Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, then and now.
Earlier this year, when Susan Lucci was in New York, signing copies of her just-released memoir, All My Life, a man came up with his book ready to be autographed and said to her, "You know, Susan, they tell us that cotton is the fabric of our lives, but really, it's All My Children."
Susan Lucci on All My Children's last day, the big cliffhanger and her future online
However sweet, if hokey, the line was, Lucci has been thinking a lot about how true it's been for her. Just hours after she performed her final scene as All My Children's indomitable Erica Kane — perhaps the last time ever she fills those heels — and staring down the show's end-date, the 64-year-old actress couldn't be more grateful to have spent her last 41 years in the role. But putting that legacy into words does not come easy. "To have started in 1970 and have the passion from the audience now is just thrilling. There really are no words," Lucci tells TVGuide.com. "I have nothing to compare it to."
One thing she can say is that Erica Kane, in all her biting, entitled glory, was on the page from Lucci's very first audition. "I remember thinking she had the possibilities to be a modern-day Scarlett O'Hara," she says. "[Series creator Agnes Nixon's] characters from the get-go were ...
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Jordi Vilasuso, Lindsay Hartley
Cara making out with David? Griffin being bullied by Zach? If you feel like the Castillos are getting the short end of things as All My Children wraps its ABC run, you're not alone.
Before the network announced that it was pulling the home of La Lucci off the air after almost 42 years, Pine Valley's newest residents, a brother-sister team from Doctors Without Borders, were en route to love and happily ever after (for as long as that means on daytime TV). According to Jordi Vilasuso and Lindsay Hartley, who joined the cast as the Castillos last November, Cara was brought in as Jake's estranged wife and "soul mate" (not Tad's, and certainly not David's!), while Griffin was hatched as a love interest for Erica Kane's grieving daughter Kendall. But it was all so very short-lived!
Because of the axing — which spawned the resurrection of AMC superstars Dixie (Cady McClain) and Zach (Thorsten Kaye) — the Castillos have been reduced to being little more than appendages of resident villain David (Vincent Irizzary). What do Vilasuso and Hartley have to say about it? Plenty. The actors spoke with TVGuide.com Friday, just days before the series wrapped production entirely, about being hit with the cancellation curve ball, the Castillos' storyline switcheroo, and the online future of All My Children.
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Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ringer
Before she was Buffy, Sarah Michelle Gellar played Kendall Hart, the daughter of Erica Kane (Susan Lucci) on All My Children. With the soap opera going off the air in September, Gellar has made plans to return — but not as Kendall. In fact, she doesn't exactly know what she'll be doing at all, since Kendall has been played Alicia Minshew for the past several years.
"I can today officially confirm that I will be doing a guest-spot," Gellar said Thursday during the fall TV preview session for her new CW series Ringer. "When I heard the show was canceled, I didn't understand....
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Emmy Award Statue
General Hospital earned a leading 21 Daytime Emmy Awards nominations Wednesday, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced.
Right on its tail is The Young and the Restless with 20 nods...
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All My Children
All My Children has spent months percolating a romance between Erica Kane (Susan Lucci) and her crusty mountain man Caleb (Michael Nouri) and so far her fiancé Jack — played by the marvelous Walt Willey — has remained pretty clueless. But he's about to wake up and smell the triangle. This week, David (Vincent Irizarry) comes out of his coma and remembers it was Kendall (Alicia Minshew) who shot him, and that finds an emotionally frazzled Erica leaning on Caleb, rather than Jack. On February 1, Jack catches the two of them in an embrace. TV Guide Magazine had a chat with Willey who — just like a whole lotta Jack and Erica fans — ain't too wild about this turn of events...
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Alicia Minshew
Nobody needs a Christmas miracle more than All My Children's Kendall Hart (Alicia Minshew). She's about to receive one — but it's not the one she's hoping for. On the soap's December 27 episode, the Pine Valley heroine, still in deep mourning over the plane-crash death of her husband Zach (Thorsten Kaye), has a visit from Father Clarence, the magical, mystical priest who always appears on the show at holiday time to help those in need. (The terrific Malachy McCourt who played the role for many years had to bow out this time. He's replaced by Michael McCarthy).
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Kelly Moncao by Albert L. Ortega/WireImage.com and Beth Ehlers by Marc Bryan-Brown/WireImage.com
Nominations for the 35th annual Daytime Emmys will be announced live on The View April 30, and I'm expecting some ghastly nods due to an expanded system that has allowed 143 actors on the ballot (a third more than last year). Never mind that most of 'em shouldn't be permitted anywhere near an Emmy, that's give or take two dozen in each of the acting categories! Several judges tell me they couldn't view that much footage (each actor submits two episodes) and voted without seeing all the work. Some chose not to vote at all.Plus, there's the usual nonsense: Several lead players, most egregiously All My Children's Alicia Minshew (Kendall), are hogging spots on the supporting list. And some of the best work isn't on the ballot. Where's General Hospital's Kelly Monaco (Sam)? Guiding Light's Beth Ehlers (Harley)? Without them, it's not a fair fight. And get this — the TV academy has decided to drop the follow-up round of voting after the nominees are announced. The winners will alrea...
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Heads up, Eden Riegel fans! Bianca briefly returns to All My Children for another couple of weeks starting on May 24. Once again, the saintly lesbian comes back to Pine Valley to help her sassy sister Kendall (Alicia Minshew) during a crisis. This time the Kane women will be welcoming Kendall and Ryan's bouncing baby boy into the world.
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