Ah Soaps... only you do this sort of crazy thing.

[shipperx]

I wonder what in the heck they are planning to do? Say Cassadines cloned them all? That vampire Caleb had ANOTHER doppleganger (actually Easton is the easy one. I think he Caleb ALREADY had a doppleganger on Port Charles so in that case, soap hopping can be their friend).

Still... weird!

OLTL stars head back to GH... as different characters.

Will General Hospital fans accept Michael Easton, Roger Howarth and Kristen Alderson in brand new roles? They might have to!

Multiple sources tell TV Guide Magazine that the trio of former One Life to Live stars — who've been embroiled in a tug-of-war between ABC and Prospect Park, the company that's producing the upcoming OLTL reboot — will soon return to GH after being forced to vacate the show for several weeks.

But here's the kicker: It seems we'll no longer see Easton as John McBain, ditto Howarth as Todd Manning or Alderson as Todd's daughter Starr. ABC doesn't want to risk any more legal entanglements with Prospect Park, which currently owns the rights to all OLTL characters, and the only way to do that is to have the three stars play characters that in no way resemble the current ones. Word is, GH head writer Ron Carlivati is devising some clever ways to work around the headache, even though John, Todd and Starr are now tightly woven into Port Charles society and all three are involved in blooming romances.

"Prospect Park has been extremely difficult to deal with on this issue so GH basically said, 'Screw it! We'll create all new characters!'" notes one source privy to the situation. "It's the only way GH can get past the problem and get on with business."

Neither GH nor ABC will confirm this wild development, but no one's denying it, either. "I can't really comment for legal reasons," says GH exec producer Frank Valentini. "It's not like I'm trying to keep a secret. [ABC] doesn't want me to say anything." We also asked ABC Daytime chief Vicki Dummer to comment on the matter but she only coughed up a cryptic, "All I can really say right now is...stay tuned."

Waiting for the fur to stop flying "has been crazy," says Thom Racina, one of the head writers of the new OLTL. "First it was, 'Yes, we have these actors,' then it was, 'No, we don't have them.' I don't know that any show has ever gone through this kind of thing before. It's a very unique situation what with all these legal issues between the [two parties] but we came out of it very happily. You'll see."

We have no doubt that Carlivati —whose work on GH has been simply stellar — is the perfect guy to pull off this magic trick. Besides, if we soap fans can accept evil twins and peeps coming back from the dead, we can certainly get past a few sudden identity changes, right?

"I think it's going to turn out well for everybody," Racina says of the brouhaha. "The soap audience, as we know, is very forgiving."

Comments

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Oh you have no idea how hilariously crazy this thing is. I've been tracking it for some time now.

First off? Prospect Park is a subdivision of Disney, they are the web division...while ABC Daytime is another subdivision of Disney.

The web division is developing AMC and OLTL as internet tv series.
With the possibility of putting GH on the net as well, if it gets cancelled (which was highly likely until Carilivati took it over and raised the ratings by 16% - now GH is doing better than everything else on the daytime schedule. So no where near being cancelled.) But the Web Division is important to Disney (parent company).

Anywho...the web division, Prospect Park, which might as well be a separate entity, owns the rights to the characters of Todd Manning, Star Manning, and John McBain. General Hospital/ABC Daytime has contracts with Roger Howarth (Todd), Kristen Alderson (Star) and Michael Easten (John) which date back to 2012 before Prospect got off the ground. None of the actors want to go to Prospect Park long-term.
Howarth is the only one who agreed to go for two months - they almost cast a new Todd, when he agreed to it. Kristen Alderson and Easten refused and they will not be on the web series. (I'm guessing they weren't offered a good deal?)

They were trying for a compromise - if actors from GH would cross-over to OLTL on the web then sure, Prospect Park would allow it. But the actors wouldn't agree.

