DC #486: Chuck Pratt is Fired!
On today’s ABC episode of Daytime Confidential Luke, Regan and Eye on Soaps’ Belinda discuss the latest in All My Children, General Hospital and One Life to Live storylines and news, including:
Get the party started! All My Children fired Chuck Pratt! The gang reacts to the news and discusses Pratt’s reign of terror. Where does this leave Pine Valley now and what should AMC focus on to get it back on track? Can things be repaired in time for the 40th anniversary? Would it be smart to try a General Hospital: Night Shift season two strategy and bring back a popular character with lots of connections to canvas to reboot the storylines? Luke suggests bringing back Robin Christopher as Skye or letting Janet From Another Planet (Kate Collins or Robin Mattson) loose on Pine Valley. Regan thinks re-centering the show around Erica by bringing back Bianca (Eden Riegel) and doing what it takes to keep Alicia Minshew as Kendall. Who should replace Pratt as head writer? Speaking of Janet From Another Planet, why isn’t she in town trying to take down David Hayward? Would Janet really put up with what how he’s treating her daughter?
Friday was supposed to have been about James Franco’s General Hospital debut, but All My Children stole a bit of his thunder by firing Chuck Pratt. Regan and Luke share their first impressions of his premiere. From his rearranging the cooling bodies at the shoot out to whether or not he will (or can) win out over Jason and Sonny, they discuss it all. Why do the promos have his character and Maxie kissing? Luke doesn’t like it one bit that GH is causing problems for Spixie already.
The DC gang has been impressed with One Life to Live’s Kelley Missal as Danielle Rayburn and this past week Todd met her. How long will it be before he learns that she is his daughter? What will happen to Tea now that Ross has found out that Danielle isn’t his daughter? Schuyler discovers Stacy’s fake baby bump. Mitch is back in town and continues to stir up problems for Llanview’s citizens.
Regan missed the Performer of the Week episode so she hands out her picks for Performer of the Week and honorable mentions.
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Comments
8 February 2009
5 min 11 sec
Mark Dalton is Erica Kane's brother, not a former flame.
23 July 2008
1 hour 18 min
Well, for about five minutes he was or could have been. They never got married but they were on the verge of hooking up before they found out they were related? Kathleen Noone played Mark's older wife Ellen.
14 April 2009
16 hours 55 sec
Hey Belinda@! You and I must be around the same age...cause I remember both Mark and his wife played by Kathleen Noone (I love Kathleen ! she was on Knot's Landing too if I remember correctly) - those characters were so well written and crafted unlike the likes of what we have today.
23 November 2009
10 weeks 1 day
pssst - careful there, tread lightly... they get very testy when you point out their shortcomings in the AMC history department. Next thing you know youre posts are being deleted. Now i understand why there are only glowing 'oh i agree with you' posts!
2 January 2008
6 hours 53 min
I loved janet from another planet especially when she threw natalie down the well.Belinda i believe donna was just written off the show.I would suggest the casting that jamey threw out last year.Amc should cast Drake Hogestyn as Dimitri Marrick.
8 September 2009
3 days 20 hours
Q:Where can they take Erica Kane now?
A: HAVE HER GROW UP! Have Erica finally mature into a mature woman. I'm not saying make her into Ruth, but a big surprise would be if Erica became sort of the motherly character who people went to for advice.
Erica could still have her fabulousness, but I would make her more age appropriate. What would happen if she actually acknowledged that she is a GRANDMOTHER!(gasp!)
This is a truly new direction for Erica.
I would bring back Emily Anne Sago. She was one of Jake's psycho ex girlfriends. She poisoned a woman who she thought was having an affair with Jake. Jake and Greenlee could really have trouble with Emily Anne. Imagine Janet vs. Emily Anne?
16 December 2007
2 days 2 hours
I like both Robin Mattson and Kate Collins so I'd love it if either one of them returned as Janet. I also wouldn't mind Anna Devane returning since GH doesn't seem interested in using her. I would like to see Skye on AMC too but I don't think its likely that Robin Christopher will ever return to daytime.
30 September 2007
6 weeks 2 days
I don't ever recall being testy because my "memory", that commodity curiously lacking in most human beings (which is why eye witness testimony is not reliabe) has been challenged. I *think* I even ask the audience to correct me if I am wrong. I frequently am, I gave up things like that years ago as futile. So, not sure who you were speaking of, but it couldn't have been me. Lumping people in together in such a way is... not right...either.
If I am unclear I appreciate the heads up.
Most of the time it is a matter of what perspective of the is following. IE: I've yet to meet a Carly & Sonny fan who saw anything near the way I remember Carly's header down the Q stairs when she lost Sonny's first kid (with her.)Different perspectives of memory color it so many ways.
14 April 2009
16 hours 55 sec
I love your input in the pod cast don't let anyone give you grief! I'm totally a Belinda Fan! These days my memory stinks too I think it's age.......
(for me)
14 May 2008
2 hours 17 min
BELINDA!!! Have a confession to make on the next podcast luke will put up
28 July 2009
13 hours 3 min
pssst - careful there, tread lightly... they get very testy when you point out their shortcomings in the AMC history department. Next thing you know youre posts are being deleted. Now i understand why there are only glowing 'oh i agree with you' posts!
oh shut up!
