By Marlena De Lacroix One Life to Live's 40th anniversary is next week. I've watched the show for 39 of those forty years, so it's been a big part of my life! And it has meant a tremendous amount to me. Thinking Fans, I'm interested in how OLTL has affected your life, what it has meant to you, your evaluations and memories of the storylines … [Read more...]
Happy Fourth of July!
July 3, 2008 by Leave a Comment
"Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." John Fitzgerald Kennedy Have a safe and happy Fourth of July, everyone! Marlena and the Team … [Read more...]
Is One Life to Live Daytime’s Lifeboat? And a Word About Addie …
June 30, 2008 by 23 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix Have you boarded the One Life to Live lifeboat yet? Judging from the letters I've received in the last three weeks from readers like Esther, Cherry, Marilyn and DSO, even the most discerning and stubborn of Marlena's Thinking Fans seem to be boarding. They're in hope it's the one show that can keep their long-term love of … [Read more...]
Say What? The 2008 Emmys Had No Class
June 23, 2008 by 19 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix The star of the 2008 Emmys was a body part your mother blushingly called your "backside." Stars couldn't stop talking about derrieres, and wound up acting a lot like them. "Oh, oh, I love your butt, what a cute little butt, I'd take that cute little butt," All My Children's Rebecca Budig (Greenlee) squealed as she … [Read more...]
Marlena’s Emmy Picks in 2008’s Humpty Dumpty Soap World
June 18, 2008 by 11 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix I'm not overly excited about this week's Daytime Emmys. I could be fluffy and say it's because they moved the ceremony to L.A. several years ago and I don't get to go and to buy a dress, and to me (I attended here in New York 23 years in a row) the Daytime Emmys was always about The Dress. But the truth is, daytime drama, … [Read more...]
Introducing Our New Column: Soap Shrink by Damon L. Jacobs
June 13, 2008 by 1 Comment
How many times have you seen a soap villainess or villain -- or even a soap hero or heroine -- do something that is so wrong and so bizarre that you've jumped up from your armchair and screamed: "WHAT IS WRONG with her/him?" In the vast, messy world of today's soap opera -- where cheap thrills usually trump character development, history is all … [Read more...]
Brian Kerwin: Marlena Interviews One Life To Live’s Sole Daytime Emmy Nominee and Broadway Star
June 9, 2008 by 9 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix Recently I had the pleasure of interviewing Brian Kerwin (Charlie Banks, One Life to Live) for the Broadway theater site, Theater Mania. I talked to him both about his Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor (OLTL's only acting nomination this year) and his very contrasting, on-going role as a pervert who … [Read more...]
All Hail La Strasser: She’s the “Alexis of Daytime” — Again!
June 4, 2008 by 29 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix About 1984 or so, when the primetime world was at the height of Dynasty-mania, all the daytime soaps were hustling to introduce characters, all costumed in big-brimmed hats, who were supposed to be the "Alexis of Daytime." Elizabeth Hubbard, new as Lucinda on As the World Turns, was supposed to be the Alexis of … [Read more...]
I’ll Take Manhattan(ites)
June 3, 2008 by 5 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix My friend Roger Newcomb, who is the editor of We Love Soaps, invited Moose and me to attend a Tribeca screening of Manhattanites, the film he co-produced with Lyle Kaminer. We really enjoyed it, and I think you'll like it too, especially if you are a soap fan. Manhattanites tells the story of a group of young people … [Read more...]
General Hospital’s Monstrous Lies, All My Children’s Truthful Memories
May 22, 2008 by 45 Comments
By Marlena De Lacroix Yesterday, I was trying to write my long promised column against the most perversely inhuman, possibly most disturbing soap storyline of all time, but the words just would not come out. I'm talking about the General Hospital storyline written by Bob Guza that began with 12-year-old Michael getting shot in the head and … [Read more...]
