Articles and Interviews: 2003-2007

Miss: OLTL Sinks to New Depths (Soap Opera Weekly 10/26/04)

When One Life to Live reunited Todd and Blair last spring, the show promised the couple would be happy for a while and battle something together. While happy usually equals boring, in this case it equaled stupid, because the "something" they battled was Asa, and the story made no sense.

It all started when Starr was getting teased in school because of her parents' high-profile rape case. Todd and Blair wanted to help their daughter, so they reunited and vowed to become pillars of the community for Starr's sake. So far, so good. Then they blew it by deciding that the best way to win the town's respect was to snatch Asa's mansion -- the biggest in town -- right out from under him. Wackiness ensued, culminating in Asa being conked on the head and dumped into a pit. Uh...couldn't millionaires Blair and Todd have just bought their own spread?

It would have been much more interesting for Todd and Blair to help their daughter in a realisitic way, where something meaningful was at stake. OLTL touched on Starr's being bullied by revealing that she had been shut in her locker for several hours, but then dropped the issue. Hello! Bullying is a scary, all-too-common occurance that viewers could relate to (as opposed to the difficulties involved in acquiring the biggest house in town). It would have been refreshing to see: 1) Starr, who is such a smarty-pants around adults, be reduced to tears by her peers, and 2) Todd and Blair, who think they can buy anything, fail to buy Starr friends. Bonus: Bullying hasn't been done to death on soaps, and if the story had been written well, it might actually have helped people.

Of course, soaps are here to entertain us, but this silly plot didn't even do that. It's not too late, though. Starr's back in school, Todd and Blair are still screwups, and OLTL has a new head writer.

Mean Girls in Llanview, anyone? -- KW