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One Life to Live: Created by Agnes Nixon. With Erika Slezak, Michael Storm, Michael Easton, Kristen Alderson. One Life to Live centres takes place in the fictional town of Llanview, PA.around the wealthy Lord family, and the middle-class Woleks and Rileys.
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Loving. Port Charles. One Life to Live (often abbreviated as OLTL) is an American soap opera broadcast on the ABC television network for more than 43 years, from July 15, 1968, to January 13, 2012, and then on the internet as a web series on Hulu and iTunes via Prospect Park from April 29 to August 19, 2013. [2] [3] [4] Created by Agnes Nixon ...
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Apr 19, 2024 · Celebrating the classic soap opera One Life to Live. Plus the latest soap opera news, spoilers, daily recaps, and more for The Young and The Restless, Days of Our Lives, General Hospital, The Bold and the Beautiful, and other past soaps.
Synopsis. One Life to Live is an American soap opera broadcast on television for more than 43 years on the ABC network, from July 15, 1968, to January 13, 2012, and on the internet as a web series on Hulu and iTunes via The Online Network since April 29, 2013. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature ...
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- Kristen Alderson
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- Overview
- Creation
- Series history
- Prospect Park
- Transition to General Hospital
- Crossovers
- Schedule
- Opening Title Cards
- Cast
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(often referred to as OTLT) is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from July 15, 1968 to January 13, 2012 and has aired on TOLN from April 29 to August 19, 2013. The show was created by Agnes Nixon. It takes place in a town called Llanview, Pennsylvania. One Life to Live was very different from all other soap operas. It shows a lot of diversity; the rich and the middle class, black and white, Jewish and Catholics. One Life to Live was the first soap opera to have a black couple. The main families are the Mannings, Lords, Cramers, and Buchanans. Very popular storylines that are associated with One Life to Live are Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), prostitute housewife (played by Emmy award winning Judith Light), teen homosexuality, drugs, and sexual transmitted disease (stds).
It still aired on ABC at 2 pm eastern, and 9 pm eastern on SOAPNET.
On April 14, 2011, ABC announced that it was canceling One Life to Live after almost 43 years due to low ratings. ABC sold the rights of One Life to Live to Prospect Park on July 7, 2011, but on November 23, 2011, the project was shelved. The show taped its final scenes for ABC on November 18, 2011, and its final episode on the network aired on January 13, 2012 with a cliffhanger. On January 16, 2012, the following Monday, ABC replaced One Life to Live with a short-lived talk show called The Revolution, which lasted until July 6, 2012. A year later, One Life to Live taped its first scenes for Prospect Park on March 11, 2013, and aired its first TOLN episode aired on April 29, 2013. The season finale aired on August 19, 2013.
In December 2016, ABC regained the rights of One Life to Live after Prospect Park's lawsuit against the network was dismissed.
The One Life to Live series finale on ABC marked a second anniversary on January 13, 2014, a third anniversary on January 16, 2015, a fourth anniversary on January 13, 2016, a fifth anniversary on January 16, 2017, and a sixth anniversary on January 13, 2018.
Impressed with the ratings success of NBC's Another World, ABC sought out Another World writer Nixon to create a serial for them. Though Nixon's concept for the new series was "built along the classic soap formula of a rich family and a poor family," she was "tired of the restraints imposed by the WASPy, noncontroversial nature of daytime drama." One Life to Live would emphasize "the ethnic and socioeconomic diversity" of the characters in its fictional setting. Nixon would go on to create All My Children in 1970 and Loving in 1983.
The initial main titles of the series featured the image of a roaring fireplace, a visual representation of the originally proposed title — Between Heaven and Hell — ultimately changed to One Life to Live to avoid controversy. One Life to Live's first sponsor was the Colgate-Palmolive company, who also sponsored The Doctors. ABC bought the show from Nixon in December 1974 when they purchased all stock to her Creative Horizons, Inc. The show was originally a half-hour serial until it was expanded to 45 minutes on July 23, 1976, and to one hour on January 16, 1978.
is set in the fictional city of Llanview, a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The show continually centers on the wealthy, WASP Lord family, with the working-class Polish American Woleks, the less wealthy Irish Catholic Rileys, and the African-American Grays present at the series inception. One Life to Live has been called "the most peculiarly American of soap operas: the first serial to present a vast array of ethnic types, broad comic situations, a constant emphasis on social issues, and strong male characters."
