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

[Cheap21]

he said first family of AMC not PV. The Kane's were an original family. They share this honor with the Martins

The only families with strong presence in this show are Chandlers, Hubbards and to a smaller extent Cortlandts. I believe the Kane's and Martins both need to return to prominence as both are are so historically tied to the show. It's odd watching an AMC where they are virtually extinct

[allmc2008]

Plus the Kanes never a big family. never included more than 3 people until fairly recently. The first stronghold family imo are th let tylers because Joe and Ruth weren't married until later.

[Chris B]

Oh I love the Martin's and the English family, but the Kane family are crucial to AMC's success. Erica is the most popular character on the show, for heavens sake. And both Kendall's and Bianca are also hugely popular characters. They're just as important as the Martin or English families.

This is not ABC. I don't want to hear about how ABC handled AMC or OLTL because it isn't relevant anymore. Nobody is really dominating PP's soaps, especially AMC. And all the returning characters with story now, had story when Zendall, Erica and Rylee were hogging the screen. If they bring back Erica, Kendall, Ryan, etc. I'm not worried because these shows have already shown that they want to be an ensemble piece.

[ellabelle]

The Kanes were an original AMC family: Mona and Erica. They were there in Pine Valley before the sainted Martins were: Joe moved to Pine Valley after his wife died. The other original AMC families were the Brents: Ruth Brent (prior to marrying Joe Martin), her husband Ted, and their son Phil. Ruth's sister Amy (Phil's biological mother) was married to Linc Tyler, if memory serves me correctly. Phoebe and Charles Tyler were married, and Mona worked for Charles. Nick Davis was part of the original cast as well: Mona's best friend, Amy's ex-lover and Phil's biological father.

No, the Kane family was never large in numbers, but the presence on the show was, and the absence of that, after 41 years, is very noticeable. Erica was not originally intended to be the star of the show, but it took off that way, and no one can argue that she was THE preeminent soap opera character who defined the genre. People who didn't watch soaps knew who Erica Kane was. Even so, AMC was always an ensemble show. It never revolved all around Erica. There were always other stories going on and days or even weeks when she didn't make an appearance at all. I think it's absolutely possible to bring her back, give her something to do other than wring her hands over her grown children, and still have other storylines going.

[allmc2008]

OK. You are starting to convince me. I am a sucker for original cast members so her coming back, full time, would make my one happy person. Yeah, having Erica back would be good. I would just hope this won't be a Reva Hijacking. Maybe if they let a few more months go by to have other characters develop then bring her on.

[Vee]

Bianca and Miranda are Mona and Erica right now. They were very clearly re-crafted for that.

You don't need Erica and Kendall in the mix constantly. They're just going to overtake the new fabric of the show.

[Chris B]

If Susan Lucci signed on full-time, I think that could only be a good thing. I'd love a potential relationship with Miranda, the feuding with Brooke, scenes with Dimitri and all that damn glamour she brings. I miss Erica.

[cassadine1991]

How can assume that if Erica, Kendall, Ryan, Greenlee, etc. come back they will take over the show, this isn't ABC, Frons is no longer in control dictating.who should be onscreen all the time

[ellabelle]

Whether any of us liked the Bianca/Marissa pairing or not, the reality is that the have an almost cult-like following. Bianca herself has an almost cultlike following. Have you seen fanfiction.net? I'd estimate that at least 80% - if not more - of the 800+ stories on there feature her as a lead character, and the "Minx" pairing was really, really popular among certain groups of fans.

FWIW, I always thought Marissa would be killed because she was the most logical victim. I understand that PP wanted to distance themselves from the hot mess that AMC had been on ABC, and they didn't want to have to deal with continuity issues related to trying to pick up where they left off a year and a half later. Still, I thought it would have been a far more powerful story if they'd shown, say, a messy trial with JR claiming some sort of insanity defense and everyone fighting over custody of AJ because the kid is related to at least half the canvas.

I also understand why they SORASed the kids and got rid of a few others because there were way too many little ones on the show before, but the SORASing makes it hard for me to figure out how old people are supposed to be. Is Anders supposed to be grandparent aged like Dixie? Or is he supposed to be closer to Cara's age? Someone on Facebook said they thought the mystery woman looked like Lily Montgomery, and I no longer know how old Lily is supposed to be - she was Bianca's age or even older at one point but was suddenly back in high school when Bianca was raising a little girl, so is Lily old enough to have been involved with Anders if Anders is old enough to be involved with Dixie? I'm confused.

But to your point Chris about Eden not being around, if they wanted to go that route with the five year jump, then why couldn't Bianca be involved with someone else now? Why can't she have a new live-in girlfriend - a new character - but she still loves Marissa, and Marissa is this huge issue in their relationship that has bubbled to the surface with David getting out of jail and JR waking up? Miranda and Gabby would have had someone around to help when Bianca isn't around, and it could have led to some interesting discussion about Bianca's relationship issues. The idea that she sat there for five years not moving on with her life is really kind of hard to believe. I do understand being traumatized by her death, but she hasn't dated? Hasn't found anyone else? In five whole years? This woman is an expert at turning straight women gay for crying out loud. Surely she could have found someone desirable by now.

[cassadine1991]

Some also say Marissa was killed so they can do a Miranda/AJ pairing, since they were being raised together at the end of ABC's AMC

[Chris B]

But they only had limited time with Bianca so I don't see how they could've developed a new love interest in the time they had. They already had to develop an adult relationship for Bianca and Miranda, address Gabby and Erica's exits and very little time was left for her feelings towards JR. By keeping her with Marissa, you already have an established relationship and thats one less thing you have to develop.

[Vee]

So do lots of things. They were a nice little pairing in the barely-watched twilight of the ABC show. But in the grander scheme, nobody really cares. That is to say, not enough people to make a difference.

You can't write for the idiots on fanfiction.net. Ask Supernatural or any other genre show in the last 20 years. And yes, it was smart of AMC to free Bianca up for a new pairing on the hot new show.

[ThisIsHeavy]

I wouldn't say no body cares. I know a lot of people who aren't watching because there is no love story for Bianca. I myself only tuned in because I hoped that there would be a better Bianca love story than what ABC had to offer since censorship was less of an issue.

Overall the Kanes are my favorite part of AMC so it is odd for me to watch with no Kanes, but I do like other stories and if I don't think about the gaping hole that is the sloppily written Bianca as a mother story, it's not so bad.

I also don't want the Kendall and Tad show which is what I think AMC turned into the last two or so years on ABC, but I do think the Martins and the Kanes are needed. Or at least can they find someone to play Bianca consistently?

I don't think Natalie is doing anything. And I hear Lacey would be game.

[Vee]

Yeah, that is ridiculous.

Eden Riegel is Bianca now. There's no way around it. They went after her for identification value, and they got her.

[ThisIsHeavy]

Ridiculous to think they might do something that was already done with little to no fan opposition? or ridiculous that they wrote her off sloppily and it really doesn't make sense why they even had Bianca there to begin with? I love Eden as Bianca but from a story telling standpoint I am saying they either should have had someone locked in to the role or not had the character as part of the new scene at all.