WTAE-TV
Although it was the only ABC affiliate in the region when it signed on at the time, WTAE-TV also pre-empted and/or delayed a handful of ABC programs, most notably some of its daytime lineup from the 1960s to the late 1990s. WTAE-TV did not begin running "Good Morning America" until December 1978, and only aired an hour of the program until 1980. "One Life to Live" did not run on WTAE-TV from its 1968 debut up until 1978, when the soap opera expanded to an hour-long format. From 1969 to 1971, and again from 1974 to 1979, ABC shows that were not broadcast on channel 4 ended up airing instead on WPGH-TV. After 1980, some of these shows ran on WPTT (channel 22, now WPNT). WTAE-TV also preempted the Sunday morning ABC children's programming block the entire time ABC offered it, as well as a couple of hours of ABC's Saturday morning cartoons until 1979. WTAE-TV ran syndicated cartoons in place of the network-supplied children's programs, while the pre-empted Saturday morning network programs (including "American Bandstand") aired on WPGH during that time.
One Life to Live
In 1999, Daytime Emmy Award-winner Linda Dano returned to "One Life to Live" as Gretel Cummings, a character she had previously played on the series from 1978 to 1980. In a 2000 move of network synergy designed to "entice viewers to tune into soap operas that they might not have usually watched," then-President of ABC Daytime Angela Shapiro orchestrated Dano's concurrent appearance as
Gretel on the three other ABC daytime dramas at the time — "All My Children", "General Hospital", and "Port Charles" — in an extended crossover storyline which was the first time a daytime character had ever appeared on four series. Gretel's search for the child she had given up for adoption takes her to "All My Children", where she discovers in 2000 that her own birth mother is Pine Valley's Myrtle Fargate. Following clues to "Port Charles" and "General Hospital", Gretel finally finds her daughter back in Llanview on "One Life to Live": Skye Chandler, herself a former "All My Children" character who had relocated to "One Life to Live" in 1999. Skye's adopted "All My Children" father Adam Chandler appears on "One Life to Live" in 2001, and Gretel initially identifies Skye's biological father as Alan Quartermaine of "General Hospital". Both women subsequently appear on that series, with Skye moving to "General Hospital" full-time in 2001 and Gretel returning to "One Life to Live" until 2004, making some appearances on "General Hospital" later in 2002 and 2003.