There's a strange sense of déjà vu in this week's Two Scoops. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with what played on-screen, but I'll think about that as I tip-tap out the rest of this column. No, the reason for my "haven't we done this before?" feeling is that I've been live tweeting episodes of All My Children, so some of the things that I've prepared for this column seemed... familiar. Don't worry, though. I save the good stuff for you guys because you're my first love -- and it's hard to compress all of my randomness into 140 characters.
Nevertheless, if you have the desire to watch All My Children "with" me, follow me @danjkroll -- and we can watch together on Mondays at 4pm ET/1pm PT. I'll talk about some of the other exciting viewing news later in the column.
There are still only two new episodes of AMC made available for viewing each week, but somehow I still have plenty to talk about. So, if you're ready, let's get to it.
I'm disappointed that Opal would so easily give up on Cortlandt Manor, but I can imagine that living alone in that spacious estate gets kind of lonely. I mean, I'm assuming that it's spacious. We've only seen the parlor and Pete's bedroom, but there has to be more than just two rooms, right? It reminds me of when the ABC-based AMC took Wildwind out of mothballs after a decade and then we only ever saw one room.
On one hand, I'm disappointed that Opal would give up the last vestige of the Cortlandt family dynasty. On the other hand, I can understand how every day in that home would fill her with sadness. I have another hand for some reason -- and I am not sure where it came from. Maybe it's not another hand, but I get why Opal would want to be closer to her son. For the life of me, though, I have no idea why Opal would think it would be a good idea to move into the same apartment building as Pete. If she didn't like what she saw when Pete was living under her roof, can you imagine the kind of shenanigans she might see under someone else's roof?
I did like the mention of Palmer, Pigeon Hollow, and that odd metal tub. For you long-timers out there, was there ever mention of that tub in the early years of AMC?
Another week, another freak for Colby Chandler. Before we get to Colby's romp with David, I need to TiVo back a few bits to the "friends with benefits" conversation that Pete and Colby had. I totally believe that Pete has no interest in Colby past what she brings to the table, er, bed. For whatever reason, I think he is still hung up on Celia. Colby's unenthusiastic agreement to Pete's "friends with benefits" proposition, though, has me convinced that she wants something more with Pete. Here's the discussion point: is Colby legitimately interested in Pete, or does she just want his money and/or body?
I suspect there is more to whatever happened with Colby and her yet-to-be-named ex-boyfriend in Paris. Maybe we'll find out it's someone we already know, like Sam Grey or another long-forgotten male character.
Speaking of those blasts from the past, I had to check the soap opera wayback machine (otherwise known as our Who's Who in Pine Valley character profile section) to verify that Colby was even alive when Dimitri was last in Pine Valley. When you factor in the five-year time leap and SORAS into the already convoluted soap opera space/time continuum, it's hard to keep these things straight. I had completely forgotten that a then-newborn Colby's stem cells were once believed to be the only thing that could save Dimitri from a rare disease. That was back in 1999, so in theory that would make Colby... 19 (14 plus the five-year time jump). I'd venture to say that the writers tacked on a few extra years for good measure.
Adam Chandler would have a(nother) stroke if he knew that his little girl had bedded Hayward. I know that David Canary's involvement with All My Children is somewhat more limited than what we may want, but I really, really hope that we can get him back to watch him hit the roof. I also wouldn't mind seeing Jennifer Bassey reprise her role as Colby's grandmother, Marian, to warn Colby of the dangers of being a floozy.
One last random bit before we continue with the column: Jane has suddenly become interesting. Her mystery phone call made my ears perk up. Her last name is McIntyre, so that naturally makes me question if Jane is related to Alec McIntyre. With Grant Aleksander signing on to the web soap, Tainted Dreams, which stars Alicia Minshew (Kendall Hart) and is helmed by AMC's supervising producer, Sonia Blangiardo... you can see where I'm going with this one. Could Jane be related to Alec?
