Erica Kane

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"Erica Kane" is also the title of songs by Aaliyah, B5 and Urge Overkill, all written about this character.
Erica Kane

Susan Lucci as Erica Kane
All My Children
Portrayed by Susan Lucci
First appearance January 5, 1970
Created by Agnes Nixon
Profile
Aliases Princess (by Nick Davis)
Sheila (as a waitress)
Desiree Dubois (as a Las Vegas showgirl)
Gender Female
Date of birth 1962[1]
Age 46 [1]
Occupation Unemployed
Residence Prison

Susan Lucci as Erica in an early still

Erica Kane is a long-running fictional character from the American daytime drama All My Children. The character has been portrayed by actress Susan Lucci since the show's premiere in 1970. Erica is considered to be the most popular character in soap opera history.[2] TV Guide calls her "unequivocally the most famous soap opera character in the history of daytime TV."[3] Actress Susan Lucci has said that she considers Erica the greatest role ever written for a woman.

Contents

[edit] First scene

All My Children introduces character Erica Kane spouting a self-centered rant. She spells out to her mother everything she is looking for in a husband, establishing her ambition and her love for rich men. But deep inside, Erica is nursing the scars of the abandonment by her father, successful film director Eric Kane. At the same time, her father's life in Hollywood is the driving force for her longing to leave Pine Valley.

[edit] Abortion controversy

In 1973, Erica makes the decision to have an abortion — the first legal abortion on television after Roe v. Wade was decided.[4] What makes the abortion particularly controversial is Erica's reason for doing it, which is not for reasons of health, but so that she can keep her modeling job.[5]

The writers had Erica develop a potentially fatal infection after having the abortion. The switch-boards at ABC lit up with calls from doctors and nurses, offering their medical opinions on how best to treat the character's case. The controversy did not hurt ratings in the end, which rose from 8.2 to 9.1.

In the mid-2000s, head writer Megan McTavish set off controversy when the abortion was retconned in order to establish that Erica's aborted fetus was transferred into another woman's uterus. This was five years, however, before the first successful test-tube baby. Her son, Josh Madden, would return to Pine Valley and eventually learn of his true parentage.

[edit] Family

A model-turned-makeup executive, the show detailed the challenging aspects of Erica's life even more-such as her relationship with her mother, Mona Kane (Frances Heflin). Erica's love for Mona was an important theme, but also her resentment of the restrictions to her free spirit in which Mona tried to implement. When Mona died of cancer in 1994, the character was shown to take it hard.

Erica's relationship with the rest of her family has been just as complicated, if not as tempestuous.

Erica has three children:

  • Joshua "Josh" Madden (most recently portrayed by Colin Egglesfield). In 2005, Erica was shocked to discover that the doctor who performed her abortion in 1973 (see above) actually performed an experimental fetal transplant, placing the fetus into another woman (his wife) and raising the child as his son.
  • Bianca Montgomery (most recently portrayed by Eden Riegel). Bianca is Erica's only child born in a traditional manner and whom Erica raised from childhood. In 2000, Bianca came out as a lesbian, and only recently has Erica fully come to terms with the revelation. Bianca has one daughter.

Erica has three grandchildren:

  • Spike Lavery (born May 31, 2006), Spike is Kendall's son with Ryan Lavery through artificial insemination. Spike was supposed to have been Ryan's child with his then-wife Greenlee Smythe. Ryan was presumed dead and as there was a power outage at the time she was to be inseminated, Kendall was forced to use her own egg. Greenlee kidnapped Spike while Kendall was in labor with her second child. Greenlee was then involved in a car accident which was believed to have left Spike deaf, although it was later discovered that his deafness was inevitable.
  • Ian Slater (born July 26, 2007), Ian is the first child of Kendall with her husband, Zach. Ian was born three and a half months early and has a hole in his heart. He is the second grandson of Erica.

Erica's other relatives include:

A half-brother, Mark Dalton (portrayed by Mark LaMura). In 1977, Mark and Erica had begun a romance of sorts, which led Mona to divulge the secret that they both shared the same father: Eric Kane. Erica's father had an affair with his secretary, Maureen Dalton, while working in Hollywood. In 1982, while working in New York City as a model, Erica discovered she had a half-sister named Silver. Like Mark, Silver was the product of an affair Eric Kane had (this time with a woman named Goldie). Tad Martin later exposed Silver as an imposter named Connie, but the real Silver showed up soon after, only to be killed later on.

[edit] Activities

The Erica character has done many things which one would probably consider over-the-top, yet typical for a soap opera character. She's staged a helicopter prison break, driven a race car (and won the race) and confronted a grizzly bear while in the forest. For a brief time, Erica was a Las Vegas showgirl.

In 1983, she fled Pine Valley for the Hollywood Hills, posing as a nun. She did this because her former lover, Kent Bogard, was killed in a struggle with a gun. Erica committed no crime, but her jealous "half-sister" (actually Connie) accused her of murder. She went undercover in 1989 in a traveling circus to locate her missing father, who had faked his own death years before. She discovered him working as a clown named 'Barney'.

