AMC: Returns with potential

[Vee]

Oh, God! Old-ass Rosa.

[greens_dupres]

I remember they had her in a Catholic school uniform. It was all SO wrong. I don't think she lasted a year. The younger two Santos sisters just did not need to exist.

[cassadine1991]

As much as Anna being on AMC was not needed, I did love her reunion with Robin

[EricMontreal22]

Well they didn't go full out--it was the voodoo story (which included Jamaica location stuff with Noah and Julia among others.) I believe it was sorta based on the same "real life" case that The Serpent and the Rainbow was based on about a folk drug/potion that could make someone basically be dead and then come back to life.

[EricMontreal22]

I admit, I didn't know Anna from GH, and I've always liked Finola so--character wise I liked Alex. But there were several issues--one was she really was not an actress who could play twins--they were, really from what I could tell, the same character essentially so no use for having both on the canvas. That was also (another) messy era with her coming on just as Nixon took over HWing from McTavish in '99, but hten most of the Alex/Anna stuff was by the time that Jean passanante had taken over most of the HWing and then eventually took over completely (such a strange combo--Nixon/Passanante, but by then Nixon seemed to mainly be still there to finish Bianca's story.) Dog Boy Gabriel was when Passanante was solo and we had all those utterly vapid E taking teens like Marcus.

I believe Charlotte actually was not Alex's mother and Charlotte stole her as a baby. I also remember an insane asylum in the UK or something...

[cassadine1991]

True.. But we did get the long awaited reunion between Robin and Anna, I loved their scenes together, should've happened on GH

[AdelaideCate007]

Which should have happened on GH, along with Anna and Mac's reunion. It was just a waste on AMC, especially since they didn't even mention she was alive on GH till years later.

[cassadine1991]

So true. Like Anna/Felicia's scenes last year, they were acting so calmly for people who haven't seen each other since 1992 when EVERYONE thought Anna died, I tweeted this question and Finola said that Mac told Felicia off-screen

[EricMontreal22]

Even though I was not a huge GH fan, that was beyond weird. Then again, when they had Angie join Loving--something I assume was done to try to get Angie lovers to watch Loving, they made zero mention of it on AMC either. Weird, weird. (I believe the same may have been true when Skye went to One Life to Live after a two year break of not being on any show--and then GH, though she did at some point make a cameo on AMC.)

[cassadine1991]

Weren't there crossovers between Loving and All My Children???

Well Rae DID crossover lots of times from OLTL to GH

[You're Soaking in it]

Camille's mother was named Joy - an old flame of Adam's. She somehow died back in Pigeon Hollow, and for some reason, Lee Hawkins - her widower - balmed Adam. Camille, Joy & Lee's daughter - and apparently a dead ringer for her late mom - initially bought into her dad's version of events. So she helped gaslight Adam by floating around the Chandler mansion pretending to be her mom's ghost. Tad investigated, meets Camille, boredom follows...

Meanwhile, Lee broadened his revenge plot and attempted to kill Adam's daughter, Haley, by blowing up her apartment (note: Megan McTavish loves to write bombs - which is ironic since most of her storylines, well, you know...) And please don't ask how Lee Hawkins implemented his plan, because that part is glossed right over... just assume he's an expert at this... and with poison tattoos. Anyway, in the weirdest depiction of an explosion I'd ever seen, Haley & Mateo's apartment, while they slept, had its walls mildly shake while several fog machines filled their living room with steam.

Cue chaos and Mateo has a head injury, putting him in a coma. After he awakens from the coma, he soon discovers he has psychic dreams (earning him the soap message board name of "Comateo"). While he was able to foresee several pending calamities in Pine Valley, ironically he was unable to predict the disastrous remainder of McTavish's 1998 writing stint.

[You're Soaking in it]

Wendy Riche was not on board with Anna being in Pine Valley. Let's just say there was some internal conflict in ABCD at the time. She and Jean Dadario Burke were definitely not on the same page.

[EricMontreal22]

Rae started on AMC I believe.

Yes, Loving and AMC had direct crossovers--in '91 Jeremy and Ceara stayed with Kate, I believe, while trying to work out their relationship, then Summer '92 they had the epic Carter Jones cross over which is what made me hooked on Loving which was very direct (Hannah and Dinah Lee stayed at Myrtle's boarding house on AMC, it turned out they had a connection with Carter who had already been a villain--he used to date and abuse Dinah Lee I believe, he followed them back to Corinth and Loving, Jeremy, Trevor and maybe Jack went to Loving to track him down, etc.) I wish some of it was online--I believe one scene from Loving was at some point. And then Jeremy moved to Loving (where Ceara was killed off screen.) All of these had special promo ads during both shows and were heavily promoted and made pretty clear--unlike the examples given where someone watching only one show might have no clue.

