Unions Reject Blame for Soap Deal's Death

It looks like there will be no second life for the long-running soap operas All My Children and One Life to Live. In a pointed statement released Wednesday, executives Rich Frank and Jeff Kwatinetz of the company Prospect Park announced that its plan to turn ABCs two canceled daytime dramas into Web series had fallen through. The failure was blamed in part on unions representing the series' talent.While we narrowed in on a financial infrastructure, the contractual demands of the guilds, which regulate our industry, coupled with the programs' inherent economic challenges ultimately led to this final decision, Frank and Kwatinetz said.Among the unions that had been negotiating with Prospect Park were the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Writers Guild of America West. Both issued swift responses Wednesday to the companys assertion that labor demands were at fault for the plans demise.AFTRA, which represents actors on both shows, noted in a written statement, Despite initial progress in our negotiations with Prospect Park toward resolving a fair agreement to cover the performers appearing on these programs, we were perplexed and disappointed that for the past month Prospect Park has not responded to our repeated inquiries to resume those discussions. The union also said it believed that Prospect Park faced other challenges unrelated to our negotiations.In its statement, the WGAW said, We were disappointed to learn that Prospect Parks financing fell through. Prior to the end of last week, we were close to a fair deal for the writers.The final episode of All My Children aired Sept. 23 on ABC. The One Life to Live finale will air Jan. 13, 2012. By Daniel Holloway November 28, 2011 It looks like there will be no second life for the long-running soap operas All My Children and One Life to Live. In a pointed statement released Wednesday, executives Rich Frank and Jeff Kwatinetz of the company Prospect Park announced that its plan to turn ABCs two canceled daytime dramas into Web series had fallen through. The failure was blamed in part on unions representing the series' talent.While we narrowed in on a financial infrastructure, the contractual demands of the guilds, which regulate our industry, coupled with the programs' inherent economic challenges ultimately led to this final decision, Frank and Kwatinetz said.Among the unions that had been negotiating with Prospect Park were the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Writers Guild of America West. Both issued swift responses Wednesday to the companys assertion that labor demands were at fault for the plans demise.AFTRA, which represents actors on both shows, noted in a written statement, Despite initial progress in our negotiations with Prospect Park toward resolving a fair agreement to cover the performers appearing on these programs, we were perplexed and disappointed that for the past month Prospect Park has not responded to our repeated inquiries to resume those discussions. The union also said it believed that Prospect Park faced other challenges unrelated to our negotiations.In its statement, the WGAW said, We were disappointed to learn that Prospect Parks financing fell through. Prior to the end of last week, we were close to a fair deal for the writers.The final episode of All My Children aired Sept. 23 on ABC. The One Life to Live finale will air Jan. 13, 2012.