Josh Madden
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Josh Madden | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Colin Egglesfield as Josh Madden |
|||||||||||||||||
| All My Children | |||||||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Scott Kinworthy (June 17, 2005 - September 15 2005) Colin Egglesfield (Present) |
||||||||||||||||
| First appearance | June 17, 2005 | ||||||||||||||||
| Created by | Megan McTavish | ||||||||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||||||||
| Nickname(s) | Josh | ||||||||||||||||
| Gender | Male | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | Retconned to December 18, 1980 | ||||||||||||||||
| Age | 27[1] | ||||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Former CEO of Chandler Enterprises/Current Advisor To Zach Slater | ||||||||||||||||
| Residence | Pine Valley, Pennsylvania | ||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
Joshua "Josh" Madden is a fictional character from the daytime drama All My Children. He first came to Pine Valley on June 17, 2005 and was originally portrayed by actor Scott Kinworthy until September 15, 2005. Since Kinworthy's departure, he has been portrayed by actor Colin Egglesfield.
The character was initially the subject of a controversial and landmark abortion storyline back in the early 1970s,[2] having been the fetus in which the abortion was centered. When the abortion storyline was rewritten to not have been an abortion after all, controversy ensued again, as viewers felt that it was an undoing of a groundbreaking event in television history.
Contents |
[edit] Background
[edit] Origin
Originally said to have been born on December 18, 1973. When Alicia Minshew took over the role of Kendall Hart in 2002, and the producers of All My Children had Kendall Hart's birth year changed to 1976, thus pushing Erica Kane's even later than it was before, to 1962, this left Josh's birth date between Kendall Hart's of 1976 and Bianca Montgomery's of 1984. Josh's birth date now at December 18, 1980.[1]
Josh Madden is the son of characters Erica Kane and Jeff Martin. Originally, the character was to have been aborted (in what was the first abortion on television after the Roe v. Wade decision). However, later during Megan McTavish's third stint as All My Children head writer, a character named Doctor Greg Madden is written to have taken the embryo and implanted the embryo into his wife.[3]
[edit] Storyline
As an adult, Josh comes to Pine Valley, and Erica Kane, not yet knowing that Josh is her son, hires him as a producer at her talk show New Beginnings. In order to steal Erica's job, Josh begins to sabotage Erica, even going so far as to drug her, and frames Amanda Dillon in his place. His devious intentions are eventually revealed, and he is fired as producer of Erica's talk show, with Erica hating him.
[edit] Discovery of being a Kane and all that follows
In late July 2006, not long after Greg has been murdered, Josh finally discovers the truth regarding his birth at the opening of the nightclub ConFusion. He is devastated and decides to leave town. Erica tries to explain to him that she does not hate him, and her reasons for making the decision to have an abortion all those years ago, but Josh does not want to listen to her.
.jpg/180px-Babe_and_Josh_bond_on_a_deserted_island_together._(B).jpg)
Throughout the whole Greg Madden ordeal, Josh develops a close relationship with Babe Carey Chandler, who convinces him to stay in town. Josh gradually falls in love with Babe and has a one-night stand with her. However, despite her rocky marriage to J.R. Chandler, she chooses to stay with J.R., leaving Josh heartbroken and more willing to fight for her love.
Josh connects with his half-sister, Bianca Montgomery, whom he loves, but is not above using her to get what he wants; however this characteristic does not phase Bianca one bit and it allows her to share with her older half-brother that her girlfriend, Maggie Stone, cheated on her while they were in Paris. Like most everyone else in the Kane-Montgomery family, Josh proves to be extremely protective of Bianca, especially where her happiness is concerned and is acrimonious towards Zarf/Zoe, whom he thinks would hurt Bianca.
Josh's relationship with his other half-sister, Kendall Hart Slater, though not as close as his relationship to Bianca at first, also becomes stronger. He is sometimes seen as somewhat of a protector of Kendall as well, and is able to connect with Erica at times, having found a certain comfort with each other. Above all else, he loves his family very much.
Josh leaves Pine Valley after Babe is apparently murdered by The Satin Slayer. However, after the funeral, Babe is seen waking in a hidden room in Zach Slater's casino and Josh asks how she feels. Josh, Kendall, Zach, Joe, Jeff, and Jack, all aware that Babe is still alive, keep this fact a secret in order to keep her out of harm's way.
Once back in Pine Valley, due to Josh's constant unwanted involvement in Babe's matters, Babe tells Josh to get out of her life. Some time afterward, Josh has a fling with a woman named Hannah Nichols.
