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ABC is being sued by the studio trying to revive two of the soap operas the network canceled for killing off some of the series’ characters.
Prospect Park, which will relaunch “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” online beginning April 29th, claims ABC breached its contract by having three characters written off the shows while “on loan” from the production company to “General Hospital,” a third soap still airing on the broadcaster.
Prospect Park alleges that an amendment to its 2012 license deal with ABC gave the company approval over the narrative direction of seven characters the network requested to have on “Hospital” while the other shows were off the air. But Prospect Park was not contacted by ABC about the creative decisions, according to the lawsuit.
“OLTL” characters Cole and Hope Thornhart met their untimely demise when their car was forced off a cliff in a “Hospital” episode that aired last year. A third character from the series, Thomas Delgado, was renamed and made another existing character on “Hospital.”
ABC is bent on ruining the series it has relinquished the rights to because the network regrets the decision, the lawsuit alleges.
“Prospect has since learned that at least one ABC executive responsible for these egregious programming choices has openly expressed his desire to see ‘OLTL’ fail,” according to the lawsuit.
Prospect also charges in the suit that ABC has yet to turn over URLs to both series.
The lawsuit will not derail launch plans for the series, according to a Prospect Park rep.
In a statement, an ABC spokesman said: “We haven’t seen the complaint or been served so we can’t comment.”
They left out the biggest point. PP owns the licensing to these characters. Not ABC. I don’t see how ABC has a legal leg to stand on. Good for PP standing up for themselves. Did ABC just think they could bully PP around and do whatever they wanted? Apparently.
ABC might have a leg to stand on since the only two claims in PP’s lawsuit document that PP has a valid case over is the URL but that no longer an issue since ABC has handed it over, and the breach of contract (the other claims are either irrelevant or will be impossible to prove unless they have solid evidence). However PP didn’t take action when the breach of was happening and was willing to equally share the characters of Todd, John and Starr, so that could hurt their case. It will probably be very hard to make a convincing case on why ABC should pay them 25 million for breaching of contract and killing off two OLTL characters when it only became an issue for them when they “lost” Roger Howarth, Michael Easton and Kristen Alderson to ABC/GH.
I could not be more thrilled to have OLTL back. Online and FREE is perfect for me. ABC first cancelled my favorite show and THEN tried to ruin my favorite characters. I am cheering for Prospect Park and I’m ready to support them any way I can. We proved what fans can do with this revival, and Kickstarter and Veronica Mars is further proof that when TPTB fail us we won’t be silent.
ABC – settle this dispute. Pay PP and release the actors.
Wow, that stoy is so touching i hope your continue to get better, n hope these jerks put all my children n one life to live back on the air so u can enjoy your son bless it be…
I agree, Margie. What kind of idiotic ABC would actually hope that OLTL fails? Doesn’t he realize he will most likely be out of a job and should be so lucky if Prospect Park made it so they could hire his ass? Moreover, do you think they will bring back Cole and Hope and pretend that ABC disaster was just a nightmare? Will Todd regain back his coolness and mystique after GH turned him into Carly’s purse holder?
I hope this raises awareness to how important these soaps are to so many people out there. There is no viewer more loyal than a soap fan. We have been loyal watchers for years, decades in fact and we are in the millions. Yet they continue to ignore our endless pleas to give us the viewers what we want. They wouldn’t even have a network if it wasn’t for us, we’re the viewers. My favorite soap opera has been off the air since 1999 when NBC cancelled it and I still miss it as many out there do. I am still waiting for the day they will take it out of the archives and give us access to the re-runs again. Either online, a classic soap network, on demand or on DVD. TV gets worse every year and I watch it less and less. They could bring all the soaps back to life and have a fortune on their hands if they really wanted to. Most soap fans grew up with these shows the same way we grew up with our siblings. They were usually introduced to us by our mothers or older sisters as if they were introducing part of our extended family to us. We watched their continuous story day after day, year after year, through elementary school, high school, our first jobs, our first loves, our first apartments, getting married, having kids and so on. We grew up with them. And this made them like part of our families. Laugh if you want some but this is what sets soap operas aside from all other shows out there. The real fans understand this. It was my one hour escape every day after a hard days work.
