Erica Kane is a fictional character from the American ABC Daytime soap opera All My Children. The character was portrayed by actress Susan Lucci from her debut on January 16, 1970, until the last broadcast television episode on September 23, 2011. Erica is 15 years old when All My Children debuted in 1970. Lucci was expected to guest star on Prospect Park's continuation of All My Children in 2013, but the appearance never came to fruition due to the show's second cancellation.
Erica is considered to be the most popular character in American soap opera history. TV Guide calls her "unequivocally the most famous soap opera character in the history of daytime TV," and included her in their 2013 list of The 60 Nastiest Villains of All Time.Bretts, Bruce; Roush, Matt; (March 25, 2013). "Baddies to the Bone: The 60 nastiest villains of all time". TV Guide. pp. 14 - 15.
Character creation Background Agnes Nixon created Erica Kane in the 1960s as part of the story bible for All My Children, a light-hearted soap opera focusing on social issues and young love. Nixon unsuccessfully attempted to sell the series to NBC, then to CBS, and once again to NBC through Procter & Gamble. With Procter & Gamble unable to make room for the new series in its line up, she put All My Children on hold. Nixon became head writer of Another World where she used the model of the Erica character to create a brand new character: Rachel Davis. Nixon said Rachel was Erica's "precursor to the public." She detailed Rachel's goals as less "stratospheric" in nature since her primary motivation involved marrying Dr. Russ Mathews or a man with money while Erica wanted love, independence, and fame. "What Erica and Rachel have in common is they thought if they could get their dream, they'd be satisfied," Nixon said. "But that dream has been elusive."Simon, p. 28.Hyatt, p. 29.
After the success of One Life to Live, a series Nixon created in 1968, ABC asked her to create another soap opera for them. She used the story bible for All My Children to create the new program. The Erica character officially debuted in 1970 once All My Children made it onto the air.
Casting
At the time, soap operas featured mostly older casts. To add a contemporary feel to the show, Nixon focused on younger characters, while also mixing in older ones so as not to lose traditional viewers. The youths on All My Children were Tara Martin (Karen Lynn Gorney), Phillip Brent (Richard Hatch), Chuck Tyler (Jack Stauffer), and Erica Kane (Susan Lucci). For those parts, the show wanted to cast unknown actors.
In 1969, Susan Lucci responded to a casting call for All My Children. She initially auditioned for the role of Tara Martin. The "character that we were all interested in was not Erica, but Tara," said Doris Quinlan, the show's former executive producer. "She was the sweet young ingenue — the one with all the problems that everyone was supposed to care about... I certainly couldn't cast [Lucci] as a young, innocent, sweet little Irish girl. That's not what comes out. She's much more sophisticated – at least she gives that appearance. She was perfect to play Erica." After a meeting with a casting director, they promised to call her back in six months. One of hundreds of people they called back in, Lucci progressed on from each reading of the part until she received the role. "I saw the audition tapes, and she just stood out," said Agnes Nixon. "There was never a question, ever."
Before being cast as Erica Kane, Lucci did not have much success in her acting career. A casting director discouraged her from pursuing roles on television because her hair, skin, and eyes were too dark. Though Lucci's olive complexion held her back from other acting opportunities, it worked in her favor while up for the role of Erica. "Agnes Nixon, the show's creator, really wanted somebody dark to play this part. She has always been ahead of her time," Lucci said. Lucci debuted in episode 10 of the series. In portraying Erica, the actress drew on the "self-centered" and "haughty" traits she recognized in herself while in college. Lucci said, "I love playing her. I enjoyed playing her when she was a 15-year-old high school girl, the naughty girl in town, and I enjoy playing her now, when she's still the naughty girl, but she's broadened her area of operation to include the entire world."
Archetypes Over the years, Erica developed into different character archetypes. Soap operas once featured only one-dimensional characters who were either good or bad. By the 1970s, characters were written with more depth, fitting into archetypes consisting of the young-and-vulnerable romantic heroine, the old-fashioned villain, the rival, the suffering antagonist, Mr. Right, the former playboy, the meddlesome and villainous mother/grandmother, the benevolent mother/grandmother, and the career woman. Erica was established as the rival to Tara Martin's young-and-vulnerable romantic heroine. As the rival, Erica was written as money and status-conscious as well as sexually aggressive. Erica was generally positioned as the antagonist keeping true love pairings, such as Tara and Phillip Brent, apart.
By the late 1970s, a different set of character types were established, including the chic suburbanite, the subtle single, the traditional family person, the successful professional, and the elegant socialite. Erica was in the chic suburbanite category which comprised "flashy," achievement-oriented characters with little interest in family and friends. Like others in this category, Erica was written as "flamboyant, frivolous and carefree, with little commitment other than [her] own selfish enjoyment of life."