Before he becomes boss at Chandler Enterprises, he is briefly involved with Greenlee Smythe. Due to having tricked the Chandlers out of their fortune, Zach is able to do what he wants with Chandler Enterprises. He names Josh as Chandler Enterprises' new boss. But when Adam Chandler regains control of Chandler Enterprises, Josh becomes the former CEO of the company.
[edit] Cultural impact
[edit] First legal abortion in soap opera
The Josh Madden character, before actually being defined as a character, became the first legal abortion performed in soap opera history.[4]
Author Gerry Waggett, when asked in an interview on the matter of how the show All My Children has always been the first (for the most part) to tackle global issues, and what storyline does he feel exemplifies this, responded:
| “ | I would have to pick Erica's legal abortion back in 1973. Number one, it was timely. Abortion had only recently been legalized when Erica decided not to have her baby. Secondly, it was a bold move. I can't think of a hotter political topic for the time than abortion. (It still remains a subject that soaps tend to avoid as much as possible; women may contemplate abortions, but rarely go through with having them.) Erica's abortion let the fans know that All My Children was going to tackle some major issues. What made it work was the fact that it was the perfect marriage of character to social issue storyline. We've all watched shows where some character develops a social issue problem that feels artificial to them as though it's been tacked onto them as some sort of glorified public service announcement. But Erica's abortion made sense. She was a rising model who didn't want a baby to derail that career. Whether you agree or disagree with her decision, you understand her rationale. That really is important for these social issue storylines to succeed — that they really be paired up with the right characters.[2] | ” |
[edit] More controversy
When Megan McTavish, former head writer of the show All My Children, rewrote Erica Kane's abortion to instead not have been an abortion at all due to Dr. Greg Madden's antics, it upset a large number of fans who felt that it was a disgrace to the ground-breaking abortion storyline Agnes Nixon had carried out three decades earlier.
To this, actor Colin Egglesfield, portrayer of Josh, when queried by Soap Opera Digest on the matter of possibly holding the record in daytime for the oddest way to be brought into the world, replied, "Yeah, and it's kind of funny because when people ask me who I am on the show, I like to say, 'I'm the abortion of Erica Kane.' Or, technically, I think it's a 'transportion.'"[5]
[edit] Inkling Magazine
Inkling Magazine, an often-updated magazine on the internet dedicated to science as they see it, commented on the impossibility of the storyline in which Josh was not aborted after all:
| “ | Erica Kane hires Josh Madden to produce her talk show New Beginnings. Josh lines up his father, Greg Madden, a well-known fertility expert, to be one of the first guests. Erica can’t place where she had met Dr. Madden until a bizarre series of events reveals that Dr. Madden had not only performed her abortion a few years back but developed a creepy obsession with her and implanted her aborted embryo into his own wife using a revolutionary new technique.
Can it really happen? There are so many things wrong with this, I can’t even wrap my brain around it. The biggest hurdle with this particular storyline is that the techniques by which abortion is performed don’t exactly lend themselves to excising an embryo viable enough to survive in another woman’s womb.[6] |
” |
However, in their same article Inkling Magazine also noted, "Using Erica Kane’s currently known offspring as an example, it seems that the science behind the drama of soap storylines isn’t entirely incorrect. But maybe that’s not as surprising as it seems. A lot of weird and crazy things pop up in scientific and medical research. Who, for example, would have thought you could grow a human ear on the back of a mouse? Who would have believed that one day we could make fluorescent green pigs? Keeping in mind those miracles of nature might help suspend the disbelief the next time a pint-sized, ringlet-haired child soap star 'grows' into a sultry brooding teenager after a summer 'away.' Hey, it could happen."[6]
[edit] References
- ^ a b Who's Who in Pine Valley: Erica Kane. soapcentral.com. Retrieved on 2007-07-04.
- ^ a b Interview with Gerry Waggett. About.com. Retrieved on 2007-07-04.
- ^ Diva deluxe. A grand entrance for Susan Lucci -- the grand dame of daytime TV. starbulletin.com. Retrieved on 2007-07-04.
- ^ The Last Taboo. Soapoperadigest.com, Publisher Jennifer Lenhart. Retrieved on 2007-07-04.
- ^ Son Block. Soapoperadigest.com, Publisher Mara Levinsky. Retrieved on 2007-07-04.
- ^ a b The Science of a Soap Opera Plot Twist. Let's take a closer look at the children of "All My Children." We might even learn something. inklingmagazine.com, Publisher Lesly Lopez-Skinner. Retrieved on 2007-07-04.
[edit] External links
|
|||||||||||
