Given that As The World Turns has just been canceled after 53 years on the air that leaves One Life To Live as the only daytime drama left filming in New York. And the only show left on the air at 2 p.m. Remember when it was Another World on NBC, ATWT on CBS, and OLTL on ABC? Now One Life To Live will soon be standing alone. And I'm determined that it will not be another victim of cancellation. OLTL, in my humble opinion, is one of the best written and acted shows on the air that no one is watching. And it gives no love from ABC. While AMC has been moved to Los Angeles into a brand new facility and will soon be shown in HD, OLTL is being moved into AMC's old studio and will not be filmed in HD. While hot groups like the All-American rejects and stars like Snoop Dogg make regular appearances on the show, you would be hard pressed to see any promos or previews for it. Recently OLTL did a huge storyline involving gay marriage and gay couple Fish and Kyle finally consummated their relationship. But did you hear about it in the media? Contrast to last year when Reese and Bianca got married on AMC and the two actresses and the EP were everywhere promoting the storyline, despite the fact that it totally sucked (the bride found out that her fiancee had sucked face with her brother-in-law the night before the wedding).
So here are 10 Reasons why I think that soap fans should watch OLTL (if they aren't already).
1. Diversity: OLTL has one the most diverse casts in terms of ethnicity on the air right now. OLTL right now has 8 characters who are either African-American or Hispanic. Contrast that with GH which has none, B&B (none), ATWT (none). AMC and Y&R are the only other soaps to really have minority characters that aren't just window-dressing. And these characters have families, they're not just floating out there in the ether. And they have storylines.
2. Actresses over 40 who have storylines: Dorian, Blair, Tea, Viki, Nora are all women over 40 years old and guess what? They all have major storylines on this show. And romances. In Blair's case, she's had probably had more sex scenes on this show in the past year than some of the younger characters. Dorian Lord is the major of Llanview and involved in a major storyline trying to protect her family from the evil Mitch Lawrence.
3. A police department that actually catches criminals: Unlike GH, where the PCPD make the Keystone Cops look like crack investigators, the cops on OLTL actually do their jobs. They arrest people and actually put people in jail. Sometimes they actually stay there. But they actually do their jobs well, and the police commissioner is not made to constantly look like an incompetent boob.
4. Consistency: The EP Frank Valentini has been working on the show for 24 years and the Head Writer, Ron Carlivati has been with the show as a writer for 13 years. They know the show intimately and it shows on the screen. Characters on this show generally don't turn around on a dime just to move plot along. They have a consistent through-line. Todd is still a borderline sociopath, Dorian will always protect her family, Viki is always warm, loving, and compassionate, Blair will always wear something that is incredibly skimpy and inappropriate.
5. Love Stories: Nora & Bo, Kyle & Fish, Todd & Tea, Starr & Cole, Langston & Markko, Christian & Layla, Gigi & Schuyler, Brody & Jessica, this show is awash in couples that the audience cares about and roots for.
6. Friendships: This show is awash in friendships: Schuyler & Rachel, Tea & Rachel, Rex & Bo, Kim & Stacey, Starr & Langston, Cole & Markko, Layla, Fish & Christian, Kyle & Roxy. They confide each other, they have each other's backs, they go to the mat for each other.
7. Characters don't exist in a bubble: Compare the cast on AMC where people who should interact, don't. People on AMC exist in little bubbles and rarely meet unless it's at some big fuction. Contrast that with OLTL where pretty much everyone interacts on at least some level. On one day, David Vickers Buchanan came to town, ran into Markko, Ford, Elijah, Langston, and Dorian. He's also had scenes with his Pa, Bo, his little brother Matthew, and his step-mother Nora. Not to mention his uncle Clint.
8. The teens act like teens: Destiny, Matthew and Daniela are the three younger teens on this show. They yell at their parents, break curfews, run away from home, have angst, and unrequited love just like most teens.
9. Kyle & Fish: This love story has been groundbreaking. For the first time, two men were given a love scene that was just as romantic and soapy as anything that a straight couple have been given. I'm talking candles, romantic music, undressing, kissing, and best of all, the cuddling afterwards. Never in my life would I have said that one of the hottest love scenes that I have ever seen on a soap was between two men. And their storyline is classic soap. They were in love in college, but Fish wasn't ready to admit that he was gay, because his parents are uber-religious and conservative. He tried a relationship with Layla but couldn't get Kyle out of his mind (particularly the hot kiss behind the cafe). After sleeping with town slut Stacey, he finally admitted the truth that he was gay, but Kyle had moved on to Nick. Finally during the gay wedding, not only did Fish admit he was gay in public but also that he loved Kyle. Since then it's been incredibly sweet seeing Fish deal with having a boyfriend openly for the first time.
10. The Men are Hot: Seriously the men on this show are some of the best looking men on television. On any given day, Ford and Christian will spend half the episode with their shirt off. Add Elijah, Greg, Brody and Ross to the mix and OLTL is like beefcake central. Even Scott Clifton, who plays Schuyler, shocked me when he took his shirt off and was looking so buff. Seriously he didn't look that hot on GH.
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