I was stunned, then numb. Then I was very, very sad, then I got angry. It has been an emotional roller coaster as the last episodes of each show were filmed and then aired. A year after the announcement, I am still resolved to see these shows back in production no matter what it takes or how long it takes. I know I am not alone.
I was honestly so out of touch with soaps at this time last year that I didn't realize they were being cancelled until about two weeks before AMC went off the air. Since then, I have resumed watching the shows and actively tweeted and interacted with the various groups working to save and restore the soap genre.
ReplyDeleteAll I could say was OMG I cant believe that they would cancel two shows that have been on for so long. I dont have anything to watch during the day anymore
ReplyDeleteI cried then got very angry went online and signed every petition and page there was
ReplyDeleteShock, despair and anger, in that order. I am STILL angry enough to watch nothing on ABC but GH and Castle (for Nathan Fillion, a OLTL actor).
ReplyDeleteI was shocked, and grief stricken. It was like I lost my best friend.. and in fact I had. But.. I have gained a lot of new friends in this fight to get our soaps back, even if I have never see them in person. We are all fighting for the same reason. It has helped with my depression..(some). I still miss watching OLTL, and even AMC. Thank the stars we still have GH.
ReplyDeleteIt was one of the saddest days of my life. I grew up watching those shows with my mother. I felt the actors were like my own family. I was so happy when they thought the shows might continue online and still am praying that they do one day. I have joined facebook pages for the cause and am boycotting ABC, except for General Hospital. I found this site http://www.abcnetworksucks.com/ and have been encouraging people to click the link over and over again to get the page national attention. Won't you please click it? The stupid shows that have replaced AMC and OLTL are not entertaining, there are enough of those type shows on TV, heck even entire channels devoted to them. ABC and Disney executives should know we mean business when we say BRING BACK OUR SOAPS!!!
ReplyDeleteLike everyone else I was shocked and saddened but I am also OCD and my day has to be set the same everyday in order for me to stay calm. Needless to say these changes made me very mentally upset too as I have watched them everyday since they started, I am recording AMC and OLTL right now when they play in the middle of the night I even get up sometimes to watch them like I did last night! I watch the whole week on the weekends and watch GH on weeknights. That's about all I watch I can't stand reality shows they make me sick! I do like Last Man Standing though and will check in with Dancing with the Stars near the end of the season but that's it! Bring back our Soaps or at least keep SoapNet!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the question. In the first place I did not think that it is serious. But since I do not live in the United States of America. . I could not believe the decision by. ABC. After 41 season, why. After I became a fa all my children. Just about a year ago, my Reaction To The Apr 14, 2011 Cancellation of AMC. I cried a lot.
ReplyDeleteI was in shock. I didn't beleive that I was hearing what I was hearing,until I heard it announced over and over again! I couldn't believe that they were cancelling these iconic soaps that I had watched since the first day. I was then 13 I am now 57. I sat and cried the whole last week of All My Children, and did the same when One Life to Lives last week aired. This was my escape from reality. We all have so much reality in our lives it is smothering us. We want something that we can escape from reality and these shows did it for me. When PP announced no soap on line I knew what I had to do. As millions of fans did we banned together on social networking and started our protesting. This is gone on for over a year now and we are still fighting. I have made many new friends who I may never meet or may never had known if not for this fight, but we met on line and we are all fighting for the same thing. Not just for the two soaps they cancelled on ABC but for all soaps cancelled. We are all fighting for the same thing to save our soap genre. If ABC/D does not want to be in the soap business then they need to release these shows to someone who will put them on their own channel that we would all be willing to pay for to have. We banned together and got one replacement show cancelled while saving a soap opera. We are not done fighting yet. We will not stop fighting until the genre is saved and brought back to life by someone who knows the importance of the genre and what it means to millions of people. We will not back down, and ABC/D will not get the best of us. We have proven that and they need to do the right thing and let our soaps go so they along with all of the other soap operas cancelled or otherwise are put on a channel where they will be forever safe for generation after generation to watch and enjoy and will be able to escape from reality. I watched ABC/D constantly, so much my husband use to complain that I never changed the channel. Now it is just the opposite, the only thing I watch now is General Hospital and the Boycott of ABC/D from all around the world will continue. We are united and we are strong and we will not back down from this fight. Never!
