AMC: All My Children Through the Years: 1970-1979
Susan M. Brumbaugh
What follows are postings I saved from last year (I could have sworn they
were older than a year, but I guess not). Enjoy!
Susan Brumbaugh
Susan.B...@Colorado.EDU
============================================================================
From: rud...@crl.com (Justin Lee)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv.soaps
Subject: AMC: History 1970-1979
Date: 14 Oct 1994 12:32:59 -0700
Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [login: guest]
Lines: 371
Here's something I caught on the beloved (*snicker*) on-line service,
AOL. I just thought it might be interesting for all you All My Children
fans. If you're like me, you'll go "Oh my gosh - I completely forgot
about that!" Please forgive the length.. Two more posts to follow -
1980-89 and 1990-93...
ALL MY CHILDREN THROUGH THE YEARS: 1970 - 1979
Over the course of 25 years, ALL MY CHILDREN has had a rich and fascinating
history. Here are some highlights from the past 1/4 century.
1970
Pine Valley born and bred, Phil Brent and Tara Martin were in their senior
year at Pine Valley High, having fun, dating, and feeling that first blush of
love. And while their lives were filled with classes and sports and plans
for college, none of it was as important to Phil and Tara as their feelings
for each other. They were Pine Valley's first young lovers. Phil's best
friend, Chuck Tyler, accepted their love despite the crush he had on Tara.
Charming Nick Davis returned to Pine Valley after 19 years away to open a
dance studio. Nick renewed acquaintances with his best friend, Mona Kane,
and her bratty teenage daughter, Erica. Nick knew how to flatter people, and
he figured that all he needed to do was flatter the right people, and he'd
have it made! In walked one of the right people, Phoebe Tyler, a rich,
snooty society dame who needed someone to help her organize a charity ball.
Nick flattered Phoebe, and since her husband Charles was spending more and
more time at the hospital, Phoebe cooed over every compliment.
Troublemaker Erica discovered Pine Valley's deepest, darkest secret: Phil
was not the son of Ted and Ruth Brent as the handsome teenager was led to
believe. Phil's real parents were Ruth's sister, Amy Tyler, and her long-ago
lover, Nick Davis. Erica, never one to keep a secret, blabbed the truth to
Phil. Erica's revelation set off a series of tragic events. Ted Brent set
out to confront Nick and was killed in a car accident, and Phil, devastated
by the shocking news of his true parentage, developed amnesia.
1971
Lucky for busybody Phoebe, her daughter, Ann, returned home from New York to
open the Boutique, a fashion shop. In New York, Ann had met a man, Nick
Davis, who intrigued her, and he lived in Pine Valley. Phoebe became
outraged that Ann began dating him. She preferred that Ann date Paul Martin,
Dr. Joe Martin's younger brother. Despite Phoebe's warnings, Nick and Ann
fell deeply in love.
Erica set her sights on kindly Dr. Jeff Martin, the handsome intern son of
Joe. Erica wasn't nearly as in love with Jeff as she was with getting out of
her mother's house and those boring classes at PVU. And Jeff was a perfectly
good way out because he was going to be a rich doctor. Tara tried over and
over to warn her brother about Erica, but Jeff was captivated by Erica's
beauty and flattery. The news of their wedding shocked the people of Pine
Valley!
When Phil, plagued by amnesia, couldn't remember her, Tara turned to Chuck
Tyler. And when he told her that he loved her, she believed him. And she
loved him, too, though not in the same way she had loved Phil. When Chuck
proposed, Tara said, "Yes." On their wedding day, Chuck collapsed before the
"I do's", and was hospitalized with kidney failure. While Chuck recovered,
Phil and Tara renewed their relationship, and secretly planned a future
together. Then Phil received his draft notice.
Nurse Ruth Brent and Dr. Joe Martin had become a familiar couple in the
hospital cafeteria and around Pine Valley. Observers might have thought they
were "keeping company" before they even realized it themselves. Before long,
Joe and Ruth realized their mutual feelings were love.
1972
Erica dropped out of college and took a job with Ann Tyler at the Boutique.
It involved going on buying trips to New York where she met modeling agent
Jason Maxwell. From the moment he met Erica, Jason wanted her, but not
necessarily as a model.
On the night before shipping out to Vietnam, Phil and Tara tried to get
married. Trapped in a blizzard, they took shelter in an empty church and
married themselves. They made love, but Phil left soon after for combat
duty. Later, he was reported missing in action. Tara told no one that she
considered herself married to Phil, even after she discovered she was
pregnant with his baby. Tara eventually told the news to Chuck, who offered
the perfect solution when he asked Tara to marry him. Later that year, Tara
gave birth to a son, whom she named Phillip.
