One Life to Live Tribute Thread

[Vee]

I do think the original trajectory is somewhat there in spring/summer '93 when Clint is at Viki's side as Kevin is arrested for rape, with Sloan on the outs - you could see in the day to day material where Viki and Clint would eventually get back together. CR gets into his accident within days of this though, and then Clint (who is primed to be very involved with Viki and Kevin in the trial) is abruptly written out due to a similar plane crash or something. That changed everything, though Sloan was always going to die sooner or later.

I remember most of Robin's story of her return but I didn't know Zaslow suggested she come to GL.

Edited April 11 by Vee

[Soaplovers]

It worked out for Robin's favor, even though I thought Elaine was a superior actress.. but popularity always trumps talent sometimes.  

@DRW50I remember an interview with Ms Slezak where she confirmed that Sloan dying was the trigger for the return of her DID.  She said she was sad that the return of the DID story would result in Sloan's death since she enjoyed working with Roy T.

I do agree that the Sarah character was only revived as a thorn/obstacle to Bo/Cassie.. and not really because the character was beloved and missed.  While Grace Phillips gave a good performance and infused Sarah with an edge/backbone, fans just didn't take to her because she wasn't Jenson.

We look at Jenson through 2025 lenses, but back in 1991/1992.. Jenson was looked at favorably and was popular on OLTL during her stint.  So even though a fairly good actress came onto the canvas to play Sarah, the show really didn't know what to do with her after the initial back from the dead story and being a suspect in Carlo Hesser's death concluded.

It also didn't help that her on screen sister Megan passed away mere weeks after she debuted as Sarah either.

[Khan]

I'm with @chrisml: viewers had a visceral reaction to Bo and Nora's breakup, not because of some sitcom that was forgotten before it even stopped airing, but because the circumstances that led to the breakup were flat-out, country-ass dumb.  And I definitely agree with you, @DRW50, that I don't think either Bo or Nora ever truly recovered.  By the time they did reunite, I was more-or-less over them anyway.

And I'm not even gonna THINK about Jennifer Grey as Gene Wilder's on-screen spouse.

Rewatching KNOTS LANDING this week on WBTV's Primetime Soaps channel, I can see why Robin Strasser eventually grew weary of pursuing primetime gigs in L.A.  Her roles on shows like KL, "Murder, She Wrote" and "Coach" weren't really much beyond being devices to push plots along.  That was especially true for her KL gig, where she was a red herring for a stalking storyline I still laugh and cringe at whenever I rewatch it.

Beyond watching her tarry once more with Michael Zaslow, however, I can't see her doing well on GL, particularly as an Alexandra recast.  It's one thing to replace Claire Malis as Dorian, but replacing Beverlee McKinsey?  Frankly, I think she would've been better off joining the show as a new character, or as a recast of one who hadn't been on in awhile, such as Amanda Spaulding.

Of course, hearing how the details behind her joining GL were all but finalized before she reached out to OLTL and ABCD, I'm wondering if that played any part in how RS was treated on OLTL when JFP was EP.  Perhaps, JFP had held a grudge?

Edited April 11 by Khan

[Vee]

Robin has always said that she felt Jill definitely held a grudge and that was why she was treated the way she was at OLTL. She repeatedly invoked the GL situation re: JFP over the years, which is how I first heard about it. I also think Robin dodged a bullet there.

I think Bo and Nora recovered well in 2009-on because the intimacy between the actors was frankly very plainly still there as soon as they allowed themselves to access it onscreen, which it seemed for a long time at least one of them hadn't (until they both did). The actors were both fully recommitted onscreen and off, which is what mattered. That intimacy stayed there all the way to them as buck-naked AARP members rolling around on the floor on Hulu in 2013, lol. I was a little amazed the show went there at that time. But however silly some of their last stories on network (with Jessica Leccia, etc.) got they still very much had it for me, and that is rarely the case. Using Clint as the vengeful heavy there also created some very good material for the three of them early in the show's final year on ABC, though "Dark Clint" went a bit too far at some points. But there was a period there when that heavy, historical drama with RSW, HBS and JVD was carrying the show while the rest of it was angled around the Fords, Terri Conn and the latest troubles of Victor/Todd.

Edited April 11 by Vee

[chrisml]

Strasser does not come out looking good in that story in regards to GL. However, it always amuses me how producers and execs hold grudges when performers leave or do something but execs/producers pull that kind of behavior all the time. I don't say JFP is wrong for being annoyed, but she's also the wrong who fired Laura Bonarrigo while she was on maternity leave so...