Overall, Erica is the embodiment of "the bitch goddess,"Siegel, p. 3. a soap opera archetype that "transformed and defined" the soap opera genre. Irna Phillips, Nixon, and William J. Bell created the archetype in the 1960s and it became one of their defining legacies. The archetype is an assertive Cinderella who goes after material things. This was a change from the heroines of the radio soap operas who waited to be rescued by men. Erica started out as "a conniving teenage vixen" and transformed into "the femme fatale incarnate." The characters in this category are outrageous, exaggerated, financially disadvantaged and determined to change that. Other characters in this archetype are Lisa Grimaldi (As the World Turns), Rachel Davis (Another World) and Belle Clemons (The Secret Storm).
Character development Characteristics
Erica is a headstrong and selfish 15-year-old when All My Children begun in 1970.In Lucci's 2005 Associated Press interview, she stated Erica was age 15 when she began portraying the character. Although Nixon designed her as one of the bad characters, she was not intended to come off as evil or menacing. Since Nixon created All My Children as a "light hearted" soap opera, the series' villains, Erica included, came across as more fun and funny, than wicked.Soares, p. 34. Over time, Erica evolved into a "heroine-vixen" who still did bad things, but was also a character the audience rooted for. Former associate producer Felicia Minei Behr said, "The Erica that [Lucci] started with, was a kid who was one-dimensional, who was the rotten seed, and she turned her into a very fascinating character- the character that everybody loves to hate."Susan Lucci, p. 39. Characterized as the "naughty girl in town" from the start, her motivations stem from her relationship with her father. Her abandonment by him led her to be written as sexually aggressive with men. She needs to receive love from men to prove she is not unlovable.
One of Erica's defining features is her extreme self-centered point of view.Soares, p. 153. Erica is described as "imaginative, adventurous, and brilliant", yet writers detailed her as appearing "scarcely rational enough to cope with adulthood."Spence, p. 117. Despite this, the character represents independence and power. "I think of Erica as a go-getter," Lucci said, "someone who's impatient to have a terrific life and have it yesterday. I think a lot of people can identify with that."Susan Lucci, p. 91. She always controls her business whether involved with a man or not. Some of the jobs she has been given during her storylines include a high fashion model, a cosmetics tycoon, and a magazine publisher.
When Charles Pratt, Jr. took over as head writer of All My Children in 2008, one of his goals for improving the series involved making Erica the focus of the show again. "[A]bove all, the show is, and should always revolve around, Erica," he said in an interview with Soap Opera Digest. "I can see the temptation to split her off and put her in jail and put her on the run. We did it on Ugly Betty! But to me, she is the Scarlett O'Hara of this show and she must always be that, be the center and the heart of the show. Challenging that character that way, making her the powerful woman she should be, is important."
Family When All My Children debuts, the Kane family consists of Erica, her mother, Mona (Frances Heflin), and her absent father, film director Eric Kane (Albert Stratton). Mona spoils Erica to fill the void Eric left behind. Despite this, the writers scripted the relationship between Mona and Erica as tumultuous, with Mona disapproving of Erica's behavior and Erica blaming Mona for her father's desertion.Soares, p. 105. The relationship is later developed into a strong bond. The writers layered their interactions with "raw edges" and humor. "Erica idealized her father. Heflin said.Siegel, p. 49. Whenever Eric disappoints Erica, she blames her mother. "Then, of course, would come the moment of breakdown when she would cry on [Mona's] shoulder," Helfin said. "So it's more or less human. Really, more human and less saccharine than most of the mother/children relationships on soaps. It has an awful lot of bit in it." After Mona's death in 1994, Erica continues to put Eric on a pedestal, refusing to acknowledge his flaws.
From the start of the series, the lack of a relationship with her father serves as motivation for Erica's actions. She is an example of the Nixon staple of the "lost daddy's girl."Simon, p. 148. Eric abandons her and her mother before the start of the show, when Erica is nine years old. As a result, she develops a severe abandonment complex. Since Eric leaves his family for a successful career in Hollywood, Erica also longs for a life of fame and a successful man. This motivation is maintained in the character decades into the series. "Susan added a lot of Erica's background," Behr said. "Rather than playing it as if Erica's just a rotten character, she added the pathos of this child who was deserted by her father. Every time she did a scene about how 'My father loves me. I know that he loves me and nobody is going to tell me differently,' she colored it with the knowledge that she had really been deserted. It worked so well that the writers reached the point where they said we have to play this out." In 1989, Eric makes his first appearance as Erica goes in search of him and finds him working as a clown at a circus. She attempts to help him out of his current circumstances, but he ends up betraying her and leaving Pine Valley.