# Say Goodbye To "All My Children" And "One Life To Live" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 14, 2011, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-goodbye-to-all-my-children-and-one-life-to-live/578401 "2011-04-14T19:49:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-goodbye-to-all-my-children-and-one-life-to-live/578401/1 "2011-04-14T19:49:17Z")
> [@](#): > > ABC is confirming what has been rumored for weeks: All My Children and One Life to Live will end their storied runs in September 2011 and January 2012, respectively. > > The twin cancellations will leave just four soaps on the air — Days of Our Lives on NBC, General Hospital on ABC, and The Young & The Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful on CBS. > > AMC and OLTL — which have been on the air a combined 83 years — will be replaced by a pair of generic-sounding talk/lifestyle shows, the food-themed The Chew and the makeover-centric The Revolution. Full story at: [TV Line](http://www.tvline.com/2011/04/breaking-abc-cancels-all-my-children-and-one-life-to-live/) So what do you all think? Another TV genre is coming to an end ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-goodbye-to-all-my-children-and-one-life-to-live/578401/2 "2011-04-14T20:10:28Z")
I assume they’ll be replaced with courtroom reality shows. As the World Turns is gone already? When I was in high school my girlfriend at the time was into that one. It’s the only one I ever saw more than about 10 minutes of. That this genre is ending means naught to me, sorry to say. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-goodbye-to-all-my-children-and-one-life-to-live/578401/3 "2011-04-14T20:19:43Z")
I never watched the genre. A lot of people at work Tivo them. The sad thing to me is the loss of creativity. The team of writers, actors, directors and crew that are being laid off. For what? Another talk show? Soaps have been a valuable apprenticeship for many, many top actors. The grind of filming a new show daily is found nowhere else in theater. Actors learn to create characters quickly. Learn lines over night. I’ve heard a lot of big name actors credit their time on soaps for their current success. I always figured soaps had a place on daytime tv. There was always a core audience for them and the time slots weren’t all that valuable. Daytime tv is mostly filler. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-goodbye-to-all-my-children-and-one-life-to-live/578401/4 "2011-04-14T20:27:40Z")
That’s kind of a shame, but not unexpected. So many actors got their start in soaps. Like daytime TV doesn’t have enough lame talk shows, infomercials, and ambulance chaser ads? :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Mauvaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mauvaise/32/11084_2.png) [@Mauvaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mauvaise)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-goodbye-to-all-my-children-and-one-life-to-live/578401/5 "2011-04-14T20:32:00Z")
I am surprised at how devastated I am by this. AMC debuted about 2 months before I was born. My mother and both my grandmothers watched the show from day one, so I have literally been watching this show my entire life. My mother died 11 years ago, and both my grandmothers have passed on as well. Watching AMC was like my last link to them, especially my mom, who I lost way too soon. I shouldn’t be this upset (I’m actually on & off crying since reading this about an hour ago) - it’s a stupid soap opera. But it’s the mom connection. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-goodbye-to-all-my-children-and-one-life-to-live/578401/6 "2011-04-14T20:32:36Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > The sad thing to me is the loss of creativity. The team of writers, actors, directors and crew that are being laid off. For what? Another talk show? I’d imagine that talk shows are a _lot_ cheaper for ABC to make. I have to believe that, ultimately, was the reason. ---
**Author:** ![Jolly\_Roger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-goodbye-to-all-my-children-and-one-life-to-live/578401/7 "2011-04-14T20:34:38Z")
The only US soap I ever watched was General Hospital…and that was back in the day when AFN Europe had only one channel and it was on during my lunch break. Then, when back in the states I started watching Eastenders on PBS. After that US soaps seemed pretty lame. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-goodbye-to-all-my-children-and-one-life-to-live/578401/8 "2011-04-14T20:35:45Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Like daytime TV doesn’t have enough lame talk shows, infomercials, and ambulance chaser ads? :mad: Fifty years ago, FCC Chairman Newton Minow called TV “[a vast wasteland](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasteland_Speech)”. Daytime TV is a particularly arid and desolate stretch within that wasteland. ---
