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Home , Adam Chandler, All My Children, Erica Kane, Kendall Hart, Llanview, Ryan Lavery

Four decades america’s most histrionic soap , ABC’s pre- of ridiculous ALL MY MARRIAGES, miered in 1970, the story of four families in the Main Line Philadel- will come to an phia suburb Pine Valley. Over the next 40-plus years, the cast and end when All My Children metastasized, with more than 200 characters and untold , AFFAIRS, , goes off the air twists, love affairs, betrayals, and ponderous looks, dispensed at an this Friday. increasingly frenetic pace and balanced, of course, with a high-minded­ By WILLA PASKIN AND RESURRECTIONS interest in social issues. But they always saved time for ghosts. 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983

The Martin, the uptight uncle with a baby angie baxter Tyler thing for nut CHILD beth Car bomb! ➽ Erica’s long-lost sister, THE MARRIAGE Silver Kane, shows up in CHILD tart! jobs! ➽ Kitty marries Linc, but her nefarious first husband, Hal MARRIAGE anne Pine Valley and begins an Black Given up for FOUR Short, arrives to tell her their never went through: They elope! tyler affair with Erica’s lover super- adoption, MARRIAGE Dies of Kitty’s a polygamist. Hal blackmails Kitty into using her then FAMILIES DIVORCE AFFAIR DIVORCE AFFAIR Kent Bogard, before ’s couple! Shotgun wedding! SIDS! boutique as a drug front for cocaine-laced soap. She and Linc kidnapped of Pine Valley, His sperm count revealed Silver is actually paul divorce and remarry; she dies in his arms but is replaced by DIVORCE back! Pennsylvania. is too low! martin con woman Connie Wilkes. PREGNANCY an identical twin sister, Kelly Cole, a pill-addicted nightclub jesse MARRIAGE Real name: MURDER After Erica accidentally hubbard Miscarriage! Attempted! singer. Linc falls in love with her, and after she gets off death A dance Lincoln! kills Kent, Silver, the only nick row for the murder of her drug-dealer boyfriend, they marry. Actually instructor— davis witness, claims Erica did it Falsely accused and actually Nina’s long- AFFAIR DIVORCE lost mother! on purpose. Erica goes on of ! Phil’s dad! Linc’s PREGNANCY DIVORCE MARRIAGE linc future soul Miscarriage! She’s arrested in December-May tyler the run, disguised as a nun. connie wilkes, Drafted to mate! a drug sting! romance! MARRIAGE DIVORCE MARRIAGE DIES a.k.a. silver kane Vietnam! MARRIAGE kitty k elly daisy cortlandt, a.k.a. THE shea cole monique jonvil Presumed MIA Shoots BRENTS dead! MARRIAGE margo again! AFFAIR himself Matriarch Ruth, flax And Palmer’s accidentally! Shotgun ex-wife! a nurse; car wedding! ➽ Sixteen-year-old jenny phil gardner salesman Ted; Donna Beck arrives in the High- ROMANCE brent school radical aunt Amy; hospital after being thrown First love! sweeties! and teen heartthrob ➽ Phil Brent almost ➽ Chuck raises out of a car by her pimp. DIES greg nelson Phil. dies, discovers his Back from little Phil and Tara’s She elopes with Chuck Self-made While real parents, CHILD the dead! phil love child; Phil Tyler, her doctor. Donna Renew rich man! undercover! develops amnesia, AFFAIR AFFAIR doesn’t know AFFAIR MARRIAGE Pregnancy becomes convinced she’s vows! THE pregnant, but it turns out palmer interrupts the he’s the father— Miscarriage! cortlandt MARTINS her pimp sterilized her wedding of at first. Teen Dr. Joe, a widower; his true love Tara, years before. Donna MARRIAGE Amnesia- AFFAIR prostitute! carrie his children, good gets drafted, ➽ Infatuated with Paul, undergoes reverse becomes a December-May DIVORCE tar a busboy! sanders girl Tara, kid Joey, martin impregnates Tara Margo has a face-lift to seduce sterilization, then is hit by romance! AFFAIR and young before shipping out, him—the real-life actress, Eileen a train and forgets the past professional Jeff; Pregnancy three years of her life, MARRIAGE DIVORCE ROMANCE and then goes Letchworth, healed from her own Hysterical! MARRIAGE his mother, Kate; Love MIA—but only surgery on-camera. When Paul including Chuck, despite marriage MARRIAGE donna and his attorney Goody triangle! being pregnant with his temporarily. wants to go back to his ex-wife, Shotgun DIVORCE beck brother, Paul. two- child—who is stillborn. Anne Tyler, Margo fakes a wedding! PREGNANCY palmer shoes! AFFAIR AFFAIR pregnancy and tries to buy a Miscarriage! PREGNANCY jim john dies MARRIAGE jefferson Because they baby on the black market. Stillborn! DIVORCE