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{{work}}
The series originally focused on the wealthy Lord family and the blue-collar Riley family of Llanview, Pennsylvania. Heiress Victoria Lord (played by Erika Slezak since 1971) became the centerpiece of the show, later marrying into the Buchanan family, which has served as the series' core ever since. Over the years, Viki has suffered breast cancer, heart disease, a stroke, being shot, and most famously, [[Split Personality|Dissociative Identity Disorder]].
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The late 1980s brought a series of outlandish storylines. Viki's near-death experience took her to heaven, depicted as a spaceship inhabited by her departed relations. In 1988, Clint Buchanan fell off a horse and was transported to 1888, where he met his own ancestors, all lookalikes of his 1988 family. Most infamously, in 1989, several characters became trapped in Eterna, a secret city inside a mountain. In 2008, to celebrate the show's 40th anniversary, they 'revisited' two of these storylines. Viki again suffered a near-death experience, but this time Heaven was more like an office building, where she was taken by elevator to be briefly reunited with friends and loved ones. Show creator Agnes Nixon also made an appearance during this segment. In addition, Bo Buchanan (Clint's younger brother) and his nephew Rex Balsom were struck by lightning and transported back in time to 1968's Texas, where everyone believed that Bo was actually his father Asa and that Rex was actually Bo.
In the early 90s, ''OLTL'' returned to more socially-conscious storytelling. One story told of a gay teen who confronted homophobia in Llanview. Another featured Marty's brutal gang rape at a fraternity party. This story introduced ''OLTL''{{'}}s most controversial character, Todd Manning, who led the gang rape. Much like Luke Spencer on ''[[General Hospital]]'', the character was kept on the show due to female fans' attraction to him. Todd was discovered to be a long-lost Lord heir, and became a central character, driving away many viewers.
Created by Agnes Nixon, ''OLTL'' shared its universe with Nixon's other soap, ''[[All My Children]]'', and has had many [[
{{tropelist}}
* [[AB Negative]]
* [[Absurdly Youthful Mother]]
▲* [[Absurdly Youthful Mother]] - Greg has to be at least in his early 40s to have been a practicing neurosurgeon for as long as he's explicitly stated to have been. The actress playing his mother is in her mid/late 40s. And he has a 15 year old sister, {{spoiler|who's actually Greg's daughter.}}
* [[Armored Closet Gay]]: Daniel Colson.
* [[The Baby Trap]]
* [[Big Fancy House]]:
* [[Big Screwed-Up Family]]: Several. But notably the Lords, the Cramers and the Buchanans.
* [[Bitch in Sheep's Clothing]]: The main character Viki's dad, Victor Lord. Originally seen as simply a domineering and [[Overprotective Dad]] during his original run on the show, it was revealed in the 1990s, presumably after his death, that he was a pedophile who molested Viki as a child. He briefly was revealed to have had his death faked in the early 2000s with Mitch Laurence's assistance, before dying again, during which we got to see the real Victor Lord in all of his ugly [[True Colors]].
* [[Bound and Gagged]]
* [[The Cast Showoff]]
* [[Cliff Hanger]]
▲* [[The Cast Showoff]] - Several actors on One Life to Live. For instance, the original actor who played Jessica, Erin Torpey, has a nice singing voice, so they had Jessica in a band at one point, and also had her sing on a few other occasions. Evangeline Williamson got to sing a lot in the show, because her actress Renee Goldsbury is a real life singer/song writer, and was on a Broadway musical. And Blair Cramer, is also shown singing on a number of occasions, because Kassie [[De Paiva]] is a singer and has albums out.
* [[Convenient Coma]]
▲* [[Cliff Hanger]] - {{spoiler|Victor Lord, Jr. is still alive and is somehow being held by Allison Perkins.}}
▲* [[Convenient Coma]] - Evangeline Wiliamson. Went into a coma for three years after being exposed to a gas leak. She soon went off life support.
* [[Damsel in Distress]]
▲* [[Crossover]] - mostly with ''[[All My Children]]'', but with other ABC soaps as well
* [[Downer Ending]]: Bobby Ford and Cole Thornhart are fighting to get out of Heaven to be with their loved ones, Bobby does the chivalrous thing and lets go on to other side. {{spoiler|But as soon as Cole and Starr arrive in [[General Hospital|Port Charles]], they get in a car accident and Cole and Hope are killed
▲* [[Damsel in Distress]]- Natalie used to often suffer from this back in the day, to be saved by John. This has not happened so much recently, however.
