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

[ellabelle]

In all fairness, the original Bianca was a baby, and the original JR was a set of female infant twins. Most people do consider Eden Riegel as the definitive Bianca Montgomery, and if PP/TOLN has access to clips of Bianca's rape and Miranda's birth and infancy, then I could see why they'd want her and not Christina Bennett Lind. I love ER, and I'm happy to have her back, but I'd like to see more of her. I know she was doing a play, but I'm hoping that she's available for more time on the air in the future, because yes, her absence is noted.

[marceline]

I still want them to bring back CBL as Bianca's new love interest.

[greens_dupres]

One of the best best best AMC stories ever. Richard Fields creeped me out like no other and I was younger than Bianca at the time.

I just don't understand how you think they can fit all these missing characters- its not 5 40 minute episodes anymore. People are already complaining characters that are on the show like Brooke, Griffin etc. don't have enough to do. Do you think they should fire all of the teens and Pete and Cassandra and David? Because otherwise there simply isn't room for Erica, tad, Frankie, Randi, Natalia Ryan/Greenlee, Kendall and all the other ones you mention often. I'm not criticizing- I'm genuinely interested as to how you think they could fit in all of this with 2 not even 30 minute episodes.

Also we only 2 have recasts- Colby & JR- not so bad. Colby's already been recast at least 2 other times & has no definitive portrayer & Jacob Young is unavailable. Its not like they recast Tad or even Kendall. The younger cast isn't really recast, just aged up, which AMC and all soaps have always done.

[Chris B]

I don't see any indication that they'd want to feature Bianca more, she's not even in the opening. Bianca could be anyone based on how she is presented on this show. My thing is not so much Marissa, I actually preferred Grandma Boring in the role. My thing is, why kill off her love interest when you know you have her for a limited amount of time only? Bianca being gay is a large part of her popularity and especially on a show talking about being groundbreaking, having a lesbian relationship at your core could get the show major buzz. Marissa could bridge the gap when Bianca isn't around, as a mother to AJ and Miranda, a foil for JR and a family member for David to interact with.

[Vee]

Linda, you wouldn't concern troll about these shows every [!@#$%^&*] day if they kept David away from Angie. I don't know why you think anyone is taking that seriously.

[Steve]

ICDM! No matter how much Frons tried to make this show center around the Kanes, they were never able to supplant the Martins as the main family. I don't mind Miranda holding down the fort for now as Kendall wore out her welcome long ago, Erica will make appearances when Susan Lucci's schedule allows and Eden Riegel is still on contract and will eventually return.

I don't find the Cassandra story sensationalistic in the least. It has shown her being degraded in a very realistic and terrifying manner. As for Jesse lying to Angie, I just hope the writers use the history of all the times he did in the past when Angie learns the truth this time around!

Cara lying about David's child intrigues me since David's never had a male child before and I want to see how he reacts when he finds out his son's alive.

I don't care if Dimitri ends up with Brooke or Opal as long as the actress has great chemistry with Michael Nader and they get their own storyline.

I'm loving Colby the schemer and think the actress is doing a great job so far. I don't see how you can call her over the top and then mention liking Devious Maids, which was just the shallowest, most over-the-top badly written and acted show I'd seen in years!

+1

I get what you're saying but Marissa was just too dull a character for me to care that she's dead.

[Chris B]

There are other ways to deal with dull characters. They could've recast or written her out somehow. I just think you have to look at a characters history and when you have David with two prominent storylines where his daughters died, you need to think of something else. Or at the very least it needs to heavily affect him considering this is the third time it has happened. Out of the 3 stories, this is the one that makes the least sense and it hasn't had much of an impact on the show IMO. When I consider who was in that room, they really wasted a good cliffhanger. Could have a character (other than JR) in a coma, someone in a wheelchair perhaps and someone dead that would actually have an emotional impact on the show.

[marceline]

For me those stories, while both dark, are very different. Kendall's origin story was typical soapy dark. Dark but in a fantasy sense. Cassandra's story is, sadly, based in reality. In fact, for all its violence, it's remarkably watered down because in real life women and girls who get pulled into sex slavery don't get sexy outfits and pole dancing. They're starved, beaten and raped repeatedly for WEEKS in order to break them. They're chained to a bed and treated like animals.

I completely understand why someone wouldn't want to watch this story but I don't think it's fair to call it sensational. I think it's been very restrained and respectful given the subject.

