As Petey walks into Opal's home the line "Everyone's watching TV online now" made me chuckle with glee. There is an obvious insider joke that All My Children known to fans as AMC, and One Life to Live or OLTL getting saved by Prospect Park and Hulu is the direction television is moving toward.
When we last left Pine Valley, JR was about to burst into the Chandler Mansion with a gun, and shoot folks. The opening sequence showed David (Vincent Irizarry) struggling with JR and shots ring out. AMC reincarnation picks up five years after the sad incident.
I have missed these characters, returning to Pine Valley we have the incomparable Jesse (Darnell Williams) and Angie (Debbie Morgan) Dixie (Cady McClain), Opal (Jill Larson), Adam (David Canary) Brooke (Julia Barr), and Zach (Thorstyn Kaye), and of course a whole slew of the next Generation from Adam JR, Miranda, and a whole slew of guest stars on heading into town from Alicia Minshew's Kendall to Eden Riegel's Bianca. The cast is smaller, there are lots new folks, and no Erica Kane or la Lucci as Regis calls her, but watching the show felt like coming home.
I fell in love with All My Children when my grandmother used to watch me, my grandpa would go in the other room (to finish the Young and the Restless) and I would watch AMC with my grandma. I was sad when this show was cancelled, but I am excited to see who comes back, and where the new characters will take this reborn series. David out of jail for manslaughter, watching the loving Angie and Jesse, and damn is Petey sexy! I just hope Erica comes back to spar with Brooke, those fights have been some of my favorite over the years.
Leaving Pine Valley, and on Llanview. Returning to our computer screens there's Victoria Lord (Erika Slezak), Jerry verDorn (Clint Buchanan)Tuck Watkins (David Vickers), Dorian Lord (Robin Strasser), Natalie Buchanan (Melissa Archer) Tea Delgado (Florencia Lozano) Dannielle Manning (Kelley Misal), Bo Buchanan (Robert S. Woods) Nora Buchanan (Hillary B. Smith), Kassie DePaiva (Blair Manning), Roger Howarth (Todd Manning) and some recasts.
When OLTL left the air there were some cross over stories which brought Todd, Blair, Tea, Star, and John McBain to Port Charles. With these stars characters contractually obligated to to return to Prospect Parks version I am curious to see how all of this plays out. At the moment the rumor is that many of the characters will return to Port Charles again, but now as different characters. I have to say, don't do this!
More on the residents of Llanview and their own drama. The show picks up, not far in the future with brand new club opening now known as Shelter, Dorian in a political scandal, Todd returning home, Vicki and Clint engaged, and masked men with a symbol on their arms wrestling and fighting. Matthew and Destiny have been recast, and I have to say I am not as big of a fan of the new Destiny, I like that they had a heavier actress on the air, and this recast proves to be an interesting change of direction.
I started watching One Life to Live much later, and not as attached to this show as much as All My Children. When I watched AMC I got chills for the return of these characters, and OLTL provided some excitement, just not the same level. Over the last years of both shows One Life to Live was just a much better show, and more consistent. When both were cancelled my heart sank a bit, ABC did a poor job by cancelling them both rather than investing in their long running programming.
Both AMC and OLTL come back on an equal playing field with this rebirth. There were of course some pieces missing in both, from characters who should be there to some bad dialogue alluding too much to new technology, too much music blaring over dialogue, and some over acting but that's a Soap! I am excited to see the direction these shows go because with the online market through Hulu they can be a huge success once again, bringing old and newer viewers back to these shows. Watching Blair and Todd's fiery passion, or the long lasting Angie and Jesse, and seeing the new young ones is a blast. Welcome back All My Children and One Life to Live!
As the years pass the attention this award show gets becomes smaller and smaller. This year the Daytime Drama General Hospital had the most nominations 23, while The Young and the Restless received 16, Days of Our Lives 15, and the two cancelled shows All My Children and One Life to Live garnered 11 nominations. Listed below is a full list of the nominees. General Hospital was also in danger of cancellation, but hopefully this helps save the show.
