AMC and OLTL Canceled! Part 2!

[Vee]

Not totally surprised. The stuff about freezing out Lucci, the actors and the unions had me skittish. They were trying to do too much, and they had no idea how. But I'm okay with it, actually. I'll be sobbing when the finale airs, sure, but I think it's perhaps best for these properties to rest now.

I'd always said - and I still think - that the ABC soap properties may yet rise again in new forms down the line. I was stunned when PP stepped up so soon, but I also think they didn't want to change enough; format, schedule, ensemble. I didn't want OLTL to pick up "the next day" in January - I felt it needed a six-month or several year gap to clear out deadwood on the canvas and allow for new opportunities. I wanted to eradicate about 75-90% of the cast. I wanted a new paradigm, and I guess the mixed blessing here is the idea that should these shows be picked up again, you can definitely do that, and remake them over from where they were left. Simply carrying over the majority of the cast, right down to no-hopers like Easton or relatively inconsequential characters like Cutter, Shaun, or Destiny did not quite interest me, though I would be okay with it with proper writing.

I don't consider it goodbye, because I think the soaps will be back sooner or later. But I was never totally sure a Monday-Friday soap online with the same cast was such a good idea. I think it's time for them to become something new. I think I'll see Llanview again sometime.

[Angela]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/11/23/why-all-my-children-and-one-life-to-live-are-dead.html

Agnes gives comments here, 2 pages.

Nixon’s only regret is that All My Children ended with a huge whodunit that will now never be answered. The writers themselves never figured out who J. R. shot at the party because they were waiting to learn which actors would continue with the soap online. Nixon, who prefers more nuanced resolutions, says she would have liked it more if Pine Valley could have lived on in the minds of fans in a different way.

“I would have never written an ‘end’ because life doesn’t end,” she said.

[DRW50]

I'd still like to see new soaps, shorter soaps, with some new actors and some old favorites. I guess that isn't likely either, although I still think eventually there will be room for scripted shows in daytime (the only thing anyone can say about the shows currently replacing soaps is "Well they're cheaper and they do about as well/slightly worse" - eventually that won't be enough for networks or advertisers, since if it's about cheapness there are a million other options beyond poorly put together panel shows).

Sad to read that JvD is retiring, although he's certainly more than earned it. I wish the L&O shows were still around - he would have been great as a DA.

[John]

@JimRomanovich

Jim

Heard an insider said union was willing to negotiate. That's like saying the sun will rise from the east today. It's about the common ground

You can negotiate til your heads turn blue. But if you can't meet at a common ground, then no deal. Nobody is at fault.

[Scotty]

Well there goes the neighborhood....looks like I'm about to be out of a "job" here at SON when OLTL goes off the air. Only 7 more weeks of writing the weekly PreVUEs, Alerts, and Teasers; only 4 more columns (with the last coming two days after the ABC finale), and recaps for only (I think) 30 more new episodes and 3 repeats (including tomorrow's)....it's sad when you put it into perspective like that.

[Soapsuds]

She should have stuck to her guns and said no cliffhanger. She had to know the new venture was a long shot at best.

Oh please...you dont get paid for it....lol

[Ryan Chamberlain]

Jerry kicks ass. Seriously, that man is awesome. I wish him well.

[Scotty]

Well it is nice to know you are appreciated.....that's why I used the " " around the word job.

[Soapsuds]

I stopped reading spoilers long time ago.....lol.

[DRW50]

I think she wanted cliffhangers, probably just not that one. Generally the show ended on a good note so I hope she's happy with that.

Scotty I usually don't read the recaps, but I enjoy your reviews and the casting updates.

[Max]

Scotty, as somebody who is currently unemployed, I know what you're going through. Best wishes in finding a new job, although for many (like myself) the economic situation just seems hopeless.

Some here are still defending PP, and that is their right. Honestly, I would be able to understand some of the praise (concerning that they attempted to take soaps online before no one else did), were it not for the fact that they LIED. There's no good reason why PP had to misrepresent the facts and proclaim that AMC & OLTL would definately be moving online; if their executives were honest, they would have admitted from the beginning that this is just an option that they are looking into (which may or may not get off the ground). (The fact that the NY Post leaked their plans did not in any way force their hand and force them to lie.) In addition to lying about the fact that these shows would definately go online, they told an even much bigger whopper when they said that each soap would continue to air 5 days a week, 50 (or was it 52?) weeks a year (without any reduction in quality).

The PP executives chose to lie to the public for two reasons: (1) to vastly increase the name recognition of TOLN and (2) so they could be worshipped by fans and the soap press for months. In contrast, Oprah--who was honest from the beginning--was trashed when she said she could not save the Nixon soaps.

[Angela]

NY Times Article: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/23/plan-collapses-for-reviving-all-my-children-and-one-life-to-live/

[Scotty]

Thanks for the kind words.....but my SON reporting duties are more of a labor of love. I'll miss OLTL....it's been one hell of a ride since I starting watching the show back in about the mid-80s.

[BKuzak]

Like most of you, i am more than sad ....again...at the news. We soap fans have been jerked around for months now. I just can not even imagine my life without Victoria Lord in it. but like dead realitives, she'll never really be gone to me. How weird that today's episode of OLTL ended with a death! Then this big PP news! another death! the day before we are suposed to be giving thanks for what we have. and i still will do that. Hey we have seven weeks left. When a real realitive dies, we always say, "If i had only known they were going to pass, i would have savored our last moments together." Well we OLTL fans are lucky, we know the end is near now so enjoy all the final hours in Llanview. Rewatch that Thanksgivintg episode with Viki's beutiful speech. savor the final Christmas episodes and all the rest of the moments. it will be hell at the end but it's not over yet! and we have each other, we are not going through this alone.

BTW, I still beleive Agnes Nixon would throw OLTL under a bus to save AMC. sad but true.

[Scotty]

Thanks Carol....I'll miss writing all those articles too. It's certainly a sad day in Llanview.