ReplyDeleteUtter disbelief, then devastation. I have watched OLTL since the day it began in July of 1968 and it has always been my favorite show. I knew AMC had been faltering but I never, ever expected them to axe OLTL!
ReplyDeleteDisbelief, anger and many, many tears. Couldn't believe a show as wonderful as OLTL could be taken off the air. I am thrilled that General Hospital has been saved and feel we fans accomplised a great victory. That said, this is only a small part of what we need to do. I will continue to work until AMC & OLTL have a new home!
ReplyDeleteI didn't believe it. But when Susan Lucci revealed that she was blindsided, after coming back from her book tour, I was upset with outrage. She has been with All My Children since day 1; to me, that makes her a faithful employee. But the actions of Brian Frons suggest that he didn't see her as such or that she was entitled the kind of respect that so many working class stiffs deserve. He used her book tour to conceal the truth about the upcoming cancellations, knowing that she would be asked about the "rumors" and that her word would be trusted. It made me think 'What kind of a boss, or a man, does something like that'. In the last year of ABC's run with AMC, I had seen JR struggle with cancer, people came back from the dead, 2 Erica Kane's, and medical miracles. And what caught me on OLTL was the bullying storyline. I don't know if it was Agnes' intention to tap into the anger of the viewers but that is what happened for me. I think John Lennon would've said this if he had lived to see what has happened, 'I don't believe in ABC. I do believe in Agnes.'
ReplyDeleteI also joined any soap fan groups that I thought were going to be the most instrumental in the movement. But, over the year, a small ammount of the 20+ groups I joined have become less active. I only knew that because of the small amounts of Notifications I got from facebook. Some would be packed with 20+ notifications in less than 3 days while others had about 7 in a month. It was then that I realized that the flag bearers for the movement were named Fans United Against ABC, Soap Fans United, Info $ Saving Our Soaps, and Boycott ABC Across America. Ever since then, I have shared whatever information or news link that I felt was relevant to the movement. I have also used my talent for writing to inspire what I believe to be love, passion, and power. As Hugo Weaving said in "V For Vendetta", 'Words will always retain their power.' I have spread my wings as a SWAN and I have every intention of proving that there is more to being a soap fan, and an American, than what meets the eye.
ReplyDeleteI was such a bad person. I wished everyone at ABC/Disney who did this to feel the collective pain that they've caused the cast, the crew and the fans. I guess I'm still a bad person. I still feel that way. I want them to hurt as badly as I do.
ReplyDeleteTears tears disbelief so shocked.The angry so angry.
ReplyDeleteI am 46 years old. I started watching General Hospital first (age 12) when Laura and Scotty were getting married. I can still remember ducking out of a summer activity during a vacation my family was on to watch it. I still remember the music that was playing in the gardens as Laura came down the aisle. A year later I got hooked on AMC and would run home in high school to see what was going on with Greg and Jenny and to snarl at that mean old Liza!! OLTL I don't quite remember when I started watching. I think it was just a natural extension of AMC. Probably in my late teens at some point. I do remember watching Judith Light so I was definitely watching in the early 80's.
ReplyDeleteAll this leads up to how I felt.
Shattered. It was like losing close family and friends. I still am hurting over the loss of those two shows. It was only this past week that I finally removed the final two episodes of OLTL from my DVR and I only did so when I finally realized it probably isn't healthy for me to keep them there. Kind of like putting away clothes after a family member dies, I had to let them go.
I resent ABC/D. I have long thought they care very little for their viewership (this goes for both daytime and nighttime) but never so much as I do now. I find it ironic that they told the world that they "knew" what daytime viewers wanted, then proceeded to get such dismal results with their replacement shows.
I think the truth is that less people are home during the day now, and they need to adjust their numbers to reflect that and go with the audience they can actually get. If they had spent more time buying good writers, etc, and had spent more time advertising their shows, I really believe they could have pulled in more viewers from CBS and NBC. After all, both stations had lost shows in the past few years, and with DVR's, we don't even have to choose between shows anymore! WE can watch them all.
My reaction now? I watch Y and R, B and B and GH, and when I don't watch those shows, I watch Netflix. . but I do NOT watch ABC (except for GH) and that is entirely ABC's fault.