Newlyweds Nick Davis and Ann Tyler were devastated by the news that Nick's
sperm count was too low to father a child. Knowing how much she wanted a
child, Nick gave Ann freedom to find someone else. Nick began provoking
fights with Ann, and they separated. Unwilling to give up on her marriage,
Ann seduced Nick into one last night of love. Regretting the weakness of his
resolve, Nick asked Ann for a divorce. He never told her why. Ann,
convinced that somehow Nick had fallen out of love with her, was heartbroken,
but she agreed to the divorce. After Ann took up with Paul Martin, she
discovered she was pregnant with Nick's baby. On the rebound, Nick fell into
an affair with young dance teacher Kitty Shea.
1973
Nick, falsely believing that he was sterile, was shocked to discover that he
had made Kitty Shea pregnant. Ann, now married to Paul Martin, resumed a
secret relationship with Nick until she learned of Kitty's pregnancy. Kitty
lost the child, then slipped into psychosis, believing that she was still
pregnant. Later, while driving with Nick, Ann was critically injured in a car
accident. Upon recovering, Ann's marriage to Paul came to an end, and she
left Pine Valley.
Erica was less than enthused to learn she was carrying Jeff's baby. The last
thing in the world she and Jeff needed was a baby! Picturing herself
pregnant and fat, Erica made a decision to abort the child -- without telling
her husband. The more Erica saw of Jason Maxwell in New York City, the less
interested she was in being married to Jeff. Although she flared with
jealousy whenever Jeff sang the praises of his favorite nurse, soft-spoken
Mary Kennicott, Erica finally convinced herself that she was in love with
Jason and he with her. On a visit to Pine Valley, Jason was murdered, and
Jeff, who was jealous of him, found the body and was charged with murder.
During his trial, the real killer's identity was revealed to be Erica's
mother, Mona Kane. On the witness stand, Mona flashed back to the night of
the murder and realized she had killed Jason in a struggle for his gun. The
event had been so traumatic, she had blocked it from her memory for months!
Jeff was cleared of all charges in what was clearly proven to be an
accidental shooting.
Tara was rocked by the news that Phil was alive! She wanted to run to him as
soon as she heard the news of his return. But how could she? She was
Chuck's wife. And as far as the world knew, he was little Phillip's father.
And a good one. Tara truly loved Chuck. But Phil was her first love, and in
her heart, she knew he was the love of her life. Chuck, delighted as he was
over Phil's miraculous return from the dead, was scared. He loved Tara and
their son. He prayed that Phil's return wouldn't destroy his happy home.
1974
With the ordeal of his murder trial over, Jeff wasted no time in divorcing
Erica. As an even happier ending, Jeff and sweet Mary Kennicott planned a
new beginning and married. Blissfully together, the newlyweds began talking
about adopting young Tad Gardner, a precocious ten-year-old who had been
abused and abandoned by his parents.
Phil Brent did everything he could to win Tara back. But she remained
faithful to Chuck for the sake of their son. She couldn't tell Phil the
truth. The lie she and Chuck had told was going to be lived...period. The
old friendship the three of them had once shared was gone. Lonely and
depressed, Phil was ripe for the picking -- by Erica Kane!
Margo Flax, Erica's model friend from New York, set her sights on Pine Valley
attorney Paul Martin. Margo did everything she could to make him fall in love
with her, right down to having a face lift without telling him! She
explained that she had left Pine Valley for a visit with her grown daughter
Claudette, a lie that almost blew up in Margo's brand-new face when Claudette
unexpectedly showed up in Pine Valley! But finally, Margo convinced Paul to
marry her.
1975
Erica discovered she was pregnant with Phil's baby. Phil was overjoyed and
convinced Erica to marry him but their happiness didn't last long. Erica
suffered a miscarriage and was so distraught over the loss that she had a
complete nervous breakdown. Phil had to commit her to a mental hospital for
several months.
Two armed thugs broke into Jeff and Mary's home, and held her hostage. Tad,
a witness to the crime, escaped. Sadly, Mary was killed and her untimely
death destroyed Jeff. Everywhere he looked, he saw her. Jeff realized he
could no longer stay in Pine Valley. Before he moved away, he asked Joe and
Ruth to adopt Tad.
After giving blood to save little Phillip's life, Phil Brent learned the
secret that the boy was his son, not Chuck's. Upon confronting Tara with the
fact, she tearfully told Phil the whole story behind her marriage to Chuck.
Tara confessed that she had never stopped loving Phil. They fell into each
other's arms and kissed and made love! Phil decided to divorce Erica, and
Tara decided to ask Chuck for a divorce. Before she could, Chuck's kidney
ailment flared up again, forcing Tara to change her plans. Erica also firmly
refused to end her marriage to Phil.
