Members cct Posted February 22, 2012 Members Share Posted February 22, 2012 Myrtle looks so spry! I had a small donut hole during this time, because I don't remember this ish at all!! I remember talk of re-opening, but I don't remember it being in Cortlandt Manor! The dialogue is incredibly clunky, and even the magnificent Jill Larson is not able to sell it. The whole thing sounds like she's reading off the bits of script she has taped to the lamp and other set pieces. The one thing I will say about this clip is that everyone looks so fresh! Robin Mattson looks good, but it is a little out-of-character for Janet. (I will always be upset for AMC turning Janet crazy again just so Collins can do shtick and McTavish can have a convenient villian. Mattson did SO much to redeem the character.) I do like the bit Belinda starts at the end to the Supremes. That kind of stuff was kind've missing on AMC in latter years. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DRW50 Posted February 22, 2012 Members Share Posted February 22, 2012 They made Janet crazy again even during Mattson's last year, although she did have a rushed "happy ending" with an offcamera Trevor. At the time I kind of felt like AMC's new direction was mostly just a pretty bandaid - I felt little connection to most of the stories, and some of them (like Dixie's miscarriage, and the endless smug Jake, and firing Belinda) annoyed me a lot. By the time of the candy cane I had taken a powder. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members EricMontreal22 Posted February 22, 2012 Members Share Posted February 22, 2012 I don't care if I'm wrong, i thoroughly give the candy cane stoiry to Jean Passanante and not Nixon... I think the changes, even if many were superficial or minor were in the right direction--they just needed to go with them for a while longer. Not to mention that I doubt ABC Daytime would have paid the money to license the actual Supremes original... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DRW50 Posted February 22, 2012 Members Share Posted February 22, 2012 I can see that being Passanante, or an ABC mandate. This was also around the time Mateo poured Hayley a drink and we were supposed to still love him. Ugh. I think the only solid story at the time was David/Erica. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members EricMontreal22 Posted February 22, 2012 Members Share Posted February 22, 2012 (edited) Bianca's coming out *was* well done I think--by that point that seemed to be, from comments made to the magazines anyway, the only story Agnes Nixon was really actively involved in. (I could be wrong though--are you discussing later)? It is true that ABC Daytime was starting to get muddled creatively around this time in general--falling ratings on all soaps were, I suspect, allowing increasing network exec interference, the Disney buy out didn't help, etc. When Nixon and Page first came out the major change really was more little character scenes--and I appreciated that. But they didn't last into the Passanante era (to put it mildly), even Passanate as co-HW really--and I don't think they did anything for the ratings. Edited February 22, 2012 by EricMontreal22 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DRW50 Posted February 22, 2012 Members Share Posted February 22, 2012 I was thinking of the six months to a year before Bianca returned to the canvas. At the time this was seen as a return to old AMC, before McTavish ran riot, but it just didn't do a lot for me. I liked some of the David/Erica story (especially when they moved on from "oh my looks gone forever"), I liked viperous Vanessa, and I liked some of the story where Marian was tempted by high society. I also liked that they didn't put Opal/Palmer back together. None of the rest worked for me, and the stuff which didn't work (crazy Janet, Hayley/Mateo/Ryan, the pie in the face for Adam, Dixie's miscarriage) really bothered me. I guess it also depended on how you felt about Greenlee. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members EricMontreal22 Posted February 22, 2012 Members Share Posted February 22, 2012 And you know that I did like Greenlee particularly back then, one thing we'll just never agree on That's fair enough. I think calling it a return to form was definitely too much, though I did feel like some of the AMC "feel" that I found eroding was coming back (mind you for me much of that feel was the early 90s when I became a fan--and as you you also know some AMC fans feel that the AMC feel was gone much earlier by the late 80s). And I did love the Marian story, I just wish it had been featured more. While I admit it's easy to not put any blame on Agnes, I do know when she returned by then she did basically say in her typical subdued way that she couldn't be as fully hands on as she used to be for a myriad of reasons--which I guess is why she always had co-headwriters though Elizabeth Page was at least a better fit than Passanante. There were things I think Agnes tried but didn't work--like Becka (who of course was part of the Greenlee story too, and it seemed like an attempt to do a 1960s/70s classic nice girl heroine that just never worked) and the Brooke Eliot story which I've admitted I DID like but fans largely hated and that seemed to cause its abrupt end--although fans did seem to like the fact it refocused Brooke with her homeless shelter. I think part of the failure for these plots actually might have been that Agnes Nixon wasn't completely involved or invested--a lot of this time, as much as I enjoyed it, did feel half baked. Maybe the network also wasn't too impressed with such low key storylines, which I suppose could have led to Passanante being hired. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DRW50 Posted February 22, 2012 Members Share Posted February 22, 2012 You make a lot of good points. Many times I feel like I am too hard on those years. I should go back and look I guess - it's just tough because your memories of that time are so strong, and in some ways you don't want to go back and change them, because in the long run memories of soaps are often what you hold onto most dearly, the good and the bad. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ellabelle Posted February 22, 2012 Members Share Posted February 22, 2012 ^ I thought Erica in a phantom of the opera mask was over the top, but I absolutely LOVED Erica and David. They were split up so Erica could be single when she dealt with Bianca coming out, and VI/SL had been told they'd be put back together afterward, but it didn't happen. I think that was a huge mistake by AMC - Erica and David had such amazing chemistry, and it still bothers me that it was trashed so David could obsess over Dixie Martin. What a waste. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jonathan Posted February 22, 2012 Members Share Posted February 22, 2012 (edited) Concur. Love Phantom Erica. I like that we never saw her face when David would take her mask off and dress her wounds. There was a sense of mystery there. Edited February 22, 2012 by Jonathan 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SFK Posted February 22, 2012 Members Share Posted February 22, 2012 What always got me was that when she was first in the wreck, her face did not look mangled at ALL. there was like minimal blood streaked down her face. I know they said they'd never show her scar because it could never live up to the audience's expectations of horror. Do you remember when her masque fell off, "Oh! My mask!", . Adam said she was butchered, her great beauty ruined, lost forever... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Khan Posted February 22, 2012 Members Share Posted February 22, 2012 The really dumb part, though, was that they had done that story with Erica already during the mid- or late-'80's. Thanks for that tidbit, ellabelle. I had NO idea that Erica and David were split up so she could be single for Bianca's coming-out. To me, that decision makes no sense. If anything, such an event would be a terrific catalyst either for bringing them back together or solidifying their relationship. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SFK Posted February 22, 2012 Members Share Posted February 22, 2012 Erica was scarred before? I don't remember that. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Khan Posted February 22, 2012 Members Share Posted February 22, 2012 IIRC, someone (Carl?) posted one of those story recap thingies from an old magazine, and among the highlights for AMC was a sentence like "Erica is concerned the facial scars from such-and-such accident will be permanent," or words to that effort. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jonathan Posted February 22, 2012 Members Share Posted February 22, 2012 I don't remember that either. And if that did happen, she certainly wasn't wearing a Phantom mask. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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