GH/ABC Daytime went to the parent company to complain (Disney) but Disney took Prospect Park Productions side and told GH to deal. In short, no, Prospect Park keeps the rights to the characters and we are supporting the web series - because that's our future and yours too.

So...the current idea is to come up with new characters. I know how they wrote out Todd, Star and John - Todd went back to Llanview to see his daughter Danielle. He took Star in his private jet to LA - where she had to go for business reasons and could not take Michael with her.
John was sent off on a FBI case with an unknown term and deep under-cover.

How they will bring them back? Rumor has it Alderson will return as Scotty's daughter Serena, no idea what they will do with John (he could be the new guy that Caleb took over, they killed off Caleb), and
also no idea what they will do with Howarth. I know they are coming back just not how.

But the fight is entertaining. It's between two divisions of Disney.
One - the broadcast network (tv) and One - the new internet division.
There's been lots of twists of turns.

I love soaps.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I saw someone suggest that RH become Steven Lars or Tom Hardy.

I had heard the Serena possibility. I could see how that might work, although don't they need to explain why Starr doesn't come back?

As for Easton... why not a Cassadine?

Also there's some rumor of AMC's "Amanda" showing up on GH as a character, I could see her as a recast Emily Quartermaine (who I know is dead but since when has that mattered on GH?)

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

No, Steven Lars makes no sense - they just wrote out that character, and the character along with his mother, Heather Webber, were on the series at the same time as Todd. In fact Todd and Heather were working together at one point. The audience would notice.

Also, Olivia and Lars were engaged, but just as they were about to get married - Lars was escorted by the police back to Memphis to serve time for a murder - he killed a serial killer, who was a patient, to save a little girl's life. (yes, the angst). He's doing 10-15 years.

So no to that rumor. No idea who Tom Hardy is - but isn't he dead or Jeff Webber's father?

Back to RH - he has great chemistry with LW (Carly) - so whoever he shows up as - has to be able to jump into a relationship with Carly. (Jax is coming back - so no, he won't be cast as Jax. Nor Jerry Jax - they like Sebastian Roche.)

They could bring him back as a Cassadine...that would be interesting.

Easton? Well he can't be related to Sam - because the actors have great sexual chemistry. And Sam is a Cassadine by Alexis. They could make them distantly related perhaps - like distant cousins.

Well, Y&R's Abby is showing up as the recast for Lulu. Not sure who Amanda would be? They were hoping to get Amber Tamblyn as Emily, guess that fell through. There is an Emily look-a-like wandering about - she could always come back.

who I know is dead but since when has that mattered on GH?)

Particularly when they are bringing back Rick Webber. Yes, that Rick Webber - Laura's step-father, who Scott Baldwin and Laura killed, resulting in Laura going catatonic and being admitted to an insane asylum for 15 years. Apparently the new writer, who is a long-time fan of the series, really disliked the Rick Webber/Laura/Scotty storyline and has decided to retcon it. LOL! (Remember these are the same writers that retconned the Todd story line on OLTL and created twin Todd's, as if one borderline charming sociopath wasn't enough. )

It has been wonky in much the same way that OLTL became wonky.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Tom Hardy was Audrey's son, last played in the 90's by Days' Matthew Ashford. He was divorced from... I think she may have been named Olivia. It was a prominent interacial couple in the early 90s and he should have a twenty-something son.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

You know that could actually work. RH actually resembles Matthew Ashford enough to make it work. Plus, it's similar to the role he played on As The World Turns (Paul Ryan). Yes he's making the rounds ...jumping from one cancelled soap to the next. LOL!

And he could still have a romance with Carly, but a more interesting one, conflict wise. Since Tom Hardy is Liz's uncle, and a good guy. Opposite of what Carly tends to go for. Also a Doctor, I think.

Oh...the Olivia I was talking about is the mother Dante Falconeri (Sonny's son).

Forgot about the other one, but I was admittedly not watching it that closely in the early 1990s. He was gone by the time I started watching it daily.