'AMC'/'OLTL': Soaps begin new era

From the new opening credits to the influx of new actors playing aged up characters to spicier scenes, the retooled online versions of All My Children and One Life to Live are trying to show they’re not your mother’s soaps… while still trying to hold on to your mother as a viewer. If you have not seen the new shows yet, stop reading. Spoilers ahead.

The new 30-minute episodes from Prospect Park launched this morning on Hulu, set to post new episodes every weekday starting at 5 AM ET/2AM PT.

All My Children picks up five years after the cliffhanger finale in 2011, which saw a gun pointed at a room full Pine Valley’s elite and a shot ringing out. Having the new show begin with a reference to that night and reestablishing strong anchor characters Brooke (Julia Barr) and Adam (David Canary) was a smart move, serving as a kind of reassurance to longtime viewers. Shortly after that came the introduction of a teenage AJ (Eric Nelsen) and Bianca’s now-teen daughter Miranda (Denyse Tontz). The opener gives the signature All My Children red journal but also the new theme song “We are the love we give.”

While the language stayed pretty PG, the online serial reveled in the lack of broadcast constraints with a steamy (dream) scene between David Hayward (Vincent Irizarry) and Cara Castillo (Lindsay Hartley). It wasn’t overly graphic, but definitely showed more skin and had more suggestiveness than the show has done in the past. And fan favorites Angie (Debbi Morgan) and Jesse’s (Darnell Williams) playful, sexy banter reinforced that freedom.

The exterior shots, filmed in Connecticut, were beautiful but at times felt a little forced. It will be fun to see that finding a rhythm. And for the most part the older characters sound like themselves, the “people” you’ve come to know and love, like Opal (Jill Larson) spouting her country sayings or singing the praises of business tycoon son Petey (Robert Scott Wilson), and a fresh-from-prison and still sinister David with his cryptic sayings. There are enough allusions to what actually happened five years ago to make you think you know but keep you guessing.

Things took a darker turn over in Llanview both literally and figuratively. Most of the premiere One Life to Live episode played out at night, as the town prepared for the opening the new nightclub Shelter. And before the new credits kicked in, there was already a murder.

Again, good idea to start the show with its center, Vicki (Erica Slezak), but also to play up the more humorous characters like Dorian (Robin Strasser) and David (Tuc Watkins), who would steal the show with his antics including a Saturday Night Fever-style strut down the red carpet. The club scenes felt very realistic with more extras to give it scope and recognizable pop music like One Republic’s “If I Lose Myself.”

There seemed to be accounting for storylines that moved forward over on General Hospital in the interim, as we saw Tea (Florencia Lozano) drowning in her sorrows, mourning her baby who died in Port Charles, and Natalie (Melissa Archer) out sans John (Michael Easton). Meanwhile, recast former teen parents Destiny (Laura Harrier) and Matthew (Robert Gorrie) exhibited a dynamic that could be pretty interesting moving forward. Corbin Bleu has jumped into the mix of the young people, with a history tying him to both Dani (Kelley Missal) and Matthew, and a present tied to Vicki as a reporter for her paper. And Todd (Roger Howarth) still has plenty of chemistry with Blair (Kassie DePaiva). But the show’s bad boy returned to town just in time to catch his drugging and boozing daughter Dani spiraling out of control. All this while an unidentified person bearing a tattoo’ed symbol connected to Todd was killed and dragged off.

The visuals on both shows is sharp. There’s a sense of striving for more of a nighttime soap aesthetic and the newer, younger viewers that could bring. AMC seems to be moving at a quicker pace of the two, something executive producer Ginger Smith told EW she definitely wanted to do, along with cutting back on the often repetitive nature of daily soaps. We’ve yet to see how much we’ll feel missing characters like Erica Kane in the mix. Similarly, for the One Life to Live characters who have not returned. But soap fans are used to a variety of characters on the canvas and even though these casts are smaller, as long as the stories remain engaging I suspect most fans are so happy to have them back that they will give the shows lots of leeway to get into a groove.

What did you think of the revamped shows? Were they what you hoped they’d be?

[Editor's note: The actress who plays Opal was accidentally misidentified. She is played by Jill Larson.]

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Treasury: Will begin selling mortgage securities (AP)

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer Martin Crutsinger, Ap Economics Writer – Mon Mar 21, 12:34 pm ET

WASHINGTON – The Treasury Department announced Monday that it will begin selling its remaining $142 billion in holdings of mortgage-backed securities purchased during the financial crisis.

Treasury officials said the first sales of up to $10 billion in the securities, primarily issued by troubled mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, would start this month.

Assistant Treasury Secretary Mary Miller said the sales represented a continuation of efforts by the government to wind down the emergency programs put in place in 2008 and 2009 to help restore market stability.

Treasury estimated it could bring in an additional $15 billion to $20 billion over what it paid for the $142 billion in mortgage-backed securities it currently holds. However, that amount would still leave the government with heavy losses from the rescue of Fannie and Freddie in September 2008.

The final cost of the bailout of the two companies has been estimated to be as high as $259 billion, making it by far the government's costliest rescue operation during the financial crisis.

Treasury has retained State Street Global Advisors to manage the sales of its mortgage-backed securities. Officials said they would post an accounting of the sales at the end of each month on Treasury's web site.

The program was designed to stabilize the market for mortgage-backed securities, which investors had started to flee as defaults in the mortgage market began to escalate. Treasury announced in December 2009 that it was halting the purchase of new securities under the program. At the time it had purchased a total of $220 billion worth of mortgage-backed securities.

Treasury said in its announcement Monday that the market for mortgage-backed securities had "notably improved" since 2008 and 2009.

In a fact sheet, Treasury said it planned to sell up to $10 billion of its $142 billion in mortgage-backed securities per month. At this pace, Treasury said the whole portfolio would be disposed of in about one year. But Treasury said if market conditions change, it is possible it will take longer to fully exit from the program.

Treasury said it believed the sales could take place with a "minimal impact" on home mortgage rates.

Treasury said that the announcement to sell the remaining holdings of mortgage-backed securities was not related to the impending battle over the debt limit. Treasury's latest estimate is that the government will reach the current $14.3 trillion borrowing limit between April 15 and May 31.

Republicans are demanding steeper cuts in government spending before they will agree to raise the debt limit. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has warned that failure to raise the borrowing limit would trigger an unprecedented default by the government on the national debt which would drive up the government's borrowing costs.

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