The problem was the way Rayfield wrote (I remember it improved a bit when Cascio--sp?--became co-HW) never felt like Pine Valley and was a lot of quick solutions. So these teens had no real ties to the canvas (although Henry--thanks @DRW50 for the reminder--dated Maggie, Joni was with Jamie and Laurie was with JR) and felt like short term storylines (Laurie's alcoholic dad, etc) AMC was really strange in that brief era--we also had crazy therapist Lysistrata with Liza and Adam doing couples therapy with her (I remember she sent them to see a movie together--and JR and Laurie and maybe Jamie and Joni were there too, and the set and everything else looked like something from a Disney channel sitcom) who briefly dated Tad. I do think Lena and Bianca were in that era (right?) and fans mostly loved them, but... It all felt like quick fixes.
In hindsight I think Brian Frons just had Rayfield there as a stop gap measure. He was trying to get Broderick back as HW apparently and when she said no, he hired McTavish. At first Frons did seem to have the idea to re-hire writers for his shows who wrote it during high points in the past (this was also when he hired Josh Griffith and eventually Michael Malone too, for OLTL--of course Griffith left after a year, followed by Malone due to Frons interference.) So I think Rayfield was a place holder and I certainly didn't resent McTavish immediately disregarding much of his stuff--while I did like a bit of it, really it made the most sense. I remember her first episode was a Fourth of July one and suddenly (albeit only briefly) Pine Valley felt more like itself than it had in a while.
By
EricMontreal22 ·