It’s important for people to have some kind of escape from the stresses of reality now and then. And now everything you watch is reality shows. That’s just too depressing. It’s no wonder so many people are taking anti-depressants these days!
I have a mentally handicapped son, who spent hours and hours in his room. His room is like a dungeon, as he is afraid to open his blinds or leave this house because of agoraphobia. I was at my wits end, so I introduced him to all my children, one life to live and general hospital. He got hooked, and I would only let him watch, if he came downstairs , out of his room and watch with me for 3 hours a day. It worked, and I was so happy to see him getting somewhat better and happier. When the 2 shows were cancelled last year, he got gloomy again, and he now holes himself up in his room, and only comes down to eat, and watch general hospital. I will be buying an Internet ready tv, and we will once again watch our favorite soaps when all my children and one life start on the Internet on April 29th. We are both very excited by this, and once again I will have my son out of his room and happy again while watching our soaps together. I have ordered Hulu plus, so we can watch it on tv. You go prospect park, and thanks for making a very depressed kid so thrilled again.
Its a soap, people come back from the dead all the time. Maybe there was a dead body at the bottom of the cliff where the car landed & Cole & Hope were thrown from it and had amnesia….That could be why Langston called Starr to come to LA she saw some familiar faces that had no idea of their past and had to have Starr come see for herself if it could be them. Anything is possiBle. They don’t have to stay dead. Come on Prospect Park, if you really want Cole & Hope you can bring them back, people won’t mind. A lot of OLTL fans don’t watch GH anyway. If you don’t want to bring them back then your just being a baby because when your first plans failed you said GH could use them. Then when you said OLTL would come back you said they could stay but if they crossed over to a OLTL episode they couldn’t air on GH the same day. So one minute your fine with what you did and the next you regret it. The actors shouldn’t be punsihed because you changed your minds!!!!!!!
I am on Team Prospect Park!
I don’t think this is about the actors. They are all returning to GH, their choice. GH not only killed off characters, they dramatically changed some of them. They had Natalie, John’s wife, get into a new relationship, they had Todd fall madly in love with Carly when, on OLTL, Blair has always been the love of his life. A lot of people watch both shows, including me, and I’m furious at ABC for all this. I hope PP wins the suit. PP is not being a “baby.” They paid a lot of money for the rights to OLTL and all its characters, and they deserve compensation for this.
I really miss One Life To Live. It was a great soap and always kept me interested. I am now wondering now that on General Hospital Starr Manning was there and now she is gone, and I noticed Todd is gone too, if One Life To Live is going to come back. I hope so!! I think there are just too many talk shows
Yes OLTL & AMC announced last fall they would be back on Hulu beginning April 29th. M-TH in 30 minute episodes. Soapcentral.com has a sneak peak video look at OLTL
ABC has since turned over the URLs to PP. They know they have no legal leg to stand on.
Just turn them into reality tv shows and ABC will pay top dollar to put them on air.
I read this article because I at first thought someone had really died. A ‘soap character’ dies…so what!!?? There is waaaaay too much drama in real life to spend time paying for it on TV. Get a life, folks, get a life.
If you don’t like soaps, that’s your right. But why come here and harass those who do?
And yet you took the time to read the article, sign in and respond to it in order to criticize others? Who needs to get a live again? Finally, even if you don’t watch soaps, this is show business history in the making and after all, this is Variety magazine–show business is their genre. As Napoleon Dynamite used to say,”IDIOT!”
you are a loser
life, not live—I was thinking that you only have one life to live. Freudian mistake.
Yes i hope these guys get sued and let these actors work again in New York City…….
