AMC Tribute Thread

[full hearts]

David & Erica at the country inn. Sweet montage at the end. I love that Maxwell song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6k_6Qyp0TU

[DRW50]

A few 1992 episodes have been uploaded.

[EricMontreal22]

I always forget to read these--but thanks for the heads up. That's probably literally when I started taping the show daily right after Xmas break--I had watched closely for a good 7 months before, especially with Natalie in the well, but would only catch half episodes when I'd rush home on my lunch break from grade 6--never thought to tape it... I guess they're working up to the Will storyline--interesting to see Megan McTavish, Hal Corleyand Richard Culliton as associate head writers.

[DRW50]

Wow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7EQfqyG7dw

[~bl~]

That seems like a parody, but it is not.

[Jonathan]

W W

[ellabelle]

The 'wow' is horrible. It's amusing to look back and remember that Jack was supposed to be the bad boy, the wild Montgomery brother, etc.

[EricMontreal22]

An interesting take on AMC from the somewhat hard to find 1978 The Soap Opera Book. The author takes some of the usual soap press confusion on the show of the time (there feels a tad bit f resentment that it's not as serious as other soaps yet has a trendy young following and press) but it's not without praise:

All My children
The Soap Opera Book, 1978

The Viewer's Guide to the Soaps

{C}

{C} Click for a
larger image

All My Children is a light-hearted soap—perhaps the only light-hearted soap on the air. It may also be characterized as a home-and-familv soap, in the doctor-lawyer formula. The setting is the small town of Pine Valley. The major families are the Tylers (who founded the town) and the Martins.

All My Children was created and originally owned by Agnes Nixon, who also wrote or created Another World and One Life to Live. Today the show is owned by ABC; but Nixon retains creative control and her production company is listed as producer. As of January, 1977, All My Children is still in the half- hour format, but there are pressures to move to an hour, and this may well happen in the Spring of 1977.

In its home-and-family orientation, All My Children very much resembles traditional soaps.

But there are differences in tone. All My Children seldom succumbs to dark feelings of loneliness or instability (as does As the World Turns) or to sexual despair (as does Days of Our Lives). On All My Children, there is little serious evil. Bad characters like Phoebe, Erica, Mrs. Lum, or Benny Sago, tend to be fun, or funny. They do not ask much of us.

For example, when Phoebe Tyler is left drinking alone on Christmas Eve, she gives a sarcastic, rather maudlin toast. If she pities herself, we don't. On As the World Turns, a character in the same predicament would suffer visibly and so would we. Indeed there is remarkably little real suffering on All My Children , compared to other soaps—little at least that we must take seriously. Many viewers seem to identify with the writers—speculating on what development will take place next—instead of sympathizing with the troubled characters.

If there is a message to the show, it is that people with all their destructive emotions are only human ; and that happiness is best found in the sharing of experience with a loved one, within the context of an extended family. Characters tell one another that they can find happiness if they do not demand too much of themselves or others.

The show is, in other words, optimistic. Dialogue is shot through with references to hope and faith. You have to have faith that things will work out is said in many forms, and very often. One character will tell another that her problem can be solved. All I have to hold onto is that hope, is the typical response. Men spend a lot of time encouraging younger women, who are fatalistic, guilt-ridden, irrational, and sometimes right.

It is said that as much as 35% of the audience for All My Children is male. Well, there really are an awful lot of very admirable men on this show (Dr. Charles, Dr. Chuck, Dr. Frank Grant, Lincoln Tyler, Danny Kennicott, Paul Martin, etc.,etc.). Except for Phil Brent, who has been troubled, male characters are generally rational or reliable. The only bad guys are people who don't belong in Pine Valley and who do not stay (for example, Hal Short, Benny, and Tyrone the Pimp).

Most of the dramatic interest comes from women. Villains are delightfully overdrawn. Phoebe and Erica are so bad as to be funny, and so good as to set all kinds of improbable plots in motion. The story, however, tends to revolve around sensitive, vulnerable types like Tara, Kitty, Anne, Ruth, and Donna. Here there is an effective mixture of real-life and fantasy-based material. Ruth's marital breakdown was an adult situation, sensitively played (at least until the end).

This was, typically, contrasted by a fantasy of the innocent prostitute (Donna), and the search for the long-lost mother (Kitty). All My Children treats difficult life problems, such as the maintenance of marriage and career. But fortunately there are always a few fun- and-far-out storylines going at the same time. Most fun (and more heavily drawn here than elsewhere) are confrontations between black and white, right- and wrong-headed characters (Mona vs. Erica; the good black doctor vs. the bad black pimp).

