Disclaimer: I started watching the show in the early 90s (around the time that Natalie got stuck in the well by my beloved Janet), so I wasn't aware of her history prior to Uncle Porkchop back then.

I'd read recently that Natalie gave Erica a run for her money in regards to her popularity on the show as a vixen / bitch / heroine and was the closest threat to her standing as the HBIC of Pine Valley back in the 80s.

Those who watched the show way back when: is this true or is this just an overexaggeration from a Natalie stan / Erica hater?

I didn't start watching until late 1990, so I missed most of Natalie as an ice queen/diva, but in watching clips of the show from the Erica/Jeremy/Natalie triangle, I really liked that Natalie! I didn't care for the Natalie of 1992 or so - she was bland and boring, and frankly, Janet was a wonderful departure for the actress at that point. I adore Kate Collins, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching her as Janet, but I didn't really have any love for Natalie until I found YT clips of Natalie from 1986 or so.

I'd love to hear from fans who watched in the 80s and followed the soap press back then.

ellabelle, if you can direct me to a channel / collection of Natalie clips pre-Uncle Porkchop (especially with her battling Erica), I'd greatly appreciate it. Thank you in advance.

It's very jarring to hear Natalie being spoken as a scheming vixen that went toe-to-toe with Erica Kane since I know her as Uncle Porkchop's loving wife / Timmy's mother / the heroine in peril against her psycho twin. Heck, I didn't even know that Dimitri was brought on as a love interest of hers (I always assumed that he was always for Erica, since he was my favorite of her love interests).

ellabelle, if you can direct me to a channel / collection of Natalie clips pre-Uncle Porkchop (especially with her battling Erica), I'd greatly appreciate it. Thank you in advance.

It's very jarring to hear Natalie being spoken as a scheming vixen that went toe-to-toe with Erica Kane since I know her as Uncle Porkchop's loving wife / Timmy's mother / the heroine in peril against her psycho twin. Heck, I didn't even know that Dimitri was brought on as a love interest of hers (I always assumed that he was always for Erica, since he was my favorite of her love interests).

This says it all:

^That scene is one of my favorites

ellabelle, if you can direct me to a channel / collection of Natalie clips pre-Uncle Porkchop (especially with her battling Erica), I'd greatly appreciate it. Thank you in advance.

It's very jarring to hear Natalie being spoken as a scheming vixen that went toe-to-toe with Erica Kane since I know her as Uncle Porkchop's loving wife / Timmy's mother / the heroine in peril against her psycho twin. Heck, I didn't even know that Dimitri was brought on as a love interest of hers (I always assumed that he was always for Erica, since he was my favorite of her love interests).

This also has good Natalie scenes. This also has a GREAT Pheobe/Langely scene!

Natalie and Erica both seemed to be popular bitches in the mid-80s, both redeemed in the late 80s, but whereas they still knew what to do with Erica once they got out of the slump, they seemed to struggle with Natalie, although Kate's reported issues with James Kiberd likely made this far worse.

Natalie and Erica both seemed to be popular bitches in the mid-80s, both redeemed in the late 80s, but whereas they still knew what to do with Erica once they got out of the slump, they seemed to struggle with Natalie, although Kate's reported issues with James Kiberd likely made this far worse.

How was Erica redeemed and what do you mean by slump? Are you saying Erica lost popularity/storyline presence?

Natalie was a great character, I loved her marriage to Palmer and I think the best episode I ever saw of AMC was this one which was like a primetime season finale. Ross raped Natalie and the entire family exploded in one episode when Palmer misconstrued the whole thing and thought it was an affair so her threw her out, and then Julie witnessed the whole thing and ran away, and then Julie's mother ran after her and fell down a flight of stairs.

How was Erica redeemed and what do you mean by slump? Are you saying Erica lost popularity/storyline presence?

I don't get the impression that a number of her stories from 1986-90 or so were hugely popular with the audience, and things didn't pick up again until her affair with Jack/Bianca burning down the house/losing custody of Bianca.

Thanks, allmc2008. Wow, so that is how Natalie came in as... Talk about a complete 180 from what I knew her as. I'm intrigued, though I'd like to know why Janet lasted longer than Natalie and why Natalie has been largely forgotten post-mid 90s? I'd think that she'd be up there with Blair Cramer because she definitely had that same It factor.

Carl, I was under the impression that Jack/Erica/Travis was extremely popular back then (hence the back & forth with Jack and Erica for years). I didn't know that that made her unpopular with audiences.

Jack/Erica and the affair were popular. I think that was around late 1989, and into 1990. I was thinking of things like that weird story with Michael Tylo, most of her relationship with Travis, the strange story where Travis kidnapped himself and Nic Coster became obsessed with her when she ran away to Sea City, etc.

I came into viewing the show when natalie was about ready to marry Adam where she still sort of had a backbone before the Trevor/Janet story.

Dimitri entered the show when he rescued natalie from the well, since the well was on Wildwind's property. I think he fell for her as he nursed her back to health and briefly feuded with Trevor for natalie. At the same time, there was a mysterious maid that didn't like Natalie and someone was being hidden in the attic. I think Dimitri and Erica crossed paths because he was trying to take over Enchantment so they didn't like each other all that much at first. I think they didn't start their romance for at least six months after Dimitri was on the show.

I started watching back in 2008 so I didn't see the last years of Natalie. Anyway, how would have Natalie come back from the dead? I wonder if AMC ever came back that Kate would agree to originate a new role that would be a Natalie look-a-like kinda like what they did with Kitty and Kelly. Maybe Natalie had a cousin?

The spooky gothic Wildwind maid was Helga, sort of a creepy riff on Myra, and it was her daughter and Dimitri's wife, Angelique (who was in this sort of waking coma and bore more than a passing resemblance to Natalie) that she had stashed away and dramatically wheeled out in this old school wheelchair at Dimitri and Natalie's (or "Natalya" as Dimitri called her) engagement party. That was one helluva run-on sentence.

I watched AMC since childhood, but due to school and age, I missed large stretched and memories get foggy. Natalie was probably my first introduction to the redeemed bad girl. I remember when she was pregnant with Timmy and still causing trouble for Erica and Jeremy. I also remember that epic rape sequence that had no dialogue, just dramatic music, it was like nothing I'd ever seen before. After the rape, Natalie was out of the mansion and living in a modest apartment, a working mom. She was living there when Silver lost her [!@#$%^&*] over Jeremy and tried to shoot Natalie, accidentally getting

shot herself as they fought over the gun. Nat stashed the body in Timmy's toy chest, where Palmer later discovered it and dumped it in the pond on his property (Dixie later discovered it while swimming in the pond as she kept her eyes open for snakes).

Natalie later married Adam and was yet another one of his victimized/manipulated/bribed wives. That's when she met Trevor and soon became a less patrician, warmer middle-class mom.

At any rate, I can't comment on Natalie's popularity in comparison to Erica's, though I doubt there was much of a contest. With no Internet back then, I don't know how we could qualify such a thing beyond fan mail/club activity.

Nat probably wouldn't have been killed off had KC not left the show and Nat been horribly mis-recast. KC did make a few ghost Natalie appearances.

I should add that the writers certainly added sympathetic layers to Natalie much earlier on. If you watch the early Alex/Jeremy/Erica material, you see that she was never an all out villain, and her mother

having a presence in PV helped highlight Nat's vulnerability.

I'm AMC biased, but ever since I saw the movie back in '89, I thought Soapdish's Montanna Morehead and Celeste Talbert were more than a little inspired by Natalie and Erica.