Exiting Soap Leading Ladies Erika Slezak and Susan Lucci Put ABC Daytime Prez Brian Frons on BLAST!
ABC soap's grand dames are telling the truth and shaming the devil (aka ABC Daytime Chief Brian Frons) as their soaps prepare to leave the network TV airwaves. In a touching, two-page spread in the Aug. 29-Sept. 11 issue of TV Guide Magazine, Susan Lucci (Erica) reveals to Michael Logan her questions about what lead to ABC cancelling All My Children:
"I don't have the answers, but I certainly have a lot of questions," says the star. 'Was there disdain for daytime drama on the part of [ABC Daytime chief] Brian Frons? Did he every really like what we did at All My Children?"
While La Lucci has questions that will likely never be answered in a spirit resembling anything close to honesty by Frons, One Life to Live's Erika Slezak (Viki) recently made no bones about her feelings concerning ABC Daytime's president. Here's what she said in a special report on soap operas in the latest issue of Mental Floss:
" I think that Brian Frons, the head of ABC Daytime, doesn't believe in the genre. He never believed they could last. My biggest objection is ABC saying people don't want entertainment anymore; they want information. That's ridiculous. People always want entertainment."
It looks like the very women who helped ABC make a ton of money—that went to funding the channel's primetime programs over the course of the past four plus decades— see Frons' culpability in the demise of the ABC soaps much like we discounted "online fans" do.
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Comments
29 August 2010
6 days 17 hours
I love when the Grand Dames of their respective shows speak out against this bullheaded, baldheaded, bullfrog.
1 February 2010
1 week 6 days
*standing ovation*
5 July 2008
1 hour 21 min
These Women Have Intelligence, Respect & Class. Good Job. Brian Frons could learn a lot from these two.
4 May 2009
1 hour 20 min
As I said in another thread on here today Frons gets a big FUCK YOU from me for basically freezing out Agnes Nixon all these years.
Also, for allowing hacks like Pratt and others to gut the show and not giving a shit.
Scandalous.
Frons and Sweeney both have no business working in television unless it's public access and we all know it.
Cheers to Susan Lucci and Erika Slezak.
7 April 2011
11 hours 15 min
I have subscribed to mental floss for years because it is fabulous and the article on soaps is a must-read for any fan of the genre.
2 October 2009
11 hours 42 min
A Big Amen To Both Susan & Erika--Yay!
1 September 2011
37 weeks 6 days
I don't care what they replace the soaps with I refuse to watch them. I am boycotting that channel and refuse to watch it anymore til they put the 2 soaps back on, and I have all my friends on facebook to boycott it too.
27 December 2007
23 hours 11 min
Brian Frons is nothing but a horror story. He destroyed these soaps plain and simple...Yes the genre is dying but these good ole' boys while milking the cash cows played a serious part in their demise. He would not stay out of the storytelling he paraded his pets while minimizing favorites of the show. He named called fans that is what I found hard to take...a head of daytime a huge division knit-picking and meddling in the stories. He has failed at everything he's done his successes in Europe were shows he copied from the US.
As long as he has anything to do with ABC I have no interest in an enterprise that hired (and promoted) a man who mocks fans and is basically a misogynist.
Kudos to those who don't kiss his ass and tell the truth ...
27 July 2011
5 days 3 hours
Mr. Frons chose to hire and promote the worst possible choices for executive producers and head writers for the past decade. With those people in charge and with his "oversight', it was impossible for this genre to re-imagine itself and grow, much less to put out quality stories. It's not about one bad decision; this is about ABC's mentality about soaps trickling down to the very people who make the day to day decisions on the shows. If you think plot driven violence is what soap fans want, you hire and praise Bob Guza for a decade. If you think people over 40 don't exist in the soap opera genre, we get every failed attempt at hiring beautiful people who the fans don't care about and who can't act.
While I do believe soap opera is a dying genre on network television, it's no more a dead genre than the sitcom was before Bill Cosby re-invented it in the 1980's. There will come a visionary who values story and character equally, who understands the genre and the soap fan, and who ties all of those things together to put out a quality program. It won't be on network TV. Great soap opera will never happen there again. But it will happen.
29 August 2010
37 weeks 6 days
My mom went to a taping of "The Chew" last week. She's never been a soap fan - but she said it was the worst taping she ever went to and was shocked they even gave the green light. Badly planned, poorly executed. So if it's any solace, the show stinks. Maybe when it fails Frons will be shown the door.
14 January 2009
3 weeks 6 days
Go Erika and Susan!
30 March 2009
4 hours 49 min
*shakes tambourine* Bravo Susan and Erika!!!
19 January 2008
7 weeks 4 days
God Bless Susan and Erika, the Grand Dames of Daytime TV for saying what they needed to say!! A Big FU to Frons. May "The Chew" and "The Revolution" tank in the ratings so bad that Frons and Sweeney never work in the entertainment industry ever again!! I hope Prospect Park had nothing but success with OLTL, AMC and GH!!
3 April 2009
2 weeks 5 days
That's a "BLAST"?
14 June 2011
9 min 39 sec
soapfan616-Love your post. And yes, it will happen. With any luck this "creature" that is Brian Frons will have no contact with it, whatsoever...
1 July 2009
14 hours 29 min
PREACH ERIKA AND SUSAN!!!
Glad to see they feel the same way we've been saying for years!!! Frons and Sweeney have no clue what the viewers want. He knew what he was doing hiring one bad EP and HW after another.
Erika's right people ALWAYS want entertainment.