Although All My Children is a modern-looking show, with a young following, it is respectful of old soap conventions. The show features an eternal triangle, complete with a child who does not know his own father (the Phil/Tara/Chuck triangle). Both Chuck and Phil refer to little Phil as my own son, as Tara stands by beautifully and usually in tears. There are also the usual troubled pregnancies and well-timed illnesses. (Who would have thought that a healthy-looking man like Chuck Tyler would collapse from kidney disease exactly when marriage, then divorce, were imminent; or that Joe Martin would need an emergency appendectomy at the very moment his wife was set to run off with another man?) True, there are some social issues: a speech against war; some rumbling about drugs and women's lib; a not-very-well-integrated sequence on child abuse. But this is essentially a fun romantic drama. We listen to the women's lib rhetoric, and feel good about it, but what we really want to know is whether she will stay married to him.

All My Children plays more story, at any given time, than most other soaps. Yet it is easy to follow. It's well paced: different storylines move at different tempos, with major stories moving quickly. The lighting is exceptionally bright and clear. Generally recaps are re-presented or re-dramatized, rather than merely stated. Flashbacks-in-the-mind are an important (though perhaps corny) reminder of what passed before. Music is essentially dramatic, ranging from surrealistic modern sounds (for emotional disturbance), to swarmy violins (for Tara and Phil's theme).

All My Children is usually in the top three of the Nielsen ratings and is especially popular at college campuses and high schools. It has received more than usual press attention, partly because of the publication of Dan Wakefield's All Her Children and rather lively public relations campaign that accompanied it.

[EricMontreal22]

And an SOD 20th Anniversary article:

The Kids Are All Right

All My Children
Moves Into Its Third Decade

by Donna Hoke

This may well have been ALL MY CHILDREN'S twenty- fifth anniversary had Procter & Gamble put Agnes Nixon's serial on the air when they first optioned it in 1965. But it wasn't until 1969, after Agnes had proven herself by bringing ANOTHER WORLD out of its slump and creating ABC's huge y successful ONE LIFE TO LIVE, that she risked repeated rejection and gave the bible to ABC. The network was delighted with her concept of "The great and the least, the weak and the strong, in joy and in sorrow, in hope and in fear, in tragedy and triumph, you are all my children." Finally, on January 5, 1970, the residents of Pine Valley came to life.

Agnes did much of the original casting herself, anxious to put reliable people in those initial roles. To her credit, after twenty years, five original cast members remain — Ray McDonnell (Joe Martin), Mary Fickett (Ruth Martin), Frances Heflin (Mona Kane), Ruth Warrick (Phoebe Wallingford), and Susan Lucci (Erica Kane). (Viewers had seen glimpses of this last character when Agnes introduced ANOTHER WORLD'S Erica-based Rachel, according to AMC publicist Alyce Serrano.)

In the beginning, the studio was make shift, lacking soundproofing. Ruth Warrick (Phoebe) has said that often actors were so weary of retakes due to noise, they tried to convince producers that taxi horns and banging garbage-can lids added realism. They got nowhere. In addition, convenience was nil, as makeup and dressing rooms were on the second floor and bath rooms were in the basement.

Living under these conditions were two families: the very wealthy Tylers — Charles and Phoebe, the classic buttinsky; their children, Ann and Lincoln; and Chuck, Charles's grandson. The Tyler women were spoiled and manipulative, needing to be knocked down a few notches by the men in the family. The middle-class Martins represented precisely the opposite: diehard morality. And the lessons in humanity taught by Grandma Kate Martin are now passed on by Joe and Ruth.

"

Those early days were marvelous because it was a half-hour show," remembers Mary Pickett, who plays Ruth. "We actually put in a tremendous amount of time with rehearsals, and being a pivotal character made for a very long day. But everybody was in it to make it work. We felt like a repertory company."

Of course, in the beginning, there was also the invincible Erica Kane (ten-time Emmy-nominee Susan Lucci). Escapade after adventure, she went through the longest series of men on soaps (Jeff Martin, Jason Maxwell, Phillip Brent, Chuck Tyler,

Nick Davis, Tom Cudahy, Brandon Kingsley, Kent Bogard, Lars Bogard, Mike Roy [whom Susan says was Erica's all-time love], Adam Chandler, Jeremy Hunter, Travis Montgomery, Dave Gillis and Jackson Montgomery), and slowly matured from a self-centered brat who couldn't give or accept love, to a caring mother. Each man had an impact on Erica and what she is today is a compilation of these changes.

