All My Children

I see that the actor, James Mitchell, who played evil, nasty, diabolical Palmer Cortlandt on All My Children passed away today at the age of 91.

My addiction to All My Children began during my freshman year of college in 1978 and lasted until 1991. I’ve almost now twenty years of sobriety from my AMC addiction, but I remember those years very fondly.

I got hooked on AMC while working the front desk at my dorm during my freshman year in college. At noon every day, the lobby of the men’s dorm would fill up with guys who were also addicted to this daytime drama. I had little else to do but to become an addict myself.

Throughout my college career, I tried to arrange all my classes around that cherished noon time-slot. This was long before the days of VCRs, mind you. One semester, I was forced to take a class at noon. So, I rigged a cassette recorder to an electric timer, it would record it every day at noon, and I'd come home and listen to what took place in Pine Valley for that day.

That was back in the good ‘ol days when Erica Kane had her claws out for Tom Cudahy, Brooke was a total bitch, Phoebe Tyler was in just about every episode and Tad was a sniveling 17-year-old punk.

I loved the messed-up character of Devon McFaddin. Remember Devon? We watched her go from Miss goody-two-shoes, to unwed mother, to wife, to alcoholic, to lesbian, and back, all within the course of one year.

I remember just where I was when Jenny (of Jenny-and-Greg) died. It was sort of like the Kennedy assassination or 9-11. You’ll always remember right where you were when Jenny died.

Then, there was Palmer Cortlandt. A more conniving, evil, diabolical man would be hard to find. We AMC addicts had to suffer through at least five years of Palmer doing all sorts of evil plots to keep Nina and Cliff apart.

And now, he’s gone.

Maybe Nina and Cliff can finally get together, once and for all. I might just have to start watching it again to find out . . . .