One Life to Live is an American soap opera that was broadcast from 1968 to 2013, on the ABC network from 1968 to 2012. The series starts with One Life to Live storylines (1968–1979). The plot continues in One Life to Live storylines (1980–1989). The plot in the next decade is outlined in One Life to Live storylines (1990–1999) and the story concludes in One Life to Live storylines (2000—2013).
1968–1978 The earliest storylines of One Life to Live focused on the blue collar, Polish Catholic Wolek family, and the super-rich Lords. Additionally, there was also the Rileys, although most of the latter were featured much less prominently. One Life to Live is also noteworthy for including a Black family, the Grays, from the show's earliest episodes.
Sadie and Carla
One of the show's earliest and most controversial storylines was the one that played out between housekeeping director at Llanview Hospital, Sadie Gray (Lillian Hayman), and Carla Benari (Ellen Holly), an actress who arrived in Llanview and became a patient of Dr. Jim Craig's (Robert Milli) at the hospital. Assumed to be Italian American, Carla Benari is an important character immediately upon her arrival, becoming involved in a love triangle between Dr. Craig and internist Price Trainor (Peter DeAnda). Carla also strikes up a friendship with Anna Wolek (Doris Belack), unaware that Sadie is Anna's neighbor and best friend which would become relevant as the storyline progressed on-screen. At this point in the storyline, one ABC affiliate in Texas briefly dropped One Life to Live from its schedule due to the storyline in which Price Trainor, a black man, kissed Carla Benari, who was believed to be white.
The character of Carla, despite debuting in episode 61, months after the show's July 1968 premiere, was conceptualized in Agnes Nixon's original show Bible, and as such is considered part of the story of Llanview from the beginning. Nixon has said she was inspired to create the Carla Gray character after seeing singer Eartha Kitt in a television interview. Kitt expressed her own frustration at facing prejudice from both white and black audiences because of her light-skinned complexion, and the feeling of not belonging to either group. (Even Carla's surname "Gray" reflects the in-between nature of the character, not "black" or "white".) According to actress Ellen Holly's memoir, One Life: An Autobiography of an African American Actress, Nixon based Carla's mother Sadie on a maid who worked for Nixon's family when she was growing up much the same way that Sadie on One Life initially worked as a maid for the Lord family. Nixon based Carla and Sadie's original story on the film Imitation of Life, in which a light-skinned Black woman denies her heritage and her darker-complected mother, and enters white society by passing.
The revelation that Carla Benari was actually Black did not come until Ellen Holly had appeared in the role on-screen for five months. It was to be revealed that Carla Benari was actually "Clara Gray", who was mentioned from the earliest episodes by Sadie as the daughter who was "lost to her". Anna Wolek and her family, and by extension the audience, assumed Clara was dead. Holly spoke about the historic episodes in a 2018 Television Academy Foundation interview:
Carla chooses to live as "Carla Benari" for a little while longer, eventually becoming engaged to Dr. Craig, who was willing to keep her secret should she continue to want to live as "Carla Benari". The storyline eventually ended with Carla calling off her engagement and informing everyone in Llanview of her true identity, including to Price Trainor, who is furious. He tries to give Carla another chance, but it does not work out and he accepts a job offer overseas. While originally very heartbroken by Carla's rejection, Sadie regains a close and loving relationship with her daughter, who apologizes for her hurtful actions. While changing her surname back to "Gray", she decides to keep the forename "Carla". Ratings shot up for the then-fledgling soap, and as it was the first daytime soap opera to feature a Black woman, namely Ellen Holly, in a leading role,The Box: Looking Back At Daytime's First Black Leading Actress Ellen Holly One Life to Live began to score high ratings in the African American demographic.Ebony - October 1979 - Ellen Holly: 'One Life to Live' star will have eight million guests at her TV 'wedding'
Larry/Merrie in love Young intern Dr. Larry Wolek (Paul Tulley, Jim Storm, from 1969 onward Michael Storm) falls in love with Meredith Lord (Trish Van Devere, Lynn Benesch) the younger of two daughters of Victor Lord (Ernest Graves, Shepperd Strudwick). They initially met when Larry helped treat Merrie's heart condition. Victor disapproved of Larry as a suitor for his daughter and forbade her seeing him. Frustrated, Larry turned to Karen Martin (Niki Flacks), a nurse who saved his life when he was trapped in a fire. Larry wed Karen, but realized soon afterward it was a mistake; he didn't love her. He did stay with her when he found out she was pregnant however. Meanwhile, a heart-broken Merrie became involved with Tom Edwards (Joseph Gallison), a young man whom she found wandering in the park with amnesia and who was more to Victor's liking. Karen miscarried her baby and agreed to a divorce. Larry wanted to court Merrie again, but she had already accepted Tom's proposal. Ultimately though, Merrie chose to wed Larry. Merrie went through her own extremely difficult pregnancy, but successfully delivered twins, a son Danny (who would eventually grow up to be a doctor as well) and a daughter who died at birth. She suffered from post-partum depression. She was also held hostage by two escaped convicts for a prolonged period. Tragically, she died of a brain aneurysm in 1973, leaving Larry crushed.
