AMC question-new one

#234MCTAVISH FIRED! REJOICE!

From the ubersexy Daniel Coleridge at TVGuide.com:


ABC Daytime has fired Megan McTavish from her post as head writer of All My Children. The network said that her successor would be named at a later date.

In his statement, Brian Scott Frons, President, Daytime, Disney-ABC Television Group explained: "This was a difficult decision. Megan came in at a crucial time for All My Children. We appreciate her vision and thank her for all her contributions."

My take on McTavish's firing can best be summed up with this quote from George Frederic Handel's Messiah:

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Can I get an amen, suds fans?

I'm sorry, that was cheeky of me, but I can hardly pretend I'm sad about this. McTavish has been head writer of AMC since 2003. She also held that job from 1992-95 and 1997-99, and has written for several other afternoon sudsers. Unfortunately, her approach to soap writing relies too heavily on gimmicks and superficiality.

McTavish has recently earned the ire of AMC's fans by screwing with the show's history, throwing continuity out the window and assassinating our favorite characters — both literally and figuratively. Let me count just a few of the ways this woman has royally pissed us off:

The return of AMC heroine Dixie Cooney Martin (Cady McClain) was totally botched. We were supposed to buy that Dixie would let her family think she was dead for four years. Then Dixie's mixed up in some nonsense with Zach Slater (Thorsten Kaye) instead of reuniting with her true love, Tad Martin (Michael E. Knight). Just when Dixie and Tad were on track for a reunion, she eats poisoned peanut-butter pancakes and dies. What a stupid, uncreative waste of a beloved classic character!

The revelation of Tad Martin as the person who buried alive Dr. Greg Madden (Ian Buchanan) and tortured the evil MD from above ground was absurd and completely out of character. "Tad would never do that," longtime AMC fans insisted.

This Satin Slayer serial-killer saga has sucked from day one. To cap it off, AMC viewers just found out Zach's diabolical daddy, Alexander Cambias Sr. (Ronald Guttman), is the killer. Talk about a snooze-o-rama reveal. Why has Papa Cambias been poisoning all these young ladies and festooning them with flowers and ribbons? He's mad at Zach for faking his death to escape from their dysfunctional family years ago. Yawn. I don't know about you, but whenever the show delves into the convoluted Cambias family history, I get awfully bored.

McTavish's failure to give Brooke English (Julia Barr) any kind of send off at the end of Barr's contract also ticked us off. Barr spends 30 years on AMC and fades off screen with no on-air acknowledgement of her departure? What a cold slap in the face to Barr and the show's loyal viewers.

Worst of all, McTavish outrageously revised history when she undid Erica Kane's (Susan Lucci) landmark 1973 abortion. Viewers were told that the fetus was somehow stolen from Erica's body and implanted in another woman. Now a Calvin Klein model is playing Erica's grown son, Josh, who's grumpy because he was almost aborted. What?!

Begone, Megan McTavish. Out of me house! Out of me kingdom! May ye never ruin another soap, and may another more talented and respectful writer restore All My Children to a show we truly love to watch, instead of a so-so show we just miss loving to watch.

Note to ABC: If you're still shopping for AMC's new top scribe, I hear veteran soap writer Claire Labine is still around. Give 'er a call!

At last, our long period of mourning is over, and at last, it may be ok to watch this once-great soap as it rises from the ashes.