* [[Dynamic Entry]]
▲* [[Downer Ending]]: Bobby Ford and Cole Thornhart are fighting to get out of Heaven to be with their loved ones, Bobby does the chivalrous thing and lets go on to other side. {{spoiler|But as soon as Cole and Starr arrive in [[General Hospital|Port Charles]], they get in a car accident and Cole and Hope are killed.}}
▲* [[Dynamic Entry]] - Shaun comes to [[Big Damn Heroes|save Starr, Hope, and Todd from drug dealers]]. This is also a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]].
{{quote|'''Sergei:''' ''(sees Shaun on phone's caller ID)'' Who is Shaun?
''(gunshot)''
'''Shaun:''' ''I'm'' Shaun.
** Except the actor who plays Shaun sucks and his delivery of the line was more like "I'm ''Shaun''" which didn't sound right and wasn't as cool.
** Another example occurred when Sam burst into a hotel room where Echo had been holding Dorian hostage, in a
* [[Earn Your Happy Ending]]: In 2001, Jessica Buchanan's [[The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air|life got flipped turned upside down]]. First, [[Talkative Loon|Allison]] claims [[Switched At Birth|she returned the wrong baby]] after baby Jessica (Natalie) was kidnapped. Then it's revealed Jessica and Natalie are half twins when it was discovered her father was Mitch Laurence and not Clint Buchanan. Then after developing DID to repress childhood sexual abuse, her alter falls in love with a man and gets pregnant by him, just as she comes around to loving the guy... he dies in a freak accident. That freak accident was caused by her aforementioned twin sister's deception. She lapses into her DID again and imprisons her sister, and she's pregnant again. Unfortunately this baby doesn't survive, so ANOTHER alter steals her teen cousin's baby. Eventually, the ruse is lifted and she loses another child. She gets institutionalized (a recurring theme) and finds love with another crazy. Mitch escapes and fucks that up by erasing her mind to when she was a teenager. Her new beau can't cope and thus sleeps with said twin sister. She comes back though... mid coitus with the town pervert who impregnates her. Despite this she attempts marry him, until the ugly truth comes out. You guessed it, DID time. She hooks up with the town pervert and begins to like him, but Jessica takes over again and it's square 1. Just as Jessica and the town pervert begin to fall in love, Mitch returns and kills ''HIM'', somehow a DNA test is found and it's revealed that
* [[Evil Old Folks]]
* [[Flashback with the Other Darrin]]
* [[Hannibal Lecture]]: Mitch is the ''master'' of this. Everything he does is passive-
* [[Hurricane of Puns]]: Justin greeted Matthew's return to school with a hurricane of [[Incredibly Lame Pun
{{quote|'''Matthew''':(disagreeing with [[Humans Are
'''Teacher''': Great, Matthew. Why don't you tell me why-<br />
'''Justin''': -But you don't have a leg to ''stand'' on, Buchanan!
* [[Jerkass]]: Todd Manning, full stop. Seems to have spread to his twin brother and son.
* [[Karma Houdini]]: Todd is at the top of the list, Cole's racing up it...
** Inverted with Cole, because killing the serial killer who made everyone's lives hell landed him in prison. It's only 10 years, [[Die for Our Ship|but enough time for James to get in with Starr...]]
** Jack had this going for him for quite some time, but it seems like karma is ''finally'' catching up to him.
**
**
***
* [[Killed Off for Real]]: Several major characters throughout the show's run. Viki's sister Meredith was the first, and Viki's first husband Joe Riley was killed off for real before the 70s were over.
* [[Lampshade Hanging]]:
** Most of what David says throughout his storyline with his proposed reality show, and its subsequent turn into an internet telenovela. Memorably: "Thanks to the slow demise of serialized television, there are more and more time slots available for ''important'' programming. Like my reality show!" and "Do you have any idea how much money must be in reruns that play on the internet?"
** In the late 80's, Bo was the producer of the soap opera ''Fraternity Row'', which was just an excuse for the writers to mock themselves and their actors. It was brilliant.
*** Robert S. Woods, the actor who plays Bo, also appeared in a commercial with a tagline around that time, and the writers took that as an excuse to have other characters wink and say it to him.
* [[Likes Older Women]]
* [[Little Miss Badass]]
* [[Littlest Cancer Patient]]: Shane, literally. Diagnosed ''the very same week'' that Matthew was paralyzed in a car crash - at least one reviewer said that they risked alienating viewers by having so many horrible things happen to kids they've come to care about happen at once.
* [[Live Episode]]
* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]
* [[Locked in a Freezer]]
* [[Love Makes You Crazy]]
▲* [[Long Runner]] - 7/15/68-1/13/12, 11,105 episodes
* [[Magic Plastic Surgery]]
* [[The Malaproper]]
* [[
** Even squickier was elderly Victor Lord's off-screen but often-mentioned romance with college student Irene, which became creepier (but also more 'logical') when after a [[Retcon]] it was revealed that Victor was a pedophile who had sexually abused his daughter Viki all throughout childhood.
