One Life to Live Tribute Thread

[slick jones]

A little more info on Sherry Carmichael. She was co-owner of "Hostess with the Mostess"a New York prostitution ring, and was out to ruin Pete O'Neill's campaign. Her main hooker was Elena, played by Tonya Walker (#1) and later Saundra Santiago.   Sherry and Elena were around in 1985.    Ellen Foley also appeared on SFT, GL, and AMC.  She is best known for her singing the duet "Paradise By the Dashboard Light" with Meatloaf, and also appeared on Night Court as  Billie Young.

[Franko]

Information about Elena (and a host of additional characters I was unaware of) can be found here:

http://www.geocities.ws/oltlx2/

 

I was especially fascinated to learn the likes of Cathy Burns and Joanne Dorian came back, albeit in much smaller roles the second time around.

[j swift]

That was a really fun read, all of the links are extinct, but do you have the name of the site for the front page?

[Franko]

I wish I did. I was hoping to find that, too. It sounds like it was/is a site to rival Jason47's site, the EON Homepage and, of course, the Another World Homepage.

[j swift]

found it - http://www.oocities.org/historypg/

 

memories of geocities....

[Paul Raven]

Ellen Foley also recorded a few albums and had some success in Europe and Australia.

 

Her second album was written/produced by Mick Jones of The Clash, with whom she was in a relationship at the time.

 

As for David Pressman I posted an interview with him and Larry Auerbach, long time director of Love of Life in this thread but it didn't get much attention. I'm going to repost as I'm sure it will be of interest.

Edited January 16, 2019 by Paul Raven

[Wendy]

 

I was just going to write about Ellen Foley being the female voice in "Paradise By The Dashboard Light" (not to mention the singer with Meatloaf on all other tracks on the original Bat Out Of Hell - minus the final track, "For Crying Out Loud"). I had read, though, that someone named Karla DeVito had taken over the singing live and I'm not sure if Foley ever sang these live herself.

 

Makes sense if the footage I have seen with Meatloaf live doing "Paradise..." is not her since, if I recall, as Billie on Night Court, she had blonde hair (yes, I know it can be dyed and cut short!) and her face looked different from that concert. The singer in the concert footage had brown curly hair.

Edited January 16, 2019 by Wendy

[BuckyB12]

 

I don't really recall anything about this reality show storyline, but many of David's lines popped back into my head upon watching this. I did love Tuc.

[Khan]

 

Yeah, Karla DeVito, an astonishing singer in her own right, took over for Foley when Meat Loaf went on tour.  Ironically, that was DeVito in the live footage, but she was lip-syncing to Foley's vocals.

[j swift]

A couple of tidbits from the double cast list:

 

Jennifer Harmon as Cathy Craig (big early character, kidnapped Viki's baby) and Susan Floyd as Christine Cromwell (the red herring in the Megan/Viki/Eterna story) were such big characters who drove story for a year that it is amazing to me that they both came back as dayplayers/lawyers later with almost no fanfair.

 

Dr. Paige Miller Truman - I always wonder about characters who get re-cast more than once.  Paige was obviously being built into something, Bo's girlfriend, Spencer's ex, Hugh's Mom, but they could not find the right characterization for the part.  One day she was a victim with a troubled past, the next day was a schemer, then she was back to victimhood.  It makes me question when a soap decided to cut its losses early (Hugh and Stephanie, Carlo Hesser's niece come to mind) versus when they stick with a character regardless of recasts (Dawn on GH).  Most characters are replaceable which is why the choice to stick with Paige for three years never made much sense to me. I understand that a long time characters like Kevin or Joey Buchanan require recasting due to age and actor's exits but Paige was never well drawn and I wonder why she was such a priority in the story?

Edited January 16, 2019 by j swift

[Vee]

Paige originally came on at the tail end of Michael Malone's disastrous second run in 2004 - Frank Valentini fought hard to get Mary Beth Evans for the role, but at the last moment ATWT offered her a contract as Sierra and she took it. Kimberlin Brown took the role for maybe six months and did nothing but fück Bo on his desk. At the time Paige was little more than a transparent spoiler for a Bo/Nora reunion Malone was never remotely able to execute.

 

Later, with Cady Huffman in the role, it seemed like they hoped Paige could supplant Nora - the actresses had very similar styles, and HBS was locked in a contract dispute with ABC which kept Nora in a coma for months. Only fan outcry saved Nora's life. Paige as a character never worked or went anywhere, but Dena Higley was obsessed with her creation Spencer Truman so that (along with the logjam BTS that allegedly kept the show from reuniting Bo and Nora for years) gave Paige a year or two more of longevity. No one cared about any of the Paiges, including the final one, Alexandra Neil from Texas.

Edited January 16, 2019 by Vee

[Wendy]

 

Thanks for the confirmation! Although, being live, it seems weird to have DeVito lip sync to Foley's singing since she can sing herself. Isn't that the point of "live", after all? Oh, well.

[j swift]

As a character, she came on to redeem a secret from her past due to an emotional crisis caused by a relationship (like Nora and her car accident or Nash and his nutty fiance), then three years later, she exhibits no growth by responding to her next crisis by going mad again.  Her love for Bo had no impact on either character  Soap heroines often come from healing from a crisis (cancer, rape, kidnapping), villains are often defined from not resolving a crisis (lost kids, ex-wives, and business rivals) characters that don't work respond the same way over and over without any growth at all.

 

The choice to hang the Truman/McBain family introduction on such a poorly drawn lady like Dr. Paige, who was also fairly isolated in terms of scene partners, is a huge mistake that thanks to @Veemakes more sense in context. 

 

I also hated the sidelining of Dorian in this storyline when she could have been such a good ally for David against Spencer given her past a scam artist and a doctor.  Writing a couple that stays apart due to a third party threat never makes any sense to me.  Why would anyone logically follow the instructions of their enemy to get rid of their allies?

[Vee]

 

The thing is, Paige's past secret did not remotely figure into the initial character. She existed solely as a very two-dimensional B&N spoiler (like Daniel Colson in 2004) for a storyline that never actually happened due to BTS stuff. Paige's secret and past life was only created by new writer Dena Higley in '05 as something to hang Spencer's character on.

 

Also, the McBains were all introduced in 2003-04 by Malone. The Spencer link - John's father's murder - was again only created in '05-'06 by Higley.

[Jagger1966]

It was interesting to read about Saundra Santiago's two roles as Elena and Isabella.  She actually had three as she was a re-cast as Carlotta toward the end of the show's run.  She might have had four roles on the show as I do recall that she was originally cast as police officer Maggie Vega in 1992, but something happened and the role was re-cast with Yvette Lawrence before Santiago had started. (I'm not sure if she had ever filmed an episode as Maggie).