think they’re CHILD Smoke THE When this scheme fails, Margo going to die! inhalation! chuck attempts to kill Anne using TYLERS tyler Meddling blue carbon monoxide. dr. Nurse sean blood Phoebe; her MURDER ROMANCE christina MURDER mary Crime of passion! obsessed cudahy ➽ Cliff impregnates estranged husband, kennicott By a random With her mom’s karras MURDER marriage gunman! best friend! MARRIAGE with Cliff! ROMANCE Sybil while broken up Charles; their jeff ➽ with Nina. When accomplished adult Two-timing sybil martin drug dealer Sybil threatens to children, Anne and mona thorne give up their baby for Linc; and their PREGNANCY kane ➽ In the midst of Jason Eddie and The Tylers’ ! Maxwell’s murder DIVORCE tom impregnates adoption, her spoiled grandson, MURDER cudahy type-A kid! The Martins’ trial, Erica’s mother, da n Brooke, who has brandon boyfriend Sean Chuck. MARRIAGE DIVORCE kennicott kent total-square She aborted Mona, takes a truth an abortion. kingley DIVORCE bogard threatens her on doctor son! She’s just bored! without telling jason serum while on the She’s taking Nina’s father’s behalf. AFFAIR him! maxwell stand and remembers MARRIAGE birth Nervous, Sean THE ROMANCE Ex–NFL He’s got a Erica’s ROMANCE MURDER that she is the killer. eddie control! accidentally shoots AFFAIR taken—his! star! dorrance secret wife! dastardly Accidental! KANES lover! Sybil and then leaves erica Single mom Mona kane her to bleed to death. and troublemaker ➽ PREGNANCY CHILD daughter Erica. At first an amoral bad girl AFFAIR Abortion! AFFAIR MARRIAGE played indelibly by a young joe martin cliff , Erica soon becomes warner the show’s diva heroine, the only RAPE The Tylers’ character featured in all 40 brooke The only naughty niece! english seasons. In her first hefty story CHILD good MARRIAGE tad Serial tad line, weeks after Roe v. Wade, she marriage Adopted martin ➽ Ruth Martin is foundling! couple! martin has TV’s first legal abortion—she in Pine ROMANCE benny raped and put in a CHILD MARRIAGE REMARRIAGE DIVORCE doesn’t want to give up modeling. Valley! sago coma by Ray Gardner, No. 1! All grown up into DIVORCE No. 2! ruth “Tad the Cad”! martin, née her adopted son Tad’s nina brent biological father. After cortlandt ROMANCE being imprisoned, pamela ROMANCE AFFAIR Becomes a Early seventies Mid-seventies rape ROMANCE Early eighties kingsley narrowly Ray escapes by Mother and daughter! cokehead! avoided! Don’t worry, steve Right from the start, All My Children exhibited a Inspired by the anti-hero films of the era, AMC digging his way out. it’s just sex! The doubled down on romance, AFFAIR liza marian jacobi trademark style—society melodrama leavened with added a host of unsavory characters to the cast. Later, he tries to bomb launching relationships between With his student! colby colby mark socially conscious melodrama. The first season Prostitutes, pimps, and two-bit criminals dalton the Martins’ house Nina and Cliff and between Jesse and PREGNANCY kicked off with a convoluted paternity story line— began to share story lines with far more but chooses to kill Angie. The show also returned to high MARRIAGE DIVORCE himself rather than ellen Miscarriage! Secretly ray Phil Brent’s parents were not who he thought they respectable Pine Valley–ites. Two standouts harm his daughter. gardner school with the popular Greg and shepherd were!—but the show quickly made itself a soap for the were teen prostitute Donna Beck, who became Erica’s Jenny. The setting meant a return to half-brother! Single-mom culture-war era, with major story lines on Vietnam, one of the show’s major heroines, and pimp after-school-special content, too, with shopkeeper! abortion, fertility problems, and drug abuse. Billy Clyde Tuggle, a major villain. story lines about sexual harassment, photographs courtesy of abc drug abuse, and AIDS. Head shots indicate the arrival of major characters; time lines are for enduring story lines; dotted lines signal temporary disappearances; 38 | september 26, 2011 arrows suggest a departure from Pine Valley or a fade into soap-opera irrelevance. Disclaimer: This is a condensed history. september 26, 2011 | new york 39 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997

