History of All My Children (2000-present)
2002.Since 2000, All My Children expanded from its rooted storytelling that got it through much of the 1990s. Michael Nader left the role of Dimitri Marick in a highly-publicized dispute that led to the allegation that he was suffering from AIDS (which were proved to be false). James Kiberd and Robin Mattson left their roles as Trevor and Janet Dillon, removing an entire family from the Pine Valley landscape. With the high turnover in the cast as well as the writers and producers, Agnes Nixon came to write the show for a few months in 2000, bringing in new actors and writing shocking new revelations for existing characters.
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David's mother, Vanessa Bennett (Marj Dusay) came to town, intent on destroying Erica. She claimed to be writing a fannish book on Erica's life, but in reality she was planning on creating an expose of all the dirty secrets in Erica's life. It turned out that she had been in love with Richard Fields, the man who had raped Erica when she was a little girl, and Vanessa blamed Erica for Fields's death. It was through Vanessa's machinations that Bianca (now being played by Eden Riegel) was forced to admit to her mother, Erica, that she was a lesbian. Erica was puzzled that David hated his mother, and Erica confronted him. He admitted that he hated Vanessa because she had driven his father to commit suicide. Erica and David eventually became lovers.
Dixie and Tad found their way back to each other, but Dixie decided that she wanted to have another child, even though Tad was afraid that pregnancy would interfere with Dixie's kidney problems. She managed to become pregnant, however, and turned to David for help. She found out that she was going to have a girl, and with David's help, went to Switzerland for medical health. While in Switzerland, she was involved in an automobile accident, and she died, although her body was never recovered.
Vanessa succeeded in breaking up Opal and Palmer, because she wanted Palmer's money. She wound up marrying Palmer, but Palmer became suspicious when Vanessa began making long, loving phone calls to someone named Leo. It turned out that Leo du Pres (Josh Duhamel) was Vanessa's son, the result of an adulterous affair with a married Count. David had never known he had a younger brother. Leo was also a con man, and when he met rich girl Greenlee Smythe (Rebecca Budig), he planned on marrying her for her money. To his surprise, he fell in love with Greenlee.
Eventually, it was revealed that Vanessa was the head of a major drug smuggling ring, and that she called herself Proteus. She tried to stay out of prison by pretending insanity, but Leo and David worked to prove that she was faking. She managed to escape from the mental ward of the hospital and took Greenlee hostage, but Leo confronted her at the lip of a waterfall, and the two fell over the edge of the cliff, never to be seen again.
Greenlee, in her grief, tried to reconnect with her distant parents. But she was disgusted to find her father, Roger (Mark Pinter) having an affair with a much younger girl, and that her mother, Mary (Anna Stuart) was too wrapped up in her own affairs to care. Eventually, it was revealed that Greenlee's father was actually Jackson Montgomery.
Ryan and Gillian were deeply in love, but Gillian was shot and killed. Ryan became distant from the rest of people in town. Kendall returned to town (now played by Alicia Minshew), having broken up with Del Henry, and she set her sights on Ryan. Unfortunately, she was unable to give up her devious ways, and she had relationships with several men, ending her relationship with Ryan. Ryan was surprised to discover that FBI agent Chris Stamp (Jack Scalia) was really his father, and not the abusive alcoholic whom he had always been led to believe was his father. But when Chris died in the line of duty, and Ryan found Kendall once again unfaithful to him, he left town.
Wealthy industrialist Michael Cambias (William deVry) came to town with the intentions of taking over Erica's company. In the process, he married Kendall (she wanted him for his money), and attempted to rape Erica. He did, however, rape Bianca, leaving her pregnant. Michael was eventually murdered, and after a long period of accusations and counter-accusations, it was revealed that Bianca had killed him after he attempted to attack her again, but had blanked out the events.
Ryan, while driving in the country on his motorcycle, encountered Michael's father, Alexander, dying. He helped Alexander out, but the wealthy man died, and left his entire estate to Ryan. This raised a series of claims on the extensive Cambias estate -- Ryan was in Alexander's will, but Kendall was Michael's widow, and Bianca was the mother of Michael's child.
City girl Mia Saunders (Amelia Heinle) arrived in Pine Valley, intent on blackmailing Marian Colby in exchange for a steady money stipend. When Marian refused to budge, Mia made it known to the town that Marian's husband Larry had an affair many years before, and that she was Larry's daughter. Angry that Mia threatened her mother, Liza Colby proclaimed that she was out for blood. Liza did not believe Mia and insisted that she take a DNA test. Two tests were performed (one done willingly by Mia and another done secretly by Adam Chandler, after he took a specimen of Mia's hair follicle) and both tests proved conclusive that Mia was related to Liza by blood.
Liza hated Mia and their relationship would stay strained until Liza suffered a miscarriage. The two bonded when Mia revealed that she gave a baby up for adoption when she was a teenager. The relationship was patched up a bit, until Liza believed that Mia was trying to steal her husband Adam Chandler (in reality, Mia was in love with Dr. Jake Martin, now being played by J. Eddie Peck). At a costume ball, Liza confronted Mia and, in the heat of the argument, pushed her out a second-story window. Even though Mia suffered many injuries from the fall, she felt attached enough to Liza to refuse pressing charges. Mia and Jake were engaged to be married, only to have him leave town and return later, saying he had fallen in love with another girl and that their relationship was over. Mia was heartbroken and she eventually left town.
