Reunited and it feels so good
It was very exciting to welcome back the legendary ABC daytime soaps “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” as they were reborn as online original productions yesterday.
I thought “OLTL”, in particular, was fantastic – a great mix of new and old, fast-paced, and funny. I immediately wanted to watch the next episode. I was less enthused about “AMC”. Not only did the production fail to sign far too many of its core cast – no Susan Lucci, no Michael Knight – all of the new, younger performers were just dreadful. Didn’t help that the writing was pretty bad with the veterans handling it the best of course.
Over at “OLTL” the writing can be very awkward at moments, as can some of the shooting choices but those can be fixed easily enough as everyone behind the scenes acclimates to a new production.
Another minor quibble: the new intros, especially that of “AMC”, look cheap to me. Those are the only visual cues to me that indicate we’re not on network television anymore.
Overall, I think the two soaps returned in the exact condition in which they left: “OLTL” was the best it had been in years at the time of its cancellation and “AMC” was kind of a mess and had been for some time. Still, I lost track of the number of times I smiled watching the first episodes of the resurrected shows. Years from now when the entire daytime soap model has migrated to the internet I’ll be proud to be able to say I watched these two favorites on the day they went online. It really felt like being a part of history. This is the future: daytime anytime. I’d say the future is looking pretty good.
THE CHRISTOPHER EXPERIENCE 
YOU LOOK PRETTY GOOD FOR A CORPSE: Cancelled daytime TV favorites reborn online
Reunited and it feels so good
It was very exciting to welcome back the legendary ABC daytime soaps “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” as they were reborn as online original productions yesterday.
I thought “OLTL”, in particular, was fantastic – a great mix of new and old, fast-paced, and funny. I immediately wanted to watch the next episode. I was less enthused about “AMC”. Not only did the production fail to sign far too many of its core cast – no Susan Lucci, no Michael Knight – all of the new, younger performers were just dreadful. Didn’t help that the writing was pretty bad with the veterans handling it the best of course.
Over at “OLTL” the writing can be very awkward at moments, as can some of the shooting choices but those can be fixed easily enough as everyone behind the scenes acclimates to a new production.
Another minor quibble: the new intros, especially that of “AMC”, look cheap to me. Those are the only visual cues to me that indicate we’re not on network television anymore.
Overall, I think the two soaps returned in the exact condition in which they left: “OLTL” was the best it had been in years at the time of its cancellation and “AMC” was kind of a mess and had been for some time. Still, I lost track of the number of times I smiled watching the first episodes of the resurrected shows. Years from now when the entire daytime soap model has migrated to the internet I’ll be proud to be able to say I watched these two favorites on the day they went online. It really felt like being a part of history. This is the future: daytime anytime. I’d say the future is looking pretty good.
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