LOL! I know. Even before the internet, I could feel the audience hate for Eve Guthrie radiating from the screen. I don't care. I loved her. Of course, putting her with Ed was a death sentence.

I'd quit watching GL by the time things really went south for Gilly but she and Hamp just owned my heart.

I did like Kimberley Simms' Mindy, but I never hated Eve even when she was there. I mostly wondered why either of them wanted Nick (I like VI, I think he's a wonderful actor and I have enjoyed his work on AMC, but I hated, hated, hated Nick for quite a number of years). I thought Hilary Edson was luminous as Eve. I actually enjoyed her with Ed, although, as you said, that was probably a sign she was on the way out.

Gilly was a great supporting character with real presence, who could have easily become a lead. Forever hating that they dropped her relationship with Alan Michael.

I had very few of these, that I truly rallied around hardcore. I would say my soap tri-fecta would be Alexa Havin's Babe (All My Children), Days Of Our Lives' EJ and General Hospital's Johnny. I also had a genuine affection for Jessica Morrison's Jen on One Life To Live, Julie Marie Bergman's Lulu from General Hospital and The Bold & The Beautiful's Hope, but I think that was also because I disliked their counterparts and adversaries in Natalie Buchanan (OLTL), Kirsten Storms' Maxie (GH) and Steffy Forester (B&B).

Good god, I couldn't stand All My Children's Erica. I found her to be so woefully tiring in all capacities. She won everything she ever wanted and even in things she lost there was no real grievance in them because she so quickly got over everything. Nothing stuck to her. That woman felt too plastic to be real (not in the physical sense but in terms of story progression and emotional complexities). Endless admires who got her out of everything, combined with an endless streak of luck that caused anyone who ever stood against her to lose at whatever the price was astonishing, just from the law of probabilities stand point. Fans complain about writers pet's, Erica was a huge one. It was like there was a written bylaw that Erica must always come out on top in that show. Beyond annoying and beyond tiring. She never lost. She was All My Children's equivalent to Victor Newman.

Not to mention their were numerous other women in her sphere who were superior to her in so many ways and yet they still wound up chewing crumbs underneath her heel, truly disgusting.

She also continuously regressed in character as well. The Erica from the 90's was more or less interesting as she had endearing child/parent moments within Kendell and Bianca, 00's Erica was a massive regression. Everything from the Vegas girl to the adultery with Jeff Martin to getting into cat fights with women 20 years younger than her. Erica was a perpetual embarrassment during AMC's last few years.

Erica did loose though. A LOT!!

She miscarriages her and Phill's child and her and Dimitri Child.

She didn't get her way when she had the Abortion and when she took the birth control pills

She had a mental breakdown back in the 70s.

She didn't get to win the heart of Phill, Nick, or Chuck.

She was raped at the age of 14

And the mother of all of them--She was abandoned by her father!!

I dunno, I adore Erica but in all my years of watching I never felt like she "needed my support". She is untouchable as far as I'm concerned, Teflon diva. Flawed? Sure, but who cares? Her detractors can't detract a thing in my book because she is an infinitely redeemable winner at heart.

Days Jack and Lucas

Rachel Cory

Drucilla Barber Winters

Carly Jacks

Lucinda Walsh

Jillian Coolridge

Seneca Beaulac

*gasps* How did I forget my Rachel Cory & Gilly Grant?!!

 

She also continuously regressed in character as well. The Erica from the 90's was more or less interesting as she had endearing child/parent moments within Kendell and Bianca, 00's Erica was a massive regression. Everything from the Vegas girl to the adultery with Jeff Martin to getting into cat fights with women 20 years younger than her. Erica was a perpetual embarrassment during AMC's last few years.

 

I agree that her storylines were not great in AMC's later years. She spent far too much time weeping over Kendall's latest medical crisis or dealing with Bianca's relationship issues. Susan herself has said that she felt Erica was off-balance as a character in AMC's later years.

That said, we saw her, over the course of 40 years, go from a spoiled, selfish teenager who only thought of herself to an adult who literally confessed to murder (more than once) to try to save her daughters. We saw her go from caring only about herself to being willing to lay down her life for Bianca when she was a sickly little girl. She went from a woman who got married on a whim even when she didn't love the man to a woman who told the man she DID love that she wasn't willing to jump into another marriage just to make him feel secure.

We saw her go from a flippant teen who blamed her mother for her father leaving to a woman sobbing over her mother's casket because she knew that no one had ever loved her as much as Mona did. She went from practically homophobic over Bianca coming out and doing everything to sabotage her budding relationships to bitching at a minister who wouldn't perform a christening of a baby born to lesbian parents. Erica went from fearing her daughter's sexuality to blithely telling Caleb, "oh, that's my married lesbian daughter." She went from seeing her rapist in Kendall to loving Kendall solely for who she was. She went from loathing the idea of Bianca bearing her rapist's child to adoring Miranda.

