"One Life to Live" fans will not be able to take their daily visit to Llanview for a little while.
TVLine reports that "One Life to Live" has been suspended indefinitely until a lawsuit is resolved between ABC and the show's production company, Prospect Park. The soap has been airing on OWN, Oprah Winfrey's network, and Hulu.com since it was canceled by ABC two years ago.
Several "One Life to Live" actors made the move to "General Hospital" after OLTL's TV sign-off prior to its web debut. "General Hospital" still airs on ABC at 2 p.m. daily.
When "One Life to Live" actors migrated to GH, two of the characters from the soap-- Cole and Hope Thornhart--where killed in a car accident. Prospect Park sued ABC in April for $25 million, claiming that the characters were temporarily on loan to the network so the actors could still work, and that ABC sabotaged "One Life's" online story arc by killing off the characters.
Five actors in total, along with their "One Life to Live" characters, moved over to Port Charles, as well as "One Life to Live's" head writer and executive producer.
Prospect Park will focus momentarily on the second season of the revamped, more popular online soap opera, "All My Children." "All My Children" writers are currently working on scripts for season two.
The current lawsuit is another challenge in a series of obstacles that are hurting the soap operas' initial online seasons. First, Prospect Park cut the weekly episodes of the shows from four to two episodes per series, claiming that viewers were "overwhelmed." Fans were not happy with the change. Then both "One Life to Live" and "All My Children" went on hiatus earlier than planned due to a labor dispute, which has since been resolved.
ABC cancelled the two iconic soaps in April 2011, citing changing viewer tastes. Prospect Park then bought the licensing rights, and began producing the shows for an online format.
The production company has been revamping the show by adding some new names to the cast, such as Jennifer 'Jwoww' Farley of MTV's "The Jersey Shore" and "High School Musical" star Corbin Bleu. The show also included an appearance and new opening theme from Snoop Lion (formerly known as Snoop Dogg).
Both "One Live to Live" and "All my Children" recently wrapped up their first online seasons. Prospect Park Co-founder Jeff Kwatinez said that production on new "All My Children" episodes will begin next month.