Monday, January 7, 2013

All My Children and One Life to Live are back!

Much like the oldest soap story staple in the book, just because you are axed does not mean you can't come back from the dead. People have been coming back from the dead on soaps for decades. Is it any surprise then that the two best shows ever are getting the Royal Jean Grey Resurrection? I have been at a loss since All My Children and One Life to Live were canceled and then doubly so when Prospect Park announced they were unable to put the shows online for 2012.

But now the script has been completely flipped. Prospect Park has officially announced that All My Children and One Life to Live will begin production next month. For that press release, head over to Soap Opera Digest.

For awhile now there were rumors that Prospect Park was going to bring the beloved soaps back, but nothing really seemed to be happening until the last couple weeks as actors started speaking up about signing up for the reboots. I still don't know how this is going to be done or how it will be aired. The latest issue of SOD mentioned that the soaps could possibly be cut down to 30 minutes and aired in a telenovela style where one show would be on for 6 months, and then it would take a break to air the other soap for 6 months.

This was a similar style to what happened towards the end of the highly underrated Port Charles. The show developed story arcs that would end after three months and a new chapter would begin. I'm not really sure what will happen, but it actually seems like this is going to happen! All My Children and One Life to Live are coming back and www.TheOnlineNetwork.com is the site where it appears that fans will be watching these fantastic shows. There has also been rumors that the shows might also air on a cable network too, but nothing has been officially mentioned yet.

I'm still unsure exactly how this is all going to work out. As of right now there are only a small group of actors signed up for AMC and I have not heard of any of the OLTL actors getting signed up at all. But there are a lot of behind the scene roles being filled and this time around it seems like Prospect Park is more aware of what they need to do to get the soaps back up.

I for one and becoming more excited about this. AMC and OLTL were cut from television way too soon. There were plenty of stories left to tell and sadly ABC just did not know how to support and market their soaps. Now I feel like there is a company that is willing to give it a try and really give fans what we want, our soaps back. I really feel like this can be a great thing. I hope it all works out and that the ratings soar for these soaps.

One of the things that I really want to also see is a great deal of marketing for these shows. I really want merchandise in stores. I'm talking books, greeting cards, dolls, DVDs of previous iconic episodes. I mean I don't care what the heck it is, but I want to see items for sale. I think it will help remind people that you can't keep a good soap down and may even bring in new viewers.

So I just wanted to share that news with you all. I think the future is going to be very bright for All My Children and One Life to Live! I will be watching for sure. Now we just need the first air date!

Stick around dear readers, tomorrow is going to be the first all new Toy Chest Tuesday of 2013! You won't want to miss it.

12 comments:

  1. Am not fan of these shows(My soaps growing were Pro Wrestling and Dallas lol)but i work with some people that love these so they should be excited about there "Stories" coming back.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh now I got down with some Dallas, Knots Landing, and Dynasty back in the day. lol I grew up in a soap family, so serial story lines were like air to us. lol

      Delete
  2. Friends of mine used to watch "All My Children" for endless years; apparently it takes place in one of the rich neighborhoods near us in Pennsylvania. I saw an episode here and there when I was over for dinner. I'm thinking that they'll probably be as happy as you with the return?

    I watched "Guiding Light" when I was in middle school, but when I got to high school, I just lost interest. I did enjoy it at the time though.

    Well, more power to you, now that you get a second chance at seeing something you enjoy again.

    I'll relay the news to my friends, they will be most surprised if they haven't heard yet.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh AMC and OLTL are the best. I like OLTL a little more than AMC, but AMC has Erica, so they both have my heart. AMC had rich families but they also had the poor families too and how they all interacted in Pine Valley. I mean things changed through the years, but it was a good show. OLTL was very much the same way, but towards the end, OLTL really became the kind of show that had everything in it. And I hope your friends will be happy with the return!

      I never watched Guiding Light, but my mom did. I did like a lot of the actors though, becuase they' always crossover to play different characters on my soaps.

      Delete
  3. I'm not a fan of soaps myself, the only exception being Dark Shadows (but that's so weird & offbeat it practically doesn't count), and also in the 80s/90s I loved cheesy teen soaps like Fifteen and Swan Crossing.

    But my grandmother will shit a brick when she hears this. Her "stories" are back!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I watched Dark Shadows too, well rather the reruns. it was a fun show. And Swans Crossing was fun too. I don't recall watching Fifteen. But if you liked Dark Shadows I wonder if you would have liked Port Charles towards its end. The storylines became supernatural with vampires and storylines like that. It tried to bring back that Dark Shadows style of storytelling. It was really good.

