Final Disgrace for Soap Fans: 'All My Children,' 'One Life to Live' No Longer Going Online
For fans of "All My Children" and "One Life to Live," it was bad enough that ABC pulled the shows that they (and in many cases, generations of their family members) had spent decades watching. But at least they could console themselves in the fact that the shows would be played online. Not any more.
Prospect Park, the company that had announced it would be producing the shows for The Online Network, announced this week that it would not be able to support the network.
The company blames the unions and the harsh financial realities of the television industry for the decision to pull the plug on both shows.
"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," Prospect Park execs Rich Frank and Jeff Kwatinetz said in a statement.
"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," said the company's statement.
While Prospect Park was able to get many of the "One Life to Live" stars to sign on board for the online versions of the show, negotiations were ongoing with the cast and crew of "All My Children" and according to TV Guide, the company had not even yet begun to embark on negotiations with the WGA on writer's contracts.
"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...While we narrowed in on a financial infrastructure, the contractual demands of the guilds, which regulate our industry, coupled with the program's inherent economic challenges ultimately led to this final decision," said the Prospect Park release.
So with no online versions forthcoming, it's safe to say that viewers of "All My Children" will never find out if Erica Kane (Susan Lucci) was shot, and "One Life to Live" will have no more lives left to live.
