American Business and Daytime Dramas

By Donald G Boudreau

On Thursday, April 14, 2011, ABC/Disney Television unleashed a nationwide firestorm in concurrently announcing that it was cancelling two of Daytime television’s longstanding prized soap operas created by the legendary writer, Agnes Nixon, “One Life to Live” and “All My Children.” Nationwide, fans immediately began protesting against these cancellations and emphatically made it clear that they did not want, and would not support by watching, the ABC/Disney network’s two proposed replacement reality television shows that focused on food and lifestyle/weight reduction, named “The Revolution” and “The Chew.” ABC/Disney’s decision in cancelling these two soap opera thus became a catalyst in spawning a nationwide “Save Our Soaps” movement as hundreds of thousands of fans began flocking to the social media, creating hundreds of Facebook pages, online communities nationwide, actively protesting these decisions by ABC/Disney, with the responsible senior executives of these companies directly, with corporate sponsors, and with local ABC television affiliate stations nationwide.
And all along in the process, these soap opera fans were raising serious issues, including among other things, the television networks overall devaluing of scripted programming in favor of cheaper, reality television shows; ageism – given that these soap operas largely tended to attract viewers with median ages emanating from the so-called Baby Boomer generation; people began discussing on Facebook month after succeeding month, issues of sexism - given the national television networks obsessive focus on youthful female demographics, to the exclusion of so many other equally if not more so valuable television viewers; and moreover, the many shortcomings of an antiquated and reactionary Nielsen ratings system that admittedly fails in capturing the total viewing audiences of these shows, as the counting methodologies had been eclipsed by the dynamic sophistication of the viewing technologies that had evolved using the time-delayed multiple platforms of DVRs and TiVo, etc. along with people watching their television programs on the Internet, or on the former SOAPNet channel. This story has many colorful characters, too, ranging from “All My Children’s” Susan Lucci to “One Life to Live’s” Erika Slezak, Robin Strasser, and Ilene Kristen, to the women of “The View”, celebrity chef and talk show co-host Mario Batali and celebrity cook and talk show host Rachael Ray, Oprah Winfrey, Katie Couric, and many others.
In the end, this is author Dr. Donald Boudreau’s crie de coeur as a twenty year fan of “One Life to Live” as he memorializes many of the voices belonging to the seemingly voiceless deserving of being heard and listened to, many millions upon millions of fans of these shows nationwide, some of whom are homebound and gravely ill depending daily for entertainment and sustenance on “their stories”, and who are all steadfastly refusing to be silenced by The Disney Company and the American Broadcasting Company in this very much modern David and Goliath story. It is also a contemporary American protest story, involving major American businesses and their loyal, longtime customers, that resonates to the present date, as fans remain committed to seeing “One Life to Live” and “All My Children” soon restored by ABC/Disney, or another network or cable channel with a view to their continuing on - for new generations -- with this much beloved and internationally renowned, classical American storytelling tradition.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Donald G Boudreau
• Release date: Jun 22, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476407203