Having Billy Clyde rescue AJ was very much a Crash moment. You know, like the Oscar-winning movie when seemingly unrelated people end up impacting each other's lives. Unless Billy Clyde Tuggle is a stalker, I have to believe that his expression of surprise upon learning that AJ was related to Dixie was legit. It's not going to make Dixie change her opinion of Billy Clyde, but I get a feeling that Billy Clyde will use AJ to try to get closer to Dixie. I suspect at some point, Billy Clyde will backslide and (re)kidnap Dixie. I'm not sure who will save her, though, since Tad is off somewhere doing something top secret.
Billy Clyde and his leading lady of the evening, Ruby Marie, played into one of the funniest scenes of the week. Imagine upstanding townsperson Joe Martin showing up at the door to a house of ill repute, looking for a man.
Ruby Marie: Well, if you swing this way, you got the wrong guy. But I can rustle you up another.
Joe: I don't swing -- period.
I've heard that Ray MacDonnell has quite the sense of humor in real life, but I certainly don't think of Joe as a funny guy. And maybe Joe's quip wasn't meant to be funny, but it sure did tickle my funny bone. Sorry, Joe. My humerus.
Jesse's house of cards could come crashing down at any time. Lea is already suspicious of how Cassandra ended up in Jesse and Angie's house, and Cassandra mentioning that she'd heard Jesse's voice only made Lea's spidey senses tingle even more. I'm pretty sure we're all in agreement that the truth will come out eventually, though I am not sure if everyone will learn of Jesse's dealings with Uri or if it will be confined to a select few people. I think I'd rather see only Lea and Zach learn the truth and "deal" with it in their own way. I suppose that means that I'm cosigning on the idea that people should be able to selectively break the law.
Jamie, however, wrote in with a very plausible scenario, saying, "I would like to put in my two cents on Uri. I believe he made a fatal mistake. All it's going to take is someone like Zach, and more than likely it WILL be Zach, to go looking for him, find him, and completely get away with killing him; because his 'death' is already on the record"
Jamie makes a really great point. There is always the potential danger that when you fake your death, someone really will whack you upside the head with a lead pipe or candlestick.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the scenes in the hospital involving Angie and Cassandra. I thought that they were incredibly well acted. For her first professional gig, Sal Stowers was tossed into one hell of a storyline. I think that she's done a commendable job, and I'm looking forward to scenes where she has more in the way of dialogue. Usually newcomers seem to go the other way -- they get oodles of dialogue at first and then have to find their way when it comes to the meaty, emotional material. The scenes were absolutely heartbreaking, and as I said last week, it looks like Cassandra is going to have even more emotional and psychological devastation in the weeks ahead.
There were two big news stories coming out of Prospect Park last week. The first takes place immediately: beginning Monday, July 1, both new weekly episodes of All My Children (and One Life to Live) will be posted on Mondays. You no longer have to wait until Wednesday to watch the second episode -- but you can, if you want. If you want to watch both episode of AMC back-to-back on Monday, you can. If you want to wait until mid-week, you can do that, too. Nothing else has changed -- the episodes will still be available for free on Hulu.
The other big change is pretty massive: All My Children and One Life to Live are headed back to television. And they will be airing on Oprah Winfrey's OWN television network. I saved this information for the end of the column because if you didn't already know that, I didn't want to risk you passing out before you read the rest of the column. But, yes indeed: the first 40 episode of AMC and OLTL will air on OWN starting July 15. Episodes of AMC will air Monday through Thursday at 1pm ET/PT.
If your soap abacus is in the shop, the AMC episode that aired last Wednesday was #24. So OWN will pick up with the first episodes and AMC and OLTL and air them for ten weeks. I'm sure you're wondering, "Well, then what?" Well, as of right now, there are no plans past that. However, Oprah is a very savvy businesswoman. If enough people are tuning in to watch AMC and OLTL, I am certain that these two shows will end up on her Favorite Things list and continue to air for weeks, months, and even years to come. But again, fans need to tune in to the shows. I've posted all of the details of the OWN deal in an article, so click here to read it.
Well, that's all I have time for this week. I am taking online classes from Pine Valley University to get a doctorate in Dixie Martin Psychology. If you'd like to reach out to me in the meantime -- and I hope that you do -- you have a couple of different routes. You can submit feedback by clicking here or you can post your comments right here on this page.
dan
