All My Children

All My Children first aired on January 5, 1970 on the ABC network. Creator Agnes Nixon wanted to create a soap opera that would address controversial and topical events that would appeal to the masses wile being targeted to younger audiences at the same time. During the 1970’s it took some time for All My Children to gain the following that it now enjoys today. In the very beginning of the show’s inception, the show was in a 3o minute format, like many other soaps at that date. It wasn’t till 1977 when the show rested on its one-hour length format. In the 1970’s the show was based around a couple different families and characters such has Phoebe Tyler who was dubbed the “Queen of Pine Valley”, The Crane & Martin families who majorly contrasted one another from being the single parents to the underlying symbolic family of All My Children. By the late 70’s the show had gained success and was on the top end of the ratings. One reason being the introduction of Donna Beck, a teenage prostitute who fell in loved with Dr. Chuck Tyler. This plot line went over very well with audiences, as they had never seen anything like this before. The 1980’s were considered the Golden Age by many of the show due to their innovative and trend setting tactics. New younger characters were introduced causing intertwining story lines between young love stricken characters. Much humor was also injected as Opal, the mother of Jenny & Ted Garner, opened up a Spa. Other issues such as homosexuality were introduced during the 1980’s that allowed the writers to stay tune with society and the issues it was facing. This gave viewers the opportunity to stay abreast and relate with current events. At the very end of the 80’s and the beginning of the 90’s All My Children wanted some change in which they hired Felicia Minei Behr as executive producer. Behr rehired many characters that had formerly been on the show, yet ended up either killing them off for good not hiring the original actors to play the veteran roles. During the mid 90’s there had been some criticisms that the show had gotten too outrageous in terms of stunt attempts. A new writer was hired under Behr and the show returned to its former reliance on character driven plots. In the 00’s, there was many comeback’s from characters such as Green, Montgomery, & Pratt. On November 12, 2008 All My Children celebrated their 10,000th episode. All My Children has been running for almost 40 years now and has continuously been able to challenge and stimulate its fan base. Overall the show is dedicated to character driven plots that allow for the inherent distinctions and issues to come about without having to force them to evolve. There is no telling where All My Children will go in the future, but one thing is for certain that there is no end in sight for this revolutionary soap opera.

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