Check In With Me Later, Weeping In A Corner

So a lot of the entertainment media folks are now reporting that both One Life to Live and All My Children have officially been canceled, with AMC finishing in September and OLTL finishing in January.

It's bad. It's not a rumor anymore. I'm going to wait until I've had time to collect my thoughts before completely freaking out but, you guys, I am completely freaking out. And heartbroken. And angry.

More later, but right now my heart just hurts for the hundreds and hundreds of people who work for those two shows.

Also? Suck it, ABC.

Comments

[Ashley B.]

You're not alone. I just screamed in my classroom while the kids are at lunch. I told my husband if I don't come home from work today it's because I'm hunting ABC execs.

[sanen85]

I never thought I'd be this devastated over the cancellation of two of the three shows I grew up with. Especially considering one of them, I barely even checked in on anymore. Now excuse me, I need to go find a 3 ft. high ledge to hurl myself from.

[Holly]

I will never ever ever watch ABC daytime programming again once OLTL is off the air. NEVER. I'll probably boycott ABC nighttime as well as a big "fuck you" to ABC for allowing Frons to do this.

[Terri]

I knew it was coming with something was about to change espcially with SoapNet disappearing as well.

[soapbaby]

This is very sad, though not shocking. I only hope that in the short amount of time AMC and OLTL have to wrap up their 40+ histories they are able to do justice to their fans unlike ATWT and GL (both of those shows had more time after cancellation announcements and failed miserably in delivering quality send-offs.)

I am sad. OLTL was the first soap I chose to watch as I was raised watching Days Of Our Lives, Another World and Santa Barbara. I remember being captivated by Tina Lord and staying for Megan Gordon, Gabrielle Medina, Max Holden and The Buchanans. Okay, now I am teary-eyed.

Highly upset that these shows are being replaced by "reality" shows. Does anyone need more "reality" tv?

I know it is too much to take in but what does this mean for this site? This blog has been a highlight of my day for months now. I truly adore the contributors. Thank you.

[Daryl]

Boycott the replacements, boycott the sponsors products ... Frons .. I wish I could spit in his sanctimonious face

[Ann S]

Well, we'll still have Days of Our Lives, General Hospital, and... does CBS have anything left or are those going too?

[Bourgeois Nerd]

And yet GH continues. Damn you, Anne Sweeney! Fuck you, Brian Frons!

[Holly]

I emailed Anne Sweeney at [email protected] and let her know that I and my entire family will boycott all ABC programming if these shows are canceled. I know it won't do any good.. but I had to say it and I mean it.

[SwanSinger]

I want to punch someone in the face.

Granted, ABC hasn't done daytime well in a decade, but I enjoyed keeping up with the "families" on my "stories". There will be a gaping hole in the middle of my day.

[LaTanya]

I'm sorry but did they say that one of the shows that replacing them with is called "The Chew".....are you f*cking kidding me?!?!? I've already detached myself from GH so I might as well put on blinders to all of daytime cause it's the end for all of them. This is why Soapnet should be kept so that way they could move the shows over to there!

[Bryon]

I just can't even function. Throughout all my life Viki was there, through everything....I can't imagine life without her.

[Sarah]

I still remember the first time I watched a soap ("One Life to Life"). It was during the summer when I was about 12, I randomly tuned in during the Marty Saybrooke rape trial, and I was hooked from then on for a lot of years. I've drifted away from the show since then, but I'd check in now and again and - despite some occasions of nonsense - I always enjoyed catching up with old "friends."

Despite all the rumors I never really thought OLTL would be cancelled. It's the end of an era. I, too, think this is why SoapNet should continue. The audience may be more limited now, but it's still out there particularly for basic cable.

[Jackers]

I grew up watching AMC with my mom. I have lots of wonderful memories of gonig food shopping and coming home to have lunch and watch Erica, Adam, Brooke, Jesse, Angie, etc. I'm 30 now and AMC (and soaps in general) is something that still bond over (usually by making fun of whatever ridiculousness Ryan the asshat has been up to). This makes me so sad, not just that it's going to be gone after this summer, but the way in which it was handled.

How could they lie to their employees like that, and not just lie but to tell them and encourage them to make these statements to their fans that they were spreading untrue and "cruel" rumors. They made these people look like assholes, people who are now not only out of work, but who probably feel even worse for being made to look like liars and morons. Unbelieveable.

I have no use for any of this new (and i use that term loosely, because it's all crap that I have already seen on other channels) programming and my opinion of ABC has dropped further down the toilet. If it wasn't for my local news and Modern Family I would never turn on the stupid channel.

