One Life to Live is an American soap opera that was broadcast on the ABC network from July 1968 to January 2012, and online from April to August 2013. The series starts with One Life to Live storylines (1968–79). The plot continues in One Life to Live storylines (1980–89). 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).
One Life to Live (2000-2013)
2000 Into the new millennium, more new characters were introduced, including Lindsay's (Catherine Hickland) sister Melanie (Darlene Vogel) and her husband Colin (Ty Treadway). Colin was killed, but his twin brother was brought on the canvas, only to lose his mind and become a killer. Phelps' tenure saw the departure of a number of long-running actors, such as Laura Koffman (Cassie), Clint Ritchie (Clint), and Strasser (again).
2001 and 2002 Jill Farren Phelps and Megan McTavish left in early 2001, and they were respectively replaced by new executive producer Gary Tomlin and new head writers Lorraine Broderick and Christopher Whitesell. Many of the actors hired under Phelps' tenure were let go. Fan favorite Gabrielle returned after a ten-year absence and romanced Max, then Bo. Storylines became more campy, and the show had a much-acclaimed week in May 2002 where the episodes were broadcast live. This experimentation was mixed with truly dark tales such as Todd selling Blair's baby, telling her the child was dead and then passing him off as an adopted baby when he realized he was the natural father. Another story involved Viki returning to her former split personality Niki Smith to block out the painful memory of being raped by Mitch Laurence (Roscoe Born). She had one child with Clint (Natalie) and the other child (Jessica) was fathered by Mitch. Another storyline was Antonio (Kamar de los Reyes) having a one-night stand with a woman who turned out to be his fiancé Keri's (Sherri Saum) mother, Liz (Barbara Niven). She then implanted her embryo into Keri, meaning that Keri was unknowingly giving birth to her fiancé's child. To the chagrin of many viewers, much airtime was devoted to Lindsay's daughter, Jen (Jessica Morris).
2003 In early 2003, Malone and Josh Griffith were rehired as head writers with Frank Valentini taking over as executive producer. A new major storyline involved Mitch kidnapping sisters, Natalie and Jessica, to figure out which one's heart was a match for their grandfather. Victor had been faking his death. He was too ill to have major confrontations with his children and died a few weeks into the story. Dorian then showed up as Mitch's new bride, and she became enmeshed in a storyline involving a jewel hunt as well as a "curse" that blinded Mitch. Mitch was later killed by Jessica. Another story involved the return of Cord and Tina's daughter, Sarah Roberts, as rock singer Flash (Shanelle Workman). Flash dated, and even kissed, Joey Buchanan (Bruce Michael Hall), her cousin. Joey, who was a minister at the time, then married Jen Rappaport, but the marriage did not last due to her affair with former husband Rex Balsom. Joey was then sent back to London to live with Clint.
Roger Howarth had come and gone several times but quit for good in early 2003. Mitch had him kidnapped. When the character returned several months later, he was posing as Mitch's brother Walker and was played by Trevor St. John. Apparently Todd had been so badly beaten that he had to get extensive plastic surgery. In spite of much fear that viewers would never accept any other actor as Todd, the talented St. John became popular and Todd, for the first time in a decade, had love scenes as well as a semi-functional relationship with Blair.
In April 2003, Dorian Lord returned with plans to strike it rich. She married Mitch Laurence, claiming she "loved him". It was later found out that she married him to pay him back for the harm he did to the Cramer and Buchanan families. Viki developed heart trouble and was saved by a heart transplant from her comatose husband, Ben. One of the most appreciated storylines of the second Malone/Griffith era was Marcie Walsh (Kathy Brier)'s struggle with her self-esteem and her love story with Al Holden (Nathaniel Marston). Inexplicably, Marston was fired, while Al was killed off despite the couple's immense popularity. But a write-in campaign led by Marcal fans convinced ABC to rehire Marston, in spite of his character having died on screen. Al's spirit took over Michael McBain's body, causing the ghost to lose all memories as Al, and court Marcie and Michael. Brooding actor Michael Easton (who had a following as Stephen Clay/Caleb Morley, a singing vampire, on Port Charles) was hired as Michael's cop brother, John McBain. John was introduced as a pool tournament organizer who recruited Natalie for her pool skills. Natalie and John had an instant connection and attraction to each other but Natalie was engaged to Cristian. Unknown to her and Cristian, John was an undercover FBI agent working on a bust to trap Walker Flynn, Mitch Lawrence's brother who had been paid by Todd to use his face as a cover. After Natalie and Cristian wed, they flew to Las Vegas for a high-stakes pool competition against the Black Widow. Antonio, who learned of John's identity at Cristian's bachelor party, joined them in Las Vegas along with Jessica. John told Natalie to lose on purpose or he would kill her and Cristian. When Natalie learned that both Cristian and Roxy bet their life savings on her, she won the tournament. Chaos erupted eventually leading to Cristian Vega's death only a day after he married Natalie. In her grief, Natalie lashed out at John who made it his mission to make it up to her. John was reassigned to the Music Box Killer case in New Jersey but remained in Llanview when the serial killer killed a local Private Investigator, Elyssa Collins (Yvonne Sciò). John worked alongside Bo and Antonio on the case, forming a friendship with both. Eventually, Natalie's heart softened toward John and they began a close friendship. Al's mother, Gabrielle, was murdered by the Music Box Killer, and Al's father, Max, left town, thus removing the Holden family from the canvas. Next came the saga of the Santi mobster family, to whom Antonio learned he was related. To the detriment of ratings (which fell to an all-time low in the summer of 2004), much of the action revolved around new characters: Antonio's brother Tico (who married Jessica Buchanan), stepsister Sonia, and mother Angelina.
