1990

Erica's involvement with the dashing Jackson Montgomery deepened in early 1990. Accepting his proposal of marriage, she told Jack she couldn’t set a wedding date because of Bianca. While Erica wanted to marry Jack, Bianca desperately wanted her mommy and daddy together; so did Travis. Jack and Erica proceeded with their wedding plans until Bianca, returning from a trip to Disneyworld with her father, fell deathly ill with Reye’s Syndrome. As her daughter’s life hung in the balance, Erica retreated to the hospital chapel where she made a bargain with God to spare her daughter. It was the first time in Erica’s life that someone else’s life meant more to her than her own.

View Complete Summary for "All My Children" 1990

Bianca recovered, and her ordeal brought Erica and Travis close together again. Not wanting to hurt Bianca, Erica came up with a plan to date the Montgomery brothers on alternate nights. Plagued by jealousy and back-stabbing, the three-way arrangement not surprisingly proved an utter failure. A frustrated Jack gave Erica an ultimatum. She had to make a definite choice After a month of deliberation, she broke the news to Jack that they were through and she couldn’t marry him. While an elated Travis planned a small wedding with Erica, Jack drowned his sorrows in a raucous evening with his pals, Tad and Brooke.

The fight was far from over. Jack wasn’t about to give up entirely on the woman he loved. On Erica’s wedding day, he appeared at the church with plans to whisk her off to Paris. Erica spotted him as she walked down the aisle and stopped the proceedings. She ushered him into the church vestibule where she bid him a tender farewell before marrying Travis a second time.

Blond and beautiful Ceara Connor came to town in search of a prestigious job and a man of means. She found both in Pine Valley. While living with her Aunt Myrtle Fargate, Ceara was hired as chief fund-raiser for Pine Valley University. There she met David Rampal. That David was much younger didn’t faze Ceara. That he was rich did. David’s father, Jeremy, considered Ceara a golddigger and schemed to break them up by seducing Ceara and making her fall in love with him.

Opal Gardner Purdy declared to anyone who would listen that she intended to marry Palmer Cortlandt in 1990. He had everything she was looking for. But Palmer wanted no part of Opal. He even paid Sean Cudahy to date Opal and do whatever it took to get her out of his hair. Opal dated and eventually became engaged to Palmer’s old prison pal, Stan, better known as “Mr. U.,” but it was Palmer she pined for.

Palmer’s gloom vanished when his ex-wife, Daisy, popped back into Pine Valley. Although she put off Palmer’s advances, declaring they were never meant to be together, Daisy couldn’t help noticing the chemistry between him and his zany friend, Opal. Ever the matchmaker, Daisy set out to transform Opal’s tackiness into sophisticated style. She helped create a woman more fit for an urbane gentleman like Palmer. Daisy’s efforts paid off when a glamorous Opal made a grand entrance at the University Ball, catching the eye of her intended. Palmer saw a different Opal and asked her for a dance. A satisfied Daisy glided out of town, her job well done. In November, Opal became the latest in a long, long line of Mrs. Palmer Cortlandts, but determined to be the last.

Another exasperating romance was taking place between the newly rich Natalie Hunter and gruff detective Trevor Dillon, who had been a friend and fellow mercenary with Jeremy. Having inherited a small fortune from an aging millionaire she nursed prior to his death, Natalie could have had any man she wanted. Somehow that man always seemed to be Trevor. Despite their obvious dislike for each other, some crisis always landed them back together. Trevor did everything in his power to be around Natalie. He even commandeered a boat with Natalie aboard and got them both shipwrecked on a deserted island where they battled the elements and each other.

While their game of cat and mouse continued back in Pine Valley, Adam Chandler proved a formidable contender for Natalie’s affections. He was the antithesis of Trevor: suave, slick and wealthy. Natalie didn’t love Adam, but she married him anyway because she was angry at Trevor. The latter raced to stop the wedding but arrived seconds too late.

Donna Tyler remedied one of the biggest mistakes in her life when she reunited with her first love, Dr. Chuck Tyler, who had returned for a visit to Pine Valley and decided to stay. Donna’s life was far from peaceful due to the reappearance of the contemptible Billy Clyde Tuggle. He slithered back into Pine Valley and befriended his daughter Emily Ann, who had been adopted years earlier by Donna and her soon-to-be ex-husband, Benny. Donna panicked when she learned that Emily Ann’s boss at the new Cyclops disco, “John Henry Rockefeller,” was actually Billy Clyde.

