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

[DRW50]

The only way a soap works is if the people who run it have a basic respect for daytime as an artform, and a good head for business. Sadly, we never seem to get both. If ABC sees AMC and OLTL as cash machines, then they will just belch out an inferior product for short-term gain, and move on, because hey, look, they might be able to get Lindsey Lohan on The View as a co-host, isn't that incredible.

[Vee]

I can say that everything with A.J., Miranda and Heather would've gone down real different if the show was on ABC or run by Ron and Frank. That dynamic wouldn't be nearly so free and easy. And I've already ranted about what SOD and places like it have come to expect of the Cassandra story, thanks to ABC and the other networks (but especially ABC). You simply would not be able to have the Hubbards as the central core of the show, which they were, alongside such banished ones as Julia Barr and let's not forget, ABC Superstar Michael Nader.

The idea of running the show without X, Y or Z would have been unthinkable not just to some of ABC management even post-Frons, but also IMO to the GH team. But the truth is the show was better for it. It proved it had a kind of versatility and longevity of brand that I think most people - myself included - did not associate with it in at least the last ten years.

I don't think Ron hates these shows. I think he's just very careless, and very in love with his own ideas and his own voice. And ultimately, at this point, a lot of the ideas are all the same thing. I think he sees himself as the arbiter now, and that's the problem. He doesn't have any kind of balance or checks against him, anyone to really critique him or tell him when he's wrong or when something is too much or not enough. I'm sure he had big plans for Port Charles, in his mind, but they ultimately came down to killing Alison, introducing a fresh, dim twink and having a weird mini-arc with Michael Easton that didn't make much sense.

[JONNYSBRO]

[DRW50]

Keep in mind that in OLTL's last year, it was supposedly going great guns, it was supposedly a watercooler show. ABC didn't care, they never doubted their decision to can the show. When they find what they see as a suitable replacement for GH, it will be gone.

[Khan]

Neither would I, marceline.

[marceline]

No daytime soap has been a water cooler show in ages. Nobody outside the bubble cares, Not about GH now, not about OLTL in its last year. Whatever boosts these shows get, the vast majority of TV viewers don't even know they still exists. Believe me, nobody is going to work talking about GH. Breaking Bad, Walking Dead, those are the watercooler shows now. All the promotion in the world doesn't make this the 90s again. Let's try to keep one foot in reality.

As for GH, they will always be fighting for survival just like every other show on the air. The days when it was unthinkable to cancel a soap are gone and they will always be only as safe as their last sweeps. They're safe until they aren't.

[DramatistDreamer]

To be frank, I don't think there was ever a time when it was unthinkable to cancel a soap. Reading blogs like WLS, this annals are littered with cancelled shows from the 50s, 60s and 70s. I think the popularity of soaps during the 1980s probably led to the perception that these shows were unshakable but there were many soaps that got cancelled along the way yet many went virtually unnoticed since they were often replaced by other soaps.

I kind of consider the cancellation of Another World to be a bit of a watershed moment because that cancellation for some reason, felt like the beginning of the end to something.

But I definitely catch your drift, the days of wine and roses for daytime soaps on the network are long gone and it shows in the production values and storylines.

[Khan]

IA. I wouldn't say AW was brilliant at the end. For my money, though, it was the last gasp of true, character-driven, multi-generational storytelling for daytime (stories like "Lumina" notwithstanding, lol). Once the show was over, all the gimmicks and hocus-pocus that had sprung up in the wake of Megan McTavish's AMC and James E. Reilly's DAYS just seemed to take over completely, with NO signs of turning back ever.

[JONNYSBRO]

The difference about oltl it had some buzz in its final year but abc had already had cancelled in the towel. GH has not been cancelled it was but ABC is pumping GH in press releases galore something they didnt do for oltl. Vicki drummer has come out said she is a huge GH fan and frank and Ron turned around the show. These ratings are stellar. ABC is doing great promotion for it all year. It's quite a different situation and oltl never had the pop culture icon status GH has had.

[ChitHappens]

I agree that the end of AW was the end of it all!

[SFK]

It irked me that AW could be so boring when they had such a great cast (which had a great collective look, by the way, Wyndham, Keating, Dano, Schnetzer, Stuart, I could watch on mute, they were just a pleasure to look at). I even enjoyed the stunt re-recasting of Wheeler as Marley. I discovered AW late so basically I missed out on the glory days of the aforementioned actors' characters, and come cancellation, there was definitely a huge warning sign there about the future of soaps. AW was HUGE in its day and even at its end it boasted several popular charismatic and talented actors but the writing just was not there. Or if it *was* there at the very end, it was too late. I'm not totally discrediting the O.J./"break a habit" type arguments, but if a show is on fire, giving you everything, you will in the words of Shakespeare, "wish it, love it, long for it, and will forever more be true to it." If the show is just meh, not so difficult to break the habit (or even subconsciously jump at the chance to?).

[EricMontreal22]

And again... Why? If people don't think this is warranted, than it doesn't mean much. And if they do--it doesn't mean much. ABC trumpteted the final weeks ratings for OLTL (and AMC.)

[EricMontreal22]

Was it ever? Again I use the comic book fanbase as a comparison, but--exactly.

[Steve]

Is that a rhetorical question? If not: http://www.amazon.com/Newsweek-Magazine-Back-Issue-September/dp/B000XG54GQ

[Dana]

If you mean ever having water cooler status, GH definitely had that with Luke and Laura in the 80s. Their wedding was huge with the viewers.