History Series / OneLifeToLive

* HannibalLecture: Mitch is the ''master'' of this. Everything he does is passive-agressive, which makes him all the scarier.

In the early 90s, OLTL returned to more socially-conscious storytelling. One story told of a gay teen who confronted homophobia in Llanview. Another featured Marty's brutal gang rape at a fraternity party. This story introduced OLTL's most controversial character, Todd Manning, who led the gang rape. Much like Luke Spencer on ''Series/GeneralHospital'', the character was kept on the show due to female fans' attraction to him. Todd was discovered to be a long-lost Lord heir, and became a central character, driving away many viewers but like Luke Spencer again became one of the most popular characters.

* AbsurdlyYouthfulMother: Greg has to be at least in his early 40s to have been a practicing neurosurgeon for as long as he's explicitly stated to have been. The actress playing his mother is in her mid/late 40s. And he has a 15 year old sister, [[spoiler: who's actually Greg's daughter.]]

* {{Cliffhanger}}: The final scene of the ABC version revealed that Victor Lord, Jr. was still alive and is somehow being held by Allison Perkins. This also served as an example of LeftHanging; when the final episode was filmed, the show was supposed to continue online, where this plot point would be explained and resolved. And indeed, as of Episode 1 of the revival, Victor has escape Allison.

* CrossOver: mostly with ''AllMyChildren'', but with other ABC soaps as well

* DownerEnding: Bobby Ford and Cole Thornhart are fighting to get out of Heaven to be with their loved ones, Bobby does the chivalrous thing and lets go moving on to other side. [[spoiler:But as soon as Cole and Starr arrive in [[Series/GeneralHospital Port Charles]], they get in a car accident and Cole and Hope are killed.]]

* EarnYourHappyEnding: In 2001, Jessica Buchanan's [[Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir life got flipped turned upside down]]. First [[TalkativeLoon Allison]] claims [[SwitchedAtBirth she returned the wrong baby]] after baby Jessica (Natalie) was kidnapped. Then it's revealed Jessica and Natalie are half twins when it was discovered her father was Mitch Laurence and not Clint Buchanan. Then after developing DID to repress childhood sexual abuse, her alter falls in love with a man and gets pregnant by him, just as she comes around to loving the guy...he dies in a freak accident. That freak accident was caused by her aforementioned twin sister's deception. She lapses into her DID again and imprisons her sister, and she's pregnant again. Unfortunately this baby doesn't survive, so ANOTHER alter steals her teen cousin's baby. Eventually, the ruse is lifted and she loses another child. She gets institutionalized (a recurring theme) and finds love with another crazy. Mitch escapes and fucks that up by erasing her mind to when she was a teenager. Her new beau can't cope and thus sleeps with said twin sister. She comes back though...mid coitus with the town pervert who impregnates her. Despite this she attempts marry him, until the ugly truth comes out. You guessed it, DID time. She hooks up with the town pervert and begins to like him, but Jessica takes over again and it's square 1. Just as Jessica and the town pervert begin to fall in love, Mitch returns and kills ''HIM'', somehow a DNA test is found and it's revealed that [[spoiler: Clint's her biological father all along.]] Did I mention she lost a kid before all this too?

** [[spoiler: When both Ford and Cole are on death's door, Ford is sent to Hell for having raped Jessica, while Cole is allowed to go to Heaven in spite of the murder. Ford finds his way into Heaven, but dies while Cole lives and is allowed to reunite with his parents.]]
*** [[spoiler: Averted, Cole and his daughter die in a flaming wreck in [[Series/GeneralHospital Port Chuck]].]]

* MagicPlasticSurgery: Max, Todd [[spoiler:(actually Todd's twin brother, Victor Lord, Jr.)]]

* SociopathicHero: Todd Manning. Rape Marty Saybrooke? Check. Save Marty Saybrooke? Check. Assault a blind Nora? Check. Save two children [[spoiler: (actually his long lost niece and nephew)]] while on the run from the law? Check. Kill a man by exploding his yacht? You betcha. He's made a career on these.

