ABC Spin: "Moving AMC to L.A. Will Breathe New Life Into the Show"

[Soapsuds]

The whole discussion is Rubbish...lol....show has been cancelled...why discuss why or what plot was behind it....ATWT is gone and I am not bashing Goutman anymore....lol...or Pissy....lol

And this topic should be in the cancelled soap section.

[aMLCproduction]

Pissy! LMAO!!

[Max]

I wanted to add that I never realized that AMC's move to HD would have been more expensive to accomplish in NYC. Thanks for mentioning that.

I usually agree with you, Marceline, but I actually believe that the Aisha Tyler talk show was the planned replacement for OLTL (in 2009). For whatever reason, the show tested very poorly and OLTL was saved at the last minute. (Then, of course, ABC started looking for other OLTL replacements.)

I really don't think it was until the last 12 months that ABC decided to give up on AMC & GH. Back in 2009, the plan appeared to be that ABC would keep both soaps for some time to come (but the fact that AMC & GH each experienced a ratings freefall--combined with having soaring costs--changed all that). Sadly, the fact that OLTL would become the network's highest rated soap would be irrelevant, because ABC executives already made up their minds to leave that soap for dead (and nothing was going to change that).

Finally, could somebody please confirm that the only actors that chose not to make the move to L.A. were Thorsten Kaye, David Canary, and Ray MacDonnell? (If not, who else declined to go?) Also, how drastic were the on-screen set changes: which sets were altered, which sets were new, which sets looked the same, and which sets were discarded?

[JaneAusten]

Was Ray M used before the move at all? Was he on contract at the time the move was announced?

I am trying to remember the actor who played Petey Courtlandt and if he was dropped before or as part of the move to LA

[Cheap21]

He was never on contract unfortunately

[JaneAusten]

Figures he was actually good

[Angela]

That's my opinion as well. They were planning to cancel a soap when they moved All My Children to California, and that soap was One Life to Live. They went through the expense of moving AMC to the state where the soap they were going to keep on the longest was located and paid for the upgrade to high definition for AMC before OLTL because they already had a plan in place to drop OLTL. OLTL started doing well, AMC started dropping - and it became two for the price of one as they already planned OLTL's demise and AMC made it impossible to not pull the trigger on them, and not OLTL, first.

[MontyB]

Complete and total rubbish.

LOL!! I Agreed!

[EricMontreal22]

Didn't mean to pick on Max--but I think the reaction in hindsight on this has been discussed a TON in the AMC canceled and the AMC/OLTL online threads. I suppose it's now a huge chore to go through them, but I thought Max was present for much of that and participating in the thread. Anyway, it's a discussion forum and everything's fair game, and I'm sure I'll pipe into this thread too--though I feel like I've said it all before.

Don't think marceline meant we knew the move was a scam at the time (though maybe that's what was meant)--though some were suspicious. I think marceline meant NOW we can see it was a sort of scam and ammounted to nothing. And yes, I thought that would give them 5 years before deciding it wasn't worth it--but...

[EricMontreal22]

I agree--add to the factor I think they kind of had decided at the same point to move out of the soap business, so OLTL's rating increase was irrelevant.

He was also dropped before (didn't the actor say he was moving on to another city anyway? or something?) Pratt used him in his early months as writer--he had that comedic superhero fantasy, etc, but then he moved away off screen. So it was over a year before the move.

He popped up. I believe he basically said he was retiring by the 40th anniversary--it sounded like the move wouldn't have changed his opinion though (arguably along with David Canary) he probably would have made more one off cameos if it was still filmed on the East Coast, but I don't think it owuld have changed anything else.

[aMLCproduction]

If u think it's rubbish its very simple. Don't come in here.

[MontyB]

I was agreeing with the comment "rubbish" on a comment that was basically rubbish. With that being said, you may not agree, but telling people were not to post is going overboard. With that being said, the topic has already been done ad nauseum.

[R Sinclair]

^^Exactly^^

Thinking that ABC said "Hmm... instead of cancelling a show, let's move the entire production across the country just to fool people!" is rubbish. If a network wants to cancel a show, it cancels a show. Actors from popular primetime shows have gone on record as saying they learned of the show's sudden cancellation via a blurb in the trades or a family member calling them up saying "Gee, did you know your show was cancelled?" Shows that cost more money with bigger names went through less subterfuge.

[marceline]

No I kind of meant it was a scam at the time. People can argue whether AMC or OLTL was going to go first but the move was just a delaying tactic that was supposed to make money while the network continued to put time, energy and resources towards creating replacement shows. ABC wanted out of the soap business. I don't think the move was meant to "save" the show just make it cheaper to produce until the hammer came down but the hammer was always coming.

[dragonflies]

They'd have been better off moving this to Connecticut instead of LA, not that it would have made a difference, but it might have saved them some money in the long run