ABC Soap Opera Bistro

On February 7, 2001 Disney officially dedicated the ABC Soap Opera Bistro in a ceremony attended by the stars of ABC daytime. During the ceremony a representative of each Soap donated an item from their show to live permanently at the Bistro.

Introductions

Announcer: Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to the grand opening of ABC’s Soap Opera Bistro. Please welcome our hostess, an actress who has appeared on all four ABC daytime dramas and currently resides in Llanview,One Life to Live star, Linda Dano.

Linda Dano: Good morning. Are you cold? A little. I want to thank all of you for joining me this morning for our official grand opening of our ABC Soap Opera Bistro right here at Disney’s California Adventure. This is a great day for us because you see there is nothing like this anywhere in the world. This is the first time a restaurant, a themed restaurant based on what we affectionately call the soaps has been built and is available to us and to our fans. So we are very excited, all of us from daytime. To you fans, this is your place – and soon-to-be fans – this is a place to celebrate ABC daytime drama. And you heard me say just then didn’t you, that I said soon-to-be fans. That’s probably because I believe everybody is a fan they just maybe don’t know it yet.(laughter)

Linda Dano: Now why don’t we cut right to the chase. The moment you have all been waiting for. It is now my great pleasure to introduce to all of you the hardest working, most dedicated, talented, nicest people in the business, they’re my friends and they’re my colleagues and I have the great pleasure of introducing to you some of the brightest stars of ABC Daytime.

Ladies and Gentlemen from Port Charles, All My Children, One Life to Live andGeneral Hospital. Here they come…

Please welcome, from Port Charles, the man who plays Jamal Woods, Kiko Ellsworth. Behind him is Lucy Coe played by multi-talented Lynn Herring. Say hello to Erin Hershey who plays Alison Barrington. Hi kids. And please welcome Thorsten Kaye. I’m supposed to do two minutes on him I made a promise. He’s known as Ian Thornhart.

Is All My Children coming? There he is, Mr. David Canary who does double duty playing both Stuart and Adam Chandler. Behind him should be Josh Duhamel, there he is. Josh is one of the newest stars of All My Children. You know him as Leo du Pres and of course. Cameron Mathison. Cameron, stop letting them fondle you. Get over here. He is Ryan Lavery.

Next the stars of the show I work on One Life to Live. Kamar de los Reyes, also known as the sexy Antonio Vega. Behind him one of the great, great stars of daytime, Victoria Lord Davidson. The incomparable Erika Slezak. And one of the heartbeats of One Life To Live say hello to Robert S. Woods, Bo Buchanan. Hi babe.

All right. Direct from General Hospital. Oh boy. Here he comes. Mr. Sexy himself, Maurice Benard, Sonny Corinthos. Behind him, the unbelievable Anthony Geary, Luke Spencer. You know her as Elizabeth Webber played by the very talented Rebecca Herbst. And we couldn’t have this day with Bobbie Spencer. Say hello to the beautiful Jacklyn Zeman. Hi hon. How are you?

My friends! (she turns and greets them)

Linda Dano: You know, the Soap Opera Bistro, our restaurant, is the result of a lot of hard work by a lot of people. And these are people that span a wide range at the Walt Disney Company. Today I think we really need to recognize the collaboration between ABC Daytime, Walt Disney Imagineering and, of course, the Disneyland Resort. (applause) You haven’t been in there yet. We all had the pleasure last night of experiencing this unbelievable place. Walt Disney Imagineering has recreated actual sets from all of our shows, Port Charles, All My Children, One Life to Live and General Hospital. If I didn’t know better it almost feels like I’m at work except for the food. Because you can ask any actor in daytime. The food, kids, what do we think? Yeah, well.(no response, turns back to the crowd). The food in here is fabulous. So let me say a special thank you to the Disneyland Resort foods team. You did a great job. A great job.

Now, as I said, the Soap Opera Bistro is a unique Disney collaboration. And if you know actors at all we have to get involved. So we wanted to collaborate, right? (stars nod) So we asked what can we do and how can we do it? So we all got together, the cast of all the shows, and we decided what could we bring to this and we thought well maybe we could bring a personal touch. So the cast all got together and we bring today to you momentos from each of these shows. A place where the fans can see the things they see everyday on the shows from the people that matter the most to them. So let me invite some of these stars, one from each show, to bring what they brought for all of you that will go inside our restaurant and will stay in a place of honor. So first let me start with Lynn Herring from Port Charles. Lynn, what did you bring?

Lynn Herring: We brought – Erin’s going to help me out. This is going to be like a game show. Erin you get to demonstrate what we brought.

Erin Hershey: Oh, lovely!

Lynn Herring: Well first let me say we are so proud and honored to be here. This is exciting. This is once in a lifetime. These are tarot cards and my character Lucy uses them to tell the future. Erin, what do you think the future’s gonna be?

Erin Hershey: Oh I don’t know. You might just have to stayed tuned and watch.

Linda Dano: You work on daytime don’t you.