"I grew up on this show in a lot of ways," says Susan. "I remember very clearly how much I admired, and still do, Mary Fickett, Fran Heflin, Ruth Warrick and Ray McDon nell, and how much I learned from them." Like all the other veterans she works with, Susan swears she never envisioned her self staying with AMC as long as she did. "I didn't think I'd be here longer than my first contract. Three years seemed an eternity to me. But every time it came to renew, I loved it here. And Erica is one of the best parts written for a woman, anywhere."

Fellow cast members echo Susan's sentiment: James Mitchell (Palmer) and Richard Shoberg (Tom) attribute their tenure to the fans. Mary Fickett can only keep track of her years on the show because it's the same as her son's age. But most actors simply say they don't know where the time went. "People talk about being in this job like, 'My God, that's a long time,'" Julia Barr (Brooke) points out. "I'm not sure why they think it's a long time when people stay in jobs that they like for twenty-five years."

From the start, these multi-generational characters were integrated into every story and, because of this, the new soap attracted viewers of all ages. "I wanted the show to be very contemporary, to make the men as important as the women," Agnes Nixon says in explanation of the show's popularity. "We started out with the Phillip/Chuck/ Tara triangle, but I didn't start out saying I was going to catch the young people. Yet that's what happened at colleges."

While that original threesome of Tara Martin (Karen Lynn Gorney), and best friends Chuck Tyier (Jack Stauffer) and Phillip Brent (Richard Hatch), went through every conceivable device known to triangles — including presumed-death and a baby (Charlie Brent) — the show flour ished. Within four years of its debut, AMC had moved from number seventeen (out of eighteen) in the Nielsens, to number five and, in 1978, it hit number one. It's been close to the top ever since.

When AMC went to an hour in 1977, the company was excited, but braced for change. "The cast was vast, things got scattered. It's easy to keep a show fresh when it's a half-hour," explains Ray Mc Donnell. "Your energy is up and the smaller cast works together more intensely. Today, you have two sets. You can work all day and still be surprised at what was going on at the other end," he continues. "[With the hour for mat,] they had to have many stories, so they brought in different families. And they finally were done with Phillip and Tara. So many people played them; I can't remember which one is which."

But though the Phillip/ Tara/Chuck triangle was nearly played out, the show continued to highlight youthful love and, in the up coming years, other young lovers took their place. Most notable were the romances of Cliff Warner (Peter Bergman) and Nina Cortlandt (Taylor Miller), Jenny Gardner (Kim Delaney) and Greg Nelson (Laurence Lau), and today, David (Trent Bushey) and Melanie (Paige Turco). The former two couples' story lines also showcased unique, well-developed characters: Jenny's outrageous mama, Opal Gardner (played by Dorothy Lyman, who won two Emmys in 1982 and 1983 and, now, by Jill Larson) and Nina's manipulative father, Palmer Cortlandt. James Mitchell has vivid memories of those early scenes: "On my first day with Taylor Miller [Nina], I ran my hand down her back and down her legs and when she left the room, I picked up her scarf and inhaled very deeply. This stopped the next day, but they were trying to suggest an incestuous feeling, which wasn't a bad idea. It gave the actors something to go on, but it was never overt."

These stories were at the forefront of AMC's early-eighties heyday, when the show maintained a number-two spot in the Nielsens and introduced a steady stream of classic characters. "There was definitely something different happening," maintains Alan Dysert (Sean). "It was more of a phenomenon." 1980 saw the return of the popular Francesca James as Kelty Cole, the twin sister of the late, fragile Kitty Shea, one of daytime's first "dual role" stories. Though the character married Linc (Peter White) and they moved away, Emmy-winner James and White often show up at Christmas.

In 1980, the long-awaited marriage of Cliff and Nina was everything it promised — until Nina's night in front of the Cortlandt fireplace with the dashing Steve Jacobi (Dack Rambo) ended it. Three re-marriages were to follow. On the heels of Cliff and Nina came innocent Jenny and protective Greg. This couple's friendship with Jesse Hubbard (Darnell Williams, who won two Emmys for his performance) and Angie Baxter (Debbi Morgan, also an Emmy winner) opened the door for the creation of what may well be daytime's only black super couple. But AMC has always been commended for its treatment of ethnic characters not merely as tokens, but as fully integrated personalities.

In fact, ALL MY CHILDREN has always taken pride in its realism. Seldom does it depart from the conflicts inherent in the human psyche to chase after cheap thrills garnered from bizarre stories of mass murder and espionage. (However, Jean Le Clerc — Jeremy — confesses to liking the action stories — "How many love scenes can you do in front of a fireplace?" he asks.) "The last one that was difficult waswhen they decided to split up Natalie and Jeremy using this whole Marissa/Trevor routine," says Kate Collins (Natalie). "It just wasn't good storytelling. And I saw them ruin Natalie and Jeremy. It'll take years to get that back. Well, maybe not years. It's Pine Valley."

