Susan Lucci has struck out at the TV execs who killed the long-running soap All My Children – on which she starred as Erica Kane- in an epilogue to her memoir All My Life.
Lucci, 64, appeared on the recently-canceled soap for an astounding four decades before its cancellation earlier this year. (The show was replaced with titles including The Chew. ) Her words, added to the book in paperback, are aimed squarely at ABC’s daytime chief Brian Frons. Lucci lambasts Frons’ decision to go with cheaper daytime talk shows over the “iconic” melodrama:
“An iconic show was losing out to greed … If Brian Frons could show his bosses that he could save the network 40 percent … he could keep his job even if the rest of us lost ours… I watched Brian Frons’ decisions destroy the production of our show and the lives of people on both sides of the country.”
Lucci describes Frons as both “ignorant” and “arrogant,” as well as “self-congratulatory” about the decision to ax the popular soap. She questions the judgement of “any network executive choosing to alienate millions of loyal viewers in these economic times,” and says she considered leaving a nasty voicemail for Frons saying “F.U., and your little dog too,” but apparently the pointed, angry addendum in the book sufficed for the soap star.
ABC hasn’t ignorned Lucci’s bridge-burning. The network briefly commented on her remarks, saying:
“We have all the respect in the world for Susan, and are sorry she felt the need to write this epilogue to an otherwise incredible career.”
