Why Did Beth Ehlers' Stint on AMC Fizzle?

[John]

Im shocked they didnt bring BE on as Liza Or Hayley. She could have fit both quite well. I know their was the rumor that KR didnt want Hayley recast but she couldnt really pull that

[cct]

Ok, then let me rephrase that, "I am sorry, but Ehlers looks way the hell too old to be playing Hayley."

[ellabelle]

YES. Thank you. I get that she had major issues because of the way she was conceived, her mother was crazy, her stepmother died, her mother then killed her father, etc., etc. and all of that makes for a wonderfully soapy backstory, and there were so many directions they could have gone with Amanda based on her history. What we got though was year after year after year of Amanda dressing provacatively, hopping into bed, and then crying about it. Honey, if casual sex makes you cry, QUIT HAVING IT. I remember a scene after she slept with David at his house, and she's getting dressed and crying about them having sex, and he's all like "WTF? We just had great sex, why are you freaking out and running off?"

Amanda flitted around Fusion and ConFusion, but she never seemed to have an actual career or any goals in life other than "don't turn into my mother." I know Brooke took her under her wing for a while, but Brooke wasn't around on camera much at the time, so I don't recall seeing much of the mentoring relationship that Amanda desperately needed. It would have been really wonderful to see Amanda develop that kind of relationship with an older female who could act in a motherly way toward her plus give her some direction in life. I thought Chrishell Stause was pretty, and I wanted to like her Amanda, but I found myself wanting to slap her a lot and tell her to put on her big girl panties and stop crying.

[cct]

OK, but what soap isn't like this? I watched AMC for its last 22 years, and my mother and grandmother watched before that when I could catch snippets on holidays and from JUMP, AMC (and all soaps I've ever seen) have been this way. There are groups, who occasionally united for some big party or ball (Crystal Ball, masquerade ball, Go Red, whatever). The parties are what were missing post 2005, save perhaps Mardi Gras. Otherwise, they don't truly interact. Erica was never big in the Tad/Jenny/Greg/Jesse/Angie stuff back in the day. And I don't really remember Chandlers messing around too much with Merricks at Wildwind in the nineties.

Having the show end has given me quite a bit of perspective over the years, and the last years had their issues, but it's not exactly been flawless throughout. There seems to be this hearkening back to a "golden age of AMC" when everything was hunky-dory, and granted it was much much better (even when I joined in early nineties), but I think occasionally we are looking through rose-colored glasses.

[~bl~]

Guiding Light went to the new production model full time Feb 29, 2008, RPG's Gus dying was one of the first things that happened after the switch and BE left a few months later to go to AMC. That would have been a reason for the ratings to start dropping too. For me JvD being taken off contract was more upsetting than BE and RPG deciding to leave as it was their choice to go. BE was on for six years 87-93 and left until she returned in 97 full time, and RPG was a soap hopper, while JvD was a "lifer" who mentored cast members over the years, and would have stayed until he retired or the show ended if they hadn't terminated his contract.

Getting back to AMC, I felt like they started to trash Amanda to make Taylor look good. This annoyed me even if Amanda flitted around, they painted her with such negative strokes. I agree with AMC at times stories didn't cross, like the Erica story wasn't as interconnected to the others, but once the money became tighter this became more evident. This is something that is noticeable on most shows in the last few years as they seldom have characters interact that are in different stories just to catch up with each others lives.

[ellabelle]

I can't speak for other shows, but in AMC's later years it seemed like they axed a lot of the sets where characters once could bump into each other and interact. When was the last time anyone went to the mall in Pine Valley? Or Myrtle's dress shop? Or the Chateau? Or the Glamorama? or Tempo magazine or WRCW? We hadn't seen PVU in years. It got to the point where the only locations we saw outside of someone's home were the hospital, ConFusion, Krystal's, or that random park they used as a location shoot in CA. The yacht club was super popular for a while, but then it seemed to fall out of favor a bit after David's fake death, and I have trouble remembering when we last saw the Valley Inn lobby or dining room.

There was a time when they had characters like Gillian, Opal and Brooke doing various volunteer jobs at the hospital, and they could bump into people there, but even that tapered off toward the end. If you don't have that many sets where characters can naturally run into each other, it makes it harder for the different groups to interact, which is a shame.

