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AMC Glossary

by Margaret Royal

ABC:

American Broadcasting Corporation, the network responsible for All My Children and everything that goes with it. Owned by Disney.

AMC:

All My Children.

BAM:

Bianca and Maggie, both the pairing and the fanbase for that pairing. The formidable fanbase, highly organized and fiercely devoted, petitioned AMC writers and producers to make Bianca and Maggie a couple when Maggie was introduced and the two characters became friends. Much ambiguous dialogue and many longing looks later, ABC conducted a poll to ask if Bianca should have a girlfriend; a large majority thought that she should, but that it should not be Maggie. Maggie declared herself to be "into guys" in January. BAM has remained highly supportive of both Eden Riegel and Elizabeth Hendrickson and decided to lend its approval to the recent rape storyline, citing the Emmy-worthy material for Riegel and educational potential in general.

BFF:

Best Friends Forever. Example: "What is this BAM BFF stuff they keep putting where my Lianca reunion should be?"

Frons:

Brian Frons (brian.frons@abc.com), president of ABC Daytime. Rumored to be on his way out the door, but responsible for too much nastiness across the ABC Daytime board to recount here. Published examples of Frons awfulness include a soap mag interview in which he disparages a One Life to Live star's weight and general physical appearance; another in which he attempts to deflect criticism for Voldemort by saying that having Bianca raped is the best way to show that AMC accepts her sexuality; proudly announcing Voldemort 2.0 at the OLTL luncheon. Oh, and hiring McTrash again. E-mail his boss (alex.wallau@abc.com) and tell him why Frons sucks.

HoYay!

Originally an interjection, now almost exclusively a noun, short for Homoeroticism Yay!. Coined on TWoP to express excitement about subtextually homoerotic moments between two otherwise straight characters; now almost exclusively refers to said moments themselves. Example: "Kendall and Greenlee rolling around in lotion? Damn if those girls don't bring the HoYay!" Has spawned the term HetYay!, which, in most contexts and particularly on soaps, would be redundant; in the buildup to Voldemort, however, and especially in its aftermath, there has been almost no Yay! whatsoever on AMC, very little HetYay!, and definitely no HomosexualityYay! As of August 19, 2003, the last couple aside from Edmund and Maria Grey to have sex on AMC was Lianca, and theirs occurred offscreen in May. Oh, and there was David and Anna Grief!Sex. There has, however, been a great deal of intra-Fusion HoYay! and Merica catfight HoYay! Pity it shall come to naught.

McT, McTrash,
McThing, McTravesty,
McRavish

Megan McTavish, current head writer at AMC; twice previously employed in and fired from the same position. Traffics in rape, exploitation, violence against women, and other misery for her characters. Apparently, her most recent dismissal came after Susan Lucci, frustrated by the writing, lobbied for it (Viva La Lucci!). Is rumored to have landed the current job after pitching to Frons that the rape storyline he had in mind would be even better if Bianca, the lesbian, replaced Kendall as the intended victim. "McThing" is a nickname coined by SkiffyPup at TWoP by combining McTrash, McTavish's most common nickname, with "that thing," which is what Kendall called a park garbage can on a recent episode.

retcon:

Short for "retroactive continuity," referring to the practice by which TV shows bring in a previously unknown character, or previously unknown information about an established character, to supply a backstory to justify new storylines. Examples include Kendall Hart arriving in Pine Valley as a teenager, necessitating a backstory about Erica Kane being raped at age 14 and giving the resultant child up for adoption; Greenlee Dupres finding out that her biological father is Jackson Montgomery and understanding her own late father's previously established coldness toward her during his lifetime in terms of that revelation.

SORAS:

Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome. Apparently coined by soaps columnist Mimi Torchin to refer to the common soap opera practice of "aging" young characters to create new storylines or add spark to existing ones. Examples of SORAS-ed characters include Bianca, who was born on AMC in 1988. Kendall, supposedly born when Erica was 14, has been de-SORAS-ed to be approximately in her mid-twenties.

TWoP:

Television Without Pity, the web's finest source for TV-related snark.

Voldemort:

Coined in the TWoP AMC thread to refer to the rape of Bianca Montgomery. Several posters found the spoilers regarding the event to be so offensive that they wished for a term to use instead of the spoiler-tagged "rape." The name was swiped from the Harry Potter series, in which the children fear a Lord Voldemort who is so evil and terrifying that they dare not speak his name.

Voldemort 2.0, Voldespawn:

I don't even wanna talk about it.

Couple Name Blending:

Popular all over internet fansites. Provides great opportunities for humor. Is most common for, but not restricted to, romantic pairings. AMC Examples: Lianca (Lena-Bianca), Jerica (Jackson-Erica), Roni (Reggie-Joni), Kaidan (Kendall-Aidan), Merica (Mary-Erica), Mehdmund (Maria-Edmund).

Adjective!Noun:

Common at TWoP; origin unknown. Exceedingly silly gag in which one pairs an exclamatory adjective (or adjectival noun) with a noun (usually proper) to describe something. It serves no purpose, except that it's funny. Examples: Sweaty!Shirtless!Aidan, Action!Binky, Vengeance!Binks, FileFolder!Lena.

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