1979

Hellbent on revenge, Ray Gardner was going to make Ruth and Joe Martin pay for sending him to prison. He would make them suffer by taking back what was rightfully his–his son Tad. After one failed attempt to snatch the teenager, Ray returned to his hiding place in Edna Thornton’s cabin, where he held Edna and her daughter Dottie hostage.

View Complete Summary for "All My Children" 1979

An afternoon in the country with 'Doc’ Tyler was all Donna expected when Chuck, the man she didn’t remember as her husband, took her to Edna's cabin. When they arrived, Ray took them hostage, too. Chuck tried to wrestle away the gun he held on his captives, and in the struggle it fired. The shot reverberated in Donna’s mind and triggered her memory's return. She recognized Chuck as her husband, and she knew she was pregnant with their baby. When she looked down and saw Chuck, bleeding, unconscious, she was terrified. Officer Phil Brent slipped into the cabin by pretending to be a doctor who could take care of Chuck. Phil arrested Ray and sent him back to prison. Chuck survived his wound but developed a fever that left him disoriented. At his bedside, Donna was shattered when in his delirium, Chuck called out for Tara. In his haze, he admitted he loved Tara and that his marriage to Donna had been a mistake.

Donna stifled her heartache and forced herself to believe Chuck would never leave her or the baby they were expecting. Tara made it easy for her. When Phil risked his life to save Chuck, Tara realized how much she truly loved Phil and went to him. They renewed their marriage vows in a touching ceremony with their son Charlie by their side. Because of Erica’s and Phoebe’s announcement, it was common knowledge that Phil was Charlie’s real father, and Charlie finally began to accept him.

Charlie’s Aunt Christina, his Uncle Jeff’s wife, could never accept the Martin family as her own. After receiving a job offer from a San Francisco hospital, Christina told Jeff she was leaving whether he went with her or not. Jeff’s father Joe urged him to save his marriage, and so did Jeff’s friend, Frank Grant. The two of them persuaded Jeff to follow his wife to San Francisco. Frank himself was trying to win back his first wife Nancy. After learning that Carl Junior was actually his son, Frank divorced his second wife Caroline. Tara and Phil were leaving, too. Phil had gotten a mysterious job with the Federal Narcotics Bureau and moved with Tara and Charlie to Washington, D.C. Ruth and Joe shed tears saying good-bye to their children.

Before leaving Pine Valley, Tara and Phil congratulated Joe and Ruth on the unexpected good news that Ruth was pregnant. Their adopted son Tad worried that they might love the new baby more than him, but Ruth and Joe reassured him while Grandma Kate tried to calm Ruth’s fears about having a healthy baby at her advanced age.

Donna happily awaited the birth of her own child, the symbol of Chuck’s love for her and of their future together. As his dream of a life with Tara and Charlie crumbled, Chuck tried to share Donna’s enthusiasm. He was with her when she gave birth. Donna was exhausted but deliriously happy when she asked about the baby. She was alarmed when Chuck hesitated and Donna demanded to know what was wrong. Chuck told her the baby was stillborn. They held each other in pain as the reality of the stillbirth clouded their future.

While Chuck and Donna grieved over their loss, Erica and Tom were trying hard to conceive. At least that’s what Tom thought. Actually. Erica was taking birth control pills. Erica was planning to be very busy opening a discotheque. which she failed to tell Tom about until it was about to open. When Tom found out, he was furious and forced Erica to return the seed money to her investors, Phoebe Tyler and Maureen Dalton. Mark’s mother.

Maureen needed Erica’s help in breaking up her son’s engagement to an older woman, Ellen Shepherd. Ellen’s own insecurities about their age difference increased when her daughter Devon gave birth to a baby girl. Mark would be marrying a grandmother. Ellen sought advice and friendship from Paul Martin. By the time Devon settled into her unhappy marriage to Wally, Ellen and Paul had begun to care for one another. Phoebe was appalled. She couldn’t believe Ellen would chase her daughter’s husband. Phoebe railed at Ellen after catching her on the dance floor with Paul, reminding him as well that he was still married to Anne. But Paul had already taken steps to divorce Anne.

Phoebe took her own steps to save her long dormant marriage to Charles. When she learned he was at a medical conference in Rome. she flew there to surprise him. She got a bigger surprise than she expected when she found him sharing a suite with Mona Kane. Phoebe fainted but Charles had been married to Phoebe long enough to know she was faking. Phoebe got up with a renewed promise that she’d never consent to a divorce.

Phoebe had no use for divorce, whether her own or her poor, sick daughter’s. She brightened when Anne started to make progress at Oak Haven, where Anne’s doctors advised Paul to postpone divorcing her.

If Phoebe was unhappy about Paul’s interest in Ellen, Ellen’s exfiancé was miserable. Getting drunk one night, Mark ran into Phoebe’s niece Brooke English. She liked Mark and easily seduced him. Brooke began a relationship with Mark, who made it clear to her that all they had together was sex, because he still wanted to marry Ellen. Brooke moved in with him anyway. Brooke’s boyfriend Dan Kennicott got that message loud and clear. Heartbroken, he left town. Brooke was hopelessly in love with Mark, but Mark loved Ellen, and Brooke’s constant jealousy began to wear thin. When Mark threw her out, Brooke began a reckless affair with Eddie Dorrance, who became obsessed with her.

Brooke’s old boyfriend Benny Sago loved Estelle deeply. He kept trying to woo her away from her husband Billy Clyde Tuggle, who vowed he would rather die than lose her. But it was Benny Billy Clyde tried to kill. Even though Estelle returned Benny’s love, Billy Clyde always managed to win her back.

