All My Children fans: Natalie in the well RETURNS!!

Loved her!! This is good news.

I wish it was Robin Mattson instead along with James Kiberd. It’ll be nice to hear what the former Tommy Michaels is doing now.

Natalie was a prime example of Soap Opera Rape Redemption. Nasty, mean female character gets raped, and then becomes nice, and popular, and a welcomed member of society. Marty from One Life to Live was another example.

Yes, Natalie went through a true evolution.

I'm a AMC fan from WAAAAAY back and I can't see that Natalie was one of the most popular characters. Popular, yes, but most popular?

While soaps use the cringe-worthy rape-redemption way too often, Natalie was at least already evolving and softening before the rape - I am guessing once she had Timmy. She was pretty torn about having feelings for Ross and was far from the homewrecking predator she was when trying to steal Jeremy from Erica. Plus, it did seem organic to the family dynamics going on and Ross's anger issues. The one thing the rape did do was change how everyone else saw her - she became loved by everyone, minus Erica and Palmer. As great as Kate was until the end, I do think they watered the character down as she became classic soap heroine St. Natalie Dillon.

The one character where they really changed her persona from rape was Gloria. She went from scheming bitch before to everyone's best friend. Julia was another not great example. She was college age girl who was a bit superficial and interested in men and argued with her narrow-minded parents, and they felt they needed to reform her by having her face scarred, getting raped, and getting a rape pregnancy (which they did let her abort). She went from someone fun-loving to ever-suffering. Then there is Bianca, where they basically raped her so they would not have to write a same-sex relationship for her and to do the shocking lesbian raped by a man and becomes a chaste mother.

It was a pleasure to watch. Kate is a treasure and Tom grew up to be a gem.

Kate seems very gracious, so did not expect her to bad mouth anyone, but she seemed sincerely complimentary about Kiberd when she was asked about him. Granted she did not talk about him long. She also might be the only person on the planet who thought Melody Anderson was a good recast.

I liked how neither she nor Tom could remember who Timmy's actual biological father was.

Kate and Tom’s interview today. They haven’t seen each other in 25 years.

Their last scene together.

Kate's on-screen husband just died. Was he mentioned in her Locher Room ?

I loved her and Uncle Pork Chop!

[Kate's on-screen husband just died. Was he mentioned in her Locher Room ?]

Just the character as they were trying to remember if he was Timmy's father. He was - Tom had no idea who Tim's biological father was.

The actor who played Alex Hunter died yesterday, the same day that Kate and Tom did the chat. They did not know the news. Coincidence.

AMC struck gold partnering Kate Collins with Jean LeClerc and Mitchell Ryan. They made magic in their scenes together. Was 1986 or so...

Throw in Lucci to the above mix, Collins having chemistry with Lucci was just as critical to her and LeClerc.

Collins said she thought Brooke was Erica's number one rival, but Natalie was up there (and Collins did say she thought Natalie was a good rival to Erica, but number one would go to Brooke). I do think Erica's rivalry with Brooke might have been a bit more complex, maybe because it built over decades. Depending on the writer, there did seem to be an underlying grudging respect from time to time and times when they seemed to enjoy sparring.

Kate was very humble. When he asked if she was disappointed about getting no Emmy nominations she seemed like it didn't bother her at all.

I want grown up Timmy deep inside me.

She probably thought they'd ask her about Kiberd, so she picked the best thing she could possibly say about him - being very talented (which is true) but not commenting on what she thought about him as person. Notice she gave more in-depth answers for everyone else, especially what they were like as people.

And yeah, she was much too kind about Anderson. She was a bad miscast. She was ok in other things though.

Michaels did grow up to be very handsome.

Hopefully they get Robin Mattson to do one soon. She is a soap icon and has been too reclusive in recent years.