Donald G Boudreau

Dr. Donald G. Boudreau is an internationally recognized expert in the field of economic statecraft. He is also the author of the books, “American Business and Daytime Dramas,” “American Sanctions Against The Soviet Union: From Nixon To Reagan,” and "Resistance in the Gulag Archipelago (1918-1956)." Retired from Federal Government service, for nearly three decades, he held various United States Government appointments with the U.S. Postal Service, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Department of the Treasury, U.S. Department of Energy, and finally and extensively, with the U.S. Department of Defense. He holds the Ph.D. degree in International Relations from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies at The University of Geneva, Switzerland, a Master of Public Administration (M.P.A.) degree with specialization in public management from Rutgers – The State University of New Jersey, and a B.A. degree in Political Science from Montclair State University in Upper Montclair, New Jersey, with Pi Gamma Mu and Pi Sigma Alpha honorary, the National Social Science and Political Science Honor Societies, respectively. Dr. Boudreau served as Rutgers University’s premier Presidential Management Intern as a member of the first class of the Program (1978-80), having been nominated by Rutgers University and selected for such by the then U.S. Civil Service Commission in Washington, DC. The Presidential Management Intern Program (now, the United States Government’s Presidential Management Fellows Program) is a program “designed to attract to Federal service men and women of exceptional management potential who have special training in planning and managing public programs.” Formerly, he served as assistant business administrator for the Town of Irvington, New Jersey. Dr. Boudreau is the recipient of, including among other awards received during his distinguished Federal Government career, the Office of the Secretary of Defense Award for Excellence, a U. S. Treasury Department Sustained Superior Performance Award, and numerous other U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Department of Defense performance awards. He moreover, while pursuing his doctoral studies at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (“the Institute”) at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, was competitively and jointly awarded by the Institute and the U.N. Centre For Human Rights, an Hautes Etudes Internationales Graduate Internship in International Organization that he successfully served with the United Nations Centre for Human Rights at the European Headquarters of the United Nations at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. Boudreau’s articles on various foreign policy and national security subjects have appeared in the journals, World Affairs, Strategic Review, The International Journal On World Peace, European Security, Diplomacy & Statecraft, International Peacekeeping, and Strategic Analysis (New Delhi). He and his wife, Zoraida de, and their children reside in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Book preview

AMERICAN BUSINESS

AND

DAYTIME DRAMAS

By Donald G. Boudreau, PhD, MPA

First Smashwords Edition, 2012

Copyright 2012 by Donald G. Boudreau

Published by Smashwords

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Cover images courtesy of Michael Ludwig, Bort66 & Dreamstime

Cover by Joleene Naylor

* * * * * * * * * *

CONTENTS:

Dedication

Margaret Mead

Timeline

Introduction

On Walt Disney (1901-1966) and The Walt Disney Company

On ABC Television/Disney’s Cancelling of All My Children and One Life to Live

On Irna Phillips (1901-1973) and The Genesis Of A Genre

On Agnes Nixon (1927-) The Mother of the Modern Soap Opera

On Why Fans of All My Children and One Life to Live are Protesting So Vehemently

On Disney ABC’s Iger, Sweeney & Frons: the meta-ironic consequences of Egregious, Completely Avoidable, Horrendous Business Mistakes

On The Hoover Company’s Supporting Protesting Soap Opera Fans

On Oprah Winfrey, Soap Operas & Her Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN)

On the Sony Corporation/NBC and Prospect Park: Disappointments Aplenty

On One Life To Live Averting Viewing The View: Speaking Only, When Spoken To

On Badvertising and Why American Corporate Sponsors Should Care

On the Costs of Producing Soap Opera

On the Economic Prowess of the Baby Boomer Generation as Television Advertisers Audiences

On the Inestimable Economic and Other Damages Wrought by an Contemporary Antiquated and Reactionary Television Ratings System

On the International Appeal of Soap Opera

On Reality Television and the Future of Television

On Mario Batali and ‘The Chew’ As a Daytime Soap Opera ‘Replacement Show’

On Rachael Ray and the Soap Operas’ Replacement Shows

On Katie Couric, General Hospital’s Time Slot & One Life To Live’s New York City Studio

On Why I Love Erika Slezak

On Why I Love Robin Strasser

On Why I Love Susan Lucci

On Why I Love Ilene Kristen

On Soap Opera as an Invaluable Training Ground for Talented Actors and Actresses

Conclusions, or the Reasons Many, Why Anne Sweeney May Not Be Very Good At Her Job

Select Bibliography

Author’s Bio

* * * * * * * * * *

DEDICATION

To the great writer Agnes Nixon, creator, and

Queen of the modern soap opera

For Irna Phillips’ protégé and successor,

to whom many of us are indebted

For her having birthed the Genre

And, to two of its finest grande dames ever,

the solid actresses in all their beautiful, wondrous fury

Erika Slezak and Robin Strasser

This book is also dedicated in earnest appreciation to

all the residents of One Life to Live

in suburban Llanview, Pennsylvania,

its casts and crews and their families

past and present, for teaching us (and America)

for changing us all slowly thru storytelling

as part of The Larger Social Conversation , and

for entertaining us - who brought such joy and happiness,

to so many of us, and for so long,

hopefully at some point continuing on into the bright New Future

wishing you worldwide entertaining, online, on cable, multiple platforms, on demand,

with all fond memories and best wishes in abundance, with Love forever.

