Heading to Pine Valley

Where does one go to be immersed in deceit, betrayal, ghost stories, love stories, passion, drama, duplicity, pretense, lost children, found children, amnesia, dual personalities, beautiful men and women with incredibly unique names?

The answer is simple; you’d turn on your local ABC channel and visit the fictitious town of Pine Valley. From Jan. 5, 1970, until Sept. 23, 2011, viewers all over the country loyally watched All My Children (AMC), a daytime soap opera created and written by Agnes Nixon.

Personally, I grew up with AMC. My grandmother babysat me while my mom worked so from the time I was 3 I began watching it. During elementary school years I obviously stopped, but once high school started and the invention of beta max and VCR recordings, I was hooked right back in. Shockingly (not), the characters were still the same and the story lines were simple to jump into.

As an adult, I lost the ability to watch anything on a daily basis, but if I was home and it was on, watching AMC was like a reunion with old friends. I believe I’m the rarity as was proved to me this weekend at the Rosemont Theater, where a show called, “A Tribute to Pine Valley” was held. Most fans that grew up with AMC are still addicted to the show and are having a very hard time dealing with its cancellation. 

Words like depression, anxiety and over-whelming sadness were thrown around and the amount of tears shed could likely compare with the amount of husbands Erica Kane has had on the show.

My sister works for the company that runs the show, so I was able to attend as a helper with some menial jobs and still be star struck by the actors who came to the event. Of the six actors there, only Jesse Hubbard (Darnell Williams) and Jackson Montgomery (Walt Willey) were from my generation of watching. The others were Ryan Lavery (Cameron Mathison), Kendall Hart (Alicia Minshew), J.R. Chandler, (Jacob Young) and Dr. David Hayward (Vincent Irizarry). 

Some lucky Buffalo Grove women were there that have a true love for AMC. Julie Harris has been a dedicated AMC watcher since 1986 when she was a freshman in college. She loved the question and answer section of the event most of all.

“All the actors were open and candid with their answers, keeping the mood light and fun,” she said. Picking her preferred characters was quite easy. “My favorite characters were Kendall, Ryan and Greenlee. Maybe it was their storylines, or possibly because we were roughly the same age. But I always felt very connected to their characters.” 

Sharon Bresler and Lisa Weber were also in Pine Valley for the afternoon. Lisa didn’t start watching until she was a senior in high school but was 100 percent addicted to the show by college. She says she planned her classes around it! After meeting the infamous Erica Kane (Susan Lucci) in person, she became Lisa’s favorite character. “I loved that she drove her own carpool and took motherhood seriously. She always had drama in her TV life and it was fun to watch. Glad it wasn't me.” 

Sharon has been watching AMC since 1980 and watched consistently until the past several years. With the advent of DVR and Tivo, Sharon would record the shows and watch during her morning workouts. Sharon admits to having a major crush on Tad (Michael Knight) and loved to hate Adam Chandler (David Canary). Sharon lamented on how much her mother in Arizona would’ve loved the day, as she never missed a show!

There’s still a whispered rumor that AMC will return as “webisodes” on the Internet. So all you die-hards, keep your fingers crossed. You know ANYTHING can happen if you’re a soap watcher! 

As always, email me with any news, topics or ideas that you want to read about. Remember, I’d like to be the first to know! I can be reached at laurenbgpatch@aol.com.