Soap operas are amazing, aren't they? Take 'All My Children' for example: Erica Kane (Susan Lucci) has been kidnapped or gone missing countless times, but it's always just as suspenseful as the first.

Erica's TV daughter Bianca (now played by Christina Lind) is back in Pine Valley to figure out what's going on and to try to "stop some major drama from going down while she's gone." Yeah, good luck with that. Especially with old flames like Ryan (Cameron Mathison) and Greenlee (Rebecca Budig) still trying to rekindle their romance. Will they? Won't they? It never gets old!

A couple that most certainly will is Amanda (Chrishell Stause) and Jake (Ricky Paull Goldin) who are having a soap opera wedding to end all soap opera weddings, complete with bachelor/bachelorette parties, the all-important cake and, yes, a trip to jail the night before. "The drama's still gonna be there with the other storylines," Stause admits. "With us I kind of like that they're giving us the heart of the show right now."

I'm fascinated by soap opera casting (yes, I have a lame social life). Since a character is usually more important to the show than an actor, you often see a character recast after an actor or actress leaves the role. Sometimes, 6 or 7 different people can play one character over a number of years.

Rebecca Budig played Greenlee Smythe on All My Children for a number of years (though she'll always be Michelle Bauer on Guiding Light to me) but left the ABC show and was replaced. Fans wanted her back in the role and now Budig has decided to come back. And she's not the only one: Debi Morgan and Darnell Williams are coming back to reprise their roles as Angie and Jesse Hubbard, even though Jesse died on screen years ago. It was so long ago that even I was watching the show, and I haven't watched it in years.