The few detours AMC has taken — for example, the twisted tale of Silver Kane (Claire Beckman) and Dr. Damon Lazarre (Charles Keating) — have been quickly rerouted in favor of a return to stories that highlight AMC's strengths: romance, is sues of social value and family relation ships. "I think the show has branched out in terms of what it deals with. It's less provincial than it used to be," acknowledges Julia Barr. "There's still part of that be cause that's what AMC is, but except for trying to keep up with what's happening with the times, the overall look is still a provincial gathering of people and family. That's always been the focus and still is."

Because its focus is people ("The plots come out of characters rather than earth quakes and Hurricane Hugo," Nixon maintains), ALL MY CHILDREN has been known for providing social awareness, dealing head-on with such issues as lesbi nism, legal abortion, AIDS, rape, drug abuse, child abuse, wife abuse, alcohol abuse, mental health, daytime's first face lift, Vietnam and peace activism. In fact, Mary Fickett remembers the shock she felt when Agnes Nixon called to tell her that she had won the Emmy for her anti-war speech.

"It was a beautifully written speech," Mary recalls. "But it was long and there was a lot of preparation to get to that emotional pitch. Kay Campbell, who played Kate, my mother-in-law, was very close to me — she became like a substitute mother when I lost my own. She was pretty choked up and called me Mary by mistake; we had to stop the tape and start again. To this day, I remember that she was ready to kill herself because she was so afraid she'd ruined it for me."

AMC writers have also never missed an opportunity to deliver a simple and timely message. An encapsulation of black history was part of the 1989 Martin Luther King Day episode; on the 1989 Fourth of July show, children were warned not to play with fireworks. And following the tragic death of Laura Cudahy by a drunk driver, Tom and Brooke became members of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and explored organ donation. "We re ceived a lot of positive comment on that material, not for the death, but for how it was handled," says Dick Shoberg. "It was a big shock to us and it was difficult material. I have two boys. In some ways, that made it easier to relate to, but it also made it personally more difficult to live with."

For Agnes Nixon, the child-abuse story was the hardest to deal with and yet one of her favorites. "It took me three years to face the fact that it needed to be done," she recalls, explaining that she'd always assumed that abusers were criminal, not sick. The story involved a well-to-do woman, who had been psychologically abused and was now a physical abuser. "By the end of the story, the audience felt sympathy for the abuser even though they didn't like what she was doing. Local stations ran ribbons with hot-line numbers and the message was that helpful, not punitive mea sures would be taken if you called. Hot lines across the country said it was incredible how many people called in."

Stories like this have kept viewers tuned in. And because AMC's ratings have al ways been steady, there has never been the need for the wild plot swings that some soaps have found necessary to improve a show (often under the leadership of new writers). Complete families have not been eradicated to allow a new clan to become the focus of the show. Rather, the Martins and the Tyiers still carry weight in Pine Valley and the veterans who play these parts have not been relegated to an eternity of coffee-pouring. They still have distinct personalities and, at times, stories. Indeed, the history of AMC is so prevalent that youngsters of the early years have now become characters in their own right, ready to carry on the saga, including Tad (Michael E. Knight), Joey (Michael Brainard) and Emily Ann (Liz Vassey).

These characters offer potential for new stories rich in history. For example, Emily Ann's struggle with the knowledge that her natural parents are pimp Billy Clyde Tuggle and ex-prostitute Estelle LaTour and that her adopted mother, Donna (Candice Early) was a hooker. "It's funny," says Vasili Bogazianos (ex-Benny). "It takes a week to get through a day, soap time, but in a period of six months, a kid ages ten years. It's like a negative-universe thing."

1983 welcomed the Chandler family to Pine Valley. This addition brought forth Adam Chandler — a man for Erica and an adversary for Palmer — and his wonderfully lovable twin, Stuart, both in the form of three-time Emmy-winner David Canary. A Pigeon Hollow boy made good, Adam Chandler represented history, in that his and Palmer's (aka Pete Cooney) families were feudally linked. The Chandlers stirred things up in Pine Valley and have been on the front burner ever since.