Anyway, I'm sorry guys, really I am. I just called my mom at work to give her the news. She took it well, after she said "Those bastards lied to me" she paused and said "Well, at least it'll give me more free time now. I won't spend all of my time complaining about how terrible my show has become online."

RIP, AMC. I will never, ever forget you. <3

[Sue]

Well, at least I won't have to stomach the shirtless Ford brothers anymore....

This stinks. They've ruined the one show they are keeping with mobsters and have let the other two 'fade' with limited promotion, sub-par storylines and random actors (see above: Brothers, Ford) that wandered too far from the core characters and legacy families that were the heart and soul of the shows.

My only hope is that they wrap up storylines in a good and decent way so we can imagine our favorite characters living happily ever after.....

[Pauline]

This makes me sick to my stomach.

[Cindy]

If it weren't for Castle, I would definitely boycott ABC. It's the only ABC show I watch (although, darn it, that Poe pilot sounded good). I want to know who they interviewed for what they wanted to see? Yuppies who aren't even at home for TV during the day? And The Chew and The Regurgitation...oh...I'm sorry...Revolution? Yuck. My daytime hours will be better served with a book.

USA Network...please go snag Castle for your fine establishment.

[Sarah]

My hope is also that the shows are being positioned to finish on reasonably respectable notes. That seems to be happening, with the return of RH on One Life to Live and the clean-up in the writers' stable at AMC.

Maybe Nathan Fillion will come back for a random cameo as his "Castle" writer character. He still seems to give all props to OLTL for giving him his start. Maybe they'll bring back Kish, and Rachel, and Antonio, and, and, and...

There's at least potential to go out on a higher note than these shows have seen in awhile. It's unfortunate it won't come when there's still a chance to save them.

[Dirk Mancuso]

I am absolutely devastated by the impending loss of OLTL.

Rant to follow later once I can compose my thoughts without liberal use of cursing.

[Barbara]

I'm having a serious case of deja vu since the same thing happened with NBC which has just the one soap left. I don't even watch NBC anymore although I do watch Days. I'm sad about this since I've gotten hooked on AMC because of Lindsay joining the cast and once again a soap where I love her gets cancelled. I'm still bitter about Passions so this is just horrible.

I'm not a big video game person but I just had the need to shoot something although I'm sure I'll be in the corner weeping later on. Weirdly the weather here seemed to know it was going to be a bad day so I'm guessing Mother Nature at least where I am is a fan of both soaps.

[Chad]

I wish I was more surprised at the cancellation - and at the callous and cowardly way ABC Daytime is handling it. I'm also not too surprised that AMC and OLTL is ending, but GH is apparently getting an indefinite lease on life despite its failures in critical reception and ratings. Without going too academic on you all, soap operas have long been demonized as the genre for "unsophisticated" women and working-class people, so while it makes me livid I can still understand the screwed up but perhaps inevitable reasons why the two traditional soap operas are being cancelled while the soap that's been "butched up" into a z-grade "Sopranos" will still be around, even though from a business perspective it really doesn't have any more of a right to be spared the ax.

What does surprise me is just how short-sighted and arbitrary it all is. Look at "Days of our Lives" for comparison. NBC was dead-set on cancelling it for a while, but when the show began to prosper just a little under a series of creative changes and with new promotions, it got a new lease on life. Meanwhile the decisions made by Frons and the Powers That Be from years ago on have made it clear that they knew what should be done with the shows under their control and what their viewers should be given, no matter what the response of the audience might be or even what might benefit ABC Daytime from strictly an ad revenue perspective. They had a plan, and it did not include the survival of American soap operas, to say the least.

In the end, I'm not too upset that OLTL, the show I grew up watching with my late grandmother, is ending. TV shows come and go, and it's somewhat of an easier blow to take in the days of DVDs, fan-made collections, and YouTube. What does upset me, though, is that the death of ABC soaps (and, let's face it, "General Hospital" has been dead as a soap for at least half a decade now) is just one more way TV is becoming less diverse, less interesting, and more of a parody of itself. It's one more sign that today's network executives are only after short-term profits, and have no concept of the need to build up and nurture a healthy, loyal niche audience, something that used to be well understood just fifteen years ago. Instead of a television landscape with quirky daytime dramas and with, say, a A&E Channel that actually shows things related to arts and the theater, instead the philosophy shared by executives calls for 80 channels that show nothing but "reality" television, police procedurals, and maybe the occasional bland, family-friendly sitcom. This is what Frons and Sweeney believe too. The soaps didn't stand a chance.

