All My Children AMC: The Prospect Park Era (old production thread)

[DramatistDreamer]

...but isn't the very essence of a telenovela is to have a beginning, middle and definite end? Then they go off the air? To me, what defines a telenovela is not the cycle of episodes but the fact that, after a few months, it goes off the air for good and is replaced by another telenovela. Have people considered that it's brevity may be the reason why Telenovelas are so popular? That the genre is constantly being replenished with a new show?

I don't see how the telenovela concept can be applied to any continuing story when the basic principle of telenovelas is that they conclude and are replaced with a brand new telenovela.

[Vee]

Because you can cycle in and out of certain storylines and phases of a story while retaining the core cast and show identity.

PC did it well, IMO - at first.

[DramatistDreamer]

but that's not the Latin American model for telenovelas. That's something else...an offshoot, of sorts. Telenovelas end and are replaced by another telenovela. If a character from the original telenovela continues in another story, that's a spinoff.

I guess I'm really strict in my interpretation of what constitutes a telenovela. The definition is not fluid to me.

[Vee]

I know it's not the classical definition. I'm saying it still works. It certainly works for shows like Degrassi.

[DramatistDreamer]

I can see what you mean by the cycle of shows, though and I do agree that this aspect is worth a try.

[John]

Aug 19th was never a date given by PP. I bet they are back by Sept 9

As for the telenovela. Maybe OLTL can run major storu for 13 weeks and then as thats ending a new one can start that becomes focus of the next 13 weeks and so on & so on

[marceline]

Yeah, when I talk about telenovela model, I'm speaking strictly in the terms of the broadcast/production aspects not the stories.

For me the bottom of all bottom lines is that the 250+ episode/year, daily run model gets less and less viable with each passing year. It's either change or die and these shows already did the latter once. It's time to make a real attempt at the former.

Some people won't accept the changes but it's not like viewer attrition hasn't been a significant problem all these years anyway. If the traditionalists can be replaced by new viewers then I would consider that a success.

[skiman12082004]

As we have all learned over the last few months is PP is learning this new model as they go along. There have been many bumps along the way but ultimately I think they are going to find the right fit and all will work out well for fans and AMC. Even though we don't have the actual data from Hulu we can conclude that the soaps are very popular there and at times on iTunes. PP needs TOLN to work and since they are basing that success around AMC & OLTL I think they will do whatever they need to do to make that happen. I don't think cancellation is even an option for them at this point. If the shows were doing poorly I think we would know based on the rankings of popularity the shows are having on Hulu and iTunes. So what we do know is that the shows are doing well as far as hits on Hulu and purchases via iTunes.

I don't know if PP has found the perfect model yet but I do know they are closer than they were when the shows premiered April 29th. I know the next Season and or cycle of taping will be a lot smoother for them because they have something to compare it to now. They have over 80 episodes under their belts and have hired Writers I think that will provide viewers with compelling stories. They don't have a well oiled machine yet but I think they are much much closer to perfecting it to get there.

Also, I think revenue should be coming in from Advertisers because they have been up and running since April to generate some. Whether the revenue is at the level they want remains to be seen but revenue is coming in that we know for sure.

[Vee]

I really don't want to jinx it, but I will say I suspect there's too much overheard and too much proven worth to many different parties right now for them to not go forward.

[greens_dupres]

So I think the unofficial reason is they announced season finales. No need to rush back in what would have been a pretty frenetic attempt (especially for the second show shooting) to tape and edit and catch up to Hulu when they were no longer trying for uninterrupted eps.

