A Radical Reboot Plan

First and foremost, I have to say that this is from my little pea brain. 

This is not something that I read online. It is pure opinion, and nothing more. 

I would love feedback, but remember this is just "hey... what if they did this..."

All My Children

One Life To Life

Back in May, Susan Lucci mentioned that there is always talks for an All My Children reboot. Which, I can believe. We live in the age of the reboot. Some work well, some fail miserably. But could the TV airwaves sustain another soap 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year? Or rather, 2 of them? I doubt it. If AMC and OLTL came back in some fashion, it would have to be something radical. Or innovative. Something unexpected to not only reboot interest in the show but maintain viewership. And we see now, even with DVR and the web it is tough for a soap to achieve and maintain ratings 5 days a week. (Yes, I am talking about you, GH) We also know that ABC/Disney is not the best at marketing and promoting their shows, unless it is the Chew. (more on that in another blog)

There was a time when nighttime soaps ruled the airwaves. I don't need to go into details. We all lived through it. With the advent of DVR and Hulu and Netflix and soon to be Disney+, a lot of shows are finding another chance and second life that they wouldn't have normally had if we were back to the big 3 networks of the 70s.

When AMC and OLTL were first cancelled, and the internet imploded, my first theory was to move all 3 soaps to Friday night and give them each an hour of time. (8pm AMC, 9pm OLTL, 10pm GH) This way each show would devote their budget to one hour instead of five, get more guest stars and then have special nights when the entire 3 hour block would go to one show. With DVRs back then, this could have worked. It could have been an event night, watching all 3 shows on one given night and having friends over, like we did with Dynasty parties. It would have resulted in smaller casts and tighter storylines. This could still work today, but I feel that people are abandoning network television (the big 3) and it isn't a viable source for entertainment like it used to be.

Now, on to Disney+.

A lot of soaps have aired on ABC over there years. AMC, Dark Shadows, Loving (I watched this), OLTL, Port Charles (I watched this), Ryan's Hope and The City (I watched this) to name a few. Disney can have a section on their new playlist that would house all the old soap shows for us to watch and then also have a section where they can have a new hour every week of AMC, OLTL and GH. (Yes, I would cut GH down to 1 new hour of content every week). I know this is a paid service. But there are loopholes. I have a soap section on one of my apps on my firestick and I can watch old soap programs along with the soaps from other countries. (I'm sadly realizing that Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman was not very good). Disney can do what HBO does with Sesame Street. Air the original on Disney+ and then a few days later air it for free on abc.com.

By bringing the 3 main ABC soaps to 1 hour of new content per week, as stated you can cut budgets, shrink the casts and tighten storylines. There can be crossovers. Maybe even a 2 or 3 hour tv movie intertwining all the shows. They could share sets, as Charlie's Pub could be a bar for all the shows, just tack a different sign on it.

I feel that sustaining a 52-wk soap opera nowadays is really taxing on ABC and GH. For them to survive, and to reboot 2 programs that the fans want to see, something radical and inventive needs to be done. And I think that something just might be streaming on Disney+.

Thoughts?

This is the blog for Friday. Please feel free to comment on the show and anything else.