All My Children - List Of All Gossip Through the Years

I think these have all been covered before. Anything new...

"Jennie" (Kim Delaney) turned into a raging alcoholic -

I have always heard it was generally the most pleasurable set to work on. Many actors of multiple soaps mentioned they liked being on AMC the best.

I've also heard it was THE soap with the most coke use amongst the cast, back in the 80s.

R3 More coke than GH?? Damn.

I only care about someone finding Marcy Walker. Her giving up her career for Jesus fascinates me.

Seem to recall reading on a DL thread years ago that Robert Gentry (Ross) had a mad crush on one of the younger male actors on the show at the time. I'm blanking on who it was though.

Susan Lucci is a carpet muncher.

James Mitchell used to eat out Elizabeth Lawrence between scenes.

A friend who was a background extra in the early 80s reported Dack Rambo used have various young studs hanging out in his dressing room waiting for him to finish for the day. On Fridays in the summer, they'd leave the studio and head directly to Fire Island.

Reportedly, Louis Edmonds and James Mitchell were jealous of him getting all that hot young action.

AMC had so many bad, random newbies in the last decade that it never felt grounded again.

Eat your heart out, cunts!

I think it would be awesome if Lucci and either Dierdre Hall or Erika Slezak did a remake of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? I would suggest Julia Barr but she's not quite the 'name' that the others are.

She would actually probably look younger without that big puffy hair. Is it a wig?

R13 It is definitely a wig.

Does she lend her wigs out?

what happened to Donna Beck?

[quote]what happened to Donna Beck?

A PROSTITUTE at the GOAL POST??

I did background work on AMC regularly for about 4 years in the late 90s....they always seemed liked a great cast who loved each other, although.....yes, several of he men were closested gays and when Lucci walked in the room all the other actors basically bowed down to her.....she was fantastic with the crew and pleasant with background actors. Michael E Knight was also really nice to background....especially the younger, buff guys.,,wink wink

Give me the Marcy Walker dirt

Give me the Michael E. Knight dirt...

Give me the Elizabeth Lawrence dirt...

Give me the Tommy Michaels dirt.

Did anyone work on set in the late 80’s? That was my favorite AMC era.

Give me the Karen Lynn Gorney dirt...

R6 was it Greg?

Used to love when they'd put Greg in speedos. Greg, and Joe Novak on Ryan's Hope. Just that thin layer of fabric separating me from seeing the holy grail.

Try that again...

Oooh. Susan Lucci and Sarah Michelle Gellar (along with Eva La Rue, and Mark Consuelos) will both be on Kelly and Ryan on October 31 for an AMC segment of some sort. Will they agree to be in the same room together?

Looch will slap the shit out of her.

Susan has never said a bad thing about SMG in the press. She even point blank denied a feud when she was on WWHL. Sarah, on the other hand, sings like a bird. There is a Valerie Cherish quality to Susan- can’t handle negativity, the constant show biz pro. Their feud was clearly so bad that when SMG came back for the final week of AMC she was on an episode that Susan didn’t appear in. Obviously couldn’t even be on set together. Also- SMG’s last year or so on AMC, their screen time together all but disappeared. That’s why their final episode was so juicy and meta when Erica and Kendall made (uncomfortable) peace.

Speaking of coke use- the cast did a location shoot on a yacht docked on the Hudson in 1984, and Kim Delaney almost od’d on coke during the shoot. I guess Jacqui Babbin had to read everyone the riot act. How did Lucci handle this??? She’s such a straight edge. Commuted in from Long Island, 2 small kids. I feel like she wouldn’t tolerate drugs on set.

Yes, Lucci is one of those that likes to keep her pristine, clean image.

Lucci does have a very good rep in the business. Has anyone else ever said anything bad about her other than Gellar?

Everyone knows of the Lucci-SMG feud but Lucci also absolutely loathed Dorothy Lyman.

I loved Richard Hatch and went to see him in a play at a dinner theater.

All My Children was my favorite soap after Dark Shadows.

I know an actress who shared an agent with Sarah Michelle Geller and was about the same age. The agent tried to encourage a friendship between Geller and my friend since my friend had a normal family and was sane, and Geller was anything but. She (Geller) also had/has really bad scoliosis and as far as my friend knew never had the surgery because it would take time away from her career.

I was always suspicious of the stories that Lucci was ragingly jealous of Geller, since they were constantly promoted by Michael somebody or other, the TV Guide soap columnist, who basically printed as fact every single thing Geller and her mother told him. My favorite was when he said Lucci needed to get her act together and stop being jealous of someone younger, more talented, and BETTER LOOKING. Better looking, seriously.

I'm not saying Lucci is a saint, but in the course of her career she worked opposite many younger, beautiful, talented women in all kinds of storylines - triangles, etc. and there was never a problem. Along comes a fifteen year old girl who is no beauty and suddenly Lucci is jealous? I suspected that it was Geller's mom doing it to promote her daughter, and my friend says it is probably true because that's the sort of the thing the mom did. She was absolutely one note and ruthless about promoting Sarah, and if befriending and sucking up to Michael of TV Guide, giving him dish (made up or not) so he'd promote her version of Lucci, she would do it.

Of course when the story got out there Lucci knew it was Geller who was the source, so the "feud" that didn't exist before was created. She was being used. If Geller had been professional and reasonable, there is no question Lucci would have worked with her without a problem.

Later in Geller's career how she operated became pretty clear but it never caused people to re-examine the Lucci story.

I remember a story Kelly Ripa told when she first started on Live w/Regis. She said years ago a bunch of AMC actors (Ripa, Conseulos, Lucci, Mathison, etc) went to wedding of an AMC crew member in upstate NY and there was a few hours between ceremony and reception and they weren't familiar with the area so someone said let's go to nearby Applebee's to which Lucci replies "What's Applebee's?" LOL. Now I think of it as Lucci's Dowager Countess moment aka "What's a weekend?".

That story is total bullshit. Lucci blamed a little girl for something that wasn't her fault. It was all based around the age of the Kendall character. The audience didn't buy it, Lucci got mad and took it out on the wrong person, who also could act circles around her. End of story. Lucci stans have tried for years to make SMG the villain of this story, but it's total bullshit.

Lucci made Marcy Walker cut her hair off!!!!!

What's the gossip on Julia Barr? She was AMC's number 2 actress for 2+ decades and widely considered to be the show's best actress. But she never worked outside of AMC.

If you had to take sides between Sarah Michelle Geller and Susan Lucci, I'd choose Susan

Strictly because after 40 years on the same show, there hasn't been one Diva story leaked about her (other than SMG). Meanwhile there have been tons if SMG stories about her acting like a bitch on other shows'

Let's face it, Susan Lucci is still the bigger star with the better career, while SMG career has gone down the tubes and she is strictly B-list

Usually the best thing Gellar's co-stars have to say about her is that she's "professional".

[quote] Lucci also absolutely loathed Dorothy Lyman.

R42 here

Do have to say there was probably some tension between Susan and Dorothy (as Dorothy BEAT) Susan Lucci for the Emmy.

AMC threw a BIG good-bye party for Dorothy Lyman when she left AMC, and everyone showed up. Even the actors who were on a recurring basis. Even actors who just joined the show, one week before Dorothy left (Chandler Family)

Everyone that is except Susan Lucci.

I heard that the young actor who played Tim Dillon died in real life. I hope that isn't true.

[quote] If you had to take sides between Sarah Michelle Geller and Susan Lucci, I'd choose Susan

Then you are an idiot.

Tommy Michaels was still very much alive when he attended a AMC/OLTL reunion fan event recently. Unless in just occurred very recently.

[quote] Then you are an idiot.

What did Susan ever do to you?

Tommy Michaels (Tim) at the said fan event back in July 2018.

Julia Barr is one of the greatest daytime actresses ever. She deserved a bigger career.

Lyman won back-to-back Emmys even winning one in Lead Actress. Susan was pissed that Lyman won two Emmys for just two years of work and for a role that was only intended to be comic relief but soon became a fan favorite and a lead role. She infamously pounding on the banquet table, when Lyman won her second Emmy and then storming out of the ceremony in a huff. Unfortunately, the ceremony wasn't televised that year.

[47] and [49}. Phew! That's great news! Just one of those weird rumors I guess. He looks great.

Did some research. Sadly, it was Philip Amelio who died. He played the young Scott Chandler when Cindy was still alive. He was only 27. He was also on "Life With Lucy".

Cady McClain in her memoir says a jealous, more powerful AMC actress ordered hair and makeup to cut McClain’s hair.

She doesn’t name the perp, but that could only have been Lucci.

The villain in Finola Hughes' novel also mirrored Susan.

Id like to know as well, R16.

YEARS ago, I was in Tower Records in the Village and they had a 2 record set of 45-rpm for sale. It was called Candy Earley Sings Songs from le Chateau. I regret not buying it.

Why'd they dump Kathleen Noone and Ellen so quickly? Her character was almost never mentioned again.

Cady was changing her hair around a LOT while on AMC. Someone over at the Soap Opera Network board did a post of all of her hair styles. Some were really, really bad.

R57 Noone left AMC to give primetime a shot. Considering her age at the time (mid 40s) she did pretty well. Her 3 season Knots Landing being her biggest gig.

Mark La Mura wanted to stay, but they wrote him out when Noone left.

Someone uploaded Earley record on youtube.

Below is a clip of Opal (Dorothy Lyman) on DAYS in 2001----when the ADDRESS of the AMC studio is mentioned---she says "that place has gone way down"----an obvious dig at AMC.

Candace Bergen and Dorothy Lyman were once Sisters in law-----they were married to brothers Louis and Vicent Malle.

David Canary was very friendly to the background actors.

R59, Noone is so gracious; a really nice lady; I know her casually in LA.

I thought her run as Claudia Whitaker was brilliant. She had the impossible task of filling the void left by Abby; making her Greg's sister was a great idea -- that gave her a tie to Greg, but viewers would not have accepted another love interest so quickly after Greg and Abby split.

Claudia was devious, manipulative in her own way. Like Abby, but very different at the same time.

Cameron Mathison was also nice to background actors; hell, he's nice to everyone.

R62, he's starting to look like Palmer Cortlandt. And to the person who posted the pic of Laurance Lau in a speedo....THANK YOU. Still have a crush on him.

Dack Rambo had a gorgeous stud waiting in his dressing room every Friday. They’d saunter off to the Hamptons together after Rambo completed his scenes.

Lee Godart (Kent Bogard #1) was fired on the spot after his dressing room door was halfway open more than once and he could be spotted doing coke.

Robert Gentry developed an obsession with Robert Duncan McNeil, who played Charlie. He followed him around the set like a puppy dog and had to be told to cool it.

if that's true, that's tough, R67.

I'm older now and I have always been attracted to older guys so I think what I want doesn't really exist.

[quote]Someone uploaded Earley record on youtube.

Judging from the sound quality, it was apparently recorded on one of Thomas Edison's original cylinders.

Lucci got Lee Godart fired. She was a such bitch.

Eden Riegel?

Lucci had a lot of friends on set who remain friends with her to this day, when there's no professional advantage to staying in her good graces. The trash talk against her is either coming from some Geller fans, or people jealous of her success/longevity in the business. There are also fans of the other daytime divas, especially Dee Hall and Erika Slezak, who hate on Lucci because they believe fandom of lead soap stars is a zero-sum game.

Philip Amelio actually died in 2005 from an internal infection.

Cady McLain is certifiably insane, though, R54. None of these stories were coming out at the time.

Lucci is and was a conniving and vain bitch. Just because you stay at home moms didn't hear shit about her, doesn't mean she didn't do plenty of dirt. How many friends did Lucci have, really? Very few.

Anyone who'd support Sarah Michelle Geller over anyone doesn't know anything about SMG.

And I love how her crazed stans are still hung up on SMG. No one's talking about SMG. Lucci was a cunt before and after SMG.

La Lucci became an acquired taste for me over the years.

As a fan of the genre, I never asked WHY did she lose again at the Emmys, I was more like WHY wasn't McKinsey nominated for Alexandra? Do these people really not watch each other? (No, they don't.)

I became a fan of Lucci's comedic take on her storylines. She's a little child-like, most actors are.

I thought Lucci was great on her SNL stint.

Back in the day I and a bunch of people I know did extra work and U-5s on the NY soaps to earn points towards SAG eligibility. I only did Guiding Light and OLTL, never did AMC. I have friends who did AMC and ATWT. Several said that Lucci was very helpful, especially if she passed someone in the hallway who didn't seem to know where things were.

R79, that jibes with what I've heard about her, too.

As for SMG, I'll never forget when Kendall took over Wildwind or however it was spelled and she's ripping into everyone and she gets to Edmund and Maria and I thought well, she's got nothing against them...and Kendall says; "Edmund, you and Maria can stay but...no pets, so Julia will have to go."

Bitch.

R16 the woman who played Donna Beck made a personal appearance at my home parish's annual carnival in New Jersey back in the late '70's / early '80's.

[quote]How many friends did Lucci have, really? Very few.

Walt Wiley. Cameron Matheson. Alicia Minshew. Bobbi Eakes. Vince Irazarry. Peter Bergman. She was also close to Larkin Molloy and Ruth Warrick before their deaths. I could go on. She's on great terms with most of her former cast mates.

AMC is another one of those soaps that got a skyline in the 80s and completely lost their identity. AMC was always supposed to be the daytime version of Peyton Place and it was ruined.

Years ago I lived on the Upper East side, and did not watch AMC. However, it was not uncommon to see the NYC soap actors out and about. Used to see Robin Strasser shop at Orwashers in a full length fur coat, Lauren Holly kept turning up at every movie I attended, and when I temped for a summer at an ad agency a bunch of them kept turning up for commercial casting calls.

So, one day I was at a flea market (this could have been on the UES - I don't remember). And there was Kathleen Noone (Ellen) and Robert Gentry (Ross). I think their characters were married or exes or something (can't recall where things were with the Ellen/Mark storyline at the time). Anyway, they were extremely flirtatious in a very BIG way, extremely playful. At one point she was walking backwards and they were laughing etc. It was kind of physical, playful flirtation with BIG smiles and laughter on her part. I remember her more than him. No making out or hand holding, just smiley, laughing, teasing, etc.

