Monday, April 18, 2011

Save the Soaps!

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Margie: Edna, remember when we saved Jericho? I think these folks need our help.

Edna: I think so too, sister. I'm sure our readers have heard that ABC recently decided to cancel two very popular soap operas, All My Children and One Life to Live. You'd think these silly network executives would know by now that the fans don't take this kind of news lying down. Just like the Jericho fans, these soap opera fans have quickly mobilized to save their shows!

Margie: Mama would have our heads, sister, if we didn't help folks in need. Besides, there might be some young men who need me to go with them to a protest.

Hurry up, Edna, and tell everybody how they can help!

Edna: Good God a'mighty, woman, I'm getting there. There are some exciting fan-driven initiaves that have been created over the last few days. Our personal favorite is the plan to stage protests at ABC/Disney studios. There's a protest scheduled for tomorrow, and one for next Tuesday.

Created by: Rally for Amc and Oltl
Date/Time:  19 April · 09:00AM - 5:00PM (PST)
ABC TELEVISION CENTER STUDIOS 
(formerly Vitagraph Studios)
4151 Prospect Avenue, 
Hollywood, CA / (310) 557-7777
and 77 w 66th street NEW YORK NEW YORK

Protest ABC studios in LA
Created by:  PROTEST ABC ACROSS AMERICA, Ronda Baldwin-Kennedy
Date/Time:  26 April · 10:00AM - 12:00PM (PST)
Location:  Disney Studio 500 Buena Vist St., Burbank, CA 91506


Edna:  You all should make matching "Save our Soaps" shirts so the people know who they're dealing with!  And don't forget to call and write and email the ABC executives as often as you can. They need to hear your voices, and understand how unhappy you are.

This woman is head of ABC Entertainment, and we're sure she'd love to hear from you. Remember, be polite!
  • Anne Sweeney, ABC Entertainment, 500 S. Buena Vista St., Burbank, CA 91521
  • Anne Sweeney, ABC Television Group, 47 W. 66th St., NY, NY 10023
  • By email:  anne.sweeney@ABC.COM OR by phone: 1-818-569-7700
  • To contact ABC directly:  Go to ABC.com and to "Contact ABC" at the bottom of the page. Or you can send snail mail to ABC:  Audience Relations, 500 S. Buena Vista St., Burbank, Calif. 91521. Or call 1-818-460-7477 with comments.
Edna:  There are also various facebook groups you can join; there is strength in numbers.
Margie:  We wish you all the best of luck.  Edna and I have been through this kind of thing before, and we know that the fans can achieve anything when they band together.  Don't give up the fight!


*Many thanks to our good blogging friend, Jo the Poetic Shutterbug, for the information above.  We hope ABC listens to you and the other fans and gives you your soaps back. 

10 comments:

Joanne Olivieri said...

You two are my heroes. Thank you so much for getting this out to the world. Following your suggestions I know can greatly help our fight.

We all need to band together and join in on these protests and contacting ABC and their sponsors. By joining these groups and pages that Margie and Edna have mentioned will get everyone the information they need to help us keep All My Children and One Life To Live on the air. There is a combined 83 years of television broadcasting between these two shows.

A few other things I'd like to mention. These shows were canceled without warning. The starS and the creator of both shows, Agnes Nixon, were told about an hour before it broke to the public. Much of the cast did not even know their show was canceled until they either saw it online or on the news.

There are going to be thousands of people out of work as a result. There are stage people, lighting people, sound people etc... all losing their jobs because Brian Fons, the head of daytime broadcasting at ABC wants more money to line his own pockets. He claims it is about ratings but that has nothing to do with it.

One Life To Live has had consistentLY higher ratings than General Hospital which has been kept on the air and the only soap left on ABC. It is sheer greed by ABC.

I've watched All My Children for 40 years since I was 15 years old when the show began. I watched it in black and white tv when the show was a half hour long. This is like losing part of my family and I will fight until ABC sees the light and realizes they cannot get away with this.

I don't want to take up any more of your time on here with my rant but I want to ask you to join us. Whether you are a fan of soap operas or not, this is about basic respect. Don't allow these huge corporations to just throw away people's lives out of sheer greed.

Two more notes: We are organizing a mail soap bars to Brian Fons the head of ABC daytime. The date has changed to May 10th. We are following in the footsteps here of my heroes, Margie and Edna when they organized the "nuts" mail for Jericho.

