One Life to Live Tribute Thread

[titan1978]

Apparently Jean Passanante announced it online, maybe on FB?  He passed away last night.

I absolutely loved his first run on OLTL.  His characters had so many facets and a great range of personality traits.

Edited August 20, 2022 by titan1978

[vetsoapfan]

IMO, the last time OLTL exhibited actual quality in its writing was under Malone's first reign (after a shaky start). RIP.

[danfling]

An obituary of Michael Malone was posted in the soap opera writer' discussion area.

[Vee]

I have been rewatching some eps from '92 and '93 tonight (including the Spring Fling) as I assembled my thoughts, so here's a few no one needed:

Michael Malone was far from flawless. His AW stint is infamous and seems to have contained mostly recycled material and characters from his mythical 13 Bourbon Street pilot as well as some of OLTL (Cindy on AW in particular seems to have been a melange of Alex and Tina's 1992 storylines). I've roasted the insanity of his second OLTL stint many times, too; it went from dream to disaster very quickly and was one of the most deranged things I've ever watched short of Jim Reilly. But it was never not gonzo and entertaining, and even then there was always some smidge of poetry and soul, however misguided, to his most ill-advised work; you could always see the personal fascinations peeking through, the private obsessions and character work Malone valued, even if it was about stuff you found silly or stupid. I remember how even in 2004 he loved to stop the story flow for single episodes where random people would reconnect and talk over their problems, like when Kevin Buchanan and Jen Rappaport would sit down at Ultra Violet, get boozed up and hash out their differences over his little brother Joey, who they had both cuckolded and run out of town at different times, and discuss how Jen was ultimately a substitute for Kelly, the teenage sweetheart Kevin had taken from his brother. I remember being stunned they got that onscreen in such a plot-driven show. This is essential character stuff, beats we rarely got to see played out on bad soaps in '04 let alone today, and he and his team made the time for it even when most of the show was in the toilet (and Joey had not been onscreen for months).

Darn told me (and he's right) that Malone's work defined the last 20 years of OLTL and they never stopped chasing the critical high of the Spring Fling and the DID saga after he was gone. I think that's correct, but the difference is Malone, flaws and all (and his murky fetishization of Todd and Marty aside), usually wanted to turn the page from a lot of that, whereas most of his successors did not. I think the Victor Lord/DID retcon still holds up, though I understand some people's issues with it. I think it's one of the greatest stories they ever told. I think the Dorian twist - that she didn't kill Victor, and had spent twenty years taking the scorn and hatred of the entire town to protect the woman who hated her as easily as breathing - was absolutely brilliant, even if Robin Strasser never liked it. And the Billy Douglas story and climax is still absolutely beautiful and heartbreaking.

I have never connected to a soap heroine more than Susan Haskell as Marty and I never will, probably because as a troubled kid I identified with her a little too much. In those days, alongside Nora, Marty was my absolute favorite, because even when she became a full-fledged heroine she always had that fire. I didn't know they let people who behaved like her or seemed as wounded as her (even before the rape) on TV, let alone on daytime television. And the fact that Bob Krimmer's Andrew, the soulful bird watcher and monastic dreamer, was seemingly Malone's onscreen avatar was so telling. His forbidden passion for two women he couldn't have - first Megan, then Marty - hits much differently to me as an adult than as a kid drawn to more outwardly flashy male characters.

There's so much more to talk about, of course, like the incessant fascination with avant-garde fantasy episodes that sometimes worked and sometimes flopped in Malone's heyday, and the ones that completely tanked on a much lower budget in 2003-2004. (I'm of the opinion that the Midsummer Night's Dream epilogue to Jake and Megan's story in '92 does mostly work and was incredibly bold, but uh, don't ask me about that whole thing with Luna and Tina going into her past lives or Luna's ghost husband.) The Antonio of it all in the 2000s and the Santis. And can you completely divorce the artistry of 1993-1995's storylines from the fact that the show's leads ultimately were two rapist twin brothers woven out of Malone's work decades later? Maybe not, but I still loved those stories and even the early years of Todd's metamorphosis even if I think today he is a relic who should mostly be put away. And the hard-to-find stuff in '92 sometimes fascinates me most of all, when they were still finding their way - there has never been an Asian-American lead on a soap opera who dominated the way Mia Korf's Blair did that year since, ever.

So much of how people view OLTL today, as a multicultural, socially relevant, dynamic and fiery soap, with its finger on the pulse of ugly issues other shows would shy away from, a show that is still relevant and could still be revived, is because of Michael Malone, Linda Gottlieb and their crew. If any soap is relevant to these times it's OLTL. I don't think it'll be back, but the reason it still doesn't feel dead to me is in large part thanks to a man whose work will never die. You can say whatever you want about his work onscreen, but it never settled and never went quietly. RIP.

(I do hope someone finally unearths the Bourbon Street pilot now.)

