OLTL 1982 Story QUestion

[EricMontreal22]

So Iw atched the two fascinating videos of OLTL from 1982 with Grayson Hall as a Ralsten and Bo searching for a family connection... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq8nG2ISLyw I can't find any more info on this story--was Bo a Ralsten? Wasn't Delilah, who I've seen in other eps, A Ralsten? And is the Drew we see the same Drew who later was a cop and died?(around 1998?)

[NikiSmith]

Wow, this was a long time ago!

I want to say that when the goofy country guy who came to Llanview and became a cop. I think his name was Drew Ralston. I think they determined that he was related to the Buchanan's as cousins. During that time, Bo came to question his parentage and thought he might be a Ralston too but he turned out to be pure Buchanan.

Delila married Drew but Becky Lee also had a thing for Drew (after the Richard Abbot timeframe). Drew was also involved with Sam.

Bo and Becky's baby Drew was named after country boy Drew.

I think

I'll watch some of the tape and see if anything else comes back -- that was back in the day when my family didn't have a VCR and I had to rush home from high school to see the show live. Blink and you missed it.

[EricMontreal22]

Hey I checked with my copuy of the 1998 OLTL coffee table book which only gave a brief outline of the story but that sounds right...

OLTL still seemed pretty good back then--I guess that was shortly after Gordon Russell's death when Sam Hall (married to Grayson Hall who sadly died that SUmmer of cancer) took over. I know shortly afte rhe was briefly co writing with Henry Slesar then in 84 was brielfy replaced by the Corringtons--but returned in 85 to write the beginnign of the Nicki Smith stuff right before he left and his associate Peggy O'Shea took over. Sam Hall and Gorfon Russell both only wrote for DShadows and OLTL in their careers it seems but bothwere fine writers of traditional soaps too as OLTL proved. I thought Peggy's period alone was pretty good too even if Rauch was starting to make the hsow a bit more rich and campy--she never wrote ofr another soap either. But wheh HER associate Michael Schnessel (who didn't seem to write for anything else either0 took over is when OLTL started to come loose at the seams

[applcin]

Okay, I'm going by memory on this...

At some point it was revealed that Bo's mother had an affair with Yancy Ralston (I believe was his name). Delilah was a Ralston. Bo & Delilah fell in love but Asa wanted Delilah and Becky Lee Abbott had a thing for Bo. IIRC, it was Asa who made Bo think he was a Ralston, so that he and Delilah would break up, thinking they were related. Also, if I'm not mistaken, Becky Lee later discovered Asa's lie but helped him perpetuate it because of her feelings for Bo and knowing he would go back to Delilah if he could. Delilah married Asa. Bo turned to Becky Lee, though he never loved her and got her pregnant...that child became Drew, Bo's policeman son. The Drew who was on at the time of the original storyline was Drew Ralston, Delilah's cousin, played by Matthew Ashford (in what I am pretty sure was his first soap role, circa 82/83). Drew proposed marriage to Becky Lee but he was killed on their wedding day while buying flowers or something like that, a holdup I think. Bo's son was named in his honor. Bo was revealed to really be Asa's son after all. Bo and Delilah got back together. Becky and Asa married briefly because of baby Drew being a Buchanan and all. Eventually Becky Lee (having gotten amnesia or something while married to Asa) met a guy named Jesse, a bar-owner whom she left Asa for, who adopted Drew and they lived offscreen together until Jesse died and Becky and Drew came back to Llanview. I believe Drew grew up with Jesse's last name and changed it to Buchanan later.

[Dale]

Applcin, you got it right! Good memory!!! Very impressive! I absolutely loved the Bo-Delila-Asa-Becky mess in 1982/83!

Your post made me dig up an old clipping from Soap Opera Digest (February 1984) that I always found very amusing! The following is from SOD's mail bag from a very clever viewer:

"In your January 17 issue you forgot one category in your analysis of the soap year- that of the most confusing family situation of last year. This award has to go to the Buchanans on 'One Life To Live' because of Becky's marriage to Asa. Although Asa is a grandfather to all the Buchanan children (Kevin Joey and Drew), making them all cousins, he is also Drew's legal father, thus making Drew an uncle to Kevin and Joey, his nephews. That makes Clint and Viki not only Drew's uncle and aunt, but his brother and sister-in-law as well. This marriage also makes Bo - Drew's natural father - his brother, too. Not only does Drew have two fathers but, since Bo is married to Delila, this sister-in-law becomes his step-mother as well.

This predicament becomes very interesting when you consider Becky's position in all of this. Her marriage to Asa makes her the step-mother to her son's father. Doesn't this also make her her son's grand-mother since she's married to his grand-father? This is certainly one for the books!"

LOL!!!!

"In your January

[EastMA2]

"But wheh HER associate Michael Schnessel (who didn't seem to write for anything else either0 took over is when OLTL started to come loose at the seams"

I have a vague recollection of S. Michael Schnessel accepting an Emmy for Outstanding Writing, maybe in '87??? Not sure of the year. I know he passed away shortly thereafter.

[RuAsRuAnAu]

According to IMDB, S. Michael Schnessel was nominated for a Outstanding Drama Series Writing Team-Daytime Emmy in 1982, 1983, 1987 & 1990. He won in 1987. He served as OLTL HW from July 1987 to October 1990. Schnessel sometime in the early 1990s.

[EricMontreal22]

Ah I don't wanna speakill of the dead--I bet he was good when he was on the writing team but as a head writer hima nd Rauch were an out there combo