"Niki Smith" Merrie's sister Victoria Lord (originated by Gillian Spencer, from 1971 onward Erika Slezak) was a sexually repressed young woman who lived for her father's approval. When brash reporter Joe Riley (Lee Patterson) began to chip away at her defenses, the fun-loving blonde-wigged "Niki Smith" began showing up at local bars. Joe's best friend, truck-driver (and later police officer) Vinny Wolek (Antony Ponzini, Jordan Charney, Michael Ingram), fell in love with Niki. When he realized she was really a split-personality (or 'alter') of Viki, he told Joe the truth. Viki underwent psychoanalysis with Dr. Polk, and her split-personality seemed at the time to be cured. She married Joe soon afterward. A few years later, Joe was presumed dead. Viki married reporter Steve Burke (Bernard Grant), who at the time was being stalked by the psychopathic Marcy Wade (Francesca James). Steve went on trial for her murder, and was ultimately cleared by none other than Joe himself, who had survived his presumably fatal car crash, but had been amnesiac for over a year. Poor Viki suddenly found herself with two husbands, and had a difficult time deciding on which husband to stay married. Viki and Joe reunited, but not before he had a child with Cathy Craig (Dorrie Kavanaugh). When the child died, Cathy kidnapped Viki and Joe's baby, Kevin Riley, in 1977.
Anti-drugs The show also had a sustained anti-drug storyline centering on wild child Cathy Craig (Catherine Burns, Amy Levitt, Jane Alice Brandon, Dorrie Kavanaugh, Jennifer Harmon). Cathy was the only daughter of widower Dr. Jim Craig (Robert Milli, Nat Polen). She resented her father's second marriage to Anna Wolek (Doris Belack, Kathleen Maguire, Phyllis Behar). Cathy rebelled by taking drugs, and spiralled into addiction. While on a bad acid trip, she murdered her drug dealer Artie Duncan (John Cullum), but blocked the incident out of her memory. Vinnie was wrongly accused and sentenced for the crime. Cathy finally recalled her actions and confessed. Rather than go to jail, she was sent to Odyssey House, a real-life NYC treatment center for drug-addicted youths. In an unusual move, Cathy's portrayer, actress Amy Levitt, was videotaped while sitting in on real-life therapy sessions at Odyssey House, which were then broadcast as OLTL episodes during the summer of 1970.
Dorian Cramer Dr. Dorian Cramer (Nancy Pinkerton, on-and-off from 1979 Robin Strasser) arrived in Llanview in April 1973 with her sister, Melinda (Patricia Pearcy); the following year she and her married lover Dr. Mark Toland (Tommy Lee Jones) conspired to cover up their complicity in the death of patient, Rachel Wilson (Nancy Barrett). When the truth came out, Dorian was suspended from Llanview hospital; erroneously believing Viki was partly responsible, Dorian vowed revenge. After becoming the private physician to Viki's ailing father Victor, she married him, and schemed to control his fortune. Dorian's machinations further fueled the enmity between Viki and herself. After Victor's mysterious death in 1976, the shadow of suspicion surrounded Dorian for decades.
Decline and resurgence As social issue-oriented stories on matters such as race and drug addiction played themselves out, ratings fell; in response, in 1975 ABC hired high-priced Another World actors George Reinholt and Jacqueline Courtney to portray Tony Lord and Pat Ashley. The numbers rose, but the pairing never achieved the success expected by executives. Reinholt left after only two years and replaced by Philip MacHale and, later, Chip Lucia; Courtney was fired in 1983.
The show did have huge success in the middle and late 1970s with new character-siblings Jenny (Katherine Glass, Brynn Thayer) and Karen Wolek (Kathryn Breech, Julia Duffy, Judith Light), distant cousins of the original Wolek family. Jenny was a novitiate nun who left the convent after falling in love with Tim Siegel (Tom Berenger). Her cousin Vinnie was angry, and accused Tim of 'stealing Jenny from the church.' Vinnie & Tim got into a physical fight, one that left Tim with grave head injuries from which he died soon afterwards. Jenny married Tim on his deathbed. Later, Jenny married bad boy Brad Vernon (Steve Fletcher, Jameson Parker), a philandering Lothario who caused her no small amount of grief.
Karen seduced Larry into marrying her, a controversial move in itself given that they were related (albeit several familial relations removed). But Karen, bored with married life and suffering overwhelming self-esteem problems, began turning tricks in the daytime with rich suitors in exchange for expensive 'gifts.' The sleazy opportunist Marco Dane (Gerald Anthony) discovered Karen's trysts and blackmailed her into becoming a housewife hooker, turning tricks for his clientele while Larry was at work. Karen was overwhelmed with guilt, and finally confessed to Viki her secret life. Viki helped Karen escape Marco's control.
Also appearing for the first time in 1978 was Viki's teenage ward Tina Clayton (Andrea Evans), introduced as the orphaned daughter of Viki's college friend Irene Manning Clayton (Kate McKeown) who asked Viki to be Tina's guardian before she died. Red-headed, free-spirited Tina seemed quite a lot like Viki's alter-ego Niki Smith, and was almost as troublesome. Nevertheless, Viki did her best to be a good mother figure to Tina. It would be years later that the two women learned how close their bond really was.
1979: Murder of Marco Dane A Grand Jury indicted Viki for the murder of Marco Dane. Karen Wolek searched for her hooker friend, Katrina Karr (Nancy Snyder), because she believed Katrina knew who killed Marco. Karen confided this to her client Talbot Huddleston (Byron Sanders), who was concerned Katrina may have seen him kill Marco. D.A. Herb Callison (Anthony Call) dropped the biggest bombshell of all by calling a surprise witness; Marco Dane's twin brother, Dr. Mario Corelli (also played by Gerald Anthony). Mario introduced damaging letters Marco had written to him about how Viki had threatened him.