One Life to Live Tribute Thread

[Vee]

Yes, although I think the whole circus thing came in under Labine.

[BetterForgotten]

It was Labine, lol. 

[Contessa Donatella]

Speaking of OLTL '91-'96 & then beyond, and I am eating up the discussion, what did fans think primarily of Claire Labine then.? I found out recently that the way she left GH was at her own request because she was exhausted. And, prior to that I had read that she owed ABC a yr on that contract & they chose to have her burn that off at OLTL. Was that less than ideal?

[Vee]

This is what she said at We Love Soaps:

There's some incredibly bold, candid and in-depth stuff in Labine's run with Viki's therapy re: her sexuality and sexual abuse where sex, orgasms, etc. are discussed in-depth, which I posted here long ago. I'm amazed they got that stuff on air let alone out of Viki's mouth; it wouldn't be done today. There was also wonderful stuff with her and Clint Ritchie, and with Dorian and Mel. (Though my understanding is they kiboshed the Viki/Clint reunion in part because Ritchie and Erika were not in a great place at the time and he may have been drinking again - I know that Malone had paired Clint with Carlotta Vega while slowly moving him back to Viki, and I think Labine may have been the one who put Carlotta with Hank Gannon; I can't remember clearly. I loved all that stuff though with Carlotta and both men.)

A lot of the Labine run did not work for me but the stuff that did was great. Admittedly, they were still coasting on the glories, outsize popular characters and supercouples of the Malone/Gottlieb/Horgan/Griffith era during that year with the overall canvas, but by '98 the show was sleepy, the cast was bored and when JFP turned up their luck ran out. I remember a very enthused joint interview from HBS and RSW in the spring of '98, crowing about the Georgie Phillips story finally giving them something to do after being 'in the freezer' for a year or more, and how Jill Phelps had supercharged the show with the story of Georgie faking a sex tape with herself and Bo. (This was before Georgie's murder.) It seemed exciting, like the show had nice energy, so I came back because I too had grown bored with the show getting sleepier in '97 and a lot of characters and couples I liked leaving. But by the end of the year JFP was in full power, and HBS had gone from singing her praises to asking the head of daytime at ABC to get Nora killed off the show.

Edited August 23, 2022 by Vee

[DRW50]

@Vee You're right, Labine did Hank/Carlotta. 

I forgot to mention that Angel Square was also pretty polarizing/weighed heavy in Malone's last year.

[Contessa Donatella]

Love that WLS interview & haven't read it in ages, thnx. Also love thinking about HBS saying that! Wendy Riche can't say enough good about Labine, or the rest of the team at GH then. I was lucky enough to get into a dialog with her in DMs & she spoke so glowingly about everyone. And, then doofus me, I brought up Angela Shapiro. Nothing left to say! I guess a lady never tells.

[Vee]

Oh, Angel Square was everywhere lol. I loved those characters, but I imagine a lot of it is cringey or OTT now. I adored Antonio and Andy. Others did not, and a lot of their story is definitely silly today. We can't say the show wasn't ahead of its time in terms of Latin representation though. It was practically an entire second canvas of characters, contract and recurring, and a lot of them lasted into '97 or possibly beyond (I don't know when Javier or Linda Soto vanished).

[DRW50]

I think Javier, Linda and Eddie were all last seen during the Labine period (wasn't Javier's last story Tea playing games with him and it backfiring - I hated everything with Tea so I have no idea anymore).

[titan1978]

I loved Angel Square, although like @VeeI am sure it would not work as presented completely today.  I also liked Antonio and Andy.

Nora really suffered post Malone.  While not as idiosyncratic a writer as Labine was, there were still characters that just morphed completely with other writers.

Labine’s OLTL was a disappointment to me, although I loved Mel and Dorian.  The story about Dorian’s past had good bones and then became a sleepy bore.  The rest of the show was a big mess as I recall, but with strong dialogue and intelligent characters.

I will go to my grave loving Tea.  Right from the start.

[Vee]

I always loved Florencia Lozano. Tea I went back and forth from loving and hating many times over the years, because the writing was often not as honest about the character as the performer always was. By the end she and Blair were very well matched and I'd have her back any time.

I blame JFP and her people for the conclusion of the Canton/Cramer storyline, but I may be wrong.

[DRW50]

JFP was the one who wrapped up that story, yes, very abruptly.

Sometime I should go back and watch Dorian/Mel but at the time I felt like there was so much emphasis on how annoying Dorian was meant to be to Mel, and generally how great Mel was, that I kept waiting for him to be paired with Viki. 

[Vee]

It seems that from Labine's own mouth above Erika shut down that angle.

[DRW50]

I skipped that at first so thanks for telling me.  I wonder what Erika did want them to do with Viki. I'm glad she didn't want to go for Viki/Mel.

[Vee]

I have a feeling she either thought it was too soon after the DID saga or that she didn't want Dorian and Viki fighting over a man.

[Contessa Donatella]

I think it's in the Bible that it's never wrong to blame JFP, so you're off the hook there!