Quick Takes: ‘All My Children’ ends ABC run

Tissues were on hand, but there were few tears as “All My Children” signed off from ABC Friday after more than 40 years.

That’s because the screen faded to black with a gunshot and a cliffhanger — an indication that the story may not be dead, even if the television series is. ABC has licensed the soap opera to a production company that is hoping to keep “All My Children” going online after the first of next year.

The final ABC broadcast ended with most of the show’s characters gathered at the Chandler house in fictional Pine Valley, Pa., for a party — celebrating engagements, a pregnancy and some miracle medical revivals. Yet the character J.R., riled because he lost his business, his fortune and his wife, lurked outside with a gun. Then he fired.

Left unseen was who, if anyone, J.R. shot — homage, perhaps, to the famous 1980 “Dallas” cliffhanger that became known as “Who Shot J.R.?”

Replacing “All My Children” on ABC Monday will be “The Chew,” a cooking show.

—Associated Press

‘X’ incident spawns protest

It seems Geo Godley and his blurred genital area didn’t just leave an impression on Paula Abdul. The Parents Television Council has filed an indecency complaint with the Federal Communications Commission because “The X Factor” contestant dropped his pants during the audition phase featured in Wednesday night’s two-hour premiere.

PTC President Tim Winter complained Friday that the producers of the talent show made a conscious decision to air “the prolonged, previously videotaped footage of a contestant dancing nude … in front of millions of families during hours when they knew full well that children would be watching.”

Godley, who performed “I’m Too Sexy,” cavorted across the stage as an “X” logo covered what appeared to be his nude nether regions. According to Godley and audience members, though, he was wearing a leopard-print thong.

Regardless, the performance yielded a melodramatic reaction from Abdul, who stormed off the stage.

Fox declined to comment on the PTC complaint or to confirm whether Godley was, in fact, wearing a thong.

—Yvonne Villarreal

Ban lifted on Twain’s ‘Diary’

A Massachusetts library has put the Mark Twain work “Eve’s Diary” back on the shelf more than a century after it was banned.

The Charlton Public Library’s trustees this week unanimously voted to return the book to circulation, reversing the board’s 1906 decision to ban the 1905 short story.

Trustee Richard Whitehead said the move was made to coincide with the American Library Assn.’s Banned Books Week.

The story was written from the perspective of the biblical Adam and Eve. It was banned because trustee Frank Wakefield objected to nude illustrations of Eve.

—Associated Press

Clemons’ death won’t kill band

Steve Van Zandt says Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band will get together over the next couple of weeks to discuss how the band will proceed without Clarence Clemons. The saxophonist died in June following complications from a stroke.

Van Zandt said the band, which has periodically toured and recorded with Springsteen since 1972, will never be the same without Clemons. But he added that it also wasn’t the same after keyboard player Danny Federici died in 2008.

Clemons provided the band with its trademark horn sound, apparent on such hits as “Blinded By the Light,” “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” and “Jungleland.”

“That’s a void we will never replace,” Van Zandt said.

But the guitarist feels they will still play music until the end because, he said, “That’s what we do.”

—Associated Press

Korea’s Rain to enlist in army

South Korean pop star Rain is joining the army.

The 29-year-old singer and actor, whose real name is Jung Ji-hoon, said Friday that he will enlist in the South Korean military next month.

All able-bodied South Korean men are required to serve two to three years in the military.

One of Asia’s most popular stars, Rain made his Hollywood film debut in “Speed Racer” in 2008 and appeared in “Ninja Assassin” the following year.

—Associated Press

KNBC gets new general manager

Steve Carlston has been selected as the new president and general manager of KNBC-TV Channel 4, replacing Craig Robinson, who was recently appointed executive vice president and chief diversity officer for the station’s parent company, NBCUniversal.

Carlston, a 30-year television industry veteran who is expected to start at KNBC in October, was most recently vice president and general manager of Salt Lake City sister stations KUTV-TV and KMYU-TV, owned by CBS.

—Greg Braxton