OLTL Tribute Thread

[danfling]

Someone also thought that the Ivan storyline was out-of-place, and the whole storyline was dropped in a few weeks.     The show had a lot of young performers under contract (Cassie, Rob, Joy, Giuletta).   Danny Wolock was brought back, and Annie was added as his girlfriend.  Brody was the only one that did not have a contract role on the show.  

Guiella, Annie, Ivan, and Brody were all dropped.   I cannot remember if Josh and Lisa were on the show or had already dropped, but I think they remained along with Joy, Rob, and Cassie.  (Guiletta was dropped after her mother came to Llanview.)

Eriq LaSalle also played a young reporter, but that was a little later.  Also, Marilyn McIntyre played a hench woman for Dr. Kipling, but I think that her character also was off the show by this time.   Ms. McIntyre later was on Loving.

[Vee]

I'm not gonna link them here because I'm pretty sure they've been poached from the older source by a notorious video thief I have some other suspicions about, but there's a decent sprinkling of fascinating eps from spring-summer 1992 on YT - fairly early Gottlieb/Malone, back when they were still fully committed to Grace Phillips' Sarah Buchanan and Mia Korf's Blair.

They're pretty interesting stuff, and give some of us who weren't there a better sense of the timeframe on several storylines: Sarah's pill addiction (and apparent crush on her shrink) came not long after her return from the dead and is already wrapped up by April or May, and now they've moved onto her and Bo reunited just in time for her to become the prime suspect in the Carlo Hesser murder case. The reveal about Blair and Addie is slowly parceled out, and in early May Blair tells Max everything about who she is and where she came from while Elaine Princi's excellent Dorian tells Cassie harrowing stories about her childhood. I loved Kassie DePaiva's Blair and always will, but it's still unconscionable what OLTL pulled after Mia Korf quit to go back to the stage - I can't remember the last time any soap in America had as much of a commitment to an AAPI lead before or after Blair in '92, including the Asian-American characters onscreen today. She is a central, incredibly important player in story, bouncing between Max, Asa and her vendetta against Dorian, and for my money she is great. Simmering in early eps is Lee Ann feeling trapped in the Buchanan clan, spending more and more time with Jason Webb to Viki's consternation, and the slow disintegration of Asa and Renee as he becomes more infatuated with Blair.

Also present: The incredibly earnest and annoying "Maggie Vega" character, a Latino police officer they'd apparently intended to pair with Andrew (and you can tell in these episodes) until they failed to secure their planned hire (allegedly, Saundra Santiago post-Miami Vice and pre-GL) and Bob Krimmer turned out to have more chemistry with Laura Bonarrigo. Sloan Carpenter has only just arrived. And LaTanya Richardson, Mrs. Samuel L. Jackson herself, appears as the original Rodi who figures into the Hank Gannon/Sheila Price/Troy Nichols triangle. I have a lot of fondness for Terry Alexander (Troy) from his role in Day of the Dead, but he cannot compete with Hank. Hank comes on very strong and very broad in these episodes in a way that would not fly today - he is often a brash [!@#$%^&*], and they only take him down a few pegs in subsequent eps. The writing for Troy - pushing him as a stodgy, white-collar man who can't relate to Sheila or Hank's interests - feels a little too convenient and broad as well in that classic Malone way, in that I don't remember the Troy in episodes from '90?/'91 seeming too much like a stuffed shirt even if I also didn't find him too interesting. That said, Nathan Purdee does have great chemistry with Valarie Pettiford, who is the only Sheila I ever liked and I like her more the more I see her as an adult. You can see why Purdee quit Y&R for OLTL initially. I remember Gottlieb in an interview making much of their hiring Black writers for this story, for whatever that is worth. Either way, whatever peaks or valleys it has it doesn't feel like the "Black story" is an afterthought in these episodes.