      And I hope your grandmother will be thrilled with this news!

      Delete
  4. Congrats, Miss M! I know youre a sudser so I'm happy for you that your soaps are back. General Hospital was always my number 1 back in the day, tho I did occasionally find myself lost in Llanview. And yeah, Port Charles was a lot of fun when it got into those weird vampy storylines... tho Lucy as a vampire hunter was REALLY a bit farfetched. I used to catch it at night on Soap Network (is that still around?). I always hoped for the day when Jagger might come back and reconnect with Karen (Scotty Baldwin's daughter) because they were so good on GH. But I think she died... and he went on to do Melrose Place and really bad made-for-cable movies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ok so I have been watching GH again, and it is sooo good! Lucy is back! (She was my favorite from that show.) And Laura is coming back! GH is on fire right now. And PC was such a great soap. It was a bit silly when Lucy became a vampire hunter. lol But wasn't Karen on PC? She was recasted, but I don't remember if she died or not. And Soap Net is still around. I think they were going to get rid of it, but it is still sticking around for awhile. And a lot of people are begging for a Jagger return!

      Delete
    2. Karen started out on GH. She came on in the summer of (ahem) along with Antonio Sabato Jr. as Jagger and Steve Burton as Jason Quartermaine (yes, I remember Jason when he was all cute 'n good 'n not in the mob!). She was Jason's girlfriend but fell for Jagger... but Jagger was mixed up with bad girl Brenda too. And then there was that whole storyline where Karen became a stripper in Sonny's club (that was back when Sonny first joined the show and was small time, I guess). Oh, look at my gray cells at work! Anyway, true love eventually brought Karen and Jagger together. They got married and moved to Chicago where he was going to the police academy and she was going to study medicine. Karen also learned Scotty was her father before leaving the show.

      Then when Port Charles (the spinoff show) started, they brought Karen back - but she wasn't being played by Cari Shayne, the original actress. Recast! I guess since Scotty made the leap from GH to PC, they wanted to give him some family ties. It was explained that Jagger was still in Chicago and they were having some marital probs. Then I think they divorced, I dunno cause I lost track of PC for awhile, then I got back into it when the whole Soap Net / vampire thing was going on. But I think my cable company ditched SN or I stopped watching for some reason (remember Kelly Monaco was Dr. Kevin's daughter on PC and had the hots for the vampire... before she was Sam on GH!). Anyway, I enjoyed the original Karen as well as the PC version and always hoped for Jagger to come back too, they were part of the characters that hooked me on GH (see above paragraph) in the summer of (ahem). But I thought I read somewhere she was killed off before PC was cancelled... how sad...

      Delete
    3. I vaguely remember when Karen, Jagger, and Jason were introduced. I was never a faithful watcher of GH, but I vividly recall Robin and Stone. I also remember more of when Karen was stripping. I loved the Nurses Ball, oh goodness I just loved Lucy.

      And that is right, Karen did die on PC. She was hit by a car or involved in a car accident of some sort. I really hated that. I think she also found love post Jagger with one ofthe docs from PC, maybe Frank? it has been so long since I watched. But since so much supernatural stuff happened on that show, I would imagine that there would be a way for her to come back. I mean at the end of PC Lucy was far from being in a relationship with Kevin, and then when they arrived for Lila's funeral a few years later, it was as if nothing had happened. Not to mention they have never once mentioned again that Lucy was a vampire slayer, so maybe it is possible that Karen could still be alive. I did like both actresses that played Karen too. And it is so funny to see Sam and John McBain have googly eyes for each other now when before they were involved in vampire love as different characters. lol Oh soaps.

      And I feel ya on the years, I do not even like having to realize how long I have been watching these shows. But since GH will be celebrating its 50th year on April 1st, I would imagine some big time names would be coming back. Like maybe Jagger or something.

      Delete
  5. nice for this just proves like the characters even the soaps themselves some way can come from the dead. even though the soaps i watched was as the world turns and gh. which i am glad to see gh getting back to its roots including bringing back laura for their 50th and maybe if park place is sucessful with these two soaps maybe one can hope they try in the future resurecting the other soaps that died like guiding light or as the world turns in the future

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh demoncat, am I to believe that you still watch GH? If so, I am loving GH right now. It is so good. And from what I have heard Prospect Park might be interested in hiring actors from ATWT and GL. But that might just be a rumor. I really hope these reboots will work out really well, because if there was a way for ATWT and GL to come back, that would be awesome!

      Delete