It was fine, but I remember thinking they were being awfully conspicuous for a couple of actors, who don't usually put themselves on parade when they're dating. I was not very knowledgeable about PR at the time, but still, I thought, "Really?" without being suspicious. AMC was very big in NYC - everybody recognized the actors even if they didn't watch the show, but a lot of people watched the show. So a popular flea market on a weekend would have gotten them seen in pre-internet days.

So if Gentry were gay, that really explains it.

I'm the one who did a lot of U-5 and extra work on GL over the course of a couple of years, and two guys pinged to high heaven to me who did not ping to me on camera Jerry ver Dorn and Michael Zaslow.

Lucci was also good friends with my cousin, who was married to a prominent athlete and lived in the same neighborhood. My cousin (now deceased) was extremely unpretentious, tough and down to earth and wouldn't have bothered if Lucci were cunty.

More on Gentry and Noone - although I didn't analyze it much at the time, I think what seemed a bit "off" to me was that it was very big, so you could "read" the intention really clearly from far away, but it was all smiley stuff, no sweet or intimate stuff. It was stuff like her being very big and playful and at one point taking both ends of the scarf he was wearing and sort of being playful with them, but it was all that stuff. It never calmed down into anything else.

Lucci co-hosted Home and Family for a week a couple of years back, and many former AMC stars came back for a mini-reunion. There was even one point where Peter Bergman says "raise your hand if Susan was a guest at your wedding". Clearly she was well-liked and respected by many on the cast.

Lucci was one of the most insufferable actors I have ever worked with. I wish I had one quarter of the money she pays her plastic surgeon. Erika Slezak, now there is a real professional and genuine daytime actress. Lucci is nothing.

Cady's memoir was NUTS. Such a good read though. I wish she would have talked more about AMC.

"Cady McLain is certifiably insane, though."

Yeah, I think her memoir concedes that. I remember when she won her first Emmy (I don't remember if she won others; she probably did) and she gave an incoherent acceptance speech and for some reason kissed Michael Knight's ass from here to high heaven ("I love you, I adore you..."). She seemed like a real nut.

Cady won another Emmy for ATWT.

She seemed fine in her speech? I always forget how young she was when she started. She was only 21 here.

R88, next are you going to pretend to be a teacher at her kid's school?

I always wondered if the Maurice Benard and Robin Christopher rumors were true during their time on AMC. I also read that when RC joined GH she initially refused to work with him. However, she did kiss him during a fantasy episode and then their storylines kind of crossed later on.

I LOVED 'Nina Courtlandt'!

Susan Lucci was born in Scarsdale. I was born in Brooklyn, I went most of my life not knowing what an Applebees was, nor setting foot in one, and I'm sure the same goes for Scarsdale, LI (Garden City) and Manhattan. Same for Cracker Barrel and Dennys. Kelly Ripa is from Jersey.

I have still not been inside an Applebees. Went to my first Cracker Barrel on a road trip with my cousins headed to Northern Virginia (also my last Cracker Barrel). Went to my first Dennys accompanying my bff to a family reunion in West Virginia. Can't recall what state we were in when we hit Dennys, but I was like - OMG, a Dennys! Was a bit put off by a number of patrons wearing freshly washed but still food-stained t-shirts that were clearly their "Dennys" attire.

Been to a million McDonalds. I-Hops, HoJos (when there were HoJos), Olive Garden a few times, etc. It's more a regional thing.

"She seemed fine in her speech?"

I don't think she seemed "fine." She seemed like of "off" in some way, kind of nervous and weird. And of course it did come out later that she had mental problems.

She just seemed nervous to me. I've seen her act worse on that Emmy stage.

I've heard that Susan Lucci likes to slaughter and eat puppies.

I posted this on another thread but didn’t get any responses:

Longtime AMC fan here, especially of the late 80’s era. I’m wondering if anyone on DL worked on the set in the late 80’s and has any (tea? Dirt?) on the following three actors behind-the-scenes: you worked on All My Children In the late 80’s I need the dirt on the following actors please: Maurice Benard

Lauren Holly

Robin Christopher

Taylor Miller was so beautiful. She had, as one observer said, a "doll-like" face.

I used to see the actors around NYC. Some were tall. Some were small. They were all narrow. They were all so thin in person. I remember seeing Cliff Warner. So skinny . But bubble ass.

I think Cady mentioned how glamorous Robin Christopher was in her book.

Tad and Dixie, one of soap's "power couples" were also two of the most annoying characters ever on a soap opera. I hated them both.

Death by pancakes

Can I come downstairs now?

Didn't Dixie die by eating poisoned pancakes, come back as a ghost, and then come back to life somehow? How ridiculous can you get, even for a soap opera.

Tad Martin killed a guy by torturing him underground and Katie McClain had problems with that.

Michael E. Knight is in the closet?

Saw Michael/ Tad in a straight bar in NYC once by Lincoln Center. Alone. , Wasted. Good looking. Not thin. Not calling attention to himself. Drinking in the corner hoping not to be noticed.

Back in the day when they were in their old studio, the actors had to triple up - 3 actors to one dressing room. Nobody complained.

Even Susan had to share, and she was the biggest star back then, She shared a dressing room with Frances Heflin who played her mother.

After Ryan's Hope was cancelled, AMC moved to a new studio (which they shared with "Loving". And there were enough dressing rooms where everyone had their own room.

That studio is now the home of "The View"

When AMC introduced the "gay" storyline (Laurel brother was openly gay, and the High School Teacher) TPTB planned to write James Mitchell (Palmer) as the town homophobe.

He absolutely refused to do that storytelling threatening to quit, The writers and producers were really out to lunch if they even thought he would want to do a storyline like that.

Maurice Benard hated Lauren Holly - I think she hated his acting, looked down on him, something like that. He was a green newbie then, very rough around the edges, but his looks took him a long way. He was in a tv movie, playing Desi Arnaz (he thought he would become a big star, so he said, then the reviews came in, the work dried up, he had to borrow money from family and friends to survive, then got the GH gig.)

He's bipolar and struggled with it a lot - has been tempted to go off meds a lot and his wife, in an interview, started shaking her head like, oh god (as though it was a sore subject).

That's all I got. What's up with him and Robin Christopher. Did she play Skye on GH? Was she on AMC too? My memories of all this stuff is fading fast.

I saw Susan sing opening night at Michael Feinstein s once in NYC. I was the only non-celebrity in the room. The entire cast of all NYC Soaps. Liza, Elaine Stritch. (Seriously) Yankee players. News people. Regis. Kelly. Rosie. It was crazy who came there to hear her sing/talk "Fever". Susan was better looking in person. Not so frail. Kind of shapely. But that was early 2000's. Sara Michelle Geller was not there, but Eden was.

Lauren Holly lives in Canada now (ironic as her second husband was Canadian Jim Carrey) - anyways she became a dual US-Canadian citizen.

The reason is strictly for tax purposes. With Hollywood North up in Canada, to qualify for tax credits, every productions must have a certain amount of Canadian actors in the cast. So because of Lauren Holly dual citizenship, she will get cast in US productions filmed in Canada, simply to fill a quota for tax purposes.

[quote]Tad Martin killed a guy by torturing him underground and Katie McClain had problems with that.

That is what caused me to finally quit watching. Tad tortured him for days and and he died a horrific death of being suffocated by being buried alive. Tad faced no consequences except feeling a little guilty for a few days and even then most of his emotions was being angry with Dixie and still acting like he was the high moral standard. I was also really sick of Baby is love by then, so was already watching at the time.

I did see an interview with the actors playing Cliff and Nina for one of the anniversary specials. Taylor was saying what a great environment the set was and then added a lot of it had to do with Lucci being a team player and setting the tone and Bergman agreed (although anyone would probably be a team player compared to Victor Newman). The statement seemed unprompted and sincere. I remember Bergman keeping her at the podium with him when he one won of his Y&R emmys that she presented. He had a few compliments for her in his interviews afterwards.

R112 Robin played Skye on AMC before she went to OLTL then GH. Supposedly, she dated Maurice during her AMC days and it ended VERY badly.

Remember how beautiful Hunter Tylo (Whatever she called herself then) was when she came on the show? If Susan was going to have anyone fired for their looks it would have been her or Kim Delaney. Why isn't the Emmy award wining and talented Darnell Willams working constantly? What's up with that?

^not working

Skye was a spoiler in the Nico and Cecily story line. Nico and Cecily were in a sham marriage, but of course were actually secretly in love with each other. Nico was helping Skye out (might have been when she was as a suspect when baby Junior was kidnapped) and gave her a fake alibi that she spent the night with him. I liked Skye - but after her marriage to Tom bit the dust they really did not know what to do with her romantically. She was tested with Travis was with Jeremy for awhile and thrown in with Nico and Cecily. Her and Will could have been interesting, but they never went all out with them. I believe she left around that time and was long gone by the time he was crow-barred.

R112 so Lauren hated Maurice or he hated her or both? I don’t get your reasoning on why they hated each other IRL.

R112 Oh, nevermind I see where you said she looked down on him. For being Bipolar, I guess. What a bitch. Ironic she would go on to marry a Bipolar comedian A lister years later.

R116 do tell more! How did it end badly? What happened?

R121 at the time Maurice wasn't diagnosed as bi-polar - he just acted crazy.

R122 He was already diagnosed - I'm almost positive. He had been hospitalized after going apeshit on his parents, still living at home - can't remember his age - 22 or so (1985). Though he was pretty young at AMC but that was post dx (1987-90). He had his first major episode at home in California, that led to the mental hospital - he had to move to NYC for AMC. I remember reading he stole someone's sneakers and escaped the mental hospital on foot - not sure if they re-admitted him.

I don't think Lauren looked down on Maurice for being bipolar though. I think she thought he was a shit actor and she was pissed that he was bringing her down, in their scenes and such. He was pissed back because he picked up that she thought he was crap and that she was better than he was. I can't even remember their scenes - she probably was better lol. And I never was sure whether to believe the Robin/Maurice story or not. I'm pretty sure he took his girlfriend (later wife) with him to NY and is pretty devoted to her. But maybe he was in NYC without her - I just can't remember anymore, and in any case, he still could have had a fling with RC.

R121 I'm not sure. However, I have read on a few old soap boards that he got her pregnant and she had an abortion. I read that years and years ago though. Supposedly he said in an interview about his time on AMC "Don't fall in love with your co-stars". I've read some people that claim it was about Robin. Others said he was talking about the actress who played Cecily. Who knows.

Thanks for the info R124, I didn’t know about all this. Maurice was certainly eye candy for me as a young AMC watcher.

Doubt it was Rosa Nevin he was talking about, she was married at the time (and still is now).

Who did Tad torture? And to what purpose? What were the writers thinking when they had a supposedly "good" character do something like that? It seems insane.

Tad tortured Dr. Maddon -- played by Ian Buchanon - he was the one who took Erica's aborted fetus and implanted it in his wife and raised Erica's aborted son as his own. Tad did not like his because he manipulated an injured Dixie to give up her and Tad's baby for adoption. He buried him alive and tortured him for days (the box Maddon was buried in had air and Tad could talk to him). There was an earth quiake that caused the box to collapse killing Maddon. Tad never faced any consequences - either legal or karmic for his killing the doctor.

James Mitchell didn't want to play a homophobe but had no problem having his character try to kill his ex-wife with his Dobermans. Or try to manipulate his other wife into having an abortion lying that the child was unhealthy .Man Palmer power was a sick f***. Poor baby Johnny died in a fire I'm surprised that Palmer didn't have a hand in that too.

R129 it worked out for the best, because the show made Enid Nelson the town homopbobe and it gave non-contract player Natalie Ross tons of work,

BTW they paired Enid Nelson with Skye Chandler to start a mob protest against AIDS sufferer Cindy Chandler, so Enid Nelson was the town bigot, Surprised Enid was never run out of town.

Plus wasn't Palmer going to let Nina go blind rather than have her be involved with Cliff. The early vibes with him and Nina were a bit creepy.

They made Opal be the one who was homophobic in the Kevin gay story line, which actually was probably in character - at least it would have been with original recipe Opal. Still not sure how Opal left Ray and ad a relationship and baby with a black man in between Tad and Jenny's birth.

"Tad never faced any consequences - either legal or karmic for his killing the doctor."

How grotesque. I know soap operas are awful, but that seems beyond the pale.

Natalie Ross (Enid Nelson) husband died last year (after 54 years of of marriage) - sad as her son died in 2019 of lung cancer

R128 Oh no. The unaborted fetus storyline. Don't remind me!

Natalie Ross (Enid Nelson) son Matt Miller (who died of cancer) wrote a book before he died

Facing Cancer Without God

In April 2007, Matt Miller, a lifelong non-smoker, was diagnosed with fatal lung cancer at age 44. An atheist and computer scientist, he began writing a journal to leave behind for his two daughters so that they would understand his philosophy of life. This is not a "God-bashing" book. It is his thoughts about the sources of solace in a world without God. With examples from Walter Mitty and Rambo, football, neurology, Camus, and his own flights of fantasy, he finds hope in science, reason, and our collective humanity. The result is an unsentimental, often funny, and inspirational reckoning with death. "If I exist in an uncaring universe and have been raised from childhood to believe in the process of evidentiary reasoning," Matt asks, "can I find the emotional support I need to carry on in the face of a devastating disease?" His answer is a resounding yes.

Enid TELLS OFF Jenny

Natalie Ross played Enid to perfection. You loved to hate her character. It's too bad they never used her in the later years of the show, especially when Greg showed back up for a short stint.

She said she was uncomfortable playing the homophobia storyline, because she was supportive of gays (she was primarily a theater actress before AMC, so she worked a lot with gay men and became friends with some).

Erica bored at some lame party in Pine Valley back in the early eighties.

"I'm going to go home and watch 'Here's Boomer!'

Mabel Albertson would also have made a kick ass Enid Nelson.

I remember when they introduced some ludicrous nazi storyline and one of the actor's quit because he didn't want his character to suddenly have a past life as a nazi officer.

Sounds like Kent Bogard's father.

Any stories about Oscar winner Melissa Leo's time on AMC? She played Tad's sister/Opal's daughter. Oh, and she was terrible. If someone had told me back then that I was watching a future Oscar winner (and excellent actress) I would have laughed in their face.

