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R Sinclair I thoroughly enjoyed reading your story, the way you described how you began watching AMC is so similar to how I started. And I used to watch AMC as soon as I got home from school as well...LOL literally took my shoes off and headed straight for the VCR remote. And if I had homework, it could wait...I had to watch AMC first and my mom & I made an agreement that I had to do homework straight after it was over ;-P eventually when I got into Middle School & especially High School now I was busier and had to watch it later in the night...

Jonathan, I'm terribly jealous of you & anyone else who has old VHS tapes of AMC. I only had one little tape that I used and used so I never got to save, LOL. I still have that tape though and in the way back of it is this one episode of AMC where Greenlee & Kendall trash talked & humiliated Krystal at a bar (I forget the name of it, not The Comeback).

Anyone who watched while they were in school, did any of your friends? If not, did you tell them? I always kept it to myself LOL but I did have one teacher in 4th grade who watched and we discussed it sometimes (on the down low, of course). Thinking back, it's so hilarious what we used to talk about...

I'd love to see a revamped, all new version of this opening with the same music (or maybe a new version of that to) open the finale. Or would that be to much/unnecessary...lol? I think it would be awesome. But it would be just fine if it opened with the original

Does anyone think Agnes will make an appearance in the last episode? Maybe reading the AMC poem again or something. I think the poem should definitely be included in some way no matter what.

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I didn't really talk about it. It was just one other thing I watched and didn't really know there was a STIGMA attached to watching soaps until I got more into "grown up" television such as cable and primetime shows around 12 or 13. Up until then, I was PBS, TBS and Nickelodeon in the afternoons... and syndicated cartoons on WNYW 5 (FOX) WPIX 11.

However, one little anecdote, I was in junior high if I recall correctly. I was talking to a teacher in class and mentioned All My Children. This kid who bullied me on and off over the years overheard this. He's all, "You watch All My Children?!" I'm like, "Ugh! Yeah... and?" He's like, "Thats the one with Phoebe?! I love her!!"

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I'm sure she'll appear, and the poem is a given. I just hope they don't go with the "ghost Aggie" thing they did for the 10,000th episode. I'd love it if they just did the montage thing that SFK came up with in the other thread and just faded to a nice sunlit window, panned down to Agnes writing those final lines of the poem (as she does a voice over), then she closes it, props it up on the desk against the wall near the window, she gets up and leaves, and the camera zooms in on the book. "All My Children," with the sun light providing just the perfect amount of glow. Not a fade to black, but a quick fade to gold then a fade to black.

I have a story similar to this. I hated this one chick. We never got along because we just had opposing personalities. So one day in 7th grade science, we're sitting in class, and she's in my group. I just randomly ask, "So, who watched All My Children yesterday?" I was eccentric and weird, I didn't expect anyone to actually respond, but she feebly says, "Me." And I'm cool with that chick to this day. All because of AMC.

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In memory of AMC, I wanted to share an article I wrote about Susan Lucci several months ago.

Susan Lucci will forever be cast in the American pop culture consciousness as Erica Kane, the dastardly empress of the daytime television drama 'All My Children.' With a reputation for playing one of the most outrageous characters in soap operas, she has managed to keep the role interesting and the program high in the ratings.

Lucci was born in Scarsdale, New York, on December 23, 1946. She and her brother, Jim, now a management consultant, were raised in Garden City on Long Island. Her father, Victor, is of Italian descent and is a retired construction contractor, and her Swedish mother, Jeanette, is a retired nurse. The family was financially comfortable, and Lucci grew up with horseback-riding, piano, painting, and ice-skating lessons. However, since her brother was six years older, she was often alone, and filled her time watching soap operas on television. Her favorites were 'Search for Tomorrow' and 'Love of Life,' and she was also a fan of prime time shows as well. All she ever wanted to do was to act.

