SODigest, January 5th, 1999.
Performer of the Week -- Michael E. Knight (Tad, All My Children)
One of the many things we love about ALL MY CHILDREN’S Michael E. Knight (Tad) is his versatility—he effortlessly shifts gears from one circumstance to the next. From devoted father to dejected suitor to playful brother, Knight plays a wide spectrum of emotions without sacrificing the integrity of the character.
We see Knight play the would-be swinging bachelor as Tad struggles to forget Dixie—there were echoes of Tad the cad from years gone by in his flirtatious scenes with Wendy the weather girl. Yet despite Tad’s best efforts to come off as devil-may-care, Knight’s performance has an underlying melancholy that belies his devilish grin. Tad can never go back to what he was—he’s been through too much.
And that includes parenthood, which Knight plays with a playful tenderness. When Tad groused at son Jamie and former stepson Junior about spilled cider, there was a comfortable crankiness about his relationship with the boys that any beleaguered parent could relate to.
Impeccable timing and nuanced performances are only part of Knight’s acting arsenal; his secret weapon is the chemistry he has with every co-star. Any scene he’s in feels spontaneous, whether it’s with love interest Dixie (Cady McClain), mama Opal (Jill Larson) or enemy Adam (David Canary). The recent health club scenes in which Tad and Jake (Michael Lowry) compared their mating techniques were a hoot-and-a-half.
Whether sinking his teeth into an emotionally heavy scene or casually tossing off bons mots, Knight is consistently right on target and always makes us glad we tuned in.
One of the many things we love about ALL MY CHILDREN’S Michael E. Knight (Tad) is his versatility—he effortlessly shifts gears from one circumstance to the next. From devoted father to dejected suitor to playful brother, Knight plays a wide spectrum of emotions without sacrificing the integrity of the character.