All My Children
Michael E. Knight Remembers His ‘All My Children’ Parents and the Moments He’ll Never Forget with Jill Larson and Ray MacDonnell (Exclusive)
Before Michael E. Knight became General Hospital’s Martin Grey back in 2019, he had a long and enduring run as one of soap’s most beloved and treasured characters on All My Children as Tad Martin.
Along the way, Knight won three Daytime Emmys for the role, and was given the now classic speech in All My Children’s final ABC episode where Tad toasts to all with whom he loved. He previously had told Michael Fairman TV, he knew the minute he read that monologue it was written by the iconic creator of the series, the late Agnes Nixon.
Michael appeared on All My Children from 1982–1986, 1988–1990, 1992–2011, and made his last appearance in the role in 2013 in Prospect Park’s online revival of the series in its first and only shortened season.

Photo: ABC
Throughout his journey in Pine Valley, Michael worked with so many towering icons that came out of the ABC soap opera, but during the Michael Fairman Channel’s recent interview with him, Knight spoke on all of his TV parents, Mary Fickett (Ruth #1), Ray MacDonnell (Joe), Jill Larson (Opal) and Lee Meriwether (Ruth #2).
MARY FICKETT
Mary Fickett was the first actress to win a Daytime Emmy as an individual performer on a daytime drama series back in 1973, She won for her impassioned speech as the mother of a young man who was drafted to fight in the Vietnam War.
“Mary Fickett was was something: very first Daytime Emmy winner ever. She won when the Daytime Emmy ceremonies truly didn’t even exist,” recalled Knight. “She was amazing. Talk about heart, and Erika Slezak (Ronnie, GH and ex-Viki, OLTL) has the same thing where it’s just this heart radiating out out of her. You can believe you can hang any kind of family drama on top of that character and it would, because the Martins, were a great little solar system.”
RAY MACDONNELL
Dr. Joe was everything to All My Children, the moral center, but in real-life, MacDonnell was quite the jokester. “I just loved Ray because he had sort of a face like Mount Rushmore. He was always saying (as Joe), ‘Well, we’ve got to do more tests at the hospital.’ But, he was literally one of the funniest people,” recalled Michael.

Photo: JPI
“I think it was my second day and Tad was being picked up. Joe and grandma Kate (Kay Campbell) picked me up at the police station in Central City, after Tad had been arrested. We were doing dress rehearsal and I didn’t know these people at all at this point. I’m in the backseat, and Joe and Kate are sitting in the front of the car. Kate looks at Joe and says, ‘Give the boy a break, Joe.’ Ray turns around in the middle of the scene and says, ‘Shut up, you old bag.’ I started laughing until I was just crying.”
Ray’s impact on Michael was far-reaching, in fact, because of his TV father, there is a connection to this day with Knight’s real-life dad. “It’s so easy to play love for somebody when they make you laugh like that. To this day, because of Ray, I call my father “Pop” because Tad used to call Joe, “Pop”.
JILL LARSON
While Jill Larson and Michael Knight together could find the comedy in any scenes given to them, Opal and Tad loved each other and so did the two actors, who faced the heartbreaking cancellation of All My Children together.
Michael explained, “Jill was the very first person I saw after they announced that All My Children was canceled. It always makes me tear up to this day. She and I were crossing each other on the set. Brian Frons (ex-ABC exec, Daytime) had just made the announcement on the screen, because he didn’t come to the studio, and told us they were going to call it a day for our show.”

Photo: JPI
In a emotional moment, Knight shared, “We just looked at each other. Jill had tears streaming down her face. It was like losing a piece of your family, because you do it for so long, you think, it’s like the weather. The sun’s always going to come up again. You realize that this family, this thing, this emotional investment is never going to be there again. It just really kicks you in the gut. But to go back to her work, Jill could make you laugh and make you cry, you kno and in the same scene.”
LEE MERIWETHER
Having to connect with another actress as your beloved mother on a soap can be difficult, but as Michael explains when motion picture and TV actress, Lee Meriwether took over the role beginning in 1996, Knight was a bit starstruck having loved her as Catwoman in the motion picture. Batman (1966),
“Lee was great. She’s one of the easiest people in the world to be with,” shared Michael. “Absolutely stunning. I remember looking at her going, and I think she would’ve been her sixties. She is just one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever worked with inside and out.”
When talked turned to how do you replace Mary Fickett the heart and soul of the Martins? Michael expressed, “Recasting Mary Fickett is like trying to replace Tony Geary (ex-Luke, GH). It’s like, if you get this wrong, you are screwed. I think they just got lucky, lightning in a bottle, you know? She made it her own. Lee never tried to imitate anybody. They were great with the characters on All My Children. All of the Martins were very, very well scripted, but I think they got really got lucky with Lee. Anybody else that could have been a disaster.”
Watch our full conversation with Michael where he remembers his days as Tad on All My Children, plus his evolution as GH’s Martin Grey below.
Now, let us know, did you love All My Children’s Mary Fickett, Ray MacDonnell, Jill Larson and Lee Meriwether as Tad’s parents through the years? Share your thoughts via the comment section below.
I love All My Children and its characters so much. I miss it everyday! Please bring it back in some way! Please!
You are not alone, Ellen.
All My Children
‘All My Children’ Movie Writers for Lifetime Revealed: Ron Carlivati, Jamey Giddens and Leo Richardson

