OLTL Tribute Thread

[DRW50]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7ZbzMjRsNA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHeb3ckCh_0&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

[Cheap21]

Oh man I hated early Marty. I thought she was such a mess of a character and not likeable at all

Edited October 14, 2011 by Cheap21

[DRW50]

She's not very likeable but I enjoy her edge, and her relationship with Andrew. There are some great scenes between them, like the one where she tells him she regrets not being nicer to Megan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyTT_HY4OBE

I would have gone for a Marty/Andrew relationship instead of everything with her false accusations. I think seeing her slowly reform, as she was doing by early 1993, would have been better than redemption by rape, which ended up with her being defined by rape.

[EricMontreal22]

It did, but that rape story was still damn brilliant in so many ways, and groundbreaking. Nearly every soap writer seems to be unable to resist "redemption from rape" to some extent.

[DRW50]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atwFKyKOueg

[DRW50]

This is from the October 1969 Afternoon TV with Larry Storm and Lynn Benesh on the cover; Paul Raven posted the cover earlier in the thread.

[DRW50]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALiMbjT9b4g

[Goldensoaps]

CarlD2, thank you very much for the October 1969 Afternoon TV article....it is GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!

THAK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[DRW50]

Thank you for reading. I knew you'd want to see that.

[Paul Raven]

[DRW50]

Thanks. It's hard to remember they were that close, it seems like a lifetime ago.

[Cheap21]

What an awful couple. I hated Clint and Nora together

[EricMontreal22]

Just caught it now--always great to see more pics of Gillian as Vicki/Nicki. How I wish that wedding described was available to watch.

[DRW50]

3/22/88 SOD. I know that many love the Rauch era music cues. You might enjoy this.

[DRW50]

From a December 1986 SOD. John Kelly Genovese reviews the show.

The vibrant opening of ONE LIFE TO LIVE promises a soap that goes where no soap has gone before. Closeups of the regulars are superimposed onto city scenes representing each character's milieu - the courhouse, the hospital, the diner, etc. The synthesized Dave Grusin theme pulsates, dictating the rhythm in which the title slides change. This is no hourglass standing in the middle of nowhere, filtering sands to the strains of a comforting string section.

By and large, the cast of ONE LIFE TO LIVE lives up to the promise of its logo. Each character is unique and individual. Surely no heroine has the combined patrician elegance and straight-shooting business sense of Victoria Lord Buchanan (Erika Slezak). No bitch goddess can be as vulnerable and childlike one moment, then suddenly so fearsomely indomitable as Dorian Lord Callison (Robin Strasser). And few soaps can claim such an array of strong, believable male figures - from the rugged Clint Buchanan (Clint Ritchie) to the fair (but not square) lawyer Herb Callison (Anthony Call) to the idealistic Pete O'Neill (James O'Sullivan) to the dependable Dr. Larry Wolek (Michael Storm) to slimebucket-turned-antihero Brad Vernon (Steve Fletcher). Patriarch Asa Buchanan (Philip Carey)? Not always believable. But what fun!

ONE LIFE is also perfectly centered. Most roads lead to the fragile, sometimes fiery relationship between Viki and Dorian, rooted in Dorian's manipulating of her deceased husband and Viki's father, the powerful Victor Lord. The current core families on ONE LIFE, the Texas Buchanans and the earthy O'Neills, play into, rather than detract from, the show's Lord roots.

The problem which has plagued ONE LIFE TO LIVE for the past several years is its uneven, choppy plotting. Ideally, a soap should be a unit of integrated stories which grow, change course when necessary, and feed into one another over a long period of time. Short-term stories are not stories unto themselves, but events directly leading to an ensuing long-arc treatment. CHaracters are introduced with specific purposes, intended as essential cogs in the story wheel.

For a while, ONE LIFE had rediscovered this ideal form of story telling in the riveting Viki/Niki split-personality sequencce. Although it twisted and turned Llanview history somewhat (was Victor Lord really such a monster?), it nonetheless served to unify characters via a natural catalyst: Viki's discovery that her viperous ward Tina (Andrea Evans) was her half-sister. Not to mention that it gave two-time Emmy winner Erika Slezak a long-overdue showcase. Here is an actress and a half.

But such is not always the case on ONE LIFE TO LIVE. More often than not, it pounds its front-burner stories mercillessly into its viewers' consciousness. Anything not directly related to the main issue at hand is reduced to filler material; an excuse to give overplayed characters and overworked performers a breather. Worse, the substance of many of this show's recent stories has been almost laughable in their blatant manipulation of characters.

As of this writing, the schemes of the nefarious ex-con Mitch Laurence (Roscoe Born) are paramount. Therefore, anyone touched upon by Laurence has his or her fair share of plot. Viki and Clint are involved, because Mitch swears revenge on them for his incarceration. Ditto Asa, because Laurence is blackmailing him with his knowledge that Tina's new husband, Cord Roberts (John Loprieno) is Clint's illegitimate son. The O'Neill family shares center stage with the Buchanans, particularly teen Joy O'Neill (Julie Ann Johnson). Joy, you see, has fallen under Mitch's spell now that he's heading a bogus religious cult. Forget that he killed the father she adored.

