ONE LIFE TO LIVE and lack of 'recognition'

[Melroser]

There has been a lot of discussion lately on these boards about how GH and AMC have the 'name recognition' over OLTL.

Most soaps have a 'super-couple' past or present that comes to mind when you mention it. GH has Luke and Laura. DAYS has Bo and Hope, and even Patch and Kayla. Y&R has Victor and Nikki. Past soaps, SB had Cruz and Eden, and GL had Josh and Reva. In most of these cases, if you mention the show you think of the couple or vice versa.

If you mention AMC to people, most immediately think Susan Lucci.

My point I'm trying to make is....if you mention OLTL to someone...who comes to mind?? Erika Slezak probably comes to mind for those that watch the show, but I would never consider her on the same level outside of daytime as Susan Lucci or Deidre Hall.

I am a big fan of OLTL but I agree that the show doesn't have the same connection to people as most soaps do. They need to work on something to make it stand out. Either by a crazy popular character, like Erica Kane, or by establishing a 'super-couple' with a big following. However, that takes commitment and a longterm follow through, but the way soaps change direction every couple of weeks I don't see that happening on OLTL.

[Eric83]

It's far too late for OLTL to launch an insanely popular character or super couple. The days for that are long gone. OLTL shouldn't worry about name reognition, just continuing to produce good soap for their fans to enjoy. AMC/GH may have name recognition but their ratings are still low just like OLTL's.

[Scotty]

One thing is that OLTL does not have an "identity" like most of the other soaps do. For example, just take a look at the opening......actors against black backgrounds and the letters "OLTL" constantly flashing across the screen. Whereas GH has the hospital, AMC has the book and photos, DAYS has the hourglass, etc...

[Cheap21]

OLTL has the city of Llanview which has been apart of its openings since the 80s. Its not as prominent in the current one due to the dark colors, but its still very visible. In fact you can see it in the banner you currently have

[Khan]

To me, OLTL's biggest legacy has always been the "core four" - Brad Vernon, Jenny & Karen Wolek, Marco Dane - around which most of the stories revolved in the late '70's and early '80's. Even during the Rauch era (1984-91), you still had non-traditional characters such as Tina and Dorian front-and-center. OLTL needs to get back to that, IMO. Stop with the bland characters and performers that are boring people, and get back to writing about those who might frustrate the hell out of you, but who make you watch (and care, two fronts where, sad to say, Todd/Tea/Blair don't quite make the grade anymore).

[DRW50]

I think a lot of people remember the tour of Llanview as OLTL's opening, even though it was not their opening for over fifteen years. My favorite opening is the one which ran in the early 80s, but I think all the OLTL openings aside from the tour were somewhat generic. The champagne bottle opening was extremely generic and I will never understand the point of that. I think in the long run that type of opening just made OLTL seem more run of the mill, even as the stories were not run of the mill. And the openings since have also been run of the mill.

[Eric83]

I just realized that. Y&R has the Nadia's theme, ATWT has the globe, GL had the lighthouse. Do you know what the scales of justice meant? I've seen it in before, and never knew what it had to with One Life.

[Khan]

I said a long time ago that OLTL needed to pick up where EDGE OF NIGHT left off, and become daytime's new destination for fans of crime and suspense stories. At one time, they had the perfect canvas for it, with a highly urbanized city, and characters from various walks of life.

[Khan]

I said a long time ago that OLTL needed to pick up where EDGE OF NIGHT left off, and become daytime's new destination for fans of crime and suspense stories. At one time, they had the perfect canvas for it, with a highly urbanized city, and characters from various walks of life.

[Scotty]

Yes....and in various openings over the years the view of Llanview (haha) has been an important....but still it is not one symbol that you can look at and say "Ah, that is 'One Life to Live.'"

But I do get what you're saying.

[All My Shadows]

ITA. It's much, much too late, but that's not what they should be concerned with anyway.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly why OLTL is on a much lower level than the other soaps when it comes to name recognition. Even Passions has more name recognition. Of course, OLTL is known to people who watch daytime, but I think the number of average off-the-streets who don't really know anything at all about OLTL is a lot higher than some people would wish.

[DRW50]

I think that's a good point. OLTL had many edgy characters who managed to fascinate viewers even if they were new to the show. Besides those you mentioned, there's Dorian. OLTL had gray characters for a long time, and was able to reinvent itself over and over. I think that's one area where the blanding down of the show over the past decade or decade and a half hurt. People were too busy trying to make it into being just like everything else. I don't think Ron Carlivati feels that way, I think he does respect some of the history of the show, but sometimes I think it's the wrong history.

I also think that the extensive rewriting of the Lord history in the long run did a lot of damage to the show's main family, along with getting rid of Joey and Kevin.

[DRW50]

Double

[DRW50]

Triple

[quartermainefan]

One Life deserves their lack of success for A) firing Asa before Phil Carey died, and B ) having the bad taste to bring back Tina, bring back Marty, and then choose Marty as the one to keep.

If you are in charge of putting on an hour of entertaining television and a good product, and you see no value in Phil Carey or Andrea Evans or don't know how to utilize them, then you have no business enjoying success and probably have no business producing a TV show.

I find there are a lot of quirky and interesting actors and characters on OLTL, but the people who run that show obviously cannot see the forest through the trees.