This week began and as reported with a spotlight article on Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos and how their production entity, Milojo, has been teeing up the All My Children reboot with Lifetime.
The L.A. Times featured the married couple, co-hosts of Live with Kelly and Mark, and former All My Children cast members (where they met and fell in love) about their plans to bring two All My Children movies to Lifetime and how they are working with the Agnes Nixon estate to make it come to fruition,
On Wednesday, it was revealed by Daytime Confidential, that All My Children reboot producer, Andrew Stearn handpicked none other than Ron Carlivati (ex-head writer, One Life to Live, General Hospital and Days of our Lives) and Jamey Giddens (who is the new co-head writer of The Young and the Restless, following his tenures on the writing teams of Beyond the Gates and Days of Our Lives), as the two scribes who will bring the first of two of Kelly and Mark’s All My Children movies to the page.

Photo: IMDb
RON CARLIVATI AND JAMEY GIDDENS CONFIRM THEIR BOARDING THE ALL MY CHILDREN MOVIE PROJECT
The second installment is said to be written by primetime writer Leo Richardson whose credits include: Star, Katy Keene and more recently the Penn Badgley (ex-Phillip Chancellor IV, The Young and the Restless) starring series, You.
Richardson also wrote for three years on the U.K.’s long-running soap, EastEnders. All My Children revival fans will recall Richardson’s name was attached as the writer for the first incarnation of the All My Children movies, entitled, Pine Valley.
Ron Carlivati took to X and confirmed he is indeed boarding the All My Children movie project. Carlivati shared, “So excited to share this news! Thanks to Andrew Stearn, Kelly Ripa, Mark Consuelos, Albert Bianchini and the Agnes Nixon estate for entrusting Jamey Giddens and me with the first of two planned All My Children movies for Lifetime! Stay tuned!”

Photo: Jeremy Smith/imageSPACE
Jamey Giddens confirmed DC’s announcement by taking to his account on X and expressing, “I’ve been booked and busy in 2026. Thanks to Andrew Stearn, the Agnes Nixon estate, Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos for entrusting Ron Carlivati, and me with the first of two planned All My Children movies for Lifetime!”
Some fans seemed to question how Giddens could be writing for the first All My Children movie at Lifetime, when he is the new co-head writer at The Young and the Restless with Dan O’Connor. Jamey answered that head on via X and explained, “We turned in our All My Children script months ago. My sole focus as of this past Monday, is Genoa City, Wisconsin! #YR”
ERICA KANE, MARIA SANTOS AND HAYLEY AND MATEO SANTOS TO APPEAR IN THE ALL MY CHILDREN MOVIE REVIVAL?
In the planned stories, Susan Lucci’s Erica Kane and Eva LaRue’s Maria Santos will be two characters whose lives we will get to see for the first time since the series was canceled by ABC back in 2011 after 41 years on the air. As well, Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos confirmed they will make brief appearances on-screen; one could assume as Hayley and Mateo Santos.
“It’d be wonderful to give the fans something that they’ve been yearning for so many years,” shared Mark Consuelos to the LA Times. “All My Children gave me my family. I met my wife there. It gave me my start in the business. It gave us so much. It would be a dream to be able to give back.”
So, what do you think of Ron Carlivati and Jamey Giddens getting nod to write the All My Children movie #1 script and Leo Richardson #2? Weigh-in via the comment section below.
All My Children
‘All My Children’ Revival Updates: Lifetime EVP Speaks on Why Proposed Movies are Great Fit, Mark Consuelos Wants To ‘Give Back’ to Fans

The All My Children revival via movies at Lifetime is still in the works from former series stars and marrieds, Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos, through their production company, Milojo.
The co-hosts of Live with Kelly and Mark were featured this week in a Los Angeles Times article which detailed their efforts to bring some of the citizens of Pine Valley back to your screens.
As previously reported, and reaffirmed by the L.A. Times, the All My Children movies will be set in the present day and focus on what beloved characters such as Erica Kane (Susan Lucci) and Maria Santos Gray (Eva LaRue) are doing now. In addition, Kelly Ripa confirmed that she and Mark Consuelos will also appear on screen briefly most likely appearing in their signature soap roles as Hayley and Mateo Santos.

