All My Children is in the news again due to Susan Lucci’s just released memoir, La Lucci. The soap was one of my favorites along with Ryan’s Hope, Another World, and Texas when I first got hooked on them in 1980. I watched AMC from 1980 to 1984 until I got distracted by As the World Turns. I never watched AMC again.
My two favorite AMC storylines from my watching years both involved Erica. The first was when Erica, married to Tom Cudahey (Richard Shoberg), met Brandon Kingsley (Mike Minor from Petticoat Junction fame) the CEO of Sensuelle Cosmetics. She quickly dumped hot but boring Tom when she was chosen to be the new spokes model for the company and then began having a wild affair with her boss, as they lived it up in New York City. However, he had a cold wife Sara (Tudi Wiggins) and spoiled teenage daughter, Pamela (Kathleen Kambi) residing in the suburbs of Connecticut.
The second storyline began after Erica dumped Brandon when wooed by the wealthier Kent Bogard (Michael Woods followed by Lee Godart) and he lured her to his daddy’s even bigger cosmetic company that bought out Sensuelle. Kent promised Erica her own beauty line, but his father Lars despised Erica, causing major conflict. This coincided with the arrival of her mousy half-sister Silver Kane (the wonderful Deborah Goodrich). This turned into a twisty Cinderella/All About Eve storyline. Silver was at the beck-and-call of self-centered, high-maintenance Erica while studying her every move until she was ready to turn into a beautiful swan who became a rival for the blindsided Erica’s job and beau. Silver was revealed to be a con artist whose real name was Connie Wilkes, Kent was found murdered, and Erica, the prime suspect, went on the run.
I interviewed Michael Woods for my book Texas: An Oral History of Daytime TV’s Answer to Dallas and this is what he shared about playing Kent Bogard on All My Children:
“It was a strange kind of deal of how I wound up on soaps. I tested from LA for a part of a construction worker [Wally McFadden] to play opposite the character Betsy [Kennicott] on All My Children. They liked me a lot but instead thought they could turn me into this sophisticated hotshot, Kent Bogard, to be the paramour to Susan Lucci’s Erica. You don’t say no to your first job, especially on All My Children that was hugely popular at the time. In as much as I wanted to say, “Guys, this just doesn’t feel right to me,” I didn’t and moved to New York. I began playing Kent and it was not a match made in heaven, shall we say. I knew it. They knew it. It being my first job, I didn’t know my parameters. I just played ball and went along but I wish I had made a few more suggestions. Susan Lucci was the grande dame of that show. I was the new boy in town. I maybe could have used a little more guiding light, so to speak, which someone else may have been a little more attentive in that direction—not the case here. I had to fend and learn for myself. It was fine and, ironically, I did a movie [Double Edge, 1992] with Susan Lucci about ten years later where I had a much more suitable part for me. I was not the right fit for Kent Bogard. Perhaps if they had let me try an accent and embody the character more it may have been a different outcome. They didn’t want me to do much of anything. It was a good learning experience, though.
Finally, I said, “Guys, this is not working for me. Is it working for you?” They said no. I said good, and we agreed to move on from each other. It worked out just perfectly. I got off the show and almost the next day, I got an audition for Mark Wheeler on Texas, which felt like the right part for me. I was fortunate and blessed to get a new job without losing a day’s worth of work.”
