This thread is NOT for AMC stories that where dropped but for stories that did not have the significants that others had. For example, when I first started watching AMC when Jess/Angie returned I watched a lot of old episodes to educate my self about the show. A lot of the episodes I saw where part of a storyline about Langley and Opal running for Mayor back in 1983. I like that story but I can not find any info on it so I am wondering about other stories that went on during the 70's/80s/90s that most people have forgotten.

Jump to 3:47

Jump to 7:50

Edited September 25, 201213 yr by allmc2008

The mayoral race storyline is hilarious and definitely one of my favorites!

One from fall 1984 that you don't see a whole lot about is Billy Clyde and his girlfriend Jewell (played by Christine Baranski -- Matthew Cowles's real-life wife) kidnapping Adam and holding him hostage in a trailer park. A lot of sites don't even acknowledge that Billy returned to the show then.

The mayoral race storyline is hilarious and definitely one of my favorites!

One from fall 1984 that you don't see a whole lot about is Billy Clyde and his girlfriend Jewell (played by Christine Baranski -- Matthew Cowles's real-life wife) kidnapping Adam and holding him hostage in a trailer park. A lot of sites don't even acknowledge that Billy returned to the show then.

I know about that one and I always wondered it was never mentioned. I wish Billy would have resurrected somehow. The could have shown an engraving that read "Billy Clyde" was here on a cell wall when Erica was in prison.

Palmer in Prison with Mr U.

The first Trevor story where he was played by the original actor and was a badguy hired by Palmer to break up maybe Jeremy and Natalie or somebody like that

David Rampal and Melanie (two characters seemingly blacklisted from youtube)

Never knew about that one. What ever happened to Dixie's sister Melanie??

There is a little of Melanie and David in the 1990 episodes Addiecate has posted.

Melanie moved to Paris, I believe.

There were so many dropped stories and pointless stories in the later years. Remember the 1997 story with Roger Guenevere Smith as some exec? Didn't they imply he was Palmer's son?

Two immediately come to my mind. Both are from AMC's first decade, a period which seems to receive little attention compared to the Cortlandt/Chandler era.

One of the earliest love stories was the tortured romance of Nick Davis and Ann Tyler. Nick married Ann much to Phoebe's chagrin. When Nick discovered that he was unable to father a child, he pulled the old soap chestnut of asking Ann for a divorce and leading her to believe he no longer loved her rather than admit he felt inadequate as a man. Ann granted the divorce and fell into a rebound marriage with Paul Martin. No sooner than this occurred, Ann discovered she was pregnant by Nick, whose sterility had been misdiagnosed. Unfortunately, Nick was involved in an affair with neurotic Kitty Shea, who also became pregnant by Nick in order to hang on to him. In early 1973, Kitty miscarried, and her insecurities and fears developed into psychosis. Although Ann and Nick loved each other, they had no intention of reconciling, but in Kitty's sick mind, she imagined them conspiring against her. There was a short story arc in which Kitty lost all grip on reality, becoming extremely paranoid. One day at Pine Valley Hospital, Kitty stopped to talk with nurse Mary Kennicott, who was preparing patient medications. Mary explained the dangers of certain drugs, with particular emphasis on morphine. Kitty managed to swipe a vial of the painkiller while having delusional fantasies about Nick and Ann plotting against her. In interior monologues, Kitty decided that something had to be done about the situation. She invited Ann over for lunch, and Ann agreed, thinking that she might be able to convince Kitty of her desire to remain married to Paul Martin. Ruth happened by for a visit and discovered the empty vial of morphine in the wastebasket. The police had been called in over the missing medication, and Ruth instantly realized that Kitty had stolen it in a plot to harm Ann. Ruth phoned for an ambulance and had her taken to the hospital for emergency treatment. Meanwhile, Nick arrived home to confront Kitty. During the confrontation, Kitty collapsed. It transpired she had not poisoned Ann at all, rather, Kitty had taken a fatal overdose in a suicide attempt. Nick found the suicide note Kitty had written, telling him that she loved him enough to let him be with Ann. Nick raced Kitty to the emergency room. This occurred during the senate Watergate hearings. Day to day, one never knew if the show would be televised, so Kitty's life hung in the balance forever. Eventually, she pulled through and was treated by Dr. Marcus Polk, a nice bit of continuity between Nixon's soaps, as he had treated Viki's split personality on OLTL.

That's fascinating. I remember reading a summary in the AMC anniversary book but not in such detail. That they kept Kitty on the show instead of making her into a generic psycho was a great choice.