Lincoln Tyler fell deeply in love with Kitty Shea, and nothing his mother,
Phoebe, could say or do, which included falling into a dead faint in the
middle of their wedding ceremony, could keep them from saying "I do." Nick
Davis was pleased that his ex-wife Kitty had found a man who could love and
appreciate her as she deserved. In fact, Nick remained friendly with her and
with his other ex-wife Ann, who was now Kitty's sister-in-law. Ann and Kitty
became friendly, and Ann gave Kitty a job as a salesgirl in the Boutique.
Kitty's not-so-ex husband, drug kingpin Hal Short, showed up and shocked
Kitty with the news that they were still married. He blackmailed Kitty into
using the Boutique as the center of his Pine Valley drug operations.
1976
Tara flew to Costa Rica, where she got a quick divorce from Chuck. For
months, Erica refused to divorce Phil Brent, then she finally gave in. Erica
began thinking that she deserved better, and suddenly one of the richest,
most respected men in Pine Valley was unexpectedly available. Maybe she
could land the newly available Linc Tyler, whose union with Kitty had come to
a temporary end when she went to jail for her involvement in Hal Short's drug
operation. Erica hired Linc as her lawyer, but her pursuit went nowhere.
A teenage girl with a shattered leg was brought into the hospital. She'd
been badly beaten and thrown from a car. Chuck, now a doctor, dedicated
himself to making her well. She was Donna Beck, a high school drop-out, and
she was a teen prostitute who'd fallen into the stable of a lowlife pimp
named Tyrone, who came at Chuck with a knife in the hospital parking lot.
Dr. Frank Grant, who had a black belt in karate, came to Chuck's defense, and
Tyrone was hauled off to jail! Donna was finally free of him, and Chuck
became her legal guardian. He was determined to help her find a better life.
Mary Kennicott's younger brother, Dan, tutored Donna Beck and became smitten
with Brooke English, Phoebe Tyler's niece, who had recently arrived in Pine
Valley. Glorified greasemonkey Benny Sago followed Brooke to Pine Valley,
and Aunt Phoebe turned up her nose at him. She encouraged Brooke to date
clean-cut Dan Kennicott. And Brooke didn't mind. Dan was a pushover. She
could lead him around by the nose, and use him to make Benny jealous!
Divorced from Phil, Erica was fighting a losing battle in trying to spark a
romance with Lincoln Tyler. Erica needed somebody to love her. And she
needed a job. Nick Davis offered her the position of hostess in his
restaurant. The first time they kissed was a surprise to both of them. But
Erica liked it, and created more opportunities to seduce Nick. Finally, she
lured him into her bed! When her mother, Mona, walked in on them, she almost
had a heart attack!
Physician's assistant David Thornton confessed to his favorite nurse, Ruth
Martin, that he did, in fact, have a medical degree. The experiences he'd
had in Vietnam had spooked him, and he didn't want anyone to know that he was
a doctor. Ruth kept David's secret. She was flattered that such an
attractive and younger man had trusted her. Joe had became more distant from
Ruth when his daughter Tara had chosen her son, Phil, over Chuck. David
Thornton declared his love for Ruth and she responded to him. She pondered
divorcing Joe and marrying David, but came to her senses when Joe's appendix
burst and the only doctor who could perform the emergency appendectomy was
David Thornton, who had no choice but to become a practicing surgeon again!
As David operated, Ruth realized that she loved Joe. She broke off her
relationship with David and reconciled with Joe.
Ruth and Joe Martin watched their children, Phil and Tara, say their vows as
they at long last became man and wife. Little Phillip still resented "Uncle"
Phil and had stayed away from their wedding. He wanted to stay with his
"father" Chuck. Phil felt that Little Phillip should be told the truth, but
agreed with Tara not to tell him.
1977
Joe diagnosed Kitty Tyler's attacks of blindness and dizziness as an
inoperable brain tumor. Kitty only had a short time to live. During her
final days, Linc and Myrtle Lum surrounded her with love. Kitty thanked Linc
for being her husband, lover, and dearest friend. She died in his arms.
Before she left town, Myrtle sold the Boutique, which Ann Tyler had given to
Kitty, to Ellen Shepherd.
Mona was frantic to break up Erica and her new boyfriend, Mark Dalton,
because she realized that Mark was Erica's half-brother! When Erica finally
accepted the truth, she was angry. Mark, the symbol of her father's
infidelity, became her enemy. And as she froze him out of her life, Mark
kept asking her why. Finally, she told him that he was her father's bastard
son.
After a spat with Nick, Erica quit working for him and wheedled her way into
the hostess job at the Goalpost, the new restaurant that ex-pro football star
Tom Cudahy had just opened. Erica decided that she wanted to marry Nick and
she lured him back to her bed!
1978
Ray Gardner came to town for the sole purpose of selling his son, Tad, for
money! When the Martins refused to negotiate, Ray began watching and
waiting. And one evening, when Ruth crossed a deserted parking lot and
unlocked her car, Ray sprung out at her. He robbed, assaulted and raped her
by the time her husband, Joe, got there. Joe stopped him from killing her.
