All My Children

All My Children
Missing image
AllMyChildren19701989.jpg


Network ABC
Executive Producer Julie Hanan Carruthers
Head Writer Megan McTavish
Senior Cast Members Susan Lucci,
Ray MacDonnell
Distributor ABC
Premiere Date January 5, 1970
Runtime 60 minutes (30 minutes from 1970 to 1977)
IMDb Page (http://imdb.com/title/tt0065272/)

All My Children is a popular American soap opera which has been broadcast every Monday through Friday on the ABC TV network since January 5, 1970. Originally a half-hour in length, the show moved to an hour in 1977. The show has taped over nine thousand episodes, with the 9,000th episode aired on December 16, 2004.

All My Children was created by Agnes Nixon. Although Nixon had previously created One Life to Live for ABC following her success with Another World and The Guiding Light, All My Children was her brainchild. She set the show in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a small suburb of Philadelphia.

At one time, it was so popular that it was the most widely-recorded television show in the United States. The show ranked #2 in the daytime Nielsen ratings for much of the 1980s as well as the majority of the 1990s. While the show's ratings declined in the late 1990s and early 2000s, All My Children still enjoyed a massive fan following, usually ranking around the middle of the pack in the daytime Nielsens, with over three million people watching each day. In 2003 and 2004, however, the show's ratings picked up again, and has tied other shows for second place for the first time in years.

From 1970 to 1992, the show was either written by Nixon herself or by her protégé, Wisner Washam. When the executives at ABC wished to bring in new blood on the writing staff, they promoted team writer Megan McTavish into the head position, where she would stay until 1995, with another stint from 1997 to 1999. After numerous writing staff changes, she returned to the position in 2003, where she is today.

Like many other soaps, All My Children enjoys a balance of younger talent and older veteran performers. With the death of core cast member Ruth Warrick in 2005, only two cast members, Ray MacDonnell and Susan Lucci, have played their roles since the first episode. Coupled with older talent, such as Julia Barr, David Canary and Michael E. Knight, the show has also hit the jackpot in a rivalry between former friends Greenlee and Kendall, played by Rebecca Budig and Alicia Minshew.

Contents
1 The '70s
2 The '80s
3 The '90s
4 The 2000s
5 Cast

5.1 Current Cast Members
5.2 Recurring Cast Members
5.3 Coming and Going Cast Members
5.4 Deceased Cast Members

6 Awards

6.1 Daytime Emmy Awards

6.1.1 Show
6.1.2 Individuals

6.2 Soap Opera Digest Awards
6.3 Soapy Awards
6.4 GLAAD Media Awards
6.5 Gracie Allen Awards
6.6 ALMA Awards
6.7 Writers Guild of America Awards
6.8 Young Artist Awards

7 Spoofs
8 See also
9 External link

The '70s

Full article: History of All My Children (1970-1979)

Agnes Nixon strived to create a soap that was topical, and could illustrate social issues to the audience, something that had not been tried by other soap writers before. To keep the action more real, she allowed the audience to locate her fictional "Pine Valley" on a map: situated just outside of Philadelphia, it was a mere hour-long train ride away from New York City.

The show's first action took place around several families, including the Martins, the Tylers, the Brents, and the Kanes.

The '80s

Full article: History of All My Children (1980-1989)

All My Children started the 1980s with the popular pairing of Cliff and Nina Warner, whose story reached a higher pitch than even Tara and Phil's back in the early 1970s. Other supercouples of the day included Greg and Jenny Nelson as well as Jesse and Angie Hubbard, the latter becoming the first African American supercouple.

The '90s

Missing image
Kanewomen.jpg
The Kane Women in 1993. From left to right: Kendall (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Erica (Susan Lucci), Mona (Frances Heflin), and Bianca (Gina Gallagher).

Full article: History of All My Children (1990-1999)

As All My Children started a new decade, the show was faced with many actor defections, including longtime favorites such as Peter Bergman, Taylor Miller, and Debbi Morgan. The writing team stayed the same, under the direction of Wisner Washam, but the ABC daytime drama department wished to elevate Megan McTavish to the role of head writer (she had been affiliated with the show since 1987). Her first stories started airing in 1992, and were praised both in the soap magazines and by fans. A location shoot along the Danube River started a romance between longtime All My Children stalwart Erica Kane and newcomer Dimitri Marick (Michael Nader), who, although revealed to be the brother of Edmund Grey (John Callahan), was still a fairly mysterious subject.

Other storylines included Mona's fight with lung cancer (Mona's portrayer, Frances Heflin, had the same ailment), Adam Chandler's long-lost daughter Hayley Vaughan (Kelly Ripa) finding love first with the much older Charlie Brent (Christopher Lawford), and then with Mateo Santos (played by Mark Consuelos, who became Kelly Ripa's real-life husband), and the formation of the Dillon family, which started off dysfunctional as the eventual matriarch, Janet, was the crazy sister of Trevor Dillon's love, Natalie.

The 2000s

Full article: History of All My Children (2000-present)

A high producer and writer turnover in the late 1990s necessitated the brief return of Agnes Nixon at the start of the decade, which resulted in the pairings of David Hayward's mother Vanessa with longtime villain Palmer Cortlandt, and the revelation that Erica Kane's daughter Bianca was a lesbian. Many long-running actors, such as Michael Nader, James Kiberd, and Robin Mattson, left their roles, arguably leaving huge gaps in the show's landscape.

