Courtesy/ABC
It has becoming official this morning, soapers, that the uber-talented duo of Frank Valentini and Ron Carlivati who led One Life to Live to be the most creative, under budget, and highest rated series in the ABC Daytime soap opera line-up are coming to General Hospital! Valentini will take over from Jill Farren Phelps as the shows executive producer, and Carlivati will assume the head writing spot, effective January 9th, 2012.
This comes on the heels of last week’s disappointing news that One Life to Live had been dropped by Prospect Park, so it would not live again online, and thus the future of Valentini and Carlivati had opened. There had been recent speculation of a move such as this by ABC to bring the team over to its only soap left in their daytime programming line-up.
ABC Daytime President Brian Frons has just released the announcement below on the hiring of Valentini and Carlivati to steer the ship in Port Charles!
© Steven Bergman
“Frank and Ron’s creativity, passion and outstanding leadership will be a welcome addition to the cast and crew, as well as viewers and longtime fans,” said Frons. “As creative leaders in the industry, I am very excited for their arrival to ‘General Hospital,’ and their dedication to the genre will certainly invigorate the daytime drama that has been part of pop culture and the TV landscape for many years.”
“I look forward to this next exciting chapter working with the wonderful cast and crew of ‘General Hospital,’” said Valentini. “This is an incredible opportunity for me to extend my passion and expertise for daytime television as I continue my relationship with DATG and become part of an extraordinary team in 2012.”
Since 2002 Valentini has served as the executive producer of ABC Daytime’s award-winning “One Life to Live,” the same year the show garnered an Emmy for Outstanding Daytime Drama. Along with his duties as executive producer, he directs, and has two consecutive wins in 2008 and 2009 as a part of the “One Life to Live” directing team. He was also nominated for a DGA Award in 2002. With over 26 years of experience with “One Life to Live,” Valentini has held many production positions throughout his career with the series, including associate director, stage manager and coordinating producer. In addition, he has served for two years on the Board of Directors for the New Group Theater Company. Valentini received his degree in Film & Television Production from the University of Buffalo. He has traveled to over 60 countries, and in 2002 he became a published photographer.
With a 15-year tenure at “One Life to Live,” Ron Carlivati served as head writer from 2007 to 2011. On behalf of the drama series, he garnered the 2008 Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a Daytime Drama. He was previously nominated for an Emmy in 2002, 2006 and 2009, along with two WGA Award nominations. A law school graduate of George Washington University, the self-professed fan of soap operas briefly worked as a corporate lawyer before moving to New York City in 1996 and pursuing his lifetime passion as a writer for the genre.”
So what do you think of the news of Valentini and Carlivati heading to GH? Enthusiastic? A band-aid? Thoughts? Let us know! Clearly, there is some bitter irony in all this for soap fans and those in the know. If Valentini and Carlivati are deemed so fantastic by ABC Daytime (which we all know they are), they should never have cancelled One Life in the first place. Let’s hope they are being brought into help GH and not to just close out the show, and if the numbers do go up that ABC pays attention and not turn a blind-eye!
On-Air On-Soaps can tell you that these two have a creative match made-in-soap-heaven, so hopefully they can work their magic on the ailing GH and pronto!
Brian says: 
Robert in Jersey City 
Torrey 
Dan 
Iakovos 
Heather 
Jules 
Tom 
Brian 
heidi 
Elhu 
toscanti 
jp 
M Smith