AMC had a gothic vibe most apparent between 1979 and 1992.  That element helped to introduce the Cortlandts, Chandlers and Marick/Grey's.  The only time it didn't work was during the Goldie/Silver story.

The 2013 reboot did bring the gothic element back with Celia and her mysterious benefactor.  I do recall SOD would run summaries of the shoe..and even printed summaries of things cut when the show went from airing 4 days to 2 days.

One of summaries featured was Celia's story...and it had revealed that Billy Clyde was connected to her.  However, there were rumors the show had opted not to go that route so those scenes were cut..and a new direction was being decided.  Rumor had it Dimitri would have been the benefactor instead..since fans thought she favored Gillian.

2 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

One of summaries featured was Celia's story...and it had revealed that Billy Clyde was connected to her.  However, there were rumors the show had opted not to go that route so those scenes were cut..and a new direction was being decided.  Rumor had it Dimitri would have been the benefactor instead..since fans thought she favored Gillian.

I remember the redacted Billy Clyde stuff. I always suspected Dimitri myself. The final eps(?) seemed to suggest a turn towards insanity with her (very well-shot) dreams and visions while Pete was beginning to reconnect with Sal Stowers' Cassandra. I did love that the show remembered and used the fact that Pete, Colby and Cassandra were all part of Brown and Esensten's shortlived youth scene together in the late 2000s.

20 hours ago, Maxim said:

I just wanted to brag. Yesterday I saw the episodes of Bianca's birth... and now it's even more interesting. Erica has started tripping herself with ominous premonitions. I am here for it. 🙏 1988 has been amazing so far. The easiest soap I've ever gotten into. 

In hindsight I think it was a great year.  At the time, I believe the network was concerned as ratings were dipping a bit--a bit why they insisted on hiring outside the show and making Margaret Depriest HW in 1989 and hiring FMB for EP (of course she had a great history with the show.)  And we know how that went--Agnes Nixon insisted on returning as HW herself later in 89.

Why anyone would think Margaret De Priest was a good fit for AMC at that point is beyond me.

1 hour ago, EricMontreal22 said:

In hindsight I think it was a great year.  At the time, I believe the network was concerned as ratings were dipping a bit--a bit why they insisted on hiring outside the show and making Margaret Depriest HW in 1989 and hiring FMB for EP (of course she had a great history with the show.)  And we know how that went--Agnes Nixon insisted on returning as HW herself later in 89.

That's great to hear. Thank you for your insight. I've heard mixed opinions about 1988, so it's encouraging to meet another positive one. Why? Because I don't want this to end. I'm enjoying it so much (first time watching the show... complete AMC virgin till a few weeks ago) that I want it to last as much as possible.

So far Lorraine Broderick is leaving a very good impression on me as a writer. I also like the show's quirks, tone, atmosphere, production, characters, style of humor (nothing crass... more Sunset Boulevard and Baby Jane), the acting... occasional melodrama... everything. And I'm really really interested in what turmoil Erica will encounter in the future. I have this feeling it's going to be something big. Her ominous premonitions are suspenseful.

I have not yet watched the show written by Agnes Nixon and I'll be glad if I could keep it up till her return in 1989. MDP... I've only seen in Another World and I was horrified by her storytelling, so we'll see how she did here. I have 0 expectations. 

What are the strongest years in your opinion from the late 80s till the end... Do you have a favorite era?  😊

 

AFTRA Magazine Spring 2010

Broken marriages, intrigue and rivalries were par for the course when AFTRA and The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills gathered together the cast of ABC's long-running daytime drama, "All My Children" (AMC), for a panel discussion and celebration.
Divulging all the tawdry secrets of Pine Valley that evening were the program's icon, Susan Lucci ( Erica Kane), along with cast members Julia Barr ( Brooke English), Bobbie Eakes
(Krystal Carey), Melissa Claire Egan (Annie Chandler), Vincent Irizarry ( David Hayward), Debbi Morgan (Angie Hubbard),the show's executive producer, Julie Hanan Carruthers,
and special guest Agnes Nixon, the show's legendary creator.
The event's purpose was twofold: to celebrate AMC's historic 40 years on ABC and to officially welcome the cast to Los Angeles, the show's new home.

