All My Children’s Kelly Ripa — She Won the Lottery

This is a review of Kelly Ripa’s autobiography, Live Wire:  Long-Winded Short Stories, published by HarperCollins:

In 1990, a fresh, exciting character played by a phenomenal new 20-year-old talent named Kelly Ripa debuted on All My Children. The character was Hayley Vaughan, the illegitimate teenage daughter of Arlene Vaughan (played by Olivia Birkelund) and wealthy Adam Chandler (played by David Canary.)

The Jersey girl, fresh from a few appearances on dance shows, made an immediate impact. She was smart and interesting, and viewers loved her as a slightly Goth teen. Agnes Nixon, the brilliant creator and headwriter of AMC knew exactly what to do with this fresh young talent.

First, Nixon placed her in storylines in which Ripa could learn from AMC’s most seasoned pros: David Canary, a veteran of Bonanza, played her domineering father. Movie and Broadway star James Mitchell played her uncle Palmer Cortlandt, a Pine Valley rich guy.  Another co-star was Hayley’s wildly creative and dynamic “Uncle Pork Chop,” Trevor Dillion, who was played by the always dynamic James Kiberd.

Learn from the old pros she certainly did, and Nixon evolved Hayley quickly from a party girl to a teen with severe alcohol problems.  And, as always, Agnes gifted the promising character with a perfect love interest, introducing a very handsome young Mateo Santos, played by Mark Consuelos. It was love at first sight, and the on- and off-screen couples were married in 1996. In fact, Marlena remembers the very day she heard that Ripa and Consuelos had eloped!

Hayley was an instant fan favorite, and Kelly was a natural. She was so smart, and so captivating. Pine Valley fans loved her right away.

As time passed, everyone kept an eye on Ripa, including then ABC Daytime Vice President Angela Shapiro. Kathie Lee Gifford was leaving her popular ABC morning show Live! With Regis and Kathie Lee. Regis Philbin, a television legend, was in his 70s and needed a very young counterpart to take Kathie Lee’s place. Kelly won the lottery ticket when she was picked by Shapiro as Regis’s broadcast partner.

It worked—kind of. The younger demographics of the old talk show got a nice ratings bump. At the same time, there were hints of trouble. Kelly was fresh and new, but she reportedly was hard to get along with. She was charming with guests from all parts of show business. But viewers occasionally sensed tension between Kelly and Regis.

(Note: Not long after the beginning of her work with Philbin, Ripa also landed a role on an ABC sitcom called Hope and Faith. She played Faith Fairfield from 2003-2006.)

While Kelly clowned around on Live!, backstage problems were noted by interested onlookers in the business. When this autobiography came out early this fall, Regis loyalist Kathie Lee Gifford appeared on Marlena’s favorite local morning show Good Day New York and asked viewers not to buy the book out of loyalty to Regis Philbin (who died in 2020). Gifford felt that Ripa had not honored Philbin’s memory.

But in the end, did it matter? The show’s success continued after Philbin’s retirement, with Kelly moving into the prime spot. She wrote this autobiography and was featured on the cover of People. The book became an instant best-seller, which it remains to this day.

Oh, how crazy show business is! Shouldn’t Kelly have been so grateful to the people who gave her the boost that lifted her so far beyond “noted soap opera actress”? Not just her fairy godmother, Angela Shapiro, but TV icon Regis; they literally made her a star? Oy!

Back to the book: Marlena finds it almost too saccharine to be true. Kelly has spent many wonderful years — first along with Regis, and later along with Michael Strahan and Ryan Seacrest — interviewing stars and charmingly mugging for the camera. To ABC, she has been gold. This year, she also hosted a summer game show, Generation Gap, that I liked a lot.

Unfortunately, her book is a difficult read. And if it’s meant as a gift to her multitude of fans, why are there no photographs? I’ve rarely seen a biography or autobiography without at least a few.

Also, I would have liked to learn more about what it was like for her on All My Children during the golden years we all loved. Instead, we get cutesy-poo anecdotes about her life with Mark (a great talent IMHO); her kids, Michael Joseph, Lola, and Joaquin Antonio; and her parents and in-laws.

Kelly, I really have no interest in your sex life with your husband, which absorbs way too much of the book. Instead, tell me something of substance about your remarkable kids and the celebrities you’ve met on the talk show circuit over all these years. At the very least, Kelly, stop name-dropping and tell us more about Agnes Nixon, your All My Children castmates—and particularly the great Regis Philbin. (If you didn’t have an easy relationship with him, tell us about it, while making sure you give him his due.)

Of course, part of Kelly’s charm on Live! is her skill in sharing memories and relaying anecdotes. Some of the memories and anecdotes that she has recorded in Long-Winded Short Stories are OK—but that cutesy tone in which she proudly and repeatedly intones “it happened to me” is tiring. Kelly, honor yourself and your loving family by sharing more specific memories. As we journalists say: Just the facts, ma’am. Cut the never-ending cuteness!

But I guess it all works as a product: The book is a best-seller and Kelly has appeared on the cover of People magazine. Still, we hardcore soap fans cherish soap star autobiographies that tell us something about the dynamics that went into making great soaps like the much-missed All My Children. This one lets us down.