Articles and Interviews: 2003-2007

Thumbs Up! A Death of Fresh Air (Soap Opera Digest 6/27/06)

The whole death, presumed death, resurrection after-death routine has become rote in soap operas. As such, the moment we saw that OLTL was going to execute Todd, no promotion in the world touting "all three lethal injection shots!" was going to get us to believe that they were actually killing off the character. Nevertheless, we were still highly entertained.

First, there was the clever mock "exit interview" posted on the ABC Daytime Web page. In it, Trevor St. John (Todd) reinforced the ruse that Todd was being killed off without actually being untruthful by saying things like, "I really look forward to spending more time with my wife and am looking forward to whatever acting challenges and opportunities come my way."

But the merit of any soap death, temporary or permanent, can only be measured by how it works in the story. When Todd used his last words to tell Blair that he would never forgive her -- just moments before John showed up with Margaret, only to learn he was too late -- the tension it created in the Todd/Blair relationship was as dramatic as any death could be.