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There has been a lot of chatter online since we last week broke the story that Prospect Park has resurrected its plan to continue cancelled ABC daytime dramas All My Children and One Life To Live online. Here is what I’ve learned. Still no firm production start date, but the hope is to begin filming by February in Stamford, CT. Talks are underway with cast members and executive producers though no deals are done. (Last year, Prospect Park had locked in One Life To Live’s executive producer Frank Valentini and head writer Ron Carlivati but they jumped to ABC’s General Hospital after Prospect Park’s initial effort to keep AMC and OLTL alive failed.) Both All My Children and One Life To Live would feature 30-minute episodes with limited advertising vs. 60-minute for their recent run on ABC. (OLTL actually started off in a half-hour format before expanding to 45 minutes and then an hour.) After clinching deals with SAG-AFTRA and DGA, which paved the way to getting All My Children and One Life To Live’s revival back on track, I hear the producers plan to forgo an agreement with WGA and use “financial core” writers, i.e. scribes who have given up full membership in the guild in order to work on the shows. Coincidentally, five years ago it was soap writers (on CBS’ Young & The Restless) who went fi-core during the WGA strike to be able to continue to work on the daytime drama series.) Like the first time, Prospect Park is pursuing a traditional TV second window for the soaps, possibly on cable.
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SoapNET would be a no-brainer for the TV second window, no?
Wasn’t SOAPnet going to be replaced by Disney Junior?
SoapNet has been replaced by several cable outlets (like Comcast) in lieu of Disney Jr. It’s days are numbered. So that’s not going to help in long-run. However, in the short-run, it may be enough to determine viability. Y&R still gets 400K per first window (and about 200K on second window) on those outlets that still have SoapNet. That was as of mid-October. Regardless, they will need a cable outlet to supplement online – if only to let people know that the shows are back. Oh, and AMC also started as 30-minutes. (The first shows that went to an hour were AW, DAYS and ATWT around 1975.)
I still get soapnet on Comcast in Minnesota.
SOAPNET is still going strong on DirecTV. They’ve made no mention so far of cancelling it. I do remember the days of AMC being a half hour. I think if SOAPNET went after AMC and OLTL, it would be a big boost to their network as a whole.
Disney,Jr. did replace Soap in many markets.
ABC/D owns SoapNet. THEY decided to switch it over to DisneyJR. It hasn’t happened in all markets yet – but it is still planned to be permanently eliminated.
If it’s 30 minutes without commercial breaks, it’s more or less the same amount of program as a 60 minute program on TV these days. Will the show pick up where it left off or take into consideration the time that’s passed?
I think they would have to take into consideration the time that has passed. Especially OLTL, considering some of it’s characters have been on GH for the last year.
It would allow them to jumpstart new stories as well as explain away those actors who don’t come back. Somewhat like what Desperate Housewives did with their five year jump that time.
i dont think that would work. simply because of the references on gh about llandview etc…
I would think they would do something similar to Hulu. We’d still have commercials but they’re like 60 to 90 seconds instead of the stuff we see on TV. But you cannot fast forward them like you can if you DVR a show so were actually forced to watch them.
What I’ve read so far is that the 30 minute program will be WITH advertising – so it would be about 19 minutes of actual content.
Haven’t heard/read a thing about ‘where’ in time they will be…
They should really forget All My Children. By the time they ended that soap’s run, it was unwatchable.
Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion, of course, but this AMC fan is thrilled to see it making a possible comeback, and the time it’s been off the air might just be the buffer it needs to start fresh. For me it’s not about where the show was when it went off, but who will write it now and where they plan to take it from here.
I so ageer, I will be so happy just to have it back on.
I am so happy that All My Children might be coming back. I’ve watched that show since the early 70′s. Thanks again for the hope of a comeback.
I do agree AMC was hard to watch but even with slightly lower ratings AMC had a far higher brand recognition. In part, Susan Lucci helped with the brand – very synonymous with Erica Kane.
TPTB purposely wrote it so badly it would lose ratings and be cancelled without much problem. A reboot would use writers who actually want to write good stories!
Great thing about soaps is they can be awful one month and awesome the next with a new storyline.
