One Life to Live Tribute Thread

[Jdee43]

Looking at the big picture, in what sense did Another World influence this show? Many of the same people, from writers, actors, and executive producers, worked on both shows, usually working first on AW. What impact did that have on OLTL? Did they try to make OLTL a little like AW, consciously or unconsciously? Could OLTL have been seen at some points as just AW but on ABC? 

 

[Vee]

No. Agnes Nixon had worked on a number of shows before creating OLTL (and AMC, which she had in her drawer waiting to come to life). AW was only one of them. Many classic soaps have personnel coming across back and forth all over the map, it's not a unique situation. And to my knowledge very few of the head creative teams at AW came to OLTL. If you're thinking of Harding Lemay, he did only a very brief consulting stint in '98 and maybe '99, and clearly had little actual impact on the writing. Paul Rauch was also a different EP at AW than he was at OLTL, GL, Santa Barbara, Y&R, etc. Nor do I recall him bringing many writers with him. Nor did his work at those shows resemble his time with Lemay at AW AFAIC. Frankly '70s Rauch and '80s Rauch seem like night and day.

Beyond Rauch, the only two examples of key AW additions I know of would be first when George Reinholt and Jacquie Courtney jumped from AW to OLTL in the '70s. They were debatably the first daytime supercouple (some might cite Penny and Jeff from ATWT), and the show attempted to recreate that with new characters at OLTL to garner ratings. This was not unique to these shows; many soaps attempted the same trick after them. It might've worked but Reinholt's behavior once again drove him to quit and/or be fired. Robin Strasser was hired several years later as Dorian, but not opposite them in any triangle. Reinholt was long gone.

JFP would be the other example and the only one who actively tried to model it after AW, bringing over several of her favorite actors from AW and several other shows she'd worked on in 1998-99. She was accused of trying to remake her AW at OLTL, but it was a poor fit because of their being very different. (She tried the same at GH.)

I don't think OLTL was ever seen as 'just Another World' even remotely. It simply occasionally had AW stars coming aboard. And in the late '90s, they didn't fit. Jacquie Courtney and George Reinholt's characters fit in much easier, but Reinholt's in particular didn't last and Courtney's became quite different. OLTL and AW were dramatically different shows IMO, which is why JFP forcing actors from it onto the show didn't work or last.

Edited 7 hours ago by Vee

[DRW50]

Beyond what was listed, I think there are a few other moments early on - Nixon tested the waters of having a black female character in a larger supporting part on AW, helping to pave the way for Carla and Sadie on OLTL. Rachel/Ada is in some ways a template for Carla/Sadie, although Carla was much more tormented and her scheming was from preservation. 

Jordan Charney eventually arrived at OLTL after his AW success, although that was not duplicated. Doris Belack's success was, several times over.  

[Contessa Donatella]

Rachel/Ada, Mona/Erica, a mother/daughter at LOVING, these are all examples of the Agnes Nixon "troublesome daughter/put upon mother" trope. Are Carla/Sadie by any chance one of the pairs that make up this trope?

Another thing that these 2 shows might have in common. OLTL had a very strong thematic approach to socioeconomic differences between groups of people. Class differences. AW at an earlier point had this too but to be clear it was not as much as OLTL. So that is a similarity but marginal. 

Besides that, I see no other comparable things.

Paul Rauch was a very different EP at different shows.

Oh, I've thought of one more thing. Using actors from the Broadway stage.  But, realistically that was something all of the NY shows had in common. So I don't think it has any uniqueness between AW & OLTL.

 

Edited 2 hours ago by Contessa Donatella

[DRW50]

I think they are a part of the same family, although Carla was never really scheming for the same reasons, and once her double life was exposed, she stopped.