Same Old One Life.

Left to right: Blair, Clint, Viki, Matthew, Todd, Destiny
Photo credit: One Life to Live Official Facebook Page

Words can not begin to express the excitement I felt upon seeing the still images that were posted on the official One Life to Live Facebook page on Monday. All of the photos include the character Todd Manning (Roger Howarth), but they also include other popular characters, including Viki (Erika Slezak), Clint (Jerry verDorn), and Blair (Kassie DePaiva).

Something that I have been wondering since hearing of the revival plans is whether or not these two iconic shows will look and feel the same as they did when I watched them every afternoon on ABC. I still don't know the answer to this for sure, but after seeing these photos, I'm extremely hopeful. My first thought when I saw these photos was "This is the One Life I know and love."

I was particularly excited to see the photos that included Clint and Viki. They were my favorites on OLTL for years and I can't wait to see what they're up to. There is a very good chance that they're married at this point, seeing as how Clint proposed to Viki in the ABC finale. Prospect Park has confirmed that OLTL will have advanced in real time (so about 15 months later), so this seems very possible. However, if this is the case, I will feel very much cheated out of a wedding. Soap weddings are always amazing and if this one happened offscreen, that will be upsetting.

I'm still looking forward to April 29. Save the date.

This is really happening.

As we get closer and closer to April 29, the fact that All My Children and One Life to Live will soon be returning to our screens is getting more and more real. Just this past week, I had a new moment that cemented the fact that this is really happening. I found out that the Hulu pages for both AMC and OLTL were up.

The pages read "One Life to Live premieres April 29, 2013." and "All My Children premieres April 29, 2013." Additionally, on the OLTL page, there is a "Save the Date" trailer. I've watched this trailer multiple times. It's so exciting to see how excited everyone involved it. The soaps vets are thrilled to be back and the newbies are looking forward to being a part of something that has such a loyal, passionate fan base.

Back in December, when the second revival attempt was first announced, I was adamant to believe that this would result any differently than the first revival attempt. That was three months ago. So much has happened since then and we know so much more now. We have a premiere date, we have a venue, we have writers, we have actors. That is so much more than we had in 2011.

4.23.13. Save the date.

April 29, 2013

In just a little over six weeks, on Monday, April 29, All My Children and One Life To Live will begin airing all-new episodes on the web. They will be available on Hulu, Hulu Plus, and iTunes and there will be four half-hour episodes of each show every week (with a recap show every Friday).

AMC went into production first, and this coming Monday, March 18, OLTL will start taping new episodes again as well.

As we approach April 29, there will likely still be more announcements, casting and otherwise, to be made. Just yesterday it was announced that High School Musical star Corbin Bleu would be joining the cast of OLTL as a new character, Jeffrey King, who will be working alongside Viki Lord (Erika Slezak) at her newspaper, The Banner. Many fans are speculating that Bleu's casting could result in new, younger viewers tuning into OLTL.

Additionally, Kassie DePaiva (Blair, OLTL) tweeted a picture of the new OLTL logo yesterday (as seen above). This made me begin wondering what the opening theme will look and sound like, since it is most likely going to be changed just as the logo was changed. I look forward to finding this (and many other questions I have) out on April 29!

Alicia Minshew Returning To AMC

It was just recently announced that Alicia Minshew (Kendall, All My Children) would be returning to AMC for one episode. Scheduling conflicts are preventing her from making a full-time return to AMC at this time, but she hopes that she will be able to by the summer. Minshew joined AMC in 2002 and remained with the show until the ABC finale in September 2011.

Kendall Hart Slater has been a fan-favorite character for years, so this is great news for many AMC fans. At this time, even just one episode (with the hope of more in the future) is a treat for fans of the character who have missed this her greatly. She is one-half of the popular super couple "Zendall" (Zach and Kendall), so many fans are hoping to see her in at least one scene with Zach (Thorsten Kaye, who is already set to return to AMC full-time).

During the time I watched AMC, Kendall was always one of the most prominent characters on the show. It's hard to imagine an AMC without Kendall being front and center. But I'm very excited that she'll be in at least one episode, and I hope there will be more down the line!

Back In Production, Moving Into the Future

All My Children went back into production this past Monday, February 25. One Life To Live will go back into production very soon as well, on Monday, March 18. Many of the shows cast and crew have been very active on Twitter recently (particularly Debbi Morgan, Angie on AMC), detailing what's been going on and how excited they are.

This past week, the AMC cast participated in a photo shoot, which Entertainment Tonight got a behind-the-scenes look at. This, along with the pictures that some of the cast and crew have been posting recently, have made this transition to the web all the more real for fans. Back in December, when news first broke that Prospect Park was going to be trying again with the reboots of AMC and OLTL, my initial thought was, "Wow, that's great - but I want to see things start happening before I get too excited."

And happening they have been. They have been happening so fast, it's hard to see straight! I think that seeing the video of the photo shoot, though, was really the first time I could say to myself, "Wow - this is really happening. Both casts are back together. And they're so happy to be back!" I could really see it all for myself, which was amazing.

I particularly loved what Tuc Watkins (David, OLTL) said in the Entertainment Tonight video - after telling a fan a few months ago that OLTL would never be coming back, he found that he was wrong, and was excited to say, "Here we are. We're back together again. And we get to move into the future together."