** Destiny's parents somehow make a bizarre cross between this and the [[spoiler: MoralEventHorizon by indirectly being responsible for Greg's involvement with Elijah Clarke's schemes just because they're way too stubborn to admit that Destiny is not really their daughter.]]

** Not to mention Rex, who's been wondering for a long time. It turns out his father is [[spoiler:Mitch Laurence]].
*** Played with, as it turned out [[spoiler: his father was Mitch, but was then some fictional character, and finally revealed to be Charlie, only because Clint - the real father - faked the DNA test.]]
** Played with during Stacy's pregnancy. [[spoiler: When Stacy miscarried her child with Rex, she lost any sense of obligation he felt towards her, and so she immediately tried to find another man to get her pregnant. After hitting on Kyle, who revealed he was gay, and Schuyler, who didn't sleep with her even after she drugged him, so preyed on cop Oliver, who was drunk and struggling with his own coming out. The next day Stacy was pregnant and Oliver came out of the closet. Flash forward some months and Stacy has both Rex and Schuyler believing they are the father of her child, while assuring Oliver it isn't his baby.]]

* WhosYourDaddy: many instances, but the volley between Sam and Bo over Matthew's paternity was especially prolonged.

* Retcon: Since this is a soap opera, waaaaaay too many to list. But it's worth mentioning one of the show's most infamous and most recurring: the cause of Viki's DID. First it was because her wealthy and powerful father had raised her so strictly and placed so many expectations on her she developed a split personality just to have all the fun and lack of responsibility she never could; then it was from a childhood trauma caused by seeing her parents argue and thinking (falsely) her father had deliberately pushed her mother down the stairs, causing her death; then it was because Viki had repressed memories of walking in on her college roommate and best friend Irene having sex with her father (leading to the birth of her sister Tina); next Viki's DID was because she had gotten pregnant while she was a teenager and her father put the child up for adoption and had her brainwashed into forgetting everything; and ''finally'' it was 'revealed' in 1995 that all along (inspired by ''Sybil'' and ''When Rabbit Howls'') that Viki's DID was the result of her father routinely raping her from the age of seven until she was in college. To be fair, the 1995 story did tie most of these explanations together (except, understandably, the ''hyponitized into forgetting an entire pregnancy'' one).

-->'''Matthew''':(disagreeing with [[HumansAreBastards the point]] of LordOfTheFlies). I think ''most'' people are good.

* ActorAllusion: "David, isn't there a [[Series/DesperateHousewives housewife that's desperate]] for you somewhere?"

* CastIncest: Inverted. Real-life siblings Kristen and Eddie Alderson play unrelated characters. A few years back, a storyline involved Eddie's Matthew having a crush on Kristen's Starr. The boy had to pretend to have a crush on his sister. Gross.
* {{The Cast Showoff}}: Several actors on One Life to Live. For instance, the original actor who played Jessica, Erin Torpey, has a nice singing voice, so they had Jessica in a band at one point, and also had her sing on a few other occasions. Evangeline Williamson got to sing a lot in the show, because her actress Renee Goldsbury is a real life singer/song writer, and was on a Broadway musical. And Blair Cramer, is also shown singing on a number of occasions, because Kassie DePaiva is a singer and has albums out.

* TheOtherDarrin: Lampshaded hilariously during the ''Vicker Man'' premiere - Blair is asked how she feels about being played by an Asian-American actress in the movie; cue to the cast credits, where the actress credited as Blair is Mia Korf (the Asian-American actress who originated the role of Blair Cramer).
** 2011's Two Todds storyline thrives off of this.

* RomanceOnTheSet: Susan Haskell & Thorsten Kaye, who played Marty Saybrook & Patrick Thornhart, married not long after leaving the series.

Unfortunately, the show was cancelled once again, this time for good, in September 2013, as a byproduct of a lawsuit between ABC & PP over characters loaned to GeneralHospital.