Jesus. I just read Natalie's husband's obit. Makes me feel kind of guilty for spending the day surfing the net and catching up on tv watching. He was pretty accomplished in life.

.....

Remember Billy Clyde Tuggle? That character was a riot. He was played to perfection by Matthew Cowles, who created and wrote the role. He later later married Christine Baranski and they had two daughters. He was an accomplished stage actor and an interesting guy, a devout Roman Catholic who taught religious education at the Church of the Nativity and a motorcycle enthusiast. I always enjoyed watching him on AMC.

I liked that AMC Hulu brought back unexpected characters like Billy Clyde and Dimitri. I'm sure no one expected them showing up.

A poster above mentioned the creepy relationship between Palmer and Nina. It was insane.

What I remember most is that is Palmer didnt want Nina to marry Cliff because she had diabetes and ddint want her to get pregnant. Like she would die because of it.

For years I thought women with diabetes weren't allowed to get pregnant because of that story line.

This show broke me.

[quote]Maurice Benard hated Lauren Holly

Doesn't everyone? Surest way to get me to turn something off: cast Lauren Holly and her horrible voice.

Didn’t Phoebe and Charles Tyler fuck in real life? Old Phoebes was quite a ho. Ruth W spread her legs quite often.

Kathleen Noone blew me away as Claudia....SHE WAS TERRIFIC........And the fact The entire seasons of Knots Landing isn't on a BOX SET is unfair to the fans who want to watch again...

Was the actor not wanting to play a Nazi - Jack Betts? He played one of the most ridiculously named characters - Dr. WILSON FROST - on GL before that.

Melissa Leo's character had no ties to Opal or Tad, r142.

She played Linda Warner, Cliff's sister. Linda was on for about a year, and she was involved with Andrew Cortlandt and Zach Grayson. She was killed by Zach.

Leo was very good, and was nominated for an Emmy for her work.

[quote] Was the actor not wanting to play a Nazi - Jack Betts?

Robert Milli is the one who quit because he didn't want to play a Nazi, he was replaced by Jack Betts

[quote]Lauren Holly and her horrible voice.

And Julie was either whiny, self-righteous, or sickly sweet. Cecily was originally brought on to make us cheer for Julie as the scheming teen foe but always thought she was the more interesting character. I wonder what she thought when Cecily and Nico took off and Julie was back burnered and showed about as Jack's intern about twice a month. I always wondered if Nico and Cecily were originally supposed to end up as a couple or just a temporary road block to Nico and Julie, but they changed course once they saw what they had.

The only time I really thought Holly was tolerable was the early seasons of Picket Fences.

Picket Fences is where I first realized I couldn't stand the cuntescent, supercilious stylings of Lauren Holly.

As a teen gayling, I met Kate Collins, Candi Earley, Jean LeClerc, Deb Moorehart, and Ruth Warrick at an autograph signing in Woodbridge Mall in NJ in 1986. Jealous, bitches?

Lauren Holly had her own clothing line at Le Chateau a few years ago. Tragic.

Why did they fire Stephanie Winters, the first Julie? She was so sweet and likable, unlike Lauren Holly.

r157, no one knows who those peasants are.

Elizabeth Hendrickson?

When you met Candi Earley, was she carrying around a doll that she thought was her dead baby?

R159, probably because she was 4’10” and looked like a young disciple of Mao Tse-Tung-and she wasn’t even Chinese! She’d done Annie on Broadway. I think they wanted a blonde to provide echos of the Ellen/Devon relationship.

R161, are you lost? Perhaps you meant to post in the "Professional Beards - Daytime Edition" thread?

Will Sue and Sarah do a fake hug?

Mona Kane always had the nice fake choppers. Classic dentures.

Kelly is still friends with SMG and Eva and friendly with Susan so I am sure they all agreed knowing who was involved.

[quote] The only time I really thought Holly was tolerable was the early seasons of Picket Fences.

Someone somewhere for 20+ years kept trying hard to make her happen.

I used to see James Mitchell at the Grove many times...always the nicest man on Fire Island.

R168 word is she slept her way to the top with big time producers male AND female. Oh, and she got Jim Carrey in his prime, which landed her the role of Mary Swanson in the first Dumb & Dumber.

Regarding Melissa Leo:

[quote]She played Linda Warner, Cliff's sister. Linda was on for about a year, and she was involved with Andrew Cortlandt and Zach Grayson. She was killed by Zach.

The character was killed off-screen. It was portrayed with Cliff (Peter Bergman) learning, while he was in a courtroom, that his sister Linda (Melissa Leo) was dead.

[quote] I wonder what she thought when Cecily and Nico took off and Julie was back burnered and showed about as Jack's intern about twice a month.

By that time she was itching to leave - she took a leave of absence to film a movie with Andrew Dice Clay, when she returned to AMC she was getting feelers for TV pilots (she landed one called The Antaognists for CBS) by mutual agreement, both parties decided to part as the show was undergoing a transition.

Many stars were fired (Peter Bergman, Ellen Wheeler) and quit (Robert Gentry, Maurice Bernard and Rosa Nevin)

Considering Lauren Holly offers for TV & film towards the end of her AMC years, I doubt she cared about Rosa Nevin screen time.

Natalie Ross (is that how it's spelled?) was fantastic; I didn't always enjoy AMC or make it a priority to watch, but the Jenny/Greg/Liza/Tad/Marian years with Enid were great; loved Jennifer Bassey as Marian; I loved the dark twisted dynamic between Alec and Arlene, and Lesbianca's coming out storyline.

Jeremy choosing to save Natalie first was classic soap. (over Erica)

Anybody remember that lame music group The Valley Dukes that played at the Chateau? Marcy Walker married one of them but they divorced after an extremely short period of time. And it was Jacqueline Babbin who made Marcy cut her long blonde tresses when she was hired. She wanted her to look sexless so it would make Liza not look like any sort of threat to Jenny. The same goes for her wardrobe consisting for the most part of Izod Lacoste polo shirts and dainty cashmere sweaters. No boobage from this gal.

Natalie Ross always answered her fan mail.

AMC reunion coming to Live with Anna Rexia and Ryan!

Susie Looch is the best! A classy woman.

Little Timmy Dillon looks hot all grown up at R49.

R176 Susan Lucci looks high.

Sue can come to DAYS and play my grandmother!

Dee Hall would actually have made a great Nina Courtland replacement when Taylor Miller gave up acting.

The casting for 1980s era AMC was pretty epic - Dorothy Lyman, Kathleen Noone, Mark LaMura, Darnell Williams, Peter Bergman, Marcy Walker, the sublime Julia Barr...and there seniors were the best in the business - James Mitchell, Ruth Warrick, Louis Edmonds, Frances Heflin, Eileen Herlie. You could tell the cast was enjoying themselves, their scenes just crackled. And their peers recognized this - AMC actors reigned at the Daytime Emmys for much of the 80s.

***AHEM***

How can a list of the best of AMC's 1980s cast NOT include Kate Collins !? What a tragic oversight...

Shut up Serial Nutjob. Psycho. JWS sure ripped you a new one.HaHaHaHaHaHa

I wanted Alan Dysart aka Sean Cudahy in me quite deeply.

Kelly said all the scenes are shot in advance so Lucci and Geller likely never saw each other. What a letdown.

Yes - there was LaRue shared a photo of her, Lucci, Kelly, and Ryan. SMG does not seem to be included in the skit.

Who has the better wig? Ripa or Looch?

Who looks more like a drag queen? Gaycrest or Looch?

[quote] Amanda Bearse

I just heard a queef.

Speaking of Amanda, Sandra Bernhard has mentioned on her Sirius show that in the early 80’s after her big King of Comedy debut, she lived with a tempestuous and abusive soap actress who was deeply manipulative and closeted at the time. The only soap actress she dated was... you guessed it- Amanda Bearse.

Not surprising Lucci and Gellar didn't appear together. Did Gellar even show up or did she no show once she found of Lucci was going to be there?

Taylor Miller as Nina Cortlandt was the ultimate shiksa goddess.

Taylor had the best pout in soaps. Very Gloria Grahame.

Not sure where the SMG stuff came from, but she was no where to be found in the Live teaser.

R195 She was mentioned in a press release by the show last week. Here's a link to it. Either she pulled out or shot a scene with someone else like Kelly or Mark Consuelos, who was mentioned in it as well.

I still want to know more about the Kate Collins/James Kiberd feud. Yes, I know the story is that she just wanted to get married and move to new husband's hometown of Chicago, but it happened so quickly amidst all this talk about ABC siding with Kiberd over her. It's just unreal to me that they didn't try to move heaven and earth to keep her. She pretty much carried AMC for long stretches at time, and she was second only to Lucci in popularity--magazine covers, cohosting Good Morning America, talk shows, etc. Her absence was felt for years. No one gave a shit about Trevor once Natalie was gone.

When Kate Collins left so abruptly, I felt the massive void. Natalie was indeed the best part of AMC for years- always getting the best storylines. (Along with Brooke) Her recast was a total disaster. How cynical to think she could’ve been replaced by just another blonde actress. I remember the soap mags speculating whether Melody Anderson would eventually take on Janet, and I’m sure they kept that vague when they hired her but they quickly realized she couldn’t credibly play one character, let alone two. Kiberd vs Collins was the soap equivalent of Trump vs Clinton. We lost out on a great woman and got stuck with a fat blowhard.

Yeah, R198, it was like doing an emergency recast of Meryl Streep with Suzanne Somers.

Kate was a cunt. No one missed her.

Who is Kate?

Kate Collins was a goddess.

Shut up Serial Psycho. Go tweet John W Shipp, who shut you right down. lololololololol He didn’t let you bully him. We’re all still laughong over him telling you to stay out of his mentions. lololololololololololololol

Judging by the missing posts here, I see the asshole I blocked on the other AMC threads has found this one.

[quote] I still want to know more about the Kate Collins/James Kiberd feud.

Kate Collins down-played any feud with James Kiberd. She said was itching to leave, and had many many meetings with ABC about leaving. But the story-line was too good to walk away from (Natalie/Janet dual role). It has nothing to do with ABC having to chose between Collins & Kiberd, it was Collins who made it clear she had enough of doing the show. And that it had nothing to do with Kiberd. Finally when it seemed that the story-line was winding down, did she push the button to exit. Primarily she left to join her husband who was based in Chicago.

Special treat for you AMC & Kate Collins fans - behind the scenes at the show where you get to see Susan Lucci and Kate Collins in the rehearsal hall, rehearsing a scene.

R204, its name is Spicen. It posted r203. It posts on all the soap threads, not just AMC.

rare interview with Kate Collins

R205 That's not what the press reported at the time. Here's an old newspaper article that went into detail. But their fued did play a part in it.

"Every day is a real-life soap opera played out backstage at ABC's All My Children. The network has confirmed that Kate Collins, who plays Natalie, will not appear on the show after Aug. 17. Her roles will be assumed by Melody Anderson (Manimal).

Despite ABC's claim that Collins's decision to leave the show after seven years was 'mutually agreed to,' insiders insist the popular actress was shown the door after a months-long search for a replacement.

Sources say a feud between Collins and on-screen husband James Kiberd (Trevor) had heated up in recent months. At one point, Collins threatened to bring harassment charges against her also-popular co-star. Sources say the network investigated the charges but found they had no merit.

An ABC daytime insider said of the couple: 'It's no secret they don't get along. But on camera the relationship works. We tried to break them up several times, but the audience (wouldn't) go for it.'

R209 what was written in your link has NO quote from either Kate Collins or AMC

What was written in R205 is what Kate Collins told Soap Opera Digest.

Collins always avoided talking about Kiberd as much as she could. She took the high road (he didn't - he trashed her in an online chat long ago). She even praised Melody Anderson, who was a bad Natalie recast.

It's no coincidence she never worked with Kiberd in her returns.

She was probably ready to move on, but working with someone you can't stand almost certainly was a factor too.

Gayling me was very excited to receive this in the mail.

Had Collins complaint about Kiberd in 2018, she would not have been the one forced off the show.

r210 I don't know the details of why Kate Collins left. But I do know that Soap Digest ALWAYS writes about an actor's departure in terms of "mutual decision, and "creative differences." Always very vague, always very polite.

Soap Digest NEVER gave the real details. Those details were usually given in blind items that ran later.

R214 This was an interview where Kate Collins told Soap Opera Digest DIRECTLY. Those are her OWN WORDS

OK I dug out my old Soap Opera Digest (yes I have back copies from 1981 to 2005!)

And here in Kate Collins OWN WORDS are why she left. I transcribed HER OWN WORDS - not the words from Soap Opera Digest. From the feature

"Why I Left - By Kate Collins - IN HER OWN WORDS

There are several elements, the most important being my personal life. My now husband Charles and I were getting together and looking forward to the future - where we wanted to live and how to incorporate our careers. He's a theatre director. One of the things that became apparent to us was that my work schedule was becoming overwhelming. I'm not critizing the schedule - that's the way it is.

Felicia (Behr AMC Executive Producer) and I had many conversations. I told her that I was frustrated, and yet at the same time because the story was so good, I didn't want to leave. So basically what we did was work out a scenerio where I would commit - because I was in the middle of a contract - and continue until they could change the story and accomodate my exit. Hopefully without losing the character. Which I think they did smoothly. I basically had another year on my contract, and they graciously let me out.

I didn't want to make a big hoopla about leaving. I wanted to downplay the whole thing in order to protect my privacy. I thought, maybe incorrectly, that it would help Melody Anderson (her replacement). I just thought it would be best for everybody.

There were different rumours (about problems with James Kiberd who plays Trevor). People are going to think what they're going to think. I wish I could tell you that some great drama was going on, but there wasn't. There is no truth to the rumours. To everyone who supported me, I say thank you very much. But it was time for me to have a life, and my life was moving in a different direction.

OK that is Kate Collins official version from her own mouth in HER OWN WORDS.

The way they let Collin's version of Janet was pretty cold in more ways than one. They arranged it so you could partially see a body with a loud tie froze in a freezer. It also assured that he was dead-dead and not coming back ever.

Now that you mention it Ghost Nat never did appear before Trevor just Timmy and Robin M's Janet.

I wonder what would have happpened with Natalie had Collins stay and finally got her away from Trevor. I doubt she would have reverted back to 1985 pure vixen, but I wonder if they would have backed off from making her a junior Ruth Martin.

meant to type "the way they let Collins version of Janet KILL TREVOR was pretty cold..."

