by Meghan Harvey

Created on: September 10, 2008

On January 5, 1970, legendary soap creator Agnes Nixon invited soap fans into the turbulent yet fascinating world of Pine Valley, PA. Viewers were immediately taken with the families, life, and loves of Pine Valley residents. With All My Children, Nixon told stories using the topical social issues facing people at the time, yet injecting doses of humor in those stories as well. This is the striking ingredient that has kept it on the air all these years.

Agnes Nixon attempted to sell All My Children to NBC, CBS, and then NBC again before finally finding a home at ABC. Though AMC's ratings were far from strong in its first year it continued to attract enough new viewers each year to satisfy both Nixon and ABC. Eventually it would go on to be the most widely recorded television show in the US. It also held the rare distinguishing feature at one time of having 30% of its audience men. Like most soaps, AMC premiered as a half-hour long show. In 1977 it followed the trend, and expanded to an hour. All My Children's crowning imprint on the world of television was the creation of the most famous soap character of all time, Erica Kane.

From the moment it premiered, AMC focused on several core families: The rich Tyler family, the Kanes, and the heart of Pine Valley, The Martins. Over the years a number of additional families have planted roots in streets of Pine Valley. Some of AMC's significant families would come to include. The Wallinford/Wlusks, The Hubbards, The Merricks, Montgomery's, Santos, and Chandler families, to name a few. With the social status of these families ranging form obscenely rich to working class, All My Children has always been able to tell stories other soaps couldn't.

AMC has been breaking new ground with storylines since the beginning. It was the first show to openly discuss the war in Vietnam, with heated debates and anti-war protests. One storyline about the Vietnam War would go on to involve a major character drafted and killed (presumed dead). One of AMC's most infamous stories came a few short months after Roe V Wade was passed into law, when Erica Kane became the first television character to have a legal abortion. What caused the huge controversy was that her reasons were purely superficial.

AMC didn't stop there. In 1983 they introduced the first gay character when they brought on lesbian, Lynn Carson. A leader in gay rights and lesbian rights, AMC also had the first major soap character to come out as gay (Erica's daughter, Bianca) but

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