All My Children AMC: The Prospect Park Era (old production thread)

[marceline]

One trip to a black beauty shop and her hair would be laid out. My stylist specializes in doing hair for cross-racial adoptions and Jewish women. She could work wonders with that mane.

[Angela]

It was more like 30 seconds.

Lots more OLTL clips from the photo shoot in this one.

ET said the shows will be on Hulu/iTunes in mid-April.

[KMan101]

What's the big deal about the cast size? AMC has 20 actors on contract. Cassandra/Petey/Miranda/AJ/Celia take up five contracts. A couple of adult newbies and the rest are familiar faces and veterans. What's so bad?

I've seen posts elsewhere (not here) saying the same "OMG AMC is soooo different". Not like that but you get my gist. It's not that different of a show. We didn't even have Adam, Joe or Brooke ON CONTRACT.

Not directed towards anyone specifically here but still, what's so bad about the cast? Big whoop they have newbies. Why is that such an "OMG NOOOOO" thing?

To me these actors all seem much better cast than anything we usually got on ABC. They look the parts, they are all enthused about their jobs. Give 'em a chance people.

[EricMontreal22]

I agree, but really you can't argue with these people. They've made up their minds (even if they don't seem to be sticking to their proclamations of not watching the show so far.) The cast sizes are more than respectable for the start of a 30 minute soap--back when PP originally announced the shows (the first time) I actually suspected we'd get smaller lists of contract players.

[KMan101]

True.

Yeah, I remember hearing rumors it would be 15-18. Not to mention we'll likely have several (if not many) recurring characters and likely more of a chance of actors coming back for guest arcs, etc. I think this format shows far more promise than anything a network would give or do. And plus, each episode is 30 minutes. We're only getting four 30 minute episodes a week of scripted content. I mean, it's a two hour movie, really. So 20-25 (with recurring) is PLENTY. Anymore and the balance would likely be horrible.

[marceline]

I call this soap provincialism.

There are some soap fans who are so stuck in a fugue of nostalgia that anything and everything new is considered a threat. IMO, these are people who truly want to see the same thing over and over. The want to see Erica Kane playing the ingenue and Tad the Cad or Palmer and the dobermans. They aren't interested in your newfangled microwave oven or iPhone because their wood stove and Princess phone works perfectly fine, thank you very much

I don't know what these newbies bring to the table but I'm willing to give them a chance to prove themselves. If I think they suck, I'll be one of the first to say so.

[Angela]

Yes, and let me go a step further - it's really not something we should be doing. This goes for everybody including me as I know that I've done it myself. I think we're all better than that and we can be better than that. It's one thing to say you think somebody is a horrible actor or even say "I don't find her or him attractive." I'm not opposed to observations either: hair, makeup, etc. That's fine. It's another thing to seriously be calling the actors (or each other) ugly. <-- FYI, I don't think I've ever seen an ugly soap actor, IJS. I think you guys know when a line is crossed, you're all just so used to crossing it due to OUR moderation issues (the lack of it)

Okay, now to more serious matters...

I agree. She has the best set of curls I think I've ever seen on soaps. The only correction I'd make is I'd cut it at least 8 inches shorter than it was for the majority of her last few years on the show. I did like her Carla Suarez hair though (the short straight bop). I feel like YouTube deleted 1000s of AMC clips. I was going to post a clip of the bop.

Re: Cast size:

... there's a considerable chance AMC will have at least 3-4 more contract cast members before the year ends.

I don't think all of these actors are on regular one year contracts. My thinking is a lot are on episode guarantee contracts that fit into what they want to do and what the show wants to do with them.

If I'm wrong or even if I'm right, my suggestion would be rotating short story arcs. That would probably help keep storyline and character balance on the show too.

[dragonflies]

It's not perfect forgive the quality and the video being backwards but here it is lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCKlCPHqyng

[KMan101]

Well said. Same here. I'll be all about admitting if they suck.

I do admit the HW's for AMC give me a tiny pause of concern but I feel like Prospect Park has done a ton of things right, for me, with these reboots (well, the people they've HIRED to handle the reboots) so I'm willing to hope for the best.

And Denyse seriously reminds me of Taylor Swift. Completely. Just give her blonde hair.

[Jonathan]

You're right, it's not perfect. You cut the end of it when they were talking about La Lucci!

[Vee]

I always liked McPherson's work, flaws and all, at least early on. I thought it was the right fit for AMC. Nobody can get anything done in Cordayland.

[KMan101]

Do we have any idea how many episodes they are filming a day? I'm just curious how much they can actually film. I take it likely a couple of episodes per day?

[Angela]

Reportedly, 2 a day. They didn't tape on Wednesday, so if all went well they did 2 weeks of episodes this week (4 episodes will air a week).

[Jonathan]

I'll give McPherson a chance. I'm glad Ginger Smith is at the helm and that Agnes is consulting. I think that's a good sign.

[KMan101]

Yeah. McPherson's work absolutely seems to fit AMC. If you just look at her DAYS storylines, I don't think they were horrible. Execution, yes. Atrocious. DAYS has too many hands in the pot. I truly feel like it's doing so well now simply because of the scriptwriters.

I think so too (pretty much everyone in the cast has praised Smith to high heaven). It's why I wasn't so quick to be that upset over McPherson. I have no idea about Betsy's abilities.

Thank you

And to explain a little better, I'm only "cautious" about the HW's because it's almost like the "fear of the unknown" you know? No idea what to expect, which is also exciting.

I'm just pleased the soaps are free of ABC (well, they're mostly free)