* ActorAllusion: "David, isn't there a [[DesperateHousewives housewife that's desperate]] for you somewhere?"

* EarnYourHappyEnding: In 2001, Jessica Buchanan's [[TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir life got flipped turned upside down]]. First [[TalkativeLoon Allison]] claims [[SwitchedAtBirth she returned the wrong baby]] after baby Jessica (Natalie) was kidnapped. Then it's revealed Jessica and Natalie are half twins when it was discovered her father was Mitch Laurence and not Clint Buchanan. Then after developing DID to repress childhood sexual abuse, her alter falls in love with a man and gets pregnant by him, just as she comes around to loving the guy...he dies in a freak accident. That freak accident was caused by her aforementioned twin sister's deception. She lapses into her DID again and imprisons her sister, and she's pregnant again. Unfortunately this baby doesn't survive, so ANOTHER alter steals her teen cousin's baby. Eventually, the ruse is lifted and she loses another child. She gets institutionalized (a recurring theme) and finds love with another crazy. Mitch escapes and fucks that up by erasing her mind to when she was a teenager. Her new beau can't cope and thus sleeps with said twin sister. She comes back though...mid coitus with the town pervert who impregnates her. Despite this she attempts marry him, until the ugly truth comes out. You guessed it, DID time. She hooks up with the town pervert and begins to like him, but Jessica takes over again and it's square 1. Just as Jessica and the town pervert begin to fall in love, Mitch returns and kills ''HIM'', somehow a DNA test is found and it's revealed that [[spoiler: Clint's her biological father all along.]] Did I mention she lost a kid before all this too?

* Retcon: Since this is a soap opera, waaaaaay too many to list. But it's worth mentioning one of the show's most infamous and most recurring: the cause of Viki's DID. First it was because her wealthy and powerful father had raised her so strictly and placed so many expectations on her she developed a split personality just to have all the fun and lack of responsibility she never could; then it was from a childhood trauma caused by seeing her parents argue and thinking (falsely) her father had deliberately pushed her mother down the stairs, causing her death; then it was because Viki had repressed memories of walking in on her college roommate and best friend Irene having sex with her father (leading to the birth of her sister Tina); and ''finally'' it was 'revealed' in 1995 that all along (inspired by ''Sybil'' and ''When Rabbit Howls'') that Viki's DID was the result of her father routinely raping her from the age of seven until she was in college. To be fair, the 1995 story did tie all of these explanations together.

Unfortunately, the show is on hiatus once again, this time as a byproduct of a lawsuit between ABC & PP over characters loaned to GeneralHospital.

* ABNegative - Tina and CJ, among others
* ActorAllusion - "David, isn't there a [[DesperateHousewives housewife that's desperate]] for you somewhere?"
* AbsurdlyYouthfulMother - Greg has to be at least in his early 40s to have been a practicing neurosurgeon for as long as he's explicitly stated to have been. The actress playing his mother is in her mid/late 40s. And he has a 15 year old sister, [[spoiler: who's actually Greg's daughter.]]

* TheBabyTrap - Stacy to Rex.
* BigBad - Being a soap opera spanning decades, there were quite a few, but the most notable is con-artist turned cult leader Mitch Lawrence, who was responsible for many of the really bad things to happen to the Buchanan and Lord-Manning families from the '80s on.