Ray escaped, but was eventually caught by another villain, pimp Billy Clyde
Tuggle. Estelle LaTour was surprised to see the man who prostituted and beat
her could be such a hero! Ruth and Joe at long last were able to legally
adopt Tad, who was excited when his name became Tad Martin!
While working for Tom Cudahy at the Goalpost, Erica plotted to make Nick
realize how much he loved her. Hinting that she'd kill herself if he didn't
marry her, she disappeared, leaving clues to her grisly demise in a Center
City alley. Nick and Mona panicked over Erica's whereabouts while Erica
enjoyed herself in New York City, where she unfortunately contracted viral
pneumonia! Contacting Mona, the doctors told her that Erica had a 50-50
chance of survival. Mona told Nick that only he could give Erica the will to
live. He had to ask her to marry him. Against his better judgment, Nick
proposed to Erica. When she recovered, Nick reconsidered his proposal to
Erica. As much as he loved Erica, he knew it would never work out for them.
And finally, he told her so. She did everything she could to change his
mind, including one last passionate bedroom seduction. But Nick's mind was
made up. When he walked out on her that last time, she vowed revenge! But
she soon found a new man to marry -- her Goalpost boss, Tom Cudahy, who was
about as decent a man as Erica had ever met.
After having an operation to reverse her sterility, Donna Tyler became
pregnant with her husband, Chuck's, baby.
1979
Before leaving Pine Valley, Tara and Phil congratulated Joe and Ruth on the
unexpected good news that Ruth was pregnant! Joe and Ruth's adopted son,
Tad, worried that they might love the new baby more than him, but they
reassured him while Joe's mother, Kate, tried to calm Ruth's fears about
having a healthy baby at her advanced age! On Christmas morning, Joe and Ruth
welcomed the arrival of their son, Joey.
Phoebe's plan to pay Eddie Dorrance to marry Kelly Cole, the singer whose
career he managed, fell apart when Kelly found out about it on the morning of
the wedding. Kelly called off the wedding and Phoebe's heart sank as she
watched Kelly and her son Linc fall in love. But Kelly never wanted Linc to
know about her drug addiction. She tried to go off the pills, but lapsed one
night. Strung out after popping a few two many during a singing engagement,
she fell apart on stage, and publicly declared her hate for Eddie because
he'd turned her into a junkie! She ran out. When Linc finally found her
hours later, he brought her back to The Chateau where they found
Eddie...dead!...in his office!
Erica's biggest secret blew up in her face when Tom came across her birth
control pills and, waving them in her face, blasted her once and for all!
"Lies, lies, lies! That's all our marriage has been, Erica. And now, it's
over!" All Tom wanted was a child. Eventually, Erica persuaded Tom to give
their marriage one more try.
Tom hired Brooke to take Erica's place at the Goalpost. Brooke was at a
crossroads. She had been used badly, first by Mark Dalton who was still
lovesick for Ellen Shepherd, and then by the now dead Eddie Dorrance. Upon
learning that she was carrying Eddie's baby, Brooke made a tough decision and
secretly had an abortion!
DLT
>
>
>On the night before shipping out to Vietnam, Phil and Tara tried to get
>married. Trapped in a blizzard, they took shelter in an empty church and
>married themselves. They made love, but Phil left soon after for combat
>duty. Later, he was reported missing in action. Tara told no one that she
>considered herself married to Phil, even after she discovered she was
>pregnant with his baby. Tara eventually told the news to Chuck, who offered
>the perfect solution when he asked Tara to marry him. Later that year, Tara
>gave birth to a son, whom she named Phillip.
Isn't Charlie the same person as little Phillip? I remember
some of this when I was a little girl... I thought his
name was Charles Phillip Brent, named after both Chuck and
Phillip..
-netta
Jerome L Neapoliton
> In article <3tu7ai$2...@CUBoulder.Colorado.EDU>, brum...@osiris.Colorado.EDU (Susan M. Brumbaugh) says:
>>
>
>>
>>married. Trapped in a blizzard, they took shelter in an empty church and
>>married themselves. They made love, but Phil left soon after for combat
>>duty. Later, he was reported missing in action. Tara told no one that she
>>considered herself married to Phil, even after she discovered she was
>>pregnant with his baby. Tara eventually told the news to Chuck, who offered
>>the perfect solution when he asked Tara to marry him. Later that year, Tara
>>gave birth to a son, whom she named Phillip.
>
> some of this when I was a little girl... I thought his
> name was Charles Phillip Brent, named after both Chuck and
> Phillip..
>
> -netta
>
to be called Charlie. Can anyone remember just what he went into his brat act
about? I think it may have been about being lied to about his parentage. Any
better memories out there?
Cella