Not long ago, Lifetime announced that it would bring back “All My Children” in the form of two made-for-TV movies, one for a future holiday season. Both are in early stages of development.
I’m ecstatic. Ever since I started watching “AMC” at its premiere in 1970, it was and continued to be my favorite soap until its cancelation in 2013 – an astonishing 43 years.
I considered Pine Valley home. As created by the late great Agnes Nixon, it was a warm, humorous place filled with relatable characters. It was a soap that was very conscious of what was going on in the tumultuous ‘60s and ’70s, in which it was set. “AMC” wasn’t just entertainment. It made me think!
Let’s start with its most memorable characters. Has there ever been a grander dame than Phoebe Tyler, played by Ruth Warrick? Then there was her stuffy goofball of a second husband, Langley Wallingford, played by Louis Edmonds. Dr. Joe Martin (played by Ray McDonnell) ran the hospital and his wife was the saintly Nurse Ruth (Mary Fickett), who adopted an abandoned boy named Tad, played originally by Matthew Anton, but later rechristened as Tad the Cad, played by Michael Knight, who now plays Martin Gray on “General Hospital.”
The town abounded in warm, humorous characters. Myrtle Lum Fairgate (played by Eileen Herlie), an ex-carny, ran the local boarding house. And hilarious Opal (played by Dorothy Lyman) made everyone laugh. Opal’s best friend was the best “AMC” character of all: Erica Kane, a fatherless young woman when the show premiered, who was played by Susan Lucci.
From Day One, Lucci, a breathtaking beauty, stole everyone’s attention. Erica would settle for nothing less than “having it all,” a declared ambition that eventually became the title, “Having It All,” of a real book written under the character’s name by the writers Barbara and Scott Siegel. The glamorous Erica Kane became a world-famous model and a disco owner. She also attracted no fewer than nine husbands and was married ten times. Instead of counting sheep when Marlena can’t sleep, I recite their names.
Even though Pine Valley was a fictional place, Nixon was very hip to the restless times she lived in. She sent one character, Phil Brent (Richard Hatch), off to Vietnam, where he reportedly was killed. When abortion was still illegal in most of the country but was legal in New York, she arranged for Erica to travel to New York for the first legal abortion in daytime television history. (There was an illegal abortion on “Another World” in 1964.) Nixon brought in a poor black character, Jesse Hubbard (played by Darnell Williams), and befriended him with a beautiful white teenager, Jenny Gardner (played by Kim Delaney) and sent them off to New York City to spend an unforgettable summer together. Nixon also created two gay characters, Erica’s daughter Bianca (played by Eden Riegel) and Lynn Carson (played by Donna Pescow).
“AMC” moved from ABC to SoapNet in 2011, but lasted there for only two years. Nixon passed away in 2016. The beloved “AMC” lives on in the memories of its legion of followers and the talented people who contributed to the show from both sides of the camera.
Will Lifetime’s Pine Valley be faithful to the original? We can only hope. Plenty of “AMC” talent is still with us.
Who will pen the movie hasn’t yet been announced. Whoever writes it, I’m hoping that the “AMC” movies will be as warm, entertaining, informative, and important as show once was.
ALL MY CHILDREN epitomized what you called the “thinking fan’s soap” — it was hip, it was smart, and had a winking relationship with its audience for most of its years on the air. They went off the rails for a while in the ’00s but had they kept good ol’ Agnes Nixon around, I don’t know that it would have happened the way it did. Let’s hope they get some of the AMC talent back on screen for the movies.
Thanks for writing Michael. I agree with you!