Thank you one and all, this is for you…

* * * * * * * * * *

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

-Margaret Mead

Fight on my Fellow Soap fighters!!! :o).

* SOURCE: The noted American anthropologist, as quoted by Karen Sturgis Vanover and posted on Facebook in BOYCOTT ABC ACROSS AMERICA, May 19, 2011, 9:22 p.m.

* * * * * * * * * *

Timeline In Re American Business And Daytime Dramas

Dec 2009 Brian Frons, President, ABC Daytime Television, advises the cast and crew of All My Children that in order to save All My Children it was necessary that the show relocate from New York City to Los Angeles, with all the players taking pay cuts. Many who did so out of solidarity, leaving family and friends behind, sold their east coast homes in a down market resulting in tremendous personal economic loss.

Jan 2010 All My Children moves from New York City to Los Angeles in a purported cost saving move after nearly 40 years on television. The soap is later cancelled along with One Life to Live in April 2011, four months after celebrating its 41st anniversary.

April 14 2011 ABC/Disney Television officially announces that it is cancelling All My Children and "One Life to Live effective September 23, 2011, and January 2012, respectively. ABC said that it would replace the decades-old shows with less costly reality shows, as daytime soap viewing purportedly continues declining.

April 15 Rachael Ray, the celebrity cook and talk show host, publicly states that she is really excited about the replacement shows for All My Children and One Life to Live. Many soap fans took exception to, and were offended by, Ms. Ray’s comments.

Apr 18 The first advertiser to step forth and protest ABC/Disney Daytime’s decision to dispatch with both One Life to Live and All My Children, Hoover Company (renowned for its vacuum cleaners) announces that it was pulling all of its advertising from ABC Television effective that Friday, April 22, 2011.

Apr 21 Oprah Winfrey uploads onto YouTube a 2minute, 2 second video to soap fans, elucidating the various reasons as to Why Oprah Can’t Save The Soaps, www.Youtube.com.

Apr 22 The effective date for the Hoover Company’s television commercials to cease running on ABC/Disney Television, due to the former protesting the latter’s cancellation decisions, regarding the two affected soap opera shows: All My Children and One Life to Live.

May Reportedly, as early as May 2011, preliminary negotiations were already well underway between Prospect Park the California-based media and production company and ABC/Disney representatives also located in California, regarding a possible long term licensing agreement for acquiring the multiplatform distribution rights to All My Children and One Life to Live. This entailed the shows becoming online series with runtime and production values kept identical to the television versions of the series. Subsequently, in an NewYorkTimes.com interview published on October 5, 2011, Jeff Kwatinetz, the CEO and founder of Prospect Park, publicly conceded that, [H]e… aggressively went after the rights to ABC’s cancelled soaps, seeing them as anchors for his online ambitions because of their loyal fans.

May 17 From Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City, ABC/Disney Television hosted their 2011-2012 Upfront presentation where they preview their upcoming season to the network’s major corporate sponsor advertisers. Soap fans, under the auspices of Soap Fans United organized by Shawn Brady, protested across the street, and in attendance protesting along with them, were the noted actresses Colleen Zenk (the two time Emmy nominee who played Barbara Ryan on As The World Turns for 32 years), and Ilene Kristen (who plays the role of Roxanne Balsom, also known as Foxy Roxy, on ABC Television’s One Life To Live), together with the renowned soap journalist, Mimi Torchin.

