'All My Children' reunion scheduled for August 1

ALL MY CHILDREN ran from January 5, 1970, to September 23, 2011, on ABC and on The Online Network (TOLN) from April 29 to September 2, 2013, via Hulu, Hulu Plus, and iTunes. Fans of the popular soap will be happy to know that a virtual reunion is planned for August 1. Let's take a look at some of the facts related to this iconic daytime television drama.

In 1970 ALL MY CHILDREN was initially recorded at ABC's TV18 at 101 West 67th St in New York and the location is now a 50-story apartment tower. Beginning in March 1990 until December 2009, the soap was taped at ABC's Studio TV23 at 320 West 66th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. In December the series moved from Manhattan to Los Angeles, California where costs were cheaper. From 2009-2011 AMC was produced in Stages 1 and 2 at the Andrita Studios in Los Angeles, and later at the Connecticut Film Center in Stamford, Connecticut.

AMC began taping in high definition on February 3, 2010, and became the third soap opera that was produced and broadcast in HD. At one point, the soap was so popular that it became the most widely recorded television show in the United States. ALL MY CHILDREN also boasted that 30% of its audience was male which was against norms at the time which was the 1970s. The show was number one in Nielsen ratings for the 1978–1979 season and throughout most of the 1980s and into the early 1990s, ALL MY CHILDREN was the No. 2 daytime drama on the air.

During the 2000s AMC along with most other soap opera's had a decline in viewers and ratings. By the 2010s this show became the least-watched of all the daytime drama programs. ABC announced on April 14, 2011, that it was canceling AMC after a 41 year run. Distraught viewers reached out to Oprah who was a big fan and asked her to put the soap on her OWN network but she declined. On July 7, 2011, ABC sold the licensing rights of ALL MY CHILDREN to Prospect Park and the soap was set to continue as a series of webisodes online.

AMC taped its final scenes for ABC on August 30, 2011, and the final episode on the network aired on September 23, 2011, with a cliffhanger. The following Monday, ABC replaced ALL My CHILDREN with a new talk show THE CHEW and soap fans were furious. Due to unsuccessful union negotiations with unions representing the cast and crew and a lack of funding Prospect Park suspended plans to revive AMC. Prospect Park officially brought back its project in January 2013 and ALL MY CHILDREN taped its first scenes on February 18, 2013.

The first online episode aired on April 29, 2013, and fans were excited but the new series faced a number of behind-the-scene obstacles throughout its short run. On November 11, 2013, after only 7 months, several cast members announced that Prospect Park had stopped production and canceled AMC. In December 2016 ABC regained the rights to ALL MY CHILDREN and four years later in December 2020, announced that a primetime spinoff, titled PINE VALLEY was in the beginning stages.

Nothing more has been mentioned about PINE VALLEY but a number of AMC cast members will be on hand for the reunion. So far those who have signed on are Jacob Young (JR), Rebecca Budig (Greenlee) Eva La Rue (Maria), Laurence Lau (Greg). Vincent Irizarry (David), Darnell Williams (Jesse), Cameron Mathison (Ryan), Walt Willey (Jackson), Melissa Claire Egan (Annie), Alicia Minshew (Kendall), Jordi Vilasuso (Griffin), and Aiden Turner (Aidan). Be on the lookout for additional cast members to join.