I still like Grace Phillips a lot as Sarah, but that may be my anti-Jensen Buchanan bias. Either way, she clashed with Gottlieb and was out not too long after all this big push. Either the BTS issues or unpopularity were strong enough that I believe she took most of the summer or fall off and then returned (with new red hair, as Phillips was obviously already looking for new work) for Thanksgiving just in time to die within one or two episodes. (Nora had already been introduced a couple months before and begun sparking with Bo) I'd love to hear more takes from those who've seen the eps and/or those who remember more.

Edited January 27, 2023 by Vee

[victoria foxton]

 

[DeliaIrisFan]

Morgan Richards openly drooling over Holden Snyder...

I wonder in Doug Marland happened on any of those scenes and decided then and there that Jon Hensley had to play the love interest for his next teen heroine.

[Faulkner]

Thirsty tangent: Ted Marcoux was so hot in those little shorts.

[DeliaIrisFan]

Yes!  Young Cassie had both those guys vying for her...

TM looks familiar to me from somewhere, but none of his credits ring a bell.  I'm assuming he didn't actually return for one episode in 2002 as IMDB claims, going by the rest of the cast list.  I was definitely watching then, and at first I thought he might have been one of the cameos during Tomlin's "Live Week."  But even if I somehow forgot Dorian getting a surprise visit from Herb, OG Cassie, and Uta Hagen around that time, I do remember Strasser was off the show at that point.

[Vee]

He definitely was not on during Live Week, lol.

[victoria foxton]

 

  

[j swift]

What caused Clint to leave journalism and go back to the oil business?

I was just thinking about how the Buchanans of OLTL sort of contrasted with the Lewis family of GL because it was the oldest Buchanan who was introduced not wanting to be a part of the family business versus the youngest Lewis who did not want a role in their heritage.

I guess it was his divorce from Viki, or Bo's absence, but I don't recall a specific plot point that accounted for his about face on working with Asa.  In later years one would could easily forget the initial father and son animosity because there was so much focus on Asa's relationship with Bo and Max.  But, in hindsight, it was a shame that Clint gave up the newspaper game.

[victoria foxton]

 

 

  

Edited January 30, 2023 by victoria foxton

[Faulkner]

Interesting coincidence considering their connections to Todd Manning.

[Darn]

Awww

[j swift]

In the BFTD thread @Vee mentioned the two Todd's, but was it ever resolved how Walker Lawrence came to resemble Victor Jr and how that retcon jibbed with the logic of the two Todds?

Also, wasn't there a reference to the idea that Victor Jr had some cognitive delays in the flashbacks during Irene's exposition that detailed the logic of the two Todds?  Because that didn't seem to reflect the history of the character on screen.

I guess we can attribute the mistakes to the need to tie up loose ends at the time of the cancellation, but I'm still stuck on those details.

As well as my earlier question of why Clint left journalism for the oil business after rejecting working with Asa for so long.

Edited January 31, 2023 by j swift

[Vee]

That was done during the original TSJ recast story. According to the original storyline, "Todd" (Victor) convinced crime boss Walker Flynn (born Walker Laurence, Mitch's long-lost brother) to allow him to take on and use Walker's face in order to run his scheme on Mitch. "Todd" then returned to Llanview posing as Walker.

According to the retcon in 2011, Irene decided to create the whole Walker ploy in order to protect Victor/Todd from the threat of Mitch a bit longer and "give Victor more time to become Todd". But Victor/Todd still approached the real Walker and made the same bargain, posing as Todd.

It was made clear that Victor was either some sort of savant or high-functioning spectrum individual, to put it charitably. (Irene called him 'special' onscreen, which would get a lot more eyes on it today.) Using whatever psychotropic drugs she had, Victor could mimic and take on the identity of anyone Irene put in front of him. That's what he did with Todd.

As a unique character, the still-unknown way his mind works could've allowed Victor to be a very schizoid character taking on many identities or personas but of course he never got that far.

Edited January 31, 2023 by Vee

[j swift]

Poor Barbara Rhodes (aka Irene) was given a huge amount details to explain in a rather short amount of time.  In hindsight it was an effective (yet ludicrous) part to play.