SEPTEMBER 2, 2011 3:49PM

Saying Goodbye to "The Kids."

Rate: 8 Flag
Sometimes, an event will take you by surprise. You'll feel a little too emotional about something—something which you definitely hadn't anticipated.

When McDonald's discontinued the "McDLT" back in 1991, I was floored, yet understood America's demand for a vegetable-free burger. Hey, if we want lettuce and tomato, we'll go to the freakin' Sizzler salad bar.

After leadfooted executives screeched the brakes on clear "Crystal Pepsi" in 1993, I reeled in anger and confusion. Finally, I could see exactly what I was drinking...which was absolutely nothing.

I've already discussed my aversion to change, so after ABC announced the cancellation of All My Children after its forty-one-year run, it struck me particularly hard.

The last episode is scheduled to air September 23.

I haven't even watched the show for ten years, but this king-sized kibosh, for whatever reason, hit me at the source of my life-sustaining Chi energy spring.

I kindled my romance with AMC during the summer of 1972. Erica Kane, Phoebe Tyler and Palmer Courtlandt were the prehistoric predecessors to Atari and Nintendo for a certain pre-adolescent boy. I was compelled to watch the program since it wedged itself between Joker's Wild and Let's Make a Deal, comprising the day's sole game-show free hour of television.

My burgeoning fascination with physical adult relationships was fed on a daily basis. From twelve to one, the camera panned in as closely as humanly possible on two finely coiffed heads as they savaged one another's uvulas into scar tissue.

So that was pretty cool.

A soap opera is an interesting beast; after watching for about a week, you've got most of the characters and story lines established and you can walk a away for another six months, only to re-establish your long distance relationship anew.

Such was the case with "The Kids," as the show came to be identified during my college years. What began as a closet group, much like a quilting bee or Scientology auditing session, eventually evolved into a substantial gathering huddled around a small black and white TV in my fraternity room, to catch up with Greg and Jenny, Jessie and Angie, and Tad and...whomever.

Why do I love this show so very much? Is it because it mirrors real life? Perhaps.

How often does someone just show up at my front door to confront me about my secret twin who's been robbing armored cars?

Boy, if I had a nickel.

Did my own children age twenty years in six months, like many soap opera children have been known to do?

No, but I certainly have.

Forty-one years—that's a year for every freakishly long eyebrow hair on my face. On September 23, I'll be tuning in for that final episode of All My Children.

Or else my twin will.

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all my children, kids, open call

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I watched "All My Children" and "The Young and the Beautiful" a a single mom while my daughter slept for 2 hours. I got hooked amazingly fast. My friends saw me buy Soap Opera Digest and went ballistic. But nothing could cure me except when my daughter grew a bit older and no longer napped. But powerful? You betcha.

So, now she's about 3 and we are living in New York and the TV is off and twice I met characters that I thought I knew. I wish I could remember their names or their cast names but one man I almost jumped I was so exited to see him, and yet I didn't know from where I knew him so instantly. An older woman from AMC--I met in Central park after the news broke (years ago) about that show coming to an end. She was much like her character, wise and calm and o so sweet. I forgot all about soaps. They are really amazing, but I watch no TV however if I were dying a slow death, god forbif, that would be an option. RATED
Can you tell me what's with the broken rates? Rated again.
How refreshing to hear someone who will miss something which has been a part of the fabric of our lives for so many decades. It doesn't matter if we watched that one, we watched one of them at some time or other...and lucky me I got to be on my favorite one when I did my acting years. It was hard when a favorite character (or God forbid) actor died, but the show went on. Now it is different for a show to "die". Thanks for reminding me of the last show, I don't watch tv anymore but I will try to catch the end of...
I was never a huge soap fan - I came closest with GH for a few years -but I still mourn the McDLT (with cheese). Change is hard; I detest it. And just wait until your REAL kids leave. Or you catch your daughter and her boyfriend "savaging one another's uvulas into scar tissue." Talk about painful.
I remember that hour. shallow pond, this piece is brilliantly funny and one so many can identify with.
Had a co-worker who was addicted to the show. I watched one memorable episode with her, when we thought Erica was leaving and she either had a dream or a near-death experience and she met again with her seven or eight husbands.

All good things must end.

Thanks for this post.
I am so glad my mom didn't live to see this day. If we went anywhere the show had to be taped or we HAD to have her home. She would have been so mad!
Rated for your twin.r
I never got into "the kids" I watched The Young and the Restless 25 years ago. but I must confess, I've been pausing on the soaps as I surf for shows in the daytime. Tempted to watch again. Shhhh don't tell. :-) R
I never got into "the kids" I watched The Young and the Restless 25 years ago. but I must confess, I've been pausing on the soaps as I surf for shows in the daytime. Tempted to watch again. Shhhh don't tell. :-) R