From the debut episode, One Life to Live centered on fictional character Victoria "Viki" Lord (originated by Gillian Spencer), portrayed by six-time Emmy winner Erika Slezak for longer than any other One Life to Live series actor, from March 1971 through the series finale January 13, 2012. Long-suffering heroine Viki weathered love and loss, widowhood, rape, divorce, stroke, and breast cancer, and was plagued by dissociative identity disorder (or DID, once known as multiple personality disorder) on and off for decades. Viki also had heart problems and received a transplant from her dying husband Ben Davidson (Mark Derwin). Featured male protagonist Dr. Larry Wolek also appeared at the debut episode and for 36 years, played from 1969 until the character's last appearance in 2004 by Emmy-nominated actor Michael Storm.
The apparent murder of Marco Dane (Gerald Anthony) by Victoria Lord and the ensuing prostitution storyline of Larry Wolek's wife, Karen Wolek (Judith Light), in 1979 garnered widespread critical acclaim and several Daytime Emmy Awards. The 1980s brought great ratings success and rose to prominence Viki's sister, Tina (originally and last played by Andrea Evans), and the Buchanan family. In the 1990s, the show introduced one of the first married interracial couples in soap operas with attorneys Hank and Nora Gannon (Nathan Purdee and Hillary B. Smith respectively), and the story of the involvement of Viki's estranged brother, Todd (Roger Howarth), with the rape of Marty Saybrooke (Susan Haskell), called "one of the show's most remembered and impactful."
celebrated its 40th anniversary in July 2008 with the return of several former cast members and by revisiting notable plot lines from its past. "Deceased" characters and even creator Agnes Nixon appeared in a storyline in which Slezak's Viki dies and visits Heaven, an homage to Viki's 1987 heavenly trip. Daytime Emmy-nominee Andrea Evans and others returned for a tribute to Tina Lord's famous 1987 plunge over the Iguazu Falls and the 1990 royal wedding in fictional Mendorra. And like the 1988 Old West storyline in which the character Clint Buchanan steps back 100 years in the past, on July 21, 2008, Robert S. Woods began an extended storyline in which his character Bo Buchanan finds himself transplanted back into his own past—specifically 1968, the year of the series' inception—witnessing his family's back-story unfold. Soap Opera Digest subsequently named One Life to Live their "Best Show" of 2008, calling it "the year's most compelling" series and citing a myriad of story lines the magazine found "heartbreaking," "stunning," and "gripping," as well as complimenting its risk-taking and "diverse and talented" cast.
On August 4, 2009, it was announced that One Life to Live, which taped in New York City, would move from ABC Studio 17 at 56 West 66th Street to Studio 23 at 320 West 66th Street, Manhattan in early 2010. This studio was made available by the move of sister serial All My Children to a production facility in Los Angeles, where that series began taping on January 4, 2010. The new studio was 30% larger than One Life to LiveTemplate:'s previous one, and both One Life to Live and All My Children were to be taped and broadcast in high-definition (HD) after their moves.
On October 8, 2009, ABC announced that it had postponed the transition to HD for One Live to Live, citing the economic climate at the time, though an ABC spokesperson stated that they "...will re-examine it next year." On December 6, 2010, One Life to Live became the fifth daytime serial to broadcast in the 16:9 widescreen picture format but still not in true HD, after Days of Our Lives, The Young and the Restless, and fellow ABC soap operas All My Children and General Hospital, though those series are produced in high-definition. ABC's picture disclaimers at the start of the program list it as being aired in "digital widescreen" rather than HD. The September 17, 2010, series ending of As the World Turns left One Life to Live as the last remaining American daytime serial being produced in the New York City area as well as the only one produced outside the Greater Los Angeles area.
Unsuccessful revival attempt
On July 7, 2011, ABC announced that it had licensed the rights to One Life to Live and All My Children to television, film and music production company Prospect Park, allowing both series to continue producing new first-run episodes beyond the conclusion of their television runs on ABC, with the series moving to a new Hulu-style online channel currently in development by Prospect Park; as a result of the company's acquisition of the two soap operas, One Life to Live and All My Children, would become the first soap operas to transition their first-run broadcasts from traditional television to internet television. On September 16, 2011, executive producer Frank Valentini was retained by Prospect Park for that serial as well as All My Children when both shows would move to The Online Network. On September 28, 2011, Prospect Park confirmed that One Life to Live would start on its The Online Network internet channel in January 2012, but without specifying the exact date. On September 30, 2011, it was announced that head writer Ron Carlivati would be also heading to the internet version of the show. Since the agreement made between ABC and Prospect Park was not limited to internet television and did allowed One Life to Live to be broadcast on traditional television, there was an announcement on August 3, 2011 about a possibility of One Life to Live airing on a cable channel. On October 5, 2011, the project to bring One Life to Live to cable was reiterated in a New York Times article, where it was revealed that Prospect Park planned to first air episodes on The Online Network, then make them available on television on demand and, then weeks later, on cable television. On November 23, 2011, Prospect Park officially suspended its plans to continue the show after its run on ABC. Reasons given by Prospect Park included funding problems and poor negotiations with the unions representing the cast of One Life to Live. WGA and AFTRA, which respectively represent the writer and the actors, have expressed disappointment over Prospect Park's decision. Though not one of the reasons given by Prospect Park, Deadline.com suggested that the company's lack of success in finding a cable network to carry the show may have been instrumental in the company's decision to not pursue the project. Despite its fruitless attempt to save the series, Prospect Park had succeeded in retaining 13 actors to sign for the online venture, compared to only two actors for All My Children. Matriarch actress Erika Slezak (Victoria Lord) was among the 13. The 12 other actors were Melissa Archer (Nathalie Buchanan), Kassie DePaiva (Blair Cramer), Michael Easton (John McBain), Shenell Edmonds (Destiny Evans), Josh Kelly (Cutter Wentworth), Ted King (Tomás Delgado), Florencia Lozano (Tea Delgado), Kelley Missal (Danielle Manning), Sean Ringgold (Shaun Evans), Andrew Trischitta (Jack Manning), Jerry Ver Dorn (Clint Buchanan) and Tuc Watkins (David Vickers).
2013 revival
On January 7, 2013, Prospect Park made an official statement about its plans to restart production of One Life to Live and All My Children as web series. The two soap operas will serve as anchor shows for The Online Network (Prospect Park's new online channel that was supposed to be launched during the original attempt in 2011). Prospect Park inked deals with SAG-AFTRA and DGA. Prospect Park confirmed that former coordinating producer, Jennifer Pepperman has signed on as the new executive producer for the web reboot of One Life to Live. Creator Agnes Nixon will work as consultant for the new web series. On January 13, 2013 it was confirmed that soap opera writers Thom Racina and Susan Bedsow Horgan were named as the new Head Writers of One Life to Live. On April 9, 2013 it was reported that Horgan citing "personal reasons" has stepped down as co-HW, leaving Racina as OLTL's sole HW. On January 22, 2013, Prospect Park released a full cast of the reboot of One Life to Live who signed on, which include Melissa Archer (Natalie Buchanan), Kassie DePaiva (Blair Cramer), Josh Kelly (Cutter Wentworth), Florencia Lozano (Tea Delgado), Kelley Missal (Danielle Manning), Erika Slezak (Victoria Lord), Hillary B. Smith (Nora Buchanan), Robin Strasser (Dorian Lord), Andrew Trischitta (Jack Manning), Jerry verDorn (Clint Buchanan), Tuc Watkins (David Vickers) and Robert S. Woods (Bo Buchanan). Recurring actors who have signed on are Sean Ringgold (Shaun Evans), Shenaz Treasury (Rama Patel), and Nick Choksi (Vimal Patel) Production of One Life to Live began on February 25, 2013 with taping of new episodes beginning on March 18, 2013. The series premiered on April 29, 2013 at 12PM Eastern The revived One Life to Live is a 30-minute program taped in Stamford Connecticut. It is available on Hulu and Hulu Plus as well as various iTunes applications including iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. On May 17, 2013 The Online Network announced that All My Children and One Life To Live will no longer air five days a week together, due to viewer ratings that have been seen as certain patterns that resemble more closely the typical patterns of online viewing rather than how one would watch traditional television. Starting May 20, 2013 All My Children and One Life To Life will be presented in