“While we narrowed in on a financial infrastructure, the contractual demands of the guilds, which regulate our industry, coupled with the programs' inherent economic challenges ultimately led to this final decision,” Frank and Kwatinetz said.
Among the unions that had been negotiating with Prospect Park were the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Writers Guild of America West. Both issued swift responses Wednesday to the company’s assertion that labor demands were at fault for the plan’s demise.
AFTRA, which represents actors on both shows, noted in a written statement, “Despite initial progress in our negotiations with Prospect Park toward resolving a fair agreement to cover the performers appearing on these programs, we were perplexed and disappointed that for the past month Prospect Park has not responded to our repeated inquiries to resume those discussions.” The union also said it believed that Prospect Park “faced other challenges unrelated to our negotiations.”
In its statement, the WGAW said, “We were disappointed to learn that Prospect Park’s financing fell through. Prior to the end of last week, we were close to a fair deal for the writers.”
The final episode of “All My Children” aired Sept. 23 on ABC. The “One Life to Live” finale will air Jan. 13, 2012.
