Question for Long Term AMC fans who remember the early 70s

[allmc2008]

I will sometimes ask someone if they remember when the show was B&W was a way to be snarky and to see if they really know what they are talking about. 9 times out of 10 they will say yes. And when they do I make up random characters and stories that never happened and they will go along with it.

I left Soap Central and came here full time because of that!! The moderators were even saying they remember when the show was B&W and nobody believed me when I tried to tell them the truth. I guess telling people it was makes a good story???

[SFK]

Funny, I never took into consideration what PC said about folks still watching on b&w sets. I just assumed people were influenced by seeing the old kinescopes. I also thought AMC had been in b&w and all of those early pics in the 25th anniversary scrapbook were "rare" glimpses in color. My mom was pregnant with my brother watching AMC in 1970 and she assured me that the show was never in b&w.

[allmc2008]

I find it amazing how there are people that were literally watching since Day one. I wonder how impactful that first episode really was. I read Agnes taped an unaired pilot which featured the Poem. I wonder if that Tape is still around since it was never broadcasted?

[jam6242]

I wasn't a regular viewer but I occasionally watched AMC in the early 70s (usually during commercials for the other soaps I watched). I was in Jr. High School at the time. I liked Phil and Tara when Richard Hatch and Karen Lynn Gorney were playing the roles. Didn't like the Nick Benedict recast. I also liked Jeff and Mary and was very sad when she was killed.

[NothinButAttitude]

Type Pine Valley bulletin in google and you'll come across some very detailed, yearly character profiles of characters throughout the shows history. A nice little site. . . .

[danfling]

The characters of Christina and Erica (Robin Strasser and Susan Lucci) did have amounts of inter-reactions on All My Children.

Erica wanted to marry Tom (Richard Shoberg), but the Roman Catholic church recognized Dr. Jeff Martin (James O'Sullivan) as her husband. Erica wanted an annulment, Since Christina and Jeff were romantically involved, there were cross conversations between the two.

Christina's mental problems did not happen until later in her run on All My Children - probably after her marriage to Jeff.

[danfling]

It was stated above that The Boutique was only owned by three of the All My Children characters (Anne, Ellen, Myrtil).

That is NOT correct. It was originally owned by a character named Sidney.

Sidney was a girlfriend of Lincoln Tyler after his divorce from Amy Parker. Sidney was played by Deborah Solomon/Simon (not sure which name she was using at the time when she appeared on All My Children). The actress had played Amanda Holmes on As the World Turns twice. She had played the adopted daughter of Augusta Dabney and William Prince. It was later revealed that the character played by Gloria DeHaven was her actual mother. They had a disagreement, and Ms. DeHaven's character fell and died. Amanda was placed on trial for murder. After her acquittal, she left the show, but was brought back around the time that Rosemary Prinz left the show.

She left As the World Turns to play Sidney on All My Children. I am thinking that Sidney's last name was Scott. I am nearly certain that she owned The Boutique and employed the unseen Mrs. Chance and Anne Tyer Davis. Sidney left town around the same time that Lincoln did (also around the same time that ABC ended A World Apart) and sold the shop to Anne.

Paul Martin, as Anne's spouce, later sold the shop to Ellen. Ellen, in turn, sold the shop to either Kitty or to Myrtil.

I am thinking that it was to Kitty, who willed the shop to Myrtil.

Anyway, Mrs. Chance worked throughout all those owners. Also, Julie Rand Chandler Dalton worked there, as well as others.

[AMCHistory]

I did not know about Sidney! Thanks for sharing. Was she shipped off to Seattle too (as were all the Pine Valley citizens who left in the 70's).

I believe the ownership after Sidney went to Anne, then to Kitty. When Kitty died, she willed it to Myrtle, and Myrtle sold it to Ellen before she left town. When Myrtle came back, she began working with Ellen. Ellen then vacated when the Chandlers bought the restaurant where she would become hostess. Myrtle owned the Boutique until her death, where new owners re-opened the establishment after the tornado. I don't think we saw the place after that.

