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

[Vee]

They seem to know how to run their cable shows. But all the information we got about the PP deal after the fact was that they had no idea what they were doing vis a vis mounting a daytime serial, which is a very different beast. Yet again attempting an end run around the WGA with fi-core writers (Gary Tomlin, etc.), if that's true, sounds like more of the same. Make up the rules as you go along.

My first instinct was that this is a crass ploy to hold on to the rights, and if it's not that, then it's still not the greatest idea. Going for the same cheap cut-rate tactics re: non-union talent or whatever else is not going to work. Say what you will, but Frank Valentini knows how to produce a soap opera. He's gone and I have a feeling they burned him and a lot of other people on that deal, and he's not coming back. And that's bad.

[Wendy]

Awesome. Please take RC/FV back to OLTL then. And take their awful newbies (looking at YOU, Britt and Sabrina!) with them.

[NothinButAttitude]

I don't see current writers and producers being able to produce a cost effective show unless Valentini is attached to the project. And I don't want an AMC revolving around Collard Green & Rya** nor a OLTL with Gnatalie or Rama being the lead. Just leave them dead and start fresh. Just start new or acquire the rights to a soap canceled YEARS ago (i.e. Secret Storm, The Doctors, LIAMST, Where the Heart Is, etc.) and do a modern spin on them or build on their history IMO.

[dragonflies]

Uhm noo thanks, cause this means GH would either get Guza or McTrash back, I'll pass.

I'd rather have their newbies, than the drab 4 for decades on end. Thanks anyways

[marceline]

Back during PP I: A New Hope the thing that killed it for me was the thought that RC/FV would have anything to do with AMC. I hope that they really are locked in to GH. (Sorry GH fans!)

[Vee]

I doubt ABC would let them go anywhere. And I'd be surprised if they went back after what everyone at OLTL went through last year.

[dragonflies]

http://daytimeconfidential.zap2it.com/2012/12/17/will-prospect-park-use-fi-core-writers-on-new-all-my-children-and-one-life-to-live

While the Deadline report on Prospect Park's renewed plans to bring One Live to Live and All My Children back via the web mentions the production company having secured pacts with the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and actors union SAG-AFTRA, I'm hearing PP might bypass the entertainment industry's other crucial union, the Writers Guild of America (WGA).

"They're looking to hire Fi-Core writers," says an insider. "That way they don't have to negotiate with the WGA or deal with Guild minimums."

Apparently, PP has been asking around about the availability of several scribes who have financial core status with the WGA— including a pair currently helming a daytime drama. Keep checking back with Daytime Confidential as this story develops!

[NothinButAttitude]

If anything, I just hope the people that Valentini let go from GH and the staffers of AMC find work with this "project."

[dragonflies]

Uh wow

Jamey_Giddens ‏@Jamey_Giddens

@gwynnega They ran and threw this together the moment they learned ABC had plans for AMC and OLTL.

[MrQuartermaine]

Show me financial backing, union support, production costs, sets, crew, a 2 year bible outline, a studio, and a tentative cast list, and then I'll start to listen to what they have to say.

[dragonflies]

Jamey's reply to me when I asked how they can do anything with AMC

Jamey_Giddens ‏@Jamey_Giddens

@_spunkygirl PP had some some of clause in their deal saying they retain the rights if they had a project going before the deadline.

@_spunkygirl So, apparently they've slung some plan together just in the nick of time.

[Chris B]

Honestly, I believe that Prospect is going to try and make a go of it. B&B and GH showed that soaps can improve their prospects, so they want in on the game. Especially since now ABC is seeing the value, they're going to try and make this work. I wonder if Maria Arena Bell will be contacted since she is a high profile FiCore writer. I'm interested in seeing where this rollercoaster goes. If rights do expire to AMC or OLTL they should consider buying the PGP soaps now that Soap Classics lost the rights. Either way whatever soap we get is going to essentially be a spin-off. AMC won't have Erica Kane because Susan Lucci is locked in a contract for TWO primetime series, Devious Maids and Deadly Affairs.

I wonder how they'll try to handle the smaller cast and retool these shows. Especially OLTL with the GH connections.

[dragonflies]

Actually I don't think they will, what Jamey has said they're like kids who left their toys in a closet for a year and suddenly only want to play with them so no one else can

[AlexElizabeth]

Why can't PP just go away! For #$@!'s sake.

[Vee]

I have heard before that ABC was now keen on having the rights back. And I do believe this is just PP being tacky. It's just lousy, lousy behavior.