I hope prospect parks wins this lawsuit, ABC has screwed over Soap fans for years, they wanted OUT of the soap business and they’re scared crapless that OLTL and AMC will outshine them with this new venture. I hope they do and I hope ABC BITES it. They screwed us over on more than one occasion in hiring that devil Frons, and he attempted to ruin all ABC shows while he was in charge. Well now ABC regrets their ‘errors’ too little too late ABC. You GO PROSPECT, Kick Some ABC BUTT!
I hope not! I don’t want to see anything happen that could adversely affect General Hospital.
Yes, that really suck when the two best soaps was cancled, the actors were like family to me, i never understood them whemn i was real young but i started ask my mom about the people on the soap, so over the years i started watching, i truely miss (The Eadge of Night) really isay it was a waste in letting all these great actors go, what the other bad thing was that All My Children was moved to California, what crap was that, actors had to pack up n moved there but the good thing they found more use to their talents other then soaps, n found primetime work also…..please bring alll my children n one live to live to New York, we miss the actors that gave the characters life.
This will not hurt GH what so ever. What is hurting GH, in fact, what is killing it is the deplorable writing which offers us dangled up modifiers and choppy story telling–the show is unwatchable now.
Let me inject some reality here, please. In point of fact, ratings released this week show that GH is up 650k from this time last year-so nothing is hurting GH at the moment. Dislike the show if you wish, but you have no right to your own facts.
Have they ever watched a soap? If they had, they would know that death has never killed a character off of any soap.
just put things back the way they were. we all have grown with these shows and they a horribly missed.
Not true. Sloppy, silly writing and management is the reason soaps ratings were going down. Rewriting every death and fixing every character destructing story will be a very tough job, especially for a soap trying to reinvent the genre. ABC must help settle this.
I’m glad to see Variety reporting on the article but didn’t feel it covered the real main points of the lawsuit as there were many legitimate grievances outlined in it. What the whole suit ultimately comes down to can be summed up by this one sentence from it: “Regardless of how successful Prospect may be, the fact remains that ABC did not deliver what it promised, Prospect did not get what it paid for, and Prospect is now entitled to recover millions of dollars in damages for ABC’s egregious conduct.” Despite reaching deals and agreements that ABC would actively consult with PP in regards to the usage of the characters they were leasing, they continually failed to do so and severely altered the characters’ histories and behaviors – and yes, the fans noticed at the time! ABC continually backed down from and broke promises with PP including allowing for crossovers and cross promotions and often engaged in sabotage to the shows’ success.
As per the “headline grabbing” element of the case, the killed-off characters, yes characters coming back from the dead is a soap cliché…and one that often insults the audience because they’re more often the result of lazy writing; attempts to do retcons that stretch plausibility and sends the message that the stories they’re telling aren’t worth investing in because they can be rewritten at any time regardless of whether or not they make sense or are believable. They hold the audience in contempt. The manner in which Cole and Hope were killed left it pretty well firmly established that they couldn’t have survived or been rescued If PP later undoes this, it makes PP look bad. But again, this is actually a smaller element of the entire lawsuit.
To the person supporting the laughable claim of damages on the part of PP over the “death” of the characters who said that bringing the dead back to life is soap “cliché” and it often “offends” the viewers….well apparently not because both AMC and OLTL have routinely resurrected the dead and yet they are still lapping it up like gods. Get a friggin’ life people, they are television shows. I enjoyed them as much as everyone, but you only have one REAL life to live and if yours revolved entirely around soaps, you’re wasting it!
These two soaps had been on the air for a long time and a lot of people watched them. I will continue to watch them if they go back on the air.
LOL, I just read more comments to find out I will have to watch this online. NOT LIKELY!
As much as I enjoyed OLTL I just finished watching it last month on my DVR who has anymore time to sit on the computer to watch soaps? It was upsetting to see it go but I did survive and even move on. P.S & if John wont be there FORGET IT. And did they really make them cross overs different characters? DUMB!! sense they have visited each others towns in the past!