Edna Thornton was interested in Benny, too, but his constant pursuit of Estelle left her alone at The Chateau once too often. Eddie Dorrance had manipulated himself into Claudette Montgomery’s position as manager of the restaurant. He introduced Edna to Professor Langley Wallingford, an older man who seemed quite taken with her. She enjoyed the professor’s attention, but his interest wandered when Edna mentioned that Phoebe Tyler was the richest woman in Pine Valley. Edna didn't mind, because Benny had turned to her after Estelle and Billy Clyde moved to Sea City. Despondent and lonely, Benny figured marrying Edna wouldn’t be the worst thing that ever happened to him. She hurried him to the altar before he could change his mind.

Meanwhile, Langley Wallingford asked Eddie, a con artist after his own heart, to introduce him to a lady of means. Eddie thought Edna was a rich widow. But in Phoebe, Langley had found himself a gold mine. The way she responded to his attention prompted him to propose. Phoebe accepted, offering her husband Charles his long-sought divorce. Eddie wondered if Langley wasn’t actually falling for Phoebe. Langley realized that despite himself, he was quite taken with her. Langley told Eddie how much he and Phoebe enjoyed their secret affair.

Phoebe’s plan to pay Eddie to marry Kelly Cole fell apart when Kelly found out about it the morning of the wedding. Kelly called off the ceremony and Phoebe’s heart sank as she watched Kelly and her son Linc falling in love. Kelly never wanted Linc to find out about her drug addiction. She tried desperately to get off the pills, but one night she lapsed. Strung out after popping a few too many during a singing engagement, she fell apart on stage, publicly declaring her hatred of Eddie because he'd turned her into a pill head, then running out of the club. When Linc finally found her hours later, he brought her back to The Chateau, where they found Eddie in his office–dead. Eddie had blackmailed Langley over his conning of Phoebe. He had blackmailed Phoebe over her affair with Langley. He had skimmed money off the restaurant’s profits. He had engineered Claudette’s demotion. He had even threatened to murder Mark Dalton, his rival for Brooke. When Eddie was killed, Kelly’s fingerprints were found on the gun, and she was charged with the murder. As her lawyer and fiancé, Linc vowed to Kelly that he would save her.

While she waited for Langley to visit, Phoebe prayed that her son Lincoln would fail to exonerate Kelly. One afternoon, Langley went to Myrtle Fargate’s Boutique to buy a little bauble for Phoebe. Myrtle had the oddest sensation that she knew Langley, but she couldn’t figure how. Langley recognized her, too, hoping she’d never recall he’d once snatched her purse at a carnival in Topeka, Kansas, where Myrtle knew him as roustabout Lenny Wlasuk. Langley didn’t want Phoebe to find out about his past. She was oblivious, busying herself with plans to welcome her new neighbors to Pine Valley society.

The wealthy and aristocratic Palmer Cortlandt had moved to town with his innocent daughter, Nina. On the night of Phoebe’s dinner party to welcome them, Nina suffered an acute attack of appendicitis and was rushed to the hospital, where young Dr. Cliff Warner operated and saved her life. When she recovered and Nina and Cliff looked into each other’s eyes, it was love at first sight.

Palmer realized what was happening between Cliff and Nina. So did nurse Sybil Thorne, and neither one liked it. A possessive father, Palmer wanted to keep Nina by his side, and Sybil wanted Cliff. Father and nurse entered into an unholy alliance to break up the young lovers. Sybil told Palmer about Cliff’s old girlfriend Janice Rawlins. After Palmer bribed Janice to lie and tell Nina that Cliff walked out on Janice when she was pregnant, Nina rejected Cliff. He was angry and confused. Nina, a diabetic, was so depressed she neglected her health. which alarmed Palmer’s mysterious housekeeper, Mrs. Myra Murdoch Realizing Palmer had orchestrated the situation, Myra ordered him to fix it. Palmer caved in to her demand, bridling at the thouqht of Nina’s renewed infatuation with Cliff Warner. He began plotting how he could fix the damage he'd done, if only temporarily.

A more compassionate father, Joe Martin welcomed his daughter home when Tara and Charlie returned to Pine Valley. Happy to be home, she waited to hear from her husband Phil, who had disappeared on an undercover assignment out of the country. Tara's return stirred Donna’s insecurities. Even though Chuck hadn’t thought about Tara for months, Donna was driving him crazy with her jealousy.

Erica was driving her own husband Tom crazy in her endless quest for fame. After Tom refused to become the Adonis Cosmetics spokesman, Erica secretly sold the adman, Mr. Richmond, on hiring them as a husband–wife team, pleading with Tom to say yes. But Erica didn’t know the lascivious Richmond expected her to sleep with him. As she was struggling to resist his attack, Tom broke down the door and saved her. The incident put an end to their modeling career and landed Tom in the hospital with an injured knee. While he recuperated, he dreamed of getting home to Erica so they could continue trying to make a baby. Erica let him dream on while she popped her birth control pills and opened her disco, which she proudly named “Erica’s.” Tom was flabbergasted that she could open a disco behind his back. But open it she did, and it was a success.

Tom hired Brooke to replace Erica at The Goalpost. Brooke was at a crossroads. She had been used badly, first by Mark Dalton, still lovesick over Ellen Shepherd, then by Eddie Dorrance. When Brooke learned that she was carrying Eddie’s baby, she made a tough decision and secretly had an abortion.

Erica’s darkest secret blew up in her face when Tom found her birth control pills. He waved them in her face, declaring that since their marriage was a lie, it was over. Erica couldn’t believe Tom meant it, but he did. He wanted children and thought Erica did, too.

Tom wanted what Joe and Ruth Martin welcomed into their lives that peaceful Christmas morning; a healthy baby boy. They decided to name the baby Joseph Martin, Junior. He would be known as “Joey.”

Source: All My Children: The Complete Family Scrapbook


1979 Episodes / Clips: