One Life To Live Tv Series
One Life to Live, or OLTL for short, is a soap opera that
has been on the ABC network ever since July 15 of 1968. It
was created by soap writer Agnes Nixon, and it was the first
daytime series to feature an economically and racially diverse
cast that focused on the social issues of the day.
ABC was so impressed with the success of the NBC soap Another
World, that they hired Agnes Nixon to write a soap for them.
Her series was built on the classic concept of rich vs. poor,
but she tried to diverge from the noncontroversial, “vanilla"
nature of most soaps. Nixon went on to create All My Children
and Loving.
OLTL is set in the fictional suburb of Philadelphia, Llanview.
The show’s original focus was on the wealthy Lord family,
and the less-well-off Siegel clan. The Rileys, Woleks, and
Grays rounded out the cast. OLTL is known for its diverse
cast, but since it started, it has centered on Viki Lord.
She has been played by Erika Slezak since 1971, and she has
been through love and hate, widowhood, divorce, and breast
cancer.
The show celebrated its fortieth anniversary in July 2008,
when several former cast members and memorable plotlines surfaced
again. Agnes Nixon even did a cameo, where Viki died and went
to heaven. The characters have, again and again, revisited
the past through “time travel”- Clint Buchanan went back 100
years, and recently, Bo Buchanan went back to 1968, to see
his family story from the beginning.
In August of 2009, the show, which taped in New York City,
moved from one location to the ABC studio TV23. That studio
became available when All My Children moved its production
to Los Angeles. The new studio is larger than the old one,
and the soap will be broadcast in high-definition.
The show has seen its share of controversy, with a storyline
about a character who had people killed to keep his sexuality
a secret. Gay and lesbian organizations lambasted the show,
as did critics, who said that the storyline promoted intolerance
and prejudice. Actress Patricia Mauceri, who played Carlotta
Vega since 1995, was removed from the show for objecting to
another sexuality-charged storyline.
One Life to Live started back in the sixties, and its stories
remain current, even today. It has been popular for a long
time, and it is sure to be around for many years to come.
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