Articles and Interviews: 2000-2003
Behind the Scenes by Carolyn Hinsey (Soap Opera Digest 6/18/02)
At One Life to Live -- LIVE!
Friday, May 17, 7 a.m. Actors report to the studio for hair, makeup
and camera blocking.
9:15 am. Dress rehearsal on the set. Some actors are in bathrobes
and curlers holding scripts during their scenes, but no one is allowed to
stop the action. Erika Slezak, whose character Niki is drinking on the sly
in the bathroom, spies a reporter and offers her a "swig." Roger Howarth
(Todd) pretends to be a stagehand between his scenes, helpfully moving cable
for the cameras. which volley for space going from set to set in the cramped
studio.
10:15 a.m. Dress rehearsal ends. Food is laid out in the rehearsal
hall as actors finish getting ready, run lines and gather on the front steps
of the studio. Stage Manager Rick Manfredi is asked what the word of the
day will be. He explains: "The word of the day started in January of 2001
when I was talking with Roger Howarth. I said jokingly, 'The word of the
day is methodology.' He said, 'What is the word of the day?' I said, 'You
have to put that word somewhere in your script and get it on tape.' And the
first line he used that day was, 'Blair, I know your methodology,' so he
got it in. Erika heard about it and we started playing it as a game the next
day. I pull a word out of the dictionary 15 minutes before dress rehearsal.
They have to do it in dress rehearsal, so the producers can either hack it
or leave it in, and the first person who gets it in gets a point. Erika had
28 words in 2001, so she won the medal. The medal says VERBOSE."
The word of this day is Parcheesi.
12:15 p.m. Taped run-through is a disaster. Actors forget lines and
miss cues; lighting in certain scenes is off. Even Slezak misses a line,
prompting Executive Producer Gary Tomlin to joke in the booth, "What's in
that flash?" (On the bright side, Howarth manages to work in "I'm the president
of the Llanview Parcheesi Club" during Todd's rant to Tea about how "great"
his life is.) Tomlin, who is also directing that day's episode, transposes
the order of the last scenes so that they tape out of order. "My fault!"
he quickly announces over the P.A. "Gary Tomlin," cracks a producer, also
over the P.A. "The executive producer would like to see you in his office."
Because this is the version taped for broadcast in case
of a power failure, Tomlin quips, "Watch, this will be the day the
power goes out."
1:15 p.m. Actors gather on the front steps of the studio. "Can you
believe how bad that was?" queries Hillary B. Smith (Nora). "We'll be fine,"
Robert S. Woods (Bo) calmly assures castmates.
2 p.m. Broadcast starts. Nonessential personnel gather in the hair
and makeup room to watch the telecast, which is mishap-free. However, Howarth
opts to drop the "Parcheesi" line. (Slezak later comments that if she had
known he wasn't going to say it, she would have worked in "I am sick of playing
this Parcheesi-playing matron Victoria!" during her monologue rant to the
bathroom mirror.) The show is a triumph, but sadly, no one gets a point for
the word of the day.
2:58 p.m. Ty Treadway (Troy) rips off his lab coat (which read "Dr.
Colin MacIver not Troy") while showing the credits to reveal a buff torso
with the word "LIVE" written on it in red. Everyone screams; one producer
nods knowingly.
3 p.m. Tomlin gathers "everybody in the building" to the stage floor
to congratulate them on five successive hours of live TV.
3:10 p.m. Woods cranks "Celebration" on the stereo. Kamar de los Reyes
(Antonio), who is presenting at the Emmys, kicks back in his dressing room
with a reporter. "I was extremely flattered when Gary asked me to do a fifth
show," he muses. "I waslike, 'Are you kidding me? Absolutely!' The level
of the performaces has been really great. I was watching Kassie [DePaiva,
Blair] the other day -- phenomenal. I had such a good time just watching
my co-workers."
Epilogue: Should OLTL go live again?
Woods: "No, thanks."
DePaiva: "I'd quit. I'd go, 'Do you have a job over there? I can't
write, but I know soaps and I can talk to people and record it.'"
Smith: "This decade?"
Catherine Hickland (Lindsay): "Part of me wishes we could do
this all the time. It's like a big Fear Factor -- scary."
Kristen Alderson (Starr): "I'd like it."
De los Reyes: "I'd love to do it again and again and again."
Mark Derwin (Ben): "In a second, but I'm drinking a beer [laughs].
Put that in your article!"