TV Finales FAQ by Stephen Tropiano & Holly Van Buren

Author:Stephen Tropiano & Holly Van Buren
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: television, pop culture
Publisher: Applause
Published: 2016-04-05T16:00:00+00:00

One Life to Live (ABC, 7/15/1968–1/13/2012; The OnLine Network, 4/29/2013–8/19/2013) Created by Agnes Nixon; 45 seasons / 11,136 episodes

Created by Agnes Nixon, One Life to Live broke new ground with its multi-ethnic cast of characters and its treatment of class issues. Like most soap operas, there is a wealthy family at the center of the story, The Lords—Victor, the patriarch, and his daughters Vicki and Meredith—who own the newspaper, The Banner, in Llanview, a suburban town outside of Philadelphia. They are surrounded by characters, and, in some instances, entire families from various ethnic and class backgrounds (the Rileys, an Irish-American Catholic family; Jewish lawyer Dave Siegel; the Woleks, a Polish-American Catholic family, etc.). As Christopher Schemering recounts, one early storyline involving Carla Gray, a light-skinned African American woman passing for white who dates a white doctor and a black medical intern, was too controversial for some ABC affiliates, who canceled the soap. But Nixon was adamant about doing socially relevant stories. A storyline about drug addiction even featured scenes that were reportedly taped at a drug rehabilitation center using real recovering addicts. Following the death of her father, Victor (a role originated by Ernest Graves), Victoria (Vicki) Lord (played by Erika Slezak from 1971 to the end of the run of the series), became the show’s central character. Her nemesis was her stepmother, the manipulative Dr. Dorian Cramer, played by Emmy winner Robin Strasser. One Life to Live became the third highest rated soap on television in the 1980s thanks to a powerful storyline in which Vicki goes on trial for the murder of Marco Dane (Gerald Anthony). Judith Light won two Emmys for her portrayal of Karen Wolek, who took the stand during the Vicki’s trial and admitted she was a prostitute. Around the same time, the Buchanan family moved to Llanview and provided the soap with a new patriarch, a Texan named Asa Buchanan (Philip Carey), who bore a close resemblance to J. R. Ewing, the lead character of Dallas, which was at the height of its popularity.

Dwindling ratings and rising costs were among the reasons ABC pulled the plug on both One Life to Live and All My Children (see above). Unlike AMC, the series finale of OLTL, which was watched by 3.8 million viewers, did not try to resolve some of the outstanding plotlines. Instead, there is a female narrator, though her identity is not revealed until the end.

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