One Life to Live

    One Life to Live (OLTL) is an American soap opera which debuted on July 15, 1968 and has been broadcast on the ABC television network.[1][2] Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature racially and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently em phasize social issues.[1] One Life to Live was expanded from 30 minutes to 45 minutes on July 26, 1976, and then to a full hour on January 16, 1978. 

      Focused on the members and relationships of the Lord family since the show's inception, actress Erika Slezak has portrayed original and central heroine Victoria "Viki" Lord on One Life to Live since March 1971[1] and has won a record six Daytime Emmy Awards for the role.[3] In 2002 the series won an Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series.[4] Daily repeat broadcasts of the series appear weeknights on SOAPnet with a day-behind repeat airing the following weekday morning and a rebroadcast of all the previous week's episodes on Saturday nights. Taped in New York City, One Life to Live is currently the sole American soap opera based outside the Los Angeles area.

      On April 14, 2011, ABC announced that it canceled One Life to Live; citing low ratings, high production costs and change of tastes from viewers. [5][6] On July 7, 2011, ABC licensed the rights of One Life to Live to production company Prospect Park, which intends to broadcast first-run episodes of the show online after its run on ABC.[7] The final scenes for ABC were taped on November 18, 2011. [8] One Life to Live will air its final ABC episode in January 2012 and will be succeeded by health show The Revolution.[6] It is also in January 2012 that One Life to Live is scheduled to be relaunched on The Online Network with Prospect Park. 

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."[1] One Life to Live would emphasize "the ethnic and socioeconomic diversity" of the characters in its fictional setting.[1] 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.[10] OLTL's first sponsors were 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.[2]

Series history

        One Life to Live is set in the fictional city of Llanview, a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[1] The show originally concentrated on the wealthy Lord family, the less wealthy Siegels (the first attempt to showcase a Jewish family on daytime television), the middle-class Rileys and Woleks, and the African-American Grays.[1] 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."[1]

         Since its inception, One Life to Live has centered on the character of Victoria "Viki" Lord (originated by Gillian Spencer), who has been portrayed by six-time Emmy winner Erika Slezak since March 1971.[1] Long-suffering heroine Viki has weathered love and loss, widowhood, rape, divorce, stroke, and breast cancer, and has been memorably plagued by dissociative identity disorder (or DID, once known as multiple personality disorder) on and off for decades. Viki has also had heart problems, leading up to having the heart of her dying husband transplanted into her, to save her life.

The apparent murder of Marco Dane by Viki Lord and ensuing Karen Wolek prostitution storyline 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, and the Buchanan family. Into the 1990s, the show introduced the first interracial couple in soap operas, attorneys Hank and Nora Gannon, and the story of the involvement of Viki's estranged brother, Todd, with the rape of Marty Saybrooke, called "one of the show's most remembered and impactful."[11]

        One Life to Live celebrated its 40th anniversary in July 2008 with the return of several former cast members[12] and by revisiting notable plotlines from its past.[13] "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.[12][13][14][15] Daytime Emmy-nominee Andrea Evans and others returned for a tribute to Tina Lord's famous 1987 plunge over the Iguazu Falls[12][13][14][15] and the 1990 royal wedding in fictional Mendorra.[16][17] 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.[12][13][14][18] 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 storylines the magazine found "heartbreaking", "stunning", and "gripping", as well as complimenting its risk-taking and "diverse and talented" cast.[19]

        On August 4, 2009 it was announced that One Life to Live, which tapes 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 soap opera All My Children to a production facility in Los Angeles, where that series began taping on January 4, 2010.[20][21] The new studio is 30% larger than One Life to Live'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.[21]

        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 did state that they "...will re-examine it next year."[22] On December 6, 2010, One Life to Live became the fifth daytime soap opera 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 soaps All My Children and General Hospital, though those series are produced in high definition.[23] The September 17, 2010 series ending of As the World Turns left One Life to Live as the last remaining American daytime soap opera being produced in the New York City area.

        Rumors about a potential cancellation of One Life to Live first appeared in late 2009, after ABC announced that it was moving All My Children from New York City to Los Angeles.[24] One Life to Live's lonely presence in New York along with its struggling ratings was making it a program at risk of cancellation. 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 ABC officially announced that it was shutting down SOAPnet, effective in 2012. In January of 2011, ABC began secretly auditioning a few talk shows to maybe be placed in their daytime lineup. At this point, All My Children had the lowest ratings so rumors began heating up about the show's demise. Rumors also were that One Life To Live was safe for a while longer. Early in April, though, rumors began to heat up once again that not only All My Children, but also One Life To Live was in danger of cancellation.

        After years of steady declining ratings, ABC first announced on April 14, 2011 that All My Children would end its network run on September 23, 2011. A minute later, it was announced was that One Life To Live will also be ending its run on their network a few months after in January, 2012 citing "extensive research into what today’s daytime viewers want and the changing viewing patterns of the audience."[6] The network states it is replacing the show with a new production entitled The Revolution which will focus on health and lifestyles.[25] In response to the cancellation of this and All My Children, vacuum cleaner manufacturer Hoover withdrew its advertising from all ABC programs out of protest, going as far as running a campaign to get ABC to reverse its decision.[26][27][28] But while both soaps had their cancellations announced the same day, One Life To Live was to remain on the air 4 months longer because its replacement would not be ready until later.

        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 its television run 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 soaps, One Life to Live and All My Children will become the first soap operas to transition its first-run broadcasts from traditional television to internet television.[29].