One Life to Live Tribute Thread

[danfling]

If the show wanted a returning Herb to have a wife, a marriage between Herb and Gretel would make a lot of sense.

[soapfave06]

I watched a few episodes from 1983 on YT and the characters are just so immaculate, though the show moves at such an odd pace. In one episode, there is a hunt for a cash prize that begins and ends in one episode, even with half the cast present. In another, so many revelations come out regarding Bo/Delila/Asa come out at break neck speed and even that episode began with Clint getting his butt kicked by Asa’s goons.  
 

It is a shame they couldn’t find a way to keep a few of the late 70s-early 80s golden era characters: Katrina, Brad, Marco, Ed, Carla, Sadie.
 

Brad and Marco at least made it half way through the Rauch era, but of course never were the same. I thought Brad and Tina had great chemistry they could play off of. 

Katrina would have been great supporting character for a community feel, and of course the ties to Jenny and Brad. 
 

Ellen Holly and Al Freeman as Carla and Ed have such a great theatrical, old Hollywood feel to their acting, they should have been a writers dream. I think Carla would better serve as a successor to Dr. Will Vernon as a psychiatrist than a judge, and Llanview had plenty of crazies in the 80s. 
 

I would also say they excelled at casting Ava Hadad as Cassie, had they even remotely tried to cast a good Danny Wolek and Josh Hall, they could have had a charismatic, legacy centered youth set to build from in the early 80s as AMC was killing it with Greg/Jenny and Angie/Jesse with Liza mixed in. 
 

I love the late-80s utter camp, but the entire reliance on Viki/Clint/Cord/Tina and later Sarah/Megan, really hurt the show for a good two years when it dried up/the actors left and they completely failed to write in a single new family in that time. 
 

Now with that said, Viki and Clint not being at the center of most of these episodes is shocking, Rauch did make a great choice to revamp with Viki/Clint as the focal point. In some episode they are almost supporting players. 

[Vee]

My idea some years back always was to have Dan Wolek (maybe going by Daniel) return as a new love interest for Blair. He would have long since left medicine, would have spent years away in dark places. He would be a troubled, gray character with ties to higher levels of the international criminal element, but he would be a good man beneath. The idea was casting someone like Grant Aleksander, Michael Park or Brian Bloom, and to craft someone with enough gravitas and stature to compete in the audience's mind with the spectre of the Todds who would no longer be a going concern post-Me Too era. Further, bringing back Daniel would bring back the Woleks - you could have Michael Storm appear with father and son estranged for years, and Daniel would also have a runaway young adult son or perhaps multiple children who could shore up a youth scene. (A roughneck young cousin could romance Kevin and Kelly's kid Zane.)

Speaking of Katrina Karr: By the same token, I'd wanted to do a story where Bo, on the cusp of mandatory retirement, reopens an ancient LPD serial killer cold case a la Zodiac - something dating back to Ed Hall's time that was never solved. Fearing the culprit has returned and trying to beat the clock on his exit date Bo would pore through Ed's records, and this could lead to a guest appearance from the great Nancy Snyder as Katrina, who knew Ed well and knew the streets of the city in those years, and maybe some of the victims. It could also be a nice flashback to that era of the late '70s/early '80s, where I agree the vibes were immaculate.

Edited May 27, 2023 by Vee

[soapfave06]

I’ll happily accept any ideas you have in your head, seriously, I would happily read them all! Haha 

Daniel had such a clean slate, I love the idea of him with chemistry magnet Kassie/Blair, and taking the mantle from Todd as well defined gray character. 

And actually, the scene Katrina was in was with Ed, they had such great friendship chemistry and I can’t think of a better way to honor that era. 

[danfling]

For years, I thought that a rivalry between Todd and Danny would be good - much better than Todd's dislike of Kevin.

 

[cassadine1991]

Speaking of Kevin, how long did ken kenitzer last? Only seen him sporadically in the July and August 1995 episodes 

[gimmetoo]

Anna Holbrook was just on The Locher Room and described her time on OLTL as "tricky."  She said the set "wasn't very healthy" vaguely referencing certain actors running the show and separate factions among the cast.  Any insights ?  

She went on to praise Erica Slezak as very professional and a class-act.  Anna's storyline was backburner-ed when Clint Ritchie had his accident.

[Kane]

I remember reading a piece in SOD, I think it was circa the start of Timothy Gibb's run, where they looked at each actor who had played Kevin as an adult and described what they had done onscreen. When it came to Kenitzer it just said something to the effect that he put on his coat and left, his stint having been so short that the character didn't do anything of note during his portrayal.

[Soapsuds]

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[DRW50]

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[John]

Thought the thread may enjoy this

 

[danfling]

Actor Nicolas Coster (Anthony Macana on One Life to Live) has passed away.    Here is an obituary from Variety:  

 

Nicolas Coster, the actor known for his roles on “Santa Barbara,” “The Bay” and “All the President’s Men,” has died. He was 89.