Ann/Nick seems like a story with big potential. I never knew why they had to be split, especially since after this Nick's only story involved Erica, which had to reach a dead end.

The second story no one seems to remember involved Phil. Having returned to Pine Valley after being presumed killed in Vietnam, Phil joined the police force. He was partnered with a black officer named Clay. Clay was played by Rueben Greene, remembered to many of us as Bernard in The Boys in the Band. Phil and Clay became very close with Clay often advising Phil on his troubled home life. Phil and Tara had remarried, but Little Phil rejected his father, as Chuck Tyler had been the only dad he had ever known. Clay also became involved with Caroline. Rueben Greene was a very handsome and appealing performer. It appeared he was being groomed as a major long term character, joining the other established black characters such as Frank and Nancy. Shockingly, the week AMC was expanded to an hour, Phil and Clay were on the scene of a robbery. Both officers were shot. Phil survived the shooting, but Clay died, ending a very short story arc and truncating an extremely viable character.

So you think they built him up just to kill him off? What a waste. I think I remember a complaint about this in an SOD article on blacks in daytime from 1977.

What about that Liza/Cliff story? I wonder how far that would have gone if they hadn't written Liza out.

Two immediately come to my mind. Both are from AMC's first decade, a period which seems to receive little attention compared to the Cortlandt/Chandler era.

One of the earliest love stories was the tortured romance of Nick Davis and Ann Tyler. Nick married Ann much to Phoebe's chagrin. When Nick discovered that he was unable to father a child, he pulled the old soap chestnut of asking Ann for a divorce and leading her to believe he no longer loved her rather than admit he felt inadequate as a man. Ann granted the divorce and fell into a rebound marriage with Paul Martin. No sooner than this occurred, Ann discovered she was pregnant by Nick, whose sterility had been misdiagnosed. Unfortunately, Nick was involved in an affair with neurotic Kitty Shea, who also became pregnant by Nick in order to hang on to him. In early 1973, Kitty miscarried, and her insecurities and fears developed into psychosis. Although Ann and Nick loved each other, they had no intention of reconciling, but in Kitty's sick mind, she imagined them conspiring against her. There was a short story arc in which Kitty lost all grip on reality, becoming extremely paranoid. One day at Pine Valley Hospital, Kitty stopped to talk with nurse Mary Kennicott, who was preparing patient medications. Mary explained the dangers of certain drugs, with particular emphasis on morphine. Kitty managed to swipe a vial of the painkiller while having delusional fantasies about Nick and Ann plotting against her. In interior monologues, Kitty decided that something had to be done about the situation. She invited Ann over for lunch, and Ann agreed, thinking that she might be able to convince Kitty of her desire to remain married to Paul Martin. Ruth happened by for a visit and discovered the empty vial of morphine in the wastebasket. The police had been called in over the missing medication, and Ruth instantly realized that Kitty had stolen it in a plot to harm Ann. Ruth phoned for an ambulance and had her taken to the hospital for emergency treatment. Meanwhile, Nick arrived home to confront Kitty. During the confrontation, Kitty collapsed. It transpired she had not poisoned Ann at all, rather, Kitty had taken a fatal overdose in a suicide attempt. Nick found the suicide note Kitty had written, telling him that she loved him enough to let him be with Ann. Nick raced Kitty to the emergency room. This occurred during the senate Watergate hearings. Day to day, one never knew if the show would be televised, so Kitty's life hung in the balance forever. Eventually, she pulled through and was treated by Dr. Marcus Polk, a nice bit of continuity between Nixon's soaps, as he had treated Viki's split personality on OLTL.

How did Kitty die and when did Kelly come in?? I did not know Kitty was loonie! When did she go nuts??

Frank, Nancy, Caroline and now Clay, who I had also never heard of until now, all seemed to be forgotten. I hadn't even heard about these characters or realized that they once led their own stories before Jesse and Angie became popular until I found them in the recaps at the old google newspaper archive site. They had set something up nicely with Nancy and Frank's son, Carl but he left town with Nancy and never returned. It would have been nice for Nancy, Carl, Jesse and Angie to remain with the show, have Carl grow up onscreen, etc.

I wonder how many people remember the domestic abuse storyline involving Kurt and Leora Sanders, Joe and Ruth's next door neighbors? I remember watching the story unfold sporadically as a kid. One scary scene I recall was Kurt shoving Leona into a full-length mirror after a fight. After the story played out, they had Joe falling in love with Leora, but that storyline was quickly dropped.

I think Frank and Nancy were relatively remembered (Nancy returned for the 25th anniversary) but not in a major way.

Wasn't there some rumor that ABC made them drop the Leora story?