Adam’s sweet identical ➽ Teenage reveals ➽ Laurel Banning is accidentally Kills Angie’s dad! twin! she’s actually Erica’s daughter from angie killed on Tad and Liza’s popular talk Adam’s a rape at age 14 (Erica had supressed baxter show when a homophobic intern Arrested for murder rebellious the memory). Kendall tries to seduce stuart attempts to murder Laurel’s gay murder of Zach! Shot by criminal daughter! Dimitri, her mother’s boyfriend, Remy Remington! chandler brother, who had advised the intern’s jesse then falsely accuses Dimitri of rape. hubbard younger brother, Kevin, to come out. marriage Erica, sorting through her own rape and her During her late- affair memories, stabs Dimitri. real-life AIDS! husband! daisy ➽ Jenny flees to New York after she learns her cortlandt father is the rapist Ray Gardner and almost cindy hayley y von ne parker vaughan DIES appears in a porno. A version of the video is shown divorce caldwell publicly, and when Greg chases after her, he falls off marriage romance Marriage jenny a roof and is paralyzed. He pretends he doesn’t love opal gardner gardner her, so as not to be a burden, but they soon reconcile Travis’s brother! marriage cynthia and marry. On the honeymoon, Jenny is blown up chuck will affair mateo preston child With Hayley—also greg on a jet ski by a jealous ex. tyler marriage cortlandt santos divorce nelson Petey! with her mom! Tad’s wacky Marriage ben n y jackson biological marriage montgomery His son’s ex-wife! Divorce sago mom! palmer cortlandt Con woman Marriage romance Affair Affair Interrupted by gun‑toting Nina! Divorce gone straight! ➽ Blackmailing ➽ Alec, engaged donna romance rapist Will is alec to Hayley, begins beck charlie murdered, and mcintyre brent rape Marriage divorce affair sleeping with her skye everyone is a divorce affair Playboy mother. chandler suspect. (It was affair tom affair Stabs Dimitri! businessman! cudahy Her third Janet.) Affair generation of murder marrIAGE Joins circus! Brents! gloria One-night stand! Divorce marsh child elope marriage divorce Murdered! romance mik e Amnesia! laurel Dies! child Senate divorce divorce Marriage divorce banning roy candidate! Marriage divorce AFFAIR marriage romance child marriage Amnesia! ada m chandler

devon tr avis montgomery Back in shepherd Pregnancy marriage affair child town! Marriage divorce cliff brian Miscarriage! warner romance He and Erica were bodine Daughter never divorced! remarriage liza Presumed Back from dies! affair divorce marriage divorce colby #3 brooke dead! the dead! english Presumed hill ary marriage divorce Amnesia! marriage pregnancy AFFAIR marriage Divorce remarriage child dead! marriage affair divorce divorce wilson #4 divorce Loveless! Ectopic! tad Palmer’s child martin spunky niece! Pregnancy romance romance marriage divorce affair marriage divorce marriage Adopts divorce romance marriage teenager! Miscarriage! dixie romance cooney dottie divorce Gloria’s thornton ➽ Cliff and marriage child divorce ex! marriage marriage marriage Divorce nina Nina marry four Bone- marriage marrow Marriage cortlandt times in the m ari a n donor! craig romance Pregnancy colby m att marriage eighties; after the divorce Marriage marriage lawson kendall Miscarriage! connolly final wedding, Pretends her child affair murder rape child is his! AFFAIR hart romance they skip town. z ach Rehab janet grayson intervention! green mark divorce Goes to jail for Edmund’s affair Gets dalton murdering doctor wife! Dies in plane affair preggers! Adopts Mark’s secret Will! del Maria’s divorce crash biological child! remarry rape henry ex! child ellen maria shepherd santos ➽ Travis is shot at a rally, with a bullet child divorce affair marriage marriage child marriage marriage meant for Erica. The suspect, Noelle, has Adoption! affair ross marriage edmund chandler retrograde amnesia. She begins dating grey Jeremy, who soon learns she is the real dimitri murder Silver Kane. Silver’s mother Goldie had marick Accidental! Affair with hypnotized her to kill Erica, and ends The Hungarian Dimitri’s Maddie Mid-Eighties alex dad’s wife! up shooting a pregnant Erica herself, count’s Pulitzer son! affair returns! hunter rape Prize–winning affair murder before dying in a fight with Silver. Silver The show moved on to big silver kane, a.k.a. Hungarian bastard anton Jeremy’s ex noelle k eaton affair business, introducing two goes to see a shrink, also her ex, who count! brother! lang and also turns out to be the head of a cult. major new families helmed by mother-in- child Erica’s trevor law! sister—really dillon warring industrialists— this time! romance Marriage Palmer Cortlandt and Adam natalie Chandler, dueling