Bianca Montgomery and Maggie Stone are fictional characters and a supercouple from the American daytime drama All My Children. She cried mea culpa, clashed with Zoe and ultimately returned solo to France. Unfortunately, BAM fans, Maggie appears to have left the building. Try though she might, AMC's Maggie can't seem to convince her ex, Bianca, that her cheating days are over. After begging for forgiveness and pitching in at [Fusion Cosmetics], Mags makes her lonely exit on Wednesday, February 7. Is this the end for AMC's Sapphic supercouple? "Bianca still loves her," headwriter Megan McTavish assures the audience. "And yet, at the same time, I don't think it's a given that you necessarily forgive the person who cheated on you. So Maggie has an uphill climb." Ms. Stone's ambiguous exit leaves viewers wondering whether she'll return, yet an AMC rep says nothing is planned at this time. Bianca was portrayed by Eden Riegel, and Maggie was portrayed by Elizabeth Hendrickson.
Lorraine Broderick created and introduced Bianca in 1988, and Agnes Nixon expanded on the character, scripting her as a lesbian and making her the first lead character on a major daytime drama to be a lesbian. Hendrickson was originally brought on as character Frankie Stone; the storyline revolved around the close relationship of Bianca and Frankie, as well as the aftermath of Frankie's death. When her death attracted criticism, writer Richard Culliton decided to bring the actress back as the character's identical twin sister, Maggie Stone. Maggie debuted on the show in 2002, to investigate her sister's murder, and was immediately thereafter set up to bond with Bianca.
The two characters became the center of an on-again, off-again romantic flirtation that developed into a romance, which spanned four years all together. Star-crossed true loves, the pairing was planned to have various ups and downs; they sought friendship and security in their need for solidarity, and dealt with sexual confusion and ambiguity in their struggle to remain platonic.
Though the series paced Bianca and Maggie's relationship for three and a half years before making the couple's romance official, the pairing consistently intrigued the All My Children audience, as well as soap opera critics and LGBT outlets such as The Advocate and AfterEllen.com. They subsequently became the most demanded homosexual pairing in American daytime soap opera history, and are daytime television's first same-sex supercouple.
Background
Writing Before Frankie Stone's introduction, former All My Children head writer Richard Culliton already planned for her to die in a murder storyline after three months on the series. Culliton and ABC executives were surprised when viewers became attached to the romance between Bianca and Frankie, developed by Culliton with Frankie's debut. These fans attributed Frankie's death to the show's fear to focus on a lesbian romance. Eventually, Culliton came up with the idea to bring back the popular actress who had portrayed Frankie, Elizabeth Hendrickson, as the character's identical twin sister. He continued to write for the show until late 2002.
Television executive Brian Frons held a six-year position with SBS Broadcasting in the United Kingdom, where he worked on a number of popular reality shows. When he became head of ABC Daytime in 2002, he pushed for ABC's soap operas, which he felt had become cliché-ridden and predictable, to become more realistic. With Jean Dadario Burke as executive producer, Frons had ABC begin adding more depth to All My Children's Bianca Montgomery, the lesbian daughter of Susan Lucci's Erica Kane. Feeling that Bianca was defined only by her sexuality, they began writing her character "to become everywoman, to make her more real and to understand what makes her good or bad". Writers were initially uncertain whether to pair Maggie romantically with Bianca; they did not want Maggie to be a copy of Frankie, and subsequently scripted Maggie as heterosexual with various aspects of her personality different than Frankie's. Complicating matters further, Bianca was given a different lesbian love interest, Lena Kundera. At the time, in an interview reported by the New York Post, Frons stated that he considered the Lena and Bianca pairing "much bolder" than romantically pairing Bianca with "longtime" galpal Maggie. However, he expressed uncertainty about pairing Maggie with a man. "Maybe it will be decided that Maggie has no chemistry with Henry because she is a lesbian and wasn't ready to deal with it," he said.
When choosing Maggie's love interests, the audience often seemed to have as much say about the matter as Frons. Before Maggie's relationship with character Henry Chin came to an end, viewers refused to give their romance a chance, adamant that the only true love for Maggie had to be Bianca. Ivan Shaw, Henry's then-portrayer, relied on optimism. "I have definitely felt the heat from all of the Bianca and Maggie fans, but hope that the Henry and Maggie relationship will eventually win them over," he said. Viewers, however, were persistent in their opposition to Henry and Maggie's relationship, and the writers soon created an exit for Henry to leave town. Maggie is soon seen questioning her sexual orientation due to sensing romantic feelings on her part for Bianca. Early scenes between Bianca and Maggie revolve around the two romantically desiring each other but often secretly. As time goes on, conflict between Lena and Maggie becomes apparent. Maggie dates men to negate her sexual attraction to Bianca, her "coming-out" process designed as going from denial, to confusion, to acceptance of her sexuality — a portrayal lauded as representative of real-life experiences of lesbians and bisexual women. Bianca was not written to face exactly the same struggle with her sexuality onscreen; she largely comes to terms with her sexual orientation before returning to Pine Valley in 2000 after a time of absence from the series.