**Author:** ![expectopatronum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/expectopatronum/32/173_2.png) [@expectopatronum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/expectopatronum)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-goodbye-to-all-my-children-and-one-life-to-live/578401/9 "2011-04-14T20:37:33Z")
> [@Mauvaise](#): > > I am surprised at how devastated I am by this. > > AMC debuted about 2 months before I was born. My mother and both my grandmothers watched the show from day one, so I have literally been watching this show my entire life. My mother died 11 years ago, and both my grandmothers have passed on as well. Watching AMC was like my last link to them, especially my mom, who I lost way too soon. I shouldn’t be this upset (I’m actually on & off crying since reading this about an hour ago) - it’s a stupid soap opera. But it’s the mom connection. ☹ i hear you. i have a soft spot for amc for pretty much the same reasons. i don’t really watch it now but it was always a treat to get to see it when i stayed home sick from school as a kid, and during summer if i wasn’t out doing whatever. kinda depressing that it’ll be gone. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-goodbye-to-all-my-children-and-one-life-to-live/578401/10 "2011-04-14T20:50:30Z")
Soaps are the only job I can think of where some actors have been in the same role for decades. Susan Lucci has been Erica Kane for 41 years. I think there have been other soaps with actors that spent 50 or more years in the character. > [@](#): > > Lucci is best known for playing Erica Kane on the ABC television soap opera All My Children, on which she has appeared since the show’s inception on January 5, 1970. She is the only original cast member remaining on the series. > **[Susan Lucci](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Lucci)** > > Susan Victoria Lucci (born December 23, 1946) is an American actress. She is best known for portraying Erica Kane on the ABC daytime drama All My Children during that show's entire network run from 1970 to 2011. The character is considered an icon, and she was called "Daytime's Leading Lady" by TV Guide, with The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times citing her as the highest-paid actor in daytime television. As early as 1991, her salary had been reported as over $1 millio Lucci has also ac... ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-goodbye-to-all-my-children-and-one-life-to-live/578401/11 "2011-04-14T20:53:31Z")
Sad, sad news. I occasionally watched “All My Children”, but “One Life to Live” was my all-time favorite soap. I remember watching when I first started watching it in the mid-80s, the heyday of their way-over-the-top weird storylines - Viki having an out-of-body astral trip to Heaven, Clint going back in time to the old west in a “Back to the Future” riff. I went through periods where I didn’t watch it much (in fact, it’s been about 12 years since I’ve really followed it), but still thought of it as my “home” soap. Favorite storylines: - Maria Robert’s evil schemes to break up Clint & Viki - Dorian in prison - Soap (within a soap) star Megan Gordon’s viscous catty rivalry with diva Spring Skye. - The AIDS quilt coming to Llanview - Marty’s rape trial - Viki becoming “Jean” and imprisoning Dorian - The gang warfare in Angel Square ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-goodbye-to-all-my-children-and-one-life-to-live/578401/12 "2011-04-14T20:56:03Z")
Here’s what they’re replacing them with > [@](#): > > “The Chew” will premier in September 2011 and “The Revolution” (working title) will premier in January 2012. > > (ABC RELEASE) As food has become the center of everyone’s life, “The Chew,” will focus on food from EVERY angle - as a source of joy, health, family ritual, friendship, breaking news, dating, fitness, weight loss, travel adventures and life’s moments. Produced by Gordon Elliot, the Emmy award winning executive producer of “Paula Deen’s Home Cooking” and “Down Home With The Neelys,” this new one hour series combines entertaining takeaway with memorable personalities to create a live show where viewers get the dish on anything and everything related to the world of food and beyond. Full story at: [ABC-Go.Com](http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=resources%2Finside_station%2Fstation_info&id=8072960) ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-goodbye-to-all-my-children-and-one-life-to-live/578401/13 "2011-04-14T21:19:01Z")
