everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Don't Believe the Hype

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The lives of the Lords, Woleks, Buchannans and Cramer families dominated the city of Llanview for a 43 year run, and unlike its sister city of Pine Valley, PA, Llanview was grounded in more reality even with a few bizarre plot lines. I call this ABC's closest in quality to NBC's "Another World", with former "AW" head writer Agnes Nixon moving on from that Proctor and Gamble show to create this. Although she had written the bible for "All My Children" first, her passionate love for the study of human relationships began with this show which crossed not only class and race issues, but religion as well. There were Catholics, Protestants and Jews, and even a story-line where a young black woman (the beautiful Ellen Holly) pretended to be an Italian American so she could be accepted in society. Holly's Carla (real name Clara) was one of two dominant original female characters, and had a major part in the show's critical success. Tony Winning actress Lillian Hayman was outstanding as her hard-working mother. Political upheaval on the show in the mid 1980's saw the write-out of these characters in a rather cruel way, especially for Hayman who was literally fired in a parking lot.The heart and soul of the show for 43 years was the character of Victoria Lord, a complex young woman who was eventually revealed to be suffering from a split personality and dealt with secrets from her childhood for the show's entire run. Fans were thrilled by her long rivalry with the former Dr. Dorian Cramer (most notably played by Emmy Winner Robin Strasser) which often crossed the line into occasional friendship when the characters would make amends for hurts of the past. As played by Erika Slezak for 40 years, the character was complex in every detail, and she would go onto win more Emmys than any other actress on the soaps. For the first decade, Vicki was part of the super-couple pairing with Joe Riley, although that term didn't become widely used until years after Joe died. Her later relationship with Clint Buchannan (Clint Ritchie, Jerry Ver Dorn) pretty much surpassed it. The first decade of the show was traditional class conflict soap, with Carla and her major love interest, Police Lt. Ed Hall (veteran stage actor Al Freeman Jr.) providing one of the few black couples on daytime. (Sister soap "AMC" was the only other, with Nancy and Frank Grant equally as popular as Carla and Ed.) "OLTL" got some major publicity when it cast two ousted "AW" stars, George Reinholt and Jacqueline Courtney, who at least for a time also dominated the airwaves. By the late 1970's, daytime was changing, and a "Dallas" type story began with the introduction of the Buchannan family, lead by veteran movie actor Philip Carey as the ruthless J.R. Ewing like patriarch and Robert S. Woods remaining for decades as his younger son, Bo. The mob infiltrated Llanview for a while, and Judith Light's Karen Wolek became the miserable long suffering character that fans tuned into see cry and emote every day. Light deservedly won two Emmy's before moving into prime-time. I started watching in late 1981 when the show had a masked ball that lasted for a month, with Asa's supposedly dead wife, Olympia (stage and screen vet Taina Elg) revealing her husband's evil deeds. A great story-line had Bo involved with old enemies of his father's, the Ralston clan, whom he thought for a while was his real family. "Dark Shadows" vet Grayson Hall provided real camp as the scheming Euphemia Ralston, with the gorgeous Shelley Burch as her sexpot daughter Delila who married both Asa and Bo, then ended up happy with Asa's nephew, Rafe.The story-line headed back to its roots for a while with the blue collar O'Neill family, but later went into "Dynasty" territory with the introduction of the wealthy Sanders family, featuring a scene- stealing performance by Lois Kibbee as the wealthy matriarch, with Louise Sorel going from scheming Augusta on "Santa Barbara" to the noble Judith, a victim of anti-Semitic comments from her mother-in-law Elizabeth (Kibbee). After the Sanders family faded out, wealthy Michael Grande (Dennis Parlato) became another temporary villain, later replaced by mobster Carlo Hesser (Thom Christopher) who had a rivalry with Asa over Asa's wife, Renee (Patricia Elliott). The schemes of Dorian continued, as did those of Vicki's sister, Tina Clayton and the psychotic Alex Olanov who ended up marrying both Carlo and Asa. As the show buckled with current soap trends that went far out from the world of reality, they did add two families to add diversity to the show-the Hispanic Vega's and the black Gannon's. Secrets of Vicki's long dead father Victor continued to come to light, such as the revelation that bad boy Todd Manning was another one of his illegitimate offspring and that Victor had molested Vicki as a child which lead to her killing him in 1976, a crime that was often thought to have been committed by Dorian. Slezak's number of alters increased, and her gut wrenching performance was perhaps the most spellbinding single performance since Karen Wolek's confession on the stand in court back in 1980. The last years of the show had its convoluted moments, but was highlighted by the comical malapropisms from Ilene Kristen's Roxie who had audiences in stitches. Returns of former actors long gone from the show such as Kim Zimmer's Echo Di Savoy and Roscoe Borne's Mitch Lawrence kept the show's history continuously explored, although the mystery of who the real Todd Manning was when two actors who played the part ended up on screen together. Returns of the dead by Victor Lord and Irene Manning were panned, but the mixing of young actors with the veterans kept the audience intrigued. ABC announced that it was canceling both "AMC" and "OLTL" on the same day, but both shows later went briefly onto the web.

Erika Slezak has won 6 Emmy awards for playing the same role. She beat Susan Lucci most of the those times. I don't think people understand her acting ability which I consider to be on par with the finest actors and actresses today like Dame Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave, and Julie Harris. She has played a multiple personality disorder as well as played Victoria Lord for 35 years with class, elegance, and style that most people would envy. While lots of actors and actresses have come and gone, Erika stayed on playing a role that did not define her personal life. As All My Children is about another Erica, One Life to Live has provided a place for Erika Slezak who is also the heart and soul of the show itself to grow. It's an amazing show because it really does the unthinkable, unimaginable, and the absurd too. I can't forget the others on the show like Robin Strasser who plays Dorian Lord, Philip Carey who plays cowboy Asa Buchanan, Robert S. Woods who plays his son Bo. Can you imagine having cowboys in Llanview, Pennsylvania? but it work's with great actors and actresses. The absurd story lines are both entertaining and silly but even worth watching. If you like serious drama, this show is not for you. If you like fun entertainment, this is the show for you.

Antonio and Jessica need to go! They are worse than boring. Same with RJ Gannon and the attorney that has her hooks into John. Get rid of that please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! John belongs to Natalie so let's get it started. Evangeline is just not the one for John. And let's get Beau and Nora started on the track back to each other. Also, Kevin's ex-wife. Hit the bricks....you lost. Kevin needs someone with more spark to them. I do like Kevin's oldest son though. He's a real cute kid but needs more exposure. He's OK for now with Adriana. Beau is hot!! Let's see him on the personal side. He needs Nora!!!!!!!!!! I do love Roxey though, she is a real hoot and adds some spice to this show.

I'm in high school and everyday i have to watch soap net to get caught upon my soaps one life to live & all my children are my favorites. i think that we all watch soaps because their lives are glamorous yet they seem so real. its cool , would love to be a soap star. on one life to live i wish bo and nora would just get together again they are the best couple. on all my children ahh i want bianca to get her baby please give the girl back her baby. but see I'm so into them. well one life to live is amazing and Friday's show was interesting thats all i will say but i cant wait until Monday. SOAP OPERAS ROCK & everyone should watch them !!