OLTL: Erika Slezak

[Darn]

Sorry but Deidre Hall is not Susan Lucci or Erika Slezak. SL and ES define their shows in a way no other daytime star does (except for Eric Braeden).

IMO OLTL will fall apart without Viki as it's center. I may not like her some of the time but I can't imagine the show without her. I don't want to imagine the show with her. I won't watch the show without her.

[Cheap21]

Marlena was not an original Days character and Dedire has left the show in the past before and they've killed off the character. IA with Darn that she doesnt compare to Erika or Susan

[Scotty]

I agree with Darn, Hall just doesn't carry the same weight that Lucci and Slezak do.

And I'm sorry, but I don't buy this rumor for a second. I could see them giving her more pay cuts.....but I think that Erika will be at OLTL until she decides to retire (which, from what I can tell, she hasn't even hinted at yet).

I think this rumor was just started by someone with too much time on their hands. Personally, I'll believe it when I see it.

And I agree.....Erika is Viki and Viki is Llanview and OLTL. Getting rid of her makes about as much sense as eating ice cream with a fork (bad example, but it's the best I could come up with on the spur of the moment, lol).

The character of Viki has been on OLTL since the beginning 40 1/2 years ago, and Erika has portrayed her for 38 of those years (as of March 17th). Whether you like her or not, Viki is the heart of the show, and should remain that way.

[ReddFoxx]

Slezak is the most awarded actress in daytime and an acting powerhouse, so I don't see the TPTB letting her go.

[Scotty]

Cheap makes a good point. Now I'm no big DAYS fan (although I did watch occassionally one summer about 11 or 12 years ago), but Dedire Hall and Marlena are about like Robin Strasser and Dorian Cramer Lord on OLTL.

Dorian was not an original character, and she has left Llanview on several different occassions. While Dorian is important to OLTL, she is not an essestial character.

[KLN]

I disagree.

Deidre Hall has left the show before and it survived, yes. But it was also on much more stable creative ground back then -- certainly moreso than it is today, IMO. When JER joined the writing team in the 90's, Days of Our Lives pretty much became "the Marlena show," and that's when it achieved its highest ratings ever. Then when Marlena was revealed as the serial killer in 2004, the show once again achieved the highest ratings it gotten since the mid-90's, when Marlena was once again the star of the show. There's an obvious pattern that shows the show flourishing when Marlena is front and center. I mean, this is the same actress who had fans picketing outside the studio when they thought her character had been killed off. Then there was the Possession story, which even non-fans of daytime are familiar with simply because it was such a huge moment for the genre. I betcha if you went out on the street and asked fans if they knew Deidre Hall or Erika Slezak, the vast majority would be able to place Deidre before they'd place Erika. That's not to say that Deidre's more valuable to the genre, but it can't be denied that she's more recognized in general as a "face of daytime" than Erika -- and certainly as the face of Days. JMO.

There's no law saying that an actor or actress isn't considered absolutely crucial to the success of the show unless they were on it from day one. Just look at Eric Braeden. I don't believe he was on Y&R right from the beginning, but it would be difficult to imagine that show without him today.

Will Days survive without Marlena? Yes, for a while -- but so would OLTL if Erika Slezak were fired. The same way Y&R would survive without Victor Newman, at least for a little bit. But creatively, all of these shows would have a GAPING huge hole if they were all written out. That goes for Marlena, Victor, Viki, all of them.

[Vee]

I was hoping we wouldn't have a thread about this [!@#$%^&*] here. It's total garbage. It's a really sad lie made up by a really sad woman whose sole career aspiration appears to be "Carolyn Hinsey."

If I found myself wanting to be Carolyn Hinsey I'd shoot myself in the face.

What's worse is the "insider" involved will almost certainly never apologize for this stunt. I don't post at Soapcentral and you couldn't pay me to try.

[jcar03]

I wish these rumors would stop getting posted around when they are from sites with no credibility.

[Darn]

That's why I made a point to mention him. He is the face of Y&R but didn't join until 1980 when Bill Bell completely altered the show. However I believe Y&R could survive without him, there'd be a hole but I think it could go on and flourish because so many of the other characters are so strong. The same can't be said for AMC or OLTL. Those shows don't have characters as well-defined as Erica or Viki. They seem to have made a concentrated effort to rid themselves of strong characters for young ones and cheaper actors.

Viki is the moral and emotional center of OLTL, Erica is the driving force of AMC (Susan Lucci is the face of daytime, if they ever fired her the reaction would reach beyond the soap rags). While yes these characters and actresses have been marginalized from time to time they have never been written off the show or been as marginalized and nearly forgotten by TPTB as Marlena has been more than once. She may be the face of Days but frankly I don't think her character was nearly as strong as those two. Mostly DUE to JER playing fast and loose with who she was and what she was about. Her characterization changed from story to story between acts where she wasn't in control of herself (Viki has DID but as they've said over and over her alters are part of her make up, they're not parallax). She was treated largely as a plot device for the last 20 years.

[Drew]

I think alot of you are being sentimental when it comes to Viki and OLTL. Slesak is by no means the "name" that Braeden, Hall or Lucci are. And for the better part of this decade she has not exactly been a driving force in storylines, mainly a prop in the stories of her character's children. The way the show is being written now and with where the demos are they could go on without her, not lose any significant viewers and save some money. There's no reason to believe "she is OLTL" would make her safe.

[You're Soaking in it]

You have got to be kidding.

[DRW50]

In the long term history of OLTL I would agree, but I've been surprised by just how irrelevant Viki has become over the past 5 years. Even under Ron Carlivarti, she does little more than react to her kids and then share a few scenes with David when he pops back into town. I don't believe OLTL will fire Erika Slezak but I do think she's being phased out.

[Drew]

Completely serious.

If you think her firing (if true) would get press outside the soap mags, you've got to be kidding.

[KLN]

It's true.

That's not to say that Erika Slezak isn't important to OLTL, but even people who don't watch soaps know who Victor Newman is. They know who Marlena/Deidre is. They know who Lucci/Erica is. These are people who aren't just soap actors -- they're part of pop culture, expecially Lucci's Emmy saga and Marlena's demonic possession. I sincerely doubt that even half the non-soap viewers who recognize Eric/Susan/Deidre would also recognize Erika Slezak.

[DaytimeFan]

I don't think Hall compares to Lucci, Slezak or Braeden. DAYS has survived without her once and it appears to be surviving without her again...Hall, in my opinion, was never the face of DAYS. If DAYS has a face, it's been Bo & Hope...but DAYS is like Y&R and B&B and ATWT in that no one actor is 'the star' like Lucci is on AMC.