I've grumbled previously about the forthcoming cancellation of All My Children, a soap opera that my wife is a big fan of and that I became mildly obsessed with when I was freelancing for home for three years. The countdown to the show's final episode has been troubling, but sort of great in that many of the great characters from the last few years (how will they resurrect Leo?) are returning to the show to dance on its grave or something.

However, Jeff Kwatinetz, the man who with artist management group The Firm brought rap-rock acts like Korn and Limp Bizkit into the public's consciousness, is giving the show (and One Life to Live, which I don't care about at all) a new life, as an online-only production:

Today, ABC announced that it has licensed the soap operas to Prospect Park, a 2-year-old media and production company that plans to continue both series online by picking up where the TV shows leave off.

In a press release, Prospect Park promised to retain the "same quality," "format and length" of both series.

"We are privileged to continue the legacy of two of the greatest programs to air on daytime television, and are committed to delivering the storylines, characters and quality that audiences have come to love for over 40 years," Prospect Park co-founders Jeffrey Kwatinetz and Rich Frank said. "'All My Children' and 'One Life to Live' are television icons, and we are looking forward to providing anytime, anywhere viewing to their loyal community of millions."

The statement did not detail if the current casts of the shows will participate in the online versions.

Kwatinetz and Frank, a former Disney Studios executive, are the executive producers of "Royal Pains." The soap operas are expected to be the first of a number of mainstream TV shows that will reportedly find a home on their site.

It did seem strange to me that someone couldn't find a way to make money of a show that has a million devoted fans, but apparently the team behind USA's Royal Pains is going to give it a shot. As long as the show's available on demand, I'm in.

Not that I have any particular affection for the show How I Met Your Mother, but it seems wrong to back into TV episodes and insert advertisements for new products, especially for the talking animal movie Zookeeper. However, this could just be an unfortunate long-term effect of George Lucas' willingness to edit his movies retroactively and it's still sort of fun to blame him for things. However, this will be far less amusing/tolerable when Rick drinks a Powerade while watching the plane take off in Casablanca.

[Gawker]

Fans of innovation and originality in television probably don't expect either from the major networks, and a scan of next fall's slate of debuts won't convince them otherwise. There are supernatural, J.J. Abrams-esque sci-fi mysteries along the lines of Lost (Alcatraz, Person of Interest, Awake, Grimm). There are Mad Men-style period piece dramas depicting the shifting social mores of past decades (Pan Am, The Playboy Club). There are remakes from across the pond (Free Agents, Prime Suspect). There are shows about the existential crises of modern-day men (How to Be a Gentleman, Last Man Standing, Man Up). There are cartoons (Napoleon Dynamite, Allen Gregory).

The Big 4 might not be on par with more adventurous and forward-thinking cable networks, but it's safe to say the quality of network dramas is getting better. I mean, with that many shows, they can't all be bad, right? Here are the ones with promise...

I was happier thinking it really was Michael Jackson playing a mental patient playing Michael Jackson, thank you very much:

Michael Jackson hand-picked an MJ voice impersonator to sing the famous "Happy Birthday Lisa" song featured on "The Simpsons" back in 1991 ... this according to Lisa herself, Yeardley Smith.

Smith was outside the Red O restaurant in L.A. this weekend, when she explained, "[Michael] was not allowed to sing on the show, so he literally hand-picked a guy to sing like him."

During the famous episode, "Stark Raving Dad," Michael provided the voice to a mental patient who thought he was MJ ... but according to reports, Jackson's record label blocked MJ from singing the Lisa birthday song.

MJ ultimately selected a man named Kipp Lennon — and Yeardley explains, "How unnerving would it be to sing like Michael Jackson in front of Michael Jackson?"

[TMZ]

• FX

Before I get into the two FX premieres last night, I'd like to bid pained adieu to The Onion Sportsdome, which was canceled by Comedy Central this week. I can't say it's a surprising cut since the show was so polarizing. I thought it was one of the two most innovative comedies on television, an impressive feat considering it was both a satire of ESPN's self-important sports reporting and frantically surreal. Sportsdome's cancellation reminds me of another short-lived comedy show which was also fast-paced, weird, and polarizing: The Dana Carvey Show. Maybe Sportsdome had the next Stephen Colbert and Louis C.K. in their writing ranks.

Speaking of Louis C.K., the other most innovative comedy on television returned for a second season last night.

You might have missed the first season of Louie CK's show, cleverly titled Louie, when it aired last year. The network it's on, FX, is a strange collection of occasionally great original programming (The League and Justified, for example) and then a seemingly endless stream of terrible movies. The other night, they were showing a Garfield live action movie and not even the one with Bill Murray voicing Garfield. A different one that I'm not sure was ever actually released in theaters. This is a movie that shouldn't even exist, much less be broadcast on television, allowing people to think this sort of artistic crime is acceptable.

Anyhow, thanks to the magic of digital video recorders, you can watch Louie without being poisoned by the network's content, and you certainly should. Actually, let's turn that into you probably should. Louie CK's humor isn't for everyone and the deal he struck with FX is that they would give him the shoestring budget to shoot the show (he edits the show on his laptop, which gives you some indication of the budget he's working with), but the network has no input or oversight on the content. The show isn't always a comfortable watch, or even always discernibly a "comedy", but it's often the work of a genius doing his best work. If you can't imagine watching a show that compares heaven to a hole cut into the wall of a men's restroom, you shouldn't tune in. You'll be missing one of the best things on TV, but it's not for you anyway.

So this happened yesterday. Hanks seems to be understanding what the anchors are saying, even if he's not replying in Spanish, which probably means he had an earpiece or something, otherwise, this would almost be exactly like a reoccurring nightmare I've had.

It seems that fewer than a million people watched each episode of the Onion Sportsdome, so I blame you, fellow Americans for not providing the show with the support it needed. Now Comedy Central has canceled the show (along with the Norm McDonald sports-themed ripoff of The Daily Show, which I have no affection for whatsoever). Are you happy now that you've taken away one of the only things I actually cared about? Are you?

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/54613395@N00/

In May 2010, Fox aired the 150th episode of Family Guy. Entitled "Brian & Stewie", the one-hour special episode took place entirely inside a bank vault and exclusively featured the two titular characters. At least I think it featured them exclusively. The episode was unlike any Family Guy episode I'd ever seen. It was meditative, serious in parts, and showed relational development between the show's two most clearly formed characters, Stewie and Brian. It was was also horrible.

I'm not quite sure I get the appeal of Showtime's Dexter. I watched the first five episodes or so, and I couldn't really get my head around why I wanted to watch a show about a serial killer (even if he was ostensibly a "good" one) and some of the acting seemed so wooden that I couldn't really take it. Still, people I actually like seem to love the show, so maybe I'm the strange one in the transaction. Here's a teaser for season six, which I will probably be skipping to watch a reality competition about cooking.