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

[Jonathan]

There were unconfirmed reports that Burton Armus, who was a former writer of NYPD, would become head writer of All My Children. Supposedly, his storyline projection was heavily focused on the vets. Rumor had it that he had a story centered around Brooke and Erica which would have brought their rivalry back to the forefront of the show. Apparently, Frons didn't like Armus's vision and decided not to hire him.

[marceline]

I liked Cara and I liked LH's chemistry with VI even if the story was rushed and contrived. I think Cara would be a good character to help launch a reboot and I really hope that if this is real, it's a REBOOT not a continuation.

[Pine Charles]

Oh, yeah! Thanks, bitch. <hair toss>

What year was that?

[Jonathan]

Not sure. Anyone remember?

[Pine Charles]

I did a little research.

I think it was 2006.

[dragonflies]

Frons probably broke out in hives when the word "vets" was mentioned

[Ryan Chamberlain]

Probably. Either that or he lost his lunch.

[SFK]

I've been getting all excited about the possibilities and this brought the sad trumpets for me. I hope he continues his hosting pursuits.

[Pine Charles]

He'll do both. He's an A-1 attention whore.

[MrQuartermaine]

Or he asked what a vet even was.

[Ryan Chamberlain]

Agreed.

*thumbs up*

[Wizzerkat]

I am not surprised about Hartley. IIRC, she worked with PP quite a bit when they were trying to get the shows up the first time. I like Cara so it's fine by me.

[SFK]

If you could stress FIVE things to the folks at Prospect Park as they attempt to re-revive AMC and OLTL, what would they be? And I don't mean snarky side-eyed kinda stuff, but 5 things you feel strongly about in terms of the success or failure of this venture.

[allmc2008]

How about 10 things?

1. Watch the show.

2. Learn the history of the show. You would be surprised at the ideas that you can get from the back story of your characters.

3. Read the fan mail. The very characters that are not thrilling to you may be the audience's favorites.

4. Be objective. When I came in to ATWT, the first thing I said was, what is pleasing the audience? You have to put your own personal likes and dislikes aside and develop the characters that the audience wants to see.

5. Talk to everyone; writers and actors especially. There may be something in a character's history that will work beautifully for you, and who would know better than the actor who has been playing the role?

6. Don't change a core character. You can certainly give them edges they didn't have before, or give them a logical reason to change their behavior. But when the audience says, "He would never do that," then you have failed.

7. Build new characters slowly. Everyone knows that it takes six months to a year for an audience to care about a new character. Tie them in to existing characters. Don't shove them down the viewers' throats.

8. If you feel staff changes are in order, look within the organization first. P&G [Procter & Gamble] does a lot of promoting from within. Almost all of our producers worked their way up from staff positions, and that means they know the show.

9. Don't fire anyone for six months. I feel very deeply that you should look at the show's canvas before you do anything.

10. Good soap opera is good storytelling. It's very simple.

These don't have to apply to only the writers. This can defiantly apply to everyone!

[DRW50]

1. Writing matters.

2. Find someone who knows how to structure and pace a soap opera, and truly loves the genre, not an elitist, bitter hack like Sheffer or Guza.

3. Generations and history are vital to soap operas.

4. Don't show us how clever you are. Most people don't give a [!@#$%^&*] about how clever you are, or how you wink and wink at yourself all day long. Fawning from certain quarters does not equal success. Cheap history rewrites and pointless relations between long-gone characters are just that - cheap.

5. Cast based on charisma above all else. Charisma, then talent, then looks.

6. Keep people away from the plastic surgeon if they have no idea what they're doing.

7. Don't cast someone solely because of a fan campaign or because so and so was on the show for 20 years. See if there's anything that can actually be done with them.

8. It's not boring to show us reactions. I promise, it isn't! Really, it's not. Show us a dozen different reactions. Each of those reactions, every single one, will affect every viewer a different way. If someone hates Ellen, and cheered when she died, they might still be moved if they see George, her former best friend, react to the news.