* BoundAndGagged - Hardly uncommon on any soap, but a notable example came in 2003 with Mitch's kidnapping of Blair, who is next seen tied up in her underwear while Mitch calls her husband. She spends a good part of the following episode tied up and blindfolded.
* CastIncest - Inverted. Real-life siblings Kristen and Eddie Alderson play unrelated characters. A few years back, a storyline involved Eddie's Matthew having a crush on Kristen's Starr. The boy had to pretend to have a crush on his sister. Gross.
* {{The Cast Showoff}} - Several actors on One Life to Live. For instance, the original actor who played Jessica, Erin Torpey, has a nice singing voice, so they had Jessica in a band at one point, and also had her sing on a few other occasions. Evangeline Williamson got to sing a lot in the show, because her actress Renee Goldsbury is a real life singer/song writer, and was on a Broadway musical. And Blair Cramer, is also shown singing on a number of occasions, because Kassie DePaiva is a singer and has albums out.
* {{Cliffhanger}} - The final scene of the ABC version revealed that Victor Lord, Jr. was still alive and is somehow being held by Allison Perkins. This also served as an example of LeftHanging; when the final episode was filmed, the show was supposed to continue online, where this plot point would be explained and resolved. And indeed, as of Episode 1 of the revival, Victor has escape Allison.
* ConvenientComa - Evangeline Wiliamson. Went into a coma for three years after being exposed to a gas leak. She soon went off life support.
* CrossOver - mostly with ''AllMyChildren'', but with other ABC soaps as well

* DamselInDistress- Natalie used to often suffer from this back in the day, to be saved by John. This has not happened so much recently, however.

* DynamicEntry - Shaun comes to [[BigDamnHeroes save Starr, Hope, and "Todd" from drug dealers]]. This is also a CrowningMomentOfAwesome.

* EvilOldFolks - Victor Lord was one very vicious old man. Also, Echo Disavoy.
* FlashbackWithTheOtherDarrin- Lampshaded when during ex-husband Asa's "funeral" Blair (played by a Caucasian actress) flashbacked to her own wedding to Asa...which occurred when Blair was being played by an Asian American actress. Cue the confused look into the make-up compact.

* LikesOlderWomen - David Vickers.
* LittleMissBadass - Mr, actually. Mr. Samuel. Lord. Manning. Stared down the barrel of a .38. Didn't flinch. 8 years old.

* LoveMakesYouCrazy - Schuyler
* MagicPlasticSurgery - Max, Todd [[spoiler:(actually Todd's twin brother, Victor Lord, Jr.)]]
* {{Malaproper}} - Roxy

* MayDecemberRomance - First Dorian with Joey, then Dorian with David, which would count as {{squick}} to many when David gets a love scene with her.

* PrettyInMink - Until the early 1990s.
* RapeIsLove - Subverted once Marty got her memory back.
* RapePortrayedAsRedemption - Played straight after Marty's gang rape.
* Retcon - Since this is a soap opera, waaaaaay too many to list. But it's worth mentioning one of the show's most famous and most recurring: the cause of Viki's DID. First it was because her wealthy and powerful father had raised her so strictly and placed so many expectations on her she developed a split personality just to have all the fun and lack of responsibility she never could; then it was from a childhood trauma caused by seeing her parents argue and thinking (falsely) her father had deliberately pushed her mother down the stairs, causing her death; then it was because Viki had repressed memories of walking in on her college roommate and best friend Irene having sex with her father (leading to the birth of her sister Tina); and ''finally'' it was 'revealed' in 1995 that all along (inspired by ''Sybil'' and ''When Rabbit Howls'') that Viki's DID was the result of her father routinely raping her from the age of seven until she was in college. To be fair, the 1995 story did tie all of these explanations together.
* RetiredMonster - Victor Lord after he came BackFromTheDead briefly before dying for good. He never actually retired, though, and right up until his death he was trying to take the heart of his daughter that he molested as his own.
* RivalsTeamUp - Viki and Dorian usually don't get along. But even they could find common ground to team up against the evil Echo DiSavoy.
* RomanceOnTheSet - Susan Haskell & Thorsten Kaye, who played Marty Saybrook & Patrick Thornhart, married not long after leaving the series.
* SassyBlackWoman - [[HollywoodMeaningfulName Destiny]], a HollywoodHomely Sassy Black Teenage Girl.
* SerialKiller - the Music Box Killer

* SexySpectacles - A certain assistant DA always wore glasses but eventually admitted that he had 20/20 vision. He had started wearing them in law school because he wanted to be taken seriously but kept wearing them because he found that women loved them.

