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

[Errol]

That reminds me. Gonna see what all the fuss is about.

Booting up my Xbox to watch the first episode on Netflix...

As an aside, John Goodman (Memba Him from "Roseanne?") has joined the cast of a comedy pilot for Amazon. Now if he can do internet TV, our soaps must be on the right path. Just sayin'

[Vee]

Don't do it, people!

The original, fantastic UK House of Cards is also on Netflix and it's only 3 episodes for the first series! Watch it first! Please! The second and third are pretty good too!

[Errol]

Lucky! LOL. I'll do just that.

[Scotty]

Hmmm....

Kristen Alderson ‏@krisalderson

Happy Saturday! @Crystal_Hunt 's big bday bash is tonight! Can't wait to get my bowl onnnn #loveyagirlie

How much you want to be Farah didn't get an invite.

[Mr. Vixen]

I'm positive she didn't get an invite, unless the bowling alley's janitorial staff is on strike and they contacted her about using her wig as a mop.

[AdelaideCate007]

I love you.

Agreed- watch the original first. It's absolutely fantastic.

[Ryan Chamberlain]

Hahahaa...Soapboy. *cough* I mean MrVixen. You are hilarious.

I hate being from the same town as FF. Couldn't I be from somewhere else?

[KMan101]

Thank you Errol for that post. I kept aaying (not exactly this but similar) that it isnt like we will be watching "public access on the internet" (im stealing that). I get many dont want change, dont care, and dont take offense but dont understand the whole streaming thing. My mom will also be 64 this year and she mentioned how shed like to try and watch saying its 2 hrs (well 4 with OLTL) out of her life and shes been getting on the net a lot more. Its all over the TvGuides, SOD ... people know. However, all that said: this is a startup venture. I know going in it COULD ultimately fail but folks ABC could STILL axe GH tomorrow ( not happening but still). Nothing is a guarantee. Im not telling anyone how to think or what to post but we have sooooo many pages debating this actor issue. I mean .... why is this thread becoming so crazy? People wanna make PP villain or think we deserve any information they have to give. We dont. ABC axed these shows and never looked back. Just because the online venture isnt the same ... so what? You just might like it. And with that said, I personally could end up hating it. Who knows? LOL.

It is a discussion board and we all have different opinions. It's why I love discussion boards. I mean, we're hating on a company that honestly is saving two soaps we all are in here discussing for one reason or another. ABC axed them. I'm supporting PP because they're making an effort. Yeah, they failed last time but hey, they tried again and we're all making them some villain company that's evil and mysterious and shady and we make up so many things in our head and begin treating them as facts. I don't know.

I'm just ready for the next chapter in this saga. LOL.

(this post was just a rant, not directed towards anyone in particular really)

[Darn]

Susan Lucci ‏@Susan_Lucci
Beautiful party last night in NYC, so proud to be a part of the @DiscoveryComm family! pic.twitter.com/KCY7YfyC

Compared to well, most other soap stars, Susan's an actual famous person. I sometimes forget that.

[Jonathan]

^ Hello, I posted this in the other thread. Don't be trying to steal my thunder, Darn.

[Darn]

What thread? I stumbled upon going from Crystal Hunt's twitter to Dania Ramirez's and then to Sulu's.

Susan's hobnobbing with Oprah and Tyler Perry and everyone else is arguing over whether or not Michael Easton is going to have a job. It's hilarious.

[marceline]

There's been plenty of talk in the industry about how streaming is becoming the new norm and the effect it's had on cable.

• Wired: Why I’m Cutting the Cord, and How Cable Can Get Me Back
• WSJ: Evidence Grows on TV Cord-Cutting
• NPR has even been doing an ongoing series on changes in TV viewing behavior called, How We Watch What We Watch: The Future of Television.

There's lots of meaningful discussion out there about these business models if one is interested. Or we can keep freaking out over which soap will get to be the beneficiary of Roger Howarth's bad haircut.

I'll admit that I'm a lot more hopeful this time around than I was last year because the things that concerned me last year seem to have been addressed. That doesn't mean I don't see other issues with this, like promotion and PR but those can be addressed as well.

As for those who swear they won't watch for one reason or another, IMO PP needs to be concerned with attracting new viewers more than keeping the old ones. The format change is going to mean viewer attrition regardless so these shows need to be accessible and attractive to new viewers. That means taking some risks and shaking things up. If these series really are picking up where they left off then that removes the chance for people to start at "chapter one." For everything else on the web, if you come to it late you can go to the first episode and watch whole seasons in a weekend until you catch up. (I just did that with Breaking Bad.) There's no chance to do that with these but the weekly recaps could be very helpful so we'll see.

Regardless, the hysteria around "The Traveling Three" has become utterly surreal. This is a business negotiation, not a hostage negotiation. I'm sure it'll work itself out without SWAT needing to become involved.

[allmc2008]

How did Susan actually become so famous?? I would assume someone like Dee Hall or Erika Slezak would have been more popular or just as popular. I wouldn't call her a "Sex Symbol" and she is not the greatest actress out there (I would never admit that before the cancellation of AMC so I will take that back as soon as it it back!!).

[RomeAt50]

The Cord cutting trend makes me uneasy. There isn't yet any way to support HBO type programming like Game of Thrones outside of premium cable.

[ellabelle]

A lot of it was right place, right time. We tend to forget this, but Erica Kane was a revolutionary character when she premiered - a bad girl who had just enough vulnerability to be likeable, someone to root for even as you hated what she was doing. Erica coincided with the feminist movement, at a time when women were trying to break out of established societal norms, and a lot of people saw her as a role model of sorts for refusing to sit at home and just be someone's wife. Add to that, Susan Lucci was a gorgeous young woman who appealed to men at the same time the character was inspiring women. On a lot of other shows, Erica would have faded to the background, but Agnes based a lot of Erica on herself (the whole absent father, desire to succeed no matter what), and Agnes loved Susan as Erica, the audience responded, and she was pushed to the forefront fairly early in the show. Susan was already being listed as a Queen of Daytime by the mid to late 70s, which is pretty impressive when you consider how long soaps had been around at that point.

Plus, look at who Erica spawned - JR Ewing came after Erica, and in a lot of ways, he was a male version of her - a dysfunctional character with a questionable sense of morals who went after whatever he wanted, no matter who got hurt, who'd say and do anything. The character just leaped off the screen and took over in the same way Erica did. Alexis Colby was another Erica-inspired character.

Susan Lucci is not a sex symbol right now (the woman is in her mid 60s!), but in the 70s and early to mid 80s? Absolutely, yes, she was, as was Erica. As far as acting skills go, I think she gets a lot of grief over some of the bad habits she's developed over decades of playing the same character, working at the frenetic pace of soaps, but I've seen articles from the mid-80s comparing her favorably to Meryl Streep. A lot of what Erica does is over the top, and Susan isn't one of those soap actresses like Deidre Hall or Lindsay Hartley who cries giant tears on cue, so I think there's a tendency in soap world to shrug her off as not that good of an actress. I will also admit that she doesn't do as well when she has to play off of mediocre actors either, but when she can play off of someone really good, she's much better, and her work has a subtlety and a nuance to it that I think is missing from a lot of actors in the medium.

Erika Sleazak is definitely a very talented actress, I will absolutely give her that, but frankly, she's not even the same league as Susan Lucci in terms of sex appeal, and she never has been. Deidre Hall I'd also put near the top of the daytime hierarchy, but Marlena never had the cult following that Erica did. AFAIK, Marlena was initially really popular/famous for being part of a super couple and not on her own as a standout character. Erica Kane was well established before Marlena ever came around.