JFP started the destruction of Nora and Higley finished it. And I know someone will come along and point out that HBS got nominated for an Emmy during this time. Doesn't make the writing any less idiotic and sexist. I still remember how they dumbed down Clint and made him so pathetic. Marrying Lindsay after a day or two because Viki didn't want to reunite? Just awful. 

[chrisml]

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[Paul Raven]

Can't beat having a convicted killer and gang member as a consultant.

[DRW50]

Thanks @chrisml 

I'd be fascinated to know if Deena stuck with OLTL through the years of noble rapist #1 and noble rapist #2 and finally noble rapist #3, Ford. 

I also wonder how she felt about Brad Vernon...

Malone judging people for not wanting to see Todd's (totally unearned) "redemption" is a great example of the attitude that drove many soap fans away, never to return.

Logan having the editorial freedom to get to have an entire column on such a controversial subject, and to have a column which goes against decades of soap precedent, is an example of voices the soap press would soon lose. Can you imagine anything like this ever happening even by the '00s? (not to mention the ass-kissing Daytime Confidential/"Soap Opera Spirit Awards" era). 

Angel Square never quite worked in terms of the double life/return of grit (partly because of the overall decay of ABC Daytime and partly because Horgan just wasn't a strong enough producer), but I did respect the idea and I'm glad it stayed around to the end of the show. 

 

[chrisml]

That's daytime in a nutshell: "How dare you not want us to romanticise a rapist!" 

Logan himself would lose so much power as well. When she joined YR, he would suck up to JFP and say all of her critics were just sexist. Conveniently, he forgot the years he went after her work on GL, OLTL and AW and in all three cases publicly called for her dismissal. All to get the interview. 

[janea4old]

Thank you (I think?) for posting the articles.  They're horrifying and I feel quite ill.  What I mean is, I appreciate you posting the articles, from a historical perspective.  The history of such societal attitudes makes me quite ill.   And egads how Michael Logan wrote it.

I've seen recently glorification of a certain rape-pairing from another television program, from certain fans, on social media.  I don't want to go off-topic with the other show on this OLTL thread, so I won't give details. Just sayin' some of that attitude is sadly still out there.

Here's hoping that all shows daytime/primetime/films will stop with that trope.

Edited April 12 by janea4old

[Franko]

Yes, three cheers for @chrisml. It's interesting to revisit Logan's columns (which were always the first thing I read in '90s TV Guide), even if I'd forgotten some of these items, like King Sassy's time as a consultant.

[Vee]

I think Angel Square worked, but I also think it was very much of the time and often preachy even In hyper-earnest times. Some of it is very dated today. The same obviously goes for the evolving attitudes re: Todd. It seems alien now but it was conventional wisdom at the time.

[chrisml]

I always found it troubling when shows wanted to deal with characters from "the other side of the tracks" they always saw those those stories/neighborhoods in terms of  non-white characters as if only black and hispanic Americans are poor/lower class. I don't have a firm grasp on OLTL history, but I am of the understanding that OLTL used to have a wide mix of classes/races at one time, and then that was dismantled at some point. A shame.

I think it's worse now when it comes to rape/romance. I don't think magazines would call out rapists as love interests these days. They would be too scared for many reasons some of which have nothing to do with soaps and their execs.

[EricMontreal22]

Malone says in the Llanview oral history book that he had been learning so much about OLTL's historic storylines and loving the history that he felt he would use Megan's death as a way to remind the audience of the show's legacy with characters coming to her death bed and telling her stories about their lives (cue the flashbacks.)  I might find that annoying myself if I was on my death bed, but it was an amazing week for new viewers like myself.

I was NEVER a Todd fan (though did like him marginally better as played by TSJ who I like a lot as an actor.)  The fact that Howarth often didn't want to be there didn't help.

Funny, i was watching regularly then, and have zero memory about Grace Phillips as Sarah

Agreed.  For those of us as viewers, it can be easy to forget how much has changed in attitudes and awareness in 30 years.

[EricMontreal22]

Thanks for this!  I never thought about the fact that around the same time ABC Daytime obviously made a point of hiring outside the soap world for exec producers (Felicia Minei Behr was doing fine at AMC.)  Gottlieb was the highest profile one, but Loving hired Haidee Granger from the BBC (who Logan thinks shows promise--but would have a falling out with headwriter Addie Walsh, serve as HW herself for three months, hire Millee Taggert and Bob Guza, and then get fired by ABC) and for GH they took TV movie producer Wendy Riche who Logan doesn't think shows much promise, but of course... would (mostly.)

However, Gottlieb seemed to be the only one to immediately hire a headwriter from outside the soap world as well.

(But what was the S&M sex?)

Edited April 13 by EricMontreal22