This week marks the end of All My Children (possible reincarnation on web aside). While I haven’t watched the show in years, I do mourn its passing. Or maybe I mourn the passing of a genre. After One Life to Live leaves, there will only be 4 soups on television. Four? I remember when they ruled the daytime airwaves. And now they are almost all gone. I don’t like it .. I don’t like the replacement of actors with hosts any more than I like the replacement of checkers with those grocery store self check-out lines. A lot more people lose their jobs when a soap leaves than are given jobs with the creation of a talk show. Just saying. I love Anderson Cooper, but I have no intention of watching his show, or The Chew (what a name?), merely on quiet protest, not like they’ll notice.
But back to the point. All My Children. Once upon the time I watched ABC soaps religiously .. started with Ryan’s Hope and ended the day with Edge of Night. I laughed at Delia, rooted for Joe/Mary; loved Greg/Jenny; went through the ringer with Karen; was appalled and then fell in love with a man named Luke. (sorry Edge of Night, only remember Lori Loughlin was on it.) Soaps were .. in a strange way … romances novels. Or more like love stories – because they weren’t happily ever after, which is why I quit watching them, but that’s another blog. All My Children gave us Kim Delaney, Josh Duhamel, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Lauren Holly, Eva LaRue, Jesse McCartney, Kelly Ripa, Laura San Giacomo and Christian Slater, among others.
All My Children meant more than Greg and Jenny, it was Erica and her many husbands, the endearing love of Joe and Ruth Martin (whose portrayer, Mary Fickett, passed away a few days ago), Tad the Cad. It was the first soap that took on abortion, birth control and lesbian relationships, among others. Agnes Nixon opened the door to many previously taboo subjects and made AMC one of the hits of an era, an era I’m sorry to say is ending. Some blame OJ (audiences never did pick up after this trial knocked soaps off for weeks), some blame boredom – regurgitated stories or storylines that went too far over the edge. I quit because I was tired of rooting for the hero/heroine to only have they ripped apart sometimes the day after the much rooted for “kiss” “wedding” “reunion” – you name it.
This week is All My Children’s last week. I wish I wasn’t working; I would love to watch it. I understand that each day will be a tribute to something – like the weddings through the years – Wednesday will be a tribute to Mary Fickett’s Ruth Martin. I’ll be watching on Friday though .. to say my goodbye to a once loved show.
10 comments:
I'd never heard of All My Children. It obviously hasn't made it across the pond. Or perhaps it has and I've missed it. I'm not a great lover of soaps.
I'm so with you on those self check-out lines though. I hate them because 1) they put people out of jobs, 2) I like to exchange a friendly word with someone serving me and 3) I always break the darn things. ;)
I was a CBS soap wacher, but did watch AMC through college because of my roommate. It is a little sad to see the demise of this type of show, but in the era of re-makes...can a Hollywood movie be far away?
I'll admit I was never much of a soap watcher. Even when the kids were little. They just seemed so silly. You could catch a glimpse of an episode and then a couple of months later and it was like no time had passed at all.
I do think it's an end of an era, though. I also think there are too many talk shows on now, too many reality shows, etc.
Oh Shhirley, it has to have, or at least you have to have heard of Susan Lucci's Erica Kane somewhere ... she's a legend.
Erica Kane .. the movie!!
I really need to learn how to type .. that should be Shirley ... sheesh.
I grew up watching All My Children. The afternoons were always AMC, Another World and GH.
Sad to see Erica go and Tad and the rest of them. So many good storylines over the years. I swear I learned plotting & dialogue from watching all those shows.
Agnes Nixon was the best in the business (not just my opinion, read that somewhere, and of course if you read it, it has to be true).
nice blog nice blog
I'm glad you wrote this post, Bailey. I'd almost forgotten about AMC. Believe it or not, I actually remember watching the very first episode.
After reading this, I set up our DVR to record this final week of shows and have been enjoying them--after not having watched a soap opera in YEARS.
Susan Lucci still looks amazing. Tad got a bit plump but he's still adorable. Fun stuff!
Somehow or other our local ABC channel must have pre-empted an episode this week because we were shown yesterdays (Thursday) episode today with a scroll along the bottom about the final episode being show on Monday Sept. 26 instead. I'm pissed. I work Mondays. I don't have cable - I have a converter box and can't tape anything!!! I may have to break down and try to find it on-line to watch on this tiny screen with my internet messed up to the point that said scenes will lock up while it's waiting to load ... I have a sad ..
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