“Pine Valley,” ABC’s primetime reboot of “All My Children,” is one step closer to becoming a reality for millions of fans as the show’s lead writer revealed that the producer’s draft for the first episode (aka: the pilot) has been written. The network first announced the show’s development in December 2020.
Simon Annand
In a post on his Instagram stories yesterday, Leo Richardson (“EastEnders,” “Katy Keene,” “Star”) announced that he has completed work on the producer’s draft of episode one. “Almost a year and a half of work right there. Now it’s up to the goddesses…,” wrote Richardson who also serves as an executive producer on the project. In a since-deleted tweet, he added, “A year and a half of work comes down to just 60 pages. And off she goes…”
In Richardson’s Instagram posting, he included a snapshot of the script’s cover page with notes that it’s the producer’s draft and it was completed on Friday, February 26, 2021, along with credit to Stearn Productions and Milojo Productions, producers of the project, and ABC Studios (now ABC Signature) as the lead studio. No additional details were shared.
Based on the town in which the daytime soap opera took place, the potential primetime series will follow a young journalist with a secret agenda looking to expose the dark and murderous history of the town only to become entangled in a feud between the Kane and Santos families. The series plans to explore all the secrets that come with the Kane and Santos family names.
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Following the script’s submission to the studio and the higherups at ABC, the potential series will await news on what’s next, more specifically whether the network plans to allow producers to move ahead with casting actors and the filming of a full pilot episode. If given the green light, “Pine Valley” would be up for contention alongside several dozen pilots already ordered by the network that are vying for a place on its primetime schedule for the 2021-2022 television season.
“Pine Valley” is being spearheaded by former “AMC” co-stars and real-life power couple Kelly Ripa (ex-Hayley Vaughan Santos; “Live with Kelly and Ryan”) and Mark Consuelos (ex-Mateo Santos; “Riverdale”), who will serve as executive producers alongside Richardson, Andrew Stearn and Robert Nixon, son of the late Agnes Nixon, creator of both “AMC” and “One Life to Live.”