Susan Lucci Says the Executive Who Canceled ‘All My Children’ has a “fatal combination of ignorance and arrogance”

September 6, 2011 by  

Leave a comment

Submit to redditShare on Tumblr

Susan Lucci has been part of the cast of the ABC Daytime Soap All My Children since its inception in 1970, so naturally with the news that ABC will be canceling the show (and with a new edition of her autobiography set to be released) Lucci does not mince her words as she targets Brian Frons, the ABC Daytime executive who she points to as the person who ruined the soap before canceling it.

Lucci claims the beginning of the end of the show came in 2008 when Frons added a new head writer, former General Hospital writer Charles Pratt Jr.,  in favor of removing the show’s creator, Agnes Nixon. 

Lucci called the new writing “subpar” and further damage was done when the production of the show was moved from New York to Los Angeles.  The move and continued low ratings lead to several head writer switches until the recent cancellation announcements.   


Lucci’s view of Frons’ mismanagement — in which borderline suggest that Frons outright sabotaged any chance of the show regaining its success after ratings bottomed out in 2008 — came to an apex when Frons announced to the cast that the show would be canceled,in which Lucci felt Frons was being smug about how the soap’s replacement — a food/talk show called The Chew — would could the network 40 percent less than the soap.  Lucci writes, “An iconic show was losing out to greed … 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.”  Lucci even adds that Frons has the ” fatal combination of ignorance and arrogance” and that she “cannot fathom any network executive choosing to alienate millions of loyal viewers in these economic times.”

Lucci has not yet decided whether or not she will continue with All My Children once the show jumps to an online model (with a possible cable deal in development), but it’s very likely that her anger at how the show was managed over the last few years will last for years.

Via The New York Post

Submit to redditShare on Tumblr
 

Comments

3 Comments on "Susan Lucci Says the Executive Who Canceled ‘All My Children’ has a “fatal combination of ignorance and arrogance”"

  1. Jennifer Saer on Fri, 23rd Sep 2011 11:15 am 

    To Susan Lucci and the rest of the cast on “All my Children,” thank you!
    I’m 29 yrs old and absolutely LOVE Your show. My grandmother, who now in heaven watched your show everyday and would call my sister to always say “did you see that?” ;-) ….It was a special bond the two of them had…… But then she passed and those phone calls stopped. My sister watched the show alone and at times caught herself calling our grandmother who wasn’t there to pick up the phone…..
    So I took it upon myself to start watching the show with my sister and became hooked. ;-) . I watched or DVR’d every episode…. Then i would call her to say “did u see that?” ;-)
    Oh this show really meant alot to us and kept the spirit of our grandmother alive.
    Thank you soo much and good luck to all of you! Who knows what we’ll watch now…….

    With Kind Regards,
    Jennifer Saer, NC

  2. Lance Carter on Fri, 23rd Sep 2011 11:44 am 

    Thanks for the comment Jennifer :) Such a nice story.

    I’m going to have an interview with Vincent Irizarry up on Monday. Hope you can check it out!

  3. Jennifer Saer on Fri, 23rd Sep 2011 2:20 pm 

    Thanks Lance! I’d be glad to ;-)


If you're not on Facebook, feel free to leave a comment here!
And if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!