Prospect Park first announced plans to move “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” to the web back in July 2011 after striking a license holding deal with Disney/ABC Domestic Television. Sadly, plans fell through by November 2011 after apparent financing and union discussions fell through. Since that dreadful time period, Prospect Park has resumed work on returning the soaps to your [computer] screens, only this time with financing said to be in place and union deals already signed with the DGA (directors), SAG-AFTRA (actors) and the WGA (writers). With more than a year gone by since “One Life to Live” last aired, we thought it would be a great opportunity to see which stars have (so far) signed on to return to “AMC” and “OLTL” compared to the list circling back in 2011.
Browsing: Frank Valentini
Scott Evans, who played Oliver Fish on “One Life to Live,” has pleaded guilty to attempted cocaine possession. From 2008-10 Evans was one half of the show’s popular, yet controversial gay couple nicknamed “Kish,” which also featured Brett Claywell as Fish’s love interest Kyle Lewis. However, according to TMZ, Evans isn’t expected to serve any jail time.
The big news of December 2012 was word that Prospect Park was taking another stab at moving ABC’s “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” to the web in 2013. The news was first reported by Deadline.com’s Nellie Andreeva. In her initial reporting, Andreeva revealed that Prospect Park had made agreements with the unions SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) and the DGA (Directors Guild of America). Previously, while the company had planned on debuting the shows on the web in early 2012, no deals had been signed with either union or the WGA (Writers Guild of America). This hindered the company’s plan to move forward with the shows and resulted in a postponement that was announced in November 2011. In a statement at the time, AFTRA (prior to its merger with SAG) said that they were “deeply disappointed to read that the executives at Prospect Park have decided to suspend their efforts to produce the long-running and popular daytime serials.” Additionally, the union had said that they “remain hopeful that an opportunity to revive these two popular series will emerge in the future, and remain ready to resume discussions should that opportunity arise.” The future took more than a year, but it appears to have finally emerged. However, although a representative from SAG-AFTRA confirmed that an agreement with Prospect Park had been made when pressed for comment from Soap Opera Network early last week, it remains unclear if said agreement had actually been signed. “Not absolutely certain it had been signed but can check that for you,” said the rep. Due to the holidays, we don’t expect a response on that little detail until at least tomorrow, January 2.
“General Hospital” star John Ingle is dead at age 84. Ingle is most known for playing patriarch Edward Quartermaine, taking over the role in 1993 from David Lewis. Ingle also played Mickey Horton on “Days of our Lives” from 2004-2006.
After promising that today’s episode of “General Hospital” was “not to be missed” as the series has “been keeping a huge surprise under wraps,” executive producer Frank Valentini got some good news today as the big reveal began trending worldwide just a short time ago. While live tweeting along with thousands of others, fans of the daytime drama series learned that actor Ian Buchanan had returned to the ABC soap after a 23-year absence. Of course, Soap Opera Network broke the story on Thursday, August 23.
Frank Valentini (Executive Producer, “General Hospital”) is promising that the Monday, August 27 episode of the drama series is “not to be missed” as the series has “been keeping a huge surprise under wraps.” The producer tweeted the message to his 12,000 followers earlier today.
Five years after being taken off contract and placed on recurring status, Jacklyn Zeman (ex-Bobbie Spencer, “General Hospital”) has opened up to Soap Opera Digest in its newest issue about the circumstances surrounding her unexpected departure from the ABC daytime drama series.
Soap Opera Digest is reporting that Marshall Hilliard will appear for eight episodes as a new officer at the Port Charles Police Department. “I call him Officer Marshall,” the actor joked to Digest.
On Saturday, July 23, 2011, “General Hospital” held its annual fan club weekend event at the Sportmen’s Lodge Event Center. Incidentally, in the year that followed many were left wondering if the 2012 event would ever come to be amidst all the drama and rumors surrounding the cancellation, reincarnation (through the Disney/ABC Television Group/Prospect Park Productions deal that wasn’t) and ultimate demise of “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” and the possible effect it would have on “GH” itself. On July 21, 2012, “GH” did indeed holds its annual fan event – again at the Sportsmen’s Lodge Event Center – with a renewed focus and much hope for the future.