When I quit a job years ago, the "official reason" was that I decided to go to grad school. That's what I say in job interviews.

The real reason I left this job (that I adored) was because they didn't like having an openly gay man on staff and harassed me until I finally quit and went to grad school. That's what I tell friends, but I would never reveal that in a job interview or to co-workers.

Many people, have "official reasons" for leaving jobs and "real reasons" for leaving jobs. Kate Collins would be no different.

R219 if you were fired, why on earth would you want to come back like Kate Collins did?

r220. I said NOTHING about being fired in my post at r219. Re-read what I wrote. I quit the job. New management came in, didn't like having an openly gay man on staff and harassed me relentlessly until I quit.

I had proof in writing they were doing this because I was gay, but the state where I lived had no employment protection for sexual orientation. No lawyer would take the case.

But I digress. The point is, there are official reasons that you tell in job interviews, or press interviews. And there are real reasons that you would never say in a job interview, or a press interview.

Just because Kate Collins told Soap Digest she was moving to Chicago to be with her husband, that does not mean that a bitter working relationship with James Kiberd was not a major factor in her decision.

Who was the first one to leave AMC and have major success? Karen Lynn Gorney?

Donna Pescow played the first lesbian character on a daytime soap opera when she appeared on AMC in the early 80's.

What happened to hunky Walt Wiley? The Lawford guy and him could make many a gay man's boxers wet in the 90's.

Lucci was smart to stay with the show. She became the grande dame of the show and one of the highest paid actresses in daytime, if not the highest.

Genie Francis loved working at AMC - seems odd since she was on Lucci's playground.

R223 Susan Lucci never threw her weight around - that is one thing all the actors on AMC had said.

How popular was Karen's Tara when she left? Did she do SNF immediately? She, original Phil (Hatch) and Jeff Martin (Charles Frank) all had some intitial success (although did Gorney did anything after SNF). At the time Lucci must have been wondering if she made the right decision staying on the show. Probably not so much by the mid-80s.

I thought Tara was pretty huge at the time.

KLG returned to AMC in the 90's as her.

From what I've read, the animosity between Kate Collins and Kiberd was not the norm for AMC. The cast all seemed to genuinely enjoy each other and developed friendships outside the studio.

Kiberd was a hot hairy bear before hot hairy bears were a thing.

R227 Yes, the AMC set was a very civil set for the most part. Michael E. Knight credited David Canary and Susan Lucci for leading the professional and close set. Knight admitted in the same interview that he that he had his share diva moments of the set though.

Whoops, that should be:

Knight admitted in the same interview that he had his share of diva moments on the set though.

Hoochi was never a mentor to younger actors like Slee was.

Our beloved Slee was RADA-trained. Looch had no formal training. None ATALL!

Looch's painted upper lip was the star of the 90s.

Slee was almost cast as Lucci's rival Mary Kennicott before the role went to Susan Blanchard. Slee said that she tried out for the role but lost it to Blanchard. Slee has always looked a good 20-25 years older than Lucci, so Slee as Mary Kennicott wouldn't been awful casting,

Cameron Mathison is/was notoriously bi - he would fuck any extra or day player he thought was hot. He uses his wife to get men. He would talk about how she always wanted to do a three-way - set up a hotel meeting with no wife, saying she was late or some other bs. Drink a few, try to have sex with the guy, if they go for it he scores, if they say no way dude, he blames it on the booze and calls it a night. When Alisha Minshew was cast as new Kendall, Lucci went out of her way to be nice to her. She would get press about how much they loved each other, how great it was to work with her. It had nothing to do with Lucci liking Minshew and everything to do with making SMG look like a cunt. Yes Lucci is that petty.

Cameron Matheson likes Latina women - every woman he has been linked to has been Latina.

And of course there's that long-running tale about Cam Matheson's attempts to lure his buddy Josh Duhamel into a threesome. Supposedly it's what derailed their friendship...

Wasn't there rumors of Jonathan Bennett and the luscious Sam Page hooking up when they were on AMC together? I seem to recall a blind item, and most people guessed it was them.

Not surprised Knight had his diva moments, Tad was a big character and he has to be one of the few soap actors ever who got a star-making vehicle in a studio feature (Date with an Angel), the film flopped, but can't think of another soap actor who got such a substantial film role right after leaving their soap.

Sam Page would certainly have been the top....mmm, nice image.

Cam Mathison likes the snatch, sorry DL.

It was obvious Kate and James couldn’t stand each other. They rarely kissed and only hugged briefly at their wedding.

Agnes and Ruth Warrick had been very close friends until they had a falling out in the '90s.

Gorney's drug use got her fired the 2nd time on AMC - and then somehow she got SNF. She did not leave AMC to do that movie, she was canned. She had a legendary feud with Dinah Shore when she held up production of one of Dinah's summer primetime shows. She was stoned and couldn't go on tape.

I wouldn't call Gorney a "major success". Yeah, SNF was a big hit, but she never worked again until 14 years later. And her acting credits have been sparse since then and nothing special.

I used to live in the Riverdale area of the Bronx (mid/late 2000's), and I would see Gorney regularly at the market. Assumed she lived in the area. Very baby-Jane-ish meets Mormon, with bright red spackled-on lipstick, a prairie skirt, and black high heels with ankle-length white athletic socks. Very sad.

Cam loves the snatch...to get dick.

Years ago, Louis Edmonds made a pass at my mom at a soap event. I've heard people say he was gay, but I'm not so sure.

Karen Gorney and Donna Pescow??? How did they get cast? I get Pescow since she was cast as the fat pathetic girlfriend but Karen Gorney was so ugly and plain. It's like the went to a 7-11 and picked some random chick and said "she'll do"

Helmet must have the dick of death for hot sexpot Sue to avoid giving up her snatch to any of her leading men.

Just now reading this thread - wow, what a throwback! Like R143, I read Natalie Ross's husband bio and immediately thought, "Holy shit I've done NOTHING with my life." A British-born nuclear physicist who ended up chairing a college Robotics department and securing dozens of patents?? Damn! Also, it's a little funny to see the clips with Enid as the gray-haired mother of early-twentysomething Greg, if you consider the dual effects of SORAS (I assume if you're reading this thread you know what it means!) and general improvements in aging regimens / cosmetic surgery over the years: Cady McClain was playing a fucking *grandmother* by 40! (and Junior was about Greg's age in that clip of Enid fainting)

I have *no* idea who the fuck is arguing Cady seemed "crazy" in that Emmys speech, or that she was "incoherent" - particularly considering she *obviously* practiced the entire thing! (She's a good actress, but not *that* good.) As for La Lucci: sorry, but nobody makes it 40 years on ONE SHOW without generating a stone-cold bitch-diva rep unless they're *actually* a nice person. Literal hundreds (if not thousands!) of actors and crew would've gossiped about it eons ago. (I'm also skeptical SMG was a scheming witch at 15 like Kendall was. It's a character, people! She also went on to play Buffy for 7 or 8 seasons, so clearly she managed to act professionally.)

As for Kate Collins: I stopped watching the show regularly in the late '90s after finishing college, but I tuned back in for the final year or so before it was cancelled (not counting the somewhat brief online revival thing). For those who didn't see any of it, Kate returned for an extended arc playing Janet - and this was after her replacement (the one after Melody Anderson) had played her for quite a few years afterwards and basically rehabbed her to sanity.) I find it hard to believe the producers would bring her back like that if they didn't *really* appreciate both her acting and general professional rep. (I can also readily believe James Kiberd was an asshole to her, considering this was decades before #MeToo and men behaving badly - or in other ways that might be "frowned upon" by the audience (e.g. the male actors who enjoyed the homosex) - simply weren't discussed, period, let alone discussed openly.)

I wasn't watching when Sam Page was on, but am still a little surprised to hear rumors about him and notorious cockhound Jonathan Bennett supposedly having a thing. Page is now married with kids - I know, I know, not that that means anything, but still. As for the show's other gay actors: who the fuck is complaining about James Mitchell refusing to do a homophobe storyline but still agreeing to do all sort of fucked-up shit playing Palmer?? You don't get the difference between playing a ludicrously over-the-top soap villain doing shit with no basis in reality, and a gay actor balking at a storyline that very *much* had (and has) a basis in reality?? AMC never had *totally* batshit stuff like OLTL's aliens and time-travel storylines, but COME ON: some of it was *severely* fucked up, e.g. whoever stole Erica's aborted fetus (!) and kept it ALIVE (!!). THAT'S NOT HOW ABORTIONS WORK, PEOPLE! You can't have one in your third fucking trimester, the only point at which it's viable to *live*!! Jesus bitches...

Oh, and for whoever was complaining about Tad "torturing" Erica's doctor or whatever: I don't think imprisoning him for a while before he died *accidentally* in a cave-in counts in that regard. Let's not forget that Janet left Natalie in a fucking HOLE IN THE GROUND for a couple of MONTHS while she impersonated her, married Trevor and got knocked up with his baby? Now *that's* torture!

Finally, I also went to check out Lucci's Instagram page as posted near the top. I don't know what's more depressing: her still trying to be a sexpot at 71; her SHAMELESSLY shilling her terrible HSN crap; or the fact that an actress with such a lengthy career and time in the public eye only has 92,000 Insta followers! (Yes, I know most of her fans are older, but still.)

R248 That's called "acting" and charming the fans with some harmless flirtation.

Actors, and especially closeted ones, have been doing it for centuries.

[quote[Oh, and for whoever was complaining about Tad "torturing" Erica's doctor or whatever: I don't think imprisoning him for a while before he died *accidentally* in a cave-in counts in that regard. Let's not forget that Janet left Natalie in a fucking HOLE IN THE GROUND for a couple of MONTHS while she impersonated her, married Trevor and got knocked up with his baby? Now *that's* torture!

I would say they were both torture. Maddon was seen for days in this small box crying and pleading and on the verge of going insane. The big difference between the stories is that Janet paid for her crime, she was arrested and put incarcerated. Everyone was horrified at what she did and she was called crazy. A few people implied they suspected that Tad was responsible and did in a way that was sympathetic to him and to ease his guilt. He never faced any consequences and still held himself as if he had a moral high ground when he would talk down to people like Adam, JR and David and depending on where he was relationshi-wise with them, Krystal and Dixie.

Collins actually came back quite a few times. A number of times as ghost/angel Natalie, usually appearing around Christmas and for a number of episodes as a guide for ghost Gillian (don't ask). Later post-Robin Matteson, she had numerous Janet appearances, when they cast an adult Amanda. A couple of them were for a significant number of episodes.

I believe Kate Collins when she said that she pretty much left on her own terms. I don't believe for a minute that, given the choice, ABC would've chosen that blowhard James Kiberd over Collins, who played a substantial role in carrying the show starting in 86/87, right up there with Lucci, MEK, Canary, Barr, and Cady.

Who has more dirt on the Ruth Warrick/Agnes split?

Absolutely no one missed Kate Collins. Especially LaLooch and Uncle Porkchop.

I heard the original plot of the Libidozone story was way more wild - Palmer was gonna fuck Becca and take her virginity and way more stuff.

[quote] Absolutely no one missed Kate Collins. - Kelly Ripa

Actually Kelly Ripa inherited Kate Collins dressing room (which had a stair-master!) Kate told Kelly she would return the next day to clean out her stuff. She never did and left EVERYTHING to Kelly.

I guess Kate was looking to downsize and didn't need all that junk.

Back in the day when the actors on AMC were THREE to a dressing room (at the old studio, with even Susan Lucci was willing to share, so nobody complained) Marcy Walker (Liza) shared her dressing room with Natalie Ross (Enid) and Amanda Bearse (Mandy)

That is a weird combo of three!

RE: Agnes and Ruth

Apparently Agnes got her panties in a twist when Ruth made some supposedly light-hearted comments about Agnes tenure working on the P&G soaps.

Sultry chanteuse Portia Nelson played Dr. Cliff Warner nanny Mrs. Gurney

She was also one of the nuns in The Sound of Music

Why couldn't they give her a decent storyline, or even move the character to another family when the Warner's left town. They didn't even have her around when Bobby Warner (all-grown up) return to town.

Ag was a complicated woman. Larry Lau (Greg Nelson) told a story on that reunion show with Susan Lucci last year about the time Ag was livid with him. Once, in an interview, Lau said that he found Greg boring. EP Jackie Babbin called him into her office and informed him that Ag had read the interview and was angry that he would describe "Greg" that way. Lau was forced to write an apology letter to her. Ag responded to him that "Greg" was not boring, rather ethical with a good sense of right and wrong. He learned never to cross Ag again.

Re Portia Nelson, a little trivia: all three nuns would later turn up on the big 3 ABC soaps. Nelson of course played Mrs. Gurney for years on AMC; Anna Lee played Lila Quartermaine on GH forever; and Peggy Wood had a short-term role on OLTL in the 70's as Dr. Jim Craig's sister, Dr. Kate Nolan.

Mrs Valentine was played by the lovely Alyce Webb. Is she still with us?

I can imagine Louis Edmonds lusting after Dack Rambo.

Did Dack ever sample the Mikey Knight or Darnell chocolate stick?

Which brings to mind...

AMC's gay actors were

Louis Edmonds James Mitchell Dack Rambo Jean LeClerc Larry Lau Darnell Williams

Who am I missing ?

Don’t forget me.

I read that Kate Collins didn't tell anyone from that cast that she was leaving the show until her last day of taping.

R264 Alyce Webb died in December 2000. She left her professional papers to the New York Public Library. Sad that most of the older AMC actors (over 80 years old) have died.

...or us

Link to Alyce Webb's papers.

Did Eileen Herlie and Elezabeth Lawrence ever lick each others clits? Its hot to just think about that.

So Laurence Lau and OUT Lesbian Amanda Bearse (Mandy) were paired romantically on the show, and did many love scenes.

That's awkward.

r272=Devon McFadden

Don't forget Brent Barrett who played Psycho Tony Barclay, and his claim to fame is killing Jenny Gardner

I would've bet money that Stephen Caffrey (Andrew Preston) was gay, but in this story, he mentions that he moved in with his girlfriend when he relocated from LA to NY to do AMC. There are also a ton of red flags (best buddies with Larry Lau and Darnell Williams!) and his love for musical theater, but apparently he's straight.

