All My Children's Susan Lucci Claims ABC Exec's 'Ignorance, Arrogance' Destroyed Show
TMC
All My Children‘s queen diva Susan Lucci is not going quietly into the
night.
Just days after the soap taped its final episode on ABC, Lucci is
placing the blame for the show’s demise squarely on the network’s
daytime chief, Brian Frons.
According to the New York Post, the paperback edition of Lucci’s
memoir, “All My Life,” contains a fresh epilogue in which she recounts
how she personally berated Frons, saying, “I think our being in this
position is the result of some very bad decisions by you.”
The Emmy winner claims Frons oversaw “subpar” writing when he
installed soap vet Chuck Pratt as headwriter in 2008 and pushed out
AMC creator Agnes Nixon. She also maintains that Frons told her last
spring that the legendary sudser would be replaced by food-based talk
show The Chew because it was cheaper to produce.
“An iconic show was losing out to greed,” she allegedly writes. “If
Brian Frons could show his bosses that he could save the network 40
percent … he could keep his job even if the rest of us lost ours… I
watched Brian Frons’ decisions destroy the production of our show and
the lives of people on both sides of the country… [He] has what, for
me, is that fatal combination of ignorance and arrogance. I cannot
fathom any network executive choosing to alienate millions of loyal
viewers in these economic times.”
In a statement, an ABC rep told the Post, “We have all the respect in
the world for Susan, and are sorry she felt the need to write this
epilogue to an otherwise incredible career.”
The literary leak comes as AMC‘s new owner, Prospect Park, is
attempting to hammer out deals with cast to move the show to the
Internet. Meanwhile, as TVLine reported this week, Lucci has been
tapped to co-host a special hour of ABC’s The View that will pay
homage to All My Children on Sept. 23, the soap’s ABC broadcast finale
date. It’ll be interesting to see how Babs and Co. maneuver around
this particular hot topic.
http://www.tvline.com/2011/09/all-my-childrens-susan-lucci-slams-abc-exec/
Ian J. Ball
> http://www.imdb.com/news/ni14914083/
>
> All My Children‘s queen diva Susan Lucci is not going quietly into the
> night.
>
> Just days after the soap taped its final episode on ABC, Lucci is
> placing the blame for the show’s demise squarely on the network’s
> daytime chief, Brian Frons.
Good for her.
> In a statement, an ABC rep told the Post, “We have all the respect in
> the world for Susan, and are sorry she felt the need to write this
> epilogue to an otherwise incredible career.”
What? - For speaking the truth?! Yeah, how terrible of her!!
amaterasu
> On Sep 3, 10:45 pm, TMC<tmc1...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> http://www.imdb.com/news/ni14914083/
>>
>> night.
>>
>> Just days after the soap taped its final episode on ABC, Lucci is
>> daytime chief, Brian Frons.
>
> Good for her.
>
>> the world for Susan, and are sorry she felt the need to write this
>
> What? - For speaking the truth?! Yeah, how terrible of her!!
It's a day late and a dollar short, IMO. Sure, she can talk trash now
but where was she a few years ago when the show was being destroyed
before our very eyes? Now that she's not the fair-haired girl anymore I
guess she feels free to speak her mind.
Debbie "whatevs"
Rthrquiet
> It's a day late and a dollar short, IMO. Sure, she can talk trash now
> but where was she a few years ago when the show was being destroyed
> before our very eyes? Now that she's not the fair-haired girl anymore I
> guess she feels free to speak her mind.
>
It could be the case that she WAS speaking her mind behind the scenes
(after all, somebody or something eventually did get Chuck Pratt
fired) and doing what she could. I'm not going to bust on her for
refusing to criticize her bosses publicly when they were still her
bosses, especially given that what she did or did not do might have
had a bearing on the show's future (i.e., public criticism of the show
back then when it was already ailing might have pushed them to cancel
the show rather than moving it to LA and giving it another chance).
I'm more concerned about what she knew when. She says Frons told her
"in the spring" that he was replacing AMC with The Chew. Was that
before or after she did her tour proclaiming that the show wasn't
being cancelled? I can't remember the timing on the cancellation
announcement.
Michael