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

[John]

SOD: PP/AMC/OLTL The future

I have not seen the article. This is a paraphrase, in my own words, from a fan who has:

Cady was interviewed. According to her the cast was told by PP they will try again in 2014, "'in a new way and a new fashion,'" and they are not by any means giving up. But they had to make a call right now, and so they had to close up this version of AMC for the present. Cady says PP told them they could all get a call next year saying they '"figured out another way to do this to bring it all back again.'"

[cassadine1991]

robin strasser ‏@robinstrasser10h

Incomprehensibly to me @sagaftra has scheduled a conference call re: #OLTL #AMC today...ditto why #KenHoward President of Sag isn't involved

robin strasser ‏@robinstrasser10h

I've been an #AFTRA member 48yrs:) always supported the merger w/#SAG which took decades & #KenHoward adroit leadership to accomplish...

robin strasser ‏@robinstrasser9h

What's my point? well...although anxious to know what can benefit #OLTL #AMC casts while furthering New Media & Employment OPPs...pointedly:

[cassadine1991]

new blog from KDP

http://www.kassiedepaiva.com/home.html

[allmc2008]

Well it is the 3rd. I am expecting there to be more news between now and the 13th.

[Juliajms]

http://soapoperadigest.com/content/new-prospect-park-legal-drama

[John]

wow

[Max]

I have waited a long time to say anything about this because I wanted to be sensitive and give people enough time to mourn their shows. With that being said, I am not the least bit surprised that these relaunches turned out to be total failures, just as I predicted. If you just take emotion and subjectivity out of it--and instead replace them with common sense and business basics--it was so easy to predict failure for the following reasons:

1. Soap watchers are viewers of habit, and both soaps had been off the air for over a year.

2. Given that soap viewers tend to skew older, a move to the internet probably isn't going to work out so well. (While internet programming will explode in the future, its first major growth will occur with young viewers.)

3. PP is hardly the most trustworthy or competent business that ever produced a soap.

4. These soaps had such horrendous budgets, and a good deal of the casts (especially in AMC's case) were cut.

5. Most of all, promotion was almost non-existent outside the soap press and soap message boards. (I would venture to guess that the majority of soap viewers don't follow those sources.)

I am sorry that this post will be perceived as "rude" by some, but (as I said) I waited a long time before expressing my opinion on this. What I found so upsetting was that I was viciously attacked by some for daring to predict that this venture would be a failure. (Instead of looking at the merits of the convincing arguments I made, some just jumped to the misinformed conclusion that I was predicting failure because I was "jealous" that the P&G soaps weren't "saved." But, the truth is that, had the P&G soaps been given new life, they too would have failed for all the reasons listed above.)

On a different note--and I know this is going to offend (so I apologize in advance)--but why are some still clinging to the hope that yet another PP revival will take place? Perhaps there is a small chance of the revival getting off the ground, but such a show will be doomed to failure (for the obvious reasons I mentioned). If AMC and OLTL were my soaps, the only thing I would want is for decent finales to be produced; I most definitely would not want this endless uncertainty.

[JONNYSBRO]

Another reason to believe abc will prevail in court and get this dismissed. Abc has very High power attorneys. This 95 million pp wants is a joke and now it's showing take your issue up with your investors. Abc is going to get this whole thing dismissed.

[SFK]

Max, I don't feel that your opinions are "rude" at all, there is validity in all that you say. It's difficult for me, and I presume many AMC/OLTL fans, to view this situation objectively. There is an inherent bias and investment that can't be ignored. But there are so many factors at play... What was the target audience, old fans, new fans, both? How did PP try to appeal to both? Was appealing to both even their aim? Would this endeavor ever appeal to anyone who was not already a fan to begin with? I wonder if these shows would have been even more successful than they were (and they WERE successful) if they'd distanced themselves from their source material in a way that made them seem more fresh to the uninitiated all the while having inconsequential familiar ties for the old ABC fans. I don't know. At the end of the day (cliche), some great storytelling was going on and I'm left with the impression that it ultimately came down to money, or the lack thereof. Funding killed these shows, not quality.

[John]

PP currently has the rights & is the only company that can relaunch them that is why some feel PP could relaunch again.

P&G didnt want to sell and only lease. There were parties who only wanted to buy the P&G soaps and not lease them

P&G also wanted the soaps to continue in hour long 5 day a week format and turned down offers that changed those aspects

ABC already asked that the case be dismissed. The Judge finding PP's clamis had merit said No to ABC's request. The case moves forward.

[ChitHappens]

+1

[JONNYSBRO]

That's not how it works. A defendant can't just get a case dismissed. They are sued by the plaintiff. It's prospects park responsibility to prove their case in court. I have no doubt abc will nail them and get the case dismissed here. The only basis for their case is oltl killed off Natalie it's such a small thing. The oltl3 were not the reason oltl failed. It doesn't mean because it's going to court that the judge thinks PPs case has merit. ABC is the one that will prevails they might even counter sue in this case over something.

[marceline]

PP has some pretty high powered lawyers too. They certainly have the bigger law firm on their side.

[Darn]

Only slavish devotion to these failed enterprises is welcomed on this board! Begone!

[John]

ABC did already tried to get the case dismissed in their answer to the lawsuit and failed at that attempt. So the case is moving forward