“General Hospital’s” Nathin Butler (Ewen Keenan) will be chatting live with fans of the ABC Daytime drama series during the networks east coast broadcast (3:00 PM ET/12:00 PM PT) of the series. The actor will be taking questions via Twitter using the hashtag #AskGH for the full duration of the soap (one hour) using his twitter user name @nathinbutler.
As Soap Opera Network first reported on March 16, Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva is reporting that ABC has officially canceled “The Revolution” and plans to slide “General Hospital” into the 2:00 PM ET/1:00 PM PT timeslot beginning Monday, September 10, the same day the network hands over the 3:00 PM ET/2:00 PM PT time period to affiliates. The news was later reported by The New York Times.
“The Real Housewives of Orange County” star Alexis Bellino tweeted earlier this evening that she had been brought in for a cameo appearance on ABC’s “General Hospital.”
After weeks of speculation, Soap Opera Network can now report that actress Florencia Lozano will be reprising her role as Téa Delgado from “One Life to Live” on ABC’s “General Hospital” in the coming weeks. The news was broken by website We Love Soaps.
Finola Hughes, who has portrayed Anna Devane on “All My Children,” “General Hospital” and its spin-off “General Hospital: Night Shift” over the course of nearly thirty years, has been bumped to contract status at “GH” according to executive producer Frank Valentini, who made the announcement via Twitter.
On June 6, 2011, ABC finally announced (after months of rumors) that it had signed a deal with former “CBS Evening News” anchor Katie Couric to host a new daily syndicated talk show, and that said show would replace veteran soap opera “General Hospital” in the 3:00 PM ET/2:00 PM PT/CT timeslot. While initially the decision brought fear to soap opera fans, who only two months prior learned that ABC Daytime’s two other veteran soaps (“All My Children” and “One Life to Live”) would be replaced by two new food and lifestyle centered talk shows (“The Chew” and “The Revolution”). Now nearly a year since the announcement, it looks like Katie Couric may just be the lifesaver “General Hospital” desperately needs.
Frank Valentini and Ron Carlivati, who took over the reigns as ABC’s new executive producer and head writer for “General Hospital,” are now on the world wide web courtesy of Twitter, the social networking media giant.
On the heels of a cancellation announcement and a failed online venture, it was announced that successful former Executive Producer, Frank Valentini, and former Head Writer, Ron Carlivati, of “One Life to Live” were hired for the same positions at a struggling “General Hospital.” Rattling many “GH” fans, in recent days, has been the announcement that at least several major “OLTL” stars will be showing up in Port Charles as their Llanview alter egos. Carlivati insists to insiders that “GH” fans need not worry as he has no intention of turning their soap into “OLTL.” To that end, the show-runners have also announced the return of three of “GH’s” most legendary performers and characters – Finola Hughes, Tristan Rogers and Emma Samms as Anna, Robert and Holly – for extended runs on the last-standing ABC daytime drama.
Four stars of “One Life To Live” will be joining the cast of joining “General Hospital.”
On the heels of today’s announcement by Prospect Park that the upstart production company was shelving plans to relaunch canceled ABC soaps “All My Children” and “One Life to Live,” the cast and crew of the sudsers are beginning to speak out. Kassie DePaiva (Blair), who became one of the first “OLTL” stars to sign on back in September to help the show make the transition, has issued a statement on her website regarding the turn of events.
After five months of negotiations with various guilds, hundreds of presentations to potential financial and technology partners, and a hope that we could pioneer a new network for the future, it is with great disappointment that we are suspending our aspirations to revive “One Life to Live” and “All My Children” via online distribution. It is now becoming clear that mounting issues make our ability to meet our deadlines to get OLTL on the air in a reasonable time period following its January 13, 2012 ABC finale impossible.