I actually don't feel all that bad for the actors. That sounds cold especially when I grew up watching Julia Barr & Erika Slezak etc and have nothing but affection & respect for everyone who jumped in and decided to be a part of this. I get that it could be annoying with scheduling summer plans etc. but who hasn't had a job where work messed up your schedule. For the vets, quite frankly, I think most of them are happy to have this opportunity again. Sadly, or for some by choice, they aren't sifting through a million offers so they're hoping for the best with this & hopefully are doing just fine because they had the good fortune to be on soaps for years when soaps were good, continuous money. With the younger ones, they're young working actors & so they're used to instability & projects being in flux. The totally new ones especially seem thrilled with the exposure & how it quickly gave them an established fanbase & multiplied their twitter followers ten times etc. It seems like most of them have spent the summer working on other projects. Rob Wilson said on Fairman's show that they all signed on for trying to move soaps to a new medium & all the bumps & rocky navigation that would go along with that. I think OLTL actors have said things to the same effect in interviews. I did feel really bad though when the labor dispute forced the OLTL actors off the set. Because they were there working and got thrown a huge curveball one morning. But on the whole, the actors seem to be doing fine plugging along with PP and excited to get back whenever that is.

[EricMontreal22]

I think this "offshoot" method could work well--and has in the past. But your point is fair, and I appreciate it being brought up because it does irk me a bit when people use the telenovela term when, *to me* that defining feature is that it's a soap with a definite end point.

I think Pepperman just chose her words poorly, but when she said that before this seasons approach, a soap would have ONE long story--and now it would have several stories, with one finishing at the end of a season and others leading into the next season, I did kinda shake my head. Essentially, that's what good soaps have done for much of their lives--at least since they moved to 30 mins from 15 (having listened to 40+ GL radio episodes, back then it was much more like one long story which would just gradually change into a new story.)

[marceline]

Exactly. Most of the actors involved with this had next to nothing going on and very few prospects. The vets were "retired," the kids were just beginning their careers (look at how many of them are/were working on their side businesses and projects) and the 20-30 set were just out there hustling anyway. If the people involved with this find the project difficult they could probably walk away anytime because I doubt PP would fight to hold them to the contract and if they did at worst the actors can walk after their year is up. Most of these actors have already experienced more job security than 90 percent of the people in their field. If you want job security and predictability, you become an insurance actuary not an actor.

[EricMontreal22]

Agreed. Frankly, if they were throwing in the towel, I think we'd simply stop hearing from them and they'd leave with their tails tucked behind them--no (awkwardly worded) press releases, etc.

Agreed re the actors. They all seem to have accepted that this was the kinda work they signed on to, none of them seem terribly upset to me.

[DramatistDreamer]

I think I know which model the writers may prefer.

I read a very interesting article in the NY Times where different showrunners were interviewing each other about their respective shows before having a roundtable discussion. There was Shonda Rhimes (Scandal, Grey's Anatomy), Carlton Cuse (Bates Motel, Lost) and others, including Boardwalk Empire, House of Cards and The Good Wife.

One of the things that Shonda Rhimes seemed to lament was the episode heavy broadcast network season, it appeared she as well as most of the other writers/showrunners preferred a 10-13 episode season. She seemed slightly envious of the lattitude that cable shows seem to enjoy.

I think one of the creators of The Good Wife was the only exception as they thought a shorter episode arc may leave less room for error, uh experimentation and there'd be more pressure to get things right in every single episode.

I can see what she meant by this concern, still, I couldn't help but see it everyone else's way. Shonda mentioned a shorter season would give her more room to look back at all the episodes from the season and assess what worked and what didn't and plan for the next season. I got the notion that with 26 episodes, there wasn't much time for that.

Here is the article, if anyone is interested:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/08/09/arts/television/20130811_showrunners-interactive.html?_r=0#index

[Soaplovers]

Today's show-runners lack imagination and fundamental ability to properly pace a show beyond 13 episode seasons. I think that if each show had multiple stories paced at different intervals (i.e. one story starting, one story heating up, one story climaxing, and one story dealing with fallout) then they should have no problem with writing a 22 episode season. The problem is that most shows are structure on one continuing story arc per season. Desperate Housewives was a perfect example with their season mysteries.. while all the subplots were dropped for episodes on end then bought back up out of the blue.

Old school Dallas, Knots Landing, even early Dynasty could juggle multiple stories... It can be done, it's just we need show runners that have the ability to do it.