May 20 Viewers, consumers and customers of One Life To Live and All My Children took out a full-page ad in the Hollywood Reporter expressing their disappointment to ABC and to ABC head of daytime programming Brian Frons, president of Disney, ABC Television Group Anne Sweeney, and advertisers of daytime TV that two of the network’s longest running soaps are being replaced with two new lifestyle shows.

May 23 Per SoapOperaNetwork, according to a Sony Pictures television representative, the reports of the Sony Company picking up the two iconic cancelled soaps from ABC Television, as had been rumored, was nothing but total speculation.

June 6 ABC Television Network announced today that it plans to launch a Katie Couric hosted syndicated daytime talk show which provides the evening news host with a hefty $20M a year plus ownership of her program and reunites her with network executive and CEO, Jeff Zucker, who will be an executive producer for the show, to be based out of New York City and produced in conjunction with Disney/ABC.

June 11 A Coordinated Cable Coupon Campaign is announced on Saturday, June 11, 2011, by www.sudz.tv, a soap opera fans website. The coupons ask the cable industry to find a replacement on cable for some soap opera programming.

June 18-19 In a page one Wall Street Journal, Weekend Edition article, writer Sam Schechner observes that thousands of soap opera diehards are mobilizing to save All My Children and One Life To Live, two of the once-fecund genre’s six remaining examples.

June 19 The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) announced the winners of the 38th Annual Daytime Entertainment Emmy & Awards in a live television broadcast on the CBS Television Network from the Las Vegas Hilton, held this evening.

June 20 GLOBE Magazine delivers thousands of protest letters to Brian Frons, the president of ABC Daytime programming, protesting the cancellation decisions of One Life To Live and All My Children.

July 4 GLOBE Magazine reports that thousands are joining the campaign to save One Life To Live and All My Children. John Bray, a member of the group Leadership Council of Viewer Equity, has organized a so-called coupon campaign aimed at demonstrating the huge support soaps have. The GLOBE included a copy of the mail-in coupon that readers could complete and mail in to a central point where they will be amassed and brought to cable companies with a view to demonstrating effective demand for a soaps channel on cable television.

July 6 ABC/Disney Television in Burbank, CA, licenses (exclusively and long term) its iconic soap operas All My Children and One Life To Live to third party production company, Prospect Park for online viewing, it was announced by Brian Frons, President, Daytime Disney ABC Television Group and Janice Marinelli, President, Disney/ABC Domestic Television and Rich Frank and Jeff Kwatinetz of Prospect Park. Prospect Park had intended to create new episodes of the two soaps on Internet television.

July 14 Silas Kain, on a radio show episode entitled The Wrath of Kain, that aired on Thursday, July 14, 2011, states that over 4,000 Coordinated Cable coupons have now been received and that all 50 states are represented [www.blogtalkradio.com].

July 15 The organization of soap fans Soap Fans United held a One Life To Live 43rd Anniversary Support Rally outside at One Life to Live’s New York City studios, organized by Shawn Brady, the group’s founder.

July 18 GLOBE Magazine reports that Las Vegas headline entertainer, Marie Osmond, has joined the fight to save the soaps and is joining the soap opera cast of The Bold and the Beautiful. The GLOBE, once again, included a copy of the aforementioned mail-in Coordinated Cable coupon in this issue.

July 25 ABC Soaps In Depth is the first major soap opera magazine to publish the Cable/Satellite TV Save Our Soaps (SOS) Coordinated Cable coupon in this issue.

July 25 The GLOBE Magazine’s Jim Nelson authors an article titled Soap Opera Rescue Deal ‘A Sham’, S.O.S. Campaign Explodes, reporting that Save Our Soaps organizers are seething about ABC’s decision to license the rights to All My Children and One Life to Live for showing only on the Internet!" The aforementioned John Bray reports therein that his group had so far received 7,000 Coordinated Cable coupons, which are available at Sudztv.com.

July 26 The Los Angeles Times reports that One Life to Live’s New York City studio will be given to Katie Couric for her upcoming ABC Television’s syndicated talk show.

