Variety.com

In a report by Variety, Michael Maloney talks with “General Hospital‘s” leading man, Anthony Geary (Luke Spencer), who explains that the renewed success of the soap can be directly credited to its head writer and executive producer.

“Our 50th year could have come and gone with a (simple) ‘Wow,’” said Geary. “But Frank [Valentini, EP] and Ron [Carlivati, HW] have been determined to make it something special for the audience. The ratings are showing that they’ve already decided to achieve that.”

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The OnLine Network/TOLN

Since it was first announced that Prospect Park‘s The OnLine Network was looking to once again revive “All My Children” and “One Life to Live,” after they were canceled by ABC in 2011, it has been said that the company planned to take the shows into a sexier and edgier environment. In a recent teaser released by iTunes for its launch of the two soaps, Erika Slezak (Victoria Lord, “OLTL”) is heard saying, “My agent said, ‘What do you want in this contract?’ I said, ‘No nudity!” Fans shouldn’t expect anything too racy on either show as Prospect Park co-founder Rich Frank admitted to Michael Maloney, Contributing Editor at Bauer Publishing for Soaps In Depth, in an interview with Variety. ”We are going to be a little hotter and sexier,” said Frank. He added, “That doesn’t mean we’ll be doing anything that’s offensive. We’re trying to be contemporary and have storylines that are relevant to people’s lives.”

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Disney/ABC Television Group

(SoapOperaNetwork.com) — Daytime Emmy Award winning television and stage director, actor, and teacher David Pressman died of natural causes on Monday in New York City at the age of 97. Pressman is best remembered by soap fans for his three decades of directing daytime dramas, including “Another World” and “One Life to Live.”

According to Variety, Pressman began his long career as child after receiving a scholarship to the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater, where he studied acting alongside Sanford Mesiner. It was during this time that Pressman made his acting debut in 1941 in a stage production of “Brooklyn, U.S.A.” He later also appeared on stage in “The Eve of St. Mark” and “Dream Girl.”

After graduating, Mesiner asked him to return as his teaching assistant, where he mentored several young actors, including Marlon Brando, Gregory Peck and Tony Randall.

After serving in World War II, where he earned two Purple Hearts, Pressman pursued a career in the new medium of television. In the early 1950s he won a Peabody for his work directing a live action “Actors Studio” TV program. Before directing the series, Pressman starred in the first episode opposite Jessica Tandy, in an adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play “Portrait of a Madonna.” He then earned widespread recognition for his work directing Molnar’s “The Swan” as a segment on “Studio One in Hollywood” starring Grace Kelly in 1951, which later remade into a feature film.

Blacklisted during the 1950s for being a member of the Communist Party, the Soviet-born Pressman founded the acting department at Boston University, where he a number of future Hollywood stars, including Olympia Dukakis. From there, he moved to Broadway, where he directed a number of stage productions, including “The Disenchanted,” “Roman Candle,” and “Summertree.” He then returned to the Neighborhood Playhouse, where he took over the school for the next decade.

By the 1960s, Pressman returned to television, and directed episodes of the primetime dramas “The Defenders,” “The Doctors and the Nurses,” and “N.Y.P.D.,” including a 1968 episode featuring future Hollywood icons Al Pacino and Jill Claybaugh. After a stint of directing on the NBC soap “Another World,” Pressman joined rival ABC soap “One Life to Live”  in 1970 at the request of then Executive Producer Doris Quinlin. After directing countless episodes of “OLTL” during the next twenty-eight years, and earning several Daytime Emmy nominations (winning in 1976, 1983, and 1984), Pressman retired from the show in 1998. However, he was soon asked to return for a time to help train the soap’s younger actors.

Also in 1998, Pressman returned to his acting roots when he played the  Shakespeare-quoting homeless man Bernie Hopper on “OLTL.” He later reprised the role in 2003. In 2004 he was interviewed as part of the Archive of American Television’s TV Legends Series, which you can watch here.

Pressman is survived by his wife, two sons, five grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.