Stephen Caffrey was in the film "Longtime Companion" but he hasn't done any acting in years.

Ruth Warrick was quite the slut back in the day. Many men have been between her legs. She was a ho.

Sue's snatch smells of stale birdseed.

Stephen Caffrey must of socked away alot of money while he worked in prime-time - He hasn't done any episodic work, but is still acting in local theater.

Don't look at me, r278!

I remember reading an article some time ago where SMG actually admitted to being the main instigator in her beef with Susan Lucci. She took responsibility for it and actually complimented Susan on her professionalism. I started watching AMC, and loving Susan Lucci, since the early 70s. Stop trying to make evil bitchy Susan Lucci happen. Aside from her beef with SMG, Susan has a stellar reputation of being not only very professional but very down to earth and friendly. This woman has many friends in the entertainment industry. She's very close to both her TV daughters Eden Riegel and Alicia Minshew, and her TV nemesis Rebecca Budig and Julia Barr. She was a mentor to Kim Delaney. It was Kim who reached out to her to guest star on Peter Bergman always speaks highly of her. Genie Francis loved working with her. IMDb states that she was Ruth Warrick's primary caregiver in her last days. She was close to pretty much all the veterans including Ruth, Francis Heflin, Eileen Herlie, and James Mitchell. Susan Lucci is fucking awesome, bitches!

Looch is besties with Megyn Kelly, so there ya go.

FRA Heflin.

[quote]Back in the day when the actors on AMC were THREE to a dressing room (at the old studio, with even Susan Lucci was willing to share, so nobody complained) Marcy Walker (Liza) shared her dressing room with Natalie Ross (Enid) and Amanda Bearse (Mandy)

It was a little odd. And the fact that Ross used to lounge around stark naked like it was a tennis locker room had an opposite effect on the ladies, as Mandy took to the beav, while Marcy went all holy roller.

Wasn’t the Nazi storyline something with Erica’s modeling agent, Olga? Played by Peg Murray from Cabaret. Her brother wound up being a Nazi villain, and the actor playing him did indeed change mid-storyline. I think the character’s name was Lars. Everyone loved Peg, so they kept her on as Olga and pretty much forgot the whole Nazi thing.

Yes, Lars Bogard was the Nazi character, although I don't remember the story well. It must have aired when I was in school, so I was only catching AMC on summer vacation or holidays. Lars was the father of Kent Bogard, Erica's lover who started an affair with Silver (who was actually Connie Wilkes). Kent died when he and Erica were fighting and a gun she had accidentally went off, Silver was there and tried to blame it on Erica, saying she tried to kill Kent in cold blood. So Erica went on the run, and worked as a cleaning lady for Mrs. Whalen, I think she was supposed to be in Llanview. (Olive Whalen was played by Maureen O'Sullivan, formerly Jane in the Tarzan movies and real-life mother to Mia Farrow.) Anyway, Olive's sister Rachel comes by for a visit, and it turns out to be none other than Mrs. Gurney (Portia Nelson), baby sitter to Bobby Warner, Cliff and Nina's boy. So Erica has to dodge her. To make a long story even longer, the whole story line wraps up when Tad recognizes "Silver" as con-woman Connie Wilkes, and her story about Erica killing Kent goes belly up and Lars gets her on tape to admit it. So the Nazi save Erica from becoming someone's prison bitch.

Here's some clips, including scenes form those two old birds, Portia and Maureen.

I have only seen clips of the Nazi story line, but did it not also have a love triangle with Lars-Daisy-Palmer. It was also the beginning of the Palmer-Erica friendship when he was trying to help her set up a cosmetic company (Erica actually tried to learn from a successful businessman, unlike the Fusion women who simply made make-up in their kitchen and giggled). I think part of the reason Palmer was helping Erica is that he did not like Lars, and I believe Lars might have tried to ruin Erica's modeling career due to the whole killing his son thing.

That youtube Erica-fest also includes Erica's jail stint where she share scenes with her threatening cellmate, Kathy Bates. Some of those early Tad clips are interesting, because besides being very pretty, it shows a dark side to him that kind of got lost in the later years.

Erica meeting a gold-digging Tad (wouldn't she have known him as the son of her twice-in-laws? you think he would have said I am Joe's son rather than Jenny's brother). Later in the clip she is attacked by Katny "Rhino" Bates".

R216. Were those her own words? I wasnt certain from your post.

Steve Cafffrey had a gf like Christian Jules LeBlanc used to have a girlfriend....if you catch my drift.

Who the fuck is Alyce Webb?

Oh god. The Fusion crap. Don't remind me.

[quote] Steve Cafffrey had a gf

He was HOT N HEAVY with Tia Carrera

R277. He was so hot as Fuzzy ... I wanted a bf just like him at the time, but never found him ...lol. The look he gives on the Fire Island beach at night when they first have sex ... woof

Steve Caffrey, unfortunately, is big as a house now.

Sue needs to send him a pilates chair asap!

What a fatass!

I’ve often wondered if Mrs. Chance of the Boutique was the mother or grandmother of Matthew Chance, Senior Foreign Correspondent at CNN.

I remember some soap rag insinuating that Candi Early resented Donna being reduced to Natalie's supporting friend, and that she and Kate didn't get along..but doubt it was true since Kate was a bridesmaid at her wedding.

Mark LaMura..gay, no?

I liked Donna well enough, but she had kind of run her course by the time Natalie came a long,. It seemed like after Chuck left she had some pairings that did not click and they finally put her with Benny. I suspect she would have ended up becoming second tier anyway. She did have one more big story line when Emily Ann was sorased as Liz Vassey and Billy Clyde and Chuck came returned.

I think Candi and Kate were good friends. I recall Candi being asked at the time about how she felt about the reduction in airtime and story, and she said that it gave her the opportunity to do other things, and mentioned that Kate was extremely gracious and deferential in not hogging the spotlight in their scenes together.

R302 Candi and Kate were and still are very good friends. In terms of Candi reduction in storyline,s he didn't mind at all. because her fiancee was based in Arkansas and she was flying back and forth from NYC to Arkansas to be with him. When Candi renewed her contract for another two years, she let TPTB know that this would be her final contract. That after the two years were up, she planned to retire from acting and just be a housewife in Arkansas and she has!

Scroll to 3:13 for lover Kate and Jean LeClerc on a date. btw, Zimmer's delivery is beyond camp.

[quote]Cam loves the snatch...to get dick.

Some Drew Dixon he'd've made.

Who is Drew Dixon?

Eventually, the Drew Dixon Douche will let you know.

All bone

I don't think I'd want to touch Sue. Sharp and bony. Ouch!

Imagine seeing Lucci getting a flu shot at your local CVS.

Why did Sue get a flu shot? She's not in any of the high-risk categories...immune-compromised, chronic illness, or over 65.

Um, R311, Sue is a 71-year-old cryptkeeper. (Really, she's 71.)

[quote]I would say they were both torture. Maddon was seen for days in this small box crying and pleading and on the verge of going insane. The big difference between the stories is that Janet paid for her crime, she was arrested and put incarcerated. Everyone was horrified at what she did and she was called crazy.

Fair point, but soap writers have never been hesitant about "forgetting" certain portions of their characters' pasts. Perhaps most infamously, GH conveniently scrubbed the fact that Luke & Laura's great "romance" started out by him raping her! Imaging them trying to get away with THAT nowadays!

They did it with DAYS' Sami and EJ, and that was only a few years ago!

Also, SMG is a fortysomething has-been who will likely never work again, aside from the pathetic voiceover work - on basic cable, no less! - thrown her way. Meanwhile, [i]some[/i] of us are living faaaaaabulously with the man we love after a wonderful, enriching lifetime of work!

Does Lucci still insist that Erica was 15 when AMC debuted? She was obviously 17.

It always drove me crazy that Susan would force the false 15 year old narrative. That would mean in 1980, Erica was 25? And in 1990, 35? I know we can all do math but it was so irritating how she became so insecure about aging on television. Every AMC Anniversary would out her age but too bad! She was an original cast member and there was nowhere to hide.

Didn't they have to de-age Erica because of the Kendall story in 1993?

R5, I knew a guy in the Navy who lived in the same apartment building as Marcy Walker, or so he claimed. They used to run into each other at the laundromat. He said that she was nice. And they did some coke together a few times. She also shaved several years off her age so she could get more roles. Nothing like Liza Colby on AMC.

I knew another guy, on the USS MIDWAY, who partied with the actor who played Linc. Flaming queen.

Which Linc? There were like 36 actors who played the role. Nicholas Pryor? Peter White? The recently deceased James Karen?

Peter White was a big flaming homo. He sucked off Louis Edmonds in the dressing room. Ugh.

It was Peter White...

Ewww Louis Edmonds was so not attractive.

[quote] Years ago, Louis Edmonds made a pass at my mom at a soap event. I've heard people say he was gay, but I'm not so sure.

Ooh, no girl.

Michael E. Knight fell hard for James "13x8.5" Scott.

Louis Edmonds showed up at the studio on days he wasn’t working just to ogle the gorgeous young men auditioning for Tadd. I bet Russell Todd was among them. Many were sent from modeling agencies.

Chrissy Jules LeBlanc auditioned for Tad. I wonder if he and Louis ever fooled around.

I always thought it would be Taylor Miller who would have the biggest career. She even played Nina like a fairy tale Grace Kelly.

Chrissy Jules LeBlanc is straight. He’s too busy focusing on his career.

It was said that Jimmy Mitchell practically had a coronary the first time he met Cam Mathison.

Wonder if Michael E. Knight ever volunteered to share his dressing room with James "Dick of Death" Scott....

R327, I worked on ATWT and Chrissy Jules often referred to his character as the show’s Tad Martin. In his dreams he was.

What's the story with Aidan Turner? Hot Brit.

[quote] Wonder if Michael E. Knight ever volunteered to share his dressing room with James "Dick of Death" Scott....

By the time James Scott joined AMC, no one had to share a dressing room. As the new studio they were in had enough dressing rooms to go around, so that every contract player had their own.

Did Jacob Young's dressing room have a lube dispenser?

R335 Oh please. Jacob Young is straight. Married, with children. Stop trying to make everyone gay.

Peter White is not gay and I'm the Asexual who can prove it!

[quote]Jacob Young is straight. Married, with children. Stop trying to make everyone gay.

Yes, that proves he's heterosexual. Thanks for clearing that up.

Wonder if Louis Edmonds ever made a play for Darnell Williams, or did he faithfully stick to white meat?

Jacob Young and is wife are happily married, church-going Christians, who adore their beautiful children. They also have a fun, frisky time together in the bedroom! It's strictly snatch for Jacob!!! His wife's!

I think Mart Crowley has said that Larry Luckinbill and Cliff Gorman were the only two straight actors in the original stage production and the film version of Boys in the Band.

Peter White always pinged to me but I think he was included in the herto group with Gorman and Lucie's husband.

Larry Luckinbill was married to that crazy frau Strasser. She’s a whacko. No wonder they divorced. She doesn't even speak to her sons. Or they don’t speak to her because she’s such a nutcase.

r343, yet she's maintained relationships with a lot of the Cramer crew from OLTL - how do you even know what the situation is with her sons?

Here is Robin Strasser son demonstrating what you can do with a wire hanger and panty hose.

Looks like bat-shit crazy runs in the family!

Here is Robin Strasser other son Ben Luckinbill

Batshit crazy! Them Luckinbill kids.

When Kendall debuted, the story was supposed to be that she was 15 and was born when Erica was 14.

They went in to make Kendall 21, iirc. Still, that deaged Erica significantly.

Hooch will forever be 39

Why is the untalented Lucci still considered a relatively hot commodity, while our beloved RADA-trained and multi-Emmy winning Slee has all but been forgotten?

How’s your daughters acting career going, Slee? Is she still bartending to make ends meett?

No, R341, Peter White was gay. In a recent interview (was it with Strasser?) it emerged that Luckinbill had gay experiences and that Gorman was the only true hetero in that original cast.

Cam Mathison would've made an extraordinary Andy aka Drew Dixon on ATWT instead of that homely guy they had playing the role. Alas, he was cast on AMC, which would become his home for the better of 10 years.

James Kirkwood, the late author of PS Your Cat is Dead and A Chorus Line, was supposedly involved with Peter White.

I always thought that Peter White and Francesca James were an item. They seemed like a real-life couple.

Totally a beard/merkin kind of set up, R355.

[quote] Hooch will forever be 39

But still older than me!

[quote] Cam Mathison would've made an extraordinary Andy aka Drew Dixon on ATWT instead of that homely guy they had playing the role. Alas, he was cast on AMC, which would become his home for the better of 10 years.

No, no, no, no, no.

Francesca is a lesbian.

r350, Does "hot commodity" = a bad AMC reboot sketch?

Whereupon, enter the Drew Dixon Douche @ r353.

What? You thought I was kidding?

What would be the Pine Valley equivalent of the Snyder Farm Kitchen Eavesdropping Porch?

What's the story with Marland and Agnes? He mentioned how wonderful she was in his GL acceptance speech (1980 or 81), yet their collaboration on Loving a couple of years later seemed to be full of clashing egos, conflict and angst. I get that they had different approaches to storytelling (she more light-hearted, whimsical and fanciful; he much darker and more rigid). Still it's too bad their creative relationship was a failure.

Easy, r363. Marland got tired of eating her old snatch and wanted some younger pussy.

No one's ever had a bad word to say about Agnes Nixon, and her actors and writers have gone out of their way to praise her as a genius and a warm, sensitive woman. Surely there must be some dirt. An individual, especially a woman in the 1960s and 1970s, doesn't attain so much power in the industry (despite it being daytime) without having a huge ego, kissing the right asses, and pissing people off along the way. What's the scoop on old Ag?

She was horrible to her daughter, Emily. I know this for a fact.

Agnes was a prickly one apparently...

Ruth Warrick and Larry Lau both described instances of ruffling her feathers...Aggie let them know she was none too pleased !

You didn't get to where Nixon got without being a bitch. Now, was she as big a cunt as Gloria Monty? Was ANYONE as bit a cunt as Monty?

R299, I hear and read all the time about actor feuds, but then I'll see that they're FB friends, wishing each other happy birthdays and liking on stuff.

