Friday, January 13, 2012

A Last Life to Live

After over 43 years of daily shows, it all comes down to one hour.
Today marks the final episode of ABC's "One Life to Live".



This show was always the "back up" show, when I was growing up. "General Hospital" was the big deal at my house, between my sister, my younger brother (for awhile, anyway) and myself. "One Life to Live" was the one we caught if we had time. Usually, it had started before we got home, so it was just a half hour, at most. But I still watched and got hooked, for a good number of years.

I stopped watching years ago and only last summer did I start up again, watching with my family. We are all kinda hooked on it, and if the show had been as good (and as cheezy-fun) as it has been lately, I bet it wouldn't be facing its demise today.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Viki Lord Buchanan, played by actress Erica Slezak  for 40 years,
had a speech on the show yesterday:

“The fans are so loyal, so passionate, so invested in their stories. I always ask how they started watching Fraternity Row. Some of them were stay at home mothers, taking a break before their children came home from school. Others were college students, with free time between classes. Many of them inherited a love of the show from their parents or their grandparents, who were long time fans themselves.

I remember the first time I tuned into Fraternity Row. I was hooked instantly. I needed to know what would happen next to these fascinating people. Would the hero and the heroine find their way back to true love? Would the villains get their comeuppance? Or would their crimes go unpunished? Would loving families overcome their obstacles? Or would their troubles prove too difficult to surmount?

Ultimately, that’s what soap opera is about: families. Close families, rival families. Even families that are unexpected, or the ones we choose for ourselves. And when a show is lucky enough to be on the air as long as Fraternity Row has been on, these families become extensions of our own. The audience might be upset when a favorite actor leaves, but they’re always willing to welcome a new one. Even when that new cast member is quite different from the one being replaced.

After all, this is a place where people come back from the dead, go off to grade school in the morning and come home from high school in the afternoon. Because for every new face, every new couple, every new family, there are long familiar faces. Some who have grown up before our very eyes. And a few more we hope to watch grow up. We know them so well. They’ve become our friends. We yearn for their happiness, especially when it’s hard won. We laugh as they laugh, cry as they cry and we can’t imagine doing without them. And when things are at their very worst on the show, that’s when we seem to enjoy them the most.

There’s just one thing we have to do to keep them in our lives: tune in tomorrow.”

Victoria Lord, on the ending of One Life To Live’s fictional soap opera Fraternity Row.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, thanks for all the hours of entertainment.
You will be missed, no matter what ABC-TV thinks.

Here is the "One Life to Live" song, as sung by Kristen Alderson,
who played Starr on the show.


4 comments:

  1. Oh Joe, I wish you'd come back to 10thDoM...

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  2. Ah Baino, have no desire to. Hope you are all enjoying it, though!

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  3. Love this.

    Wasn't that the best speech? I was in tears. One Life to Live has been so brilliant, but for 30 years they have had stories I have adored, stories I carry with me. I am so sad the show is gone, but so happy to be filled with those memories. Vicki was right, they are part of my family.

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  4. Amanda: Thanks. The speech was amazing and you just know it was Agnes Nixon & Slezak speaking to the One Life to Live/soap opera audience for real, letting them know they understand and will miss them, as well. Very well written and beautifully delivered.

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