[Cheap21]

As far as Ehlers coming on and expecting to make a big splash

That was still used regularly. David lived their and we saw him there. Remember he and Jane used to meet up and have sex there and thats also where she went to drink and eat in private.. I rememebr her taking pictures with her fans there and Jack also almost caught her having a drink

[greens_dupres]

What were BE and GA's issues on GL? Phillip/Harley was pretty popular, I think even winning an SOD award and then they just ended abruptly and were out of each other's orbits entirely.

[ellabelle]

Love the GIF. That's true - the yacht club was still used at that point. Thanks for reminding me. It seemed like we saw the bedrooms a lot more than the restaurant though.

[Mitch]

I don't think they had issues..she was one of the people to come out and say that she never had a problem working with GA. As a matter of fact, filming his last day I remember an interview with her where she was talking to him and she was like "Okay, well, your going to come back, right, I mean your not gone forever," and GA was like, "No I don't think I am coming back, Phillip is dead," and Beth was kind of freaked out.

I think that GA always thought that Phillip and Harley would never work in the long run, in terms of the characters (and I think he was right) nothing to do with the actress. Plus, they had kind of run their course, how many times could Beth come between them, etc.

[DRW50]

There were rumors of issues with GA and various actresses over the years, although, as mentioned, BE, along with Crystal Chappell and Beth Chamberlin, defended him when the rumors went around that he was fired because of bad relationships with them.

[Vee]

I loved Phillip and Harley. I never understood why they ended.

[DRW50]

Initially I liked them, when they were a little fun and sexy. In no time at all, they became very dour, and I thought he was a self-righteous prick. I thought if they broke up then she'd go back to being the fun Harley. Sadly, that Harley was long dead.

[Skin]

The only time I felt Amanda had a purpose in terms of story was when during the tail end of 2005 and in the beginning of 2006 when she dealt with the mother and the possibility that she may be going crazy and hurting people in between her blackouts. Other then that her character was useless. She only served as an excuse to bring Janet back into the show every once in awhile and make the show reasonably entertaining. Amanda could have been any random new character for what she was worth to the show. There was nothing really distinct about her and nothing that really set her apart from other characters. It says as much that she was defined by her one night stands, boyfriends and husbands doesn't it? She's always been a vacuous character.

I don't know about you but I started watching in the late 90's and I felt there was always a sense of community that people could bump into each other and have different interactions with different people. I remember the days when Greenlee, Leo, Ryan and Kendell used to fight in the boat house or in the park because they couldn't stand each other. Or the days when Dixie used to float in and out of the Martin/Chandler orbit and work with David as his receptionist. Bianca and Greenlee would run into each other at Enchantment or one of the bars and she would tease her about her lesbianism. Trey was a big brother figure to Reggie. Maria interacted with David, Edmund, Aiden and Brooke all at one point and she still had even more story possibilities with Zach later on. Again these characters weren't apart of spheres per say and in many ways on paper they would have no real reason to interact with each other. The whole Gillian/Ryan romance was always odd with the con artist falling in love with a Princess and then Dixie's involvement with Braden through his rape of Kit, etc. The entire Cambias storyline effected pretty much every single character on the canvas in some way. There was always a sense of environment and community if nothing else. Days does this pretty well for the most part in my opinion. Post 05' AMC was just so horrible at keeping that community field and everything was always so insular. Chandlers interacted with only Chandler members, Martins interacted with only Martin's, Kanes interacted with only Kane's and those orbits made the show feel like they had no connection to each other you could see this especially with the Di/Dixie, the Greg Madden and Satin Slayer storylines in 2005 and 2006. They were both so poorly utilized as "umbrella" stories and the canvas never gelled the way it did before.

I agree with all of this. Even in 01-03 you still felt there was an atmosphere that people could meet one another. Those two girls Jaime and JR were into in High school for instance all did things and interacted with lots of characters even if they had no reason to. Same with people like Becca and Scott who were firmly entrenched in Greenlee and Leo's storylines. There was always usually some kind of overlap and six degree associates (sometime 3 degrees) with their characters.

[EricMontreal22]

Actually I think the show got VERY fractured under Passanante's solo time and while Culliton seemed to be trying to fix it, Rayfield lost any sense of community. When McTavish first came back she really returned some feel of community, but I agree that that was really lost especially by 2006. Broderick's two brief returns seemed to try to return SOME of that feel but her time was so limited and the show so fractured in many ways that it was hard to do. B/E were probably the worst at it though--with all the Crash story emphasis etc.