As Emily Ann grew up, Donna had shielded her precious daughter from the knowledge that this vile creature was her natural father. Emily Ann was also blissfully unaware that both Donna and Estelle, Emily Ann’s natural mother, had been prostitutes. Throughout 1990, these secrets would be revealed to poor Emily Ann, whose world came crashing down as she comprehended the horrifying tale of her parentage. Billy Clyde broke into Emily Ann’s Willow Lake hideaway one night and declared he was her father. Traumatized by the sordid truth of her heritage, Emily Ann ran off and married her boyfriend, Joey Martin. That marriage got off to a shaky start when Emily Ann, racked by nightmares, spurned Joey’s romantic advances. Less than two months after her ill-fated wedding, the troubled Emily Ann wanted out. Joey signed annulment papers, but they were promptly torn up when Emily Ann discovered she was pregnant. She lost the child, but the unhappy marriage continued.

Dixie Martin soon became the object of Billy Clyde’s affections. In 1990, Tad and Dixie got off to a stormy start when Tad expressed his desire to move out of Pine Valley to start a new life away from Dixie’s demanding Uncle Palmer. But Dixie wasn’t ready to leave their home.

Palmer did his best to break up Tad and Dixie. Paying Loretta Rutherford to claim she slept with Tad worked like a charm and convinced Dixie her husband was a hopeless philanderer. When Tad received divorce papers, he soothed his pain by sleeping with Brooke, with whom he was working closely on a story about kickbacks in the construction industry. Dixie made a new friend in Billy Clyde Tuggle, who offered a sympathetic ear to her sorrows and secretly fantasized about Dixie as his "southern bride-to-be." When detective Trevor Dillon warned him to leave Pine Valley, Billy Clyde chloroformed Dixie and dragged her away to an isolated cabin. Searching for her frantically, Tad found her just in the nick of time, just as Billy Clyde was about to rape her. Trevor and officer Derek Frye arrived on the scene, and after a tense standoff, Billy Clyde burst out of the cabin, spraying bullets everywhere. Seriously wounded, Derek was whisked back to Pine Valley Hospital. As Billy Clyde escaped, Tad rushed into the cabin to get Dixie, and she collapsed into his arms.

Billy Clyde’s reign of terror came to an end two months later. Having reconciled with his true love Dixie, Tad promised to keep her safe forever. When Billy Clyde learned of their Christmas wedding, he sprang into action, luring Tad to a railroad yard where Billy Clyde had rigged a bomb. On the railroad bridge on the outskirts of Pine Valley, Tad and Billy Clyde met for a final showdown.

While they struggled, the bomb exploded, plunging both men into the icy, raging waters. Billy Clyde’s lifeless body was recovered, but Trevor could find no sign of Tad. Trevor was faced with the difficult task of telling Dixie her husband was presumed dead. However, Tad was indeed alive and had lost his memory. Accepting a ride from a truck driver, he was headed for California. Dixie grieved and so did Brooke, who was pregnant with Tad’s child.

Tom and Barbara’s happy home life was torn apart by the discovery that Barbara’s daughter, Molly, suffered from leukemia. She needed a bone marrow transplant to stay alive. Desperately needing to find a match, Barbara was forced to tell Travis that Molly was his daughter. Feeling left out, Tom stood by as Barbara and Travis pledged to do anything to save Molly. When a donor could not be found, they came up with a plan to conceive a second child of their own in order to provide a bone marrow donor for Molly. In a hotel room, Barbara and Travis secretly made love.

Many lives changed when Barbara and Travis’s secret rendezvous was discovered. The strain of her pregnancy proved too much for the alcoholic Tom Cudahy, and he fell off the wagon. He asked his wife for a divorce. Erica, too, announced to Travis that their marriage was over. For Bianca’s sake, they stayed together in name only and waited for the right moment to break the news to their daughter. After some soulsearching, Erica told Jack she loved him and wanted him. They soon began an affair.

Source: All My Children: The Complete Family Scrapbook


1990 Episodes / Clips: