Llanview In The Afternoon: An Oral History of One Life to Live, by Jeff Giles out today

[cassadine1991]

Interesting words about the Gottlieb years and the transition from Rauch's era

[SFK]

These excerpts are giving me Life. Must grab this book. All of the guilty pleasure of a gossip thread baptized in the legitimacy of personal truth.

[DRW50]

I'm confused about some of those timelines. Brenda Brock makes it sound like she was on OLTL for a year under Gottlieb, but it was just a few months, I think. And I thought it was Gottlieb who started Alex/Carlo, not Rauch.

Rauch had John Fiedler too, but I don't think Marilyn Chris meant Gottlieb did that story.

[John]

Linda Gottlieb: Well, so what? That's probably true, but movies aren't done that way, and primetime shows aren't done that way. It isn't about that - it's about getting the best show. You don't get a good show when you're shooting in sequence; it's a ridiculous way to do things. To cling to that - people probably liked horses and buggies, too.

What a bitch. Yes I thnk Tomlin & Valentini showed us that OLTL can film out of order but still have the cast being friends off set, it doesnt hurt the show. Im glad LG was only there 3 years

I think JF may have played more than one role

[All My Shadows]

Searching for names through the book...absolutely no mention of Mary Gordon-Murray or the character of Becky Lee whatsoever, no?

[Vee]

John, you take way too much [!@#$%^&*] personal. And I don't believe her comments were about Storm's directly - there was a Bob Woods quote between that, talking about what she's talking about (the shooting process).

[John]

There is talk about the 1st Becky Lee, Jill Voight & how great her audtion was.

Well maybe that was taken out of context but Ive also read from OLTLers b4 that LG was all about the editing & did very little on hands producing which many did not like.

[Mr. Vixen]

I'm sorry I'm jumping in late so forgive me if this has been stated, but is there anything in the book about Judith Light and the rumors of her saying no to a return?

EDIT - I mean, in addition to what was mentioned on the first page re: Karen and Herb?

[SFK]

It's hard for me to wrap my brain around the Gottlieb hate because that's when I found OLTL for myself, and I adored it. I totally hear HBS on all of the annoying little things like sound cues done in post. And comraderie among cast and crew is so vital for a happy healthy productive work enviornment, so for Linda to minimize its importance when it comes to putting forth a "better" show is just incongruous. I remember reading an interview of Robin Strasser where she talked about the cast taping on the 4th of July and grilling burgers and dogs out on the sidewalk on breaks, and that is just the sort of priceless dedication to craft you see most often in low-to-no pay theatre. When my friend posted on FB that she ran into a bunch of the AMC cast and crew laughing and living it up in a bar in Stamford after a long work week, I thought about that same priceless comraderie. Being on a NY soap in the '70s and '80s must have been magic.

[Vee]

There's a lot of compliments in there re: Gottlieb as well. I agree that her production had no peer.

The only thing I can recall in the book re: a Judith Light appearance was Tony Call's comment about what he'd heard of an RC idea for their joint return. Judith Light says she hadn't heard about that and that's all that I remember reading.

[John]

I think lG did wel with putting the show together but didnt like her vision. I personally really enjoyed OLTL from 1992-96 but a lot of that was also Malone/Griffith's writing team

[SFK]

The Gottlieb era wooed me with the marriage of the intriguing Lord saga and the elegant production values. I found Dorian, Viki, and long-dead Victor to be so fascinating, and I maintain that pre-"Heart of a Lord" Victor was the most fascinating dead character to carry story on a soap opera that I have ever witnessed. I remember bits of OLTL from my mom's VHS viewing as she ironed clothes and I did my elementary school homework, but I didn't really follow the show until I was in high school and I recall asking her if Victor had ever actually been on the show. She replied, "Oh GOD, yes..." and I'd ask her endless questions about the Lord history as she'd watched since day one. I'm a sucker for dark psychological family drama, and when you throw sexy early '90s sax, social issues, penthouses, mansions, secret rooms, furs, and biracial people on top of it, well, Gottlieb's OLTL was right up my alley.

[SFK]

A few years ago on New Year's Day, I saw Linda Gottlieb in a chinchilla jacket and hat in Penn Station as we were both getting off of our trains and I wish to God that I would have stopped her and picked her brain.

[EricMontreal22]

ALthough interesting I haven't encountered too many stories about the problematic cocaine use that plagued AMC and other New York (especially) soaps in the 80s and the Broadway theatre scene--maybe due to OLTL having a less young cast in the early 80s?

[EricMontreal22]

Sam and Gordon did work at DS together--though I've never been able to tell if they actually worked together or just were essentially interchangeable HWs. I assumed that's why Hall came over to OLTL with Gordon though.

And yes, Nixon did offer Loving to those actors--I believe Ellen saw it as a demotion (which, with Loving so low rated, it would have been, I suppose. Of course Loving had a bad history with black characters until Angie moved on.)