Celebrating All My Children's 40th Anniversary, The Wrong Way

Today marked the 40th year that ABC soap opera All My Children has been on the air. With the dire straits the genre is in right now, reaching such a milestone is a really big deal. You would expect ABC to do it up right for their show's birthday, and it's exactly what they led us to believe. They brought back some very popular faces, including Eva La Rue (Maria Santos), Julia Barr (Brooke English), and of course Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos (Hayley and Mateo Santos). They even tracked down Taylor Miller, who last played Nina Cortlandt Warner fifteen years ago. With all of these popular characters back on set, it was expected to be one of the best anniversaries in the show's history.

Clearly, we were all wrong.

The anniversary show that aired today was an utter farce. While the format was pretty good (TV show host Hayley returned to do a Pine Valley documentary, interviewing her fellow townspeople), the actual content was a complete copout, and an insult to the show's rich, four decade history. Speaking of, you would need slow motion on your DVR to find any clips from before 2005, since they came and went so quickly they might as well have not been there. In some cases, clips were replaced with pictures of the characters and couples, making one question if the AMC producers even know where the show's archives are. What we did were lengthy recollections of head writer Charles Pratt's show-killing storylines, like the highly despised tornado of 2008 being passed off as a true Pine Valley rallying effort.

Remember all of the great returns I mentioned in the beginning? Window dressing, for the most part. Former major players like Brooke and Nina were relegated to 15 seconds or so of screentime, while JR was given at least 3 minutes to ramble about the loss of Babe. The most annoying part of it was that the originator of the role, Alexa Havins, wasn't featured at all, making us deal with random clips of the couple with the newer actress instead of the couple's best moments. It was the same deal with other re-casted roles, most notably Liza Colby, formerly played by Marcy Walker, now played by Jamie Luner. Other high profile characters missing from the show included Dimitri Marick, Grandma Kate Martin, Leo du Pres, and Anna Devane, among many others. Dixie Cooney was relegated to one mention by Tad and Palmer, while Maria's marriage to Edmund Grey was virtually ignored save for an indirect mention of her wedding. Don't even get me started about Gillian.

Amongst the dreck was some good moments. I choked up a bit as Mateo and a tearful Maria recalled their unreasonably dead sister Julia. Watching Adam trying to successfully remember his wives in chronological order was hilarious, as was Erica's dig at Brooke: "Brooke who?" The ending, where show creator Agnes Nixon recited that famous poem that the show was built on, was easily the best moment of the entire program.

Thankfully, Charles Pratt has been fired for attempted soapicide, but it is a shame that he was around long enough to leave this disappointment for fans wanting to remember the good times. A trip to YouTube would have been a better retrospective.

Kelly Ripa, Mark Consuelos Return to All My Children!

One of television's happiest couples, Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos, are returning to the show that brought them together.

The couple will be reprising their roles as Hayley and Mateo Santos for All My Children's 40th anniversary in January. They will be taping two episodes before the show's move to Los Angeles, which has already caused major shifts in the line-up.

Before her current hosting gig on Live With Regis and Kelly, Kelly Ripa spent 12 years on All My Children playing Hayley Vaughan Santos, the rebel-turned-heroine daughter of Adam Chandler. Mark Consuelos joined the show in 1995 as Mateo Santos, the brother of popular character Mario Santos Grey (formerly played by CSI: Miami star Eva La Rue). The two fell in love alongside their characters and eloped. In 2002, after Kelly replaced Kathie Lee Gifford on Live!, the two left All My Children.

All My Children is currently in the process of moving from its current studios of New York to a bigger one in Los Angeles.

 

Soapy Suds: Angie Comforts Ryan on All My Children

There is a common belief that masterful actors have the ability to help their fellow castmates reach a higher level when they share scenes.

Well then, I guess Debbie Morgan is a masterful actor.

Morgan, an actor with a career that spans over 25 years in mediums including film and television, returned to All My Children last year, playing Angie Hubbard. Since then, she has helped maintain a somewhat stable ground for the fledgling soap. No matter what kind of crap she is given, she turns it into screen gold, hence her Daytime Emmy pre-nomination.

Her true gift lies in her ability to elevate her costars to her level. Such is the case in last week's episode, where Angie treats Ryan Lavery's injuries after a rough night at the casino. What could have been a fly-by-night scene became a significant piece in understanding the loss that Ryan (played by Cameron Mathison) is suffering after Greenlee's death. While treating his injury, Ryan FINALLY opens up about Greenlee, and instead of spewing unsympathetic garbage about revenge, he expresses feelings of hopelessness, pain, and vulnerability. By the end of the exchange, he breaks down in Angie's caring arms.

What makes this scene particularly special is that for the first time in nearly eight years, Cameron Mathison isn't performing full throttle. His performance here, opposite Emmy-winning Morgan, is quiet and restrained, exposing Ryan's grief far more poignantly than the tirades against Zach that he has been forced to play in the last week or two. He resists the urge to over-express himself, making the scene powerful.

What's spectacular about Debbie Morgan is that, despite her powerhouse acting chops, she lets Mathison take the reigns of the scene, acting with him instead of against him. Their chemistry here is ace, giving Mathison his first viable, non-romantic acting partner since Julia Barr as Brooke English. I'm referring to the scenes with Brooke and Ryan in the hospital after his true love Gillian dies. Just like those, this scene is a truly special moment where everything, as understated as it may be, are terrifically in sync.

Soap Scene of the Week: Kendall Hart's Toast At Bianca and Reese's Wedding on All My Children

The bitch is back!

All My Children's Kendall Hart has been sleeping in a coma for a very long time, and it appears her awakening also brought her long-dormant mean side to the surface. Granted, she has alot to be mad about; her husband Zach allowed her sister Bianca to use his sperm to conceive a child with confused fiancee Reese.

In typical Kendall fashion, she took out her anger on the happy couple in her impromptu toast, the night before their wedding. Seemingly innocent at first, Kendall's claws quickly came out, delivering a deliciously cool verbal slap to her future sister-in-law. Without breaking a sweat, a fingernail, or her glass, Kendall essentially called Reese a manipulative witch and Bianca a unrecognizable traitor. The killer line? "Weddings are so supposed to be about beginnings...however, for the rest of us, its about endings, mainly that we won't be seeing you around any longer. So, here's to a safe and swift journey home". The treacherous toast had Reese running, alcohol in hand, into the arms and lips of Zach.

So, yes, Kendall's toast may have been a tad rude, inappropriate, mean-spirited, bitchy, and self-destructive. Then again, isn't that what we love about Kendall?

Again, she's back!

All My Children's Unabortion Storyline Receives Merciful End

In 2006, the writers of ABC soap All My Children shattered the show's nearly four decade history in a universally panned storyline that mocked both the genre and science. They revealed that Josh Madden, played by Collin Egglesfield, was actually thought-to-be aborted fetus of the legendary Erica Kane and her first husband Jeff Martin.

Yes, thought-to-be aborted fetus.

Three years later, a new team have decided that the character has finished his time in Pine Valley and they are killing him off. However, his death won't be in vain. He will be saving his comatose sister Kendall (Alicia Minshew is returning from a long vacation) with his heart.

My only regret regarding this story is that it wasted the talents of Egglesfield, who surely deserved to be more than a scientifically impossible experiment. Yet, I'm glad that we all can officially forget this massive ink blot that was his time on AMC

Here are his death scenes (including a surprisingly quiet performance from the brilliant Susan Lucci):