For decades now people who have never watched a soap know who Erica Kane is. Susan even hosted Saturday Night Live in 1990. Probably the only soap opera actress to do it. I just wanted to know when she went from just a soap character to someone world wide reconizeable? It wasn't from the begining because back then she was only on "every other tuesday" and just a bratty high school kid. I know on the show Erica became famous when she did all that modeling in the early 1980's. but somehow the lines crossed between real and fictional. Even Oprah used to say, "You go after all these men, you think you're Erica Kane." and people know what she's talking about.

Of course when Susan won the emmy, she was on the cover of all the newspapers and on all the TV news shows but Erica Kane was famous even before that.

When she started airing every other Thursday. See, that's thing about showbiz. It's all about timing.

"Worldwide famous" is a grandiose term.

I can assure you that outside of North America, very little people know who Susan Lucci or Erika Kane are.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. I think Susan just knew how to market herself as a brand, whereas other soap stars never went that extra mile. Her losing Emmy streak definitely helped solidify her place in American pop culture, but that's nothing to be ashamed of. Lucci walked all the way to the bank off that.

Edited June 10, 201114 yr by Y&RWorldTurner

1984.

What happened in 1984?

Just my ballpark figure. The soap craze was going strong, her character was riding high... she had just made her first few primetime guest appearances as well as her first TV movie. She had lost the Emmy about five times at that point.

All I know is as a child growing up, my mother was an ABC soap watcher, as was her mother. Erica Kane was a name I recall from a very young age...late 70s/early 80s.

Same here. I remember my mom and great-grandfather laughing over Erica's antics when she would pick me up after work as early as 82/83.

The Erica phenomenon probably began in the late 70s when she married Tom. To be honest, I wouldn't even rank her among my 10 favorite AMC characters of all time. During the 80s, when Erica was at the height of her popularity, I was much more interested in the Cortlandt and Chandler goings-on, Jesse-Angie, etc. I always saw many of her storylines as filler. Part of the problem was that I think they tended to isolate her in her own stories during this period, so there was a lot of predictablity about who she'd be interacting with every day. My favorite story of hers in the 80s was her triangle with Jeremy and Natalie, and only because I worshipped Kate Collins from the get-go. She made that work. I don't think I cared much for any Erica stuff until she became embroiled with the Maricks and with Kendall's introduction.

I always wondered how she became popular bc I know alot of older soap viewers tend to hate the bad girls and love the heroines. Reading history, Erica was the young villianess and trouble maker to heroine, Tara, coming between her and Phil. Was she hated in her early days? How did AMC fans come to love her and how did Susan Lucci go from playing this bratty teen to the undeniable star of the show. Reading further into her history, she didnt even seem to have alot to do with many core characters/families in the 80s. Its as if they kept throwing newbie men at her and creating specific stories, scenarios and characters just for her to interact with, without integrating her into current ongoing plots. Almost like there was 2 soaps; All My Children and the Erica Kane show. Is that a fair assessment?

Edited June 10, 201114 yr by Cheap21

I always wondered how she became popular bc I know alot of older soap viewers tend to hate the bad girls and love the heroines. Reading history, Erica was the young villianess and trouble maker to heroine, Tara, coming between her and Phil. Was she hated in her early days? How did AMC fans come to love her and how did Susan Lucci go from playing this bratty teen to the undeniable star of the show. Reading further into her history, she didnt even seem to have alot to do with many core characters/families in the 80s. Its as if they kept throwing newbie men at her and creating specific stories, scenarios and characters just for her to interact with, without integrating her into current ongoing plots. Almost like there was 2 soaps; All My Children and the Erica Kane show. Is that a fair assessment?

ITA, they never fully integrated her with the rest of the show in the 80s. There was the Erica storyline, and then there was everything else. I remember reading that either Jackie Babbin or Jorn Winther wouldn't have her be part of wedding sequences because of the fear that her very presence would upstage the wedding drama. Things started to change when FMB took over I think. She did a better of job of intergrating Erica with the rest of the canvas, and generally made a less fractured show.

I live in Australia. All My Children played sporadically throughout the years, but mostly was never on here. Apart from the Oprah and Entertainment Tonight references, I don't think Susan and Erica were well known here until the mid to late 90's.

Two things really got her known here, I think. The first was her connection to Sarah Michelle Geller. SMG and Buffy were extremely popular here and it was reported quite often that Sarah was on AMC and that she and Susan didn't get along. The other was her Emmy win. I wouldn't say most people in this country knew her much before that. The internet also helped. As well as her tv movies etc...

I have the impression that, other than the US, it is a bit of an exaggeration to say that Erica Kane/Susan Lucci are famous.

Don't get me wrong, I love her, but really... even within the US, my peers would mostly ask: "Who?"

I think SL/Erica's popularity grew around the time AMC itself unseated AS THE WORLD TURNS as the number-one soap.

ITA, they never fully integrated her with the rest of the show in the 80s. There was the Erica storyline, and then there was everything else. I remember reading that either Jackie Babbin or Jorn Winther wouldn't have her be part of wedding sequences because of the fear that her very presence would upstage the wedding drama. Things started to change when FMB took over I think. She did a better of job of intergrating Erica with the rest of the canvas, and generally made a less fractured show.

if you remember or have read the history (or seen on Youtube), in the 80's they put Erica in New York. Remember she had that apartment in New York for most of the 1980's. She would come back to PV for visits but they really insolated her so she really wasn't apart of much in Pine Valley. That went on for years. I think she bought her apartment after her divorce from Tom when she was seeing Brandon Kingly and doing all that modeling and she kept it until the late 1980's when she moved back to Pine Valley, started dating Travis Monygomery and bought Lindon House. Although i think she stayed in Pine Valley during her marriage to Adam but then moved back to New York after he faked his death. She even ran Tempo Magazine in New York for a while.

Edited June 10, 201114 yr by BKuzak