Also: I want to organize a protest of the ABC studios here in San Francisco and I need your help. Anyone in the Bay Area who is interested please contact me. You can either go to my blog or email me at jmcojo@gmail.com

Last but certainly not least, Margie and Edna you both have inspired me with this. I thank you so much for all of your help and suggestions. You two are THE BEST!!!!!!!!

Everyone who reads this post. Please share it with your friends, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon etc...

I will be posting more on my blog this week as well, with links back to Margie and Edna here. If you have a blog and so choose, please do the same.

Thank you so much.

Margie and Edna said...

Beth/LisiBee (Edna): Jo, thank you so much for elaborating on our post with your comment, I think this information will help folks a lot. I do want to clarify that Jane (Margie) and I didn't organize the "nuts" mailing; it evolved organically between a bunch of Jericho fans and the owner of NutsOnline, Jeffrey Braverman. We did promote it and we also enthusiastically participated, but we don't want to take credit when credit is due elsewhere. It was an awesome mailing campaign, though. :)

We wish you luck with the soap mailings, that will be something to see. Do you have a mailing address for the May 10th campaign?

Joanne Olivieri said...

Margie, thanks for clarifying that one. Here is the contact info for Brian Frons the head of daytime at ABC

Brian Scott Frons
President, Daytime Disney-ABC Television Group
ABC, Inc.
500 S. Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521-4551
Email: Brian Frons
OR Email: Brian Frons/Disney
Phone: 818-460-7020

Contact him everyone and let him know we will not accept his decision.

Margie: I will get you the May 10th info soon and post it on here.

Thanks

Joanne Olivieri said...

Here is the FB group Soaps for Soaps. They want everyone to send bars of soap to Brian Frons at the address I posted in my last comment.

On May 10th send a bar or bars of soap to:

Brian Scott Frons
President, Daytime Disney-ABC Television Group
ABC, Inc.
500 S. Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521-4551
Email: Brian Frons
OR Email: Brian Frons/Disney
Phone: 818-460-7020

Telling him we demand All My Children and One Life To Live be kept on the air.

As for myself, I'm send a Priority Mail Medium Flat rate box with the stinkiest soap I can find. Any suggestions on the stinkiest would be helpful :)

Anonymous said...

Everyone PLEASE tell ALL of your friends to like the page......Petition To Save OLTL and AMC on ABC

Margie and Edna said...

Beth (Edna): That is a very good point Anon, thank you. I have to remember to go like those pages, myself.

Jo, I would suggest camphor soap, that should be good and smelly. :D http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003RPSO26?ie=UTF8&seller=AZDG8MCXKKL9I&sn=allindiastore2

Joanne Olivieri said...

A heads up that the mail your soap campaign date has changed. Here is all the information:

Time
03 May · 00:00 - 23:30
Location Everywhere
Created by: Jules Goodman

More info
Please mail out generic bars of soap to the following addresses on May 3rd. If you can, carve S.O.S. (Save Our Soaps) into the soap so ABC cannot donate it! Mail as much as you can afford to mail.


Here are the addresses to send soaps:

Brian Frons
President, ABC Daytime
500 S. Buena Vista St.
Burbank, CA 91521-4551
...
Anne Sweeney
President, ABC Television Network
500 South Buena Vista Blvd.
Burbank, CA 91521

Robert A. Iger
President, CEO Disney Corporation
500 S. Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521-4551

Margie and Edna said...

Beth/Edna: Thanks for the new information, Jo. Just out of curiosity, why shouldn't ABC be able to donate the soap? The impact of having all that soap delivered would still be the same, do people expect them to keep it all? It would be much better for the image of your campaign if you suggest ABC donates the soap to area homeless shelters or food pantries that disperse health/beauty items. With the economy as it is, suggesting that something not be donated to charity is pretty off-putting. With the Jericho nuts campaign, CBS donated the nuts to local food banks, which was good press for all involved.

I realize that this isn't your campaign, I'm just making a suggestion. ;)

Joanne Olivieri said...

You know I'm blurry eyed. I didn't even see that until now when I thoroughly read it.

I agree that number one, carving SOS on the soap makes no sense at all and why not donate it? They should be encouraged to donate it. There are many families and people who could use it in that area.

I'm going to hit up that page now.

Thanks.

Unknown said...

I hope you can Save our Soaps! They need to UNDERSTAND that most of us tape them and watch them after work! Ratings are There!!!! UGHHHHHHH! ALSO, petition is out ther.. SIGN IN! > http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-all-my-children-one-life-to-live/

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