According to a new story from Meg James published in Tuesday's Los Angeles Times, Prospect Park is shelving ONE LIFE TO LIVE until the ABC lawsuit is resolved. The team will focus on producing ALL MY CHILDREN, which proved to be the more popular show online."It's been crazy," said Jeff Kwatinetz, chief executive of Prospect Park. "If I were able to turn back the hands of time, there would be lots of things that we would do differently."
He said that he is soldiering on and plans to ramp up production this month for a second season of ALL MY CHILDREN.
Speaking on behalf of fans, one industry expert applauded Prospect Park's efforts.
"We have never seen anything like this in the history of television — soap operas coming back from the dead," said Roger Newcomb, editorial director for the WeLoveSoaps website. "It was truly amazing what they were able to pull off. I just hope they come back."
RELATED:
- WATCH: ALL MY CHILDREN Season Finale
- WATCH: ONE LIFE TO LIVE Season Finale
I hope PP/TOLN have a change of heart. I enjoyed season 1 of OLTL.
ReplyDeleteI hope OLTL comes back eventually.
ReplyDeleteI thought I read that the lawsuit was resolved. Glad to hear All My CHildren is still going strong. Looking forward to Season 2!
ReplyDeleteI agree with your comment that it was truly amazing to watch AMC and OLTL be resurrected. I also imagined that soaps would be the perfect format to bring to the web due to the low cost nature of the genre. After all, Eastenders highest rated episode ever was just two cast members (Angie and Den) in a single hallway set talking about divorce for 30 minutes.
ReplyDeleteHowever, both soaps lacked the sort of fast paced story that was discussed in the Times piece. The stories were racy and provocative but there was very little forward movement for any of the characters. Thus, while I would like for them to come back, I am also interested in how a new and fresh soap from a legendary soap writer would fare on Hulu. When Guza wrote for GH or Marland wrote for ATWT they both took the show in such a different direction that it always intrigued me to think about what they would do if they could start a show from scratch. Although Pete Lemay's Lovers and Friends, Henry Sleasar's Executive Suite and Doug Marland's Loving were ultimately unsuccessful it was interesting to see what each one would do when able to create a drama from nothing. I think soap fans would be just as likely to tune in to see what a famous writer has created as they would to see a cancelled soap be resurrected.
I am glad that AMC is coming back, it was the more compelling of the two shows and it seems that Season 1 laid a lot of groundwork for a good, productive Season 2 story-wise.
ReplyDeleteHopefully, all the issues with OLTL will be sorted out and the show can return to production. OLTL definitely had a slow start and some bumps in the road but it was starting to unpack its identity when the Season ended. Hopefully, it gets another chance.
WHat lawsuit? The one about the Todd/Starr/John characters? I thought that got resolved? What is left to sort out?
ReplyDeleteThe lawsuit hasn't even gone to court yet as far as we know. It was never resolved.
DeleteI'm thrilled to still have AMC and now, here's hoping OLTL gets the backup to put it on again.
ReplyDeleteThe Union dispute was resolved. The PP Vs ABC Lawsuit is still pending. Hoping for a settlement soon
ReplyDeleteBut
After calming down @Prospectpk & @TOLN I really hope there will be a second season of @OneLifeToLive. I will continue to help support your efforts to get to season 2 as well as watch season 2 of @AllMyChildren. I love both these shows and so want to see more of Llanview and Pine Valley. I hope in the end, Both shows come back and that the #OLTL cast & crew get to live another day in Llanview
I don't understand what the lawsuit has to do with the current production of OLTL. If there's one skill that the folks at Prospect Park have mastered, it's shifting the blame. Whatever GH did with the OLTL characters (when we all thought OLTL was dead and buried), what does that have to do with the here and now? I felt the nuAMC and nuOLTL suffered from amateur everything-- writing, directing, acting.
