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

[Vee]

Yes, too gritty and Colby was just so awful. Instead of turning out to be the most interesting Colby we've ever had. I forgot the median age at SOD was 52.

[cassadine1991]

The sex trafficking storyline was supposed to be gritty and dark because that's how it is in real life

[DRW50]

This was one of the more believable conflicts Jessie and Angie had.

I guess SOD would have preferred it if Jessie had porked Cassandra.

They probably would have.

[Vee]

The thing is, there are stories as brutal as that one - doubly exploitative - on soaps every year these days. They just pander to an antiquated POV and gloss over the rawer details and harsh realities.

I can guarantee you that if that story had run on the ABCD of the last 15+ years, abortion would not even have been on the table after ten minutes. It would have turned into a custody fight over Cassandra's baby followed by Cassandra deciding to want to keep it after all, and the kid turning out just fine after its mom got hooked on a ton of drugs during pregnancy. And then I can guarantee you SOD would have named it the story of the year. Just like when Bianca kept her goddamn rape baby, which made me quit that show until the bitch who wrote it was gone.

(Sorry, Miranda, you're fine now.)

[EricMontreal22]

Ugh that pisses me off that either choice was in the worst column. I'd be curious to see what stories they picked from other shows for comparison. Vee basically said everything I could in reaction, but... Ugh.

[Vee]

The rest are in the Spoiler section.

[Steve]

She was also the only version of Colby imo whose personality suited the daughter of Adam Chandler & Liza Colby.

+1

[Chris B]

I wouldn't say the Cassandra story was the worst, because it led to great things for so many characters, but I do still think Sal Stowers was a horrific actress. Overall though, they should've given these soaps much higher marks, but considering how bad the list was overall this doesn't surprise me.

[KMan101]

Soooo ... not to try and fan flames but I just read again a rumor of ABC wanting to buy the shows back and run them as 30 minutes each, 5 days a week, and it comes from a Disney insider, on a Disney board, who is pretty well sourced so the dude's always pretty accurate. I'm not saying it's ever going to happen but that appears to be the idea going around, and it also sounds like ABC did what they could to 'get in the way' is how I'm taking it (like with the web domains and not letting PP use vintage footage).

Anyway, take it for what it's worth, likely a long brewing rumor that is possibly heating up, and nothing more, not a "this is fact" just thought I'd share what I read and that the person and their sources are pretty damn spot on and he rarely posts the news unless he believes it to be true -- at the time -- and Disney is actually run REALLY badly. Anyway ...

I don't think Sal Stowers was given much to do other than wince in pain and cower in fear. I think they did make a mistake rushing right into that story with a character viewers weren't that aware of, but it was still a good story. Heaven forbid a soap is gritty and real. That story would be praised to high heavens if it ran in the 70s, 80s or even 90s.

[Chris B]

The only reason ABC would want these shows back is because they PP proved these soaps were viable as half hour soaps and they know there is a demand there. I don't care what anybody tries to say, but moving those shows to Stamford was a great move and they were better looking than any non-B&B soap on air at a fraction of the cost. The only problem with this is that it goes to prove Prospect Park's point with the lawsuit. I fully believe that once ABC saw how well GH was doing, they wanted these shows back. If you cancel Katie and put these two shows in her timeslot they'd stand to make a lot of money since these shows have a reduced budget.

I wonder if in the end the way these shows will return is with Prospect Park still producing them, but FOR ABC. At the very least I can't see them coming back without a payout to Prospect Park.

[KMan101]

And the source also said the shows were actually relatively successful, which they were, even though many want to say they weren't.

I agree they want the shows back, saw how it could be done, and now want to do that. They saw how cheap they could get away with. Katie's fleeing ABC News anyway for Yahoo so her show's all but done, IMO, and ABC needs to fill the hole with something. Not like they've had time to really develop anything, as far as I know.

I could see PP producing them FOR ABC. ABC likely wants to reap the benefits without the cost. I'm sure they could afford the shows on what they pay Katie Couric for her boring as [!@#$%^&*] talk show.

[ellabelle]

I disagree about Colby - she wasn't a villain at all. I actually liked her as a trampy bad girl. I just throught Brooke Newton lacked the subtley to pull it off without it being a caricature. She got better as time went on, but she was too new to do the role justice.

As for the Cassandra story, I agree with most of that. I thought it veered into sensationalistic (Zach and Lea clicking around on a woman to give her an orgasm on the internet to open a secret site) instead of educational. It can be gritty if you include that educational component, IMHO. The moment they referred to it as "sex trafficking" instead of "human trafficking" I assumed the worst, and PP delivered it. I didn't see Cassandra's brief stint on the show in 2006, but even if I had, she was still new to the vast majority of the cast, and the apparent father-daughter relationship she had with Jesse developed all off screen. I know they had to show abuse and rape, but it just kept going and going and going, and it was horrible to watch. I'm glad she had an abortion - and frankly, AMC HAS had rape victims terminate pregnancies (Brooke and Julia), but that there was any debate over whether she'd have it blew me away. This was a pretty damn open-shut case, but having DIXIE counseling her was a freaking joke. Dixie should be in counseling herself.

Sorry, I thought the trafficking story was really badly done and deserves to be labeled the worst. There were a lot of good directions AMC could have gone, and this just wasn't it.

I wouldn't be heartbroken if the shows were revived by ABC, PP or anyone else. I think they SHOULD continue on in some way, but I'll be shocked if ABC actually brings them back. I guess we'll see what happens with the lawsuit.

[Chris B]

I believe the shows were as successful as they could be under the circumstances. Their averages on OWN were respectable considering they were dropped with ABSOLUTELY ZERO promo and at the last minute. Had they cross-promoted with The Have and the Have Nots I have no doubt their ratings would've been higher. Or even if they had a nightly repeat so viewers knew they were around. As for Hulu, we know they always charted high there, so even if they didn't reach there goal, they were making money. It was simply too early and not enough episodes to make the amount of money they needed since they were dealing with startup costs as well.

I'd be willing to bet that both soaps combined would be cheaper than Katie.

[marceline]

I wouldn't go back to the show if it came back to ABC. I'm just not willing to go back to the Disney-fied version. I don't trust ABC to do anything but treat them like trash again. It's kind of like the way I stopped watching any show that premiered on Fox until it had a full season because I just got so tired of them canceling shows I liked.

[ellabelle]

So what you're saying is that it really isn't about wanting the show to survive in some form. It's more about wanting it the way you like it, or you won't watch. How is that any different than the long-term fans who refused to give the PP version a chance?