In 1985, AMC won its first Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Daytime Drama Series. It was an apt coincidental tribute to Kay Campbell, the woman who'd played the compassionate Grandma Kate for fifteen years until her death in May of that year. That part was not recast (nor was that of Charles Tyier, played by the late Hugh Franklin) and a tearful funeral was held for Kate, closing with Tad looking toward the heavens with a heartfelt, "Good-bye, Gran." Kate had never given up on Tad.

A year later, Michael E. Knight departed the show, after winning two Emmys for his role as the comedic anti-hero. Tad. Follow ing the on-screen death of his sister (Kirn Delaney had not given the show enough notice to write a suitable exit for the newly weds — according to Agnes, it was against their wishes, but with no other choice, that the writers penned Jenny's death), AMC set Tad up in a star-crossed romance of his own with Phoebe's stepdaughter, Hillary Wilson. When Knight left, AMC lost a great source of wit and the actor was welcomed back in 1988. Almost immediately, he was thrown into another romance with Palmer's niece, Dixie — one fraught with obstacles. Their chemistry results from the combination of Dixie's naïvete and Tad's new nobility. "He's more mature now," says Knight of his character. "He's somebody whose heart has grown; it's certainly in the right place. The humor is still there but there's more depth to him."

Indeed, AMC does seem to be rallying for a return to humor with the comical pairing of Cecily (Rosa Nevin) and Nico (Maurice Benard), Sean's claustrophobia, the return of Tad and Opal, Trevor (James Kiberd). Palmer and Uli (Eugene Anthony), and Jack (Walt Willey). "They realize that this show has always had that humor and it went by the by for a while," believes Julia Barr. "Up until the past three months, people were saying that the humor was really missing. For a while, they had characters in situations where they really couldn't exercise any humor."

The period Barr refers to was one of great change at ALL MY CHILDREN. "[Executive Producer] Jackie Babbin left and story line decisions were not being made," She explains. "Jorn Winther [two-time producer] came in to a show that was not active. He got things going, and then we got a new producer with Steve Schenkel and then the writers' strike. I'm surprised that the show remained as intact as it did." "It can be frustrating," asserts Kate Collins. "When I started, it was difficult to work through the bad phases because I didn't know about phases. I didn't know that you worked through the bad phases and then it got better. All I saw was disaster. Currently. we're in a really exciting stage."

Another Emmy in 1988 for Outstanding Writing did seem to indicate an upswing, but 1989 was probably one of ALL MY CHILDREN'S most tumultuous times. Emphasis on younger plot lines and questionable treatment of other stories meant exits for several of the show's stalwart actors, including Emmy-winner Kathleen Noone (Ellen Dalton since 1977), Mark LaMura (Mark Dalton since 1977), Robert Gentry (Ross Chandler since 1983), and Peter Bergman (Cliff Warner since 1979 and, who, on the day Soap Opera Digest was at the studio, visited with his new daughter, Claire). "People were sorry to see them go, but when some characters have been on for a long time... It's death to tell too many stories," Agnes says. "Kathleen said, 'If you don't have a big story for me, I think this is my time to try the coast.' I hope she'll come back some day."

Rather than bring on new characters unfamiliar to the audience, AMC has created a link with the past by introducing Eric Kane (Albert Stratton) and recasting wacky Opal Gardner. Now, the actors agree that the show has recaptured the exciting feel it once had. And Agnes says it's at a parallel with her grown children. She's there for them but they have their own lives; they tell her in which direction they should go.

"The pendulum has swung many times," believes Mary Fickett. "We started as a story of multiple generations embracing each other, but I think as times changed and different producers came in, some felt that the emphasis should be all on the younger people. Certain of the essential elements were lost temporarily. It makes for a more dimensional, interesting program if emphasis is spread over a variety of ages. That's coming back now."

[Jonathan]

...as well as EricMontreal22's cheerleading of the book into the new millennium.

[EricMontreal22]

I'm gonna be buried with my copy of All Her Children Seriously, it seems many fans of far longer running soaps at the time were pissed off that a major author and publisher were doing an AMC book

[Pine Charles]

LOL @ Jonathan and Eric!

Thanks for posting those, Eric, BTW.

[DRW50]

The whole "everything is great now" timing of the article is a little interesting, since, aside from the Erica/Jack/Travis/Barbara quad, I don't know if anything on AMC at this time was very popular. I guess maybe Tad/Dixie.

I guess anniversary articles will always be like that though.

I'm trying to remember if any of the big anniversary years were good for AMC.

[greens_dupres]

I remember loving the show in 1995 (25th) but I was really young so my perception could be skewed. All the subsequent anniversaries not so much.

[allmc2008]

My mother has the entire week, the oprah special, and the carol burnett special all on one tape. I actually have it in my VCR right now lol!