One Life to Live OLTL: The Prospect Park Era (old production thread)

[Vee]

I think some of that was a bit of hyperbole. I honestly can't see where Kristen would have worked here long-term.

[greens_dupres]

Me either- you're probably right, especially if the ABC litigation is ongoing. My initial reaction was just you have Kelley Missal, what the hell do you care about her. But its in their interest to remain publicly consistent on the fact that they were harmed without those characters (not saying I agree). JP managed to hammer that home a few times without seeming bitter or contentious

[Vee]

I would love to see Kristen. For a few weeks every few months. Or a year.

[cassadine1991]

Yeah she seems pretty down to earth, and I do love how she felt like she could've done things differently in the beginning. Makes me interested in Season 2

[alexisfan07]

They won't bring Cole and Hope back from the dead but PP brought back Billy Clyde so wtf lol

[~bl~]

If Starr and/or the Thornharts aren't on canvas, having Cole and Hope return from the dead would be moot anyway.

[John]

I love that she is open to Ilene as Roxy & Kyle & Fish returning

[marceline]

I hate to be "that" poster but can anybody bullet point the highlights from the podcast? Given PP press release yesterday, can I assume there was significant talk about the season breaks?

[Vee]

I listened to it. Here's what I can recall offhand:

• Pepperman said they had very much wanted to use ME and KA but that "ABC really hurt us" over the dispute. She was personally shocked when GH killed off Cole, Hope and Victor III ("we call him Victor Jr.") and said it wasn't what she would have done. They had the actors signed (I believe ME was to do four weeks of work like RH, and I have heard Kristen say she was going to do five days of taping - probably more a visit) but the deal fell apart. The original plan was for John, Starr and Todd to move to and from GH and OLTL. They had a large Season 1 story for John and Natalie planned which had to be scrapped at the eleventh hour when the deal collapsed. (I'm not exactly lamenting any of this, but that's me.) When asked if she would want to resurrect Cole and Hope, she said PP preferred not to bring people back from the dead.
• She acknowledged that some stories (like Natalie's) had struggled in the wake of that mess. Said there was a lot more of Cutter and Natalie coming in Season 2 in a big story which gets back to Natalie's wild roots. Praised JWoww's work as Nikki.
• Much like Ginger Smith's comments, she said the original writing team did a great job of setup but that she found some of their work too cautious and slowly-paced - that they seemed afraid to go for the impact of big drama and would pull a punch sometimes. Is eager for the show to get back to more affairs, betrayals, etc., the soap staples and says there is much more of that in the next month and going into Season 2. Says that while Racina and Horgan had been out of circulation with OLTL in recent years, Jessica Klein and Marin Gazzaniga both had a long background with following the show and were more in tune with the characters today. (I believe Gazzaniga had been shadowing the ABC show for a year or more when it went off the air.)
• Said her biggest regret was how they handled some young adult material, specifically Matthew. She felt they didn't play enough of the beats with him and his family talking about where he is in life as a young man and a father, what he's feeling about it. That there were too many scenes of him with just Jeffrey and Dani. (There are some good scenes he had with Clint, Bo and Nora about this, but not quite enough.) Wants to soften the character and explore this more in Season 2. Also said Bo, Nora and Matthew have huge drama in Season 2, not just the radio show subplot.
• Said Viki and Clint's story is about them coming back together.
• Was asked about returns for Roxy and Kyle and Oliver, was open to all of them.
• Said Roger Howarth's exit didn't feel like a goodbye. Praised everyone's work and said that while she couldn't discuss anything too openly, that no one should expect Todd and Victor to be gone forever. Also said Blair and Téa have major stories of their own in Season 2 - I hope she means it, as opposed to just them looking for the brothers. I felt they needed to press her more about how islanded and immobile a lot of that tattoo story was due to Howarth's taping schedule and the sluggish writing from the original team, but I thought she got it overall.
• Said a major fan favorite returns in the season finale.

[marceline]

Interesting. Thanks!

[Vee]

I accidentally swapped my season numbers up there because I am still barely awake - there was a big Season 1 story planned for John and Natalie, and now there is a big one planned for Season 2 for Cutter and Natalie.

There is also a huge, game-changing spoiler about Jeffrey in this week's mags, but I don't know if it was another recap misprint like some of the AMC stuff.

[greens_dupres]

Thanks for the heads up. Of course, I will probably be unable to avoid looking in the grocery store line. But I'm going to try really hard.

JP said a lot but really gave away nothing. After being totally surprised by how much she opined last night, they make sense. The last thing PP's legal team wants is her saying publicly that they're doing just fine without Starr & John, that Cole & Hope are resurrectable/expendable, that they have a full cast of great characters & story planned- even though I think she does believe that.

The fan who sounded like she was going to drive off a bridge when JP couldn't guarantee a Victor return (But wait---will he be rescued? I just really love him...) was hilarious.

She seems really open to a number of returns but not just returns for the sake of returns. I like that.

I thought her comment that the one thing she'd really like to change being the reintroduction of Matthew was surprising (I thought it would be Natalie, the tattoo story pace). I guess the deadbeat angle plus a recast didn't go over extremely well with a lot of fans who watched Matthew grow up onscreen. I didn't think they screwed up that much with him but maybe there could have been more scenes explaining how he got to the point he was at since some fans seemed unwilling to connect their own dots from the ABC finale.

I didn't hear her mention a Tea story but I was zoning out a bit- hope that's true!

I have to say that after all the soap press showing out on Twitter that Fairman got this gig, he's really pretty okay. He doesn't talk over the guests, he's good with the callers, he asks some good questions of his own and I really get the sense that he loves the shows & is rooting hard for them.

[~bl~]

Did she mention something about the new set of episodes being arced with a beginning, middle and end or am I mistaken?

[greens_dupres]

She did- seasons give an opportunity for multiple interconnected stories but with a clear beginning, middle and end. And then the end isn't the end but the lead in to the next chapter. Something like that.

[marceline]

That would basically be the telenovela model. If we get enough episodes in a block, that works.