Jeff Kwatinetz’s Online Network announced today that “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” will begin production on February 25th. In the case of “OLTL,” most everyone is back among the key actors, and there are still negotiations over three who went to “General Hospital.”
But “All My Children” looks spotty at best from the Online press release. And glaringly missing still is any word on Susan Lucci, the nominal star of “AMC” since its debut in 1970. Lucci has been busy since the end of “AMC” on ABC, working on a lot of projects including Marc Cherry’s new “Devious Maids” series on Lifetime. So far, the cast announcements for “AMC” have carefully not mentioned Lucci at all, or any of the members of Erica Kane’s fictional family from the show.
Of course, the online versions of these soaps will be quite different than the network ones. The new soaps will be 30 minutes long and only run Monday-Thursday with recap days on Fridays. That means fewer of everything–characters, plots, storylines, and actors. To afford Lucci, Online would have to get her to agree to a sort of cameo situation. Hopefully it will get worked out, because it’s hard to have “AMC” without its central figure.
Meantime, two very key players seem to have been signed at last– Michael E. Knight and Cady McClain. It seems like they, along with Debi Morgan and Darnell Williams, will be the core of the new “AMC.”
PS “All My Children” issued a casting call for two villains today–seems like father and son Russia Mafia. Also seems like cartoon characters. The Russian Mafia in Pine Valley? Not when Erica Kane lived there.
