Megan McTavish and what she did to AMC

[EricMontreal22]

Werll there's no question who to blame for sexiest man. I swear the writers must have HATED and resented it and that's one reason nuDel got zero story but was on contract so long (of course he was an awful actor too).

[DRW50]

I don't think that Del had anything to do with the sexiest man story.

[EricMontreal22]

Wait wasn;'t he hired from that??

Oh it was from the soap star search reality show right?? Still, it was obvious the writers resented him. (Talia on One life, who worked better, was from there too, right? I obviously never watched it).

[DRW50]

They did seem to really not want to use him on AMC, although he seemed to stay around for a while. The first season's winner was on GH for a few weeks and killed off. Mikey, or whatever his name was, was on OLTL for a few weeks or a month and then never seen again.

I think the sexiest man winner only appeared once or twice on AMC, if that.

[All My Shadows]

Yeah, the sexiest man was just a dayplayer role.

Those commercials were so annoying, and it was embarrassing because they played them immediately after all three soaps, between the final scene and the previews. I remember cringing when they played one after Lila's funeral on GH. GH fans must have hated AMC that day.

[LoyaltoAMC]

I think that Megan "got" AMC in her own endearingly warped way LOL. She essentially used the Nixon template/formula, with star-crossed lovers, humor, community ties, and social issues, but in a dumbed down way, if that makes sense. Everything just seemed so gimmicky and plot-driven, and the heartfelt stuff seemed so forced and contrived. I got the feeling she was very proud of that approach, because of its appeal to younger viewers. Even JFP praised her as knowing how to deliver the 18-49 demos. I think that when the bottom began to fall out after the baby switch ended and absolutely nothing was working, she began running scared and felt the need to top herself with one ludicrous story after another, thus the unabortion, Tad burying Madden, the Satin Slayer. That was really the beginning of AMC's undoing and I don't think anyone could've reversed the downward slope.

[ellabelle]

When Megan was good, she was WONDERFUL. I loved David and Erica together, and I have Megan McTavish to thank for that. She understood them better than anyone did, and as soon as she came back, she gave them their first scene together in something like 17 months. Even the actors had been saying "We don't know why our characters aren't interacting."

I started watching AMC in 1990, and I loved the first year or so of SMG as Kendall. I know the retcon has some detractors, but I loved it. I hated that she put Erica back with Dimitri after he helped Kendall track down Richard Fields, and once they were together, I hated that she had him sleep with Maria.

I loved the Michael Cambias storyline, and it was obvious from the dialogue that Megan was pushing David and Erica back together before something happened and Erica was spun off with Jack AGAIN. I hate that that happened, but I loved the overall storyline.

My big complaints with Megan: Creating the Careys, making David Babe's father, having David betray Bianca in such a horrible and out of character way, and the unabortion. The unabortion is a big one for me because I personally found the whole idea repulsive, and such a betrayal of the choices Erica made. To have a rape victim violated like that really bothered me. I loved Josh at the time, and I LOVED the idea of her having a son, but that was just the wrong way to do it. Based on everything I've heard rumor-wise about what went on behind the scenes, I don't know that Josh being Jeff's son was really Megan's call, but she definitely got the blame for it.

[EricMontreal22]

I always thought the grief sex with Dimi and Maria was Broderick...

[Angela]

AMC always appealed to me more than the other soaps because it wasn't as "smart" as the CBS soaps and it wasn't as "stupid" as the NBC soaps. For me, McTavish had just the right mix of the middle ground when she was on the ball.

I feel anybody could have quite easily despite the loss of Dixie during the Satin Slayer story (a story that actually did well in the ratings) and despite Tad's murderous turn. Unfortunately for AMC, the writers after McTavish were even worst than she was in her downhill year to 18 months, they took the show further away from its essence and that was on them and maybe Frons, not on McTavish. The Josh issue could have been fixed with an incredibly simple rewrite at any time.

ETA:

Me too. I could have sworn the SOW with their sex romp update on the cover was from 1996.

[Skin]

I agree, AMC didn't reach danger territory until Pratt came in and started killing everyone off and giving them insane storylines that made no sense. That was AMC's final nail in the coffin. I would have rather had Megan return for a fourth try then have Pratt come in. Maybe then she could have given AMC another 1 or 2 years.

[EricMontreal22]

I get that, though I'd prefer to say it didn't take itself completely seriously like the CBS soaps (the Bell ones especially) did even when they were campy as all get out. Of course the soap press, as we've seen from articles Carl posted, seemed insulted by Nixon's soaps, particularly AMC in the 70s--not understanding the mix of over the top, caricatured characters and humour with heartfelt stories (even if that's an extremely Dickensian thing to do).

[EricMontreal22]

Pratt might have been able to make a soap like, say, Days into a fun Melrose type romp, but from the get go he ws just such a bad fit. I admit, I liked his early work so for a while was extremely optimistic. He worked about a year and a half, right? Imagine the state of Pine Valley if he had worked twice as long (Reese could open up a bisexual brothel!).

[Angela]

That's a less offensive way to put it (sophisticated versus campy), so I'll concur

[ellabelle]

You could be right about Maria and Dimitri - that might not have been MMT. But it was the end of Dimitri for me. I felt like he went downhill tremendously as a character after that and wasn't really interesting to me at all until he ended up with Alex.

[Angela]

Maria and Dimitri's romp was definitely Broderick. There's not really a question in my mind until you credited McTavish that is. It was definitely in the 1996 to 1997 range and that was Broderick.

I think he admitted he was going to make her a sex crazed bi-sexual and I read somewhere that he was going to make Kendall a drug addict (probably sex crazed as well). I don't know, for some reason I laugh when I think of Pratt and his mind. He didn't really offend me because I felt his hacking was so equal opportunity. Hacking bothers me more when I feel it's one-sided. Somebody with power slowed his row down around Stuart's murder. He went from daily drive bys to a slow summer.