Have you ever tuned in to a show and felt that the writers of the show were just trying to mess with your head. I'm not talking about the way that a show like Lost does it. Well, hear me out. Sometimes I think AMC likes messing with me. I really do. I think we all know that episodes of All My Children are taped long before they actually hit the airwaves. However, what you might not know is that I write my Two Scoops before I read any spoilers and previews. That means that whatever you see on this page is just a stream of consciousness... my thoughts as I watch the show, edited slightly so that I don't sound like a crazy person.
In last week's column, there were two things that I touched on that, funnily enough, the show decided to address. I grumbled that no one ever just sits down any more to catch up with old friends. Everything is (or tries to be) plot, plot, plot. Well, on Thursday, Jake and Frankie were shown having a beer together -- for no good reason. It wasn't part of an ongoing story. There was no plot twist that came out of the brew sipping.
Then there was Adam's will-reading and the fallout from that. While this wasn't quite what I had envisioned in my column when I spelled out what I wanted to see, I suppose that it's a pretty close second. In my vision, I'd have wanted to see Adam's conditions for people inheriting his money have a bit of humor to them. In AMC's version, it was all some pretty hard-butt stuff! Annie can never have sex again. JR and Scott have to kiss and make up. Colby needs to find the perfect man. Why not make someone have to live in a tent in the wilderness for one year in order to make them truly appreciate the money? Force Scott to take up stand-up comedy -- he's way too serious. Order JR to live with the Spencers in Port Charles or the Forrester family in Los Angeles. Of course, he's already done that in another life. It was, however, nice to hear Skye mentioned. I thought that the show had forgotten about her. Maybe Skye can return to Pine Valley for a spell and we can finally address that fact that she's not biologically a Chandler.
So, according to some of the readers of this column, the writers also made sure to address another of my ongoing concerns: Damon -- and why he's still on my screen. A bunch of you wrote in last week to state that Damon appears to finally have a purpose. I suppose if you call being a criminal a "purpose," then yeah, he does have a purpose. If it wasn't obvious before that Colby and Damon were on a collision course to romance, last week provided the bells, whistles, and flashing lights to make sure that you know it's coming. The spoiled rich girl and boy from the other side of the tracks storyline is a tried-and-true plot for the soap genre. He may have story now, but I still don't like him.
There has to be a reason that Damon decided to break into Chandler Mansion and Tad's house. Maybe these were the only sets that ABC hadn't packed up and sent ahead to Los Angeles. Or maybe, just maybe, there's a reason. The show has yet to mention Damon's last name. I thought that we'd finally hear it when Damon appeared in court the other week, but we didn't. So I guess that rules out his last name being Chandler or Martin (as Liza surely would have noticed it when she represented him), but it doesn't preclude him from being someone's unknown bastard child. I'm thinking that he has to be related to someone in town... but who? Erica had an unknown child pop up in the form of Josh "Unaborted" Madden. David's unknown kid was Marissa. For Tad, it was Kathy/Kate. Jesse had Natalia, though technically he knew about her, we didn't. Jake just found out that little Trevor is his son. Jack found out that Greenlee was the daughter he never knew he had, though that was a few years ago now. And every last one of Ryan's kids were unknown to him. Scott, JR, and Frankie are too young to have Damon as a kid. So who's left? Adam? Palmer? Joe? Maybe Little Adam has been rapidly aged and he's the father!
As you may have read in the News section of this site, Cady McClain is reprising her role as Dixie Martin in the weeks ahead. A lot of fans have been hoping that this would be an ongoing and long-term gig. Sadly, it's only for about a week. It seems very similar to what happened when we learned that Julia Barr (Brooke) would be returning for the 40th anniversary show. When we learned that Barr's return would be for a one-day stint, we all hoped that the show would parlay it into something longer and more meaningful. They did. Will AMC also do that with Cady? Hmm... I honestly have no idea, but you'd have to think that Dixie is still dead because there's no way the show could bring her back from the dead, explain her return, and write her out again in a week. I'm surmising that Dixie will appear as a vision to Tad and tell him that it's okay for him to move on with Liza, the woman who had once done her damndest to break up their relationship. Maybe AMC's new writers will get the idea to have Tad and Liza really develop feelings -- and then Dixie will show up "undead" at Tad's door while he and Liza are kissing. Wait just a minute! That sounds very familiar.