At age 11, Lucci got her stage debut in a Girl Scout play, and at Garden City High School she appeared in all of the student plays. She had also overcome her earlier shyness to become a cheerleader, and she was also a staff member of the school newspaper. In addition, Lucci was an honor student who traveled to Norway on an exchange program and performed volunteer work at a local hospital. Her parents thus expected this high achiever to go on to college, but Lucci at 17, had plans to move to Manhattan to start going on auditions. Due to her parents' vehement objections, she instead ended up enrolling at Marymount College, in Tarrytown, New York.

In college, Lucci began to mature as a person and an actor. She went on to appear in several plays with the theater department, and right before graduation, had made it to the semifinal round of the Miss Universe beauty pageant, but ended up not participating so that she could take final exams. She received her bachelor's degree in 1968.

In 1969, Lucci answered a casting call at ABC for a new soap opera, 'All My Children,' which was about four high school students in the fictional town of Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, created in order to appeal to younger viewers. Although she initially auditioned to play the role of sweet and innocent Tara Martin, the show's executive producer decided that Lucci's chic aura was better suited to the headstrong, snobbish Erica Kane. "By the late 1970s, 'All My Children' was the top-rated daytime drama, toppling the venerable CBS sudser 'As the World Turns.'

Susan Lucci had laid the foundation of Erica as the town's premier conniver and instigator. Throughout the years, she bedded and married a succession of men, back-stabbed, lied, and even attempted a murder. As the character aged, her deeds only became more despicable, but Erica's underlying vulnerability and element of camp humor added a complexity that seemed irresistible to fans. This "love-hate" relationship with Erica is one of the reasons that 'All My Children' remained so popular through the years.

Although Lucci was a fan favorite on this highly rated soap and the best-paid actor in the genre, she experienced continued failure in snagging a Daytime Emmy Award for her portrayal of Erica Kane. She was nominated 19 times before finally snaring one in 1999. This element of her career became a pop culture mainstay; a song by alternative rock band Urge Overkill was even dedicated to her plight as they sang, "Erica Kane, another Emmy passed you by," in the song "Erica Kane" on their 1993 album, 'Saturation.'

Since many past Daytime Emmy winners were known for heartbreaking, melodramatic scenes, Lucci began sending in tapes of episodes that included long crying jags, but she was still passed over. Nevertheless, it took her a few years to develop this grace. In 1982, it was reported that she pounded a table with rage when she lost, and the next year, she ran from the room in tears. Though subsequently, she held up better in public and even had the sense of humor to spoof herself on an episode of 'Saturday Night Live,' she was still angry when the industry repeatedly refused to recognize her. Lucci's children would try to cheer her up after her losses by baking cakes and making uplifting signs and posters, and her daughter even gave her a "Best Mommy" award as a consolation. Finally, in 1999, when her name was announced, Lucci was stunned and was forced to improvise a speech. Afterward, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani gave her a key to the city.

In addition to her long-running stint on 'All My Children,' Lucci also held a recurring part on the hit nighttime drama 'Dallas' in 1990 and 1991 playing Sheila Foley, a wily widow who seduces one of the other characters, Bobby Ewing (played by Patrick Duffy).

She has also appeared in several made-for-television movies, though she limits the number of them she makes because she does not like to go on location.

In interviews, Lucci has stated that her family is her main priority, and she thus liked her part on the soap because she could easily commute into Manhattan for tapings and remain available for her children, who are now grown.

While they were young, though, her schedule allowed her to be home in the evenings and on weekends to take them to activities like ball games or help them with homework. Her contract for 'All My Children' included provisions for Lucci to have days off on her children's first day of school and their vacations.

However, she has held hopes of perhaps breaking into feature films someday, or landing a gig on Broadway.

Perhaps because her onscreen character is so ruthless and amoral, Lucci's personal life has been of keen interest to fans. However, her real life could not be more opposite from that of Erica Kane-in fact, her marriage is renowned for its enduring romance, and her family life is famous in the entertainment industry for its stability and normalcy. She has been happily married for 41 years to Helmet Huber, and is the mother of two children.

Her daughter, Liza Huber is an actress, who followed in her mother's footsteps by being a regular on the NBC soap opera, 'Passions,' and her son, Andreas, is an aspiring professional golfer.

