Moments before the announcement that production company Prospect Part had licensed “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” from ABC and saved it from imminent cancellation, it was announced that Debbi Morgan (Angie) had already signed on to “The Young and the Restless.” She will debut on the popular CBS soap this fall. Not too long after that, Jacob Young (JR) announced that he was unable to ignore the call back to “The Bold and the Beautiful.” He returns as Rick Forrester on Monday, September 26. At this moment, Prospect Park is still trying to work out a deal with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) that will allow them to begin negotiating with actors for a hopeful January 2012 relaunch of both ABC soaps. This leaves the actors of “AMC” with free time and a contract with ABC that dissolved earlier this week. In the September 13, 2011 issues of Soap Opera Digest and Soap Opera Weekly, it is revealed that Alicia Minshew and Chrishell Stause have also both been contacted to join another soap.
Browsing: Prospect Park
As previously reported, with “All My Children” wrapping production in less than a week, actress Debbi Morgan (Dr. Angela Hubbard) will be heading to CBS’ “The Young and the Restless.” Although her “Y&R” role has not been revealed, a CBS representative has confirmed to Soap Opera Network that Morgan will begin taping scenes beginning Thursday, September 1, which is just one day after her contract with the ABC Television Network is set to expire.
Last Friday, I had stated on my personal Twitter account that I had been hearing reports that “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” might be heading to Bravo as a part of a cable deal with Prospect Park, which is reportedly looking for a cable network to supplement costs for its online network debuting in January 2012. Although it’s taken longer than expected to get an official response from Bravo, a spokesperson has stated that “these are all just rumors.”
It is full steam ahead behind-the-scenes of “One Life to Live” this week as the show works overtime to film their necessary quota of episodes before taking some time off before wrapping production on the shows TV run later this fall.
Susan Lucci has taken to Twitter by announcing that she is heading into her final week of taping at ABC’s “All My Children,” although she doesn’t make it clear whether or not she will be moving on to the Prospect Park version of the soap when it debuts in January 2012.
Julia Barr will bring Brooke English back to Pine Valley on Friday, September 16, which means, if the soap can take a break from exploring Dr. David Hayward’s (Vincent Irizarry) God complex in-depth, Barr will air in six episodes at the most before “All My Children” airs its series finale on ABC on Friday, September 23.
Monday, September 5, 2011 will mark the final Labor Day repeat airing of ABC’s canceled daytime dramas “All My Children” and “One Life to Live,” and likely the second to last time “General Hospital” will air one during its current 3:00 PM ET/2:00 PM PT timeslot as Katie Couric takes over “GH’s” slot beginning in September 2012.
“One Life to Live” star Kassie DePaiva (Blair Cramer) had many fans in attendance at last weekends “One Life to Live” Fan Club Weekend Luncheon scratching their heads when she said “I was told by our executive producer [Frank Valentini] yesterday, that on Wednesday [August 10] we tied with ‘Y&R.'” Considering “The Young and the Restless” is daytime’s #1 soap, we thought she may have made a mistake too, but it turns out she wasn’t wrong at all.
With today’s news that Prospect Park has officially begun making offers to actors in hopes of them joining “All My Children” 2.0 in time for its January 2012 debut, it’s only fitting to get an insiders perspective on the innerworkings of a canceled soap opera. Cameron Mathison, who portrays the role of Ryan Lavery on the soap, spoke with Soap Opera Network during the “All My Children” Fan Club Weekend and he shed some light on Prospect Park, being a contributor on “Good Morning America” and even dancing on “Dancing with the Stars.”
Just weeks before the Prospect Park deal to pick up the production and distribution rights of “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” from the Disney/ABC Television group was announced, ABC revealed that they had decided to move “One Life” head writer Ron Carlivati to “General Hospital” as a script writer once production wrapped on the soap in November. Is that still the case two months later?
As previously reported, the cast of “All My Children” have received offers from Prospect Park to return to the series upon re-launch in January 2012, nearly four months after the series completes its ABC run. According to Deadline Hollywood’s Nellie Andreeva, Prospect Park is offering Susan Lucci (Erica Kane) virtually the same salary she’s currently receiving from ABC.
Details are slowly trickling in from Prospect Park, the new production company that will be handling production and distribution of “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” once both series complete their runs on ABC.
Jacob Young is returning to the soap that started his daytime career back in 1997. This fall the Daytime Emmy Award winner will reprise the role of Eric Forrester (John McCook) and Brooke Logan’s (Katherine Kelly Lang) son, Rick Forrester, on the CBS daytime drama “The Bold and the Beautiful.”
As Soap Opera Network first reported on our Twitter page, Prospect Park has quietly confirmed that “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” will premiere online on Monday, January 16, 2012 and “One Life’s” last airdate on ABC will be Friday, January 13, 2012. Previously “One Life” was expected to air its ABC finale on Friday, January 20, 2012, according to sources.
Soap Opera Network is hearing contradicting reports on what Prospect Park is planning to do with “One Life to Live” once it completes production at the ABC Television Center on 66th St. and West End Ave in New York City.
Agnes Nixon is returning to ABC’s “All My Children,” for which she created, to once again portray the role of Agnes Eckhart, one of the longest reigning board members overseeing the fictional Pine Valley Hospital on the daytime soap. The character, who was created by Nixon herself, first appeared on the drama series in 2005 for the shows 35th anniversary. This time the character will be admitted to PVH under the care of David Hayward (Vincent Irizarry) and Cara Martin (Lindsay Hartley).
Just before “Krystal’s Country BBQ” event took place on Saturday, July 30 during the “All My Children” Fan Club Weekend, Bobbie Eakes (Krystal Carey) took the time to speak to Soap Opera Network on when she learned her show was being canceled, how she broke the news it was being resurrected on Twitter and her delight at having Alexa Havins back as on-screen daughter Babe Chandler, despite the character supposedly succumbing to death back in 2008 care of a Tornado that hit Pine Valley.
For the past two and a half weeks, I found myself in unfamiliar territory when it came to running the website as I was based out of Los Angeles. Normally, I run things here in New York. What I found unfamiliar, however, was finding out the true stories behind what many soap fans can’t seem to get enough of – the Disney/ABC and Prospect Park connection as it relates to “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” and even “General Hospital.” So what did I learn that I can share with you? Plenty!
What started out as a typical week that began on July 25 ended up being one of the worst in Soap Opera Network history, but you wouldn’t have known it from a behind the scenes perspective.
Beginning on Monday, September 12 look for John O’Hurley to debut in the role of film producer Kit Sterling on “All My Children.” Mr. Sterling will approach Pine Valley’s leading lady Erica Kane (Susan Lucci) in an effort to convince her to turn her new book, “Erica Kane: Uncensored,” into a big-screen production. O’Hurley is best known for the recurring role of Elaine’s (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) boss John Peterman on the former NBC mega-hit series “Seinfeld” and his stint on the first season of ABC’s hit reality series “Dancing with the Stars.” He also hosted the popular syndicated game show “Family Fued.”