Soap opera fans were once again treated with an All My Children spectacular, this time in the form of a reunion that was organized to help celebrate Kelly Ripa's 30-year anniversary with ABC. The actress -- who first joined the network in 1990 when she took on the role of AMC's Hayley Vaughan and who has remained on ABC as the host of the talk show Live! With Kelly and Ryan in several incarnations -- was all too happy to welcome her former soap opera colleagues to a special episode of Live! that aired on Thursday, November 5.
"For me, AMC was way more than a job. It was my family -- literally," Ripa admitted on the air. "It was where I met my husband... [had] my first two kids, and where I met many of my lifelong friends. And it is so incredible to have some of my AMC family members here today."
Naturally, Ripa's real-life husband, Mark Consuelos (Mateo Santos), was part of the virtual reunion. Others who joined in on the fun included Eva LaRue (Maria Santos), Walt Willey (Jackson Montgomery), Dondré Whitfield (Terrence Frye), Finola Hughes (Alex/Anna Devane), Cameron Mathison (Ryan Lavery), and Susan Lucci (Erica Kane) -- the latter of whom was actually present in the studio with Ripa and her co-host, Ryan Seacrest.
The AMC reunion began with Lucci and Hughes sharing stories about when they first met Ripa. Lucci recalled that she met Hayley's portrayer in the bathroom, of all places, and that the newbie made a pretty memorable joke that immediately won her a place in Lucci's heart. Hughes remembered that Ripa was reciting lines from Staying Alive when she first encountered the actress on set.
The memories then led to stories about how Ripa and Consuelos fell in love while playing their AMC alter egos, who were romantically paired on the ABC soap. Seacrest quizzed Mathison about what it was like to kiss his buddy's wife during a story in which Ryan was thrown into the Hayley and Mateo mix. Mathison revealed that their first on-screen kiss was absolutely terrible and that Consuelos had to show him the way it should really be done!
And finally, the rest of Ripa's former AMC costars shared their memories of meeting and working with the actress -- which include some pretty hilarious tidbits about the show's doctor uniforms for Hughes and La Rue.
Check out the three clips below and don't forget to let us know what you think in the Comments section at the end of the article.
What did you think about the All My Children reunion on Live! With Kelly and Ryan? Would you like to wish Kelly Ripa a happy 30th anniversary at ABC? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
