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

[ellabelle]

You have most of the Chandler family on the canvas in Season 1, and AJ related to half of Pine Valley. I'd restructure the show around the Chandlers. I'd make Dixie and Joe recurring people who are occasionally around. I'd build up the David/Pete business partnership and build it as a rivalry against Chandler Enterprises. I'd lose Anders and have Dixie as recurring. I'd keep Dimitri around as a possible foil to Adam/Brooke, and as a way to possibly allow JR to worm his way back into Chandler (by telling Adam about Brooke and Dimitri). I'd keep Cara because of the interaction with JR (which I'd love to see be more of a relationship and less about blackmail) and because she's Oliver's mother. If Celia is Dimitri's kid, then I'd keep her with Evelyn on recurring, but if the apparent original plan remains the same, then I'd get rid of Celia and Evelyn.

I don't see any point in keeping Billy Clyde Tuggle. If Pete stays, then I think Opal stays, but I don't necessarily see her as frontburner. Colby stays because of Pete, David, and the rest of the Chandlers. I'd keep Miranda and Bianca but hold off on the Cambias reveal until they can work it into a story with brief appearances by Erica and Kendall. Zach is gone, so I'd lose Lea too. I'm over the whole 'Hunter teasing Miranda because her mother is gay' non-story, so I'd lose him. I like Heather, so I'd keep her around to spoil the AJ/Miranda budding romance. I think Jane has potential, but I'm not sure how much room there is for her or where they were going with her story.

I know this is controversial (although less so since Linda was banned), but I'd get rid of Angie, Jesse and Cass for now too. They dominated the first season and not in a good way, IMHO. It was too much of Angie crying, Jesse lying to her, and Jesse overacting because David and Angie were friends. Leave the door open and say that Cass went back to France because it was too hard being in Pine Valley where this all started, that Angie needed some time away from Jesse to regroup so she went to visit Frankie and Randi or Maya and Lucy, and that Jesse went after her. Say that Angie and David are still good friends (maybe even show him calling her on the phone without actually showing Angie) and that he wishes her the best or something. I liked the Cass/Colby interaction, but I have no desire to watch weeks of Cass crying in therapy with Dixie. It leaves the door open, makes room for better development of some other stories, and avoids months of depressing episodes about the aftermath of sex trafficking and Jesse being beholden to the Russian mafia. If a second season is successful, then I'd consider bringing them back at some point in the future.

Think about a show like the Dallas reboot - you've got a core family with at least two generations and their spouses/significant others, an enemy or two, and a handful of people connected to either the core family or the enemy. Your primary cast is about a dozen people total. Even Devious Maids had a core cast of 5 maids and their employers for a cast of about 15 or 16 - and at times that felt like too many people.

I know restructuring the show would be upsetting to fans who prefer the old model, but many of those are the same people complaining that it's not on TV and it's not five hours a week anymore, and it shouldn't have seasons and where are Greenlee and Ryan and Tad, etc. At this point I'm not sure if/when a second season will ever happen, but those are my thoughts, fwiw.

[Vee]

Well, no.

[DRW50]

Is he still whimpering for them to hire the Price is Right model?

[John]

As long as they stick to a certain # of episodes and write arcs accordlingly, there is no need to droop these vets. They can all be weaved in just fine and given story.

Nope just being anti PP and will also kiss their ass if and when they bring back AMC & OLTL

[applcin]

I was never a fan of Zach or TK (too dominating or perhaps a better word is ubiquitous a presence for me on both PC and AMC for too long that even on AMC 2.0 I had minimal tolerance) so while I personally won't miss the character, he seems to be a big draw for a lot of people so I do wonder about the effect on the show (i.e., the fans that will tune out because of his departure).

Lea can always be moved in another direction, I don't think her presence is that tied to Zach and that relationship was pretty new. If anything, I felt like Zach in this incarnation was, to some degree, interchangeable with Tad (maybe even taking Tad's place) with buddying up with Jesse and working with an FBI agent. The awkward one for me would be Miranda who, if Bianca is not on canvas regularly, would basically have no family around. (But these sort of half families or one person there and one not is one of the show's weaknesses overall, I think).

[marceline]

Jamey is the poster child for why the soap press has become deservedly irrelevant and I will never understand why you drag his unfunny, self-indulgent bullshit here as if he has something unique or insightful to offer. If someone is interested in Jamey's take, we all know where to go to find it.

[marceline]

I'm sure somebody would watch that. Not me but somebody.

[ellabelle]

To each his (or her) own. To be honest, I lost a lot of my enthusiasm halfway through the first season of the AMC reboot, and I'm not sure how much of a second season I'd watch if it's just more of what we saw earlier this year.

[Vee]

I thought it just got better and better.

[greens_dupres]

Agreed I was enjoying Zach for the first time ever. And I liked him and Lea.

But honestly, not a huge blow- the Zendall fans were pissed anyway so have Miranda say they reunited. Don't agree that the cast needs to be cut- it was pretty perfectly balanced in the back half of the 40 eps- no Zac/Lea leaves them with some wiggle room now. I'm enjoying Dixie more than I have in years because I'm so intrigued by Anders. As far as Celia, I didn't love a lot of it but I would definitely feel short-changed if we got no resolution on the mystery in S2.

[Steve]

Me, neither!

Me, too!

[marceline]

I can't lie. Even if AMC doesn't come back, I'll be forever grateful to PP for sticking a fork in the Rylee/Zendall era. Those four drove me away from a show that I'd loved my whole life so I'm kind of enjoying the knowledge that the two pairings that Brian Frons forced on the audience we treated the way they deserved to be.

[Winchester91]

Jesse/Angie jokes aside, I think the show lost a real opportunity to exploit a possible David/Angie pairing, which would have amped up the confrontation with Jesse at the Chandler gala. Also, I have no problems with the way the teen set was handled. AJ/Miranda had that special something that I couldn't deny. (Don't get me started on the other young male...um, actor. )

[John]

Iam pro Hunter Morrison & his actor Daniel Covin. Even though I feel He and Eric Nelsen (AJ) have more chemistry than they do with any of the younger female set. JMO

[marceline]

And if any of the limited data we got showed decreasing viewership, I'd say you have a point but we saw the opposite. AMC had gradual growth on OWN and was regularly in the top 5 on Hulu on the days the show dropped. There's no need for an overhaul, just some tweaks.

I think they went at a J/A/D triangle the right way. J&A are probably the last soap supercouple in existence (Nothing I've seen in the chatter about GH's L&L makes me think they still deserve the title.) so bringing in an interloper needed to be done slowly. PP really leveraged the history between these three characters and IMO, the fact that we never saw David or Angie admit to having inappropriate feelings was the best part. It forced us to look at their actions.

Damn. I'm going to have to watch the gala episodes all over again. David/Angie dancing was beautiful and I will never get tired of watching Jesse scream that he will stab David in the neck with a rusty pair of scissors. LOL!