The ABC television network is pulling the plug on serial daytime dramas “One Life to Live” and “All My Children.” America’s unemployed will have to watch Dr. Phil, food shows, and Fox News instead.
The soap operas were both created by Agnes Nixon. “One Life to Live” began airing in 1968 and was specially created to reflect America’s ethnic and economic diversity. “All My Children” is set in a fictional Philadelphia suburb and has starred Susan Lucci (as Erica Kane) since it premiered in 1970.
Aside from their role in entertaining stay-at-home moms, home healthcare workers and the incarcerated, these daily dramas provided employment for young thespians including Phylicia Rashad, Melissa Leo, Josh Duhamel, Kelly Ripa, Christian Slater, Laurence Fishburne, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Tommy Lee Jones. Several of these celebrities have since learned how to actually act.
The programs will end in January 2012 with some kind of formal plot conclusions. 48-year-old “General Hospital,” sole surviving ABC daytime serial, is said to be out of danger and resting comfortably, but Congressman Paul Ryan (R, WI-1) is threatening to replace it with vouchers.
Image (“Soap Opera in the Kitchen, after Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Tags: ABC, ABC television, All My Children, broadcasting, daytime dramas, daytime television, media, network television, One Life to Live, serial dramas, serials, soap operas, Susan Lucci, television, TV
NotionsCapital 
April 15, 2011 at 10:41 pm
UPDATES:
“ABC Cancels Soaps All My Children and One Life to Live,” Brian Moylan, Gawker
“Goodbye, Erica Kane, feminist pioneer,” Mary Elizabeth Williams, Salon
April 16, 2011 at 1:07 am
When did I watch All My Children and every Elvis Presley movie? While I was grounded in high school. Do I watch either now? No. But being grounded for a month really sucks. Was I really a bad girl? Tune in tomorrow….
July 7, 2011 at 9:28 pm
[…] TV arranged the cancellation of the long-running daytime dramas “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” […]