When the Chew and whatever the title of that other show is fail (and they will) ABC is going to look stupid.
15 March 2009
12 weeks 5 days
I just want to know what Frons has on the higher ups to have kept his job as long as he has. I swear ABC is the only network who rewards someone for being an absolute failure
16 June 2010
1 day 12 hours
I am not sure how long Frons has been where he is but I have read that Disney controlling abc was the worst thing that could happen to it. This happens a lot in the business world people not knowing how to run a business but do it anyway. ABC is in the worst shape that any network is in. (They are all in trouble because audience has turned to cable in last few years even for dramas, etc--all cable not just pay stations. Now cable is competitive in the comedies also) I think they better step back and rethink. ABC basically is a way of promoting Disney. Disney actors, Disney stories, Disney everything) Not sure that is good.
I think the consolation with gl/atwts is that P&G/cbs both wanted out and couldn't work together any longer. TWO people wanting profits. The other soaps have this so it is not a good omen for the soaps that are left.
This would be the time for FOX to create a daytime drama. Since they are odd man out. They seem to try new things and it works. Film in NY and get the theater people who are generally awesome. ...
13 December 2009
4 hours 44 min
Well look at NBC over the years and how long they kept Zucker.
ASk why some of these financial institutions and Wall Street have kept some of the genuises who screwed our ecomony around or why we Americans keep electing morons to run our county. Its mind boggling.
27 December 2007
23 hours 11 min
jphelps, excellent points LoL
3 April 2009
2 weeks 5 days
I agree with pumkin. For me, the moment Disney took over ABC it was the beginning of the end of the network as it became a Disney merchandising vehicle. I remember on ONE LIFE...whenever Natalie was revealed to be Viki's daughter, Natalie came to a costume party dressed as Disney's Cinderella in a trademark costume...nobody else in town was dressed up come to think of it. Same time about, over in Pine Valley, Dixie was dressed in a Disney's trademark Snow White costume. Soon illegitimate children on both shows were playing with Disney toys. I remember during the custody suit of Sam Manning, poor Kathy Brier' Marcie had to deliver some line about how baby Sam couldn't go to sleep without listening to the songs from his Little Mermaid dvd (which had just been re-released). The only time product placement was cool (other than back in the 50's) was when ONE LIFE was supporting Campbell's in honor of women's health.
Erik
12 February 2010
2 hours 22 min
Brian Frons is a waste of sperm! Brava, ladies!!
1 September 2011
27 weeks 5 days
Brian Frons is a Toad in a dried up pond! (waitin' for a gator to come by his lily pad ..... so he'll know what it feels like to be bullied ...)
1 September 2011
27 weeks 5 days
I scratch my head over why we keep electing morons! (Maybe there are never any good choices??)
But the reason jerks like Frons and Zucker not only keep their jobs but get raises and bonuses is because the Talking Heads love brown-noses who are willing to do their dirty work for them. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that ABC-D hired Frons for the purpose of destroying the soaps ... so they could put their fake reality shows in their place.
1 September 2011
27 weeks 4 days
Kudos To Erika Slezak and Susan Lucci!!!! They have spoken up, and are completely honest about what Brian Frons thinks of the soap genre. Lately, Frons has tries to "sugar coat" his comments, and pretend he's happy that both OLTL and AMC found a new homes. PLEASE!!! How stupid does he think everyone is!!!????
22 August 2011
37 weeks 4 days
Way to go Erika and Susan! ABC is going to lose a lot of viewers. Brian Frons need to be fired
5 May 2011
37 weeks 5 days
Good for Erika and Susan! They have made their marks and do not need to fear the idiot Frons. Erika hit the nail on the head. Really? The head of a network thinks viewers dont want entertainment? Do the Disney stock holders know about this quote?
Maybe that is why ABC has become the lowest rated network.
Aren't they in the ENTERTAINMENT Business?
Isn't Frons' department called the ENTERTAINMENT division, not the news division?
IF I am wrong, and viewers dont want entertainment any longer, then I guess they had better go ahead and cancel all of their entertainment shows. Just go put on only reality shows or talk shows. See how long that would last.
The Home and Garden network have their help shows. The cooking channel has their shows. Does ABC want to be a talk and cooking channel. If so, they'd better learn from the best, ie the cooking channel.
ABC daytime (as with nighttime) viewers want entertainment.
Frons is just trying to disguise the "disdain" Erika noted by making up these lies like we don't want entertainment. He tried the lie that soap fans are dull, stupid people, but some of us with incomes more than his and more degrees after our names put an end to that myth.
What a crock of you know what. THANK YOU ERIKA AND SUSAN for speaking the truth!!
27 June 2011
18 weeks 14 hours
Sorry double post.
27 June 2011
18 weeks 14 hours
I love Susan Lucci and Erika Slezak is an amazing talent, but please spare me. All of this talking is too little, too late. Where was their words of wisdom, when Frons first started his madness? Why not try to stop him in his tracks? No, we will wait until he actually succeeds in destroying ABC Daytime before we decide to state what everyone would have already figured out. I honestly can't handle this any longer. People need to p--s or get off the pot. All this talking while continuing to write nonsensical, politics/agenda driven story lines as well as continuing to disrespect the fans and actors that are the heart and soul of the genre does nothing to increase the longevity of soaps. Hopefully, the industry will get itself together, if not, oh well. I'm more than ready to move on with my life.
14 June 2011
32 weeks 3 days
This is old news. I got that TV Guide and sold it on eBay two weeks ago.