Jump to content
View in the app

A better way to browse. Learn more.

Soap Opera Network Community

A full-screen app on your home screen with push notifications, badges and more.

To install this app on iOS and iPadOS
  1. Tap the Share icon in Safari
  2. Scroll the menu and tap Add to Home Screen.
  3. Tap Add in the top-right corner.
To install this app on Android
  1. Tap the 3-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner of the browser.
  2. Tap Add to Home screen or Install app.
  3. Confirm by tapping Install.

Prospect Park Sues ABC Over ‘One Life To Live’ & ‘All My Children’ Licensing Agreement

Featured Replies

  • Replies 725
  • Views 51.9k
  • Created
  • Last Reply
  • Member

Carlivati only killed them off so Starr would be free and clear with no child aka no baggage to pair her with Michael

And I was fine with that. I've always felt that Starr didn't need a child because she turned into an 'old maid' too soon. But again, they undo their deaths with a stroke of a pen. I don't see why they'd be butt hurt (again if this is the case).

  • Member

Yeah this sounds like it's about two things: not being consulted about the GH three's storylines while they were there and the killing off of Cole, Hope and fuckery with Tomas' identity. I get why they're pissed but like others have said, why does it only now matter? Wouldn't they have had to intervene when it all went down instead of letting ABC dig themselves into a bigger hole? I'm not sure this will look good on PP.

And like Vee said, you'd think this was in the actors' contracts. I just don't understand the timing of it at all. I wonder if they feel sort of forced to keep the continuity of what went down on GH for the fans' sakes, or perhaps they are somehow legally obligated to. They sure would've gotten the short end of the stick there then, especially if they have to explain why Starr is in LA if Cole and Hope aren't there.

  • Member

I am the furthest thing from a lawyer, but signing them for three years (if they did) may well have been a problem to begin with - these actors were signed for specific characters that were intellectual property owned by another entity which had only been leased to them for one year. I would think that would have to have been covered in the contracts.

The other issue of cooperation is whether GH bothered to entertain the idea of any collaboration at all. I think they expected to just keep their piece of OLTL indefinitely.

No, they were signed for 3 years to do whatever was needed with Starr and John in mind at that time. ABC signed KA for 3 years quite some time before she appeared on GH. PP has no claim here as the actors/performers were no longer on contract and/or never signed in the first place.

GH had the trump card - the actors/performer, so PP "had no choice" but to play ball. 2/3 were not interested, while 1/3 was at the end of his contract and agreed to PP so that he could return to GH as the character he began playing. That's dead in the water, so looks like my prediction from last week is incorrect. I can live with that.

  • Member

So they wanted to consult on the OLTL character storylines, yet they have no problem using those character's GH history on the show, instead of undoing it

So what is PP's problem with resurrecting Cole and Hope, it's not rocket science.......

Yes, PP wanted to share the characters in order to get their hands on the actors/performer. They also wanted input on the stories to coordinate with GH. Long term, that would have been a nightmare. GH was right to not agree to that.

  • Member

This lawsuit is hilarious. It's clearly a front because they couldn't strong arm the actors into doing the web show. Pp is acting like they didn't drop the ball on this themselves. They are claiming its about story and lack of communication yet were allegedly eager to work with abc and gh just weeks ago. They say lol is damaged due to gh killing off cole and start when Coles final story on oltl was faking his death and gh left it very open, just shy of telling us hey they aren't really dead. Plus they got a ton of story facts wrong is what they describe happening on gh.

  • Author
  • Member

LOL'ed at this

“in the ultimate act of bad faith, ABC inexplicably killed off two OLTL characters on loan to GH by having their car forced off a cliff. ABC effectively killed another major OLTL character, who was not even licensed to ABC, by revealing that this long-standing OLTL character is in fact another character (alter ego) on GH.”

  • Member

Yeah this sounds like it's about two things: not being consulted about the GH three's storylines while they were there and the killing off of Cole, Hope and fuckery with Tomas' identity. I get why they're pissed but like others have said, why does it only now matter? Wouldn't they have had to intervene when it all went down instead of letting ABC dig themselves into a bigger hole? I'm not sure this will look good on PP.

