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

[cassadine1991]

Don't forget people on Twitter constantly asking her

[EnglishTea]

I don't disagree that a cable deal with a station that was on more basic cable would have helped, but considering the weird schedule and being on OWN, the shows did decently.

While some of the storytelling lacked, I actually think both shows produced a quality product, far better than anything else produced for strictly online viewing in the soap world (I'm not including House of Cards, etc).

IMO PP did a good job of balancing the old formula with a more modern take - if they had completely reinvented the wheel, it would have turned off some viewers. They simply tried to tell character based stories at a faster pace - where they ran into a problem was when they went to two episodes a week, and felt the need to monkey with the editing when the underlying story was written at a different pace, and it made the show choppy.

I don't disagree that a cable deal with a station that was on more basic cable would have helped, but considering the weird schedule and being on OWN, the shows did decently.

While some of the storytelling lacked, I actually think both shows produced a quality product, far better than anything else produced for strictly online viewing in the soap world (I'm not including House of Cards, etc).

IMO PP did a good job of balancing the old formula with a more modern take - if they had completely reinvented the wheel, it would have turned off some viewers. They simply tried to tell character based stories at a faster pace - where they ran into a problem was when they went to two episodes a week, and felt the need to monkey with the editing when the underlying story was written at a different pace, and it made the show choppy.

[Dee41]

PP was between a rock and a hard place. You're right that they couldn't reinvent the wheel right off the bat. If they had started with 40 episodes at half an hour a week that could have turned off viewers. If the shows were good enough you may have been able to attract enough new viewers.

I know for me personally I struggled with the cast sizes on both shows. As a traditional soap viewer I felt the the casts were too small. Often I felt some romances and friendships were forced. People were thrown together because they had no one else to interact with. On the other hand I felt the casts were too big because at a hour a week it seemed like airtime was being wasted on pointless characters who added nothing to the story.

It's weird because I enjoy a lot of prime-time shows so I'm use to smaller casts but it was a adjustment for me watching the soaps that way.

[EnglishTea]

I give PP a lot of credit for getting the shows together in a short span of time, but sadly, I don't think they thought much beyond whipping it together and getting it on the air vs. long-term viability.

While a half-hour one day a week show may have pissed off some viewers, ultmately, I feel the diehards would have been happy just to have their programs back and suck it up. It would have also allowed more viewers to slowly find it (maybe not new viewers, but new to internet viewing). Slowly down the productions would have also avoided arguments over the budget spent with the union.

If you've worked in daytime, you know that a show can get produced in warped speed (B&B tapes 8 shows over 4 days and has multiple weeks off a year, Days re-arranged their schedule with pre/post tapes to take weeks off at a time as well), but the directing is often cookie-cutter and the final quality is often lacking, and that is with production teams who have a system that runs like a well oiled machine.

PP wanted to create a quality product, and they were new to the daytime game, IMO they should have started out bigger and better, but less often to reach that goal.

[John]

Ok @prospectpk & @TOLN I have been super happy that you continued @allmychildren & @onelifetolive. Even with the unsureness about when S2 will start. However now we have actors on twitter apologizing for saying S2 was a go with the rumors of late. So I guess I am asking you at the top to please let us all know. The Crew, Cast & Fans. If its over, just admit that. If S2 is a lock say that and even if your still working on S2 happening, say that please. We as fans thank U for bringing our shows back to us. Just let us all know what is going on. Thank you!!!

[dragonflies]

She probably is feeling discouraged, but I doubt that's the only thing

[Vee]

Neither of you are exactly helping your supposed "causes," and it's pretty pathetic that anyone is taking sides here. My sympathy is for the productions and the performers, because the shows were good - the shows aren't the problem.

[marceline]

Michale Logan starts [!@#$%^&*] on Twitter and Debbi Morgan apologizes. Unbelievable.

[difficultdiva]

The actors and actresses shouldn't be the ones apologizing to anyone. This is just craziness.

[Wizzerkat]

You would think that TV people like PP would understand that the actors are on the front lines and the ones who get asked the questions. Some like Debbi, sweetheart that she is, feels like she needs to say something because she values us enough to at least try.

[EnglishTea]

Who are you directing this toward? I don't have a "cause." I do think the shows were good (not perfect, but better than they had been on ABC in years), but I think how they were marketed (rolled out) to the public was a problem. And that PP bit off a little more than they could chew with the production model, but I still give them props for trying... I just think that as much as they did to educate the public on how to access the internet to view the show, they still needed some education themselves on how to successfully produce a serial format.

[John]

As much as Id love PP to announce something it seems they never planned to. o maybe Logan or the soap whisper should answer to why they tweeted what they did? It seems like they didnt have much source wise so why work up the casts, crews and fans like this???

[Khan]

IKR? Everyone KNOWS Black Angie forgives, not apologizes. Somebody done broke another seal.

[John]

A question raised by my pal CJ

Could PP sub-contract or co-produce AMC & OLTL with another production company???

I would think if ABC stands to make Millions off these shows they would be open to that as long as half of the production came from PP.

[dragonflies]

DM goes from saying the actors hadn't heard anything to what she tweeted this morning, all that in 24hours, I think she does know something

+1