Why Did Beth Ehlers' Stint on AMC Fizzle?

[Wizzerkat]

Yes, those insulated orbits were bad. I think Ehlers would have had a better time of it if that had not been the case for example. She could have gone into a thing with Tad instead and perhaps to Jake later. At least she would have been with more characters. I loved Annie and Aiden together but it got to me after a while, too.

[AmandainNC28655]

To me the character of Taylor was NEVER fully developed and anything written for her seemed to always change midstream. I honestly don't think they had any clue or desire to use Ehlers or her character. I agree that I never heard about Luner being up for a Skye recast (even though she would've fit the character better), but I did hear or Ehlers as the original Liza recast, until the fan outcry.

I also think that Ehlers true colors began to show as well. All of these I feel led to her downfall on AMC and with daytime in general. Obviously her true colors have shown, because she has not been picked up by any of the remaining daytime shows currently still on the air.

[ClassicSoapsFan]

Elhers' on River Ridge is basically a typecast. She is bitter and mean on that show just like on GL and AMC. It's a good show but her bitterness is annoying on the show. Hopefully she doesn't have a big ego for the show. Also the show reminds me of Peapack GL except its what we are suppose to expect from a web soap opera.

[Vee]

I actually thought the concept behind Taylor on AMC - a throwback to Agnes' Vietnam story, with Taylor as the hawkish war veteran, and a woman no less - was a fine, excellent idea in keeping with the show's groundbreaking traditions. And I thought Beth Ehlers could've played it, particularly the increasingly edgy Ehlers of the last decade. But they didn't really tell that story, or didn't tell it well, and generally most re-pairings of supercouples on other soap do not work out. They were coasting with Taylor instead of telling a really solid story and building a good character piece by piece.

I think Pratt was preoccupied with his own crap and didn't bother to really do anything to cement Taylor on the canvas, and I think Ehlers had all sorts of personal issues and concepts of her own ingrained 'stardom' that left her relatively unable to bring the character across on her own. I think she could've done very well at AMC, but the promotion was OTT, she was a fairly imperious, remote presence in the press, and fan rooting interest was with Jake and Amanda.

Taylor aside, I think Ehlers would've been a spectacular Hayley recast. But they didn't do that.

[John]

Taylor's character, Coryn On River Ridge is Bi-Polar/Manic Depressive

[cct]

I am sorry, but Ehlers is too old to be playing Hayley.

IIRC, Annie and Aiden were the only ones in each other's orbits, because she was in a psych ward! Yeah, there's not too much interaction one has with society there.

Other than that, the one thing I can say for Pratt (at least at first) was that he brought back community with the tornado. For a while, people were all around town, and I can actually remember people on this very board celebrating that Pine Valley seemed like a town again with people interacting. The writers guilty of "island stories" were B&E without fail.

They actually destroyed Jake and Amanda to make room for Jake and Taylor. It was around this time Jake called Amanda a "whore," and then she went off into David's...ahem...orbit. Then that just turned bizarre with the whole Back Seat Conception routine.

[ClassicSoapsFan]

That changes everything then. i didn't see the recent episode yet though.

[R Sinclair]

Thank you for saying this. I was trying to remember if I had, indeed, missed something or forgot something. I don't remember "island stories" during his run.

[sungrey]

Can someone refer back to the ratings around April 2008, when Gus was killed off? I seem to recall the numbers took a big dive after RPG left, although we all know the numbers were headed downhill as it is.

Not to threadjack the posts once again, but I think Jerry's being knocked to recurring and leaving for OLTL did much more damage to the show than RPG and Beth leaving combined.

[Vee]

No, she's not. Ehlers and Kelly Ripa were wild teen queens on their shows around the same rough period of time - late '80s/early '90s. Ehlers is only two years older than Ripa.

[AmandainNC28655]

I could see Ehlers as a recast Hayley.

[Jonathan]

I can't believe we've talked about BE for 4 pages. Maybe we should put this to rest.

[R Sinclair]

Yikes.

[Mitch]

It made the difference to me....as I knew at that time all bets were off, Wheeler and Kriezman cared absolutely nothing about the history of the show and simply wanted to put the eggs into the Harley/Gus/SuperDooperCooper basket. It made no sense, since Blake and Ross, despite their past, had a young family they were raising which was set to be the next generation of GL (why they aged Coop and not the perpetually slow growing Marler kids told it all) I lost any kind of sentimentality for GL (which was the only thing keeping me watching at that point) when they let go of Ross. Its funny, but the same Gushers which were going on and on about how all of us need to "get over it," and that Gush is "GL the New Generation," were the first ones screaming when RPG left and Gus took a dive on the motorcycle and then Harley split town.

[Skin]

Amanda was a ho though. Just saying.

AMC post 2005 always felt like a divided show. They split the cast up three ways. There was the Chandlers/Martins/Carey/Haywards orbit, Then there was the Kanes/Cambias/Lavery orbit, and then there was everyone else who just did whatever be it the Santos, the Frye's or in it's last years the Hubbards with little if any crossover between the three groups.