Alex Henderson

Arts and Entertainment

Adios "One Life to Live": Long-Running Daytime Soap Opera Ends After 43 Years 

By Alex Henderson
RealmNoir, January 13, 2012

On January 13, 2012, ABC aired the final episode of the long-running Agnes Nixon soap opera “One Life to Live.” There was a time when it seemed like “One Life to Live,” which lasted 43 years, would continue indefinitely; the show often enjoyed high ratings and a huge audience during its 1970s and 1980s heyday. But it’s no secret that American soaps—unlike the wildly popular Latin American telenovelas that dominate Spanish-language television—are a dying breed, and in April 2011, ABC announced the cancellation of both “One Life to Live” and its sister soap “All My Children” (which debuted in 1970 and went off the air in September). With the death of “One Life to Live,” only four more daytime soaps remain in the U.S. (“General Hospital” on ABC, “The Young and the Restless” and “The Bold and the Beautiful” on CBS and “Days of Our Lives” on ABC).

     The cancellation of “One Life to Live” was easy to predict in light of how much its audience had decreased; the show went from having an estimated 9 million viewers in the early 1980s to roughly 1.6 million viewers in 2009/2010. Diehard fans urged Oprah Winfrey to save the program and continue it on her network, and Winfrey replied that quite frankly, she had no interest in doing so considering that American daytime soaps have a fraction of the audience they once did. Prospect Park expressed interest in producing both “One Life to Live” and “All My Children” for the Internet and cable TV, but that deal fell through.

      Like soaps in general, “One Life to Live” often thrived on campy entertainment and outrageous plots. Yet “One Life to Live,” in its heyday, could be daring and pushed the sociopolitical envelope more than a few times; racism, classism, psychedelic drugs, mental illness and teenage sex were among the topics that “One Life to Live” (which debuted in 1968) tackled back when those subjects were taboo on daytime television in the United States. At a time when other soap operas were decidedly WASP-y, “One Life to Live” had prominent characters who were black, Jewish or Irish-Catholic. One of the edgiest storylines from “One Life to Live’s” early years involved a character named Carla Gray (played by Ellen Holly). Carla was a light-skinned African-American woman who tried to pass herself off as white; the storyline was so controversial for 1969/1970 that some ABC affiliates in parts of the southern U.S. decided to quit airing “One Life to Live.” 

    Many well-known actors got their start on “One Life to Live,” including Tommy Lee Jones, Judith Light, Laurence Fishburn, Jameson Parker, Roma Downey, Blair Underwood and Mario Van Peebles. Al Freeman, Jr., who played National of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad in Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X,” was a fixture on “One Life to Live” for well over a decade; before he played a priest on “Wiseguy,” the late Gerald Anthony played reformed pimp turned antihero Marco Dane on the ABC soap. “One Life to Live” also attracted the likes of former Hollywood western star Phil Carey (who was on the show from 1980-2009) and Sammy Davis, Jr. (who made periodic appearances as con man Chip Warren).  

     So why are American daytime soaps dying off at a time when Latin American telenovelas continue to be wildly popular and dominate the prime-time lineups of both Univision and Telemundo? Some observers of pop culture argue that they have a lot more competition than they had in the past (ranging from reality shows to an endless supply of cable-TV offerings). Others argue that today’s young American viewers have too short an attention span to commit to five episodes per week. At any rate, the 43-year run of “One Life to Live” has officially come to an end on ABC—and it’s safe to say that American daytime soaps are going the way of westerns and 8-track tapes.

 Alex Henderson is a veteran journalist whose work has appeared in AlterNet, The L.A. Weekly, Billboard, Spin, XBIZ, Creem, The Pasadena Weekly and a long list of other well-known publications.



"One Life to Live's" original title card from 1968.



Actress Erika Slezak, daughter of the late Walter Slezak, played the character of Victoria Lord on "One Life to Live" from 1971 until the show's final episode in January 2012. The role had previously been played by Gillian Spencer from 1968-1970 and by Joanne Dorian in 1970.