What a week! It
seemed like April 29th took forever to get here. But this past
Monday, the day finally arrived. The day
when the two 41+ year old shows All My Children and One Life To Live premiered
on the Online Network, Hulu, Hulu Plus, iTunes, and in Canada on the FX Cable
network.
Yes soaps have transitioned once again – bridging the gap
from an entertainment medium in decline – television, to online.
My overall feeling is one of excitement and hope for the
future of these two long- time favorite shows of mine. I still cannot get over the sick feeling in
my stomach brought on when Brian Frons – head of ABC daytime canceled these two
shows.
According to published reports, ABC had mislead actors to
believe that the efforts to reduce costs on AMC and OLTL had been going very
well and that the shows were not in any immediate danger of being canceled. But
soap slayer, Brian Frons went ahead and tried to kill another two soaps. It was Frons after all who had been
responsible for canceling the long running Search For Tomorrow on CBS many
years earlier.
If you’re not a soap fan you probably cannot fully
comprehend the emotions brought on when All My Children and One Life To Live
were canceled. To be perfectly honest
here, I was taken aback by my own reaction when I heard the news. I was in a state of shock which lead to
depression. I know how that sounds –
getting depressed over a television show being canceled. But consider the fact that these shows have
been a part of my life in some way since I was a toddler. My mother watched the shows from inception. For years, my mother and sister would discuss
the stories around me. When I was 12
years old, home on Summer break, I started watching All My Children.
I watched faithfully for 15 years – recording the shows and
watching at night after school or work.
All My Children provided distractions from stressful periods of time in
my life, family illness, financial difficulties, death in the family, … Throughout
it all, Erica Kane was right there with me.
When the two shows were canceled, I lost two entire cities of friends. Many of whom I had spent more time with than
my real life friends.
The ugliness is behind us now, thanks to the new online
production company Prospect Park and the tenacious outcry of millions of fans–
at least for the foreseeable future. As
long as the two shows have enough steady viewers, they will continue on. As fans, we need to make sure we are watching
both shows daily. If viewership starts
slipping, then the shows will face the same situation.
I still fantasize about kicking Brian Frons in the nuts, but
I guess I should derive satisfaction in knowing he was canned from ABC around
the time One Life To Live signed off of ABC for the last time.
As fans, we have been given a reprieve. We've experienced life without our friends in Pine Valley or Llanview and we hated it. Now its all up to us. Support the shows we love or lose them again - likely for good this time. Only we can make sure that does not happen.
Support All My Children and One Life To Live on Hulu, Hulu Plus, iTunes, and Canadian cable network FX.
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