Sometimes things are blown out of proportion and gossip and mail man are all wrong.

R368, they all must have hated Gloria for making GH SUCH a juggernaut

Still, at the height of the show's popularity, timeslot competitor Guiding Light was pretty big, too; That was all Doug Marland (who also laid the foundation for GH's #1 status).

Even Texas opposite GL AND GH at the time had its own cult following. Folks certainly remember it.

I heard a story Gloria walked out onto set one time click click went the heels; she said to an actress: Did you like that scene you just did? "Why, yes, Gloria. I did."

Gloria: GOOD. It was your last one. You're fired.

Agnes did a lengthy interview for the Television Academy that's posted on their site, interviewed by Marlena De Le Croix or whatever her real name is. She is unfortunately very coy and stand offish in the interview and very reluctant to divulge any gossip whatsoever. She was also easily offended by various lines of questions.

I’ll never forgive that greedy bitch for agreeing to that deal for AMC to be a low rent internet soap and not ending it properly on ABC like it should have been.

"This means so much to those of us on the west coast."

didn't Aggie get a lot wrong in her memoir?

Variety interviewed her a while back when she was getting the Lifetime Achievement award at the Daytime Emmys.

Larry was hot back in the day. And didn't he and Lucie raise his sons with Strasser?

Where's the son Lucie ever gave Larry?

Cameron Mathison had the crazy eyes

[quote]Didn't they have to de-age Erica because of the Kendall story in 1993?

No. Erica does not "age," at least in the human definition of the term: she stopped doing so around 30. "I am (well under 40) Erica Kane FOREVER!"

SMG's Kendall quite literally went from presumed-teenager to 16-year-old actress spouting ludicrous "you guys know I'm old enough to drink, right?" dialogue after fans rebelled at the idea of Erica -- accepted as 15 in 1970, and thus 37 in 1992 when Kendall first appeared -- having a daughter who visibly *looked* 15 after Erica had been a visible presence in "Pine Valley" for 22 years (and thus obviously never pregnant). Other characters' children can get the SORAS treatment, but not Erica Kane! As opposed to actresses typically playing much younger characters (e.g. La Lucci!), SMG got the opposite treatment and had to play a 22/23-year-old adult before she'd finished (real-life) sophomore year in HS. Obviously after SMG departed they subtly "aged" Kendall by hiring a significantly older actress the second time around.

Every *other* female character is, of course, susceptible to spontaneous impregnation with "miracle babies" well north of 50, e.g. Angie on AMC and Marlena on Days, simultaneously having young-adult-age grandchildren on the same show and in the same timeline. (On AMC this was most obvious with early 40ish Dixie having grandchildren via JR.)

It COULD have worked if SMG didn't literally look 15. It was hilarious.

[quote]Cameron Mathison had the crazy eyes

And a crazy way of talking.

I had a crush on the original Bennie Sago, an actor named Larry Fleischman. . He wasn't conventionally handsome, far from it, but I found him very attractive in an earthy kind of way. He left the show after only three years and was replaced by an actor with the ungainly name of Vasili Bogazianos. Despite his exotic name he was a pretty boring actor. And he looked like Ray Romano.

Agnes learned from Irna Phillips, and she eventually became as controlling as Irna did while she was still active in the business.

She seemed relaxed in her TV appearances, but Agnes had an overbearing father and it seems like a lot of it rubbed off on her. She also seemed very much to have her pets, and then everyone else by the wayside.

[quote]didn't Aggie get a lot wrong in her memoir?

The dementia was clearly beginning to set in by the time Agnes wrote the memoir. Or at least the last half of it, the part involving working in the soap business. Lots of little mistakes in there. Getting premier date of OLTL wrong. Thinking Ed Hall was a white character. Referring to Eden Riegel (Bianca) as "Erin." etc. (There are several reviews on Amazon that have a long list of the mistakes. I believe they were under the 3 star reviews).

All the mistakes were so easy to verify, so easy to correct. A good editor should have caught every one of them. A fact checker should have caught all of them. Her own children should have proofed the manuscript and caught them. The fact the mistakes made it into print is a travesty. They tainted what should have been a important memoir about a titan of the soap business.

Did Eden Riegel have a hard time playing a lesbian?

[quote]All the mistakes were so easy to verify, so easy to correct. A good editor should have caught every one of them. A fact checker should have caught all of them. Her own children should have proofed the manuscript and caught them. The fact the mistakes made it into print is a travesty. They tainted what should have been a important memoir about a titan of the soap business.

MARY!! Btw low-rent imprints like hers will print pretty much anything with minimal copyediting, let alone fact-checking.

The memoir has been out for a year and a half and hasn't been released in paperback yet. I guess the sales don't warrant a paperback release.

Some of her actors were slavishly, almost cult-like, in their devotion to her. Lucci, Strasser, Jackie Courtney, Kim Delaney, and Francesca James were just a few who were almost scary in their devotion and admiration for her.

They should have given a first draft to Roger Newcomb or someone like that, to catch that shit.

[quote]Lucci, Strasser, Jackie Courtney, Kim Delaney, and Francesca James were just a few who were almost scary in their devotion and admiration for her.

Yes, dear. You've already mentioned it five or six (or seven) times upthread. Having memory problems, too? Calm down. Drink some tea.

Genie Francis really liked working with Agnes Nixon. But keep in mind her standard of comparison was Gloria Monty...

Yes, but r111, it made sense within the context of story and character that conservative, sexually uptight and neurotic Palmer Cortlandt would be a raging homophobe. Actors really should just learn to separate themselves with their character.

[quote] it made sense within the context of story and character that conservative, sexually uptight and neurotic

That is why they gave the storyline to Enid Nelson, as she led the anti-AIDS brigade in Pine Valley

They made Opal sort of homophobic. I could see it more so with Dorothy Lyman's version of Opal than Jill Larson's.

Then they made Hector and Isabella Santos homophobes too.

James Mitchell probably didn't feel right playing something like that since he was gay himself.

Genie Francis says AMC was a top notch operation. DOOL, where she had just come from, was very slapdash and cheap. Plus, everything there was determined by what the fanbases wanted.

[quote]James Mitchell probably didn't feel right playing something like that since he was gay himself.

I can kind of see that, but the story line was very pro-gay and Opal grew and learned to accept that being gay was a natural part of who Kevin was. He certainly had not problems being a villain in other ways. Opal's actions did seem more in line of the manipulation Palmer or Lyman-Opal would have done. It ended up being a well done little story line and the young actors playing Kelsey and Kevin were great. The Santos being homophobic was very in character for two of the most judgmental, stick up their ass characters on the show.

I believe the Christian -- virgin badge wearing Becca also expressed homophobic views during the Bianca story line, but was on her way out by then and was not heavily involved with the plot.

Genie loved working on AMC with Jean LeClerc and wanted to stay, but ABC forced her to return to GH. Agnes named the character Ceara after her niece.

Didn't they move Ceara and Jeremy to Loving or was that only after she was gone?

R398 they moved Ceara and Jeremy to Loving to boost the ratings, However they wanted Genie back on General Hospital, they fired Genie from Loving. To force her to go back.

On Loving, they sent Ceara out of town, when the character did return, she was killed off at the airport. Of course Genie didn't play the part at that point They had an actress (viewers only saw her back) arrive at the airport, returning to town, but was killed by an assassin

I also remember the AIDS storyline and Kate Collins tried to interject some medical fact into an argument at the Glamorama and she was shut down as a slut by the town fraus. It was a weirdly scary and true scene.

Rumor has it that Sue was so livid over this cover in 1990 that she began biting her nonexistent upper lip.

I thought the AIDS storyline was beautifully written. Yes, Stuart and Cindy could be beyond saccharine, but the overall AIDS-phobia plotline that drew in the entire town was really well done. And Agnes injected it with her trademark humor. There was a hysterical scene where a distraught and panicky Enid Nelson barges into Joe Martin's office thinking that she got AIDS from Cindy doing her hair at the Glamorama. I'm probably in the minority, but I much prefer the social issue storylines and family/community dynamics over the supercouple and romance garbage, and this one happened to be a really well-written storyline.

Sue Lucci was a class A cunt!

[quote] There was a hysterical scene where a distraught and panicky Enid Nelson barges into Joe Martin's office thinking that she got AIDS from Cindy doing her hair at the Glamorama.

I was just watching that scene last night! Here it is at link below (go 15:00 into video)

Wow. I forgot Maurice Benard was mildly attractive and could act once upon a time.

In scene Enid Nelson marches to the Glamorama and tells Cindy to get out of town. She also used her influence to get Cindy's clients to cancel their appointments

(go 15:00 into video)

Enid, you CUNT!

Here Enid Nelson gets ready to lead the protest against the gay teacher in town

(go 3:00 into video)

Enid was nearly as good as Cuntess de Extraordinaires Lucille Wexler, a Lewis, and Gina Capwell!

Remember when Karen Wolek slapped a. Of course, she got back at her when she wrote nasty articles about her testimony.

I had totally forgotten about Enid's insisting to Joe that she "got AIDS" from Cindy washing her hair at the Glamorama. Yes, I know it was now 30 years ago (!!) but the level of ignorance out there a full eight years after AIDS/HIV was first detected nonetheless seems shocking. I was in high school when these shows aired, and even as a closeted teen in the Republican 'burbs, I still distinctly remember learning about how AIDS could affect anyone -- including Ryan White, whose infection had first received popular attention several years before that point (though I think this was before he died from it). I remember Magic Johnson "outing himself" as having HIV only 2-3 years after that.

Even worse, it brings up one of my most shameful memories of my own grandmother, who passed away from a stroke in '91: EXACTLY like Enid, she and my grandfather had a "gay panic" several years earlier when he insisted she stopped going to her longtime (male) hairdresser for her weekly 'dos -- because he thought he was a homosexual and could catch AIDS. This was before then ('84-'85), but still. (And unlike my grandmother, my grandfather lived well into his 90s and only passed away a few years ago.) I only wish she'd had someone like Joe Martin to set her head straight! (I was 12 at the time, so I wasn't yet ready to do so myself...)

Enid has a go at Natalie. This scene is pure gold.

Just watched the second clip. I *love* how Palmer just went into the courtroom and stabbed that bigot in the back! James Mitchell must've *relished* those scenes!

R393, I don't know if you grew up around any Latino families. I did, and saw firsthand how much of an issue being gay was for conservative Catholic parents of the era. Not that I'm even remotely defending it, but OTOH the Santos storyline hit very close to home. One of the first guys I hooked up with was a closeted Latino, when we were back in college. Over 20 years later and he STILL hasn't come out to his family - or even his friends! (despite us all knowing - hell, his last *girlfriend* before we hooked up is still one of my best friends) He's still married (to a dyke) with three teen kids in the suburbs! Ugh...

Natalie Ross played Enid to cunty perfection. You loved to hate her. It was fun seeing her getting told off or getting her comeuppance.

"Slee was almost cast as Lucci's rival Mary Kennicott before the role went to Susan Blanchard. Slee said that she tried out for the role but lost it to Blanchard. Slee has always looked a good 20-25 years older than Lucci, so Slee as Mary Kennicott wouldn't been awful casting..."

"On Loving, they sent Ceara out of town, when the character did return, she was killed off at the airport. Of course Genie didn't play the part at that point They had an actress (viewers only saw her back) arrive at the airport, returning to town, but was killed by an assassin..."

"Genie Francis says AMC was a top notch operation. DOOL, where she had just come from, was very slapdash and cheap. Plus, everything there was determined by what the fanbases wanted. "

It's banal comments like these that make this thread one of the most VACUOUS (insipid, foolish, stupid, fatuous, idiotic, brainless, witless, vapid, vacant, empty-headed) threads on Datalounge or anywhere.

Does Ellen believe Natalie? I can't remember.

R415 Hi Enid!

[quote] Does Ellen believe Natalie? I can't remember.

Ellen stands by Ross, but it is only when adopted daughter Julie tells Ross he saw him rape Natalie does Ross plead guilty

[quote]It's banal comments like these that make this thread one of the most VACUOUS (insipid, foolish, stupid, fatuous, idiotic, brainless, witless, vapid, vacant, empty-headed) threads on Datalounge or anywhere.

Strike a nerve, dear? I know some of us never recovered from a career lapse, while others have remained FABULOUS even as we get older! (and finally turn FORTY!) One might note that SOME of us warned against dating people like those affiliated with "Star Trek"...

Lame reply R419. Just think of the decades you've wasted watching this CRAP.

As opposed to the house per day you spend on tasks like devising a dozen different synonyms for drivel?

R383, then that must have been a conscious slight on her part. Every time I think about an actress named "Erin" it makes me think of Catherine Tate:

R421, those synonyms took 10 seconds with a simple google search. Sorry if the truth hurts...

Girls. Girls. You're all daughters of fine lineage!

One last Enid Nelson clip - Here she conducts the first meeting of CSPV (Citizens for Safe Pine Valley) at Skye Cudahy house to drive AIDS patients out of of town

(go 24:00 into video)

One last Enid Nelson clip - Here she conducts the first meeting of CSPV (Citizens for Safe Pine Valley) at Skye Cudahy house to drive AIDS patients out of of town

(go 24:00 into video)

Two of my now-dead friends were AMC fans. Somehow the show never interested me (though I wasn't actually watching soaps when the episode in r426 aired).

Who is the cute guy at 27:26, and what is his look about?

I love when the Fusion girls became the new Sex and the City!

R427 I think that was just some day player doctor.

He wandered in from a William Higgins set.

Has anyone seen the Kelly Halloween show? Were SMG and Looch together???? Spill it!!!!

Of course not, r430. As stated above, they were likely never going to appear together.

Did Geller even appear? She wasn't advertised in the later press releases.

The entire dreadful episode is here.

That was cringe worthy. SMG was obviously spliced in.

it's sad that this is what people may remember about soaps; the schtick.

But they will always remember THE HOOCH.

God I loved Miriam, WHET to her? Here she is pulling a gun in the courtroom.

PS. I want to blow the judge in this scene

Darling, R437, it's "Marian."

I just watched the bit on Kelly and Ryan. Sweet fuck. What a nightmare. Who writes this shit?!?! The worst.