> [@Mauvaise](#): > > I am surprised at how devastated I am by this. Same. It’s not like I didn’t kind of know it was coming especially after Guiding Light and As The World Turns died, and it’s not like I’ve watched in years, but it was one of those things that I liked knowing was there. In college, one of my roommates watched OLTL, I didn’t have a 1pm class, and I got hooked. For the next 5 or so years, I watched pretty much daily (either live or VCR’d it until I had time). I’ll probably DVR the last week next January. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-goodbye-to-all-my-children-and-one-life-to-live/578401/14 "2011-04-14T22:17:14Z")
I kind of half-heartedly watch the ABC soaps. But they really piss me off, the writing has gotten so bad, not that it was stellar but I’d rather have the outlandish unbelievable stories than having writers treat the audience like total idiots who don’t know how the real world functions. They also ruin beloved characters for the sake of new ones that someone got a bug up their ass about and wants to shove down our throat until the new character is barging into every story line. General Hospital is the worst, I haven’t really been watching that one anymore since it’s more like the Soap version of the Sopranos. I kind of feel bad for the actors and crew of the AMC and OLTL though, since they get the boot when the crap that is GH gets to continue. It’s too bad they can’t just mosh them all together into One Life for General Children’s Hospital. Anyway, I hope they end All My Children by having the annoying self-righteous brother/sister Castillo duo turn out to be serial killers who murder everyone in town. And in One Life, everyone develops DID and skips town. So anyway, the end of an era and all but I don’t think I’ll miss them. ---
**Author:** ![Suil\_Dubh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85f322/32.png) [@Suil\_Dubh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suil_Dubh)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-goodbye-to-all-my-children-and-one-life-to-live/578401/15 "2011-04-14T22:54:41Z")
> [@Mauvaise](#): > > My mother and both my grandmothers watched the show from day one, so I have literally been watching this show my entire life… I shouldn’t be this upset… it’s a stupid soap opera. But it’s the mom connection. ☹ Same with me. Both my mother and grandmother watched this, and I watched it along with them while I was growing up. I haven’t seen AMC in years, but I’m very sad to hear it go. It was a “mom” institution. ☹ (And sorry to hear about your loss.) ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-goodbye-to-all-my-children-and-one-life-to-live/578401/16 "2011-04-14T23:01:07Z")
> [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](#): > > As the World Turns is gone already? Last September, I believe. On the subject of longevity of roles, Helen Wagner played Nancy Hughes on ATWT for 54 years. Hers were the first words of the first episode and she was on the show until her death in May of 2010. She just missed surviving the show by a few months. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-goodbye-to-all-my-children-and-one-life-to-live/578401/17 "2011-04-14T23:09:44Z")
My mother has been watching All My Children since the first episode…she is so pissed off right now. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-goodbye-to-all-my-children-and-one-life-to-live/578401/18 "2011-04-14T23:18:04Z")
And on top of this, SoapNet is being turned into the “Disney Jr” channel? ---
**Author:** ![mcgato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac8455/32.png) [@mcgato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcgato)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-goodbye-to-all-my-children-and-one-life-to-live/578401/19 "2011-04-14T23:18:44Z")
My mom used to watch All My Children on her lunch hour. This was in the early 70s. Since she always had it on, I would watch over the summer when school was out. I figured that I was one of few males in the US watching the show. One summer when I was back home from college (early 80s), me and a couple of guy friends were making plans to play golf the next day. Someone suggested meeting at noon, which was when AMC started. There was an awkward silence, then one of us said that he usually watched AMC. The other two of us laughed and said that we also watched it. So we met to watch AMC, then go golfing. ---
**Author:** ![NetTrekker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nettrekker/32/2909_2.png) [@NetTrekker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NetTrekker)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-goodbye-to-all-my-children-and-one-life-to-live/578401/20 "2011-04-15T02:05:23Z")
I never understood how people could watch the American soaps…the characters just always seemed like a bunch of petty jackasses. I did enjoy the run of Eastenders on Sat. night PBS tho’…same silly drama stuff but I liked the London setting. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-goodbye-to-all-my-children-and-one-life-to-live/578401.md?page=2)