* [[Musical Episode]]: Starr X'd Lovers.▼
* [[Mushroom Samba]]: Cole's withdrawal hallucinations of his family and friends berating him and telling him how he ruined their lives.
▲* [[Musical Episode]]: Starr X'd Lovers.
* [[Non-Idle Rich]]: Bo Buchanan, multimillionaire oil heir and cop's cop.
* [[One Steve Limit]]
* [[Pass Fail]]: When Carla Benari couldn't get roles as a black actress, she pretended to be a white one. This caused tension between her and her mother Sadie.
* [[Perky Female Minion]]: Allison Perkins.
* [[The Rival]]: Dorian Cramer towards Viki.▼
▲* [[Pretty in Mink]] - Until the early 1990s.
▲* [[Rape as Redemption]] - Played straight after Marty's gang rape.
** Practically every bad girl in Llanview [[Unfortunate Implications|has been raped]] or it's been [[Attempted Rape|attempted]].
* [[Rape Is Love]]
* [[Retcon
* [[Retired Monster]]
▲* [[The Rival]]: Dorian Cramer towards Viki.
* [[Rivals Team Up]]
* [[Sassy Black Woman]]:
* [[Serial Killer]]:
** Also, the K.A.D Killer.
* [[Sexy Spectacles]]
* [[Shower of Angst]]
* [[Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome]]
** Joey Buchanan. (Nathan Fillion plays the best Joey ever. Just sayin'.)
** Most recently, Jack Manning, Todd's first son, who was born in 2001, is now (early 2011) ''sixteen''.
* [[Sociopathic Hero]]: Todd Manning. Rape Marty Saybrooke? Check. Save Marty Saybrooke? Check. Assault a blind Nora? Check. Save two children
* [[Split Personality]]:
**
* [[Taking the Bullet]]
* [[Teen Pregnancy]]
* [[Teens Are Monsters]] - the whole class laughed at Justin's above-described [[Hurricane of Puns]] as though it was genuinely funny.▼
**
▲* [[Teens Are Monsters]]:
** Jack Manning is teetering on the line between a plain [[Jerkass]] and a [[Complete Monster]], and even then he's trying every conceivable method to make himself into a [[Karma Houdini]].
▲* [[Teen Pregnancy]] - Starr recently had one of these. Markko and Langston were sure to use a condom when they did the deed, though Lola poking holes in Langston's nearly caused this. Gigi also had one with Shane. Destiny is currently expecting with Matthew's baby.
▲** Jessica Buchanan was also pregnant as a teen, although the baby, who was named after her dead half-sister Megan, was stillborn after Jessica was hit by a car. Speaking of Megan, Viki was pregnant with her as a teenager, and the fact that Viki's [[Complete Monster|complete monster of a father]] had her brainwashed into forgetting the pregnancy and birth ever happened was one of the explanations for Viki's DID before it was retconed into being childhood sexual abuse.
** Destiny's parents somehow make a bizarre cross between this and the
▲* [[Their First Time]] - Starr and Cole, Langston and Markko.
▲* [[Too Dumb to Live]] - Everyone has their moments.
▲** Destiny's parents somehow make a bizarre cross between this and the {{spoiler|[[Moral Event Horizon]] by indirectly being responsible for Greg's involvement with Elijah Clarke's schemes just because they're way too stubborn to admit that Destiny is not really their daughter.}}
* [[Two-Teacher School]]: Llanview High. Physically, it's one re-dressable classroom set, a short stretch of hallway and the gym. It's fully rendered compared to [[Off to Boarding School|the Warwick School]], which consists of one dorm room, an even smaller bit of hallway, and a single [[Harry Potter|Minerva McGonagall]] [[Expy]].
* [[Who's Your Daddy?]]:
** Not to mention Rex, who's been wondering for a long time. It turns out his father is {{spoiler|Mitch Laurence}}.
*** Played with, as it turned out
** Played with during Stacy's pregnancy.
* [[Wicked Cultured]]
* [[Yandere]]: Hannah, complete with [[Murder the Hypotenuse]].
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:TV Series]]
[[Category:Soap Opera]]
[[Category:American Series]]
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[[Category:Live-Action TV of the 1970s]]
[[Category:Live-Action TV of the 1980s]]
[[Category:Live-Action TV of the 1990s]]
[[Category:Live-Action TV of the 2000s]]
[[Category:Live-Action TV of the 2010s]]
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