How All My Children Should End

With the landmark soap opera "All My Children" scheduled to end its 41 year run during September 2011, just about everyone has a opinion of what should happen to wrap up the series. For your entertainment pleasure, here's my wish list of what should happen before the show shuts down for good.

Leo du Pres, long presumed dead, is found to be alive and returns to Pine Valley to reclaim Greenlee Smythe Lavery for himself. Greens realizes that Leo is the love of her life and jettisons Ryan Lavery, leaving him full of self-righteous indignation (nothing new there) and unable to fathom how anyone could possibly reject him.

Ryan is so indignant that he tries to kill Leo, but is thwarted at the last minute by Jesse Hubbard. During his trial, a recently cured and fully competent Annie Novak emerges from the asylum and gains full custody of their little girl Emma and leaves to start a new life far from the self-absorbed idiots in Pine Valley. Ryan escapes and fakes his own death yet again, hinting that he has plans for finding his little girl.

Marion Colby Chandler passes away and leaves the bulk of her estate to Scott Chandler, prompting him to use his new resources to double up his efforts to win back Madison North. Scott and Madison reconcile and marry, once Madison begins to see how Ryan has used a string of women over the years and decides that she was lucky when he dumped her for Greenlee. Scott and Madison become good friends with Leo and Greenlee, now that Ryan is out of the picture. Scott also picks back up the humanitarian research that he was doing before returning to Pine Valley a few years back. As the show ends, both Leo and Greens and Scott and Madison announce they are expecting.

Marion's death serves as a wakeup call to Liza Colby, prompting her to change her ways and begin to win back her daughter Colby's trust. She also begins to conduct her duties as district attorney based on the law and not the whims of the mayor.

Tad and Cara Martin acknowledge their love and become a real married couple. Jake and Amanda Martin's marriage gets back on track once Cara and Jake figure out what they once had is gone for good.

Zach Slater returns and reclaims Kendall Hart Slater as his wife. They leave Pine Valley for good, with Kendall passing her Fusion shares over to Madison, who emerges as a true marketing and product development whiz that puts some new life into the company and helps to partially offset the less than stellar management of owners Greenlee and Kendall.

A deceased Babe Chandler along with Amanda Martin are finally cleared of the stigma that came with their purported mishandling of the Bella product at Fusion a few years ago when it comes to light that Adam Chandler sabotaged the product and that Erica Kane found out about it and said nothing. Babe's mother Krystal and her sister Marissa take on the Chandlers in court, ultimately winning and clearing both women's names.

Opal Courtlandt and Caleb Cooney (now Courtlandt) begin to have eyes for one another, hinting that she may soon be back in the Courtlandt mansion permanently.

Erica escapes from her prison and nails imposter Jane, who is ultimately tried and put away for a long long time. Erica and Jack finally get to marry and also decide that it's time to leave Pine Valley for good as soon as the town's annual Labor Day picnic is over, allowing Erica to endure relatively little public relations damage from her part in the Bella coverup.

Marissa and Bianca declare their love for one another and when JR Chandler is convicted of corporate espionage, they gain custody of Junior and settle in to raise all their children.

Anna Devane returns to Pine Valley in a bid to save David Hayward from himself, convincing him to move abroad with her and take up advanced research into new methods to deal with heart related issues.

Joe and Ruth Martin return for Labor Day at the same time Chuck and Donna Tyler, along with their adopted daughter Emily Ann, return to town to sell some remaining real estate inherited from Phoebe Tyler Wallingford. Brooke and Adam show up to close down the now empty Chandler mansion, settle the lawsuit, and also hang around long enough to attend the town picnic. Together, they reminisce about how the town has changed, loved ones who have passed on, and their hopes for the future. The show ends with Erica and Jack along with Joe and Ruth, looking out at their children and grandchildren as they laugh and play, remarking how life has been made worth living by the presence of all their children.