That is the beauty of soaps.Each one has been unwatchible at some time or another. Alwys a work in progress they can rise again. I know. a I have wathced them on professional level for over 30 years.
I’m ok with the format changing. I just do not want to the core of what a soap is messed with. I really hope PP can pull it off this time. And yes, I think Soapnet would be a viable cable channel to outsource them too. I still get soapnet where I am so it’s still out there and they even run marathons at times. To me it’s a no brainer – ABC owns Soapnet so why not show the soaps after they air online there.
Actually, All My Children also started as a half hour soap. It debuted in Jan 1970 in the 12:30 time slot on the east coast. It replaced another soap who’s name escapes me but one of the stars was a very young Susan Sarandon.
Please, please, please, let this happen!
Would Ron & Frank go fi core if or when GH ends? They have contracts with PP, and what about forcing the OLTL actors who on GH off? I only see them doing that to ME since he’s hardly on and he signed a contract with them. Make Todd Victor. Plus they wouldn’t dare do that to KA especially since she has said publicly said on multiple occasions said that she told PP that they said that she would be willing to work with them. It would look bad on their part if they back off on there agreement they made.
I love the soft pedaling of what Fi-Core means in this post. Let’s be clear: Fi-Core writers are ones who broke the strike lines in 2007 because, unlike everyone else, they couldn’t last an entire 99 days without a job while everyone else picketed to protect the guild’s pensions, residuals, and minimums.
Let’s just be clear about who Fi-Core writers are before we throw the term around as if it were just another matter of fact.
Thank you.
Not everyone in the WGA wanted to strike. And daily soaps have been in a tenuous position on TV for the past 15 years. To not work on them and keep them going for three months would have killed the genre permanently.
Yes, so you’re not a writer but you are a psychic. Undoubtedly you are wealthy beyond belief since you have the sure-fire ability to predict the future. Well, here’s my prediction: you’re a moron.
Isn’t a “prediction” by definition a forecast or statement of things that will happen in the future? If this is a genuine prediction, shouldn’t your comment read something like “Well, here’s my prediction: you WILL BE a moron”? But that doesn’t really make sense?? Perhaps you meant “Well, here’s my DEDUCTION: you’re a moron.” But I guess that doesn’t really fit with the whole “psychic” bit. Level with us… you’re not really a writer either, are you (you cheeky name-calling thing).
So you’re saying it was OK that they didn’t stand with their fellow union members and that’s a good thing? This what’s wrong with the Hollywood unions these days: no one has the guts to take a stand and stick with it.
Hollywood Unions are beyond useless. I’ve made it through 3 strikes now and was OK because I was smart enough to build myself a 6 month to a year buffer at all times. After everything the Guilds have screwed up these last several negotiations though, I will not strike again. I’ll go Fi-Core in a heartbeat.
Scab writers give up their union to keep their crappy daytime serial jobs. They have always been the weak sisters in WGA East & West, scrounging their way into jobs that union writers, who were fighting for better wages and working conditions and a decent pension and health plan, walked out on. It was true in the WGA strikes of the 70′s and 80′s, as well as 2007-08. “Fi Core” means scab, plain and simple. Genres die, good writers keep writing. The soap scabs are free-riders. The sooner they are off the air and on unemployment, the better.
I am totally pro-union. With tht said, the unions have depended on scabs to, in this particular case, keep the genre going. Unions are smart, smart enough not to kill their industry; meanwhile, the networks can’t use scabs forever and know they need good writers. Scabs come in damn handy when talks become protracted.
this is fantastic news! if it works out they should look into bringing back atwt and gl as well!
As much as I will miss Carlivati and Valentini they need to stay at GH because the creative turnaround on that show has been nothing short of brilliant. And AMC was a disaster creatively by the time it ended so I don’t know how that can be saved. OLTL could be good though.
I so agree, GH has had a great turnaround, they characters they have added from oltl have blended in seamlessly. Love Sam & John, Starr & Michael. Todd is having a great role with Carly.
AMC was unwatchable the last year, really, really bad, I think they had to work hard to make it so bad.
Love to see Dorian & Vicki back, OLTL always had great story lines.
