'All My Children,' 'One Life to Live' online versions scrapped

Now this bad news for fans of two very long-running and much-loved soaps, "All My Children" and "One Life to Live": The plan to rescue them via an online venture has been scrapped. It proved too complex to pull off the various agreements, including union ones. "AMC's" Susan Lucci had never signed an agreement, which seemed a rather major impediment there, so this news is not entirely surprising.

Meanwhile, fans will never know "Who J.R. Shot" -- the subtext of the cliffhanger in which J.R. hid in his former home and shot someone. That was to have been resolved, presumably, in the new online version. The mystery will remain ...

The company, Prospect Park, released this statement; it's very specific and at the same time, not specific - what was the gap between Prospect's proposals and the unions' counteroffer, for example? Prospect is run by two very savvy industry veterans, Rich Frank, and Jeff Kwatinetz, who knew exactly what they were getting into when they launched this, and one is now left to wonder that if they couldn't pull it off, probably no one can.