After even more turnover in recent years, Megan McTavish, who wrote the show for most of the 1990s, returned in 2003 with daring story ideas, which included the rape of Bianca and a year-long baby switch story, which was hailed by soap columnists as the return of character-driven storytelling, which had been ignored under the tenure of Gordon Rayfield and Anna Cascio.

Recently, the show wrapped up a vital, year-long "Baby Swap Storyline." This storyline was pivotal and legendary for All My Children. The storyline crossed over to another ABC soap, One Life to Live as characters from the show were incorporated into the story, thus establishing a link between the two shows. It also drew more interest for One Life to Live, as many fans of All My Children tuned in to watch the storyline unfold elsewhere.

Cast

Template:AmericanSoaps

Current Cast Members

Recurring Cast Members

Coming and Going Cast Members

Deceased Cast Members

Awards

Through its 35+ year run All My Children has won numerous Awards.

Daytime Emmy Awards

Show

  • 2005 "Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series"
  • 2005 "Outstanding Achievement in Makeup for a Drama Series"
  • 2005 "Outstanding Achievement in Live & Director to Tape Sound Mixing for a Drama Series"
  • 2004 "Outstanding Achievement in Casting for a Drama Series" - Judy Wilson
  • 2004 "Outstanding Achievement in Technical Direction/Electronic Camera/Video Control for a Drama Series"
  • 2003 "Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction/Set Decoration/Scenic Design for a Drama Series"
  • 2003 "Outstanding Achievement in Casting for a Drama Series" - Judy Wilson
  • 2003 "Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design for a Drama Series"
  • 2003 "Outstanding Achievement in Hairstyling for a Drama Series"
  • 2003 "Outstanding Achievement in Lighting Direction for a Drama Series"
  • 2003 "Outstanding Achievement in Makeup for a Drama Series"
  • 2003 "Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series"
  • 2003 "Outstanding Drama Series Directing Team"
  • 2002 "Outstanding Achievement in Casting for a Drama Series" - Judy Wilson
  • 2002 "Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design for a Drama Series"
  • 2002 "Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series"
  • 2002 "Outstanding Achievement in Technical Direction/Electronic Camera/Video Control for a Drama Series"
  • 2001 "Outstanding Achievement in Hairstyling for a Drama Series"
  • 2001 "Outstanding Achievement in Multiple Camera Editing for a Drama Series"
  • 2000 "Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction/Set Decoration/Scenic Design for a Drama Series"
  • 2000 "Outstanding Achievement in Hairstyling for a Drama Series"
  • 1999 "Outstanding Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series"
  • 1998 "Outstanding Achievement in Live and Tape Sound Mixing and Sound Effects for a Drama Series"
  • 1998 "Outstanding Achievement in Makeup for a Drama Series"
  • 1998 "Outstanding Achievement in Multiple Camera Editing for a Drama Series"
  • 1998 "Outstanding Drama Series"
  • 1998 "Outstanding Drama Series Writing Team"
  • 1997 "Outstanding Drama Series Writing Team" TIED with The Young and the Restless
  • 1996 "Outstanding Drama Series Writing Team"
  • 1995 "Outstanding Direction for a Drama Series"
  • 1994 "Outstanding Drama Series"
  • 1992 "Outstanding Drama Seres"
  • 1988 "Outstanding Drama Series Writing Team"

Individuals

    • Prior to the creation of the Daytime Emmy Awards in 1974 the Primetime Emmy Awards administed by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences recognised Excellence in Daytime Television from 1971-1973. In this time All My Children recieved multiple nominations ,winning one Emmy :
  • 1973 "Outstanding Achievement by Individuals in Daytime Drama" Mary Fickett

Soap Opera Digest Awards

Soapy Awards

GLAAD Media Awards

  • 2004 "Favorite OUT image of the year award" Eden Riegel
  • 2004 "Outstanding Daily Drama"
  • 2002 "Outstanding Daily Drama"
  • 2001 "Outstanding Daily Drama"
  • 1998 "Outstanding Daytime Drama Series"
  • 1997 "Outstanding Daytime Drama Series"
  • 1996 "Outstanding Daytime Television"

Gracie Allen Awards

  • 2005 "Outstanding Female Lead in a Daytime Drama" Susan Lucci
  • 2004 "Individual Achievement for Best Female Lead - Daytime Drama" Eva LaRue

ALMA Awards

Writers Guild of America Awards

  • In the 1990's the WGA began recognising achivement in daytime television writting. These are the years the WGA award for "Daytime Serials" went to All My Children
  • 2004 "Daytime Serials"
  • 2002 "Daytime Serials"
  • 2001 "Daytime Serials"
  • 1999 "Daytime Serials"
  • 1997 "Daytime Serials"

Young Artist Awards

Spoofs

  • This show is spoofed in the Matt Groening's series Futurama as a huge robot soap opera called All My Circuits, starring Calculon.
  • The soap opera featured in the film Soap Dish was called All My Trials.

See also

External link

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