One Life to Live Tribute Thread

[robbwolff]

It was wrapped up quickly but the story was always meant to be short term, wrapping up completely by Labor Day 1992. As I recall, Andrew gave an impassioned sermon about intolerance to his congregation. Billy came out to the church. Billy's father was pissed and went to slap Billy across the face. Simultaneously, Sloan was haunted by memories of his intolerance toward his own son William and of slapping the boy. Sloan intervened and stopped Billy's father from hitting him. Sloan and Andrew then had a heart-to-heart talk, reconciled, and Sloan joined Andrew in placing William's panel in the quilt. It was hokey but powerful in every way. I don't know if he was instantly down with the cause but rather just realized how much time he had wasted and how much he had lost. I know those scenes changed my life, helping me to break away from an intolerant church that I was involved in.

[Vee]

Those scenes are still excellent.

[Vee]

And now for something completely different, from Malone's second run. I'll never forget this crazy shît, but I will say the ending - with Dorian, Blair and Lindsay looming over the fallen Mitch - was a great antidote to the increasingly-misogynistic GH of 2003.

 

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KDP looked so good with the darker hair - IIRC, FV (who loved blondes) made her dye it light again.

[Khan]

BITD, Mitch was one of my favorites.  But they never should have brought him back from the dead the first time.

[j swift]

My oddest recollection about Mitch Lawrence was from his stint as a cult leader.  He ran a cult and everyone referred to it as a cult.  It was as if there was no attempt cover the fact that it was a cult, and yet it kept attracting new female cult members, (there never seemed to be any men in Mitch's cult).  Roscoe Born was great at delivering fire and brimstone speeches, so he was well cast a cult leader, but it was bizarre that the cult-y nature of his church was so brazen. However, the illegal part of Mitch's cult was unclear.  He didn't seem to be stealing money, or selling false idols.  As a result, I was always confused as to why anyone needed to go undercover to expose a cult that everyone already knew was a cult.

 

I guess the second most odd thing about Mitch was his weirdly retconned brother Walker, who somehow looked like Todd, (but not the Todd before plastic surgery).  The exposition dump that Irene Manning (Barbara Rhodes) had to do to explain all of the plastic surgeries will forever be legendary to me.  I have re-watched it a dozen times on YT, because it was such an outrageous swing and a miss.  However, Ms Rhodes commitment, (coupled with the crazy lighting in the flashbacks), is something that one can only appreciate on soaps.  If that nutty episode happened in a second season primetime show, I would turn it off and never watch it again, but sometimes the eye rolling exasperation was part of the fun of watching OLTL.

[Vee]

The claim was that Todd had had plastic surgery to look like Walker. The real Walker - Walker Flynn - was a crime boss in Atlantic City. In the original story, Mitch's goons had beaten Todd to a pulp and destroyed his face before sealing him in Victor's sarcophagus in the Lord mausoleum. Todd survived but took Walker's identity (with Walker's permission) to get revenge on Mitch. In the retcon, Irene had the brainwashed Victor's face altered to fool Mitch and 'give Victor more time to become Todd.'

 

I think as ludicrous as it was - and it was hilarious when it aired - it worked because the entire cast committed to it 100%. Further, the "Victor Jr." angle actually gave a payoff to all the random nonsense Malone was throwing around in 2003 before Howarth left - Todd's renewed obsession with his recently-'undead' father and Victor's mysterious signet ring, "Victor Sr." telling Todd he would've named him "Victor Jr." The ring and the name became key parts of the 2011 story.

 

Speaking of the ridiculous backstory of the Laurence family, let's not even get into Miles - one of the most random and pointlessly convoluted characters ever and Mitch's second long-lost, presumed dead brother.

Edited September 24, 2018 by Vee

[j swift]

It's also amazing that the scenes have so many big name actors, but it's almost a Barbara Rhodes monologue.  There's the usual begging to hear the story, and some interjections to move the plot along, but mostly she's just sitting there talking.  It was an incredibly huge job to give to someone who was not a known character or actor (on that soap).  When we recall Karen on the stand, or Nora's summation at the rape trial, or Tina in the taxi before Cord's wedding, those monologues were earned by characters who had been on the show for years.  Irene got one scene to walk into Llandfair and then she had to captivate a whole episode.

 

The detail that I appreciated was Todd's anger that everyone believed he had already returned from the dead.  As I recall, Todd was incredulous that Blair trusted Victor's outrageous story; prior to learning from his mother that the truth was even more outrageous.  It was great to see a soap play out all the beats of returning from the dead, rather than just write it as if someone had come back from Europe.  I admire the audacity of trying to be so meta in a soap universe, and I think that Irene Manning Day should hold a special place in Llandview history.

Edited September 24, 2018 by j swift

[Vee]

I honestly thought Barbara Rhoades was pretty weak as Irene. Campy as hell but wooden, except when she returned as a very OTT ghost. I wish they'd gotten Liz Hubbard instead.

 

My favorite part of the Two Todds was Todd asking everyone how they could ever have thought he would re-rape Marty. As a fan of the character since the '90s I turned on TSJ's Todd completely over the rapemance in 2008 - only a story like making that Todd an imposter could ever have brought me back to him. Todd is a relic now in the Me Too era and should be written off any future imaginary OLTL IMO - at least for a long time - but that meant a lot to me, undoing the rapemance.

[Khan]

 

That might have been the only thing to come out of that otherwise ridiculous storyline.

[danfling]

Actress Elizabeth Hubbard did appear on One Life to Live earlier.

[Khan]

Knowing Ron Carlivati, if Liz Hubbard had been cast as Irene, he would have made her and Estelle Chadwick twin sisters.

[Vee]

 

That never stopped them before.

[DRW50]

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[EricMontreal22]

Someone was talking on FB about anniversary episodes starting with the 25th.  But was there a 30th anniversary episode?

Also--has this been posted?  Probably but it's new to me.  Is this actually a few seconds of Gillian Spencer's Vicki?  (Obviously filmed badly on a camera phone at the Paley Center)
 

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[Vee]

Yep, that's her.

 

I recall A Daytime to Remember with Reba McEntire, but I don't remember a specific anniversary celebration. I kind of suspect JFP may have folded it into the primetime episodes with Todd holding everyone hostage at the Buchanan lodge - that would be like her.

 

From the very weird 35th in Malone and Griffith's very weird 2003 - I honestly can't remember much beyond (yet another) OTT gothic fantasy episode in which Natalie and Cristian face hallucinatory fears and doubts about their upcoming wedding, including goofy clip montages of 'those who have loved and lost in Llanview.' Natalie and Cris had been super popular in 2001-2, but were severely backburnered most of the year in favor of Bree's Jessica, Antonio, Mitch, Jen, Flash/Sarah, Walker/Todd, etc. (Flash is already getting backburnered by this episode due to her disastrous intro story with Joey - she went on to spend most of her time with Riley and Asa before exiting the following January.) Natalie and Cris didn't get major airtime again until the fall, with the arrival of John McBain and David Fumero's exit.

 

Malone and Griffith's answer to everything in 2003-2004 seemed to be another OTT gothic fantasy episode. There's even a few I've probably forgotten. There were too many, even for a kid who had grown up watching Dark Shadows. (And frankly the budget strained worse than DS at times.)

 

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Edited October 3, 2018 by Vee