‘All My Children’ stars come to town to say farewell
BY LORI RACKL TV Critic/lrackl@suntimes.com January 11, 2012 8:14PM
Walt Willey As Jackson
‘A TRIBUTE
TO PINE VALLEY’
◆ 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday
◆ Rosemont Theatre, 5400 N. River Rd., Rosemont
◆ $35-$125
◆ (866) 364-0330;
ATributetoPineValley.com
◆ An autograph/photo session will be held with the actors from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. for a maximum of 250 fans. Tickets, $125.
Article Extras
Updated: February 13, 2012 8:15AM
‘All My Children” fans have a chance to share some laughs — and a few tears — when half a dozen cast members of the recently axed soap swing through town Sunday on a tribute tour.
Walt Willey, the Ottawa, Ill., native who came on board “All My Children” as the dashing Jackson Montgomery in 1987, described the tribute event as a “sea of love.”
“There’s a definite family dynamic among viewers of daytime drama and those of us who have plied our craft in it,” Willey said. “When that love is just splashing against you, it’s amazing.”
Headed for the Rosemont Theatre, “A Tribute to Pine Valley” will be more celebration than funeral for ABC’s long-running sudser, which went off the air in September after a 41-year run.
Fans get to grill the actors during a Q&A session, try to stump them with “AMC” trivia and hear behind-the-scenes stories from Willey, Cameron Mathison (Ryan), Alicia Minshew (Kendall), Vincent Irizarry (David), Darnell Williams (Jesse) and Jacob Young (JR).
During what’s billed as the most emotional part of the event, “A Walk Down Memory Lane,” the audience and actors relive some of the ups and downs of Pine Valley’s perfectly coiffed denizens.
“Fans are heartbroken, and I don’t think that’s too strong a word,” Willey said. “This has been such a presence in people’s lives. It’s memories of grandma, memories of college days. It has a deep, emotional meaning for them.
“No matter how much we knew in advance that this was going to happen, it still had a bit of an abrupt, dropping-of-the-guillotine blade to it,” he added. “People aren’t quite done with this yet.”
“A Tribute to Pine Valley” rolled through the New York area last fall, when as many as 1,700 devotees packed a theater in Long Island.
Before coming to suburban Rosemont, the event will make a couple of stops in Wisconsin this weekend, hitting the Green Bay region on Friday and Milwaukee on Saturday.
“This gives the actors a chance to thank the fans and say goodbye, and the fans want to give their love to the actors,” said Michael S. Gold, the owner of the Michigan-based celebrity booking agency that organized the event.
“The show being canceled has really affected a lot of lives,” he said. “These people treat the actors and the show like it was part of their family, their best friends.”
Gold put on his first soap tribute tour after “Guiding Light” faded to black in 2009. He took a tribute titled “So Long, Springfield” to nine U.S. markets.
Since then, the daytime soap graveyard has only been getting more crowded as ratings continue to slide and TV execs look to replace scripted dramas with less expensive chat fests. CBS’ “As the World Turns” bit the dust in 2010. Next was “All My Children,” which, for a while, looked like it might live on via the Internet. That plan eventually fizzled.
ABC filled the “AMC” time slot with “The Chew,” a food-focused talker that’s been netting roughly the same number of viewers as its predecessor — but with lower production costs.
The bell now tolls for ABC’s “One Life to Live,” whose one life is over as of Friday.
It, too, is turning over its longtime home to a new talker manned by a panel of co-hosts. “The Revolution,” which has a health- and lifestyle-focused bent, premieres Monday.
Don’t worry, fans. Gold’s already on the case.
“We’re doing ‘Loving Llanview,’ a goodbye to ‘One Life to Live,’ too,” he said. “It’s going to come to Chicago. We’re just working on dates.”
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