Lynn Herring: This is a crystal ball that we use on the show to try and see who is going to have the best storyline coming up. No. We would be very honored and pleased to present this from Port Charles from Thorsten and Kiko back there. This is a crystal ball and looks into the future and I see many, many people visiting the Soap Opera Bistro and having a wonderful time as we had. Thank you.

Linda Dano: Next from All My Children, David Canary. David, come up and do the honors.

David Canary: I’ll try to make it clear. I’m Adam Chandler. I’m not that other strange person. (laughter, someone in the crowd calls out, “what about Thor”) He’s home, in the home, in the snow. It is privilege to be here and representing All My Children in this exciting rather historic occasion. And she’s right about everything in there. The food is great. I’m here with a couple of other people from the show who bear mentioning character names Ryan “keep your shirt on” Lavery.

Linda Dano: That’s what I thought he was doing down there. I thought “oh my God he’s taking his shirt off.”

Ryan Lavery: It’s not coming off today.

David Canary: And Leo “what’s his name” du Pres. Whippersnapper. Young kid. They’re both very good actors. We have two gifts to present today. I’m going to go get them.

Linda Dano: He’s going to go get them.

David Canary. I won’t dare put this on because what’s his name would object. You probably recognize it as the crown that my poor befuddled brother Stuart the day he married (Linda whispers Marian) Marian “the mouth” Colby on St. Valentine’s Day that has an anniversary coming up here very soon. And that is going into permanent lexicon of this establishment. This is the notorious flask of Libidozone (crowd ahs) that Dr. Death, David Hayward clumsily spilled into the punch bowl the night of Ryan Lavery’s big extravaganza on the yacht thereby taking away all the um, (looks at Linda. She responds: I can’t help you. I can’t. I want to.) limitations that are put upon us thereby doubling the potential population of Pine Valley by at least 50%.

Linda Dano: Angela can you come and get him off the stage please. My god, you didn’t say this would happen.

David Canary: um…

Linda Dano: yes, David.

David Canary: Adam. Adam Ch..This is my last comment. Adam Chandler had a different reaction that night. With all of his inhibitions gone he picked up his ex-wife, er, rather his wife and threw her overboard. These things can happen. These things are now going into the…what do they call it?

Linda Dano: The permanent collection

David Canary: The permanent collection here. And I’m delighted to be here. Thank you for letting me rattle on like this.

Linda Dano: All right from One Life to Live, representing that show, is Mr. Robert Woods. Bobby what do you bring?

Robert Woods: Thank you. Thank you. This is a great honor and a pleasure to be here. First of all, to work on ABC Daytime is such a great thing for us collectively. For me personally, I was at Disneyland the day that they opened it to the public and in ’67 I got to open Pirates of the Caribbean – I was an employee here. My whole family has worked here over the years. On behalf of our cast at One Life To Live I would like to donate my commissioner’s badge to the restaurant. It is a little tarnished from some of the things I’ve done on the show. No, I won’t go there. Am I still commissioner if I give this away?

Linda Dano: No.

Robert Woods: o.k. I’d like to trade it to David for that Libidozone. (laughter)Well its such an honor and pleasure to be here and I want to thank you for coming out. And I can’t wait for everybody to see the inside of this place. It’s just amazing. It looks like where we work.

Linda Dano: It really does.

Robert Woods: Thank you so much.

Linda Dano: Next is Mr. Tony Geary who is bringing you something fromGeneral Hospital.

Tony Geary: Well it’s a pleasure to be here on behalf of my colleagues atGeneral Hospital. And we would like to donate – sounds strange, what do you say, inscribe? Anyway we want to give the ABC Soap Opera Bistro Luke and Laura’s wedding rings. Come on in and see them. By the way the food is terrific.

Linda Dano: I want to thank all of these guys. And everybody from the cast. As I said these gifts will be in a very special place of honor inside the restaurant so as the restaurant grows more and more things will be dedicated and given to it so it can just get better and better and you can come back hundreds and hundreds of times. And that is what we hope.

You know, we need to say right now, all of us – the people behind me and everybody that works in ABC, how much we appreciate you, our fans.(applause) We feel and know and see from you, your dedication and the loyalty to our shows. Never, ever think it isn’t important to us because it is. So thank you on behalf of all of us. Also (music chimes in) Wait, wait. Also, we need to thank, they’re dying to come and dance, wait now. We need to thank all the colleagues at Walt Disney Imagineering and of course the Disneyland Resort.

Also we want to thank you Angela. Angela Shapiro is our President of ABC daytime. And without your vision and dedication this restaurant would not have happened. We love you and we thank you for such a fabulous place for us to come and sort of show off our stuff. And for all the fans to come. The ABC Soap Opera Bistro. It is a place where we can celebrate ABC Daytime drama. God Bless You. Thank you.

(Singers and dancers come in and perform. A sample lyric:)

In the world of ABC soaps, everything brightens our day
At General Hospital and Port Charles where All My Children play.
In the world of ABC soaps, with just One Live to Live
Let us live it live it daytime vicariously
We love it in daytime it sure sets free!