WOW! YOU Fools I quit watching ABC entirely when they cancelled OLTL and just this second found out that the others went on & were SO CALLED KILLED OFF. Should have and can still pick up were they took off with a few changes, Change is sometime good.
What station and time of day can I find the new show? Very excited to actually see the rumors are coming true.
They will be available on regular Hulu for free! Just go to the show page!
AMC & OLTL will be showing online through Hulu Plus starting date 4/29/13… 99 cents an episode or you can subscribe to Hulu Plus for $7.99 (?) a month… if you’re already a subscriber you’re a winner!
I stopped watching ABC when they cancelled ONE LIFE TO LIVE . This is one more example why I will not be watching in the future
the shows will be available online, I believe hulu will be carrying both AMC AND OLTL.
I agree that it was ridiculous to kill of Cole and Hope immediately on GH. After all they had been through with Hope….senseless. The just wanted Starr fre to hook her up with Michael. Star and Michael are okay together, but knowing OLTL was coming back they really should have left Starr’s family alone. Now Thomas DelGado on the other hand was always Alcozar to me….. so that made sense.
ABC has to regret cancelling both soaps. They had a very loyal following. Then they replace AMC with The Chew? I think The Chew may be the worst show I have ever seen. I watch The View at 10, and the news at noon, but I literally have to change the channel for an hour or turn off the tv because if I leave it on ABC and I realize The Chew has been on for any amount of time I just get mad for getting suckered into watching it. It Sucks!! Especially when you have Dr. Oz right after GH telling us not to eat any of that crap, mostly deserts on there. That show is just adding to the obesity of America. Boo Chew. ABC screwed up bad when they cancelled those soaps.
It is going to be hard enough for these shows to keep their ratings while airing online due to the senior aged people who were a bigpart of the demographic and have less knowlege of technology and how to use the internet. The whole situation is bad. ABC needs to quit making it even harder on the company that bought the rights to the shows to please the fans and keep the shows in production.
Screw ABC, I hope they lose.
tHEY NEVER SHOULD HAVE TAKEN THEM OFF THE AIR TO BEGIN WITH !
And if they had even amatuer writers since when is anyone REALLY dead on a soap opera. May be they could all walk out of shower and the last year was a nightmare. Really how hard is it to bring the dead back to life.
Really? It’s a SHOW! The new company does NOT have to follow ANY of the things that happened on GH. Just pick up where the last episode of OLTL ended and go from there. This whole idea of a lawsuit is just STUPID!
And meant to add, that one of the very last scenes of the broadcast One Life to Live was the reveal of a supposedly murdered character alive and being held hostage…and they are seeking damages due to characters being killed off? Truly, truly stupid
This is the stupidest lawsuit in entertainment history. These are SOAP OPERAS! Both One Life to Live and All My Children have had dozens of characters who had died, were killed, etc. etc. etc. come back. The notion that their characters being “killed” on another soap somehow precludes them from being brought back is laughable. One Life to Live, for example, brought back the murdered father of a main character some thirty years after his death when he would likely have been dead of old age anyway.
I dont think that the characters that went to gh should have to come back at all the show was canceled and the characters were soo great on gh making it more interesting to watch. i have been watching gh for over 37 years with my mom and it is greatest one on tv and todd,starr and john should be able to be themselves and not have to return someone else and I know that kirsten alderson (starr ) is nominated for her character of starr coming up and I think that the other 2 are also people are crazy to let them leave and not be who they are great at thanks brenda bradigo
I don’t see why my show is being twisted into a pretzel for these OLTL characters; I mean GH existed perfectly well pre-these 3 crossovers now this regime acts as if GH can’t make it without them
and they did diddly for the ratings it was all GH: the vets, the 50th anniversary w/the resurrection of the nurses ball and the time change, Send them all back to Prospect Park many fans don’t care GH will be fine. However I hope PP wins over the big bad ABCDisney conglomerate who I find arrogant and unyeilding…….here’s one for the little guy!
They killed off Tia and Victor’s baby too.