Photo: ABC
ALL MY CHILDREN MOVIES BRING NOSTALGIA THAT CAN BE MADE TO FEEL NEW AGAIN
Elaine Frontain Bryant, executive vice president and head of programming for A&E, Lifetime, and Lifetime Movie Network said of the All My Children reboot, “Lifetime is always interested in shows that kind of tap into a powerful nostalgia that can be made fresh for today’s audience. There’s a whole generation of women that have missed these stories and these characters.”
As for working with Kelly and Mark on the Lifetime movie versions of the soap, “They’re exactly the kind of partners you want at a brand,” expressed Bryant. “They’re trusted voices because every day they’re talking to their audience, which, a lot of times, is our audience. They bring a real credibility and have an authentic point of view. You meet Kelly and Mark and kind of what you see is what you get, and I think they bring that same authenticity to their development standards.”
Albert Bianchini, executive producer for Milojo, says he knows All My Children is so wildly popular with the fans of daytime. That was punctuated when seeing it in person, and how the energy was off the charts back in January of 2025 when Kelly participated along with Susan Lucci, former head writer, Lorraine Broderick and casting director, Judy Blye Wilson in a conversation with Andy Cohen at the 92nd Street Y in New York City.

© Steven Bergman/AFF-USA.COM Credit: AFF/Alamy Live News
“I’ve never seen a crowd like that in my life. People were lined up around the block, recalled the Bianchini. “Everyone wanted to know, ‘When is (All My Children) coming back? We want more.’ We got to see that in real life and Kelly got to feel it in real life, and it made so much sense. I just know that the minute it gets out in the world, people will want more and more and more. There’s just a love there.”
Kelly Ripa added that they are, “working closely with the estate of Agnes Nixon (the legendary creator of All My Children). She recalled, “She (Agnes) was so far ahead of her time. She covered topics that weren’t being covered. It was extraordinary the audiences that the show drew, and she served them real stories that were affecting Americans across the country but weren’t necessarily being represented anywhere.”
“It’d be wonderful to give the fans something that they’ve been yearning for so many years,” shared Mark Consuelos. “All My Children gave me my family. I met my wife there. It gave me my start in the business. It gave us so much. It would be a dream to be able to give back.”
THE CANCELLATION AND STOPS AND STARTS OF ALL MY CHILDREN REBOOTS
All My Children aired on ABC from 1970 to 2011. It got a second chance at life when Prospect Park resurrected the show and brought it to The OnLine Network and Hulu for one season in 2013.
Recently, the series made a return through the estate of Agnes Nixon and is streaming internationally on BEONDTV and through their partnership with PlutoTV Canada with episodes starting in 1995. Fans hope original episodes will some day soon be available in the U.S. as well, but that could prove more difficult since ABC owns the rights to the episodes stateside.
Now 13 years later, while there is no word yet on a definitive production start date to the two movies at Lifetime, all the people involved seemed determined to make it come to life.
So, what do you think of the executive vice-president of Lifetime and LMN being enthusiastic about Kelly and Mark’s All My Children movie revivals? Are you wanting to see this come to fruition? Kelly and Mark seem to have made this a very high priority. Do you hope that by 2027 we might be able to get this to the finish the line and into production? Weigh-in via the comment section.
All My Children
‘All My Children’ Episodes to Stream on Pluto TV Canada
Starting on May 1, All My Children fans in Canada will be able to see classic episodes of the beloved former ABC soap opera when they stream on Pluto TV Canada.
Pluto TV picked-up the All My Children Channel that the Nixon family has created in partnership with BEONDTV +. The show which aired for 41 years on ABC and ended on the network in 2011, had so many memorable storylines and characters; the least of which is the enduring run of Erica Kane played by soap icon, Susan Lucci.
As previously reported, starting with episodes from the year 1995, which was the 25th anniversary of the soap. Pluto TV Canada viewers will be able to catch 8 episodes on repeat per day. With the success of the venture, the Nixons are hopeful that they will bring viewers many more years of the show to come.

Photo: ABC
Sarah Nixon, producer, shared with Michael Fairman TV exclusively, “We are thrilled that Pluto TV has launched All My Children in Canada! Let’s hope the engagement from our incredibly loyal fans across the border will encourage ABC to bring it to the U.S.! We share what Aggie (Agnes Nixon) always felt, that it is the enthusiasm and love from the fans that has kept this legacy beloved and relevant – to this day!”
In addition, 0ne week ago, during Susan Lucci’s visit to Los Angeles promoting her book La Lucci, she was joined by her former Pine Valley castmates, Rebecca Budig (ex-Greenlee, AMC, now Taylor, B&B) and Eva LaRue (ex-Maria, AMC) and the trio posed for a pic. At that time, LaRue shared via Instagram, “NEW All My Children channel streaming classic episodes 24/7 now on Pluto TV Canada! Fingers crossed to watch soon on Pluto US.”
That was also confirmed this week by TV Watercooler’s Jeevan Brar who took to X and expressed, “The All My Children channel begins streaming this Friday, May 1 on Pluto TV Canada.
So, Canadian viewers, excited about Pluto TV’s All My Children channel? United States fans, hopeful from Sarah’s message that perhaps soon, we can see the beloved soap once again as well? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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