The character has written three bestselling books: "Raising Kane" (her autobiography), "Erica Kane: Beyond the Pain", and "Erica Kane: Having It All". She was portrayed in a film version of "Raising Kane" by the actress Danielle Farrar. She has hosted her own talk show, was addicted to painkillers after a debilitating fall from the catwalk in 1995 (later receiving treatment at the Betty Ford Center), kidnapped Edmund and Maria Grey's baby in 1997 after having a miscarriage, and received an intervention for alcohol abuse in 2004.

For much of the 1990s and early 2000s, Erica ran Enchantment, a cosmetics company. After losing it to Cambias Industries in 2003, she focused most of her attention on her relationship with Jackson. In the fall of 2005, however, she returned to work, this time as the host and executive producer of her own talk show, New Beginnings.

Erica Kane and Dimitri Marick (Michael Nader) at their first wedding.
Erica Kane and Dimitri Marick (Michael Nader) at their first wedding.

[edit] Marriages and relationships

Erica Kane is notable for her numerous marriages. Some have been valid, with others invalid. Her valid marriages were with Jeff Martin, Philip Brent, Tom Cudahy, Adam Chandler, Dimitri Marick (twice), and, as of May 2005, Jackson Montgomery. Her invalid marriages were with Mike Roy (twice; their second was an informal recitement of vows on Mike's "death bed" in 1985), Travis Montgomery (twice) and Adam Chandler (their second ceremony was actually a renewal of their vows, since they had never been legally divorced years earlier).

Erica has also had many relationships with numerous other men in Pine Valley, and has the distinction of bedding three generations of men from the same family: Nick Davis (her mother's best friend), Philip Brent (Nick's son), and Charlie (Philip's son).

[edit] Foes

Erica has a long list of people who she has scorned and fought with over the years: Maria Santos, Barbara Montgomery, Tara Martin, Richard Fields, Michael Cambias, Greenlee Smythe, Ethan Cambias, Mary Smythe, Dr. Greg Madden, J.R. Chandler, Frankie Stone, Maggie Stone, Natalie Marlowe, Janet Dillon, Vanessa Bennett, Donna Beck, Babe Carey, Krystal Carey, David Hayward, Alexandra Devane Marick, Annie Lavery and Julia Santos. Also, for a time, her enemies included her own children: Kendall Hart Slater and Josh Madden. She also has on-and-off again confrontations with Kendall's husband, Zach Slater.

Although Erica has had many rivals over the years, her most famous and longest rivalry has been with the character Brooke English.

[edit] Cultural impact

Because of her many marriages, Erica has the longest name for a television character:

Erica Kane Martin Brent Cudahy Chandler Roy Roy Montgomery Montgomery Chandler Marick Marick Montgomery.
It is worth noting, however, that the character of Erica Kane has always, despite her marriages, remained Erica Kane, and due to five of her marriages being invalid (both of her marriages to Mike Roy, both of her marriages to Travis Montgomery, and her second marriage to Adam Chandler, which was in actuality a vow renewal), has never legally held some of those names.

In a sketch on Saturday Night Live, Erica Kane was a contestant on the fictional game show "Game Breakers". She seduced fictional game show host Jack Morgan (portrayed by Phil Hartman), thus enabling her to soundly beat her opponent. Morgan came close to marrying Kane (in a ceremony presided over by Don Pardo), but the wedding was interrupted by real-life game show host (and "current husband") Gene Rayburn. The sketch ended with Kane being mauled by a panther owned by Siegfried and Roy (portrayed by Kevin Nealon and Dana Carvey).[6]

Erica also popularized the catchphrase "I am Erica Kane!", said whenever Erica was afraid, challenged, or threatened.

Because of the drama that she causes, the late musical artist Aaliyah recorded a song about it called "Erica Kane."[7]

Band B5 also made a song called "Erica Kane". The song talks about how they're in a relationship with a beautiful girl, but she is crazy.

Alternative rock band Urge Overkill titled a song after the character.[8]

Rapper Lil' Kim at times refers to herself as "the black Erica Kane."[citation needed]

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ a b Erica Kane profile - SoapCentral.com When AMC debuted in 1970, Erica was 16 years old, putting her birthdate at 1954. In 1993, this was retconned to 1956, as Erica was said to be 14 years old when she had daughter Kendall Hart, who was herself 23 at the time. In 2002, Kendall's birthdate was established as 1976, putting Erica's birth year at 1962.
  2. ^ H.W. Wilson Company (1986). Current Biography. H.W. Wilson Company, 128 (specific page). 
  3. ^ HARRISON, NANCY. "Susan Lucci, 11 Times a Nominee, 8 Times a Bride, Up for Emmy Again", The New York Times, 1991-06-23. Retrieved on 2007-10-27. 
  4. ^ The Last Taboo. Soapoperadigest.com, Publisher Jennifer Lenhart. Retrieved on 2007-07-04.
  5. ^ Interview with Gerry Waggett. About.com. Retrieved on 2007-07-04.
  6. ^ Game Breakers transcript featuring Erica Kane. snltranscripts.jt.org. Retrieved on 2007-07-10.
  7. ^ Erica Kane lyrics. tsrocks.com. Retrieved on 2008-02-07.
  8. ^ Erica Kane Lyrics by Urge Overkill. actionext.com. Retrieved on 2008-02-07.

[edit] External links


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All My Children
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Created by: Agnes Nixon  • Headwriters: James Harmon Brown and Barbara Esensten  • Executive producer: Julie Hanan Carruthers
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