July ABC Television’s scheduled cancellation of All My Children on air takes effect. The show is scheduled to transition, to continuing on online, via Prospect Park.

July 29 Disney/ABC’s Anne Sweeney named MIPCOM 2011 Personality of the Year by event organizer, Reed Midem. Some soap fans took serious ironic exception to such a designation, being conferred upon Ms. Sweeney given her critical role in supporting the cancelling of All My Children and One Life To Live on ABC Daytime Television.

Aug 16 Radar Partners’ Stratton Sclavos is joining the new television online network formed by Jeff Kwatinetz and Rich Franks’ Prospect Park, the management and production company that forged a multi-year multi-platform licensing agreement with Disney/ABC Television Domestic Television Group to continue producing All My Children and One Life to Live after the ABC run ends. Sclavos, a noted technology pioneer, is among those credited with turning VeriSign into a billion dollar corporation, in his then former capacities as chairman of the board, president and CEO.

Aug 30 The cast and crew of All My Children recorded the last episode of the ABC Daytime television show in the Disney/ABC Studio in California.

Sept 3 A New York Post article, Lucci uploads on soap killer, observes that Susan Lucci in an epilogue to the paperback edition of her book, All My Life: A Memoir, sounds off on the ABC bosses who cancelled All My Children as ‘arrogant’, among other things.

Sept 6 One of the first high-profile returns announced following news of the cancellation of All My Children on ABC made in April 2011, was that of Carol Burnett as Verla Grubbs. Soap Opera Network announced that Burnett will mark her re-entrance to Pine Valley society, on this date, Tuesday.

Sept 6 Prospect Park, the company keeping both One Life To Live and All My Children alive after their ABC television runs, said that pending a final agreement with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, One Life To Live stars Erika Slezak, Kassie DePaiva, Michael Easton, and Ted King have signed contracts to continue on the show when it appears online, and to be expected, on cable television, too.

Sept 16 In an exclusive story. Deadline Hollywood announces that One Life To Live executive producer, Frank Valentini, has signed a deal with Prospect Park to continue with the serial drama when it moves online, and has also been named VP Serial Dramas for Prospect Park’s new online work.

Sept 19 According to Dan J. Kroll on soapcentral.com/amc, Cameron Mathison (Ryan Lavery) and Lindsay Hartley (Cara Castillo) have reportedly signed deals that will have them continue on All My Children when it begins airing on Prospect Park’s still un-named Internet channel.

Sept 23 This date marks the airing of the final episode of 41 years of All My Children on ABC Television.

Sept 26 ABC Television advises that The Chew, the one-hour talk show that concentrates on talking about food is co-hosted by Mario Batali and Michael Symon, starts today. The show will also feature Clinton Kelly, Carla Hall from Top Chef, and Daphne Oz, nutrition expert. Showtime is 01:00 for all stay-at-home types. The show when it premiered on this date, generally received lackluster to poor reviews in the major national media reporting.

Sept 26 Soap Opera Network reported that Sean Ringgold (Shaun Evans) on One Life To Live received an offer last Friday (September 23, 2011) from Prospect Park to continue online. He accepted so fans can look forward to seeing him when the show migrates online beginning in January 2012. Ringgold intimated that he had been given reason to believe that the Evans family would have a future in Prospect Park’s online version of One Life To Live.

Sept 27 Rich Frank and Jeff Kwatinetz of Prospect Park announced the name of their internet delivered network, THE Online Network (TOLN)® that plans to launch in early 2012. All My Children and One Life To Live will both have new episodes airing on TOLN®, including among other things, from Prospect Park Productions.

Sept 27 The debut of The Chew on ABC Television, despite having generally received critical reviews, bests All My Children in its initial day ratings. Some soap opera fans question whether perhaps the anomaly of late run final episodes of All My Children in parts of the country might have skewed the high first day ratings showing.