Though I do remember Carmen/ Randi scenes at the Boutique talking about how they always dreamed about being able to shop there as foster children. I am not sure if that was pre or post Mytle.

I love Nicholas Benedict. I wish he would have stuck around. All the Tara mesh in the head for me. Mary Lynn Blanks was the weakest of the group. I found her performance overly dramatic. She was especially annoying thought the Cliff/ Nina romance era. It was clear they ran out of storylines for Tara, and that more importantly, she was not up for the role.

I actually really like Nancy Frangione and wish she came back for more cameos. That woman is just a stunner. She could have given Erica a continued run for her money.

[AMCHistory]

Fromt he little I saw of Chris Martin, I actually like Robin in the role. I think she was not used to being a supporting player. She was never going to be able to compete with Susan, who by that time in the late 70's had already saw her star rising. I think that there was always confusion too from all the dark haired brunettes running aroun at that time (Karen Gorney as Tara, Francesca James as Kitty, Susan as Erica, and Robin as Chris). It was hard to keep track of who was whom. It's funny because AMC already had a very diverse, and frankyl quirky looking, cast by that point with the exception of it's four younger lear women.

[EricMontreal22]

The ratings tended to fluctuate so much week to week back then. You gotta wonder though if OLTL fans were angry at Agnes for abandoning them as ratings weren't great and AMC climbed (of course Nixon acted as head story consultant at OLTL till 1975, but...)

[EricMontreal22]

It's hard to have official dates for this kind of stuff, partly because often the credits aren't very clear, for example. SHe may have been less hands on even before Loving--like when she did that miniseries The Mannions or whatever. She definitely seemed to rely more on Wisner and Lorraine. WHen Doug Marland left Loving after a year (I wish we knew more details about that) Nixon was HW for Loving for two or so years (I've seen the dates between 85-88 but they always are listed a bit differently) trying, without much audience success, to re-ground the show (something she later did when she HW Loving for nearly a year in 1994.)

I do think she was still a strong story consultant at AMC, and of course had stints as official HW, up until post Bianca's story when she left and co-HW Passanante sadly took over. SHe may have remained in tha capacity though to varying degrees--that A&E Biography of AMC has her sitting at a story read with Richard CUlliton, and AM talked about how, when McTavish returned for her last stint, Agnes Nixon was starting to show up at story meetings again. Of course Agnes herself has basically said the only time she was locked out of ever attending story meetings was a few months into Pratt's run.

Of course then there are arguments about what exactly a story consultant is (apparently sometimes people with story consultant credits are essentially the main head writer for basic plotting--but in Agnes' case I think it ran the gamut from zero to more substantial--even if she never had an actual story consultant credit the way she did for The City.)

[allmc2008]

With all this talk about The Boutique I think that should be brought back. I did not realize that location was THAT pivotal in the 70s.

[danfling]

I think that it should be brought back, too. I think that it would be a good backdrop for a new or returning character, such as Bianca.

When Nancy Frangione was playing Tara, Tara remained a bland character. She was a friend of Erica, but the character were not alike at all. Brooke was such a horrible character, and I never accepted her redeeming. I did, though, feel bad for her when her daughter was killed by the policeman who had been drinking.

I don't think that Sidney went to Seatle. The only character that I remember going there was Lincoln. I think that Sidney may have moved to Boston or to New York, although the actress in real life (Deborah Steinberg/Solomon) moved to Boston in real life to practice law and I may be confusing the character and the actress.

That may be a good topic - where the various characters moved when they were written out of All My Children. I remember Portland, New Orleans, Baltimore, and Europe.

[Pine Charles]

Tara and Erica were friends at one point???

It is a good topic.

I had to do some research on certain characters, but this is what I got so far:

Ellen & Mark - Hong Kong, 1989

Cliff & Nina - Denver, 1989

Travis and family - Seattle, 1991

Mia - San Francisco, 2004

Taylor Thompson - A Toilet Stall at ConFusion, 2009

[Ryan Chamberlain]

It makes me so mad that there's like barely any 70s AMC. But, yet you can find a [!@#$%^&*] ton of 70s GH on YT.