OLTL Recap: Tuesday, August 16, 2011

The big news of December 2012 was word that Prospect Park was taking another stab at moving ABC’s “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” to the web in 2013. The news was first reported by Deadline.com’s Nellie Andreeva. In her initial reporting, Andreeva revealed that Prospect Park had made agreements with the unions SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) and the DGA (Directors Guild of America). Previously, while the company had planned on debuting the shows on the web in early 2012, no deals had been signed with either union or the WGA (Writers Guild of America). This hindered the company’s plan to move forward with the shows and resulted in a postponement that was announced in November 2011. In a statement at the time, AFTRA (prior to its merger with SAG) said that they were “deeply disappointed to read that the executives at Prospect Park have decided to suspend their efforts to produce the long-running and popular daytime serials.” Additionally, the union had said that they “remain hopeful that an opportunity to revive these two popular series will emerge in the future, and remain ready to resume discussions should that opportunity arise.” The future took more than a year, but it appears to have finally emerged. However, although a representative from SAG-AFTRA confirmed that an agreement with Prospect Park had been made when pressed for comment from Soap Opera Network early last week, it remains unclear if said agreement had actually been signed. “Not absolutely certain it had been signed but can check that for you,” said the rep. Due to the holidays, we don’t expect a response on that little detail until at least tomorrow, January 2.

Kamar de los Reyes left ABC’s “One Life to Live” in 2009 after portraying the uber popular role of Antonio Vega off and on for nearly 14 years. When he joined the soap in 1995, the character was introduced as a former gang member recently released from prison after serving time for killing a man. As the eldest son of Carlotta Vega, Antonio was able to prove the crime was in fact an act of self defense with help from Nora Buchanan. In “Call of Duty: Black Ops II,” which was released in November 2012, de los Reyes portrays Raul Menendez the terrorist behind a new world at war that is set in the year 2025. The game, also starring some of Hollywood’s biggest stars including Sam Worthington, Michelle Rodriguez and Michael Keaton with appearances by former soap stars Eden Riegel (“All My Children”) and Brianna Brown (“General Hospital”), grossed over $500 million on its first day of release. The team at Treyarch Invention made the game so real-life like that de los Reyes is now immortalized as a very recognizable video game character, despite the evil things the character induces.

The Writers Guild of America have announced the nominations for the 2013 Writers Guild Awards.  In the Daytime Drama category, “Days Of Our Lives,” “One Life To Live,” and “The Young and The Restless” were nominated.  Winners will be determined on February 17, 2013.

In the latest issue of Soap Opera Digest, which just happens to be the mags annual Best & Worst issue, columnist Carolyn Hinsey (“It’s Only My Opinion”) shared her views of the best and worst of 2012 in the world of daytime soaps. While you can read her input by picking up your own copy, it is her statement that “OLTL will be back” that peaked our curiosity.

In Hallmark Channel’s new film “Help for the Holidays,” actress Summer Glau (“Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”) stars as Christine, one of Santa’s elves who is assigned the task of helping a little boy in Los Angeles as his family is in dire need of a wake up call. Eva La Rue (“All My Children”) and Dan Gauthier (“One Life to Live”) portray Sara and Scott VanCamp, the boy’s mother and father, whose Christmas gift shop, Holly Daze, is booming. As a result, Will (Mason Cook, “Spy Kids: All the Time in the World”) and his sister Ally (Izabela Vidovic, “Christmas Angel”) are often left unsupervised, with the exception of when Sara’s brother Dave (John Brotherton, “One Life to Live”) is available. Enter Santa’s little helper, who interviews to be the kids’ new full-time nanny, while secretly hoping to bring happiness and joy back into the holiday.

Although CBS canceled “Made in Jersey” in early October due to low ratings, the network has since decided to air two unaired episodes of the series beginning with tomorrow’s episode entitled “Camelot,” which follows series stars Janet Montgomery and Kristoffer Polaha as they represent a wealthy woman acting as a surrogate to her comatose sister. After learning the facts of the case, Martina (Montgomery) begins to suspect the husband may be up to no good.

Due to the Thanksgiving Holiday, ratings for the week of November 12-16, 2012 will be delayed. Check back on Monday, November 26 to see how your favorite shows fared.

On Wednesday, November 14, 2012, the world of soaps lost a true legend in Barbara Esensten, who passed at age 75. Esensten co-created “The City” along with her more than 20 year long writing partner James Harmon Brown. The duo worked together on such shows as “Dynasty,” “All My Children,” “Days of our Lives,” “One Life to Live,” “Port Charles” and “Guiding Light.”

On Friday, November 23, which just happens to be the day after Thanksgiving, former “One Life to Live” star Nic Robuck takes on his dark side as the star of Lifetime Movie Network’s world premiere movie “Dark Desire.”

According to a report by Deadline.com’s Nellie Andreeva, CBS has canceled freshman comedy “Partners” after the program hit a new series low in the coveted Adults 18-49 demo (1.8 rating) this past Monday. The series starred Brandon Routh (“One Life to Live”), Michael Urie (“Ugly Betty”), David Krumholtz (“Numb3rs”) and Sophia Bush (“One Tree Hill”). The series was based on the lives of creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick as two life-long friends and business partners whose “bromance” is put to the test when one of them becomes engaged.

Although it wasn’t listed with the other “Hot” stuff in TV Guide Magazine’s Annual “Hot List” issue (pages 16-35), “General Hospital” did earn a spot under Michael Logan’s Daytime Highlights column (page 84) under the heading “Hot Again.” NBC’s “Days of our Lives” also made the cut under the heading “Hot Days, Hotter Nights” courtesy of daytime’s hottest (and only) gay on screen couple, Will Horton (Chandler Massey) and Sonny Kiriakis (Freddie Smith).

Florencia Lozano will once again be reprising her role of Téa Delgado on ABC’s “General Hospital,” only this time she’ll be popping up in Llanview.