HOLIDAY MIRACLE: Prospect Park Back On Track To Revive AMC and OLTL

[DRW50]

We gave up hope last year, and when you give up hope, you have nothing else left (I saw that on 50 different sci-fi/fantasy shows so that means it's true). So we can talk about it casually without suffering more crushing emotional blows.

Of the two I think I'd most want to see OLTL given a second chance, just because I don't want them to be known as this town who exist to make John McBain pout - the show was a lot more than that.

I do think you have a very good point there. I hadn't thought of it. But I think if someone wants to put a soap online they will find a way. The genre was built on innovation. It just takes talent, time, money. That's what PP seems to lack all around.

[dragonflies]

Another reason i'd rather they create a new soap is because I'd rather not see AMC & OLTL revived only to flop with the revival and they have to be cancelled all over again.

I'd love to have ATWT back but for the reason above is why I don't

[Vee]

I can talk about it casually, sure. What upsets me is the actors, the crews getting their hopes up. The thought of people like Debbi Morgan, Jerry ver Dorn, Florencia Lozano, etc. getting treated shabbily.

[DRW50]

It upsets me too. I just tell myself they see stuff I don't, they've all been in the business a long time, and they decided it's worth the risk. It still sucks though, especially because I know that this half-assed pipe dream may be the only way some of these people may even be in a good role for the rest of their careers.

OLTL is the same as GL in my mind - they both underwent so many changes that this would just be another one. I'd say it's worth the risk, if this company had any idea what they were doing and this wasn't just one last cash grab.

[EricMontreal22]

Well then, it sounds like you have no real interest, and should just act like non of this PP stuff ever happened (since you think it never will). I'm not saying that flippantly, and I'm not accusing you of ruining everyone's hopes or fun or anything silly like that. I just feel like you've clearly made your decision and that should be that. It's not really hard to see AMC and OLTL's ends being when they stopped airing on ABC.

[EricMontreal22]

*That* makes a lot of sense to me. However, my rebuttal would be that I don't see anyone else even mildly interested in trying something similar--and I'm not sure that, if PP had never gotten involved in the firt place, anyone else would have bothered anyway. If that makes sense. I know you were not suggesting this at all, but I've read other people who have said things last year like "phuck PP, if they hadn't gotten involved then we'd have AMC on Bravo RIGHT NOW because Andy Cohen loves Erica Kane!!"

[alexisfan07]

That Foz guy retweeted fans asking to reunite Tea and Victor on screen and one that talks about wanting Erika, Robin, Kassie and Flo to join. Interesting.

[Vee]

I wonder if the Andy Cohen thing actually may have been a lot more bluster being thrown around from Prospect Park when they were trying to stir up interest in distribution for cable. Leak to the trades, bully soap opera people and sit back and collect the money. If you give me time, I can probably tie them to the Kennedy assassination. No, I kid.

I think ABCD has had a slight turnaround in legitimate interest on GH because of its reversal of fortune - and supposedly, they did want the rights back to AMC and OLTL in part because of that re-appraisal of the soaps. We'll see if that lasts beyond crunch time next month or March. I never thought I'd see the day when I wanted them back in the pilot seat. Whatever one thinks of GH these days, I think the industry as a whole is kind of doing a bit of a double-take at the potential future viability of the soap opera - and even if in reality they aren't doing much or planning to do much at this point, the public perception game is currently trending towards soaps' side in the media and the trades.

One thing PP understands from all their chicanery is that if you push hard enough in the proper outlets, perception sometimes becomes reality. I just wouldn't want to see their bullshit strangle that potential sea change for soaps in its crib.

Here's an idea - instead of retweeting on Twitter or calling Deadline, how about opening negotiations.

[EricMontreal22]

He seems like a nice enough guy--but I wouldn't take anything too seriously right now. I think he's just indulging the soap fans tweeting him (though I did like Marceline's Save the Soaps tweet)--which really is the smartest thing he can do right now. If he's going to be in charge of running how they work online, etc, like he did for the Heroes webseries, I'm sure all these other decisions are completely outside of his realm.

[Vee]

Didn't the Heroes webseries never actually air? Oh, no, that was the spinoff.

And sure, it's all out of his hands - he's only Head of Production.

[EricMontreal22]

It is also true that the excitement and disappointment over PP, I have no doubt, has opened some other peoples' eyes to the potential.

As for ABCD I still think they did realize (perhaps especially with Frons now gone and not telling them otherwise) that there is more potential to these properties than they thought. But I still think it has more to do with them wanting to hold on to iconic character rights (notably Erica Kane) and somehow using those (I dunno how--as cameos forced on GH, as merchandising, as whatever) or at least keeping them for potential use, than ever actually rebooting either show. That's just IMHO though. (I suppose rumoured ideas like making GH a limied run night series in the Summer could be considered for AMC or OLTL but...)

Inever followed Heroes past its start--but yeah, I think these were companion webisodes--the way HBO did that for the second season of True Blood or in the UK, Skins has done. (I think Supernatural did something similar with their silly ghost hunters characters).

I dunno, he can pass on information I guess, but I wouldn't think Head of Production would have any say until he has the full cast and crew in place--and my guess is who to hire isn't his call.

[CCCapwell]

If they did that, as others have already said, who cares..... been there done that with the internet-based soaps, none of them have been able to attract a mainstream audience. AMC and OLTL possibly can and I believe will on the internet. Is there a possibility that they fail and AMC and OLTL once again get canceled, yes there is, but what is the alternative? The remaining fours soaps continue their downward spiral on network television and eventually we'll have no soaps. This is BIGGER than AMC and OLTL this is possibly a new frontier in episodic dramas, they started on radio, then moved to television, now moving to the internet. Remember it was established soaps like The Guiding Light that made a successful transition from radio to television so with these legacy soaps returning formerly tv soaps now becoming internet-based they have the potential to start a new era in soaps, and its the future, if there is one for the genre. So all you naysayers out there who complain about this I shake my head in disbelief as it seems to me you don't want anything new to be tried to save the genre.

[EricMontreal22]

Right, while Search for Tomorrow and Love of Life were the first tv soap hits--many soap books point out that two of the biggest 1950s hits, GL and Brighter Day (which rated very highly but then spiralled quickly due to a lot of tampering issues and location changes by 1962) came from radio, with established audiences. Of course their success led the networks to comission a brand new show from Irna--As the World Turns but that was only the masive success it was because Irna made a deal that they couldn't cancel it for a year--and initially its ratings were very very low.

[~bl~]

Vee I have those same worries and fears that people who would be working there get let down again. I too worry that perhaps if this doesn't work no one will try in the future and when the last soap opera starts airing in the daytime the genre will be truly gone.

[EnglishTea]

I think if they are successful, they would be likely to do a spin-off of one of the shows.