* ActorAllusion: "David, isn't there a [[Series/DesperateHousewives housewife that's desperate]] for you somewhere?"
* ActorSharedBackground: Asian Blair was of Japanese and European ancestry, just like her first actress, Mia Korf.
* BreakingNewsInterruption: The December 20, 1989 episode was interrupted by the news of the United States invading Panama.
* 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, Creator/ErinTorpey, 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.
* TheCharacterDiedWithHim: Phil Carey (Asa Buchanan), John Perry (see below).
* CharacterOutlivesActor: Michael Zaslow died of ALS in December 1998, but his character David Renaldi was never acknowledged as having done so. It's believed TPTB did this not only out of respect, but of anger regarding the actor's poor treatment on his other shows ''Series/GuidingLight'', where he was unceremoniously fired when his illness began to affect his performance
* TheDanza: Clint Ritchie as Clint Buchanan.
* FakeAmerican: Creator/NathanFillion (Joey Buchanan) is Canadian.
** Subverted with Susan Haskell (Marty Saybrooke), who is Canadian-American--she was born in Toronto, but both of her parents are US citizens, automatically granting her US citizenship as well.
* FakeNationality: German Thorsten Kaye as Irishman Patrick Thornhart.
* MissingEpisode: The December 20, 1989 episode that got pulled off the air for ABC News' coverage of the United States invasion of Panama. There isn't a full copy of this episode in circulation as of this edit, though it's possibly still in the show's archives.
* 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.
* RaceLift: Of the [[RaceLift/ChangingTheMinority Changing the Minority]] variety. In late 1992, Mia Korf (who is of Japanese and Caucasian descent) left the show and the role of Blair Cramer to co-star in the Broadway play ''Face Value''.[[note]]Former executive producer Linda Gottlieb, upon taking over as showrunner in 1991, asked the show's casting director to cast any actor whose performance was interesting enough to be assigned a role that could be developed around them; as such, Blair was developed with [[ColorblindCasting no predetermined ethnic background]], causing the character to originally be written as being of the same mixed-race origin as Korf.[[/note]] When producers decided to bring back Blair almost a year later, Kentucky native Kassie Wesley (now dePaiva) ended up landing the role; this resulted, upon dePaiva taking over the role in December 1993, in Blair switching from a raven-haired half-Asian with no accent to being blonde and fully white with a [[MisplacedAccent Kentucky/Southern accent]] (which Wesley never really attempted to conceal). Wesley herself was even taken aback that she was chosen to be Korf's replacement, revealing in a [[http://archive.courierpress.com/features/one-life-to-live-star-from-union-county-ky-excited-for-careers-next-chapter-ep-445471229-324688611.html 2011 "Evansville Courier & Press" interview]] that she was “a little bit shocked, because I didn’t think I looked the part", though the chutzpah she brought to the role allowed fans to accept Wesley as Blair fairly quickly. The abrupt ethnicity change was later [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in a flashback during a storyline in which Asa faked his death, which had the blond Blair reminiscing to when the Asian Blair exchanged vows with Asa; upon cutting back to the present scene, the now-whitewashed version looks confused and pulls out a pocket mirror to double-check what she looked like.
* RealLifeRelative: Scott and his mother Lisa Evans play Oliver and Barbara Fish.
* RealitySubtext [=/=] RealLifeWritesThePlot: NYPD officer John Perry had a recurring role as a police officer. He was killed in the 9/11 attack. To honor him, the show had his character die in precisely the same manner (though it was tweaked to say that Perry had been ''visiting'' New York that day, as the show is set in Pennsylvania). The first anniversary of the attacks was subsequently commemorated both on and off-screen when Commissioner Bo Buchanan was seen gazing at John's photo and sadly declaring, "I can't believe it's been a year" (it is highly likely that Robert Woods' RealLife emotions were on display).
** In the summer of 1993, actor Clint Richie was badly injured in an accident on his ranch. To explain his absence, his character Clint Buchanan was hurt in a similar way. Once again, Robert Woods' (who played his brother Bo) RealLife emotions were on display when he returned.
--> ''(Bo is sitting in his living room, brooding over breaking up with his girlfriend)''
--> '''Clint''': ''(offscreen)'' "Looks like you could use a friend."
--> '''Bo''': ''(smiles)'' "''Clint''".
--> ''(He gets up, walks over to him, and they share a ManHug)''
* RomanceOnTheSet: Susan Haskell & Thorsten Kaye, who played Marty Saybrooke & Patrick Thornhart, married not long after leaving the series.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** Cain Rogan was intended to be unveiled as Asa's grandson, hence allowing two of his heirs to vie for Tina.
** The 1994 affair between Dorian Lord and Joey Buchanan had originally been planned with Chris [=McKenna=]'s Joey. The network balked at this due to [=McKenna=] being very, very young, but then headwriter Michael Malone later pushed it through after the character was [=SORASed=] with the casting of Creator/NathanFillion.
** The 1994 "Max Becomes TheGamblingAddict" storyline was originally planned to use Angela Holliday (Susan Diol) instead, until Malone realized every character involved tied back to Blair and decided to bring her back.
* WrittenInInfirmity: Clint Buchanan using a cane and moving visibly slower than normal when his character reappeared after an accident was his actor Clint Richie himself needing a cane to aid his mobility following the RealLife accident that he'd been in.
** David Renaldi reappearing in 1998, wheelchair-bound because of worsening ALS, is because his portrayer Michael Zaslow was suffering from the same disease.
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