2004 Writers Malone and Griffith chose to leave and were replaced by Dena Higley in December 2004. On the day he was to remarry Blair, Todd was kidnapped by the crazed Margaret Cochran, who in a homage to Stephen King's Misery, tied him up for weeks in a secluded cabin while he recovered from his injuries. She then drugged him and forced him to have sex in order to impregnate herself, a throwback to his history of rape. Margaret then conspired to get rid of Todd's wife, Blair, by locking her in the trunk of her car. Margaret became pregnant and stabbed Todd because he tried to strangle her. To keep her away from his family, Todd took Margaret to a lake, and she never came back to shore. A few weeks later, her body and the unborn child washed up on shore. Todd was arrested for the crime and was tried for first-degree murder and sent to death row. Todd was trying to prove his innocence with the help of Evangeline (his lawyer), but did he or someone else kill Margaret?
2005 A storyline played out in 2005 in which Nora's (Hillary B. Smith) new husband, politician Daniel Colson (Mark Dobies) was revealed to be Paul Cramer's murderer. He first framed his son's girlfriend Jennifer Rappaport (Jessica Morris) for the crime, and then suffocated her when she learned the truth. But the revelation that his killing spree was all to cover up his homosexuality proved controversial in the media.
During this time, Natalie's husband, Cristian Vega, was in Statesville Prison. Attorney Evangeline Williamson took over his case and won, which led to the release of Cristian Vega. After Cristian's release, Evangeline and Cristian grew closer and fell in love.
Nora's health took a downturn after she suffered a massive stroke during an argument with Bo about Paige. She remained in a coma for several months, but eventually made a full recovery.
Jessica, meanwhile, had developed a split personality, changing into bad girl "Tess" who goaded Viki into having a heart attack. Jess/Tess become pregnant either by Jessica's boyfriend, Antonio, or Tess's boyfriend, Nash (who has a past of his own). Concerned that the baby was actually Antonio's, Tess destroyed the sample that would identify the actual father. Viki then became Niki Smith and kidnapped Jessica, forcing her to become Tess in order to finally discover what made Tess emerge and would destroy Viki forever. Tess refused to tell Niki her secret because if anyone knew, Jessica would integrate into the dominant personality. Determined to know what happened to their daughter, Viki and Clint returned to the bar where Niki had taken Jessica when she was a child. The evidence pointed to a house a couple of blocks away from the bar, where they discovered VHS tapes buried underneath the house labeled with Tess's name as well as those of other young girls. Viki and Clint decided to give the evidence to Bo, but before Tess's tape could be released to the police, Viki and Clint begged Bo to let them see what had happened to their daughter. Jessica's abuse at the hands of a pedophile led to the original creation of the "Tess" personality. Jessica gave birth to a little girl named Brennan (or Bree for short), and the father was later revealed to be Nash. Tess and Jess were later integrated, and Jessica married Antonio Vega.
2006 May 2006 was a month with both tragedies and happier times for Llanview. Duke Buchanan, son of Kevin Buchanan, was injured after a tornado wreaked havoc on the town during Michael McBain and Marcie Walsh's wedding. Kevin was heartbroken as he was forced to choose who would get a life-saving surgery and chose Kelly over Duke. Kelly survived but Duke died. Kelly became pregnant with Duke's baby and later gave birth to a premature baby, Zane Buchanan. Kelly, Kevin, and the baby left Llanview to start life anew in London.
It turned out that Spencer Truman, revealed to be David Vickers' half brother, framed Todd Manning by faking Margaret's death, wiping her memory, and gave Margaret's baby away. David Vickers, Natalie Buchanan, and John McBain later found a very-much-alive Margaret in Thailand. She had no memory of what happened to her or her baby. On Todd's execution day, John stormed into the execution chamber with Margaret in tow. By then, Todd had already been given the injections and Blair was devastated. Blair was shocked to find that Margaret was alive and Todd was telling the truth all along. She begged Spencer to save Todd, and he did.
Meanwhile, the police talked to Margaret about what happened. She did not remember anything of what happened but later regained her memory during transport to jail. Unfortunately, the van she was in was involved in an accident and she was killed.
Later, Blair realized that Spencer was indeed behind the framing of Todd. She helped the Llanview police by getting proof that Spencer may have killed John's father, not David, as had previously been thought. He was arrested and put on trial.