Sept 27 Fans (Nathan Brookshire, et al.) of One Life To Live reported today on Facebook that ABC Television’s replacement show, The Chew – ran over its allotted programming time into One Life to Live’s timeslot until 2:01 pm ET – questioning whether perhaps ABC/Disney, peeved by the generally poor reviews received yesterday for the premier airing of the replacement show, The Chew, was deliberately attempting to increase The Chew’s ratings - by piggybacking— on "One Life To Live’s superior ratings.

Sept 27 Luke Kerr reports in DAYTIME CONFIDENTIAL that All My Children’s Susan Lucci is involved in negotiating a deal with Prospect Park, and that creator Agnes Nixon is assisting in the deal brokering between the Lucci and Prospect Park camps.

Sept 29 Brittany Forgione, a freelance publicist for Live With Regis and Kelly, apologized for disrespecting the soaps and resigned her position. This followed a Twitter firestorm for her tweet about being happy over the ending of the soaps [All My Children and One Life To Live] in favor of The Chew. Moreover, she then advanced an erroneous explanation, and admitted to lying to her employer - that her account on Twitter had been so viciously hacked, when in fact, it had not.

Sept 30 SoapOperaNetwork.com reports that a few weeks ago, an industry insider informed them that a 1.7 is the lowest acceptable point a daytime program can reach in nosedived status before tv networks begin worrying about the future of the program on their daytime schedules. After just four days on the air, The Chew has hit that low benchmark.

Sept 30 The Online Network® confirmed today that a deal is in place for One Life To Live Emmy winning Head Writer and Consulting Producer Ron Carlivati, subject to an agreement with The Writers Guild of America, to continue with the show when it moves online in the beginning of 2012.

Sept 30 Subject to an agreement with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, Prospect Park announced that One Life To Live acting deals are in place for Melissa Archer (Natalie Buchanan Banks), Kelly Missal (Danielle Rayburn Manning), Andrew Trischitta (Jack Manning), Jerry verDorn (Clint Buchanan), and Sean Ringgold (Shaun Evans). Previously announced similar One Life To Live cast deals include: Ted King (Tomas), Michael Easton (John McBain), Kassie DePaiva (Blair Cramer Manning), and Erika Slezak (Victoria Buchanan).

Oct 2 Per WorldScreen.com, Procter & Gamble (P&G) has reportedly sold the international distribution/rerun rights, across multiple platforms, for its entire soap operas catalog to Broadway Video Digital Distribution; a Disney owned international distribution system company, oh the irony! The P&G catalog consists of Guiding Light, As The World Turns, Another World, Search for Tomorrow, and Texas. These soap operas will be showcased to buyers at MIPCOM, the international television convention being held in Cannes, France (the leading international entertainment and digital event for co-producing, buying, selling, financing and distributing entertainment content across all platforms). So, what do you know? Apparently, soaps do matter!

Oct 3 Actor Trevor St. John, in an interview with Soaps In Depth reveals that after eight years of playing the role of Todd Manning on ABC/Disney Television’s One Life To Live that he had no intentions of continuing on with the show [signing another 4 year contract] when his contract was up (his last shooting day, being the week of July 18).

Oct 4 Mario Batali, "The Chew" co-host, spoke recently with New York Magazine about his new cooking show, which replaced All My Children on ABC/Disney Television. Dude, they are so mad at me, says Batali, it’s as if I had chopped off Erica Kane’s head."

Oct 5 Brian Frons, Disney/ABC Daytime Television Group Daytime President promotes Randall Barone, developer of "The Chew [who reportedly, had been working on it for a year and a half] to Vice President of Programming and Development For ABC Daytime. This temporal component, publicly admitted in the official ABC/Disney press release in the context of seemingly justifying the terms of Mr. Barone’s promotion, unfortunately for some observers tends to lend powerful witness to the proposition that Susan Lucci and the entire cast of All My Children" [and their families] may well have been relocated en masse, unwittingly from New York City to California, with the responsible senior ABC/Disney senior executives, being cognizant all along - and highly witting of their, All My Children’s cast’s – timed firing -- when the show and One Life To Live’s cancellations were publicly announced by the network on April 14, 2011.