* SoapOperaRapidAgingSyndrome - Tea's daughter Danielle (b.2003) who is now (2013) ''twenty-one''.

* SplitPersonality - both Viki and her daughter Jessica

* TakingTheBullet - Bo for Rex. He lived.
* TeensAreMonsters - the whole class laughed at Justin's above-described HurricaneOfPuns as though it was genuinely funny.

* TeenPregnancy - Starr recently had one of these. Markko and Langston were sure to use a condom when they did the deed, though Lola poking holes in Langston's nearly caused this. Gigi also had one with Shane. Destiny had Matthew's baby.

* TheirFirstTime - Starr and Cole, Langston and Markko.
* TooDumbToLive - Everyone has their moments.

* WhosYourDaddy - many instances, but the volley between Sam and Bo over Matthew's paternity was especially prolonged.

* WickedCultured - Carlo Hesser

Created by Agnes Nixon, OLTL shared its universe with Nixon's other soap, ''AllMyChildren'', and has had many [[CrossOver crossovers]] with same, including a baby-switch story in 2004. ''One Life to Live'' aired its last episode on January 13th, 2012, and the characters of John [=McBain=] & the Mannings migrated to ''Series/GeneralHospital'' until March 2013. Originally, a company named Prospect Park had purchased the rights to both One Life to Live and All My Children from ABC and was planning to continue the series either on a cable channel or possibly online. Those plans fell through, however, and when the show signed off in 2012, it was presumed that it was gone for good. As of early 2013, however, Prospect Park announced that they would be bringing both shows back after all, with distribution through Hulu and other online video providers. Many of the major performers have agreed to return to the show and shooting is began in March 2013, with the premiere on April 29, 2013.

* {{Cliffhanger}} - [[spoiler: Victor Lord, Jr. is still alive and is somehow being held by Allison Perkins.]]
** Also serves as an example of LeftHanging - when the final episode was filmed, the show was supposed to continue online, where this plot point would be explained and resolved.
*** And as of Episode 1 of the revival, Victor has escape Allison.

** After the show's cancellation, several characters (Starr Manning, Todd Manning, John McBain) moved over to ''Series/GeneralHospital'', continuing some of the plot threads introduced towards the end of OLTL. Todd's ex-wives Blair Cramer & Tea Delgado make occasional appearances. This lasted until March 2013.

* LampshadeHanging:

* SoapOperaRapidAgingSyndrome - Tea's daughter Danielle (b.2003) who is now (late 2009) ''fifteen''.

** Most recently, Jack Manning, Todd's first son, who was born in 2001, is now (early 2011) ''sixteen''.

* {{Yandere}}: Hannah, complete with MurderTheHypotenuse.

[[quoteright:320:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/oltl_8007.jpg]]

* TwoTeacherSchool: Llanview High. Physically, it's one re-dressable classroom set, a short stretch of hallway and the gym. It's fully rendered compared to [[OffToBoardingSchool the Warwick School]], which consists of one dorm room, an even smaller bit of hallway, and a single [[HarryPotter Minerva McGonagall]] {{Expy}}.

Created by Agnes Nixon, OLTL shared its universe with Nixon's other soap, ''AllMyChildren'', and has had many [[CrossOver crossovers]] with same, including a baby-switch story in 2004. ''One Life to Live'' aired its last episode on January 13th, 2012, and the characters of John [=McBain=] & the Mannings migrated to ''Series/GeneralHospital''. Originally, a company named Prospect Park had purchased the rights to both One Life to Live and All My Children from ABC and was planning to continue the series either on a cable channel or possibly online. Those plans fell through, however, and when the show signed off in 2012, it was presumed that it was gone for good. As of early 2013, however, Prospect Park announced that they would be bringing both shows back afterall, with distribution through Hulu and other online video providers. Many of the major performers have agreed to return to the show and shooting is began in March 2013, with the premiere on April 29, 2013.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: The main character Viki's dad, Victor Lord. Originally seen as simply a domineering and OverprotectiveDad during his original run on the show, it was revealed in the 1990s, presumably after his death, that he was a pedophile who molested Viki as a child. He briefly was revealed to have had his death faked in the early 2000s with Mitch Laurence's assistance, before dying again, during which we got to see the real Victor Lord in all of his ugly TrueColors.

