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All My Children was an American daytime soap opera that aired on the ABC television network from January 5th, 1970 to September 23rd, 2011. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was set in a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia known as Pine Valley, Pennsylvania. The series featured one of daytime's all-time popular characters, Erica Kane, who was portrayed by actress Susan Lucci throughout the entire run of the series. All My Children was the very first daytime drama that debuted in the 1970s. Though originally owned by Creative Horizons, Inc., a company created by Nixon and her husband, Bob, the series was sold to ABC in January 1975. Although the series began its run in a half-hour format, All My Children was eventually expanded to the traditional hour long format on April 25th, 1977, which the show had previously experimented with for one week in June 1975.
From 1970 to 1990, All My Children was taped at ABC's TV18 at 101 West 67th Street, which has now become a 50-story apartment building. At that time, the series began taping at ABC's television studio TV23 at 320 West 66th Street in Manhattan New York City. In December 2009, the show's production was most to Los Angeles, California, a move which was deemed more cost effective by the ABC network. All My Children was then filmed at Stages 1 and 2 of the Andrita Studios. The series began filming in high definition on February 3rd, 2010, making it the third soap opera to be produced and broadcast in high-definition.
At one time, All My Children's' popularity made it the most widely-recorded television series in the United States. As well, during the 1970s, in what was deemed a departure from social norms, the series held an audience that was 30% male. The series ranked #1 in the daytime Nielsen ratings in the 1978-1979 television season. Throughout most of the 1980s and the early 1990s, All My Children was the second most watched daytime soap opera, behind CBS's The Young and the Restless. However, much like the rest of the soap operas that aired in the United States, the series experienced unprecedented declines in viewership during the 2000s, and by 2010, All My Children was one of the least watched daytime soap operas still in production.
On April 14th, 2011, it was announced that All My Children had been cancelled by the ABC network, after 41 years on the air. On July 7th, 2011, the licensing rights to All My Children were sold to the third party production company Prospect Park, with the hope that the series would possibly continue on the internet, and potentially, cable television. Progress on this transition was slow moving, and eventually abandoned all together, a fact which came to light two months following the series network television end. This resulted in the last episode which aired on ABC, on September 23rd, 2011, ending in a cliffhanger.
Cast[]
For a complete list of All My Children cast members, please see the article List of All My Children Cast Members.