A Return for All My Children and One Life to Live?

Deadline.com is reporting that Prospect Park, the production company that bought the online rights to broadcast the departed ABC soaps, All My Children and One Life to Live, will indeed bring the shows back after a long delay.  Production may begin next year.

The report says Prospect Park (the company behind Royal Pains on the USA network) has signed deals with the actors union and the directors guild to begin production in the first quarter of 2013.   We still don't know what that means for the writers because there is no clear report about a deal with the Writer's Guild.

What remains to be seen is how many actors will sign on with the new production company.  It's also not known if they'll be offered the same rate of pay they had when they worked for ABC.  Some actors have found work on other soaps and even in prime time.   Kassie DePaiva, Roger Howarth, Michael Easton and Kristen Alderson are playing their “One Life to Live” characters on “General Hospital.”


All My Children left the airwaves in September 2011 after 41 years; One Life to Live ended in January of this year after 44 seasons.

In November 2011, the heads of Prospect Park, Rich Frank and Jeff Kwatinetz, released the following statement:

"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. We believe we exhausted all reasonable options apparent to us, but despite enormous personal, as well as financial cost to ourselves, we failed to find a solution. ... In the end, the constraints of the current marketplace, including the evolution and impact of new media on our industry simply proved too great a match for even our passion."

As most soap fans know, All My Children was replaced by The Chew, a low-rated talk show about food.  One Life to Live's time slot was initially taken over by The Revolution, which failed in a matter of months.  General Hospital now airs at 2 pm on ABC, followed by Katie! with Katie Couric, now in the old GH spot.