** After the show's cancellation, several characters (Starr Manning, Todd Manning, John McBain) moved over to ''Series/GeneralHospital'', continuing some of the plot threads introduced towards the end of OLTL. Todd's ex-wives Blair Cramer & Tea Delgado make occasional appearances.

* FlashForward: The revival is set a year after the ABC finale.

* {{Jerkass}}: Todd Manning, full stop. Seems to have spread to his twin brother and son.

* LongRunner - 7/15/68-1/13/12, 11,105 episodes

* MayDecemberRomance - First Dorian with Joey, then Dorian with David, which would count as {{squick}} [[ChelseaLately to many when David gets a love scene with her]].

* MusicalEpisode: Starr X'd Lovers.

* TheMalaproper - Roxy

Created by Agnes Nixon, OLTL shared its universe with Nixon's other soap, ''AllMyChildren'', and has had many [[CrossOver crossovers]] with same, including a baby-switch story in 2004. ''One Life to Live'' aired its last episode on January 13th, 2012, and the characters of John [=McBain=] & the Mannings migrated to ''Series/GeneralHospital''. Originally, a company named Prospect Park had purchased the rights to both One Life to Live and All My Children from ABC and was planning to continue the series either on a cable channel or possibly online. Those plans fell through, however, and when the show signed off in 2012, it was presumed that it was gone for good. As of early 2013, however, Prospect Park announced that they would be bringing both shows back afterall, with distribution through Hulu and other online video providers. Many of the major performers have agreed to return to the show and shooting is scheduled to begin in March 2013.

In the early 90s, OLTL returned to more socially-conscious storytelling. One story told of a gay teen who confronted homophobia in Llanview. Another featured Marty's brutal gang rape at a fraternity party. This story introduced OLTL's most controversial character, Todd Manning, who led the gang rape. Much like Luke Spencer on ''GeneralHospital'', the character was kept on the show due to female fans' attraction to him. Todd was discovered to be a long-lost Lord heir, and became a central character, driving away many viewers but like Luke Spencer again became one of the most popular characters.

Created by Agnes Nixon, OLTL shared its universe with Nixon's other soap, ''AllMyChildren'', and has had many [[CrossOver crossovers]] with same, including a baby-switch story in 2004. ''One Life to Live'' aired its last episode on January 13th, 2012, and the characters of John [=McBain=] & the Mannings migrated to ''GeneralHospital''. Originally, a company named Prospect Park had purchased the rights to both One Life to Live and All My Children from ABC and was planning to continue the series either on a cable channel or possibly online. Those plans fell through, however, and when the show signed off in 2012, it was presumed that it was gone for good. As of early 2013, however, Prospect Park announced that they would be bringing both shows back afterall, with distribution through Hulu and other online video providers. Many of the major performers have agreed to return to the show and shooting is scheduled to begin in March 2013.

** After the show's cancellation, several characters (Starr Manning, Todd Manning, John McBain) moved over to GeneralHospital, continuing some of the plot threads introduced towards the end of OLTL. Todd's ex-wives Blair Cramer & Tea Delgado make occasional appearances.

* DownerEnding: Bobby Ford and Cole Thornhart are fighting to get out of Heaven to be with their loved ones, Bobby does the chivalrous thing and lets go moving on to other side. [[spoiler:But as soon as Cole and Starr arrive in [[GeneralHospital Port Charles]], they get in a car accident and Cole and Hope are killed.]]

*** [[spoiler: Averted, Cole and his daughter die in a flaming wreck in [[GeneralHospital Port Chuck]].]]