[Quote]Darling, [R437], it's "Marian." —Jennifer Bassey

Jennifer at r438, I think r437 was spending too much time thinking of sucking off the judge to revel in your well brought drama

You're aware of that just NOW R439? At least give yourself some credit for not watching this shit for the last 40-50 years like most of these queens.

LOVE Jennifer Bassey as Marion Colby. She had a nice long run on AMC. For a minor character they sure did give her a lot of story over the years.

Oh, those scenes also had that super hung tall dude as Scott Chandler. (I can never remember his name....just his giant penis.)

What scenes, r443?

Oh Mother of Gawd . Jennifer Bassey is the WORST soap actress ever. Ever.

the ones at 437

Adam Mayfield, r437 r446 r443

The first Marissa was awful. She was dubbed Grandma Boring and Iola Boylan on some of the other boards.

Yes. Adam Mayfield.

I knew someone in wardrobe who worked at AMC, ATWT and GL in the mid and late 2000s. They made a point of telling me (and, I think, everyone they could) about the two actors who were so big that they had to buy them long, midlength boxers.

Adam Mayfield was one, and Rob Bogue from GL was the other.

The hand opening the book was Helen Keller.

*goosebumps*

Can't get through that opening without a tear coming to my eye.

Love watching these old clips with Kate Collins and Robin Christopher..,they were both talented, beautiful, and charismatic. ABC should have moved heaven and earth to keep them.

Kate Collins was a nasty old cunt.

R452. Robin Christopher is truly missed. I hate that she's retired.

I always thought that if Robin Christopher stuck it out longer in Hollywood after leaving AMC, she might have made it. She had the looks, talent and "it factor" needed to make it big. But after only a few years of trying, returned to the soaps.

RC never "registered" to me on AMC.

I thought she was great on OLTL.

Robin Christopher was really raw when she started on AMC, but she really grew in the role. Agreed that she didn't really come into her own until she took the character to OLTL and GH. I thought Carrie Genzel was dreadful as Skye. Just so dull and wooden. I know some people liked her.

I thought Genzel got good around the end of her stint. The soap press thought that also, and praised her work then too, lamenting that they got rid of her when she had grown into the role.

I still hate that they de-Chandlered Skye.

Considering how bad GH has gotten, it's probably good that haven't brought Skye back, to only totally destroy the character.

GH could actually use Skye and her daughter right now.

Robin Christopher must of been a bit uncomfortable being one of the characters who was part of that lynch mob against AIDS patients in Pine Valley

GH could use a lot of characters right now but Frank keeps hiring newbies to make insta-connections.

[quote] GH could use a lot of characters right now but Frank keeps hiring newbies

They are cheaper than Veterans

Yes, but new actors could be used in roles that have history.

[quote] Yes, but new actors could be used in roles that have history.

Only if they accept scale, and many veterans, even if they need the work and money, won't accept scale.

I loved Marion, but she was a lot less fun once they saddled her with Stuart. She was either cooing over him or she was yelling at Adam for being mean to Liza (who for some reason went from being his equal to being another victim wife). Unpopular opinion, but never really cared for Stuart, and while I thought Canary often did a great job as Adam, his Stuart came across more as an over mannered "acting" performance than a real person.

r464, the point is hire newbies but hire newbies for roles that have ties to the canvas.

Marian Colby was better in small doses.

I once commented to a friend of a friend (who worked on AMC) about Stuart being developmentally disabled, and the person got highly offended and said that wasn't the case. Okay, so he was what? On the spectrum? I didn't watch it steady enough to figure it out.

Agreed that Marian was good in small doses. My favorite was in the late 90s and early 2000s when they showed previews for the next episode, the actors would say in VO at the end of an episode "Stay tuned for scenes for the next All My Children." Jennifer Bassey (Marian)'s was "Stay tuned, darlings, for scenes from the next All My Children."

I actually adored the Kelly bit from today! Yes, it was corny as fuck, but it actually used history from the show, got multiple actors to participate, and the theme song!

Myrtle Lum was my crush!

The reason they changed Skye's paternity on GH so she was no longer Alan Quatermaine's daugther was that Bob Guza returned as HW and wanted to pair Ned and Skye. Since the two were cousins at that point, they de-Qed Skye so they could have them in a romantic relationship.

But then Guza changed his mind and dropped the romance. Unfortunately, he also lost interest in Skye and never bother to give her a father.

[quote]Since the two were cousins at that point, they de-Qed Skye so they could have them in a romantic relationship.

Why let that stop them?

I would say at one time Stuart was meant to be viewed as developmentally disabled. Someone told me when he was first introduced during Erica and Adam's first marriage he actually seemed a little crazy. He was mainly supposed to be the polar opposite of Adam, kind, artistic rather than business. Once he got involved with Cindy he started getting more of his own story lines, they basically ignored he was developmentally disabled but still had him talk like he was (his simplistic platitude-laden dialogue was often like a bad Hallmark card). He also went from being Adam's conscience who still supported him to being a little judgmental and outright scolding him.

[quote]I actually adored the Kelly bit from today! Yes, it was corny as fuck, but it actually used history from the show, got multiple actors to participate, and the theme song!

I liked how they gave a wink to how much taller Jack was than Erica by having Ryan stand on a box and kudos to Eva LaRue for doing a perfect head turn during the opening credits.

r99, I worked a party in the early 90s and both Lauren Holly and Robin Christopher were there. Lauren looked kinda stupid all made up after being on the show as the goody goody. Robin looked gorgeous. I was almost speechless when she ordered from me. I was in college then.

Did Miss Gelman write the sketches herself?

r124, I haven't read the rest of the posts that follow yet but I don't think this is true about Maurice and Robin. I read that she was very excited to finally get to work more with Maurice when they had that fantasy episode for the fans. That they were friends from AMC and although there was no story lines to get them together on GH romantically it was fun to shoot. I can't imagine someone saying that if they has some maniac bad relationship in the past .

Maura West is the only "get" from another soap who I actually like on this show.

Ouch, wrong thread!

r479 We used to wish she would "get."

Does Helmet still get it up?

People may have forgotten the original Steuart Chandler storyline had him locked in the attic like Jane Eyre. Erica had no idea Adam had a twin. He broke free and tried to strangle Erica. Then over the years they normalized him. PS I agree Marian would never have been into him, but at least it gave Jennifer Bassey some much deserved screen time.

R483, I think one of the first times we ever got the hint about Stuart was with a child. I don't even remember who the girl was, maybe Brooke's daughter. At any rate, she goes off and when she returns, she thinks Adam is Stuart and is thrilled. More than a few people thought it was just wrong that this little girl should be playing with a complete unknown man so the concept was that he was slow so it was okay, which made the fraus even more angry.

That was Bonnie, Devon’s daughter, who befriended Stuart. Ellen was hanging around the Chandler mansion at the time because they had started her storyline with Ross. Joanna was the name of Adam’s assistant/housekeeper-wasn’t she Stuart’s wife too?

Josh Dubinsky was the name of the hunky/beefy guy who took care of Stuart.

Marian certainly implied that Stuart gave her the best fuck she'd ever had.

And good sex has been known to transform many a man, and many a woman.

I wanted Ross Chandler's moustache tickling my butt.

Marian Colby TELLS OFF Enid Nelson - Enid gives it right back to Marian (go 2:10 into video)

r384, no her sister is a lesbian. She said she helped her a lot with the character.

Deborah Goodrich aka Silver Kane was maid of honor at Julia Roberts' marriage to Lyle Lovett. First husband was a film producer. Second husband is rich and now Debbie is a patron of the arts, socialite, and writer.

She did have the best year long story line that was All About Eve meets Gaslight.

bridesmaid

R488- Agree. As a young gayling, I used to tingle when I would see the way Ross filled out his tight slacks. Ass that could crack a walnut. He looked different than the other male cast members and had such a distinct energy. He did things to me!!!! I wanted to be Natalie in that stable.

Did Sue Hooch appeal to the young gayling watchers?

I regularly watched AMC as a young gayling in the '80s with my mom and I have to say, while I never minded Erica, I always preferred the ingenue of the moment: Kim Delaney, Lauren Holly and Paige Turco were the big ones, I just found them to be all much prettier than Lucci, it was probably an age thing.

Hey cunt @r495, I was and always will be the pretty ingénue with a rocking body to match.

R495 Paige Turco was the worst! With her treacly line deliveries and nonstop giggling. Ugh!

I just thought Turco was so pretty, for a gayling I sure did love pretty girls

What's the story with Miss Darnell Williams? Who was his bf back in the day? Did he hook up with Miss Lau or Miss MEK?

Of course Ross was feeding that big bulge to some chorus boys after work......

r499, does putting "miss" in front of each of their names make you feel superior?

As a teen gayling, I was transfixed by Trent Bushey's sculpted pecs. Was anyone else a big fan of Bushey and his perfect physique?

Trent Bushey had a rocking body.

Trent did have a nice body. He and Lanie were a nice looking couple, but were as exciting as watching paint dry. David was also a little whiny, and his mother was more of annoying villainess than compelling one. Old school Natalie could have handled her with ease, but after the rape they tended keep Natalie in the damsel in need of rescue mode.

But was Trent....Bushey down there?

I passed Trent on the street a few years back. Still a boyishly handsome man. Must be in his mid/late 50s by now. Seems like only yesterday he premiered on the show.

Trent Bushey, Lonnie Quinn and Matt Servito all went to acting school together and then later wound up on the same soap at the same time.

The only one still acting is Matt Servito

Whatever happened to James Kibard?

[quote] Whatever happened to James Kibard?

Last year he did an off-broadway play. One of the investors was his old pal, Bryan Cranston (his former Loving co-star)

Cranston and Kiberd played brothers on Loving during the first two years of the show.

Trent Bushey maybe had the most beautiful physique in AMC history. I guess the next best would be Cameron Mathison but he was a little ‘roid-y and cheeesy.

R499, when working on the show (as a background actor) I remember Darnell referring to a friend named Basile who lived in Jamaica. I remember getting a ping from that.

AMC doesn’t get enough credit for trailblazing a black supercouple like Jesse and Angie. I remember being a kid and going to my mom’s office which was primarily AA and they LOVED All My Children. Obviously not just because they had 2 lead characters of color, but that definitely didn’t hurt. WGCI, Chicago’s #1 radio station (which happened to be urban) did a daily AMC recap at 3:30 by a comedian. I feel like Y&R ultimately took over as the favorite soap for AA viewers but AMC dominated in the 80s.

r513 A comedian named Clarence did those daily soap updates on the radio. Not sure what station started doing them, but they were so popular, they were syndicated across the country.

As I recall, he started doing AMC updates in the mid 1980s, but eventually got into some legal entanglement with ABC. Intellectual property issues or something like that.

So, Clarence switched his updates to Y&R in the late 1980s, with full support from Y&R and CBS. I still remember laughing when he jokingly commented about how much the new Jack Abbott resembled Dr. Cliff Warner of Pine Valley.

So dumb of ABC to turn down that free publicity.

Clarence was doing that daily AMC update on the radio in the days before the shows released detailed spoilers about the plotlines.

I seem to recall ABC worrying about people not watching the shows, but listening to Clarence instead, thus resulting in lower ratings.

He was quite humorous in delivering those updates, and made some really funny observations about various aspects of the plots. The more implausible the plotline, the funnier his comments. He got a lot of mileage out of Natalie keeping Silver Kane's dead body in that large chest.

ABC's attitude he was profiting from their intellectual property rights via the syndication deal ,but they had no control over what he was saying in those updates.

I worked at a warehouse as my summer job on college where they had the show on at lunch leading to me at first mocking it and then getting hooked on it. I remember the Clarence recaps played on the radio when I was stocking shelves later in the afternoon. One of those summers was during the dead Silver era.

A short 1995 Entertainment Weekly article about Clarence's soap updates:

[quote]Brad Sanders admits it wasn’t hard to break his daily All My Children addiction six years ago. That was when CBS hired Chicago-born Sanders to be the promo ”voice” (and sometimes face) of its daytime lineup. Though Sanders has appeared in movies (Hollywood Shuffle) and performs stand-up, his pipes are more recognizable than his face. He first won acclaim among soap fans in 1985 for his radio spots as ”Clarence,” delivering soulfully humorous reports on AMC. These days, 200 radio stations carry Clarence’s updates on The Young and the Restless. ”I gave up All My Children cold turkey!” Sanders says with a laugh. ”Had to. But it was easy. For one thing, CBS was more receptive to the radio idea. And Y&R is No. 1. Most importantly, they’re paying me! So it didn’t take long before I was, like, ‘All My What?”’

A longer 1989 Chicago Tribune story about Brad Sanders and his soap updates as Clarence, and also as Ti-Rone.

He started doing the soap updates as part of his stand-up act and eventually moved to Tom Joyner's radio show.

ABC eventually sued him for copyright infringement. Both CBS and NBC invited him to start covering their shows instead.

I have a vague memory of him being very dramatic quoting Angie "Oh Jessie" when Jessie died. Or I guess in the long run it ended up being Jessie "died".

Matt Servito was interesting. It seemed like his character was going to be a bad guy to good girl Paige Turco. But he brought something else to the role and even though they had another good boy for Paige, he was so boring that Servito got the girl.

And even though Angie and Jessie were the supercouple, everyone knew that the real supercouple was going to be Jessie and Jenny but AMC chickened out on that one.

Servito wasn’t pretty enough to be a major presence on the show, though.

They were bent on making David/Melanie happen, but they were just a poor man's version of Cliff/Nina.

[quote] They were bent on making David/Melanie happen

The pairing barely lasted six months before TPTB broke them up

Robin Christopher and Kate Collins should have been huge movie stars. I can see Kate as Madeline Ashton or M'Lynn in Steel Magnolias and Robin in all of Julianne Moore's roles.

I liked Matt Servito because he had a different look from the standard 1980s soap look. He lost his hair and his looks long ago. But for his short time on AMC, I really thought he was gorgeous.

They never did much with his character of Trask. I don't recall much about the character other than he was Brian Bodine's brother.

[quote] Kate Collins should have been huge movie stars

Once Kate met her husband, she just didn't want to act anymore. She pretty much gave up her career to follow him to Chicago

Matt Servito has done very well for himself just continuing to be a working actor in NYC

I wonder why Robin Christopher retired. If that's true.