By the time Megan McTavish stepped in as head writer with Julie Hanan Carruthers as executive producer, McTavish explained that Maggie's involvement with character Jonathan Lavery was mostly a result of her feeling rejected by Bianca. Though the writers had Maggie accept her sexual interest in Bianca, the character was once again written to deny being sexually attracted to women; her relationship with Jonathan was now her main focus and the possibility of her wanting Bianca as a lover was now retracted. With viewers indifferent about the Lena/Bianca/Maggie love triangle, a story arc was written pushing a Jonathan/Maggie/Bianca love triangle. This second love triangle developed slowly, but included an aspect that kept viewers invested: Jonathan is presented as an abuser, and Bianca feels she must fight to free Maggie of his control. Maggie's new denial does not last long, and the character later admits her desire to start a life with Bianca.
Fan response to the Bianca and Maggie romance was mostly positive, and the arc worked towards the goals of realism Frons wanted to convey. He believed "it was very real and had not been done in daytime [television] before".
Actresses Hendrickson had not originally planned on working on soap operas. She believed the medium would not challenge her acting. After a few years of struggling to acquire a steady acting job, however, she decided to give the daytime genre a chance and agreed to a contract role with the show. She soon came to regard the soap opera industry as challenging.
Eden Riegel, who signed on one year earlier and had formerly appeared on Broadway, was also apprehensive about joining a soap opera, but was convinced by her parents. She later attributed her reluctance to elitism.
Actress Olga Sosnovska was brought on as Lena Kundera, to add conflict to Bianca and Maggie's relationship; the writers introduced Lena in December 2002, as a "sassy" bisexual from Poland, characterized as a temptress "in the mold of Juliette Binoche". Sosnovska was asked if she realized that by accepting this role she would be stepping into "so much" controversy. "I’m still coming to terms with this phenomenon of Lianca," she replied, "with the devotion that I’m shown as a couple on TV, and the whole concept of fans. The letters that I get are heart breaking. It’s horrible that even now in the 21st century [so many lesbians] feel the need to hide. Not everyone is confident enough to face the world, and not everyone lives in a safe environment."
The couples became popular, but viewers and critics such as magazine Soap Opera Digest especially cited a positive working dynamic between Riegel and Hendrickson. The two women, though both heterosexual in real life, stated that they "just clicked" and enjoy each other's company.
When later queried on the viewer demand for a romance between Bianca and Maggie, the actresses relayed their support for gay and lesbian representation in television, with Riegel stating: "I think Liz [Hendrickson] will agree that it would be an amazing storyline. [...] I realize what an incredible opportunity we have to show a real love between two women that really speaks to people and can promote tolerance and respect." Hendrickson followed up: "That's one of the reasons that I took the role of Frankie. They didn't necessarily say that Frankie was going to be a lesbian, but they alluded to the fact that she could be. I felt that I could make an impact, and what better way to choose a role? I am more than willing to go that way."
Riegel and Hendrickson have described an emotional investment in their characters driven by impact on fans and positive fan response.
Music Music within Bianca and Maggie's relationship consisted of soft rock, pop and the show's own original melodies.
In a less hectic time for the characters, an original song titled "All I Ever Wanted Was You" was played during a scene where Bianca and Maggie discussed their feelings for each other, but decided to remain best friends.
Original and featured music on the show was followed through by composers A.J. Gundell, Gary Kuo, Kim Oler and Jerry Pilato. In 2004, they were nominated for a Daytime Emmy in the 31st Annual Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Achievement In Music Direction And Composition For A Drama Series.
Storyline In 2002, Maggie Stone comes to Pine Valley to investigate the murder of her twin sister, Frankie, whom Bianca mistakes her for at first sight. Their meeting is set up by Kendall Hart (Alicia Minshew), Bianca's sister, who loathes Bianca. She figures that Bianca will be hurt by seeing someone who looks exactly like Frankie, Bianca's deceased girlfriend. Maggie explains who she is, but Bianca is too happy to see Frankie's face and does not understand Maggie's words completely at first. Kendall's plan having backfired, Bianca and Maggie meet later, where they discuss Frankie in further detail.
Maggie reconnects with her family, Vanessa Cortlandt (Marj Dusay), Leo du Pres (Josh Duhamel) and David Hayward (Vincent Irizarry), whom she barely knows. Bianca bonds with Maggie. Together, they work to find Frankie's killer. After discovering Frankie was killed by her Aunt Vanessa's henchman, Maggie confronts Vanessa. Maggie is drugged and left to die in an abandoned pump house, but is rescued by David and Leo.