R.I.P, AMC

After more than 41 years, the ABC daytime drama “All My Children” aired its last television episode today. Needless to say, I’m sad and pissed. (Sorry for the language.)

I haven’t seen the final episode yet. I’m waiting until I get home to watch it. I’ll have a box of facial tissues nearby. I used some tissues for the salute to the Hubbard family on Monday.

Although the venerable soap is supposed to be reborn on the Internet sometime next year, for me, it won’t be the same. “All My Children” wasn’t just a soap that aired five days a week. It fostered gathering places for people to watch, such as college dorms, corporate lunchrooms, sports bars (Yes!), and homes with big-screen TVs. People talked about the antics of Erica Kane and how it took 19 nominations for her portrayer Susan Lucci to win a Daytime Emmy Award as best actress. There would be a collective “AWWW!” at each cliffhanger. Viewers followed the love stories of supercouples Cliff Warner and Nina Cortlandt, Greg Nelson and Jenny Gardner, Tad Martin and Dixie Cooney, Jesse Hubbard and Angie Baxter, and even Adam Chandler and Brooke English. There were characters we loved to hate, such as the powerful Palmer Cortlandt and Adam Chandler, snob Phoebe Tyler Wallingford, pimp Billy Clyde Tuggle, and egomaniacal Dr. David Hayward.

I began watching “Chillin’,” as I call it, in 1972. (Yes, again I’m dating myself.) While in school, I would watch on holidays and during the summer. While attending UC Davis, I spent my unoccupied noon hour watching the show in the basement Games Room of the Memorial Union. I would ask someone what I missed, and I would help someone else catch up. Student viewers would work on their papers and study while watching Tad Martin messing with Liza and Marian Colby, daughter and mother, respectively. The Games Room viewers were a community.

When I entered the working world after college, I didn’t have much time to catch up on my soaps. I depended on Soap Opera Digest and weekly recaps in newspapers. When I worked as a reporter for a Fairfield newspaper, I would try to watch AMC with my coworkers in the conference room during my lunch break.

When I read in April that “Chillin’” was being canceled with my other favorite soap “One Life to Live” in favor of a cooking show called “The Chew” and a lifestyle talk show called “The Revolution” (Wasn’t that the name of one of Prince’s backup bands?), I was livid. I believed the soaps would last forever. But with CBS soaps “The Guiding Light” and “As the World Turns” canceled due to low ratings, I was kidding myself.

Prospect Park, a television, film and music production company, will air the two soaps online. But not all the actors are on board for the Internet version of AMC. Debbi Morgan, the Emmy-winning actress who played Dr. Angela Hubbard, will jump to “The Young and the Restless,” while J.R. Chandler’s portrayer, Emmy-winner Jacob Young, will return to “The Bold and the Beautiful” as Rick Forrester. Others, including Rebecca Budig (Greenlee Smythe) and Emmy winner Michael E. Knight (Tad Martin) opted not to return and will move to other projects. And Susan Lucci has turned down an offer from Prospect Park to resurrect Erica Kane. I don’t expect it will be the AMC that I’ve watched for four decades.

So, I wish the “All My Children” I’ve watched and loved farewell. And to Brian Frons, the president of ABC Daytime who ordered the cancellations: I have a bag of used cat litter with your name on it.

Writing Diva

Reclaiming September 11

If you are reading this on Sunday, you know this is the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that claimed nearly 3,000 lives on United States soil and changed this nation forever.

It is also my nephew Dom's 29th birthday.

September 11, 2001, cast an ominous shadow on what was supposed to be a great day for my younger nephew. The young father was at work at Starbucks when he got word of the hijackings and the planes that hit the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania. What birthday wishes Dom received were an afterthought as our nation was caught in anger, fear, and bewilderment about our future.

So, to my nephew, who is celebrating his 29th birthday with his wife and four sons, long before there was the tragedy, there was the joy of your coming into the world. When I held you for the first time, you were quiet, absorbing your new surroundings. You have grown into a wise, responsible young man. You are the closest thing to a son I will ever have, and I am so proud of you, not just as a nephew, but as a person.

Yes, we all have to be vigilant these days. But we have to reclaim our lives. And I'm glad you reclaimed your special day -- your birthday. Your parents, uncle, aunts, grandfather, and the rest of your family have your back.

So, Dom, happy birthday. (Your gift is coming.)

Writing Diva