YurSoakingInIt thanks for that great post

[twotrey]

While the first Jeremy/Ceara crossover to Loving was OK--they planted the seeds nicely with Trisha visiting Pine Valley to meet Jeremy, then when Jeremy and Ceara broke up, they ended up both going to Corinth separately, with Myrtle contacting "old friend" Kate to put up Ceara, and then Jeremy took Trisha's job offer at the University, then running into each other there--the Carter Jones crossover really worked, rather surprisingly so, considering it was kind of a last-minute decision. Carter's story as ever-yawn-worthy Galen's abusive ex-husband was supposed to only go a couple of months, and then the decision to permanently move Jeremy to Loving was made somehow during this time, and then the Carter story (and backstory) was expanded, and the whole Galen thing became kind of an afterthought (especially as John Wesley Shipp's awesomely evil Carter was clearly being wasted on drips like Karen Person's Galen and Andrew Jackson's Stephen) as he became obsessed with (Melody Anderson faux-)Natalie and the mutual hate with Trevor grew. It was pretty clever, I thought. Instead of bringing in some new dayplayer as a woman from Carter's past, they used Dinah Lee Mayberry from Loving, whose story on that show had a natural out for her to leave town for a while, having just broken up with Clay Alden. So Kate called up "old friend" Myrtle to put up Dinah Lee, and then she and Carter, whom she knew from her hometown, ran into each other. Watching the two shows during this time, especially back-to-back as they aired here in L.A., made for a neatly seamless experience, but also one that didn't require viewing of both shows. I remember how AMC ended one day with Carter obviously about to beat down Dinah Lee, then the next day's Loving had her sister Hannah receiving a desperate phone call from bruised-up Dinah Lee that then abruptly, mysteriously, ended on the latter's side. The opening scene of AMC that day had Dinah Lee passed out on the ground near a pay phone. So while that nicely transitioned from Loving, it also made sense for an AMC-only viewer, considering how the previous day ended with Carter about to beat her; it also ended up paying off for a Loving-only viewer, for all was explained about Dinah Lee's troubled trip out of town when she hastily returned to Corinth. It remained nicely coordinated for a month or so, climaxing when Carter escaped PV and went to Corinth to finish off Dinah Lee, with Jeremy and Trevor hot on his trail. The climax of the story was on Loving, with Jeremy doing some hilarious martial arts to apprehend Carter, and before Jeremy and Trevor carted Carter (yes, bad pun in tended there) back to PV (where he faked catatonia to avoid prison but then had his act broken by Galen, of all people, IIRC), I remember Trevor gave Shana Vochek a speeding ticket or something, so James Kiberd and Susan Keith could have a nice little bickering scene together (which had the both of them directly addressing the camera saying something to the effect of how they pitied their respective spouses--wink wink). I'm still sad that no one thought to bring back Carter somehow during the early days of Robin Mattson's stint as Janet when she wanted to get back at Trevor and Laurel, since I thought she and JWS would've made some hot evil together.

The Rae Cummings crossover story, needless to say, was not nearly as gracefully executed. And there were some mentions of Skye on AMC before she moved to Llanview; Adam made some mentions to Liza about hearing from Skye saying that she was moving there. As far as Finola Hughes on AMC, I agree the whole Alex/Anna thing was some huge mess, but once they got out of all that and wrote out Alex, and Anna was back to herself and the great, *hot* pairing with David happened, all was forgiven (especially when it led to gold like that long, phenomenal scene between Anna and David after Leora's death that played uninterrupted from commercial break to commercial break).

[EricMontreal22]

Thanks so much for those details. I was 11-12 at the time and had only just become a fan of AMC about six months before the first cross over (I believe it was around Nov 1991,) but only managed to catch a few episodes when I was home from school (I remember them both being locked into a room together--maybe a garage or garden shed so they would talk things out.)

Again, I was young, and new to the world of soap operas when the Carter story happened--but actually that brings back a number of details (and I was obsessed enough by then that I made sure to tape Loving as well as AMC everyday. By then I was already taping OLTL as well as early Summer I believe I started watching OLTL when I noticed the Billy Douglas story.) Even at that age, it was obvious how they moved the Carter story quickly away from Galen and Stephen (who left shortly after IIRC) although didn't Carter set Trevor's house on fire (because Trevor was helping Galen?) and it was when Natalie was blinded in the fire that they switched actresses? I do remember Carter feeling guilty and then obsessed and impersonating an orderly at the hospital to befriend her, and then later kidnapping Natalie to a houseboat in a sorta of Cape Fear type story.

Like I said, I wish I had saved those episodes or they were online. I know at AMC by then McTavish had largely taken over from Nixon as HW with FMB as EP, whereas according to articles that probably would have been the era when Haidee Granger was EP and after fighting with Addie Walsh, who was let go by her around May '92 apparently largely acted as HW for the show until Millee Taggart was re-hired (she had worked in the late 80s there) and paired with everyone's fave, Guza (for the record I liked a lot of their stuff on Loving.) So I have no idea who was overall in charge of story (I assume someone at AMC, but...) And yes, I clearly remember the cute scene between Shana and Trevor.

I'm glad you remember it as being a well done cross-over too, and it's not just me. I think one reason it worked was because of the co-ordination between the shows, but you didn't really *have* to watch one over the other (I know with the big AMC/OLTL babyswitch some OLTL fans felt annoyed that much of the crossover was simply on AMC)--and also I remember it being fairly tight. It didn't go on for months and months like Rae's endless mess. (I also remember Myrtle later showed up at a wedding at the Alden's on Loving--maybe Dinah Lee's which was a nice, subtle touch.)

"As far as Finola Hughes on AMC, I agree the whole Alex/Anna thing was some huge mess, but once they got out of all that and wrote out Alex, and Anna was back to herself and the great, *hot* pairing with David happened, all was forgiven (especially when it led to gold like that long, phenomenal scene between Anna and David after Leora's death that played uninterrupted from commercial break to commercial break)."

I know this has been discussed on here before--but yes to all of this. (And that scene in particular was shortly after McTavish's return I believe, where for a while we were getting a few longer scenes like that which gave me hope...)