[DRW50]

In my story plans for AMC (story plans as in a fic I wanted to write...), JR killed or seriously wounded 3-4 people. I think that would have made for a riveting story, showing the effects on the entire canvas. But that also would have involved a large canvas. With the small canvas AMC has now, only one victim may make more sense. I just wish that we saw more impact of this - David has grieved, and so has Bianca, but others like Miranda are oddly blase.

[ellabelle]

I know plenty about human trafficking (that the writers insist on repeatedly having everyone shriek SEX TRAFFICKERS says a lot about the way they're choosing to present the story), as it's a subject I've researched before in the broader context of violence against women. I'm aware that it's real and that it happens, but I don't enjoy this storyline. Instead of conversations with law enforcement over the reality of trafficking, we're subjected to Zach and Lea's sexual inneundo as they click around on a website of a scantily clad woman to give her an orgasm in order to unlock a secret website. There was no reason to have Cassandra on a pole - it all felt like an excuse to show a spread-eagled nearly naked woman on a pole in the background and to introduce a scantily-clad FBI rubbing herself all over Zach. We've spent two months watching her be repeatedly beaten, drugged, videotaped, raped, and tortured. I don't want to watch that. That's depressing as hell.

I don't mind an educational component to a story (believe me this one needs it), but thus far the only educational bit I've seen is the conversation - I think between Jesse and Zach - about all of these ordinary women who disappeared and are believed to have been trafficked. I don't buy Dixie as a therapist, so I'm already doubtful about her ability to really help Cassandra. I'm hoping the Miranda Center gets involved, and I'd love to see a real therapist who specializes in working with female victims of sexual violence helping Cassandra cope. I'm already seeing rumors that Cassandra is pregnant as a result. This storyline is depressing enough without that added factor. And yes, I know that women get pregnant from rape, but I have no desire to see Cassandra deal with pregnancy on top of everything else.

There's almost no humor on this show. There's nothing light-hearted. Billy Clyde Tuggle is not funny. He's a villain, and using him for comic relief doesn't work for me when it's the only 'humorous' parts of the show.

[ellabelle]

Erica Kane was the only reason I started watching AMC, and she's the only reason I continued to watch off and on from 1990 - present. That's she's not on and her family has been reduced to just Miranda and an occasional appearance from Bianca doesn't really give me personally a lot of reason to watch. I never bought into the whole Martin love fest, and I really couldn't care less how many of them are or aren't on the show right now. JMHO.

David thought he had a son in Trevor, and this story with Cara is basically a recycled version. How is he going to react? He's going to be pissed off, livid, furious, hurt and devastated all at once that she would trust JR but not him.

I think Brooke Newton is playing the role without the subtlety it really needs. You can be a vamp without being that over the top, and if you are going to be over the top, you have to be funny, and she's not. Her Colby comes off as bratty and entitled and rude. As for Devious Maids, it's supposed to be over the top and humorous, and it works in a campy sort of way. Colby's camp is out of place on AMC. I'm willing to give the actress a chance because I think this is her first real acting job, but she needs to tone it down a bit. Her line about David wanting to stick it to JR and her dad as they were stripping each other was so badly delivered that it made me cringe. And in case you couldn't tell, I'm a Susan Lucci fan - I'm watching Devious Maids to see HER, and so far she's really funny.

[alexisfan07]

Michael E. Knight is doing a guest spot on Drop Dead Diva! New interview and he talks a lot about AMC

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Michael-Knight-Drop-Dead-Diva-1067223.aspx

[cassadine1991]

I wouldn't be surprised if we see him in the new cycle of taping

[Angela]

I have little to no attachment to Griffin or Jordi, so the aforementioned and the following are just observations. The actor is clearly somewhat perturbed by his lack of story and airtime by his recent comments on Twitter. It's not unfair or irrational by any means to deduce from that that he's available enough to, at the very least, do a little more and the show had been choosing to give him.

ellabelle, I feel you on missing the Kane clan. They were the cheese in my soap-trap since I was a teenager and now they're barely represented. Hopefully they can bring them back at least for a couple of months after the current stories reach their end period. If that means recasting in the cases of Kendall and Bianca, I'm not going to have a huge issue with that although I'd prefer the ER and AM versions at least for the Miranda reveal.

[cassadine1991]

Sal Stowers (Cassandra Foster) is being interviewed here

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/behindthemicradio/2013/06/27/actress-sal-stowers