Maria Santos Grey came back to town with complete amnesia, calling herself Maureen Gorman. Her introduction came at a very inopportune time for Brooke, who had reconciled with Edmund and was getting married to him. Brooke knew that Maria was alive and kept the secret from Edmund so they would finally get married. In the end, however, Brooke realized how much he was still in love with Maria and gracefully conceded.
As Maria regained her memory, it turned out that she had not died in the plane crash, but had washed up on the beach near where David Hayward was burying the body of a transient on whom he had been experimenting. David saved Maria's life, but his treatment prevented her from regaining her memory. Afraid that if she did regain her memory she would report him over the dead man, he made sure that she never got back to Pine Valley by telling her that she was wanted for murder. She went to live in Las Vegas. It took a long time for her to regain her memory and to realize that she was still in love with Edmund.
When Erica, in an alcoholic haze, went to Las Vegas to become a showgirl, she ran into Bobby Warner (Christian Campbell), son of Cliff Warner and Sybil Thorne, raised by Nina Cortlandt. He was head of security at the casino where she worked, and didn't recognize her at first.
Another man introduced to the audience during this time was Zachery Slater (Thorsten Kaye), who eventually helped Erica return to Pine Valley, and had a connection with the town as well -- he had a relationship with Maria in Las Vegas, back when she called herself Maureen. Maria was at a crossroads because she remembered her past life in Las Vegas but also her former love for Edmund back before the plane crash. In the end, Maria didn't get either man.
Erica's downward spiral continued until her fiancé, Jackson, convinced her to get treatment via an intervention staged by him and her closest friends and family. When Jackson gave Erica an ultimatum -- seek help for her alcoholism or cut both Jackson and his daughter Lily out of her life forever -- and it didn't work, he called her half-brother Mark Dalton from Hong Kong to talk sense into her. Coupled with emotional pleas from Kendall, Bianca, Opal, and Myrtle, she denied she had a problem before finally admitting to Jackson in private that she needed help.
Beautiful Babe Carey (Alexa Havins) came to town, and set her sights on rich boy J R Chandler (Jacob Young), Dixie's son. But she also slept with Jamie Martin (Justin Bruening). She became pregnant, and told J R that he was the father. They were married, but she neglected to tell him that she had never gotten a formal divorce from her first husband, Paul Cramer (David Tom). Once she divorced Paul, she and J R were married, although the paternity of their baby was still up in the air. Babe's mother Krystal (Bobbie Eakes) made her first appearance in Pine Valley as soon as she found out that Babe was in trouble. Babe did not know who her birth father was, thus she and her mother had a very tight bond and backed the other up when times were tough. It was eventually revealed that David Hayward was Babe's father.
, 2004.
Babe and Bianca became friends, and the two pregnant girls found themselves trapped in a cabin in the woods when Bianca went into labor. Babe delivered Bianca's baby, Miranda, then went off for help. She found herself trapped in a storm and going into labor herself. Calling for help, her ex-husband, Paul Cramer, appeared. He helped her to deliver a son. (see One Life to Live for details on Paul Cramer and his relationship with his sister Kelly and her child). Paul stole Babe's baby to give to his sister, but felt guilty, and rescued Bianca and Miranda, but gave Miranda to Babe, thinking that she would never know that there had been a baby switch. Bianca and Babe were left at a loss as to what had happened to Miranda. Babe was confused, because she thought that she had had a son, but she named her new daughter Bess, after J R's grandmother, Bess Cooney. Eventually, Babe discovered that Bess was really Miranda, but she had no idea what had happened to her son, and plotted to keep the baby for herself. Krystal found out the baby's true parentage and switched the results, even though Krystal's new love interest, Tad Martin, found out the truth. In the end, it was proven to the people in Pine Valley that Kelly Cramer's baby, Ace, was the one who died, and that "Ace" in Llanview was actually Babe's baby, Bess. Babe teamed up with Jamie, kidnapped her baby once and for all, and ran away from the area. Before Bianca could find out that Miranda was really alive (and in J.R. Chandler's custody, half-believing that Miranda was HIS baby, Bess), J.R. pushed her off a balcony, and she was comatose. Tad told Erica about the entire debacle, which angered her. It took all her strength not to accuse J.R. outright, because in doing so, she could scare him into running away with Miranda, and Bianca would not see her baby again.
In 2005, Bianca, Miranda, and Maggie left Pine Valley to spend a new life in Paris for a suite for Cambias Industries. That year, Edmund starts to begin walking again when he was hit by a result from a fire in the Wildwind farm. Ethan Ramsey (James Scott) accuses Zach Slater (Thorsten Kaye) of Edmund's murder leaving Maria devastated on his death. Lily Montgomery (Leven Rambin) starts to believe that Zach didn't kill Edmund. Ryan and Jonathan's (Jeff Branson) brother, Braden (actor soon to be announced) pops up back in town as a deranged killer to off one of the residents of Pine Valley. J.R. won custody of Adam Chandler III against Babe, Kevin Buchanan (Dan Gauthier) and Kelly Cramer (Heather Tom).
Town matriarch, the meddlestom Phoebe Tyler Wallingford was killed off-screen in May 2005 after the real life death of original cast member Ruth Warrick on January 15th, 2005. Phoebe left all her money to Jamie Martin on the condition that "the poision [is] leached from your sytem. You must cut off all ties with that tramp Babe Carey". She added insult to injury by leaving JR Chandler the executor of her last will and testimant.
Main article: All My Children
