All My Children alum Michael E. Knight told the truth and shamed the devils, aka Brian Frons and Julie Hanan Caruthers, in a new interview with Soap Opera Digest (on newsstands now). The actor, who played the infamous Tad Martin on and off for almost 30 years, and is now appearing in the play The Cost of the Erection, admitted he felt AMC hadn't been properly managed for years.

"I felt personally that our show had been mismanaged pretty severely for the last few years. You could just feel that the show was in the wrong hands. Agnes [Nixon, creator] had been pushed to the side and we had sort of lost her identity."

Knight goes on to say ABC should have realized a long time ago Frons shouldn't have been helming their daypart.


"The ratings kept going down and down and down, even though we were cutting drastically, and you'd think that any logical person would go, 'Maybe we have the wrong person there.' And ABC didn't."

Knight also didn't mince words about Hanan Caruthers. On what Tad became under the showrunner's disastrous tenure, he said:

"Under Julie [Hanan Caruthers, AMC's last executive producer], nothing was going on. I was sort of there for comic relief for about the last eight years on the show. You gotta know, Brian Frons wanted to get rid of me probably since '05, '06. I can't lay all the blame at his feet; my character had done everything there was to do on a soap and I had sort of gotten to the point where he was wallpapering over old wallpaper."

For more from Knight, pick up the Feb. 28, 2012 issue of Soap Opera Digest!

http://daytimeconfidential.zap2it.com/2012/02/17/all-my-childrens-michael-e-knight-brian-frons-wanted-to-get-rid-of-me-probably-since-05-0

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Thanks for sharing this. Good for MEK for speaking out - albeit too late for the ABC soaps and Frons to leave, but I digress.

Good for Knight!!! He has every right to say that. I mean for someone that was on 30 plus years, you'd think he would have gotten a little more respect from the higher ups.

There is probably much truth to what he says, though I know certain realities of the fading soap business affected all the shows and would have no matter who was president. I do think the Bells are probably better examples of keeping their soaps true to themselves-it did definitely seem like under Frons the ABC shows did lose some identity but in truth a lot of them change every few years anyway. I think OLTL in particular has always gotten bad treatment no matter who was running ABC, they would throw it from producer to producer without a lot of consistency sometimes. So he definitely probably could have been better.

Good for Knight!!! He has every right to say that. I mean for someone that was on 30 plus years, you'd think he would have gotten a little more respect from the higher ups.

Not necessarily - the idiots in charge had no problem showing 30+ year AMC vet Julia Barr (Brooke) the door in 2006. :mad: Thankfully, she did come back for brief stays here and there, and got closure before the show ended (having Brooke and Adam ride off into the sunset together, as David Canary had already decided to leave the show).

Thanks for sharing this. Good for MEK for speaking out - albeit too late for the ABC soaps and Frons to leave, but I digress.
Susan Lucci couldn't stand Brian Frons.

There is probably much truth to what he says, though I know certain realities of the fading soap business affected all the shows and would have no matter who was president. I do think the Bells are probably better examples of keeping their soaps true to themselves-it did definitely seem like under Frons the ABC shows did lose some identity but in truth a lot of them change every few years anyway. I think OLTL in particular has always gotten bad treatment no matter who was running ABC, they would throw it from producer to producer without a lot of consistency sometimes. So he definitely probably could have been better.

Julia Barr left the show twice, and both times were her decision. The show replaced her the first time, and the show wanted her to remain in the cast the second time before she declined.