Agnes Nixon
 |
Agnes Nixon |
Agnes Nixon (born
Agnes Eckhardt on
December 27,
1927) is a
Daytime Emmy award-winning
writer and
producer. She was born in
Chicago,
Illinois,
USA.
She attended
Northwestern University where she was a member of
Alpha Chi Omega sorority.
She is best known as the creator of
soap operas such as
One Life to Live and
All My Children. Having a key role in the production of these programs, she was either executive producer or consulting producer for both shows for many years: on
One Life to Live from
1968 to
1975, and
All My Children from
1970 to
1981. She continued to write the program with
Wisner Washam until
1983, and again with him from
1988 to
1992, continuing on as a consultant in recurring capacities until
2000. From
1970 until
1992 every episode of
All My Children was written by either Agnes Nixon or her protege
Wisner Washam (her role with
One Life To Live was more limited once she surrendered the day-to-day aspects of the show in
1975).
Because of her long career and the number of successful shows she has created or been a part of, she is often termed the "Queen" of the modern soap opera. Along with
Bill Bell and Marland, her creations and her writing has had the most effect on modern audiences, second only to her mentor Phillips.
Proctor and Gamble
She began her career in soaps working for
Irna Phillips. Phillips' other protegee around that time was
William J. Bell, who also went on to become a noted writer in his own right.
Under Phillips' tutelage, she was a writer on
As the World Turns, and was head writer for
Search for Tomorrow,
Guiding Light and, notably, on
Another World, where she created the character of Rachel, an early prototype of one of her more lasting creations,
Erica Kane.
During her time on
Guiding Light' 'Nixon is believed to have written the first medical related storyline on a soap opera. A friend of Nixon's had died from cervical cancer, and Nixon wanted to do something to educate women about getting a Pap smear. She wrote it into Guiding Light by having the lead character, Bert Bauer, encounter a cancer scare. This storyline aired in 1962; Nixon had to work around some difficulties of getting this storyline to air, as she could not make use of the words "cancer," "uterus," and "Pap test". However, after this storyline the number of women who took a Pap smear surged dramatically . In 2002 she received a special Sentinel for Health "pioneer award" for her work on Guiding Light''.
When she left "
Another World", she left the tutelage of Phillips (and the restrictions of sponsor
Procter & Gamble) to create her own shows.
One Life To Live
By the mid
1960s, Nixon had created the bible for what would become
All My Children.
ABC executives passed on the program, but asked her to create a show that would reflect a more "contemporary" tone. That creation was
One Life to Live, which began airing in
1968. The show initially reflected changing social structures and attitudes. The first few years of the show were rich in issue stories and characters including Jewish characters, Polish-American families, and the first African-American leads, Carla Gray
Ellen Holly, and Ed Hall
Al Freeman, Jr.. Gray's story, for example, had her develop from a character who was passing as white to one who embodied black pride, with white and black loves along the way, to antagonize racists.
All My Children
With the success of
One Life to Live, Nixon was given the greenlight for
All My Children.
The show was successful from its beginning, combining its study of social clashes with acting talent including
Ruth Warrick and
Rosemary Prinz. Nixon helmed the writing team for over a decade, until
1983.
It is on
All My Children that Nixon had the most impact; her long tenure as writer helped shaped the show and its characters. She again introduced many social issues into storylines, including domestic violence, drunk driving, and daytime's first abortion by a major character, in this case
Erica Kane. (In a controversial move, the storyline was undone in
2006 and Erica's fetus was revealed to have lived and implanted into a surrogate, a procedure that is medically impossible.)
Loving/The City
The other program to her credit is
Loving, which she co-created with
Douglas Marland. The half-hour program ran from
1983 to
1995, but despite the involvement of Nixon and Marland, never really gained a solid footing. So in 1995 the show was retooled and became "The City". While Nixon herslef did not create "The City" she remained a creative consultant for the show until it's cancellation in 1997.
In 1992
ABC executives decided that the show needed new blood, and promoted Nixon's protege
Megan McTavish to the position of head writer (Nixon continued to be involved with the show, but wanted to take a step back from the grueling day-to-day task of being a head writer). McTavish made some important changes by re-writing major storylines. Most notably, when the show debuted in 1970 the father of
Erica Kane (
Susan Lucci) had simply abandoned his wife Mona (
Frances Heflin) to be with another woman. McTavish changed history so that Erica had been raped by a friend of her father and had a child, Kendall Hart (
Sarah Michelle Gellar, now played by
Alicia Minshew). McTavish left and returned as writer several times.
In
1999, McTavish was dismissed and Nixon was again asked to take over the headwriting reins at
All My Children. Nixon was well aware that this would probably be her last major stint as head writer in daytime television, and wanted to leave one final legacy. As it had always been Nixon's intention that her soaps would deal with important social issues, Nixon decided to forever change the landscape of the show by having a major character come out (although the show had gay characters in the past, they had always been supporting players). In
2000, Erica's daughter Bianca Montgomery (
Eden Riegel) returned to Pine Valley with a secret and for months the audience was shown her trying to keep her sexuality a secret from everyone around her. Although this was at first met with criticism, it renewed interest in the show and Eden Riegel gained a huge fan base. This storyline led to All My Children winning a casting
Arios award, a
GLAAD Media Award and was nominated for a
Daytime Emmy for Best Drama Series.
In
2005, Nixon appeared onscreen to celebrate the 35th anniversary of
All My Children on January 5th. She played "Agnes Eckhardt" (Nixon's maiden name). The character was introduced as a longstanding board member of Pine Valley Hospital. The episode included several in-jokes about the behind the scenes running of the show. For example, while Agnes was speaking, Opal Cortlandt (
Jill Larson) said "The way she's talking you would think she built the town with her own bare hands." Verla Grubbs (
Carol Burnett) spoke a line of dialogue to Bianca Montgomery where she confirmed, "I've been following your story since the beginning!" (Carol Burnett admits to having been a fan of the show since it debuted in 1970). This episode was also very significant as it was the last screen appearance of original castmember
Ruth Warrick before her death ten days later; Nixon appeared at an onscreen memorial service for Warrick's character Phoebe in May
2005.
Nixon is still highly involved in
All My Children. She sits around the writing table with the current writing team (headed by none other than Megan McTavish). In
2003 she appeared in an episode of
A&E Biography about
All My Children.
* She was inducted into the Soap Opera Hall of Fame at a Planet Hollywood restaurant in
1994.
* She received the Trustees Award for Continued Excellence from the
National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in 1981.
* At one point, Nixon raised eyebrows and caused a great deal of upset in the writer's circle by her adamant refusal to join the
Writers Guild of America. As the executive producers of her shows she feared that a writer's strike would force her to stop her writing activities, but still be required to produce the show. In spite of this, she has won five Writers Guild of America Awards for Best Written Daytime Serial.
*
Internet Movie Database profile*
Museum of TV article about Nixon