The Vegas thing was poorly executed but the overall concept - Erica going a bit insane and doing something rash because she couldn't cope with what was happening in her life - was something we saw her do multiple times in the past. Adultery with Jeff... based on their marriage, he was an odd choice for her to fall for even temporarily, but the adultery? Yeah, that's something Erica would do and did do in the past. As for fighting with younger women... yeah, okay. That was lame, but thanks to Frons & Co, there really weren't that many other women on the canvas her age. :/

If anything, I'd argue that what hampered Erica from an emotional development standpoint was the repeated on again/off again relationship with Jack because THAT never changed. It never developed. They repeated the same mistakes over and over again and never learned from them. When your lead female character says, "Is this another rendition of the famous Jackson Montgomery 'Goodbye Forever' speech?" it's a sign your characters need to break out of the cycle they're in. The potential for emotional growth and maturity was there, but it never really came to fruition. I'd have preferred that they stay out of each other's orbits for a few years and THEN if they were going to be together, let them do it in a mature relationship in which they learned from their past.

AMC: Bianca, Simone

OLTL: Luna, Evangeline, RJ

GL: Eleni, early Harley, Eve, Gilly

Loved me some Gilly and Harley. But - don't kill me - never could stand Eve. There was something about the way Hilary Edson spoke that I found deeply irritating.

I would add Holly and Bev's Alex to my list. Y&R I'd include Dru, Heather's Victoria, and Nikki.

Gilly was a great supporting character with real presence, who could have easily become a lead. Forever hating that they dropped her relationship with Alan Michael.

It's been 20 years and I'm still pissed about GL dropping Gilly/Alan-Michael for Lucy/Alan-Michael. The actors had wonderful chemistry.

Y&R: Drucilla Barber...she could never do any wrong. EVER! And anyone Winters related, except for maybe Lily. But even with her I have my limits.

OLTL: Evangeline Williamson!

And basically any AA character and the use of terms ghetto and thug when they do not apply...and no, it is not relative. I saw the term "thug" used to describe Mason on Y&R (they even have started talking about his grammar). I was pissed. There is nothing thuggish about the character Mason and he has perfect damned grammar. I am not even a fan of him but my gosh was I upset!

Edited October 7, 201312 yr by ajsp35801

It's been 20 years and I'm still pissed about GL dropping Gilly/Alan-Michael for Lucy/Alan-Michael. The actors had wonderful chemistry.

That's the reason I left GL. Not only did they veer from the story, they edited out scenes that they'd already taped. AM and Gilly started referencing moments and convos we never saw on screen. That's when I realized how far TPTB went to cater to bigots. I quit and never looked back.

Not much Jesse Hubbard mentions. Why do you guys hate him so much?

That's the reason I left GL. Not only did they veer from the story, they edited out scenes that they'd already taped. AM and Gilly started referencing moments and convos we never saw on screen. That's when I realized how far TPTB went to cater to bigots. I quit and never looked back.

Wow! I don't remember Gilly and AM at all. Was it the Cobb guy?

Not much Jesse Hubbard mentions. Why do you guys hate him so much?

How did you arrive at that?

That's the reason I left GL. Not only did they veer from the story, they edited out scenes that they'd already taped. AM and Gilly started referencing moments and convos we never saw on screen. That's when I realized how far TPTB went to cater to bigots. I quit and never looked back.

This was the last straw for me too.

As I recall, Alan-Michael and Gilly were trying to find the Spaulding's former assistant, Bess Lowell, who had a copy of a document that would prove the true ownership of Spaulding Enterprises. For reasons that made no sense, Gilly suddenly became afraid for her life and went into hiding.

In the meantime, Gilly's storyline was handed on a silver platter to Lucy Cooper, a Mary Sue character who had been on the show for all of two minutes. TPTB also found time to chem test Alan-Michael with Tangie Hill, a character that wasn't working on any level.

When Gilly finally returned, she was shoehorned into a bs romance with Sid, a black corporate lawyer who was secretly a ghetto crimefighter. Jill Farren Phelps talked up the relationship in the soap rags while dismissing the questions about Gilly/Alan-Michael with, "We're not going in that direction." The actors didn't have one tenth of the chemistry of Gilly/Alan-Michael or Gilly/Hamp and both were gone within a year.

Edited October 7, 201312 yr by Catsinthebag

Not much Jesse Hubbard mentions. Why do you guys hate him so much?

LOL! I was thinking the same thing. The truth is Jesse is a character I love and always will but that doesn't mean I can defend him. The man has earned himself an ass-kicking.

Wow! I don't remember Gilly and AM at all. Was it the Cobb guy?

Nope. Rick Hearst.

Edited October 7, 201312 yr by marceline