<span style="font-size:120%;">Consumer product giant Procter & Gamble is expanding its initiative for funding family friendly 2-hour movies/backdoor pilots and buying primetime real estate to air them to a second network. After teaming with Walmart for 3 such movies on NBC, P&G has now bought time on Fox for its next family film/backdoor pilot. Titled Dear Annie, it centers on a relationship counselor and an old friend of hers, a recent widower, who pretend to be married to curry favors from a media mogul. Dear Annie is now casting, with production slated to begin at the beginning of January in New Mexico. It is not clear where on Fox Dear Annie will air. The NBC time buys - Secrets of the Mountain, which aired in April, The Jensen Project, which aired in July, and A Walk in My Shoes, which airs this Friday - have been running in the Friday 8 PM slot. The rationale behind the initiative has puzzled some observers as the movies/backdoor pilots under it have been pretty low-budget and cheesy, and they air on a low-trafficked night. Also, none so far has spawned a series. But Secrets of the Mountain, which aired in-season, actually did respectable business, winning its Friday night with 7.8 million viewers and a 1.3/5 in 18-49. (Jensen, which aired in the summer, did far worse, 3.9 million, 0.9). It is also noteworthy that P&G is targeting Fox, traditionally considered the edgiest among ...

Deadline.com</span>

Edited December 2, 201015 yr by Sylph

So they left the soap business to get all Hallmark Hall of Fame/RHI on our asses.

I really, really wonder if they ever approached Hallmark about doing something for GL and ATWT. Three or four TV movies a year continuing the shows (and maybe even doing an AW movie) is something I could have been behind 100%. Cutting them all up and shaving them all down for Lifetime? Not so much.

So they left the soap business to get all Hallmark Hall of Fame/RHI on our asses.

I really, really wonder if they ever approached Hallmark about doing something for GL and ATWT. Three or four TV movies a year continuing the shows (and maybe even doing an AW movie) is something I could have been behind 100%. Cutting them all up and shaving them all down for Lifetime? Not so much.

BAM. My work here is done. That's exactly the reaction I was hoping this would get.

BAM. My work here is done. That's exactly the reaction I was hoping this would get.

What other reaction would you expect? I mean...anyone with half a brain can figure out that's exactly what happened. Their leaving the soap business might not have been entirely in their hands, but it's the choice they made, and this is also a choice they're making. I'm not knocking them, I'm just connecting the dots.

Edited December 2, 201015 yr by All My Shadows

No, I thought people would think of it as too cliched a reaction so wouldn't write it down.

I really, really wonder if they ever approached Hallmark about doing something for GL and ATWT. Three or four TV movies a year continuing the shows (and maybe even doing an AW movie) is something I could have been behind 100%. Cutting them all up and shaving them all down for Lifetime? Not so much.

THIS i would have loved. It would have been great. A few two hours a movies a year to keep us up on what everyone is doing? Perfect.

And they could easily have made it appeal to all audiences. I mean they could explain things through dialogue, flashback, etc. And have the movie appeal to not only all of us soap fans, but to all the network viewers.

I mean look at Sex and the City. I know countless people who never saw the show, saw the first movie, and then got into the series.

It would have been very do-able.

I think movies or moving expensive 50+ year old soaps to cable networks were bonehead ideas which is what killed GL and ATWT's chances. Passions worked because it was much younger and cheaper and even then DirecTV didn't want it (even though it did well). Fans and the people in charge should've been pursuing a spin-off of either series. Take a few popular characters, set it somewhere else and go from there. That way you can play off the fact that you have a primetime spin off of either show, but it's also a new show thats accessible to new viewers. And of course I mean in a primetime format as well. A 13 episode order is easier to stomach than a 200+ episode order.

I wish some of the writers on these shows had buckled down and thought up interesting spin-off's. Maybe even a pilot could be shot (especially for GL which leased Peapack an extra year) for Lifetime or Hallmark to consider.

P&G shows used to have a standard of quality and excellence. If these TV-movies are as cheap as they let their soaps become, then they are never going to amount to a lot more than something burned off on a third rate cable channel at 9 in the morning.

The Hallmark audience is basically the same as the ATWT audience was (in numbers and in age), so I think putting out maybe one or two movies within a year of the show's cancellation would have been a plausible scenario. Instead of hoping ratings are good enough to continue producing new episodes on a daily or weekly basis, they can toss out a movie here and there to keep the stories going. Three storylines per movie linked together by family or other connection (for example, Holden and Lily have some romance drama, Lucinda and John get into some sort of adventure, and Luke meets a new guy). They wouldn't have to do them indefinitely, but if they were satisfied with the performance, they could keep putting them out as long as they could.

http://www.deadline.com/2011/03/pg-and-walmart-team-for-another-family-friendly-tv-moviebackdoor-pilot-on-nbc/

http://www.deadline....r-pilot-on-nbc/

Sounds like boring s hit! Just like what most of GL and ATWT were at the end of their runs. P&G is pure [!@#$%^&*] now!