Throughout the panel discussion, cast members lauded Nixon for keeping them going and creating such rich characters to play. Morgan humored the audience with the one stumbling block she has yet to overcome: the medical jargon and procedures.
"You don't know how good an actress I am to pull that material off," Morgan laughed. " I remember back in the ' 80s, I think Angie was a nurse, and I remember I had stuffed a thermometer in a little boy's mouth. I remember him saying, ' Don't you think you should put that in the other way around?"

The best line of the evening came from Lucci during a discussion by Eakes about the pros and cons of shooting in high definition ( HD). When asked what she thought about shooting for HD, Lucci quipped, " I think HD is better suited for ESPN."

The evening, however, belonged to Nixon, who delighted the audience with her stories about the program, including getting her first writing job with Irna Phillips, the legendary creator of "Guiding Light." "My father said I would have no chance as a writer," Nixon recalled. " He wanted me to go into his business, which was manufacturing burial garments. "I got my chance when I went up to Irna Phillips' apartment with my half-hour script, and Irna and her assistant read it out loud," she continued. " I wanted to go down the dumbwaiter I was so terrified. But then Irna put the script down and said, 'How would you like to work for me?' It was an amazing moment for me."

The panel discussion ended with Nixon and Lucci re-creating one of the first scenes between Erica Kane and her mother, Mona, who was portrayed on the drama by the late Frances Heflin.

17 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

The evening, however, belonged to Nixon, who delighted the audience with her stories about the program, including getting her first writing job with Irna Phillips, the legendary creator of "Guiding Light." "My father said I would have no chance as a writer," Nixon recalled. " He wanted me to go into his business, which was manufacturing burial garments. "I got my chance when I went up to Irna Phillips' apartment with my half-hour script, and Irna and her assistant read it out loud," she continued. " I wanted to go down the dumbwaiter I was so terrified. But then Irna put the script down and said, 'How would you like to work for me?' It was an amazing moment for me."

The panel discussion ended with Nixon and Lucci re-creating one of the first scenes between Erica Kane and her mother, Mona, who was portrayed on the drama by the late Frances Heflin.

Thanks. That would be so lovely to see. I'm glad at least we have the recap.

I saw Susan Lucci's comments recently about Agnes being the first to have glamour or humor on soaps. I don't think that's entirely true (you have glamour with Meg on Love of Life, or comedy with Stu and Marge on Search for Tomorrow), but she may have been the first to fuse everything into one product and to allow viewers to accept that fusion. 

(the only fusion involving AMC I would support)

On 1/31/2025 at 4:53 AM, Contessa Donatella said:

And new information suggests that she wrote another mother/daughter pair for The Brighter Day but the show was canceled so they never existed except on the page. Our loss.

 

 

@EricMontreal22 and as I've mentioned for months, there is NO proof of that. She kept insisting it was accurate because of a Wikiwand article. We argued for an hour on how Wikiwand and Wikipedia aren't reliable. I even changed Aggie's name to Donald Duck to prove my point. She still insisted it was a reliable source.

Finally, she revealed to me the source she had who confirmed it to be true. I asked him and he told me he read it on Wikipedia. He told me that it's true because it's cited. Well, there is NOT a single citation on that page that remotely mentions something like that.

 

**However** I somehow remember hearing something similar when Aggie was writing the radio soap The Woman in White and that it canned before they could bring them on. Which makes since considering Aggie was actually writing that show. And we all know that they pretty much ended radio shows without warning.

8 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

AFTRA Magazine Spring 2010

Broken marriages, intrigue and rivalries were par for the course when AFTRA and The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills gathered together the cast of ABC's long-running daytime drama, "All My Children" (AMC), for a panel discussion and celebration.
Divulging all the tawdry secrets of Pine Valley that evening were the program's icon, Susan Lucci ( Erica Kane), along with cast members Julia Barr ( Brooke English), Bobbie Eakes
(Krystal Carey), Melissa Claire Egan (Annie Chandler), Vincent Irizarry ( David Hayward), Debbi Morgan (Angie Hubbard),the show's executive producer, Julie Hanan Carruthers,
and special guest Agnes Nixon, the show's legendary creator.
The event's purpose was twofold: to celebrate AMC's historic 40 years on ABC and to officially welcome the cast to Los Angeles, the show's new home.

