Yesterday was the last new episode broadcast on television of All My Children. Though I have resisted the urge to turn this blog in o one all about ABC and its soap cancellations I thought the occasion deserved marking.
Before we get to the heart of the matter, to update you all on where things stand: Prospect Park has purchased the rights to All My Children and One Life to Live. As of now the plan is for both shows to return in January as internet broadcasts. Details are extremely sparse at the moment, but Prospect Park has reiterated several times their desire to maintain the high quality of the shows. Rumor has it they are trying to resell to other networks such as Bravo. They are currently in negotiations with actors. Frank Valentini, OLTL’s Executive Producer who is famed for budget miracles has signed on with a title that is something like Head of Serialized Dramas. Brian Frons, head of ABC daytime, continues to be an idiotic, misogynistic jackass. My hate for him has grown to such levels that I will no longer allow Cammy to accept the blame for the Spanish Inquisition because it is clearly Mr. Frons’s fault. Also the hot air coming out of his mouth and ass are what is melting the polar ice caps. And the last name he was born with was Rochester.
But this post is not about how Brian Frons blows goats.
It’s about the fact that All My Children holds a very special place in my heart, and I am sad to see it go.
AMC reminds me of watching with my mom when I was home sick from school.
It reminds me of playing on the floor while my Mom folded laundry or sewed or did something else while watching.
I’m fairly certain, looking back, that the first time I was ever really a “shipper” for a couple it was Hayley and Charlie.
And the fact that, mock it if you must, the show has made major contributions to the history of American television.
AMC began by making the Vietnam War a central issue, when virtually no one dared even acknowledge it on television. It was the first show in America to have a female character have a legal abortion. It had a heterosexual female character with AIDS in an era where many people still called the disease “gay cancer.” It wrote an actress’s facelift into the script so that it could deal with the issue of plastic surgery and all its implications decades before Nip/Tuck. It gave daytime television its first (and sadly, one of very few) black supercouple. It’s also been ahead of its time in its depictions of anorexia, homosexuality, drug addiction…
And on Monday, instead, we will have a show telling us such revolutionary things as, “hand towels can be used as napkins if your friends are slobs” and “fresher food tastes better.” (Who knew?)
I’m hoping that AMC and its sister show will continue to blaze new trails, but regardless, I wanted to take this moment to remember.