ReplyDeleteBoth shows have over 40 years of stories and characters to cull from, not to mention that both Todd and McBain left OLTL before and the show still went on and welcomed them when they came back. So I don't buy all this "ABC ruined OLTL by stealing Todd, Star and McBain" bull-puckey.
To quote Pet Semetary-- "Sometimes dead is better."
I totally agree with the thought that's there's no logical correlation between the pending lawsuit and whether or not production of OLTL continues. Sounds totally bogus. And as you say below, the only conclusion would seem to be that PP needs the money to continue production.
DeleteI'm also wondering if Prospect Park needs the millions of dollars they're hoping to get from ABC to continue production.
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ReplyDeleteIt's a shame. This has been a disaster since day one.
ReplyDeleteI'm betting that PP is just out of money. It's a shame that they are using the lawsuit as an excuse.
Does the "shelving" of OLTL mean that they will return to 4 episodes per week of AMC?
Does AMC have a start date for the next season?
I feel bad for all of the folks who once again find themselves out of work because of someone else's poor decisions.
When will season 2 start for AMC? Wish they would return to 4 days per week or go back on TV!
ReplyDeleteI spoke with the LAT last week and my feeling was both shows went into production before they were ready. Despite us talking about it for two years, when they finally got things together in late 2012/early 2013 they were hiring people, writing scripts, building sets, etc all at the same time. It seemed like they were hiring actors before they were settled on a story. The best thing IMO would have been to have a solid story in place for AMC 2.0 and OLTL 2.0, a real plan for rolling out the episodes, and scripts that matched all this. I think that last minute rush was dictated by the terms of the licensing deal with ABC (ie be in production by xx date or lose the rights).
ReplyDeleteThey hired almost all former daytime soap people to work on these shows so they got experts on how to run and write daytime soaps. That's not what these two shows were. I always wished for a mix of other people with other expertise and it seemed like the writing shakeups along the way may have added some of that in.
Now that each show has one season under their belts, PP should have learned tons about how often to air them, how to release the episodes and what types of stories work and don't work.
I don't get any ill will toward Prospect Park. Viewers may not have loved the stories (I thought the storytelling was very hit or miss) but this company put their reps and money on the line to bring back canceled daytime soaps. Who else would even consider doing something like that? Two years ago when they licensed AMC and OLTL the world was convinced daytime soaps were dead forever. I can't do anything but applaud them for that.
If PP learned the lessons they supposedly learned, Season 2 of both shows could be amazing. Let's hope they get that chance.
I don't have any ill will towards the folks at PP. But, as they've admitted to some degree, they entered into a business they knew nothing about and, for me as a long time ABC soap fan, they failed with these reboots.
ReplyDeleteWhile I might give them credit for the daring move to resurrect the shows for an online audience, they weren't prepared for the job.
I will forever be thankful to PP for bringing OLTL/AMC back. True Blood isn't coming back until next summer. IMO it will be good to have time off between seasons to get it together.
ReplyDeleteI think Prospect Park didn't learn much or they would have done an actual announcement about the shelving on OLTL instead of burying it in an article with the LA Times. Seriously that's how you tell your employees...
ReplyDeletePP needs to stop wasting time and money on a ridiculous lawsuit that clearly isn't going anywhere and focus on the two great shows they have .What are they going to argue in court? ABC promoted OLTL for a year by having the characters/town mentioned on air to millions of people which was essentially free advertising. Cole and Hope were never supposed to be in the OLTL reboot plus they were killed off only days into the GH deal with PP saying nothing about if for a year and half. Not to mention the OLTL reboot started with Victor shocking everybody from by returning from the dead so any juror would see it would take about two seconds of explanation to bring those characters back if they were actually needed. What kind of lawyers do these people employ that would encourage them to throw money at this lawsuit?
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely hoping that OLTL will resume production, Roger. PULEZZZZE!!
ReplyDeleteBrian :-)
Ok Im tired of this! How long till this Law suit is over and more importantly how long till this web show expand.
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