Maybe I'll write letters of disgust too, but something I will definitely do is write to people like Robin Strasser and Erica Slezak and thank them for the entertainment and memories they've given me and that I plan on enjoying for years to come, despite the best efforts of people like Frons.

[oltlgirl]

Not a total surprise, but still a very sad day...I didn't think they would really do it. Joke's on me.

Suck it Brian Frons, I hope you choke on 'The Chew' (ugh).

[Crystal]

Suck it ABC indeed. I'm not surprised because the rumors have been around for a while, but I am saddened by the amount of people (yes, even the writers) about put out of work. I checked out of Pine Valley a few years ago, but I still watch OLTL, and I'll really miss it when it's done. (Whew, I made a marginally coherent statement with nary a curse word.)

Seriously, though. How fucking sick do you have to be to make your employees move cross country, and then fire them all??!! What the fucking fuck?

[Bourgeois Nerd]

Oh, and I bet the AMC actors, including La Lucci, who were bald-faced lied to and ran around telling everyone the rumors were untrue feel just GREAT. They lose their jobs AND their credibility! Class act, that ABC.

[Andrea]

So pissed right now. They cancel OLTL, which has been rocking for the most part these past few days for a stupid cooking show (in which there are thousands) and a weight loss show (in which there are already multiple shows that deal with it/talk about it in one way or another???). Complete and utter BS. I can't wait to watch both of those shows fail.

And Frons' response to all of this is just as rage inducing. Fans aren't going to want either of these shows because they aren't entertaining!!!!!

Aside from Castle and Body of Proof, I don't watch any primetime. Looks like it'll be time to boycott after January.

Looking back at everything though, it's been pretty obvious that OLTL, at least, has been starting wrap it up. RH is coming back to see the show off, there are rumors that a lot of storylines have been changed (like the Fords), there's rumors that Cole might be coming back, they're basically screaming that Clint and Viki will find their way back to each other before the end, etc.

I don't know what I'll do with my time once OLTL is gone. The majority of my time on the Internet is related to OLTL.

[SharonGS]

I haven't watched AMC in many years, but my husband and I have been watching OLTL and GH together since we got our first VCR. (I started watching them almost as soon as they began during school vacations.) This is a great loss, but we have already begun to explore the wonderful world of international soaps. The Telemundo soaps often have closed captions in English and are very accessible. My message to ABC and ABC Daytime: Good-bye. I so rarely watch your prime-time programming that, if it disappeared tomorrow I wouldn't miss it. Watching GH is a habit I can easily break. The space on my DVR currently filled with OLTL and GH can easily be filled with movies, and I'll now have a lot more time to really use VOD and Netflix.

[Lisa]

I was DEVASTATED after the cancellation of Guiding Light because it was the only thing my mother and I agreed on and enjoyed together. Reading the comment above re: Viki, I know exactly how you feel. I'm so sad not to have Viki, Dorian, Erica, Kendall and Blair to relate to anymore.

Up yours, ABC.

[Ron]

May Frons and Carruthers and Sweeney rot. May the new shows fail.
May they lose their jobs, which they'd done so poorly.

This was murder. And not only do we lose these shows, which, frankly, is hard to really grasp, but we lose the online community.

It makes me sick.

[Ashley B.]

Does this mean we can start campaigning for the return of our faves at least? I have to admit, it would soften to blow a bit to see Adam blow back into Pine Valley...

[Logan]

First of all, bravo to Chad for posting such an astute comment! I share exactly the same sentiments.

I wanted to become a television writer because of pioneers like Agnes Nixon and the powerful storytelling of daytime dramas like AMC and OLTL. These days, insightful and engaging storytelling is a rarity in both daytime and primetime. Programs have become bland because building an audience and honoring television history doesn't mean anything to executives. All executives care about is embracing current fads that will make them the most money in the shortest period of time.

If ABC truly cared about their viewers, they would have considered other, cost-effective options. Why not return to a half hour format? ABC could have also tried distributing the shows to an international audience. Both of these business models have helped sustain the Bold and the Beautiful for decades. Another option would have been to reduce the number of weekly episodes as Direct TV tried with Passions.

American soap operas have always been comfort food to our nation and a creative way to understand the human condition. I applaud Agnes Nixon as well as all of the AMC and OLTL actors, writers, and crew members who have given some much of their time and talent over the decades. I hope they understand that there is still a market for the work they do and that people do still care about good storytelling.