One Life to Live
One Life to Live 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. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature ethnically and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social issues. One Life to Live was expanded from 30 minutes to 45 minutes on July 26, 1976, and then to an hour on January 16, 1978.
One Life to Live heavily focuses on the members and relationships of the Lord family. Actress Erika Slezak began portraying the series' protagonist Victoria Lord in March 1971 and played the character continuously for the rest of the show's run on ABC Daytime, winning a record six Daytime Emmy Awards for the role. In 2002, the series won an Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series.
On September 17, 2010, One Life to Live became the last American daytime soap opera taped in New York City; it earned this distinction after As the World Turns, which had been taped in New York since its 1956 premiere, aired its final episode. No daytime serial has emanated from New York since; ABC's lone soap, General Hospital, CBS's The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful, and Peacock's Days of Our Lives are all recorded in California and CBS's other serial, Beyond the Gates, is produced outside of Atlanta.
On April 14, 2011, ABC announced that it was canceling One Life to Live after nearly 43 years on the air due to low ratings. On July 7, 2011, production company Prospect Park announced that it would continue the show as a web series after its run on ABC, but later suspended the project. 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 new and short-lived talk show called The Revolution that aired until July 6 of the same year.
On January 7, 2013, Prospect Park resumed its plan to continue One Life to Live as a daily 30-minute web series on Hulu and iTunes via The Online Network. The relaunched series premiered on April 29, 2013. The new series was plagued with several behind-the-scenes problems, most notably a litigation between Prospect Park and ABC regarding the misuse of One Life to Live characters on General Hospital. On September 3, 2013, Prospect Park suspended production of the series until the lawsuit with ABC was resolved.
Creation
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 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.
Series history
One Life to Live is set in the fictional city of Llanview, a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The show continually centers on the wealthy, White Anglo-Saxon Protestant Lord family, with the working-class Polish-American Wolek family, the less wealthy Irish Catholic Riley family, and the first regular African-American characters in U.S. soap operas, working-class mother and daughter Sadie Gray and Carla Gray, are 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, portrayed by six-time Daytime Emmy Award winner Erika Slezak for longer than any other One Life to Live series actor, from March 1971 through the series finale January 13, 2012, as well as the 2013 web revival. Long-suffering heroine Viki weathered love and loss, widowhood, rape, divorce, stroke and breast cancer, and was plagued by dissociative identity disorder on and off for decades. Viki also had heart problems and received a transplant from her dying husband Ben Davidson. 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 by Victoria Lord in 1979 and the ensuing prostitution storyline of Larry Wolek's wife, Karen Wolek, garnered widespread critical acclaim and several Daytime Emmy Awards. The 1980s brought great ratings success with the introduction of the Buchanan family and the rise to prominence of Viki's scheming sister, Tina Lord. In the 1990s, the show introduced one of the first married interracial couples in soap operas with attorneys Hank and Nora Gannon, and the story of the involvement of Viki's estranged brother, Todd, with the rape of Marty Saybrooke, was called "one of the show's most remembered and impactful."
One Life to Live 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 Award 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 the Buchanan family's backstory 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 was 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 Live previous one, and both One Life to Live and All My Children were to be taped and broadcast in high-definition television 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 aspect ratio 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 metropolitan area as well as the only one produced outside the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
Cancellation
Rumors about a potential cancellation of One Life to Live arose from TV Guide Canada in late 2009, after ABC announced that it was moving All My Children from New York City to Los Angeles. One Life to Lives lone presence in New York among the ABC soap operas, along its non-transition to HD and its struggling ratings, made it a program at risk of cancellation. The article from TV Guide Canada also pointed that once One Life to Live is cancelled, some of the actors could be offered to join the cast of All My Children in Los Angeles. In May 2010, rumors of possible cancellation of not only One Life to Live, but this time of also All My Children and General Hospital, resurfaced when Walt Disney Television officially announced that it was shutting down Soapnet, effective in 2012. After a failed attempt to give Aisha Tyler a talk show in 2009, ABC restarted auditioning a few pilot shows as candidates for its daytime lineup. At this point, All My Children had the lowest ratings so rumors began heating up in March 2011 about the show's demise, with hints that One Life to Live was safe for a while longer. However, early in April 2011, rumors suggested that both All My Children and One Life to Live were in danger of cancellation.After months of cancellation rumors, ABC announced on April 14, 2011 that All My Children and One Life to Live would end their runs. ABC cited "extensive research into what today's daytime viewers want and the changing viewing patterns of the audience." The network stated it was replacing One Life to Live with a new production entitled The Revolution, which would focus on health and lifestyles. While the cancellations of both soap operas were announced on the same day, One Life to Live was to remain on the air four months longer because its replacement would not be ready until later. In response to the cancellations, vacuum cleaner manufacturer The Hoover Company withdrew its advertising from all ABC programs out of protest.
The final episode aired on January 13, 2012, with villainess Allison Perkins narrating her views about the people of Llanview. During the last minutes of the episode, Todd Manning is put under arrest for the murder of twin brother Victor Lord, Jr.. The show ends with the discovery that Victor Lord, Jr. is still alive and has been kidnapped by Perkins. Perkins closes the 43-year-old soap opera by breaking the fourth wall by throwing a One Life to Live script at Victor saying to him: "But why spoil what happens next. You of all people should know things are rarely what they appear". The decision to conclude One Life to Live with an open-ended story is because the serial was supposed to continue on another network at the time the last scenes were taped.
On the day of the final episode, The View hosted a tribute to One Life to Live where several actors were invited including Erika Slezak, Robert S. Woods, Robin Strasser, Hillary B. Smith, Kassie DePaiva, James DePaiva, Andrea Evans, Judith Light and the show's creator Agnes Nixon.
The departure of One Life to Live ended a 62-year history of daytime television soap operas taped in New York which started in 1950 with the CBS daytime drama The First Hundred Years.