a new schedule, with AMC airing on Mondays and Wednesdays and OLTL airing Tuesdays and Thursdays. The recap shows MORE All My Children and MORE One Life To Life will also combine together as one show airing on Fridays. The following day on May 18, 2013, both shows were noticeably missing from the FX Canada website and schedule, and subsequently were available on iTunes Canada, it was later revealed that FX Canada dropped "All My Children" and "One Life To Live" due the reduction of episodes, the carriage agreement called for four episodes a week of both shows. With the reduction, FX Canada has said "the agreement is no longer valid." On May 20, 2013, the first episodes of the new All My Children and One Life To Live were available worldwide on The Online Network's YouTube page, TOLNSoaps. On May 24, 2013 in a press release Prospect Park announced through Agnes Nixon that Racina will be out as head writer of One Life to Live and replaced by current script writers Jessica Klein and Marin Gazzaniga. On June 5, 2013, due to a labor dispute with the I.A.T.S.E. All My Children and One Life to Live were forced into an early hiatus with the writers, directors and editors still working; there were talks of production being moved out of state, but those plans were later shelved. On June 20, 2013 a deal was reached between Prospect Park and the Union and taping will resume on August 12, 2013. On June 25, 2013, TOLN stated that there will be a scheduling switch for One Life to Live and All My Children. Starting on July 1 (Monday) all episodes of the week for both shows, will be released on Mondays. Beginning July 15, 2013, All My Children and One Life to Live will air for a 10-week limited engagement on the Oprah Winfrey Network Monday through Thursday at 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM. On August 1, 2013, it was revealed that One Life to Live's first-season finale aired on August 19, 2013. On September 3, 2013, a report from the Los Angeles Times stated that One Life to Live's second season will be put on hold while Prospect Park deals with its lawsuit against ABC over loaned to General Hospital's treatment of One Life to Live characters, when they crossed over in 2012. In December 2016 the lawsuit was dismissed, with the rights to the series reverting back to ABC.
On December 1, 2011, two weeks after One Life to Live finished taping its final scenes, ABC confirmed that former executive producer Frank Valentini and head writer Ron Carlivati would assume the same roles on General Hospital effective January 9, 2012.
Several former One Life to Live actors - Kassie DePaiva, Roger Howarth, Michael Easton, and Kristen Alderson - moved with Valentini and Carlivati and reprised their characters on General Hospital. With the exception of DePaiva, all of these actors were eventually put on contract and stayed permanently with the show. On May 9, 2012, Florencia Lozano joined the cast, reprising her One Life to Live role of Téa Delgado in a recurring capacity.
On April 18, 2013, after Prospect Park had announced they would be reviving the series, Prospect Park filed a lawsuit against ABC, alleging ABC failed to honor its part of their licensing agreement. Among the issues named in the lawsuits included ABC's alleged attempts to sabotage Prospect Park's revival of the soap by killing off One Life to Live characters loaned to General Hospital (Cole and Hope Thornhart), failure on ABC's part to consult Prospect Park on storylines involving One Life to Live characters (breaking up popular One Life to Live couple, John and Natalie to pair Michael Easton's John McBain with former Port Charles love interest, Kelly Monaco's Sam Morgan, the death of Tea Delgado's baby and the subsequent switching of her baby with Sam Morgan's live baby, orchestrated by Howarth's Todd Manning), as well as claiming one One Life to Live character, Tomas Delgado, was actually General Hospital character, Lorenzo Alcazar. Effective immediately, the three One Life to Live characters bound to contracts with ABC were to exit the show, and the three actors who played them, Kristen Alderson, Michael Easton and Roger Howarth were rewritten back onto the General Hospital canvas playing new characters, while Howarth also crossed his character of Todd back over to One Life to Live for its inaugural season.
On September 3, 2013, Prospect Park announced that production of One Life to Live would be on hold until their litigation with ABC is settled.
Throughout the show's history, the plot lines of One Life to Live have been established as existing in the same fictional universe as other ABC-owned daytime series, in particular Agnes Nixon's All My Children, which premiered in 1970. As noted from time to time in both series, fictional Pine Valley—the setting of All My Children—is located in Pennsylvania near One Life to LiveTemplate:'s Llanview. Over the years, many characters have crossed over from one series to another in both short appearances and extended runs. As early as 1968, General HospitalTemplate:'s Dr. Steve Hardy appeared in Llanview to consult on Meredith Lord Wolek's blood disease as a means to lead General Hospital viewers to the new series; similarly, One Life to LiveTemplate:'s Dr. Larry Wolek visited All My Children shortly after its premiere in 1970.
