Members chyti Posted October 9, 2009 Members Share Posted October 9, 2009 If ABCD requested for the funds and was turned down by the network how is this Fron's favoring one soap over the other not to say that he doesn't but that is par for the course in this business. I think we as fans forget that this is a business and the suits over at Disney are not watching the different shows and saying one is better than the other but are looking at spreadsheets and trying to come up with ways to save money for not only daytime but primetime which isn't doing well either. They probably want to cut back to two shows and don't care which two they are and GH is going anywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vee Posted October 9, 2009 Members Share Posted October 9, 2009 I don't think Frons wants to lose a soap at the same time CBS is still mercilessly paring their line-up down. For all his [!@#$%^&*], I think he actually cares much more for daytime drama than, say, P&G. That's what makes me second-guess everything. I think he'll wait. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members You're Soaking in it Posted October 9, 2009 Members Share Posted October 9, 2009 I sort of said this is the other thread, so sorry for repeating myself.... But I think it's ironic that ABC thinks we'd want to watch a steaming pile of crap in High Definition... So AMC and GH can have it. OLTL is superior in its writing and directing, and just generally staying true to itself as a show - while the other two are faltering: GH for being a constant, predictable merry-go-round of mob plots ... and AMC for practically having no clue of about its own identity. So again, why would I want to see those two shows fall apart in HD? If OLTL stays on the creative path its on, if saving that money keeps them on longer, great! Don't fix what isn't broken... And even if that eventually leads to cancellation at some point, at least it will be going out on a good note. I doubt we'll be able to say the same for the other two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members chyti Posted October 9, 2009 Members Share Posted October 9, 2009 Does Frons have the authority to cancel a soap or does it come from higher up in the network? If daytime soaps disappear on ABC does Fron's job go with it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members EricMontreal22 Posted October 9, 2009 Members Share Posted October 9, 2009 Bu tthis is a moot point--OLTL has been good for about two years now (?) but remember it was THE worse ABC soap before that under Higley. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members You're Soaking in it Posted October 9, 2009 Members Share Posted October 9, 2009 I agree. But how does that make what I said a "moot point?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members quartermainefan Posted October 9, 2009 Members Share Posted October 9, 2009 I can't see how any columnist pushing a favorite show can hurt. It doesn't hurt because no one reads his column except people who already have the soaps they watch and don't need another, but it can't hurt. Nobody is turning off OLTL because Canadian TV Guide gushes. OLTL I have difficulties watching. I got sick of Kassie DePaiva and her singing airhogging ways years ago, and btw her, coma cop, that redhead everyone pretends is a Buchanan, Cowboy Clint who now seems to be Park Avenue Clint, Todd, and the ever depressing Marty, I just can't stomach it. I love David, Roxie, I even like Rex, Gigi, the military guy who was the kid's father, Roxie and Nigel, and what I have seen of Kish is good, but Todd and his harem are on 6 days a week with coma cop and Marty backing them up all the way. And I don't even understand any soap that would keep Marty "I am a drip" Saybrook and dump the ever fab Tina Lord. The show has issues. I like the kid in the wheelchair, I wish Starr would die. AMC? When it was announced Minshew and Thorsten Kaye were out and leaning out, I was all set to return to watching it. Then they announced RB returning, and so my boycott continues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members R Sinclair Posted October 9, 2009 Members Share Posted October 9, 2009 THANK YOU!! OMG, thank you so much. I have teeth marks in my tongue from reading this thread! Thank you for being the voice of a person who is able to take a step back and realize this isn't Frons, Pratt and Guza playing "Let's Pretend" in a backyard of the cool kids' house! This is a business which means there are NUMEROUS factors that we, the public, don't even know. There are plenty of levels higher up that are probably seeing profits/losses in areas that we will never see. Dancing and singing about OLTL's wonderful storytelling isn't going to matter a wit to the execs and bean counters at Disney. Frons is just a front man. Why do I say that? Because this thread only helps prove my point that we're in a society that, when something goes wrong, we need SOMEONE to blame EVERYTHING on. I think people are forgetting that shows, either in daytime or primetime, don't stay on the air because people play favorites. It's largely due to ad revenue. Unless someone from inside ABC/Disney can come on this board and tell us that, regardless of the ratings and storytelling, OLTL generates more money for ads than AMC, then I think everyone needs to wake up and face facts. It's a money racket. Disney doesn't give a damn about OLTL's good storytelling for, what, the last 48 months. They care about its history of actually making money for them, which could not be all that impressive, which could make them not want to take a gamble. Frons isn't the end all be all. Are you kidding? This is a subsidiary of a MAJOR corporation. Dude answers to plenty of people who answer to another gaggle of people... and so on and so on. I've already thanked you for being logical and rational. Do I need to do it again? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DRW50 Posted October 9, 2009 Members Share Posted October 9, 2009 If their concern is money, then I'm not sure they would stay with AMC, which, in the 13 or 14 years Disney has had ABC, has gone from reliable, if not great, performer to what is apparently some type of budget-busting, red-ink covered mess which has only managed to survive because of drastic moves, including Susan Lucci taking 2 big pay cuts. I'm not sure about just how involved Disney is. If they were truly worried about the money then I think they would have replaced Carruthers by now, if she's the one who causes the budget issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members chyti Posted October 9, 2009 Members Share Posted October 9, 2009 I am sure the money man whoever he is doesn't care which show goes OLTL or AMC. In Disney's world daytime programming is probably so far down on the bottom of the list of important matters for them that if they could cancel all three and show reruns of their primetime shows they would. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members EricMontreal22 Posted October 10, 2009 Members Share Posted October 10, 2009 Sorry I sounded more rude than I intended to. I guess my thing is even if OLtl is saved over AMC that just means Frons will focus even more on it, and the show will probably go downhill and would be no more worth saving than AMC or whatever. that's why I think using the quality of the shows currently is kinda a moot point. We need to change and fix the way these shows are micromanaged, and--once again--get Frons OUT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ian Posted October 10, 2009 Members Share Posted October 10, 2009 I think OLTL is a really hidden gem... the viewers love it, and enjoy it... but it'll always be the step-child of daytime. Most of the other names, All My Children, GH, YR, BB, DAYS... became synonomous with Daytime. If someone said they were watching The Young and the Restles... that was a soap. If someone was watching One Life to Live... what the heck is that, and why havent I heard it mentioned? Nobody's ever invested in OLTL as they should. Even Agnes knew where her bread was buttered by putting such a push on AMC... because everything from the scrapbook to Susan Lucci is iconic. OLTL has no icons. Hell, before their little scales of justice opening they didnt even have a recognizable symbol. OLTL is a textbook example of UNDERRATED. And it's too bad and it's a waste, but, you know I have the sense that long after it's gone, we can be happy for having watched it, and realizing we were able to see the true art in a show that was the true underdog. And, our lives aren't an Air Bud movie, so the underdog gets left to die while the rest of the pack moves on. Not giving OLTL HD is like if ABC is a grandparent giving AMC $10 and OLTL only gets $5, even though the second kid is really better, more earnest, and not a spoiled rotten overinflated, ORANGE PIECE OF CRAPPY PRODUCTION VALUES. The second may be much more productive and better overall, but... when someone plays favourites its not always rational. LOL - ranting... I had a good night tonight, all I'm sayin', maybe a bit buzzed, but god I had something to say bahaha. I think the best thing we can do is just appreciate the show, know that it's better than anyone's willing to invest in it, and if it were to go by the wayside, then the execs are cutting their nose off to spite their face. I wonder if it's simply because it's so stable. It doesn't draw attention to itself through backstage shenanigans. It's taken for granted and has very little notoriety, but when it's gone, I think Daytime will lose its foundation and tumble in on itself. GL was the model. The mother of all daytime soaps as we know it - the first - the original - this was her statement on what soaps should be. Seeing it get so decimated really shook everyone to its core. It's like the rug has been pulled out from under it. Losing a flagship show, and a really stable/business-saavy show will cause everything to implode. We are in the last days of a dying genre. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members EricMontreal22 Posted October 10, 2009 Members Share Posted October 10, 2009 Ian I think that's well said. Just DON'T please claim that Agnes "abandoned" the show or is someway responsible (she has always admitted that AMC was a more personal show to her for many reasons but she didn't leave OLTL until she was confidant it was in a good place--she even personally picked and trained her successor, the great Gordon Russell and I do get the sense she felt kinda bad that she had no huge control over the show by the 80s when Ellen Holly, etc were fired and the show's feel desecrated--under Russell OLTL was actually briefly THE number one soap, something people forget and Agnes DID write some of OLtl's best stories, like the Odyssey House *after* AMC was up on the air) But yeah--and that's why i feel like it was inevitable that OLTL would go before AMD and GH. It just does NOT have the recognition and that does mena a lot to networks and advertisers.Oh and YAY for *buzzed* posts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Doyen Posted October 10, 2009 Members Share Posted October 10, 2009 People seriously overembellish that whole "OLTL/stepchild of ABCD" thing. In the fifteen years I've been posting in soap forums, I've heard this continously regurgitated by viewers as some kind of fact, but if ABC had that much of a low opinion of/lacked alligence for the show in contrast to the other two, it would have been sacked years ago. They could have taken OLTL off the air and poured more money and energy into developing Loving/City/Port Charles, or given that extra hour to the local affiliates to air what they wanted. I think ABCD has pretty much the same indifference towards all three of its soaps. As far as the public goes, the average Joe/Jane has heard of One Life to Live and knows that it's a daytime soap. A television show doesn't air five days a week for over 40 years as incognito to the greater public. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DRW50 Posted October 10, 2009 Members Share Posted October 10, 2009 I agree. OLTL is at the very least talked about or remembered sometimes for the Old West story, or Viki going to Heaven, or Eterna. The show was probably at its apex in being known by the public in the 80s and early 90s. That's when Judith Light left and got a role on a hit sitcom, when Roseanne had the Buchanan men on her show, etc. I would say OLTL is probably better known by the public in America than B&B. Overseas, B&B is better known. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.