Oct 5 In an interview for NewYorkTimes.com conducted by Barnes Brooks, Jeff Kwatinetz, CEO and founder of Prospect Park, the media and production company, reveals that plans call for new episodes of All My Children and One Life To Live to be streamed on the Web site and then made available on living room on-demand systems and, a few weeks later on a traditional cable channel. Moreover, Kwatinetz reportedly intends to make additional money by selling advertising and syndicating the shows to other websites like Hulu or Google.

Oct 7 Walt Disney chief executive Robert Iger will reportedly step down from the position in 2015, but will stay on as executive chairman until the summer of the following year, the company has said.

Oct 10 In this issue, FORBES publishes an article by Jenna Goudreau titled Oprah Winfrey’s OWN [Oprah Winfrey Network] Battle, After three quarters of unexpectedly weak ratings, the queen of talk is fighting to revive her floundering cable network. Winfrey declined an interview with FORBES magazine.

Oct 13 Journalist Jamey Giddens confirms in a Daytime Confidential story that Procter and Gamble is releasing a 20 episode, 4 DVD collection of episodes from the cancelled CBS soap opera, As The World Turns.

Oct 13 Day three ratings took another tumble for the struggling talker, The Rosie Show, hosted by Rosie O’Donnell on Oprah Winfrey’s OWN.

Oct 14 Mark Yates, president of Soap Classics, has revealed plans to begin offering in the first quarter of 2012, streaming As The World Turns online, with Guiding Light likely to follow.

Oct 20 TVLine reports that daytime diva, the All My Children legend Susan Lucci, has signed on for two episodes of Army Wives that is slated to air in season six.

Nov 1 In a Soap Opera Digest interview, One Life To Live actor Jerry verDorn (Clint Buchanan) observes: [There’s] a stronger and stronger indication that we are going to Bravo (cable television network), so we’ll be on TV and the Internet.

Nov 8 On this Tuesday, in New York City, One Life To Live held its final press day for its run on ABC Daytime television.

Nov 10 Soaps in Depth reported that the company Prospect Park has, for a few months time, put on hold their plans to relaunch All My Children on the Web.

Nov 10 In an effort to save costs before moving One Life To Live to a more permanent studio, sources confirmed to Soap Opera Network that Prospect Park and its Online Network (TOLN) division have sealed a deal with the Disney/ABC Group to continue filming the show at its current ABC Television Center Studios at 320 West 66th Street in New York City. Still reportedly under consideration as One Life To Live’s permanent studio, is JC Studios in Brooklyn, that had long served as As the World Turn’s studio.

Nov 14 A representative of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) reportedly advised Soap Opera Network that they are still in discussion with [Prospect Park].

Nov 17 The Soap Central, Soapcentral.com reports that there are rumors regarding Prospect Park and their decision to not move forward with #OLTL [One Life To Live]. We have not been able to confirm at this time.

Nov 18 New York City’s last daytime soap opera, One Life To Live films its final episode for ABC/Disney Television on this Friday afternoon. The show debuted on July 15, 1968, on the ABC television network.

Nov 22 On this Tuesday night, JR Martinez, All My Children alumnus and Iraq War veteran, triumphantly became the second soap fan to take home the Mirror Ball Trophy on ABC Television’s Dancing With The Stars.

Nov 22 An CNN iReport observes that the aforementioned Cable Coupon Campaign, designed to show demand for the genre and for a soap-specific cable channel to replace the cancelled SoapNet channel, has received 8,689 completed Coupons to date from the public at large.

Nov 23 Dan J. Kroll in an article authored on soapcentral.com observes that Prospect Park, the company that, in July, announced that it had licensed the rights to ABC’s cancelled soaps All My Children and One Life To Live" may be preparing to announce that it will abandon plans to re-launch the two soaps on the Internet. According to sources, the company has had issues with securing financing and in reaching agreement with the unions that represent the on-and-off air talent.