You know Tea and Victor Jr’s baby is still alive. Alison Perkins probably has him.
Were Cole and Hope’s bodies recovered from the wreckage? If not that’s how they can come back to OLTL. I’ve been watching GH since the return of McBain, Starr & Todd last year and they are the ONLY reason I’m watching the show. I can’t wait for OLTL to start again. I have faith in its success but I truly wish PP would drop the suit. This is not a time to kill any soaps. It’s survival time.
Tea and Victor was the best love story I’ve seen, Todd and Starr’s mother (forgot her name) belong together. As for killing Cole and the baby that was wrong wrong wrong, they can always bring them back, please …………………….
Bodies or no bodies u can always come back in the soap, just look the AMC characters who have come back, some more than once I might add. We’re soap fans, we love it!
I hated when ABC cancelled OLTL and AMC. However, it’s been over a year and I have moved on. PP needs to get over their issues and learn how to do the same. It took them over a year to get their act together, in the meantime…these actors needed work, period. If the writers at PP have any creativity, then they would know how to right those lost characters back in with recast and good storytelling. As far as I am concerned, AMC and OLTL doesn’t stand a chance as it is. I’m sorry but PP is just looking for a scapegoat for when their shows fail. Nobody wants to have to watch their soaps online, unless they’re completely free….and the last time I checked iTunes and HULU are not completely free.
Hulu is free-Hulu Plus isn’t. Get your facts straight
Agree. When Prospect Park failed to do the revivals as scheduled, it was time for ABC and the characters to move on. The law suit will just divide soap fans who need to stick together.
I was planning on watching the new AMC and OLTL. Now, I’m not so sure.
Why cut your own nose off to spite your face? I have my own opinions on the matter-but this is a suit and lawyer problem now. If you were a fan before-you’ll be one again-these shows deserve a fighting chance…
Anyone who ever loved all my children and one life to live should watch them online. We certainly bitched enough when abc cancelled them. I can’t wait to see all my favorites on all my children and one life to live. I will get used to any of the new faces that I don’t kn
Well the soaps are coming back and the majority of fans are thrilled. ABC is the one that caused all this chaos and yes, HULU is free for viewing of the soaps – with commercials! So what! HULU PLUS is what costs money! Canadian viewers with FX will be able to watch the soaps on television.
I love the characters of Todd Manning and John McBain on GENERAL HOSPITAL ! I hope they return to GH even if they change the name of the characters.
Hulu is free and i will be watching!! You are not a true soap fan if you have moved on. True fans are very grateful to have our shows back!!I have been watching for 40 plus years to have them back in any from is great.
I agree Carol with every thing you said! True fans will wait forever. If they brought back ATWT right now Id watch still. I think ABC wants them to fail. And Id rather see my characters on OLTL than on GH. where they werent wanted by GH fans to begin with.
Abc had no right trying to kill one life to live and all my children off the network. The new shows the chew, and Katie are terrible. They made a huge mistake. Now they are trying to kill them again, with prospect park. I am especially up-set about tod manning, who was willing to go back and forth between the two shows. Roger howarth belongs on one life to live. Now general hospital is making him a totally different character, and won’t share him with prospect park, because they have him a contract last year, even though he was only on loan to general hospital. Abc is in the wrong, and I hope prospect park wins their law suit. I will definitely be watching one life to live and all my children, and think it will be a huge success anyway. I will also continue to watch general hospital, but am up-set that roger howarth will no longer be tod manning.
Roger Howarth never had a contract with Prospect Park. None of the three actors had contracts. So, they owed PP nothing. Why should ABC share? It wasn’t in the agreement.
good for you karen! i think this happend around before the president was
re elected. you never can tell why some people do things – when they dont get
their “own way” an also ive noticed “Lots of showsThat were fun to watch were
Like kicked out has anyone else???