In 1979, when Viki Riley was on trial for the murder of Marco Dane, she was defended by Pine Valley attorney Paul Martin. Two characters that also appeared on All My Children are Sadie Gray (Lillian Hayman), when she sang for the wedding of Dr. Frank and Caroline Grant, and Delilah Buchanan (Shelly Burch), when she designed a special dress to be worn by Erica Kane (Susan Lucci).
In 1999, Daytime Emmy Award-winner Linda Dano returned to One Life to Live as Gretel Cummings, a character she had previously played on the series from 1978 to 1980. In a 2000 move of network synergy designed to "entice viewers to tune into soap operas that they might not have usually watched," then-President of ABC Daytime Angela Shapiro orchestrated Dano's concurrent appearance as Gretel on the three other ABC daytime dramas at the time — All My Children, General Hospital, and Port Charles — in an extended crossover storyline which was the first time a daytime character had ever appeared on four series. Gretel's search for the child she had given up for adoption takes her to All My Children, where she discovers in 2000 that her own birth mother is Pine Valley's Myrtle Fargate. Following clues to Port Charles and General Hospital, Gretel finally finds her daughter back in Llanview on One Life to Live: Skye Chandler, herself a former All My Children character who had relocated to One Life to Live in 1999. Skye's adopted All My Children father Adam Chandler appears on One Life to Live in 2001, and Gretel initially identifies Skye's biological father as Alan Quartermaine of General Hospital. Both women subsequently appear on that series, with Skye moving to General Hospital full-time in 2001 and Gretel returning to One Life to Live until 2004, making some appearances on General Hospital later in 2002 and 2003.
A December 30, 2003, visit by One Life to LiveTemplate:'s Paul Cramer to his estranged secret wife Babe Carey on All My Children ultimately leads to an extensive 2004 "baby switch" storyline which features crossovers of over 20 characters between the two series. With his sister Kelly desperate for a child to save her marriage after miscarrying her own, Paul finds himself delivering the babies of both Babe and her friend Bianca Montgomery during a rainstorm and subsequent flood in nearby Pine Valley on March 24, 2004. Paul stages a crash with his MEDEVAC helicopter; he takes Babe's son for Kelly, gives Bianca's daughter to Babe, and tells Bianca that her baby had died in the accident. Unaware of the child's origins, Kelly brings Babe's infant back to Llanview, passing him off as her child with her husband Kevin Buchanan. Months later, Babe discovers that her daughter is really the grieving Bianca's, but remains silent and allows Paul to manipulate her. Meanwhile, a devastated Kelly discovers that Paul had stolen her son from his mother and, desperate for cash, he blackmails Kelly by threatening to reveal the secret to Kevin. Bianca's daughter is returned to her for Christmas 2004, and once Kevin learns the truth, he and Kelly return Babe's son as well in 2005.
The show aired on ABC Daytime for the entirety of its original television run.
•July 15, 1968 – July 23, 1976: 3:30–4:00 pm (2:30–3:00 pm, CT/PT)
•July 26, 1976 – January 13, 1978: 2:30–3:15 pm (1:30–2:15 pm, CT/PT)
•January 16, 1978 – January 13, 2012: 2:00–3:00 pm (1:00–2:00 pm, CT/PT)
The show aired on Hulu, Hulu Plus and iTunes during its revival.
•April 29, 2013 - May 9, 2013: one new episode a day, Monday through Thursday.
(July 15, 1968-April 1975)
(April 1975-Late 1980)
(Late 1980-December 14, 1984)
(December 17, 1984-December 31, 1991)
(January 2, 1992-November 17, 1995)
(November 20, 1995-June 11, 2004)
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Jul 7, 2021 · One Life to Live. ABC. Soap Opera. 1968. TVPG. Soap. Beneath its seemingly placid small-town facade, the fictional town of Llanview, Pa., frequently simmers with tension, usually caused by the ...
One Life To Live. The soap opera, One Life to Live made its debut on July 15, 1968, on ABC where it stayed until January 13, 2012, when the show was canceled before moving to Hulu for one season from April 29, 2013 to August 19, 2013. The show's storyline focused on the Buchanan, Lord and Manning families and the show was set in the fictional ...
