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

[dragonflies]

I can't get the link to work

[NothinButAttitude]

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).

[alexisfan07]

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.

[EricMontreal22]

They said effectively killed an OLTL character off by saying he was really a GH character.

[ChitHappens]

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.

[ChitHappens]

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.

[JackPeyton]

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.

[Marco Dane]

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.”

[Vee]

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.

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

[ChitHappens]

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

[allmc2008]

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?

[JackPeyton]

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.

Exactly.

[Vee]

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.

[marceline]

Now THAT's actually worth suing over.

[ChitHappens]

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.

Still baseless lawsuit!