All My Children

[DRW50]

I'm kind of the opposite. I thought AMC had some great potential again at the end, even if I know it wouldn't have lasted. OLTL was mostly just like a cackling corpse - the potential was still there but it was continually ignored in favor of camp and noble rapists. The last weeks also fell flat for me.

The only "whining" that I remember was some people saying they would prefer the AMC thread stay the tribute thread. This was before the tribute thread was moved here. Even then I don't think there was a big reaction. It's all been very polite.

[Paul Raven]

These two threads need to be merged.Not sure which one to post stuff in.I'll stick to tribute for now.

[juniorz1]

Me too! Once I got into AMC in the early 90s, I rarely took breaks from it until 2005. Even then, I still peeked in once in a while, though Erica's living, breathing aborted fetus was a jump the shark moment that had me tuning out for a while and when I tuned back in after, it became the Zendall show.

Still, once I saw that Lorraine Broderick had been re-hired (shortly before AMC's cancellation was announced- it gave AMC fans a shred of hope at a reprieve), I knew I'd at least be giving it another chance. And I just loved the last few months and especially the last weeks of the show.

Seeing Julia Barr, Jennifer Bassey and David Canary's Stuart again just tugged at my heartstrings, as did the amazing Adam/Stuart reunion. Sure, some of the Dr. Resurrection Hayward storyline was totally unbelievable, but certainly worth it for those final moments of AMC.

The show left with its heart back and fully intact. OLTL, unfortunately, never got its heart back and had been through so many changes since 1968 that, of all the soaps in my almost 33 year lifetime, had the least identity of its own. RC/FV would have been hard-pressed to bring back OLTL's identity because they, nor anyone else, even knew what that was anymore.

As much as the press and many of the fans lauded it, I just couldn't ever get into their version of OLTL, try as I might. And believe me, I tried hard at the end but it just wasn't working for me and the show felt too far gone. It really did go out with a whimper IMO.

[Wizzerkat]

To answer the MEK question, I seem to recall TIIC wanting him to dye his hair even though he wanted to let the hair go natural. I can believe this especially in light of the recent MEK interview where he stated they wanted him out.

[DRW50]

I still have no idea what should go where, but I was wondering - sorry if this has been discussed before - if there was ever a reason given why Erica stopped getting married after 1994. I know she married Jack in 2005, but from what people have said, that was about fan demand, not what the show had in mind. Did AMC or Susan Lucci feel that the whole thing about Erica's marriages had become too much of a joke, or had overshadowed the character? Adam just kept on getting married - I can't even remember how many wives he had.

[ellabelle]

I've wondered about this as well, Carl. She was set to marry Dimitri a 3rd time in as many years, which I thought was ridiculous, but then she miscarried on her wedding day and the ceremony never happened. I have heard rumors that Erica was supposed to marry David, that the plan was for them to get back together and have some epic love story after Bianca came out, but then something changed behind the scenes and that never happened.

I sort of viewed the lack of marriages as a sign of growth for Erica - she broke things off in the engagement stage instead of getting married repeatedly in her later years. The whole ten marriages thing did become a bit of a joke after a while, and there definitely was a double standard at play - Adam married more times than Erica did, but no one batted an eye at that.

[Steve]

I grew up watching both shows starting around 1980 and ITA that AMC definitely was the stronger show at the end. OLTL had long ago lost its identity and Ron & Frank just weren't the right people to get it back.

[AmandainNC28655]

I miss AMC and have not found a show to take its place yet. I DVR'd Days yesterday and it was okay. Today I thought I'd DVR The Young and the Restless and the Bold and the Beautiful and give those shows a try.

[dragonflies]

Vincent Irizarry talks about AMC, the final patient, that there initially was going to be closure for the show, but when PP came along as we know that got changed. He talks about how he was going to have great scenes with Alexa, cause Babe was going to be alive, but it didn't happen

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[DRW50]

I never liked the Babe/David relationship.

[ellabelle]

Me neither. It was a retcon that didn't particularly make a lot of sense and was done mostly for shock value. Plus it was used to have David decimate the relationship he had with Bianca and Erica, and I hated that.

[DRW50]

I think if they'd actually had a real relationship it might have worked but all I've seen in the clips or episodes (not a lot, admittedly) just seems like her using him or him scheming against the Chandlers to try to get to her.

I know most people seem to hate the AMC finale but I thought it was good overall.

[ellabelle]

Their relationship was strained because 1) Babe was already grown when David found out about her, 2) Krystal only told him to stop him from telling Bianca that Bess was Miranda, 3) and shortly after that, JR tried to kill Babe by poisoning her. David wanted her away from JR, and he never really got over her being in what was essentially an abusive, toxic relationship with the man. She kept going back to him, so they were automatically set up for conflict. Couple that with Babe then being involved with Tad Martin's son, given the awful state of his relationship with the Martin family, who he blamed for Leora's death. Plus I never got the feeling that Babe particularly WANTED a father. She had Krystal, they were close, and that was all she cared about. David wasn't a paragon of virtue or anything, but he did love Babe in his own way and was willing to make sacrifices for her, and I never got the impression that she particularly cared one way or the other about him.

I would have LOVED to see Marissa and David have a good relationship. Krystal literally sold Marissa, whereas David knew nothing about her, so they should have been able to bond over their mutual anger at her. I get why Marissa was upset about David doing things like pretending he was dying, but prior to that, I thought it was stupid that she was all about Krystal, who hadn't wanted her in the first place. I would have loved to see David have a close bond with one of his children at least. Marissa was written more as "reformed Babe, without the baby-stealing slutty baggage" and she would have been a much more interesting character if she'd been more like David, more apt to scheme and plot. Can you imagine David with a daughter he could mentor as his partner in crime? Now THAT would have been fun to see.

[DRW50]

That's true. I think they could have done something with the Maggie/David relationship too. I'm not sure they interacted much after the first year...I remember her being there when Leora died?

[ellabelle]

Maggie, Leo and David did hang out together on a fairly regular basis. I seem to recall Leo and David being rather witty over Thanksgiving dinner with Maggie one year. David tried to mentor Maggie because she wanted to be a doctor, and Maggie didn't like him doing stuff for her - she got mad when David signed her up for a CPR class through the hospital. Maggie and David were also two of the first people to find out that Bianca had been raped, and they were both very close to her and protective of her. David was doing community service or something, working at a clinic, and he saw Bianca shortly after the rape and then literally talked her down from the ledge when she panicked and ran to the building's roof. David stopped Michael from attacking Bianca and Maggie after Greenlee busted up Jack and Erica's wedding, and David actually figured out that she'd been raped before Erica even knew. David and Maggie were both sort of co-conspirators in keeping Bianca's pregnancy a secret. The bond that they all formed together was wonderful, and it made me all the more pissed off that TIIC ruined that by making Babe David's daughter and having David betray Bianca by letting her continue to think Miranda was dead. Bianca and Erica both were devastated by his betrayal. I think maybe I could have gotten past that if Babe and David had actually had a decent relationship, but they never did. He hurt two women he cared about deeply, and he basically got nothing in return for it.

Unfortunately by the time Maggie came back from Paris to try to win Bianca back circa 2007 or so, David had been written off the show and was off in Asia, and we didn't get to see them interact.