Sad to see poor Jo Henderson, who played Natalie’s mother, at r412. In 1988, she spent the summer in La Jolla in a play, and was driving home to NY afterwards. She went into a skid in NM, and crashed head-on into another car, killing her instantly. Kate Collins was really distraught when she heard about it, and insisted the show give “Wilma” one of their patented dead-actor send offs.

I can’t remember how they killed off Wilma - it might have been a car crash as well.

The whole Nico/Julie/Cecily thing just came back to me. I think it was first Julie/"Charlie"? Anyway, a Greg type (remember Greg and Jenny?) and Rosa Nevin's Cecily was the Erica type - the spoiler/schemer, out to get Julie's man for herself. Only there was nothing kittenish or princessy about her - she was a naturally funny, unpretentious actress and the more they wrote towards her natural personality, the better she got. Then they did Nico/Julie which was supposed to be seething with sexual tension except it didn't. Maurice Bernard was SO bad but so hot, and that story was mostly soft-focus fantasy sequences with Julie and Nico making out in bathing suits, or oiled up slowly moving towards each other. Then Cecily/Nico had a marriage of convenience happened where he supposedly still loved Julie and she supposedly still loved .. Charlie?

Anyway, it was Rosa Nevin who transformed Maurice Benard's acting so he owes her. She was so relaxed and easy, he relaxed, became a lot more natural, and actually funny. I think his bent all along has been towards comedy, so of course on GH he is 99% heavy drama at which he sucks and always will.

Servitto was on OLTL for a while too in the mid 90s

For any AMC fans who didn't watch GH, here was a great Skye scene demonstrating that she was Adam Chandler's daughter to the core. Ruthless!!! Vanessa Marcil couldn't hold a candle to Robin as an actress and yet walked off with the Emmy that year.

They did not kill Wilma off, but actually recast her (after a significant absence and after Collins was gone) during the Robin Matteson's Janet era. I think it was when Janet was pretending to be Jane Cox and Wilma being suspicious. The last I remember is Wilma going off on a cruise.

I always wondered if Nico and Ceccily was unplanned and they changed course from the fake marriage being an obstacle for Julie and Nico and being an obstacle for Nico and Cecily admitting their true feelings. Someone on another thread pointed out the similarities between Julie/Charlie/Cecily with Phil/Tara/Erica. Cecily revealing Julie's true parentage which led her to run away to the big city (so Cecily thought --she did not know afterwards Julie witnessed her father Ross rape Natalie) being similar to Erica revealing to Phil his true parentage leading him to run away.

The recast Wilma was a Bea Arthur type. She had some great tangles with Robin Mattson, who made you understand why Janet turned out the way she did, because her mother was a monster.

Does anyone remember the young dark haired actor who played opposite both Julies? He started off as a total jerk and then they sort of softened him to be sort of like Jess from Gilmore Girls. They dropped the character but I thought the actor made it a very interesting pairing.

The Robin Matteson era Wilma was played by the "its not nice to fool Mother Nature" actress of the 1970's margarine commercials.

[quote] The recast Wilma was a Bea Arthur type. She had some great tangles with Robin Mattson, who made you understand why Janet turned out the way she did, because her mother was a monster.

She played Bea Arthur's sister Gloria on Golden Girls.

Her name was Dena Dietrich.

R533 Do NOT remind me of Robin losing the Emmy to VM. That was absolutely ridiculous. Even VM knew she should have lost. She even admitted that she thought Robin was going to win. RC was on fire that year. And she didn't look too thrilled either when she lost.

Shut up Serial Psycho asshole about Kate the cunt Collins and Robin no talent Christopher. You are a psycho.

Ugh, Vanessa's speech. I guess karma won out... Vanessa is just off her third marriage mad as a box of frogs and Robin is living happily with her family.

Vanessa’s getting divorced again??

I love me some Tom Cudahey and the actor who played him, the handsome Richard Shoberg. To this day, Tom is one of my all time favorite male soap characters. He could be very heroic with a heart of gold, a devout Catholic to a fault, but wasn't perfect by no means. He was an alcoholic, and could be quite the nasty one at that. He was the subject of some excellent stories about alcoholism. I also loved the great friendships he formed with both his ex-wives Erica Kane and Brooke English. One of my favorite Tom moments was when he found out Travis Montgomery (couldn't stand that character) had an affair with Tom's wife Barbara (nasty whorish bitch), got drunk, and busted Travis in the face with some dumbbells. Awesome! I miss Tom Cudahey.

All this AMC talk reminds me of growing up in my small town where the local ABC affiliate would show AMC at its normal time but then would repeat that day’s episode at 4pm so that teachers could see the show. Yes, the teachers would haul ass home after school was out to get home to watch the episode. VCRs were still in their infancy and super expensive so not a lot of people had them. AMC was HUGELY popular in our town and the 4pm showing was the most watched daytime show on that TV station.

Robin Christopher is so beautiful. Wow, just watching that scene r533 posted, how the fuck did Vanessa Marcil have a job? Forget the Emmy. Robin wipes the floor with her with one syllable. Robin is the kind of actress who is very enigmatic and is able to reveal so much in an expression. That's one thing I loved about Christopher's acting was that she was able to convey so much. Skye had so much mystery.

VM will always be able to ride on the popularity of Sonny and Brenda. She won that Emmy because of hype. Whenever she returns for a little while, they treat it like the second coming. It's insane.

[quote]And even though Angie and Jessie were the supercouple, everyone knew that the real supercouple was going to be Jessie and Jenny but AMC chickened out on that one.

I loved Jenny and Jesse as friends that summer in NYC, but I never wanted them as a couple. I liked jenny with Greg, and Jesse with Angie, and that they were each helping the other finding their way back to their soulmate.

Robin was really good in the R533 clip. The character did not yet have that much backbone and confidence when she was on AMC. Jax sure was pretty. Too bad they always had him ultimately lose to Sonny.

r548, I thought Jesse and Jenny worked much better as best friends than they would as a couple. Jenny/Greg (my all time favorite soap couple) and Jesse/Angie are ICONIC. Jesse and Jenny's friendship was very touching. When Jenny died, Darnell acted his ass off.

Michael Lowry as Jake Martin was super hot. He had some of the best pits I've ever seen.

Thanks, I had forgotten about him. Extremely hot. I think I'll check him out on YouTube tonight before I go to bed...

"Jake" went through so many odd/different incarnations.

so did Charlies -- wholesome high school student in love with Julie -- cad who deflowered Lanie and was to be the new Tad -- old man Lawford.

JEddie Peck was a hot Jake as well. I remember an interview with Michael Knight who was stunned to see they were the same age. Knight was out of shape by that point and Peck was very trim and looked about 15 years younger.

The worst was RPG. Never liked his smarmy, greasy Jake.

The Robin Matteson era Wilma was played by the "its not nice to fool Mother Nature" actress of the 1970's margarine commercials.

Since this is a gossip thread - I know a lesbian who used to clean her apartment on Cape Cod one summer. There was often a hot tub full of naked munchers smoking pot and making out. Apparently, she had herself a good time.

Did MEK hit this?

Michael Lowry looked amazing shirtless.

Michael Lowry is the one and only Jake Martin. Fuck the queen who played Jake last. Michael Lowry is still hot as fuck!

This thread has reminded me how much I miss All My Children. It really was a fantastic soap before it went to shit.

Those clips from the LIVE show - Lucci really does look skeletal at this point. No one can convince that is just "healthy eating". And Ripa seems to be following her lead.

Eva and SMG looked good.

Andy Cohen is annoying no matter what he does, and Consuelos just oozes smarm no matter what the context.

It was, R560, before Pine Valley was completely stripped of its identity with that fucking skyline and Fusion shit.

AMC was a great soap through the early 90s. Sure it had some rough patches like all other soaps, but it was a consistently high-quality show. Great mix of light-hearted humor, satire, quirky characters, social issues, romance, family, and community. Pine Valley seemed like a real place you'd want to live, and you got a real sense of community. I think once Agnes and Wisner Washam stepped away around 93, and FMB and McTavish got more control, it became a much darker show and the quality eroded. Frons hammered the final nail in the coffin with the fusion crap, and the show pretty much became unrecognizable.

So Dena It’s not nice to fool mother nature Dietrich is a big ole lez?

^Big, big , big Lez. No in-between. She is a hobo.

Zach Grayson was a sexy bitch.

Michael Lowry's body was a wonder to behold. A Michelangelo statue come to life with the perfect smattering of chest hair.

I remember how pissed I was when we didn’t get to see Opal at Jenny and Greg’s wedding (she had an ear infection and couldn’t fly) and Jenny’s funeral (she was too upset). Was this because La Lucci hated Lyman or was it the Mama’s Family taping schedule?

Lyman was too busy to return. They really wanted her back for the funeral, but Kim Delaney had given them very short notice that she was leaving. So the writers wrote her death on the fly, and Lyman needed more notice to get out of her MF taing schedule. I doubt it had anything to do with Lucci. I never heard any stories about bad blood between them.

This mad me a little weepy when I first saw it ... its too bad the Soaps forgot about writing friendships and loyalty ...

I never saw that R570 but it made me weepy. Maybe because it made me remember the wonderful times we all had watching the show.

Lowry was fine on AMC, but he has looked like a hobo for many years.

The actress who played Jake G. mother in Brokeback Mountain also played Brooke nanny on All My Children

This classic promo will make you weepy... all your faves right here: Natalie and Jeremy, Tina and Cord, Duke and Anna... the players we loved so much!

[quote] The actress who played Jake G. mother in Brokeback Mountain also played Brooke nanny on All My Children

Since Cliff and Nina Warner left, they should have just had Mrs. Gurney (Warner Nanny) move over and be Brooke nanny. Why hire another actress, when you have one available who you know can play a nanny well.

They did all they could to try to keep Taylor Miller. Offered her gobs of money to stay and input on her story line. They laid out ten or so stories allowing her input. Unfortunately she left. Only to come back now and then. It was too late though the character had been ruined by her absence and the fake Ninas. I think on the show I think Nina was the only one who rivaled Erica's popularity.

r576, Kim Delaney and Cady McClain were extremely popular too. The Tad/Dixie fans were maniacs.

[quote] They did all they could to try to keep Taylor Miller.

Even when they introduced a grown-up Bobby Warner on AMC (Taylor came back for a few episodes) TOTB told her to her face, they'd have her back full-time in a second,

Taylor was really torn, as she lived in Chicago. But in the end, she stayed in Chicago.

[quote] Cady McClain were extremely popular too

Didn't they fire Cady McClain when she came back to AMC after she left ATWT?

I thought Kelsey was one of the more interesting characters ever on the show. Her crush on Kevin was completely believable and when she went up against the righteous Santos', I was totally on her side.

I think Taylor Miller thought she could make the jump to Hollywood. She should have made the jump. I don't know what happened but she also proved she had the acting chops but when she went to AW, she lost whatever luster she had.

Even with her rabbit teeth Taylor still had that it factor. She herself stated that she just wasn't ambitious enough to try anything beyond soaps or even stay in soaps. It was just sort of fun for her. When she had enough it was just goodbye. For a long time they just never really stopped getting her back. That also stunted the role of Cliff. There were a 1,000 things they could have done with his character but the fans would never accept him as anything other than Nina's. What they did with the fake Nina's though was unforgivable.

R581, I remember we used to stare at the TV trying to find things wrong with Taylor Miller. Her teeth, her ears........I mean there had to be something. She even played the part like Grace Kelly.

Taylor Miller said one of the reasons she left, was that they kept repeating the same story-line of breaking up Cliff and Nina, and then having them get back together.

Ironically when she left, and was replaced by Heather Stanford, Taylor said if she knew what the writers had in store (having Nina go crazy and then wind up with memory loss) she would not have left as that was a dynamite storyline. She said she was a bit envious she didn't get a chance to do that.

Starting at 5:58. I believe this was Taylor's first return. If it was possible she looked even prettier as she go older. So glad she caught of her ingenue hair when she got older. All it took was one day of Taylor back and Angie was already on the back burner looking for houses.

R584 this is actually her THIRD return. She had left for good to move to Chicago with her husband and had a baby. AMC had fired Peter Bergman (budget cuts) and convinced Taylor to come back for one month, so they could reunite Cliff and Nina one more time and send them off with a final happy ending.

Didn't Taylor bob her hair very short for one of her returns? I remember a lot of women saying that she looked even better with short hair.

Kate Collins made Natalie such an iconic AMC role, but she would have been an equally credible Nina recast.

Fucking Bea Arthur would have been a better Nina than the two they found.

Didn't Miller claim that FMB lied to her when she lured her back the third time? She was under the impression that the show wanted her back long-term, but then realized they only wanted her back to usher out Peter Bergman.

Heather Stamford was all kinds of awful and was obviously hired due to her resemblance to Taylor Miller. She delivered every line, no matter how mundane with the same hypernervous energy. Barbara Kearns was sweet and not conventionally soap-opera pretty and a likable actress, and I think could've worked as another character, but the ghost of Taylor Miller and her WTF romance with Benny Sago never really gave her a chance.

[quote] Didn't Miller claim that FMB lied to her when she lured her back the third time? She was under the impression that the show wanted her back long-term, but then realized they only wanted her back to usher out Peter Bergman.

No, she had no intention of coming back as her life was n Chicago at that point. She only came back to give Cliff and Nina a happy ending, for the fans sake

Heather Stanford graduated from Yale School of Drama!

Heather now teaches Drama at UCSB. Those can, do......

I remember in Stanford’s first appearance that Elizabeth Lawrence (Myra) gave her a lovely, supportive squeeze of her arm. That seemed to me to be in support of the actress’ first day, not the character. But Stanford just wasn’t good. I agree about Kearns-she was actually pretty good and an appealing actress. She just wasn’t Nina AT ALL. Like Taylor Miller just wasn’t Sally AT ALL on AW.

Heather Stanford graduated from Yale School of Drama, so maybe she is more of a theater actress and TV is not her medium?

Peter Bergman also did say he questioned her acting abilities as well. But if that is the case, how did she get through Yale?

Stanford would have been laughed off the stage for this performance.

This one s better (go 1:30 into video) and this is why Taylor Miller was so jealous because Nina got to go NUTS!

Stanford isn't terrible in that clip.

Oh Giles. Remember when Erica kept him in a speedo for the summer?

Fake Opal was almost as bad as the Fake Ninas.