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Serious Story Line for Soap's Erica Kane

3 hours ago

NEW YORK (AP) — Erica Kane may not be so selfish after all. The "All My Children" diva, played by Susan Lucci, will focus attention on her grandson's deafness in upcoming episodes.

The ABC soap opera, known for tackling serious subjects as well as the usual murder and betrayal, is introducing a new story line Sept. 20 that has Erica's daughter, Kendall Hart, dealing with the discovery that her toddler is deaf.

At issue is whether the child should have cochlear implants, which help the deaf to hear by turning sound into electrical impulses that activate the hearing nerve. Kendall is dubious.

"She's a perfectionist, so she wants the perfect life for her child and she's afraid that he won't have it," Alicia Minshew, who portrays Kendall, told The Associated Press in a recent interview.

But Erica has tricks up her sleeve. She invites a young boy who had successful cochlear implants to be a guest on her talk show — and arranges for Kendall to watch the interview backstage.

"Erica being Erica, reacts with action," Lucci told the AP.

Instead of using an actor to play the boy, "All My Children" asked JQ DePaiva to play the part. DePaiva, the 10-year-old son of "One Life To Live" stars James and Kassie DePaiva, was born completely deaf and attends a mainstream school after getting implants in both ears.

"This is going to sound very cliche and very silly," Minshew said. "I honestly feel like I am telling a story that makes a difference in people's lives."

You might say that B&E are recycling their greatist hits.... but IMO AMC needed to go back to basics and so far it has. There's still room for improvement but the drama is much better & much less contrived than it was under McT IMO.

Where exactly is Erica's storyline here? All I read is that she will be doing a couple episodes where she is playing a supporting role in the Kendall/Spike storyline. I didn't read anything about her getting her own story. The title of the article is a misleading joke.

Boy did i get fooled! I dived into this this tread thiking La Kane was going to get a storyline of her own ,like cancer or something. Instead it's just her doing what she has been doing all summer long if not longer!

Her Death storyline would be nice.

The death of Erica Kane would mean the death of AMC!

The death of Erica Kane would mean the death of AMC!

Too true. I know some people don't care for her, but many people would stop watching if Susan left. And as one of the few soap stars who has a place in mainstream pop culture (I think L&L may be the only others as widely recognized as Erica), she's a tremendous assett to the show.