Greenlee is back on her feet -- literally. She made quite the speedy recovery. She's got a new attitude, a new hair color, and a new lease on life. With all apologies to Boy George, ever since regaining consciousness, Greenlee has been our little Coma Chameleon. I suspect that it won't take long for Greenlee to wake up from her fantasy world and come out swinging.
Several of you wrote in to say that you felt AMC missed an opportunity to really make Greenlee's return pop. The show should have, according to you, had Greenlee show up at the Fusion Miranda Center party. That might have been a little cliché, but this admittedly was one of the first times in soap opera history that there was a big to-do and nothing dramatic happened. I suppose you could count the reporters questioning Erica about her relationship with Ryan as a dramatic event, but that would also mean that your standards and expectation levels have really hit rock bottom. Erica's explanation as to why she wants to keep her relationship with Ryan quiet were both surprising and understandable. The Erica of old had no issues with flaunting a man -- no matter who he was. However, the more mature Erica understands that outside meddling can doom a relationship. Ryan also had a rare intellectual nugget when he commented that Erica seemed convinced that their relationship was destined to fail. Obviously Ryan hasn't checked out his Who's Who profile here on the site. He doesn't have a very good track record with love. His first wife was murdered, his third one went cuckoo, and his second-and-almost-fourth re-wife was presumed dead.
Sometimes the little things on the shows amuse me. I was tickled for a reason that is still unknown to me by the scene in which Greenlee was on an airplane and headed back to Pine Valley. They woman in the next seat looked as Greenlee grimaced and groaned and decided that she'd stick her nose into Greenlee's business. "Are you okay? Are you sure you should be flying?!" Maybe it was funny to me because I knew that when Greenlee popped up on that airplane many of you would be talking out loud to your television asking why in the heck she was on a plane so soon after major surgery.
And sometimes the little things on the show encourage me that there is a thought process going on somewhere behind the scenes. I'm not happy that Angie and Jesse are having a rough patch in their marriage, but it's something that rings true. On soaps, couples can't be happy for too long. When they are, life is sunshine and lollipops -- totally unrealistic. When things aren't good, it's usually an affair, an unknown previous spouse, or a stalker/killer shows up. Sometimes couples just have grumpy times that don't end up in an affair or divorce.
There are some wild Sweeps twists ahead. You can thank Lorraine Broderick for that. I have to say that I wish Lorraine would have been named permanent head writer of AMC, but she wasn't, and we have to move on.
In the week ahead, we mark another major All My Children milestone. On February 2, the show airs the last episode taped in AMC's New York studio. From that point forward, all the material you see on-screen will have a Los Angeles flavor to it. Of course, that also means that the high-definition episodes are also on the way. If you listened carefully to some of the dialogue last week, you might have heard references to houses or rooms being remodeled, painted, or otherwise cleaned. There's a reason for that. As part of All My Children's move, the show upgraded many of its sets. The entire Chandler Mansion is getting a facelift, as will Wildwind. Other sets will stay virtually the same, but they'll be getting a fresh coat of paint and new lighting. I feel like we'll all be playing a game of "What's wrong with this picture?" over the next few weeks as we feverishly go on a Where's Waldo hunt to find everything that's different.
Before I leave, another quick programming note: Jacob Young (JR Chandler) will be my guest this week on Soap Central Live. We're going to talk about his work on All My Children, as well as his other two daytime roles. Plus, you have a chance to call in and ask him questions. For all the details, check out soapcentral.com/radio
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