Throughout the panel discussion, cast members lauded Nixon for keeping them going and creating such rich characters to play. Morgan humored the audience with the one stumbling block she has yet to overcome: the medical jargon and procedures.
"You don't know how good an actress I am to pull that material off," Morgan laughed. " I remember back in the ' 80s, I think Angie was a nurse, and I remember I had stuffed a thermometer in a little boy's mouth. I remember him saying, ' Don't you think you should put that in the other way around?"

The best line of the evening came from Lucci during a discussion by Eakes about the pros and cons of shooting in high definition ( HD). When asked what she thought about shooting for HD, Lucci quipped, " I think HD is better suited for ESPN."

The evening, however, belonged to Nixon, who delighted the audience with her stories about the program, including getting her first writing job with Irna Phillips, the legendary creator of "Guiding Light." "My father said I would have no chance as a writer," Nixon recalled. " He wanted me to go into his business, which was manufacturing burial garments. "I got my chance when I went up to Irna Phillips' apartment with my half-hour script, and Irna and her assistant read it out loud," she continued. " I wanted to go down the dumbwaiter I was so terrified. But then Irna put the script down and said, 'How would you like to work for me?' It was an amazing moment for me."

The panel discussion ended with Nixon and Lucci re-creating one of the first scenes between Erica Kane and her mother, Mona, who was portrayed on the drama by the late Frances Heflin.

Thanks, Paul, for sharing this, I found it to be quite interesting.

.

On 1/16/2025 at 4:01 AM, gimmetoo said:

 

• Andy asked if any on-screen couples didn't get along off-screen.  No one would answer, but they whispered the obvious answer amongst themselves.  (We all know who!).

 

I re-watched the panel on YouTube and realized I missed this part. At one point, the panelists were whispering to each other. Kelly quietly mentioned some names to Susan, who then moved the microphone behind her so no one could hear and she responded with an "Oh yes." Were they possibly talking about Kate Collins and James Kiberd?

Edited February 2Feb 2 by Jonathan

After nearly a 7 hour marathon last night... I'm approaching March 1988. It's only getting better. Erica's neurosis will lead to her demise. This woman is the most addictive type of MESS I've seen in my life. 

3 hours ago, Maxim said:

After nearly a 7 hour marathon last night... I'm approaching March 1988. It's only getting better. Erica's neurosis will lead to her demise. This woman is the most addictive type of MESS I've seen in my life. 

I'm just gonna keep urging you to go back and watch the early 80s. I think there's a solid month's worth of episodes from fall 1984 that will solidify your love for Erica and all the rest.

Just now, All My Shadows said:

I'm just gonna keep urging you to go back and watch the early 80s. I think there's a solid month's worth of episodes from fall 1984 that will solidify your love for Erica and all the rest.

Challenge accepted! Hahaha! I am watching parallel to 1988... a playlist from HamiltonBernique that is around the time of Woman of the Year 1985 drama with Erica and Brooke. I've spend hours giggling and enjoying every second. I have to see these FALL 1984 episodes that you are recommending to me. ❤️

And in a few minutes parking myself and the dog on the sofa and pressing play on the 1988 episodes from March. Who knows what circus Erica will create from thin air... now with this baby. That's the best type of soap opera stuff for me. Mommie dearest! 

21 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

The panel discussion ended with Nixon and Lucci re-creating one of the first scenes between Erica Kane and her mother, Mona, who was portrayed on the drama by the late Frances Heflin.

Wow I wish this had been filmed and released.  Agnes Nixon briefly had a website with videos of her talks at the Paley Centre (I believe one was for OLTL and one for AMC) that I wish I had thought to save like I saved her AMC episodes that were uploaded.  Grr

On 2/1/2025 at 3:27 PM, Maxim said:

What are the strongest years in your opinion from the late 80s till the end... Do you have a favorite era?  😊

 

Certainly the early 90s under Nixon.  I also think highly of the mid 90s when Broderick returned as HW although there are weird stories in that midst--95-97.

2 minutes ago, EricMontreal22 said:

Certainly the early 90s under Nixon.  I also think highly of the mid 90s when Broderick returned as HW although there are weird stories in that midst--95-97.

Thank you! Lots of moments to look forward to. So far 1988 by Broderick is solid. I have yet to encounter a cringe scene or something off. Dialogue is also very very clever most of the time.