25 November 2008
11 hours 53 min
Very first order of business for Ms. Broderick: Have Erica stop dating the father of her grandson!
I agree with Regan about centering AMC around the thre Kane women. I know many might not agree, but when the show had the 3 of them on most days I was hooked. Granted the material wasn't superb, but compared to Pratt, McTavish looked like a writing genius! I've always been a sucker for the Kane women!
30 September 2007
6 weeks 2 days
BELINDA!!! Have a confession to make on the next podcast luke will put up
Can't wait.
1 July 2009
1 min 51 sec
As always great podcast, guys. Luke, I like your suggestion on AMC of bringing Janet back. (Either KC or RM will work for me.) I also like your suggestion gush900, about bringing in DH as Dimitri. I would also think AMC should bring back characters like Brooke, Jack, Bianca, DImitri, Alec, Jamal, a Santos, a Courtlandt, Skye, Cassandra, Reggie, Dani, and get rid of characters like Randi and Marissa.
On GH,
I know that JF and KS have great chemistry, but you guys are right. It makes no sense having Maxie cheat on Spinelli this fast. The storyline will go downhill if that happens. But I also think that JF's character can give Jason and Sonny a run for the money.
On OLTL,
I hope Schyler puts the pieces together soon and Fish will figure it out.
23 November 2009
10 weeks 6 days
In addition to the previously mentioned bobble on Mark and Ellen (although could you have been thinking about Tom when referring to Erica's ex-husband?), the podcast also referred to Brooke English as B&B's "Brooke Logan." Still ... I agree that Brooke would be a good character to bring back, and I'm thrilled Julia Barr is coming back for the 40th anniversary episode!
I wasn't a fan of the "bring back Janet to her crazy roots" that McTavish et al did several years back, especially the dead Trevor reveal .... it undid so much of the character development of the 1990s that made Robin Mattson's Janet so sympathetic. So I can't really support bringing back Janet as a crowbar-wielding mass-murderer. But I'd be fine with Janet the off-kilter mom trying to protect daughter Amanda and grandson Trevor ... and I wouldn't mind it if Janet's definition of "protection" not only meant keeping them from David but from the Martins, too. A Tad/Janet rematch would be good, too, because someone has to bring up once and for all the horrific plot turn that was Tad-as-killer of Josh's stepdad, and juxtaposing PV's treatment of Janet post-Will Cortlandt with its treatment of Tad in recent years could yield some meaty soap.
Other things I'd like to see:
1) If AMC is insisting on a Ryan/Erica pairing, at least acknowledge that this isn't the first time she's done this. Ruth and Mona were essential in breaking up Erica and Charlie (Ruth's grandson!) in the early '90s. Brooke, Tad or Opal should bring this up.
2) Wrap up the Cortlandts on camera, please. Don't just let Petey and Opal disappear until James Mitchell's inevitable passing and then a one-off episode a la Myrtle. Have Nina back briefly to explain Palmer and Pete's moving with her and Cliff ... or have Opal and Palmer reunite and move away.
3) Don't let David get away with being the murderer of Stuart Chandler (via the drugs he fed Adam). A furious Scott and JR should work together to bring David down, and Angie and Tad should be working with them, in Stuart's memory. This could actually bring some interesting, and long overdue, scenes between Adam and Tad, where they realize they have more in common that what drives them apart.
4) Along those lines, Dixie's murder must be settled. Alexander Cambias is too much of a WTF? story for that. I wouldn't mind Janet being set up as a red herring (she and Dixie at least have a history) but I wouldn't want her to be the ultimate guilty party. Maybe this could be tied to a return of Vanessa, who as both an ex of Palmer's and the evil drug lord mother of Dixie's ex David, would have logical connections/reasons for going after Dixie...
16 September 2008
2 hours 54 min
Luke, you totally did sing!
27 January 2009
14 hours 32 min
Brian Kerwin mentioned, then someone brought up if that was the same actor that did James at 15. Lance Kerwin was the young actor that did the series James at 15 in 1977. Knew it was Kerwin but looked up series for actors name.
14 December 2008
1 day 1 hour
Great podcast guys!
I know I've said it before, but I love the fact that Pratt is gone!
30 September 2007
6 weeks 2 days
Of course! It was Lance Kerwin thank you so much. I keep thinking I know BK from some where besides TV, but then I am not right in so many ways. BK also has that marvelous "everyman" quality to his looks; very real life (That is also what I like about HOT Senior Cit Harrison Ford/very real)...
In other reply news... you know since I flubbed (not unusual) the Mark to Erica connection (Sorry AMC purists to be such a dunderhead) maybe I am thinking of Tom. Cudahy was it? (Probably misspelled) Owned a restaurant/bar, was HOTT with Brooke and Ms THANG took him away?
WAAAY to much fun in the 1970's to recall everything, haha.
Admission: I haven't watched AMC all week, I'm adding a ending to my novel in progress before it goes to the editor (the 7th) so I've bee a very lax soap fan this week.