Best Drama Series All My Children Days of Our Lives General Hospital The Young and the Restless
Best Actor Maurice Bernad as Sonny Corinthos-General Hospital Tony Geary as Luke Spencer-General Hospital John McCook as Eric Forrester-The Bold and the Beautiful Darnell Williams as Jesse Hubbard-All My Children Robert S. Woods as Bo Buchannon-One Life to Live
Best Actress Crystal Chappelle as Dr. Carly Manning-Days of Our Lives Debbie Morgan as Dr. Angie Martin-All My Children Erika Slezak as Victoria Lord- One Life to Live Heather Tom as Katie Logan Spencer-The Bold and the Beautiful Laura Wright as Carly Corinthos Jax-General Hospital
Best Supporting Actor Bradford Anderson as Damien Spinelli, "General Hospital Matthew Ashford as Jack Deveraux, "Days of Our Lives Sean Blakemore as Shawn Butler General Hospital Jonathan Jackson as Lucky Spencer, "General Hospital Jason Thompson as Patrick Drake, "General Hospital
Best Supporting Actress Melissa Claire Egan as Annie Chandler-All My Children Genie Francis as Genevieve Atkinson-The Young and the Restless Nancy Lee Grahn as Alexis Davis-General Hospital Elizabeth Henderickson as Chloe Mitchell-The Young and the Restless Rebecca Herbst as Elizabeth Webber-General Hospital
Best Younger Actor Eddie Alderson as Matthew Buchanan-One Life To Live Chad Duell as Michael Corinthos-General Hospital Chandler Massey as Will Horton-Days of Our Lives Nathan Parsons as Ethan Lovett-General Hospital
Best Younger Actress Molly Burnett as Melanie Layton-Days of Our Lives Shelley Hennig as Stephanie Johnson-Days of Our Lives Christel Khalil as Lily Winters-The Young and the Restless Jacque Macinnes Wood as Steffy Forrester-The Bold and the Beautiful
Best Directing Team The Bold and the Beautiful General Hospital One Life to Live The Young and the Restless
Best Writing Team All My Children Days of Our Lives General Hospital The Young and the Restless
Best Talk Show (Entertainment) The Ellen DeGeneres Show Live with Regis and Kelly The Talk The View
Best Talk Show (Informative) Anderson The Dr. Oz Show The Doctors
Best Talk Show Host Anderson Cooper-Anderson Dr. Mehmet Oz,-The Dr. Oz Show Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa-Live with Regis and Kelly Rachael Ray-Rachael Ray Dr. Lisa Masterson, Jillian Michaels, Dr. Andrew Ordon, Dr. Jim Sears, Dr. Travis Stork, Wendy Walsh, The Doctors
1-Adele-My entertainer of the year was a no brainer, Adele. Adele's tunes simply put are some of the best music produced this year. Adele's album has been certified gold, and sold 4 million plus copies, and her single "Rolling in the Deep" is the number one single of the year in the US. Adele is from the UK and her album sales make her the most successful artist within the last ten years. This woman is an unstoppable force, with a soulful voice. Adele's "Someone Like You," is also doing well on the singles charts, and i imagine her third single "Set Fire to the Rain" will be another huge hit! I first heard Adele back in 2004 when she was the free itunes single of the week with her song "Hometown Glory." I have been hooked ever since, and am proud to make Adele my entertainer of the year.
2-Ryan Gosling-Why him? This guy is much more than his looks. Gosling has consistently moved beyond his good looks (should have been named People Magazine's sexiest man alive this year) and moved towards being a strong leading male; he has also taken roles in more off beat films. Gosling starred in three different films this year and was amazing in each film. Crazy Stupid Love showed how witty, sarcastic, and funny he can be, give this man more roles like this! In Drive Gosling did more with his facial expression than with the actual dialogue. Drive is one of the more unique films of the year, and Gosling was spell binding in this film. Neither of those films provided his best performance; his best performance was in Ides of March. Ides of March has Gosling hitting every range of emotion, and never missing a beat; he provided strong performances in each of these films, and made these movies even better than they could have been!
3-Melissa McCarthy, Kristin Wiig, Maya Rudolph, and Rose Byrne-These women rock! Melissa McCarthy is hilarious, while she was great in the Gilmore Girls, 2011 was her year! McCarthy has Mike and Molly on CBS sitcom. At this past year's Emmy Awards she won Outstanding Lead Actress in Comedy Series (a huge surprise); her star power is making this show a hit. Rose Byrne continued her work on the television series Damages and she starred in X-Men: First Class as Moira McTaggert. Maya Rudolph is a scene stealing talk show host on the NBC sitcom Up All Night. Wiig is the star of Saturday Night Live;she is one the few females on the show and she makes this still a relevant funny variety series. Then Wiig writes a screenplay for a film and when all four women's powers combine you get the funniest film of the year, Bridesmaids. These four women are amazing and have provided some incredible laughter, and with Byrne a little bit of drama for 2011.
4-The cast of Game of Thrones-This show was a phenomena. I came to the game late and watched the entire first season around Thanksgiving, but I was blown away by the talented cast. The cast does not have a lot of big names, the biggest during the first season are Sean Bean, Peter Dinklage and Lena Headey, but together they have created a series that illuminates a mystical world. Dinklage was honored with the Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series; he is great, but this ensemble works like a well oiled machine, and it's hard to single out one person that stands out. Sure people will have their favorite character(s), but this ensemble provided some of the best acting this year, and made this show more than just a Fantasy show, it brought to life great literature.
5-Jessica Chastain and Viola Davis-These two are both twoof the stars of the hit film The Help, and within that film that are both polar opposites and at odds with each other. Chastain plays a woman hell bent on creating seperate restrooms for "the help" while Davis plays Abileen of of the maids who works for white families and decides to tell her story. Their performances in this film are great but both of them did not just take on these roles this year. Davis has a supporting role in the film that will be released this monthExtremely Loud and Incredibly Closewhich looks to provide her with more strong material. Chastain seems to be in a lot of of films this year; she played the mother in Tree of Life, the wife to Michael Shannon in Taking Shelter (her best performance), and she was in The Debt and Coralanus. These two women may have been at odds in The Help but they have proved to be two talented actresses.
6-Daniel Radcliffe-Daniel Radcliffe "The boy who lived come to die" was the star of this years highest grossing film (to date). Radcliffe has been a part of the entire Harry Potter franchise, and as the series came to a close this year, he will ride off into a wonderful career. Radcliffe started out an unknown more than ten years ago, and today he is one of the most recognizable faces. Radcliffe not only starred in the most successful film of the year but he also made his way back to Broadway. Radcliffe played J. Pierpont Finch in the revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. While Daniel did not receive any award recognition his star power is a presence he and did a lot for the Harry Potter franchise and on the Great White Way this year.
7-Kanye West and Jay-Z-These two men not only put on the Watch the Throne tour, but they hold the throne as two of most influential musicians working. The combination of their talent on a critically acclaimed album, and then a well attended tour has made this duo unstoppable this year. Kanye West leads the pack at the Grammy Awards this year with seven nominations, and shares some of these nominations with the Jigga man. Not only did these two put out one of the best albums of of the year, but their collaboration has spawned some of the best hip hop music in years, and should prove that this is the direction this genre should take.
8-AMC-This network continues to be a beacon for quality television programming. In 2011 the network won Best Drama series award for Mad Men. This is the fourth year the series has won this prize. Mad Men has not aired during the 2011 year but helped the network pick up this award. During 2011 the network brought the first season of The Killing, which followed the murder of Rosie Larson in Seattle. The Killing was a critical and ratings success, scoring a slew of Emmy nominations, and was picked up for a second season. The mystery of Rosie Larson continues. Breaking Bad returned for its fourth season getting continually better (as the show has done throughout its history), and has grown in popularity. The Walking Dead returned for its second season and has remained the network highest rated show, scoring 6 million viewers on average. This network has grown into one of the most reliable channels, and has provided some of the best television this year.
9-Michael Fassbender-This guy took 2011 by storm; he had a few relatively small roles but suddenly became a quality leading man this year. Fassbender played Rochester in Jane Eyre, then played Eric Lensher aka Magneto in X-Men: First Class, then one of the father's of psychoanalysis Carl Jung in A Dangerous Method, and finally a sex addict Brandon Sullivan in Shame. Fassbender's four different roles provided him with a tremendous career change and served to be some of the best acting this year. This man is a marvel, and every film he starred in provided people with something different from his dark action packed turn as Magneto to his exploration of sex addiction. Fassbender provided some of the best film experiences this year.
10-The cast and crew from All My Children and One Life to
Live-Laugh at me if you will, but these with both of these show ending this year they pulled together and produced some of the best television they had ever put on in years! Saying goodbye to Susan Lucci's iconic Erica Kane, classic couple like Angie and Jesse Hubbard, and Tad the Cad Martin on All My Children was incredibly sad. While One Life to Live is still on the air, its time is coming to an end soon too. I started watching One Life to Live later than All My Children, but fell in love with some of the characters quickly. Erika Slezak's Vicki and her multiple personalities, Bo and Nora reuniting finally, and of course Todd Manning and his evil ways. Both of these shows provided some beautiful send offs, and worked towards providing satisfying endings. I will be sad to see them off the air, but the provided some of the best entertainment during 2011.
As Petey walks into Opal's home the line "Everyone's watching TV online now" made me chuckle with glee. There is an obvious insider joke that All My Children known to fans as AMC, and One Life to Live or OLTL getting saved by Prospect Park and Hulu is the direction television is moving toward.