Hope they bring them back! abc saw what a flop “the revolution” was.
To me it makes sense for Lifetime to pick up the shows or even OWN.
I think they should bring back OLTL first and get it going and then bring back AMC. OLTL was the last one to leave and was the more popular of the two.
I doubt OWN will air these shows. Oprah already said NO THANKS to the soaps and said it in such a way that many of her fans felt slapped in the face.
OLTL was ‘more popular’ at the end for a few reasons. 1. They three more months on air. 2. They had a ‘proper’ ending 3. OLTL had a writer and director who weren’t trying to kill it!
Why Not ION Television it reaches over 100 million viewers with 60 over-the-air Broadcast stations plus Cable/satellite coverage w/channel positions (easy to find) blended right in with other local stations on cable outlets throughout the U.S. This would be a perfect move for ION, they place these 30min shows back2back at 11am or 12noon hour Weekdays…Just as stay at home folks are coming off the morning news/talk shows and workers are starting their lunch break. Not to mention, these time slots would not compete with the other soaps.
Agreed, millions of us FED UP with Comcast and all the over priced Pay to watch Satellite/cabled services have DUMPED them and I now only watch with Rabbit ears. They need to make the shows available to those of us who refuse to pay.. or viewership will be down and it will again be canceled.
How about they put the network as a substation for another network for people who don’t have cable or satellite, that way everyone can watch it.
I have never watched the replacement shows. ABC made huge mistake removing all my children. Fess up like coke when they changed recipe then had to go back to the original to continue with their success.
I wish One Life to Live would return (I never really watched AMC). I thought that ABC essentially spit in the faces of their viewers by replacing these shows with The Spew and The Revulsion..
I hope they FINELY resolve that VICTOR IS ALIVE!!! And both Todd & Star CAN be called back to OLTL as Prospect still owns the rights to both caricatures .
I haven’t seen his latest movie but a network late morning or after school soap/comedy? from Judd Apatow would be very interesting. It has been a long time since “Mary, Hartman, Mary Hartman.” The problem with the networks is that they refuse to think out of the box/the old model. All re-runs on Saturday night? Experiment. You’ll probably get the same numbers maybe more. Any demographic that they desire probably D.V.R.s anyway. Is that why Saturday night is the way it is? During re-runs people are too lazy or tired to skate past the ads making them like radio background noise that they can claim/represent to advertisers as effective as part of a bulk buy generally? I genuinely don’t know.
Hey, congratulations on reaching the professional level of soap opera watching.
I hope everything works out this time for PP to bring back our stories. I watch General Hospital–but, I would love to see One Life to Life return. If PP combined AMC and OLTL that would work for me : )
Please bring back AMC & OLTL!!!! All soaps go thru storyline slumps then find their way back. It kills me that Steve Burton is no longer on GH & frankly the show feels lacking without his characater, but I understand his need to be with his family/kids. But I grew up with all 3 of these soaps and I miss the he– out of them! Kindle, Greenlee, Ryan, Zack, JR, Tad, Crystal, all of the old & new characaters, all the Buchannans, their families, the way they crisscrossed into the other families. I personally identify with that because I know ppl that have sisters married to their ex husbands, or friends that end up dating the same person yrs later. I do hope they bring them back and on a station we all can have access to. Nothing against The Chew, but if I wanted to watch a cooking show, there’s several channels for that, And sorry Katie Couric, I’d rather be watching my soaps!
I totally agree with Aileen. Would be so great to have OLTL back again. I like the cross-over of some OLTL Characters, ( On GH. )
Couldn’t they appear on both shows ? I think we would all like to see the Todd/ Victor storyline play out. The show ended so up in the air. Please, TPTB, continue OLTL on a channel that we all can watch ! Thanx !
Everyone’s free to make their own decisions so why ridicule someone for it Stop being so judgmental People have to make a living no matter how you feel about it
Remember when Dr. Frankenstein revived the dead, didn’t turn out well.
I am not sure why anyone who isn’t a soap fan is even bothering to read this forum!
Pleasssssssse bring it back one life yo live I can’t wait
I just want to see Vicky and Dorian again.