Even though Tuck is busy with her new on-screen family and her burgeoning offscreen family, she still takes every opportunity to visit her daytime family. "If One Life calls and I can work it out, I run there," she says. "I love New York. Any excuse to come back. I have a lot of family there; that's where I'm from. And I love One Life to Live: the cast, the crew...I have a great time when I'm there." Even Megan's death hasn't kept her away. "I've been back three times now since I died," she laughs. "In a dream, as a ghost and then for the live show."

Tuck says she is lucky to have found another nurturing work atmosphere. "Judging Amy is the first time since One Life to Live that I have worked with a group of people that I felt were like family."

Yeah, but what does five-time Emmy-winner Tyne Daly, who plays her mother-in-law, Maxine, think about her practical jokes? "Oh, Tyne Daly is as bad as I am. Well, not with farts," she clarifies, referring to a remote-control fart machine she once used during a Gray family dinner scene. "I will say she has a little more dignity than that. But she starts singing these rather lewd lyrics. Everyone joins in. In fact, directors have been warned about scenes around the dinner table because those scenes can take six, seven hours to shoot, and if you're going to put us at a table that long, it can get a little out of control. I've been pulled aside a couple of times, but all in fun. And in the end it comes across as us all having a good time and liking each other and being connected as family."

And who's going to judge that?!

Originally published in Soap Opera Weekly, Dec. 24, 2002