The Laurence caper is, at best, an appalling excuse for a story. Would a man so hell-bent on conving the world he's Llanview's answer to Bishop Fulton Sheen resort to blackmail in the next breath? And how much more stupid can Joy Be. The believable, intelligent young girl of two years ago suddenly fell for hit man Chip Cooper (Cane DeVore), and is now worshipping her father's murderer. Some example for impressionable, school-aged viewers.

The one saving grace has been the Tina/Cord marriage, which was deftly handled. Her genuine love for Cord, despite having wed him for the Buchanan bucks, has fleshed out Tina to the point where her vulnerability is as obvious as her calculated bitchyer. Indeed, she could be the young Dorian.

But what of the other residents of Llanview?

In some instances, what was frontpage news last year is shoved into a tiny box under the obituaries. Rafe Garretson (Ken Meeker) and Delila Buchanan (Shelly Burch) were part of a fascinating embryonic transplant story two years ago. Now they share an occasional scene, casually alluding to marriage.

Cassie and Rob Coronal (Ava Haddad and Ted Marcoux), probably the most appealing young young couple this show has had in a decade, were allowed to split with nary a chance for reconciliation. Dorian is caught between Herb and hunky private-eye Jon Russell (John Martin) as a result of a dead-end story about a psycho. Didi (Barbara Treutelaar) got stuck playing a shrieking deprogrammer to sister Joy after hubby Bo was lost in the wilds of Vietnam. Pamela (Christine Jones), the pivotal figure in Asa's second bigamy story in five years, has no other purpose save hanging around Asa. And Larry Wolek'smajor love interest is, once again, Llanview Hospital.

When all else fails on ONE LIFE TO LIVE, it resorts to the tried-and-true. The results of these forays into the past are usually nowhere nearly as satisfying as the Viki-Niki material. Mad scientist Ivan Kipling (Jack Betts), Bible-belt beauty queen Mimi King (Kristen Meadows), heroic fugitives Jenny and David Renaldi (Brynn Thayer and Michael Zaslow), and tenacious journalist Dan Wolek (an endless parade of young actors). were all brought back amidst great hoopla. Yet their stories all proved negligible, and all were disposed of quietly. Now Dan is back for the umpteenth time. So is actor Lee Patterson, who may or may not be playing Viki's presumed-dead husband, Joe Riley. Bets are he's really Bobby Ewing.

The two groups that have the toughest time in Llanview are teenagers and Blacks. Youths are either misused (Joy), reduced in importance (Cassie), or simply allowed to ride off into the sunset when their stories go nowhere. Remember Julietta (Fabiana Udenio)? The story hubbub upon her introduction led everyone to believe she would become a Laura Spencer or a Hoope Brady in pesto sauce. Where is she now?

This show's treatment of Blacks is especially disappointing. For a soap conceived to represent an ehtnic balance, ONE LIFE TO LIVE is taking a back seat to such previously whitewashed soapers as AS THE WORLD TURNS. The elctric triangle of Josh Hall (Guy Davis), Lisa (Laura Carrington) and Bobby Blue (Blair Underwood) fizzled when Underwood left the show. And the criminal doings of Lisa's father, Bart Baron (Lloyd Hollar) have been stop-gaps for so long, one easily forgets the premise of his so-called story.

Where is the imagination? Where is the originality which made this show sparkle in the late 1960s and early '70s? Here was a show about real people from every conceivable arena of human existence. The privileged Lords were intermingled with professional-class Jews and Irish, who in turn grew up with working class Poles and Blacks. Every romantic story, psychological dilemma and crime sequence was rooted in how these groups related to one another...accepted one another.

Where are those moments that were so real and simple...the deaths of Dave Siegel and Meredith Wolek; the crackling confrontation between Dorian and Victor prior to his stroke; the wrenching monologue of Pat Kendall after the death of her son Brian; the soul-bearing courtroom confession of Karen Wolek that she was a prostitute during her marriage to Larry?

ONE LIFE TO LIFE has a fascinating history. Because of that history - not to mention a largely superb cast and beautiful productoin values - ONE LIFE also has potential. The directing by David Pressman, Peter Winer and Larry Auerbach is usually well paced. Dean Tschetter's sets are attractive, believable, rich in detail and true to character. Erika Slezak, Robin Strasser, Clint Ritchie, Phil Carey, and the much underrated Tony Call comprise an ever-energetic core, constantly displaying acting surprises usually not common to longtieme soap ensembles. And the show's cosmopolitan base in semi-fictional Llanview (semi in that it is equid-distant to Philaedlphia and Harrisbug, PA) is a breath of fresh air in what still seems to be a medium about small, sleepy towns.

It is only when ONE LIFE TO LIVE rediscovers its former grasp on reality and satisfying interwoven stories, however, that it will live up to the promise of its riveting opening.