Say goodbye to Llanview: Can I get a witness?

In honor of the last week of One Life to Live, I'm planning to blog about the show, a mainstay of daytime TV since 1968 and a current and past favorite of mine, daytime and nighttime altogether.

I won't be live-blogging--I have to daytime job, after all, and must rely on evening rebroadcasts on SoapNet to get my daytime soap sustenance. So instead, this week, I'm going to focus on past, memorable episodes and storylines, ones that have stayed with me over the years and, obviously, meant a lot, then and now.

Let's get the tribute going with what is perhaps one of the most well-known of OLTL episodes--and perhaps one of the most memorable moments in TV history (according to TV Guide, no less): Karen Wolek (Judith Light) testifies on the witness stand in defense of Victoria Lord Riley (Erika Slezak), accused of murder, and is forced to reveal to the courtroom and her husband that she is a "common hooker."

I remember watching this with my brother--I was in high school, he was in college--and, at the time, we were both enthralled by the story, the drama, and the acting. It was classic soap opera, near the end of the golden age, when the shows were more about human emotions and less about fantastical and ridiculous plots. I'm talking to you, Ice Princess.

Yes, admittedly, reality is in the eye of the beholder: There probably wasn't then and isn't now a pride of "housewife hookers" around Anytown, USA (at least, not real housewife hookers; I'm not so sure about all those Real housewives), turning tricks by day, playing wifey to their middle-class doctor-husbands by night. But the intricate, long-arc storytelling; the tormented, cathartic emotional release; the freedom to act and not worry about how messy or neurotic you look, while not trying so hard to look messy and neurotic--well, golly, they sadly don't make 'em like that anymore. Even OLTL doesn't necessarily make 'em like that anymore.

Is it over-the-top? Well, maybe a tad, but then so were Greek tragedies and that shameless crowd-pleaser Shakespeare.

I read recently a quote from one of the actors on OLTL, who said that soaps were the closest thing on TV to doing live theater, and that was part of the attraction for the actors. I think this episode of One Life to Live bears witness to the theatrical quality of the medium (good and bad), and the emotional payoff that it offers. I think, too, these are qualities that you only get from shows based in New York, a major center of theater in the U.S. and the English-speaking world.

But we'll get that this week. All in good time . . .