Prospect Park first announced plans to move “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” to the web back in July 2011 after striking a license holding deal with Disney/ABC Domestic Television. Sadly, plans fell through by November 2011 after apparent financing and union discussions fell through. Since that dreadful time period, Prospect Park has resumed work on returning the soaps to your [computer] screens, only this time with financing said to be in place and union deals already signed with the DGA (directors), SAG-AFTRA (actors) and the WGA (writers). With more than a year gone by since “One Life to Live” last aired, we thought it would be a great opportunity to see which stars have (so far) signed on to return to “AMC” and “OLTL” compared to the list circling back in 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.

The Writers Guild of America have announced the nominations for the 2013 Writers Guild Awards.  In the Daytime Drama category,…

“General Hospital” star John Ingle is dead at age 84. Ingle is most known for playing patriarch Edward Quartermaine, taking over the role in 1993 from David Lewis. Ingle also played Mickey Horton on “Days of our Lives” from 2004-2006.

“General Hospital’s” Nathin Butler (Ewen Keenan) will be chatting live with fans of the ABC Daytime drama series during the networks east coast broadcast (3:00 PM ET/12:00 PM PT) of the series. The actor will be taking questions via Twitter using the hashtag #AskGH for the full duration of the soap (one hour) using his twitter user name @nathinbutler.

“General Hospital” makes a few changes to the writing staff.

As Soap Opera Network first reported on March 16, Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva is reporting that ABC has officially canceled “The Revolution” and plans to slide “General Hospital” into the 2:00 PM ET/1:00 PM PT timeslot beginning Monday, September 10, the same day the network hands over the 3:00 PM ET/2:00 PM PT time period to affiliates. The news was later reported by The New York Times.

On June 6, 2011, ABC finally announced (after months of rumors) that it had signed a deal with former “CBS Evening News” anchor Katie Couric to host a new daily syndicated talk show, and that said show would replace veteran soap opera “General Hospital” in the 3:00 PM ET/2:00 PM PT/CT timeslot. While initially the decision brought fear to soap opera fans, who only two months prior learned that ABC Daytime’s two other veteran soaps (“All My Children” and “One Life to Live”) would be replaced by two new food and lifestyle centered talk shows (“The Chew” and “The Revolution”). Now nearly a year since the announcement, it looks like Katie Couric may just be the lifesaver “General Hospital” desperately needs.

Frank Valentini and Ron Carlivati, who took over the reigns as ABC’s new executive producer and head writer for “General Hospital,” are now on the world wide web courtesy of Twitter, the social networking media giant.

“General Hospital” makes some additions to the writing staff.

On the heels of a cancellation announcement and a failed online venture, it was announced that successful former Executive Producer, Frank Valentini, and former Head Writer, Ron Carlivati, of “One Life to Live” were hired for the same positions at a struggling “General Hospital.” Rattling many “GH” fans, in recent days, has been the announcement that at least several major “OLTL” stars will be showing up in Port Charles as their Llanview alter egos. Carlivati insists to insiders that “GH” fans need not worry as he has no intention of turning their soap into “OLTL.” To that end, the show-runners have also announced the return of three of “GH’s” most legendary performers and characters – Finola Hughes, Tristan Rogers and Emma Samms as Anna, Robert and Holly – for extended runs on the last-standing ABC daytime drama.

Four stars of “One Life To Live” will be joining the cast of joining “General Hospital.”

On the heels of today’s announcement by Prospect Park that the upstart production company was shelving plans to relaunch canceled ABC soaps “All My Children” and “One Life to Live,” the cast and crew of the sudsers are beginning to speak out. Kassie DePaiva (Blair), who became one of the first “OLTL” stars to sign on back in September to help the show make the transition, has issued a statement on her website regarding the turn of events.

After five months of negotiations with various guilds, hundreds of presentations to potential financial and technology partners, and a hope that we could pioneer a new network for the future, it is with great disappointment that we are suspending our aspirations to revive “One Life to Live” and “All My Children” via online distribution. It is now becoming clear that mounting issues make our ability to meet our deadlines to get OLTL on the air in a reasonable time period following its January 13, 2012 ABC finale impossible.

Looks like another ghostly return for “One Life to Live.” John Wesley Shipp, who played the abusive father of the Ford brothers and ex-husband of their mom Inez Salinger (Jessica Leccia) appears to be headed back to Llanview for the show’s final days on the air. But just what brings the murdered deadbeat dad back to the canvas?

Yesterday afternoon, Soap Opera Digest reported that “General Hospital” has named breakdown writer Shelly Altman as its Co-Head Writer working alongside Head Writer Garin Wolf. Per the magazine’s website Altman’s new role is effective immediately.

October 8, 2011 marks the tenth anniversary of Soap Opera Network, an online magazine celebrating the world of soaps past, present and future.

In a statement released via Soap Opera Digest, “One Life to Live” head writer Ron Carlivati says, “I am both excited and honored to remain with ‘One Life to Live’ as Head Writer and Consulting Producer when the show moves online. My heartfelt thanks to Executive Producer Frank Valentini, as well as to Rich Frank and Jeff Kwantinetz of Prospect Park for this incredible opportunity.”

“One Life to Live” isn’t even finished filming its last ABC episodes yet and already the soap has signed deals with “OLTL” head writer Ron Carlivati and several of the soaps cast members. By comparison, Prospect Park has signed far fewer deals with cast members from “All My Children,” which ended its television run on Friday, September 23.

As previously reported, “One Life to Live” executive producer Frank Valentini will be taking over both “OLTL” and “All My Children” when he begins his new position as Vice President, Serial Dramas, for Prospect Park immediately following the end of production for “One Life” under the guidance of ABC. Now comes word from our friends at Daytime Confidential, who are reporting that “One Life to Live” Head Writer Ron Carlivati will be joining the show when it transitions to the web beginning in January, despite ABC declaring his move to “General Hospital” in June – weeks before it was announced production company Prospect Park would be taking over production of the series from the network along with “All My Children.”