CEOs and marlowe DIE S Car crash! Early Nineties self-made men from the same romance ➽ Marriage romance marriage Natalie’s dowdy twin sister, Janet from Another small West Virginia town. earl barbara Planet, arrives in Pine Valley and becomes obsessed Invalid— an actor murder mitchell montgomery AMC globalized, adding the Maricks, a tribe Adam was the closest the show was minister! with Natalie’s fiancé, Trevor. When he rebuffs her, Janet Self-defense! divorce of Hungarian aristocrats, and the Santoses, a got to a second Erica—a gives herself a makeover to look exactly like Natalie, Hispanic clan. This was perhaps the show’s dominating force, he fathered jeremy traps Natalie at the bottom of a well, and impersonates nine children (five survived to hunter Molested as a her for months, marrying Trevor and becoming most colorful decade, with Sarah Michelle adulthood), each with a Campaign affair marriage child! Gellar as Erica Kane’s vengeful daughter, dr. damon murder pregnant with his baby. After undergoing radical manager, and ➽ Jeremy gets permission to break his vow of Kendall, the particularly bananas saga of different mother—and the Tibetan monk! lazarre Self-defense! Erica’s nemesis! ceara plastic surgery, she returns to Pine Valley as . rivalry helped make corporate celibacy with Erica, but is duped by his connor Janet from Another Planet, a hunt for Nazi intrigue a story-line staple. mother-in-law, who drugs him, says he’s her art, and a sperm-sample switcheroo. baby’s daddy, and marries him: Luckily, Erica photographs courtesy of abc hires a fake minister, so the vows are invalid. 40 new york | september 26, 2011 september 26, 2011 | new york 41 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

angie jonathan ➽ Claiming to be a Princeton MBA, Jonathan slowly baxter vanessa lavery bennett reveals himself to be violently crazy, having killed his older stillborn Ryan’s ultra- brother, kidnapped Greenlee and another woman, and shot mike violent brother! remarried Switched for roy Secretly Ryan in a cave rigged to explode. Escaping Pine Valley, Jonathan begins having seizures; a tumor is responsible for another baby ! the drug lord marriage Ryan’s his behavior. When it’s removed he is left with the mental ➽ Despite having Last seen in 1985! Proteas! dad! jesse Dies with her capacity of a sweet child, and exonerated. hubbard been killed by an on- son Leo! Soon to be camera gunshot AFFAIR opal chris psychotic! annie wound in 1987 and One-night stand! cortlandt stamp mcdermott Last seen in 1979! appearing as a ghost jackson a number of times montgomery since, Jesse returns Erica’s face Shot by divorce jeff to Pine Valley— disfigured! sniper! affair Rehab! martin marriage apparently he was palmer jamie Donates his kidnapped, and his cortlandt heart to sister martin Jailed for insider kidnappers faked arlene Kendall! trading! affair vaughan affair romance marriage affair divorce affair DIVORCE his death. No erica ➽ After explanation is given kane murdering her for his appearances brother, and as a ghost. remarriage divorce affair josh madden accidentally her friend, chandler Annie has a Amnesia! murder miscarriage Kills his psychotic break. child remarriage divorce remarriage affair divorce ➽ With a shovel! affair brother, affair The who Stuart! She confronts liza performed Erica’s Ryan in a colby abortion 30 years ago bloody wedding leslie babe Exchanges vows with JR ➽ Liza asks Jake to coulson carey didn’t complete the while dying! dress, and then brooke donate sperm. Adam procedure, we learn. divorce stabs Erica. english secretly swaps his Instead, he implanted ➽ After Ryan is the fetus in his own sperm instead. It takes JR’s blue- presumed dead, affair Kate dies! wife. The resulting marriage romance marriage Babe’s twin! affair affair a year for Liza to collar bride! marriage Returns! Kendall agrees to be a tad realize Adam is child, now a young surrogate for Greenlee martin man named Josh Colby’s father. Dies and Ryan’s embryo. Madden, shows up in She’s not But when Kendall’s marissa DIES child dead! Poisoned affair Pine Valley and tasker remarriage Accidentally Murdered by romance pancakes! husband Zach gets shot! divorce Bianca! becomes Erica’s heir. jealous and turns out dixie cooney the power at the sperm divorce bank, hoping to affair affair RAPE destroy all the affair Attempted! affair child romance gillian divorce child samples, Kendall just andrassy affair