[DRW50]

@Vee This is a lovely tribute to Malone. You and a few others have had so many insights on  Malone's work over the years, enough to where I couldn't begin to say anything that hasn't already been said. I am one of the fans who thinks the 1995 DID story was a mistake, but I do understand the intent. Malone and Linda Gottlieb stepped into a huge creative void in 1991 and remade the show in their image, one of the final creative teams in soaps to be able to fully do so. Characters like Andrew were very dynamic and unique for daytime, and I'll always be grateful for the love and care Malone imbued into him. 

(the other OLTL story he remade for AW was Marty's rape story, with Toni - pretty badly done, unfortunately).

We've had so much loss from daytime lately. In  many ways the last few months have felt more like the end of the genre than the last four soaps staggering along over the past decade has.

[Aback]

Do you think Malone's original run is largely available on YT? Is there a 'Vault' for OLTL? I'd love to see it.

[DRW50]

Most of  it is scattered all over Youtube.

[Contessa Donatella]

As an AW fan I have been one of Michael Malone's detractors, saying often & loudly, that OLTL in the 90s with Malone & Griffith & Gottlieb was a perfect example of "lightning in a bottle." And that that was never repeated by MM or JG, so maybe the catalytic converter was LG. Doesn't matter. The way he rewrote Jake, Toni's rape, the 13 Bourbon St. stories & characters, his apparent disinterest in historical AW, and his short term being only 6 months in Bay City, well, there just wasn't anything to write home about.

But I got onto a tear, one of my mini-quests, to find out or figure out who wrote the AMC/OLTL crossover event complete with baby swap & helicopter crash & 4 HWs overlap the '03-'04 event. Megan McTavish whole time at AMC. Michael Malone & Josh Griffith most of the time at OLTL. Tail end of the time Dena at OLTL. So likely it was written by McT & MM & JG. Does anyone know? I can post the draft I'm working on if the group wants to vet it for me.

And, of course, RIP, may light perpetual shine upon him. May angels guide him to his heavenly home. May he be met by people he hasn't seen in years & beloved pets. Condolences to his family & friends. And one more thing EFFCancer!

[titan1978]

That period of OLTL and ABC daytime was really special.  OLTL was really a mess, and what they accomplished there was remarkable.  LG’s time was relatively short as EP, and for outsiders she and Malone really recaptured an essence of what the show was like when Nixon created it.

When you watch what is available of OLTL pre Rauch, it fits right in with what they were doing in the 90’s.  That class structure, the grit, the motivations all explored onscreen.  Of course there were missteps- Todd being too redeemed being one of them.  But it was really great storytelling.

[Vee]

I think a lot of the early Todd rehabilitation story worked, particularly the stuff with Rebecca who I adored, and the early romance with Blair. But I also understood what made Howarth leave the first time, the valorization of him as a fantasy dark prince with money. While Roger came back willing to act in 2011 and did a good job then and in 2013, I don't think most of the rest of his time at OLTL was ever the same. Howarth makes it very clear in a recent podcast interview he did with a major media outlet - I think it was Slate Magazine, which talked to him and Susan and Michael Malone, among others - that he was more than happy to leave in 2003 because he 'never felt right' taking the money as Todd in those years; he said he spent it as quickly as he possibly could. It seems like even playing a miscast role on ATWT as a standard male lead was a relief for him from the burden of the rapist. Of course, he's now spent years playing a serial killer so go figure. His attitude has mellowed over time, he made that very clear too (and began doing much more press).

I don't regret Roger Howarth starring on the show, and I loved a lot of Todd stories over the years. At the same time I don't think you can ever fully get away from the shadow of sexual violence cast over the show from several stories, not just his, and I don't think there is any need to ever make rapist twins leads on a soap again.

[TEdgeofNight]

Malone was good in his first run on OLTL after a very shaky start then he sucked at both AW and his second stint at OLTL. He deservedly won 1 Emmy. 

[BetterForgotten]

I think Khan had some valid arguments in the past that Malone likely would have been better and flourished creating a brand new soap from scratch, rather than inheriting an established one. Though, I don't think anyone can argue that he wrote with a lot of passion for both the characters he loved and the community of Llandview as a whole. RIP.

In some ways, his writing matched the often gothic-aesthetic Gottlieb remade the show in after Rauch's lights literally lit the whole show on fire. 

 

[titan1978]

I had zero issue with it back then because he was an incredibly compelling actor and I loved the show.  I thought that initial connection with Blair was amazing.  I was also a young teen.  When I rewatch or look back at it now, they went a little too far with integrating Todd.  It’s very similar to what the did on GH with Luke.

People forget how amazing this story was for everyone.  Marty of course, but also Nora.

[Vee]

An issue which persisted at GL - when I first began looking at that show, everything was lit up like floodlamps and half the cast were Rauch's favored peroxide blondes. It was blindingly tacky and I couldn't look directly at the TV. That and the shrill characters and chintzy stories (San Cristobel, the clone) kept me away from GL for years until I got my first taste of Beverlee McKinsey on WOST.

[Contessa Donatella]

That was Paul. Fixated on control. Fixated on the presentation of women's bodies. And he would fight. Everyone. He would fight with people who already agreed with him. How long should the skirts be? Paul's length. May he rest in peace. God bless him, when he died he was trying to find a new venue for GL.