Coster died on June 26 in a hospital in Florida, according to his daughter Dinneen Coster.

Dinneen shared the news of her father’s death on Facebook. “Please remember him as a great artist. He was an actor’s actor!” she wrote. “I will always be inspired by him and know how lucky I am to have such a great father!!”

From 1984 to 1993, Coster starred on NBC’s soap opera “Santa Barbara” as Lionel Lockridge. He appeared in just under 600 episodes of the series before it ended. His “Santa Barbara” co-star A Martinez, who played Cruz Castillo in the series, responded on Tuesday to the news of Coster’s death, writing on Facebook, “It was an honor to work in a company with him, and I’ll always hold his friendship and his sterling strengths as a professional close to heart.”

 

 

He continued, “Unsolicited one day, he gave me this profoundly useful advice: ‘What you choose to do with a scene doesn’t have to be the probable thing. You can choose any course imaginable –– no matter how unlikely –– as long as it’s possible.’”

In addition to his role on “Santa Barbara,” the British-born actor appeared in several other television series, including “The Secret Storm,” “Another World,” “All My Children,” “Our Private World” and “As the World Turns.” In 1976, Coster starred in Alan J. Pakula’s “All the President’s Men” as attorney Markham. His other films included the 1953 “Titanic,” “Reds” alongside Diane Keaton and Warren Beatty, “MacArthur” and “Stir Crazy.”

More recently, Coster appeared in television series “The Bay” as Mayor Jack Madison, for which he received his first Daytime Emmy. In 2020, he starred as Finley in “The Deep Ones.”

Coster is survived by his wife Beth Pantel and his daughters, Dinneen and Candice Jr.

• •  

[slick jones]

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Here's Margo Martindale on OLTL.  Her profile can be found in SOAP HOPPERS.  She's great here as always.  My favorite roles (that I've seen so far) are Claudia on THE AMERICANS   and Mags Bennett on JUSTIFIED.

[soapfave06]

Can anyone give feedback on Shanelle Workman as Sarah/Flash? 
 

I am aware the story was a bit of a mess, but caught some quick scenes on Twitter that led me to YouTube and I find that she seemed to resemble Andrea Evans rather well and had some similar quirks as Tina. 
 

Did the actress leave on her own or was she written out? Was there wasted story potential or romantic potential? From what I have seen, I certainly would have taken SW back as Sarah over JB recast. 

[Vee]

SW was fired.

I thought the character and actress had potential from the jump - unique look and a very current (if now very, very dated) style at the time. But the writing for the character was a mess, and looking back at SW's performance in recent years I think she was all over the place at best. Some of her work is really bad.

Flash was introduced as a young runaway living on the streets who Bruce Michael Hall's curate Joey tried to mentor, with a romantic edge to some of their interaction. The issue there is that AFAIK, she was always intended to be his cousin Sarah Roberts (hence her quest to find her ever-mysterious brother C.J. the Marine, who she never did find but who the show allegedly had all sorts of unmade LGBT story plans for - this was in the period they were considering AW's Cali Timmons to play deadbeat mom Tina). But Brian Frons was heavily involved in the ABC soaps' creative trajectory at this time, and allegedly the word came from either him, someone else involved in the focus groups or both, to leave it open for a time as to whether Flash and Joey were related or not. This resulted in the bizarre love triangle dynamic with Joey, Flash and Jen Rappaport in the spring and summer of 2003, in which none of the parties involved were exactly the strongest actors and the writing was even worse. Then came the infamous day when they did reveal Flash was Sarah and had her utter the immortal line to Joey, "I thought because we were cousins it would be okay."

I thought Flash the street urchin/rocker was a decent concept very poorly executed. I thought Shanelle Workman's singing was rough. She may or may not have also hurt her stock at ABC with the erotically-tinged art photoshoot Nathan Purdee did at the time with several young actors at the show; there was nothing illegal or untoward about it, but some prudish fans and reporters took note of it. Anyway, by the time Flash's identity was officially revealed the entire storyline was already very unpopular with the audience and so was she. I hoped she might recoup as a character and the show attempted to regroup - they put her mostly in scenes with her grandfather Asa opposite Phil Carey for the next several months, and with her bandmate Riley Colson, played by Jay Wilkison. Riley was just a recurring bit player who the audience had taken a liking to, so OLTL upped Wilkison to a larger role and then to contract and decided to see if they could get the audience to like Flash/Sarah more by keeping her largely in scenes with Asa and Riley and minimal airtime. It didn't work, and she was written out in early '04 after months of being on the backburner. Meanwhile, Riley became much more prominent in story owing to Jay Wilkison's talent and popularity with the audience.

I think Flash was a good idea ruined almost immediately. Justis Bolding was somewhat similar to SW in type and personality, but bland. Ultimately Sarah Roberts as a character was a spare part - they never figured what to do with her or who she was. Flash came close to a direction, but that was a mess from the jump. Still, she looked like no one else on ABC Daytime at that time, so there's that.

Edited July 9, 2023 by Vee