Friday, September 23, 2011

The End Of ALL MY CHILDREN: Bobby Martin's Revenge?

With all the drama surrounding Disney (ABC) daytime soap opera productions over the past few months, there have been times when the real-world misadventures of ALL MY CHILDREN, GENERAL HOSPITAL, and ONE LIFE TO LIVE have been more shocking, surreal, and twisted than the day-to-day doings of their characters.

What's next in the story of Couric's and Franco's wrought, dysfunctional, long-term relationships with GH (or at least its time slot)? Could it be more obvious that OLTL and AMC are involved in a very messy love quadrangle with abusive ex-lover Brian Frons on the one hand and mysterious hero Prospect Park on the other?

With a revolving door for talent and personalities, the ABC three generate a continuous stream of hire/fire and contract-negotiation subplots, and true to form, each one is just a little bit weirder then the one before. Today, we officially reached the point where the question, "What happened to Michael Bersell?" is officially more intriguing than, "What happened to Bobby Martin?"

AMC's Bobby Martin (Michael Bersell) has been a symbol of soap opera silliness ever since the twelve-year-old son of Dr. Joe Martin went upstairs in 1970 and never came back down. It may be the single most gratuitous and ridiculous write-out in all of soap opera history.

On the eve of AMC's last network airdate, the Orlando Sentinal has located Michael, and he's all grown up, of course. He's not acting anymore. It appears that in the grand scheme of things, AMC wasn't meant to be, and it looks like Bersell was ahead of the curve, because he totally changed careers and now works, like Mario Batali, as a professional chef. For Disney. Now that's a twist!

You can read more about what happened to Bobby Martin in the original Orlando Sentinal piece.

Kevin Mulcahy Jr. is a Harvard alum who is currently working as a staff contributor at welovesoaps.com writing theater and web series reviews as well as other in-depth features. Read all his Web Series reviews here. To contact Kevin, email [email protected].

2 comments:

  1. So Bobby Martin was real? I just thought they just mentioned him and that was it. Just like the older brother on Happy Days that disappeared after season One!

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