On December 23, 2006, Lucci's 60th birthday, she received the greatest accolade anyone could ever hope to have when her daughter presented her with her first grandchild, Royce Alexander. Two years later, Brendan joined the family.

In early January, 2010, Susan Lucci's daily commute to the studio got a little more complicated, when ABC moved 'All My Children' from its New York City studios to Hollywood.

Susan Lucci has come a long way from her early days in Scarsdale. Over the years, she made detours to Garden City, Long Island, and Marymount College, in Tarrytown, before settling in to Pine Valley. Scarsdale is indeed proud to have been the launching pad for this very talented star.

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I always wore my soap loving colors loud and proud. I didn't care what people though. Actually, at that time (mid-late 90's) in middle and high school, soaps were "in", so there was no reason to hide it. College, and the 2000's is when it became "uncool". It's always been something I've welcomed and wanted in my life. Those closest to me, know that it comes with me knowing and caring about me.

I was born during an Erica Kane scene. LOL My mom had the show on in the delivery room, and she says that La Kane came on and out I came. LOL I can remember watching at eight years old, but I can't tell you what happened then. My first memory of the show...Erica in the Betty Ford Center. I remember thinking, "Who the h*ll is this b*tch?" Haha. That same year, I got hit by a car, and had to miss three months of school. My mom had just had my baby brother, so her "shower" time used to be during AMC. I'd take care of him while and keep tabs on the show so she could decide if she wanted to make time of the show that day. LOL I never stopped watching, she did.

Edited by Kylie
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I began watching AMC in 1976. I was in 4th grade and home sick with a terrible cold. My mom's favorite show next to AW was AMC, and I remember sitting in my pajamas with the race cars and my blue terrycloth robe with the white trim, at the foot of her bed watching AMC with her for the first time, sneezing and coughing away. It's amazing the things you remember. The first scene I recall was a party scene with a very comically drunk Phoebe and a bunch of other guests. I was only 9, but I sensed something special about the show, and I became hooked, asking my mom which storylines were on a certain day, and always watching when I was home for holidays and on summer vacation. I fell in love with Phoebe & Erica & Charles & Mona & Chuck & Donna & Billy Clyde & Estelle & Benny & Kate & Joe & Ruth & Linc & Kelly & Myrtle, Phil & Tara, all those wonderful characters from those magical early years. Yes, I even loved the much-maligned Christina Karras :) And later of course with the Cortlandts, the Chandlers, Opal, Greg, Jenny, Liza, Marian, Tad, Langley, Jeremy, Natalie. The list just goes on and on. Although I fell in love with other shows too, including OLTL, there was just something about AMC that I found enormously appealing. I loved the great sense of humor, feeling of community, and social consciousness with which Agnes imbued the show, which grounded it in a certain reality.

My mom and I definitely bonded over AMC, and to a lesser extent AW. Later I used Pine Valley as an escape from the torment inflicted on my by others, as well as the torment I inflicted on myself, for being gay, something I realized about myself when I was 13. PV was my home away from home, a place where I felt I could just laugh and get caught up in the stories of these marvelously conceived characters. What I loved was that Agnes and Wisner Washam, whom I believe has never gotten the credit he deserves, incorporated light-heartedness and humor into even the most dire situations. There was a sense of humanity to the show. In a way, it made me look at my own seemingly desperate life the time with a similar sense of humor. I came to realize later that my mom also used the soaps, specifically AMC and AW, to escape the torment of her life--the physical abuse by my father that she'd hidden for years. Later when I began to straighten my life out, I still watched the show daily. It saw me through going away to college, coming out, enduring my first breakup, coping with the deaths of friends and family members.

I think most of us long-time viewers realize that the show hasn't been itself for quite sometime. Yet, we still watch, partly for the great memories it provides, partly in the hope that things will get better, and partly because however much the show has been stripped of its identity over the past several years, there's still a shred of the old AMC that pops up, yes, less and less often now, that reminds me of why I fell so desperately head over heels in love with this show so many years ago.

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