007, I know there are whole storylines and sets of characters that I simply do not know. Weren't Mario Van Peebles and his son on for a minute?

You know, I never really put it together in my head how young LR was at the time. I just looked it up, and she's a little over a month younger than me. At 15, I was coming home from 10th grade to watch my VHS of the day's show, and at 15, she was playing out a love story with a man nearly twice our age. Yikes.

I actually never knew the gap was so big between Mick Hazen and Meredith Hagner. Six years doesn't sound like much, but when it's a gap between 16 and 22 years old, it's huge. Not only uncomfortable for the kid, but if I'm a 22-year-old actress on a soap, I don't want to be paired up with a child.

But you know what? Yet another reason why a certain extremely popular supercouple really was the worst.

[Contessa Donatella]

Genie was such a baby then!!! 

[Maxim]

I'm sorry, but she (Contessa) has mentioned his name TWICE in this topic in a freaking year. A simple search gives me this result. I don't see any issue with that. You make it sound like it's something that is being constantly brought up here by her and it isn't. I think someone needs to let go of something, but it's not @Contessa Donatella. 

And you may not believe that there is anyone who is not aware, but you are mistaken - I was not aware.  Till I read her post and got interested. 

[Franko]

Thinking about their 1992 wedding and his previous divorces has me wondering, did Livia & Tom remain married even when one or both were off the canvas?

[DemetriKane]

@All My ShadowsYes, Mario Van Peebles and his father were on for a brief time. We had 3 generations of black men airing at the same time The Hubbards returned.

@Contessa Donatella Thank You for being understanding. No hard feelings!

[Contessa Donatella]

Sure. I absolutely do get how there can be hard, low feelings that come up about shows' end times, right?!!!

[Vee]

Yes, Brown and Esensten for all their faults had a fairly strong Black canvas during both their AMC and Loving runs. They brought back Darnell and Debbi (with Agnes allegedly involved as well), who they'd written for on Loving and The City, but also had Mario Van Peebles and his onscreen son as Samuel and Dre Woods (Samuel was another in a long line of failed love interests for Erica IIRC), and Yaya Dacosta as Cassandra. IIRC they also brought on Cornelius Smith as Frankie and of course, Randi. I don't think Natalia was them.

I didn't know LR was that young either. I think teen actors in love scenes is and was a complicated and murky thing on soaps - but it's one thing when it's a consenting and comfortable actor with a partner close in age and another when it's something like say, Lily and Jonathan Lavery (where the young girl is both underage and on the spectrum and the IRL male is much older). At OLTL David Fumero talked in the oral history about his being uncomfortable doing love scenes with Erin Torpey early on, but they ultimately became fairly close friends offscreen IIRC and it seems it wasn't an issue. I've never heard of Kimberly McCullough having an issue re: Michael Sutton, who I believe was also older. Kristen Alderson at OLTL has never noted any issue with her various love scenes when she was younger, but she also was never one to complain or dish even when the show was long gone and I would not be at all surprised if she held back her feelings on some uncomfortable situations. (And the very young makeout scenes she had with Connor Paolo in the early 2000s frankly made me uncomfortable for them.)

I don't think it's wrong to show teens having sex on soaps, but it's a messy dilemma. I remember people balking at the awkward scene with Mick Hazen even 20 years ago. Realistically, would Parker and his girlfriend get intimate IRL? Probably. Did they need to show it? Maybe not, particularly with that lame couple. But maybe something like Skins would get a different look today too. I think the primary issue is less depicting the reality with the right actors at the right time, and more with not putting young actors like Rambin in an uncomfortable and unsavory position. Anyway, sorry to go so far afield.

Edited January 27 by Vee

[All My Shadows]

Yes. When Livia returned in the early 00s, Tom was an infrequent recurring character, and they were still together. He made maybe two dozen appearances  over 2004-2005. Mark showed up a few times during the same era, and it really felt like they were thisclose to bringing them both back as recurring on a regular basis.

Okay, I remember now. It was actually Mario Van Peebles as Samuel and his father Melvin played Samuel’s dad. Dre was involved with some kind of rock band or something.

Was it B&E who also brought back Mimi and did that whole story with Lamman Rucker? I know I can easily just look this sht up myself, but