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

[Ann_SS]

I will repeat what I said in my post in the previous thread. If ABC considered Starr, Todd, and McBain (played by three horrible unattractive actors) to be so valuable,it should have put clauses in the licensing agreement keeping the rights to these characters. It is incompetence and ego that has brought ABC to this point. It should have released the characters and actors to PP and called it a day. Talk about wasting money on an unnecessary avoidable legal action. Disney needs to slap quite a few people in its Daytime division.

[ChitHappens]

Oh, I see. But again, GH began using these characters heavily and killed Cope 14 months ago and PP said nothing in all that time??? Suspect to you?

[Vee]

We have absolutely no way of knowing who wanted to do what when or how or for how long. The simple truth is the only people who have spoken for these actors are off the record sources, mostly from GH and ABC, and people have taken that as gospel - foolishly, IMO. Roger appears to be doing the show, who knows for how long or on what basis. And I have always found the utter silence regarding KA and ME and their availability and willingness or lack thereof from both GH and their representation to be suspect.

It's very easy to start a whisper campaign, to create a perception of something ("they don't wanna do it!") and try to win a perception game, and that's what I always feel GH has been attempting to do here from the start with these recent negotiations, rather than play fair and square. And that is lousy, but whether that is legally actionable - I'm not so sure.

[ChitHappens]

B!I!N!G!O!

[cassadine1991]

i meant to everyone in general

[EricMontreal22]

They must have been. From the article: "in 2011, Prospect Park, in “a gesture of good will”, allowed ABC “to borrow seven OLTL characters to appear on a limited basis” on the network’s soap General Hospital for the actors playing them can have employment."

[Vee]

They should have said so before, I agree. But they are under no statute of limitations to not bring it up now - if they can make a case for it. I don't think they intend to. I think it's just a move to stop the chicanery at GH. I think it's a bit like using a sledgehammer when you can use a screwdriver - I don't think this is the way to do it - but we'll see.

[AdelaideCate007]

They were. Every OLTL character that appeared onscreen on GH were licensed.

[ChitHappens]

What outlets and why didn't PP step in prior to losing the performers, and again, why negotiate with ABC/GH after this "breach". Cope was "killed" off 14 months ago!

[Vee]

Yes, Todd, John, Starr, Blair, Cole, Hope and Tea make seven.

[alexisfan07]

Oh really? Sorry, I didn't get a chance to read it yet. But PP wasn't consulted about story, which includes killing two of the seven off. This is such a mess.

[dragonflies]

Kristen, Michael and Roger are under contract with ABC they can put them in any role they want, how is that a breach, as long as they're not playing their OLTL characters I don't see how PP has a leg to stand on with that

[Vee]

I can absolutely believe they were told Todd, John, etc. would have "limited roles".

Then we cut to this February, and John is applying to be Rafe's guardian and Starr owns the damn boat. That to me seemed like invoking squatter's rights. They had a whisper campaign going about the actors to try and make their case to the soap press, and they continued to blatantly try to seal the characters into GH. That to me was an obvious attempt to win the day by bending the rules as far as possible. That was tacky. But again, I'm not sure if it was legally actionable.

[DramatistDreamer]

JMO, but I think both sides should try mediation first. Neither side can really afford to be consumed in a lengthy legal dispute. PP's reboots are basically start up shows and although GH has ABC behind them, their position in daytime and even the network is anything but completely assured, despite what ABC/Disney claims publicly.

Both shows would be better off trying to mediate this dispute as reasonable adults.

[ChitHappens]

Sure, but if I had a beef such as this, I don't negotiate with the "transgressors" after the fact. If this was a valid concern, I would simply demand they resurrect my characters STAT! This is a soap, so it can be done easily, even if the bodies were recovered (but they weren't...even better). GH can use all of their returns as proof of this.

PP is looking worse here.