27 minutes ago, TheyStartedOnSoaps said:

I saw this on an AMC Facebook group - and thought I'd share it here. In case there is any dispute about the library of episodes of AMC

Wow... this probably made my day. I hope there is truth to this.  Thanks for sharing! 

 

Edited September 19Sep 19 by Maxim

5 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

Super helpful, thank you!  

Thanks for posting!  I can't tell if she's annoyed with the interviewer or not, it was a bit cringe LOL, but I love her zest for playing Erica Kane, as always.

This is very promising!  They need to release them for us. Hopefully the master tapes are still around though as it sounds like he confirmed that years ago when he was working there at the time.  I also need to join the AMC Facebook group - didn't realize they had one  

I've heard so much conflicting information... about which years have survived and which have not... but I'm an eternal optimist... almost to a fault. They really need to do something about them... if they exist. The Doctors project continues to be such a great example of job well done at... saving so much amazing soap content - more than 3000 episodes that we can freely watch on their platform online. If All My Children comes back and is available in it's glory days... this will be almost unprecedented, given the iconic status of the show. 

 

25 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

 I also need to join the AMC Facebook group - didn't realize they had one  

Link below to the AMC Facebook group - 45K members strong

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2224784570

4 hours ago, DRW50 said:

 

SL gives a masterclass in parrying the interviewer's inane questions

30 minutes ago, TheyStartedOnSoaps said:

Link below to the AMC Facebook group - 45K members strong

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2224784570

Thank you!  Just joined  

6 hours ago, TheyStartedOnSoaps said:

I saw this on an AMC Facebook group - and thought I'd share it here. In case there is any dispute about the library of episodes of AMC

Big if true, but we'd need a lot more information.

On 9/19/2025 at 3:25 PM, Vee said:

Big if true, but we'd need a lot more information.

Yes, because my first reaction was, "...and then they were all burned in a fire."

Yall, what about those damn Christmas movies? We were had, weren't we?

Edited September 22Sep 22 by All My Shadows

2 minutes ago, All My Shadows said:

Yall, what about those damn Christmas movies? We were had, weren't we?

I think it's just a lot of development hell. And maybe the recent strikes. It took something like Alien: Earth on FX maybe 1-2 extra years to finish filming due to all of that. I will say though (again) that I find the silence on them recently, and ABC suddenly moving GH's timeslot back to its old one... a little suspicious.

On 9/19/2025 at 10:09 AM, TheyStartedOnSoaps said:

I saw this on an AMC Facebook group - and thought I'd share it here. In case there is any dispute about the library of episodes of AMC

Not to be a Negative Nancy, but more and more, I see total misinformation and blatant mistruths posted on Facebook (either as clickbait or because certain folks want to preen and feel important as if they are "in the know.")

Most reports so far have said that either ABC did not start saving any of their soaps until the late 1970s, or ABC had an agreement with Agnes Nixon to archive the the show's tapes, but a slew of them got destroyed in a fire.

The Facebook poster in question may indeed be sharing information she believes is accurate, but I'd hesitate in getting my hopes up until/unless we all can verify for ourselves that the vintage episodes still exist (i.e., if they ever start streaming anywhere in the world, or if ABC makes DVD boxsets available). Any random person on the internet can make claims, but the proof is in the pudding, as they say.

The later, post-1979 archives are generally confirmed to exist, and the following news is promising for the potential streaming of vintage soaps:

https://michaelfairmantv.com/all-my-children-available-globally-outside-us-beondtv/2025/09/23/?fbclid=IwY2xjawNAFGFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHt9byJhxt_LS0JFxuU85yG8Bo35cSPf2mH1TQYtNpVG6UhT8IKYn2KbymOi2_aem_e7A6KZw3mjFWlLTwp1VZiQ

For me, AMC was at its best in the 1970s and 1980s. I'd start streaming it from the earliest-possible year. BEONDTV+ broadcasting the show starting in 1995, however, is still better than nothing.

I have read that Agnes asked that when the show expanded to an hour that the episodes be saved which means May 77 onwards. If so, who kept/has access to those tapes?

I've also heard about the fire. When did it occur and do we have any idea of what may have been lost?

13 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

Most reports so far have said that either ABC did not start saving any of their soaps until the late 1970s, or ABC had an agreement with Agnes Nixon to archive the the show's tapes, but a slew of them got destroyed in a fire.

Please provide a link to these reports you reference, thanks 

14 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

https://michaelfairmantv.com/all-my-children-available-globally-outside-us-beondtv/2025/09/23/?fbclid=IwY2xjawNAFGFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHt9byJhxt_LS0JFxuU85yG8Bo35cSPf2mH1TQYtNpVG6UhT8IKYn2KbymOi2_aem_e7A6KZw3mjFWlLTwp1VZiQ

For me, AMC was at its best in the 1970s and 1980s. I'd start streaming it from the earliest-possible year. BEONDTV+ broadcasting the show starting in 1995, however, is still better than nothing.

Thanks for sharing this link!  I've been wondering why they chose this episode/year to start, and their reason makes sense now to me. Although some of those bullet points happened well beforehand (i.e. the 1994 tornado and aftermath haha).  

14 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

I have read that Agnes asked that when the show expanded to an hour that the episodes be saved which means May 77 onwards. If so, who kept/has access to those tapes?

I've also heard about the fire. When did it occur and do we have any idea of what may have been lost?

Yes, I have read about Nixon's demanding the show be saved starting in 1977, too, as well as stories about a fire destroying a chunk of the archives. This, along with so many reports saying ABC (along with P&G) started preserving their soaps in the late 1970s, leaves the exact  truth rather elusive.

On Facebook, there's a poster who claims to have known someone who was an extra on Y&R many years ago, and that "extra" knows for a fact that NO archives of Y&R have been saved. Allegedly, DAYS has always been wiped, too, and doesn't keep its vintage eps, either.

Such contentions by anonymous Facebook commentators fly in the face of all the flashbacks DAYS and Y&R use, even from the shows' earliest days. But I digress.

One person announces all episodes of this show or that show still exist; another person insists that all archives of the exact same show have been destroyed.

My stance now is: I'll believe it when I see it.

4 hours ago, TheyStartedOnSoaps said:

Please provide a link to these reports you reference, thanks 

There have been so many reports over several decades, in soap opera history books and magazines, in interviews with actors and TPTB, in TV news clips, etc., for this to be an easy task.

I have a plethora of history books, magazines and video footage, and trying to hunt down exactly where someone said vintage eps do exist (or that they don't) would be too herculean an assignment for me.

Doing a Google search on the availability of past episodes of individual soaps might be your best bet.

3 hours ago, alwaysAMC said:

Thanks for sharing this link!  I've been wondering why they chose this episode/year to start, and their reason makes sense now to me. Although some of those bullet points happened well beforehand (i.e. the 1994 tornado and aftermath haha).  

While reports vary widely (and contradict each other) on what years of what soaps survive, I wish BEONDTV+ would start a lot earlier than 1995.

If we were to lucky to start in 1980, we'd be treated to the writing talents of Agnes Nixon, Wisner Washam and Lorraine Broderick for most of that decade. Lorraine Broderick is head writer from 1995 to 1997, but then Megan McTavish has a weak (second) reign from 1997-99. We get a welcome reprieve with Nixon at the helm from 1999-2001, but then we plunge into Jean Passanante hell. McTavish returns again (!!!) and stays for four years this time. Then the dread Charles Pratt descends upon Pine Valley in 2008 and really screws up the show (he was probably AMC's worst scribe in history).

If the streaming began with material from 1980, we would have many years of soap goodness to enjoy; many more than what we got in the late 1990s.