"All My Children's" Susan Lucci and Julia Barr channel "Erica Kane" and "Brooke English" at the Paley Center salute to the daytime drama. Photo: Kevin Parry/The Paley Center for Media

AFTRA Welcomes 'All My Children' to Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES (Jan. 22, 2010) – The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) – the people who entertain and inform America –  formally welcomed ABC’s “All My Children” to Los Angeles on Jan. 21 at a private reception following a panel discussion celebrating the show’s 40th anniversary co-hosted with the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills.

Welcoming the more than 150 invited guests at the Paley Center, AFTRA President Roberta Reardon said, “From 1937 – when AFTRA was founded – to today, and for the more than 40 years ‘All My Children’ has been on the air, daytime dramas have employed thousands of AFTRA actors, singers, dancers, stunt performers , background actors and other professional performers. It is the daytime drama – more than any other medium – that that has given birth to the full-time working television actor. To our panelists and other cast members here tonight, I say: AFTRA members salute you.”

Click here to see the photo gallery from the event.

“All My Children” first aired on ABC on Jan. 5, 1970, and the show celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.

The AFTRA/Paley Center co-hosted panel discussion included cast members Susan Lucci “Erica Kane”; Julia Barr “Brooke English”; Bobbie Eakes “Krystal Carey”; Melissa Claire Egan “Annie Chandler”; Vincent Irizarry “David Hayward”; Debbi Morgan “Angie Hubbard”; the show’s executive producer Julie Hanan Carruthers; and special guest Agnes Nixon, the show’s legendary creator.

ABC7 entertainment reporter and AFTRA Los Angeles member George Pennacchio moderated the panel discussion. Other guests in attendance included Paley Center Vice President and Executive Director Craig Hitchcock, ACTRA President Ferne Downey, ACTRA Executive Director Stephen Waddell, AFTRA National Executive Director Kim Roberts Hedgpeth and AFTRA Los Angeles Local President Ron Morgan.

In August 2009, after ABC announced plans to relocate the production of “All My Children” from New York to Los Angeles, AFTRA immediately began working with the cast and production executives in New York to ensure the show’s smooth transition to Los Angeles. In October 2009, AFTRA sent its Los Angeles representatives to New York to meet with cast members and provide information and assistance to those cast members who were relocating. “All My Children’s” LA-based production commenced on Jan. 4, 2010, and it joins other daytime serials produced in Los Angeles, including “General Hospital,” “Days of Our Lives,” “The Young and the Restless” and “The Bold and the Beautiful.”

“All My Children” is produced under the terms of the AFTRA Network Television Code, which in addition to daytime serials also covers performers working on other types of programming,  including “American Idol,” “Dancing with the Stars,” “Late Show with David Letterman,” “Good Morning America,” “20/20,” “The View,” “Oprah,” “The Price is Right,” “Deal or No Deal,” “America’s Next Top Model,” “Saturday Night Live,” “Entertainment Tonight” and “Survivor,” among many others. The AFTRA Network Code is scheduled to expire on Nov. 15, 2010.

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