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Ratings from the 70's

Paul Raven

By Paul Raven
in DTS: Cancelled Soaps

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JoeCool Community Regular

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No.

 

In 1973, “All My Children’s” Erica Kane (Susan Lucci) was the first TV character to have a legal abortion. It was the same year as the Supreme Court Roe v. Wade ruling, so it was a controversial storyline to say the least. “All My Children” protected themselves against the controversy by writing in that Erica mentally blocked the abortion, even thinking for a while that she miscarried. Erica would tipify free choice.

 

https://soaps.sheknows.com/all-my-children/news/23249/all-my-children-throwback-thursday-poll-ericas-ab/

 

All My Children, “February 1, 1973” (1973)

 
All My Children became the first TV show to depict an abortion following Roe V. Wade. In the episode, Erica Kane (Susan Lucci) decides to terminate an unplanned pregnancy so she can pursue her modeling career. “It seemed to me exactly what Erica would choose to do,” Lucci tells Refinery29. 

https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/abortion-on-tv-history

 

https://pennylaneismyrealname.com/a-timeline-of-abortion-stories-in-us-popular-media/

 

 

1973 – All My Children (Soap Opera, ABC)

Erica Kane (Susan Lucci) has daytime TV’s first legal abortion. Her abortion was simply because she didn’t want to have the child. Nothing bad happened to her.

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will81 Mentor

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I literally have the scripts. It was May 1971

I have almost every script from 1970 - 1984.

Jeff and Erica married Dec 1970. She found out she was pregnant soon after. Jeff seemed somewhat agreeable to an abortion but then talked it over with his father Joe and changed his mind. Erica told him she would get the abortion whether he agreed or not.

She went to New York and lied about having her husband's approval (it was legal but only with a husband consenting) then ended up with septicaemia. Which is how Jeff found out. Mary Kenicott was introduced around this time.

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JoeCool Community Regular

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Well then the media got it all wrong.  It was 1973. 

https://ew.com/gallery/all-my-children-15-classic-moments/

 

One of the many groundbreaking things she did to become the iconic Erica Kane was portray TV's first legal abortion the same year of the Roe v. Wade ruling. Of course, this being a soap opera, unbeknown to Erica the fetus was actually transplanted by the doctor into his wife and they raised the boy, Josh. As an adult, Josh would go after Erica.

 

Same year as Roe is 1973.

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will81 Mentor

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Yeah they did. They get a ton of things wrong. In 1971 abortions were legal in New York with consent from the husband, Erica technically got a legal one but lied (If I remember correctly) about Jeff agreeing and so really was not legal. 

By 1973 Jeff was very much with Mary and Erica had been with Jason Maxwell.

If Erica had been pregnant in 1973, she wouldn't have needed to go behind Jeff's back and he frankly wouldn't have wanted her to be pregnant since they were already separated. 

Erica spent that year holding up the divorce. If she had been with baby, she would have used this against Jeff.

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JoeCool Community Regular

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 Did Erica go to NY for the abortion? Well wikepedia says May 1972. At this point it is mute. I would love to see a press clipping.

 

Getting back to fall 1974, AMC was doing very well in the ratings.

Soap Opera Digest says 1973. 

 

https://web.archive.org/web/20071226102140/http://www.soapoperadigest.com/features/special/lasttaboo/

 

ALL MY CHILDREN Head Writer Megan McTavish was responsible for Julia's abortion in 1995 and faced the same problems, even though that show had done daytime's first legal abortion with Erica in 1973. "I think it was more controversial in 1995, when we did Julia's than when Agnes [Nixon, AMC's creator] did Erica's," she says. "By the time we approached Julia's, the political and religious ramifications of the act had [become so divisive]. I think [ABC] handled it very smartly — in other words, they didn't try to slip it on anybody. We warned everybody first. We told the advertisers that this would be the content and we left it up to them whether or not they chose to advertise." And while some sponsors chose to drop out, "In those days, we certainly had no lack of people who were willing to advertise."

 

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JoeCool Community Regular

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You must be right. Looking over the storyline timeframes. 1973 is too late. NY had legal abortion in 1970. Media got it wrong as did I. My sincere apologies. Many thanks! @will81

 

Agnes Nixon was an excellent contemporary writer. Miss her and her writing. Way ahead of her time.

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JAS0N47 Mentor

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Not much soap coverage in newspapers in 1971 and 1972, but I did find two clippings for you which match what Will said...it happened in 1971:
 

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Here's a 1972 article talking about it as well:
 
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will81 Mentor

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Thanks for that. It is so odd to me that it barely rated a mention back then. Even the casual style they write about the story in the first article seems so odd. 

I don't believe prime time was touching topics like this, not really, so I would have thought there would have been more. Though I know soaps were not really talked about much back then. 

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Contessa Donatella Grand Master

Contessa Donatella

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Also Joe, Kathy Phillips on Search for Tomorrow went to New York state & got an abortion. There were 3 states that had legal abortion in 1970 but New York state was the only state without a residency requirement. So there are 3 abortions of note in daytime history. Pat Randolph, AW, illegal. Erica Kane, AMC, and Kathy Phillips, SFT. Both New York state & legal. This is also discussed in the ERRORS topic.

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Contessa Donatella Grand Master

Contessa Donatella

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It's been an interesting journey but also something of a beast. P&G, in their way, did no publicity about the SFT abortion. AMC, in their way, did loads but it was in error because it claimed to be a Roe abortion meaning 1973 which turned out to be wrong. We still do not have a close date for the SFT one like Will's script & the articles Jason47 just provided for the AMC one. There's a soap publication that confirms its existence but the possible date range is unfortunately long. 

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