Nov 23 Prospect Park announces the aforementioned cancelling of taking All My Children and One Life to Live onto the Internet, as originally planned, for the various reasons cited above.

Dec 1 Daytime Confidential reports that ABC daytime Chief Brian Frons has released a statement on the hiring of One Life to Live Executive Producer Frank Valentini and Head Writer Ron Carlivati to helm General Hospital.

Dec 2 ABC Disney announces that that Brian Frons is leaving his position as President, Daytime, Disney/ABC Television Group when his contract expires in January 2012.

Dec 6 Daytime Confidential advises that it appears that the Ivy League has much more respect for Agnes Nixon than certain ABC/Disney executives. The creator of All My Children and One Life to Live visits Harvard University today as part of the Harvard Foundation’s artist in residence program.

Dec 7 VARIETY reports that the deaths of all My Children and One Life to Live may have been premature given that Prospect Park, the production company that licensed digital rights to the soaps from ABC, has continued holding meetings with other parties with a view to exploring options for keeping them going online. Under consideration, reportedly is the option of bringing in an overseas firm to turn the shows into a co-production.

Dec 15 This day, was to have been the prospective initial date of taping of One Life to Live 2.0, on the production company Prospect Park’s THE Online Network ("TOLN’).

Jan 2012 ABC Daytime President Brian Frons departs ABC Disney in completing his contract.

Jan 2012 SOAPnet reportedly will be leaving the air early in the year, as Disney announces plans for replacing the network with a dedicated preschool channel a la Disney Junior.

Jan 1 2012 SOAPnet rang in the New Year with a 14-hour One Life to Live celebration held on this Sunday, from 10AM-12AM.

Jan 11 2012 According to The Hollywood Reporter, four actors from the ABC daytime drama One Life to Live will reprise their roles for an upcoming story arc on the ABC soap opera General Hospital. Kassie DePaiva, Roger Howarth, Michael Easton and Kristen Alderson will return in the roles they created on One Life to Live which concluded its 43 year run on January 13, 2012. The long running soap was recently canceled by ABC.

Jan 12 2012 According to a CNN iReport, over 11,000 cable coupons have reportedly been collected to date by sudztv to show physical evidence of a demand for a cable soap channel where these shows and the soap opera genre can live on: a place for people to go to simply enjoy their stories.

Jan 13 2012 The View hosted a one hour farewell tribute saluting 43 Years of One Life to Live, that included among others, creator Agnes Nixon, actresses Erika Slezak, and Chief Writer Ron Carlivati.

Jan 13 2012 The proverbial unlucky Friday the 13th?: The ABC Television finale of One Life to Live airs. The show, debuted on ABC, back on July 15, 1968.

Jan 16 2012 Soap Opera Network had formerly reported that Prospect Park quietly confirmed that All My Children and One Life to Live would premiere online under their auspices on Monday, this date. The former statement was superseded by the above Nov 10 announcement that Prospect Park was reportedly deferring bringing All My Children online on the Web. As stated, subsequently, on November 23, 2011, the Wednesday just before Thanksgiving, Prospect Park announced that it was cancelling bringing both shows onto the Internet, as had been originally conceived and planned, primarily due to financing difficulties.

March 2012 Early this month, it was widely and publicly announced according to HUFF POST FOOD, that ABC/Disney’s The Chew’s celebrity chef, Mario Batali, has settled the tip lawsuit - brought against him by a group comprised of a number of his restaurants employees -- for $5.25 Million.

March 4 2012 The ABC/Disney television comedy drama series, GCB, formerly titled "Good Christian Bitches and then Good Christian Belles debuted as a midseason replacement for Pan Am" in the 201-2012 television season lineup.

March 12-16 2012 TV Media Insights reported that ABC/Disney Television’s "The Revolution was watched by just 1.3 million viewers this week. This was a new all-time low for the lifestyle show which replaced One Life to Live" in January 2012.

March 13 2012 Fans were protesting outside a Disney Share Holder meeting being held in Kansas City this date, in honor