You don’t have your facts straight–Prospect Park owns the rights to the characters and therefore, ABC cannot use these actors as Todd, Starr and John. However, that spinless clown Roger was playing as NOT Todd Manning. In fact even their names can be mentioned. ABC has been playing dirty from day one–they deserve this.
My favorite of all has always been OLTO. But I have learned tolive without it.
Good for Prospect Park! ABC is a rat – they cancelled the shows on the word of that turd Brian Frons and then took the characters of Todd, Starr and John and used them as pawns to try to lull the angry fans into some kind of complacency. Then when they saw how strong the soap audience truly is they wanted their cake and to eat it too. No. Too bad so sad ABC – just because that giant black hole called Disney owns you doesn’t mean you can strong arm everyone too. ABC scred the fans,the actors, the staff of both shows and now they want to skate off scott free – B.S. Time to ante up Rat Network. If for no other reason but to show them they cannot treat people like this and get away with it. Go Prospect Park!!
I Think they (ABC) should have kept OLTL and AMC on the air and they wouldn’t have to worry about lawsuits!! Seeing how the shows that took their place actually stink!!!!! I don’t think they should have killed off Cole and Hope either, Starr is much too young to go thru that!!!!!
Prospect Park is playing dirty. THEY FAILED to resurrect the two soaps the first go around. Cole and Hope’s death wasn’t even seen. We just heard the car explode. Also, ABC had to blend the three into the show. Come on. Grow up and move on Prospect park! They should have just let GH have Todd Starr and John since they become very popular on GH.
The only ones who played dirty are ABC. They broke the contract. PP did not. PP didn’t have to let ABC use any of the characters from OLTL. In hindsight, they probably never should have. They had the disadvantage of looking like the bad guys for not catering to ABC because their original effort failed. PP tried working with ABC in good faith and were impeded at every turn.
The girl Starr is So Boreing an then to add- company to misery they put ditsy Micheal
with er . I Say they give the head nurse epiffany a Real Love Sean Shot” – -
on general Hostpital . show another side of “HER LIFE” All People Are inportant:”
I agree, Andrea. Prospect Park did not “play dirty,” they had a delay in getting enough funding. They still had the rights to all the OLTL characters and probably paid ABC good money for them. They were nice enough to loan characters to GH (which was a good move for both shows), but ABC went way beyond just using them.
They can all be resurrected by Dr. David Hayward – duh!
Love it!!!
Oh come on, its TV, Prospect Park can use the characters Cole, and Hope on OLTL. Pretend what happened on GH never happened. Remember, when Dallas did that with the dream.
ABC has acted capriciously here. I hope GH bombs and disappears. I hope OLTL and AMC thrive in their new home. THAT would be justice
There is more to the complaint than what you cited Mr. Wallenstein.
What it comes down to for me is this. ABC/D signed a contract, then they blatantly ignored the stipulations in that contract. Simple.
This won’t stop me from watching All My Children and One Life to Live when they return on April 29, 2013. I will be watching with bells on and I will help anyone and everyone I can watch them.
Aren’t they forgetting something else? .. The show [General Hospital] killed Victor Lord Jr. and Tea Delgado’s baby.
No they did not. If you watched OLTL, Victor Lord, Jr is still alive at the very last seen before the ended on ABC. Alison Perkins is holding him hostage. Not a real loss about Tea’s baby.
Oh, come now, Variety-you really don’t believe this, do you? The true targets are Kristen Alderson, Michael Easton, and Roger Howarth as their Manning alter egos and John McBain. While all three characters rightfully belong to OLTL, PP has no legal claim to the actors involved
I think Tea’s loss of her baby on GH could certainly be a loss for OLTL. It closes off any ability to use the pregnancy in a storyline.
It couldn’t happen to a nicer (a/k/a horrible) network.
PP has a valid case. ABC is now reaping what they sowed. They should have never cancelled OLTL or AMC.
They made us soap fans angry and it cost them our loyalty and now they want our soaps to fail? The best revenge is success so I hope the relaunch of both soaps is the most successful of its kind.