» soap operas

Look like she's not all talk. Kelly Ripa, who has always spoken fondly of her time on 'All My Children,' announced today on 'Live With Regis & Kelly' today that she and real-life husband Mark Consuelos are returning to Pine Valley for two episodes early next year.

The couple will reprise their popular roles of Hayley and Mateo Santos on Jan. 4 and 5, 2010 to help celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Agnes Nixon-created sudser.

Watch Ripa make the announcement on 'Regis & Kelly' after the jump ...

Evil clones, friendly vampires, secret islands and much, much more.

When something's overly dramatic, we call it a soap opera.

And no wonder -- only in daytime serials do we find such plot twists as people we thought were dead being held captive on islands (that's actually happened more than once), characters coming back from heaven, comatose patients astrally projecting themselves.

We're not making any of these up -- these are our favorite crazy, wacko soap opera story lines.