MARRIAGE krystal uses Ryan’s sperm to carey impregnate herself. Hungarian spoiled michael Babe’s cambias Spike Lavery is born murder princess! sexy mom! Dies! Resurrected! edmund remarriage divorce 9 months later. marriage grey alexander miscarriage The bad romance cambias ii, a.k.a. girl’s back! zack slater dimitri RAPE divorce marick affair marriage Attempted! marriage divorce REMARRiAGE CHILD affair REMARRiAGE marriage divorce romance affair DIES kendall Brain hart aneurysm! Strong, divorce child Babe’s silent dad! amanda marriage millionaire! child dillon affair rape Sperm donor! divorce affair romance Vasectomy! Amnesia! Nefarious genius affair doctor! marriage miscarriage divorce affair Adam and adam marriage child Dixie’s The decade’s Falsely frankie chandler jr. alcoholic son! leading man! accused of rape! stone anna m ari a devane santos, a.k.a. Dies! m aureen miscarriage marriage divorce romance Devil-may-care leo gorman daredevil! Dies! ➽ On the run from du pres affair child bianca her pedophile montgomery husband, Annie romance romance McDermott and her divorce marriage Erica’s beloved romance marriage romance Back from marriage romance romance marriage the dead with daughter Emma come reese daughter! amnesia! maggie to stay with Ryan. zarf Bighearted greenlee stone Coincidentally, it williams Anorexia! smart-mouth! smythe Goes abroad to turns out that, thanks Pregnant by practice medicine! AFFAIR to sperm donation, Transgendered marriage sperm donor Trained by the rock star! British Secret aidan Ryan is Emma’s Zack! The Service! devane biological father. They jak e marry. martin A slew of very attractive twentysomethings were Joey, all added to a remodeled cast. Many of the new female grown up! ➽ Michael tries to rape Kendall and her mother Erica, fails, then The End characters took an ownership stake in Fusion, a rival Back successfully rapes and impregnates Bianca, Kendall’s sister. from cosmetics company to Erica’s Enchantment, and the Bianca murders Michael and delivers his baby in the woods with ➽ Jake gets shot in Chechnya, and When All My Children debuted, there were 19 soaps on the air. Darfur! back-of-the-envelope all my children show’s interest in corporate intrigue took on a the help of Babe, also pregnant, who gives birth soon after. In the returns to Pine Valley impotent (like hospital, the women learn Bianca’s new daughter died during the AMC ranked seventeenth, with a 4.4 ratings share. By the ’78–’79 distinctly girl-power vibe. But as ratings continued Jake Barnes!). In order to sleep with his Total seasons...... 42 Most children. . . ., 9 helicopter rescue, but that Babe’s daughter Bess survived. Babe season, it had become the number one soap, with a 9 ratings share, Total episodes...... 10,712 Most deaths...... Dixie, 2 to fall, there was incentive to make every story line wife Gillian, who is really in love with realizes that Bess is really Bianca’s baby. Babe flees her own and would remain in the top three through the mid-90s, after Most resurrections...... Dixie, 2 an “event”: plots about a serial killer, a very Ryan Lavery, Jake takes Libidizone, the marriage and goes on the run to One Lift to Live’s , where which, its ratings would start to precipitously decline. By 2006 the Most marriages. . . . .Erica Kane, 12 Most time between death/resurrection. convoluted baby-swap, a redux of the town’s 1994 show’s version of Viagra, invented by she meets baby Ace, actually the child she thought she lost. After a (7 “valid,” and 5 “invalid”) ...... Jesse Hubbard, 21 years David Hayword. David later tests it on show was averaging only 3.2 million viewers, and earlier this year, tornado, and more partner-swapping than ever gave rush DNA test, Bess is returned to Bianca, who wakes up from a Least time between death/resurrection. Erica, turning her into a sex maniac. when its cancellation was announced, All My Children, was pulling these years an especially frenzied feel. And they coma once the child is placed in her arms. Pregnancies ending: ...... Babe Carey, 3 years saved the mass-resurrection plot for last. in 2.4 million viewers, a .9 household ratings share, and was the In miscarriage ...... One in three fourth-ranked soap, of only six. In live birth...... Half Most Daytime Emmy nominations . . . In infant death...... One in four ...... Susan Lucci, 21 (1 win)

photographs courtesy of abc 42 new york | september 26, 2011 september 26, 2011 | new york 43