First airing on Monday 5 January 1970, this long-running ABC soap concerned itself with the lives of the Chandler family, the Tyler family and the Martin family.
By the 1980s, the Martin family had become history (they were to reappear years later) while the Tyler family became the show’s primary set of characters.
Set in the fictional town of Pine Valley, not far from New York City, the show was never afraid to tackle the odd controversial subject in its time and was the first daytime soap to air the issue of abortion.
Without question, the most popular character to appear on All My Children was the infamous femme fatale, Erica Kane, played by Susan Lucci. Erica became the woman viewers loved to hate – a self-centred, ambitious woman who, during the course of the show, was married no less than 11 times to eight different men in 24 years.
Her chain of inter-personal relationships and marriages was so frequent and complex that she ended up with a hyphenated surname longer than the average firm of lawyers: Erica Kane Martin Brent Cudahy Chandler.
By 1991, five of the original cast were still on the show; veteran film actress Ruth Warrick, Susan Lucci, Mary Fickett, Frances Heflin and Ray MacDonnell.
Over the years, hundreds of performers played regular running roles in the series, including such familiar names as Anne Meara, Ann Flood, Kelly Rippa and Lauren Holly. Actress/comedienne Carol Burnett made a guest appearance in 1976 playing a hospital patient, and she returned as a regular character for several episodes in 1983.
Screen legend Elizabeth Taylor, who was a devoted fan of the series, played a walk-on role on the show, as she had done before on the General Hospitalseries.
In 1995, All My Children celebrated its 25th year on television with a week of special episodes that commemorated its successful, audience-pleasing past as one of television’s most popular daytime drama series.
As with most US daytime soaps, ratings declined in the new millennium and the final episode of All My Children aired in September 2011.
Dr Charles Tyler
Hugh Franklin Phoebe Tyler-Wallingford
Ruth Warrick Ann Tyler Dianna De Vegh (1) Joanna Mills (2) Judith Barcroft (3)
Lincoln Tyler Peter White Erica Kane Martin Brent Cudahy Chandler
Susan Lucci
Amy Parker Tyler
Rosemary Prinz Brooke English Cudahy Chandler Martin Martin
Julia Barr Ruth Parker Brent Martin
Mary Fickett
Dr Joseph Joe Martin Sr Ray MacDonnell Kate Martin Kay Campbell Adam Chandler David Canary Stuart Chandler David Canary Sean Cudahy
Alan Dysert Hector Santos
Raúl Dávila Lenny Wlasuk/ Professor Langley Wallingford
Louis Edmonds
Stan ”Mr. U” Ulatowski
Eugene J. Anthony
Thaddeus ”Tad the Cad” Gardner Martin
Matthew Anton
Les Baxter
Antonio Fargas
Kurt Sanders
William Ferriter
Mitchell ”Mitch” Beck
Brian Fitzpatrick
Benjamin ”Benny/Bingo” Sago
Larry Fleischman
Jeffrey Martin
Charles Frank
Dr Charles ”Chuck” Tyler II
Jack Stauffer
Dr Jeffrey Martin
Christopher Wines Tara Martin Tyler Stephanie Braxton Philip Brent Nicholas Benedict
Tish Pridmore
Tina Louise
Polly
Gina Belafonte
Chairwoman Trannell
Elizabeth Taylor
Kendall Hart Lang Henry
Sarah Michelle Gellar
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