One Life to Live Tribute Thread

[Vee]

This was in their third official month.

[danfling]

I have been listening to a audio tape that had been posted on YouTube. The title is One Life to Live March 1, 2, 3 1978 CD 59. The poster was Jeff Cooper. These may have been recorded on an audio tape recorder. The voices sound squeaky, as though this is a little faster than normal. The female voices are easier for me to discern than the male voices.

The female voices that I have heard have been Jill Voight as Becky #1, Claire Mallis as Dorian #2, Sally Gracie as Ina, Ellen Holly as Carla, Judith Light as Karen, Jane Badler as Melinda #2, Lee Lawson as Wanda #2, Kathy Glass as Jenny #1, Erika Slezak as Vicky #3, Jennifer Harmon as Cathy #5, Lori March as Adele, and Jacqueline Courtney as Pat.

There are two male character who I do not remember at all. Both were connected to a character that I loved, Ina Hopkins.

There was a man named Ethan Bottomly. He was evidently being brought in as a romantic interest for Ina. He and Ina kissed. Credit is given to Stuart Germain for portraying Ethan.

There was also a young lawyer named Lionel West. I have since read that he was Ina's nephew. His scenes were with Becky. The scenes were about Becky consulting him because Richard wanted her to marry him, but she had already been married (prior to her introduction on the show) to Luke Jackson (Marshall Bordon as Luke #1). There was nothing romantic between Lionel and Becky. I am surprised, though, that he did not remain on the show because there was no other lawyer on the show, and, during Vicky's murder trail (in which she was accused of killing Marco), William Mooney as Paul Martin was brought over from All My Children to defend her. (I do not know who the actor was, and the poster evidently did not know either.)

The males in the cast were Luke Reiley as Richard #1, Anthony George as Will, Jameson Parker as Brad #1, Nat Pollen as Jim #2, Michael Storm as Larry #3, Jeff Pomerantz as Peter #1, Lee Patterson as Joe, Michael Ingram as Vinnie #2, Byron Sanders as Talbot, Marshall Bordon as Luke, and Tom Fuccello as Paul.

In the plot, Ethan and Ina kissed, Carla had tried to get Wanda to enroll in some college courses, Vinnie did not understand why Wanda would want to enroll unless the classes were domestic-type classes, Ed and Carla both wonder why Carla seems so restless, Dorian tells Peter that Melinda is unstable, Richard wants Becky Lee to marry him and to set a date, Becky is reluctant to do so, Jenny and Brad learn that they are not expecting a baby, Jenny thinks that Brad is relieved and she does not understand why, Larry and Karen are invited to dine at the home of Vicky and Joe, Karen explains to Vicky that she wants the evening to be special and declines the invitation, Karen (possibly in a flashback) recalls meeting Talbot, Vicky tells Joe that Karen is very nervous to make the evening special to Larry, Becky recalls being married to Luke, Pat and Paul are together, Paul wants Pat to put Brian's death behind her, Kathy tells Jim that she always falls in love with the wrong men (Joe, Tony, and Larry are mentioned), Larry (I'm not sure why) brings Talbot and Adelle home with him to meet Karen (but, of course, Talbot and Karen have met before), and Adelle tells Karen that she assumes that they (Larry and Karen) have an open marriage.

[DRW50]

Thanks for the recap. I keep meaning to listen to more of those.

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[amybrickwallace]

I remember reading a quote where Judith Light said that she had never wanted to do either soaps or sitcoms. Of course, that's where she made her name!!! LOL

[BKuzak]

She also said it on The View (for the One Life final). She said she told herself she would never do a sitcom or a soap. Like Erika Slezak, she was a theater actress. but then when One Life to LIve came around, her agent reminded her she had no job and very little money so "shut up and take it." LOL Then she came on the show, saw how hard everyone worked and realized she was wrong about snubing them. Then it was her husband (Gary from Cheers) who told her to go to L.A. and audition for Who's the Boss. She was perfectly willing to stay comfortble on the soap but he pushed her to take a chance.

She looks so different now on Dallas. I don't know if she wears a wig but it makes her look a lot older. When she was on The View for the final, she looked good.

Edited March 23, 2014 by BKuzak

[amybrickwallace]

I also loved her appearances on SVU at the ADA Bureau Chief (and later judge). Her dry wit and one-liners were hilarious. I'd love to see her back on that show someday.

Edited March 23, 2014 by amybrickwallace

[Khan]

Reading that perturbs me. To think, we could have had Judith Light on ONE LIFE TO LIVE longer than we did.

[amybrickwallace]

True, but who knows? Her story could have fizzled out the same way Gerry Anthony and Brynn Thayer's (to name a few from that era) did.

[danfling]

Also from that audio tape, it was revealed that Ina's late husband was named Harvey.

And the actor who played Ethan later played on the show Somerset.

[BKuzak]

And we never would have gotten those great seasons of Who's the Boss. I thought she did a great job as Angela. Especially when she got drunk and wild. Of course my fave was Mona but i thought they had good chemestry together.

I just wonder if she would have stayed (and they kept giving her storylines...big if), would they have repaird her with Larry again. anfdif they did, would have make them an interesting couple or just put them to the background. He talent could have been wasted to just one liners as Larry's wife for a few more years before they just dropped her.

Another thing, maybe they would have had Karen be Viki's confident during her 1985 Niki story. Lord knows they were a lot closer than Viki and Jenny were until Karen left and they pushed Viki and Jenny's friendship.

[amybrickwallace]

You just said it all. I think she left at just the right time and struck while the iron was hot. Yes, she was great as Angela, and being a child of the 80s, that was the first role I knew her from.

[amybrickwallace]

Carl, or anyone else out there who collects vintage soap magazines, would you please post what articles you can of Marty/Patrick?

I seem to remember one article (either SOM or SOD, I tend to think it's the former, from late '96 early '97), that profiled the triangle with Dylan Moody. The opening line went something like, "Two men in love with the same woman, and she's in love with both of them for different reasons. What a great triangle".

Thanks to anyone who can help!!!

[Vee]

Over at the (soon to be equally dead) TWOP, we were talking about the dying days of OLTL's music budget on ABC, and it brought this to mind for me - from the truly insane second Michael Malone/Josh Griffith era of OLTL, 2003-2004, comes Viki's heart transplant storyline from the spring of '04. More specifically, this is the incredibly pretentious and silly "dream" episode they did in which Viki, whose beloved Ben still languished in a coma, was struggling to come to grips with her own life being in the balance.

As you will see, this episode was absolutely terrible. It had a lot of heart, it meant well, but the purple dialogue and overwrought artifice, the direction and staging are all horribly stilted, and the production value is bargain-basement - it's Malone and Frank Valentini trying to do Kyle MacLachlan's abstract dream from David Lynch's Twin Peaks on about three-fifty, with the same attempt at avant-garde ambiguity. Not everyone can do Linda Gottlieb.

What is good about this, though, and what brings me to my top point, is the opening montage, featuring what had to be the very last of OLTL's budget for popular commercial music - Frank V. and Josh Griffith used to be very big on using real, good contemporary music, until the well ran dry. Here they used The Cure and "To Wish Impossible Things" to wonderful effect. I'm not sure any other soap ever had the balls to go for The Cure, and I was so pleased. That's the last time I can remember real music on OLTL on ABC.

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Edited April 2, 2014 by Vee

[amybrickwallace]

Any soap that uses The Cure deserves points just for even thinking about it!! I mean, soap opera = The Cure, right? I love it!!!

[DRW50]