And like Vee said, you'd think this was in the actors' contracts.

My sneaking suspicion is GH quietly signed them all to three year deals despite knowing damn well they had only licensed Starr, Todd and John - because in this very strange and different case, I suspect they had to contract them as specific characters, not just the actors - for one year. They assumed, as we all did, that OLTL would never return and the material would be theirs indefinitely. Then when the toll came calling, they scrambled and dragged their asses and tried to do anything to keep them and their stake.

There's a lot shady about it on all sides, from both angles IMO. You have some story in KDP's new interview about how she got a fervent text from Frank Valentini out of the blue a couple months ago, before the news broke about the shows' return, asking if PP had called her. You have the question of the contracts, whether ME and KA were even given the option to be available to appear - they have never, ever commented, nor has anyone else on record on whether they would have been willing to appear as PP asked. You just had soap bloggers and unnamed sources at GH speaking. You have the fact that so much of this has been done under the table and off the record by both sides, and now you have this (IMO unnecessary) lawsuit, where yes, PP has some very valid complaints, but I'm not sure how many are viable. It's just a clusterfuck.

No, they were signed for 3 years to do whatever was needed with Starr and John in mind at that time.

But you can't sign them to play Starr and John for three years when you only have Starr and John for one.

Edited by Vee

  • Member

LOL'ed at this

“in the ultimate act of bad faith, ABC inexplicably killed off two OLTL characters on loan to GH by having their car forced off a cliff. ABC effectively killed another major OLTL character, who was not even licensed to ABC, by revealing that this long-standing OLTL character is in fact another character (alter ego) on GH.”

Yet they still went into negotiations with ABC/GH to share the characters. Okie Dokie!

  • Member

So what is PP's problem with resurrecting Cole and Hope, it's not rocket science.......

Right BUT if PP doesn't stop ABC from doing stuff they are not legally entitled to do now how far will ABC go? When would ABC stop?

  • Member

Actors aren't usually signed onto a soap for a specific role. They also likely had the normal outs, if not more per PP resuming oltl.

Yet they still went into negotiations with ABC/GH to share the characters. Okie Dokie!
Exactly.
  • Member

The part that doesn't read like an angry fangirl post, that does interest me, is when they claim they were told the OLTL characters' (specifically Todd's) roles would be limited, and then they were made frontburner story players. Right to the end, FV and RC were trying to lash Starr, Todd and John to the mast of the show. Starr bought the Haunted Star, John was in line to be Rafe's guardian. Todd had Manning Enterprises. That seemed to me like a brazen move.

It doesn't excuse them only getting on the ball with that now after the negotiations fell apart - and I don't believe GH is not culpable in that collapse - but it is a potential valid complaint.

Edited by Vee

  • Member

Lastly added to original article

Prospect Park also claims ABC breached the two sides licensing agreement by refusing to hand over to Prospect Park the URLs for the two soaps the company had purchased, onelifetolive.com and allmychildren.com. These URLs are not only critical to establishing public awareness for the re-launch, but they are part of the rights paid for by Prospect.

Now THAT's actually worth suing over.

  • Member

Right BUT if PP doesn't stop ABC from doing stuff they are not legally entitled to do now how far will ABC go? When would ABC stop?

Again, Cope was killed off 14 months ago, so if this was a problem, before I negotiate to share 3 characters, I'd demand they resurrect my characters.

I can't say it enough that PP went into negotiations with ABC/GH after all of these "transgressions". This is a classic case of Sour Grapes for losing the 3 performers.

The part that doesn't read like an angry fangirl post, that does interest me, is when they claim they were told the OLTL characters' (specifically Todd's) roles would be limited, and then they were made frontburner story players. Right to the end, FV and RC were trying to lash Starr, Todd and John to the mast of the show. Starr bought the Haunted Star, John was in line to be Rafe's guardian. Todd had Manning Enterprises. That seemed to me like a brazen move.

It doesn't excuse them only getting on the ball with that now after the negotiations fell apart - and I don't believe GH is not culpable in that collapse - but it is a potential valid complaint.

Still baseless lawsuit!

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Recently Browsing 0

  • No registered users viewing this page.

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy

Configure browser push notifications

Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.