So Long, 'All My Children'

This past week, ABC announced that it is canceling the long-running – some might say long-suffering – soap opera “All My Children” and I met the news with both a great sadness and a sense of inevitability.

You see, “All My Children” has been a part of my daily life for as long as I can remember. My mom stayed home with me until I started kindergarten, and the show was part of our daily routine. I’m sure I didn’t pay any attention when I was very small, just as I am sure that I paid more attention as I grew older. I can remember waking up from naps hearing the theme song as if it were my unofficial alarm. I also can remember lying awake when I was supposed to be napping, listening to this fantastic life unfolding in Pine Valley, PA, the fictional city that seemed much more exotic than the little Western New York town I grew up in. It used to be what I now recognize, as a mom myself, her “me” time. But as I got older, it became our time, something we shared.

I can’t remember a time when resident bad guy Adam Chandler wasn’t someone my mom and I discussed. We would talk about what Erica Kane was wearing or what she’d done to her hair, or what she had done to her latest nemesis.

When I moved away from home and we talked on the phone several times a week, the conversation always spun its way to a chat about “All My Children.” Then when my mom died, I still had little imaginary conversations with her about it. That was almost four years ago – she’d be surprised at some of the things that have gone down on the show in her absence, but then again, nothing on a soap opera is ever too surprising, no matter how wacky it is.

So the cancellation of the show is an end of an era for me - a sentiment that is echoing across the Internet right now in the aftermath of the news. In some ways, the show’s ending is a relief. I really have trouble keeping up with five episodes per week, even with a TiVo to keep track of it for me.

And just as I started paying attention to the show when I was a tot, Lucy is starting to digest what’s happening on the screen, which means it’s time for me to start watching it without her. If a couple is in bed together, always in the most PG way because it’s on at 1 p.m., Lucy will say something like, “Yeah, they are putting on their PJs. They are ready to go to sleep.” Uh, sure Lucy, that’s what’s going on all right. Come to think of it, sleeping is a common theme for her when it comes to the show – it’s also her reasoning for the show’s latest coma victims. Who am I to argue?

It’s a bittersweet ending for what became a touchstone in my life. The show is on until sometime in September, so I’m sure I’ll make more of an effort to watch the final episodes before TiVo automatically deletes them. But maybe I’ll watch them without Lucy. No sense getting her hooked on something that’s about to fade away.