(SoapOperaNetwork.com) — What started out as a typical week that began on July 25 ended up being one of the worst in Soap Opera Network history, but you wouldn’t have known it from a behind the scenes perspective.
On Wednesday, July 27, I had posted that our server was being transferred to a new provider that would allow our readers to load us up faster than ever before and if you blinked, you would have missed the change in systems. Unfortunately, you kept on blinking and for three consecutive days Soap Opera Network was offline, no where to be found and no way to say TOLDJA! (gotta love our Nikki Finke at Deadline.com). On Saturday, July 30 and heading into Sunday, July 31, Soap Opera Network‘s Community Message Boards returned to the web with a new look courtesy of a software upgrade. Although it takes getting used to, I have to admit it is one of the better looking changes our boards have seen to date. We will be tinkering with minor details per recommendations from posters. Additionally, today, Soap Opera Network has debuted its new website using a new platform. While the old platform was nice and did us wonders for more than five years, times have changed and so have we. We hope you like the redesign and we will definitely be correcting any bugs you or we may come across in the hours, days and weeks to come, specifically in relation to links, etc. We hope you like the new design as much as we did in building it for you.
The Scoops You Came For
While we were offline and left to cleaning up the mess that we were forced into, we had learned that “General Hospital,” despite Prospect Park’s desire to have it did not sign a deal with Disney/ABC Television Group to bring the series to the World Wide Web when it debuts “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” in January 2012 (yes, ladies and gentleman this is now the confirmed debut month for the web launch for both soaps). We also learned that Tamara Braun is indeed returning to “GH” in the coming weeks despite the shows explicit denial to the contrary, although it remains unclear as to whom she will be portraying. But that wasn’t the biggest scoop of them all. Soap Opera Network has learned that when “One Life to Live” wraps filming at the ABC Television Center in New York City this November, it will indeed be moving its studio space when Prospect Park takes over production. But, despite reports that it will be moving to one studio somewhere in the Big Apple, we have learned that it isn’t just moving to one specific studio, but to three! According to sources, “One Life” will call one studio in Brooklyn and another in Queens home once production begins on v2.0. The third studio location wasn’t made clear at press time, nor were the names of the studios in the aforementioned boroughs, however we’ve been told that with the excess studio digs “One Life” crew members will not be forced to take down as many sets as they have been doing for much of the shows 43-year history on ABC.
Not one to leave another exclusive out, Soap Opera Network was in Burbank on Thursday, July 28 and visited the set of NBC’s “Days of our Lives,” where we spoke with newly appointed head writers Darrell Ray Thomas and Marlene McPherson, who have promised many things for fans who have felt the show has turned into something they no longer recognize. From the return of Deidre Hall and Drake Hogestyn as John and Marlena, to the debut of the Horton Square and even a sneak peek at what’s been going on with the characters before their material debuts on Monday, September 26, tune Soap Opera Network as we prepare you for new “DAYS” to come.
Until next Notebook…
Errol Lewis