40thAnniversary

It's been weeks since All My Children dropped head writer Charles Pratt Jr. Today, the ABC soap which has just celebrated its 40th anniversary on the air, made a decision about the future story lines for the show. David Kreizman and Donna Swajeski are the new co-head writers of All My Children. The duo have worked together in the past; in 2007 they were winners of the Writers Guild Award for heading up the Guiding Light writing staff.

ABC Daytime prez Brian Frons, was effusive in praising the writers, saying, "David and Donna are the perfect team to bring new ideas to All My Children while remaining true to its core by telling stories with a focus on the integrity of the show's history, its characters and families on the canvas." It helps that Donna actually began her soap writing career at AMC, working directly with the show's creator, Agnes Nixon.

While we've all been struggling through this holiday lull in regular TV programming, soap fans can take solace in the fact that the action is still happening in daytime. No show has more action going for it right now than All My Children as the 40th anniversary approaches.

On January 4, 2010, All My Children will turn 40 years old. In honor of the event, the celebration will be stretched over two days, Monday and Tuesday -- January 4th and 5th -- with former AMC stars Kelly Ripa and husband Mark Consuelos anchoring the festivities.

On Monday, Hayley and Mateo -- Kelly and Mark's characters -- return to Pine Valley with much fanfare. They're there to film an episode of Hayley's TV show, The Wave, because Pine Valley has been named "The Most Congenial Town in America."

With all the tumult at All My Children lately, here's some good news. For the 40th anniversary in January 2010, Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos will return to All My Children for a visit. On January 4th and 5th, Kelly and Mark will guest on the show, presumably as their AMC characters, Hayley and Mateo.

This will be their first return since leaving in 2002. Both have achieved success away from the show, in primetime on dramas and sitcoms, and especially for Kelly on Live with Regis and Kelly in morning talk. However, they both started on AMC and, in fact, that was where they met, fell in love, got married and lived happily ever after.

I don't know about you, but I was kind of ticked off that General Hospital decided that 45 years on the air wasn't a good enough reason for a special episode. They had a cake -- good for them -- but generally speaking, the media celebrated the GH anniversary more than the show did. Well, ABC and One Life to Live are doing just the opposite for four decades of broadcasting. One Life to Live will celebrate its 40th anniversary -- officially July 15th -- with three special, out of this world storylines. It all starts on July 21. How out of this world? Well, it will be celestial.

Headwriter Ron Carlivati told TV Guide that his plans, which are extensive, include sending Viki back to Heaven. Longtime fans will recall that in 1987, Viki "died" and went to Heaven, which was inspired by Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and looked very sci-fi.
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Star Trek has been in the news quite a bit these last few weeks. There's the Comedy Central roast of William Shatner, the premiere of Star Trek:Enterprise on the Sci Fi Channel, and the announcement of a new Trek movie that will be directed by Lost creator J.J. Abrams. Now word comes that TV Land has acquired the rights to the original (and many say the best) Star Trek.

The show will join TV Land's regular rotation starting in November. However, in order to celebrate the show's 40th anniversary (feeling old yet anyone?) the classic-television network will air four episodes of Trek on September 8th; the date when it premiered way back in 1966 on NBC. The evening will start off with "The Man Trap", which was the episode that began the series, then follow with "City on the Edge of Forever" (with a young Joan Collins), "The Trouble With Tribbles" (one of my favorites), and "Plato's Stepchildren", which featured the very first interracial kiss shown on television (although some fans refute that statement).

After this initial four episode run the show will take a break and come back on November 17th in its normal time slot. Episodes will also be available online at TV Land's new broadband video channel.