The Actors (by alphabetical order)
During his heydey as the unscrupulous Marco Dane, actor Gerald Anthony was
so convincingly evil that a woman who recognized him dropped a flowerpot out her
second-story window as he walked by! Lucky for Anthony, she missed.
In 1972, Dr. Joyce Brothers appeared as herself to help Meredith Lord Wolek
(Lynn Benesch) deal with the death of her twins.
Before beginning his acting career, Anthony Call (ex-Herb), starred on the
gridiron as quarterback for the University of Pennsylvania.
Phil Carey (Asa) guest-starred with Anthony Geary (GH's Luke) on a classic
episode of All in the Family, where he played Archie Bunker's friend who revealed that he
was gay.
Robert S. Woods's real-life wife Loyita Chapel played Bo's great-great-
grandmother Blaize during the Old West scenes in 1988. In 1999 she played Clint's friend from London Dallas Jones.
Brooklyn-born Marilyn Chris (ex-Wanda) and her hsuband Lee, own a 150-year-
old farmhouse in upstate New York.
Sammy Davis Jr. was perhaps the most famous fan of OLTL, rarely missing an
episode and even guest-starred for several episodes in 1979 as gambler Chip
Warren.
James Depaiva (Max Holden) once made his living as a bass guitarist. Some
weekends, he'd play a punk club on Friday night, a wedding on Saturday and a country-
western dance on Sunday. He has also tried his hand in directing an episode of
OLTL which aired in early 1996.
Julia Duffyplayed the role of Karen Wolek for a brief period in early 1977,
before Judith Light assumed the role
Patricia Elliott (Renee) won a Tony, Broadway's most prestigious award, for her
role as Countess Charlotte in the 1973 musical A Little Night Music.
Christine Jones is the only performer to play three contract roles on the show.
Over the past 20 years, the talented actress portrayed nurse Sheilah Rafferty (late 70s),
Viki Buchanan (early 80s, during Erika Slezak's maternity leave) and Pamela Buchanan, Asa's wife in the mid-80s.
Laura Bonarrigo Koffman (Cassie) won a state title from Maine in the National
Teenager Pageant, a scholastic competition where entrants are judged on poise,
personality, appearance and leadership qualities.
Wortham Krimmer's (Andrew) real name is Robert Wortham Krimmer. Friends
and castmates call him "Bob."
Valarie Pettiford (ex-Sheila) enjoys singing as much as acting. The talented
performer has starred in several Broadway musicals including Sophisticated Ladies and
Graind, and has her own singing group, The Stingers.
Clint Ritchie (Clint) is affectionately nicknamed "Bucky," - short for
"Buchanan."
A self-described North Dakota plowboy, Clint Ritchie grew up on a farm in
Grafton, North Dakota.
Erika Slezak (Viki) learned to speak German before she learned English. The
actress demonstrated her mastery of the language during Viki's encounters with phony
German filmmaker Heinrich Kaiser a.k.a. Cain Rogan in scenes that aired in
1991
Erika Slezak's famous father, actor Walter Slezak once guest-starred on OLTL
as Viki's godfather, Laszlo Braedeker. Unbeknownst to Erika, Mr. Slezak made a small
change in the script just before taping. Instead of saying, "You are as beautiful as I
remember you," he said, "You are so beautiful you could be my own daughter." A
touched Erika played the rest of the scene in tears.
The role of Viki Lord was origintated in 1968 by Gillian Spencer who went on
to create the role of Daisy Cortlandt on All My Children
Michael Storm (Larry Wolek) has been with OLTL longer than any other cast
member, having joined the cast in 1969.
Bo Buchanan's experiences as a Vietnam veteran were inspired by the actual stint of
Robert S. Woods as a special-services officer in Southeast Asia.
Behind the Scenes (by alphabetical order)
The actors arrive at the TV studio between 7:00am and 9:00am each day. They rarely
leave before 7:00pm.
Over 80 permanent sets are used on OLTL. The panels are removed each evening and
stored in a warehouse 32 blocks away.
Early morning rehearsals - known as dry blocking - are held in a basement room filled with
tables and chairs to indicate the actual position of furnishings on the set.
OLTL taped its 7000th episode in November 1995.
Over 3000 sheets of plywood, 1500 yards of canvas and 200 gallons of paint are used
each year to construct the sets.
The largest set ever created for a daytime drama was OLTL's Great Hall of Eterna. The
multilevel, 32-foot high, 360-degree set was so huge that it had to be erected in a separate
studio from the place where OLTL usually tapes.
The make-up department has a supply of 50 different shades of eye shadow and 65
varying shades of lipstick.
Three cameras are used to tape each OLTL scene.
The OLTL wardrobe is purchased at many of New York's finest apparel stores. Another
of the most-frequented sources, however, is the Salvation Army!
The OLTL studio is located in New York City in a renovated National Guard Armory
built in 1901.
OLTL hairdressers give an average of 40 haircuts a month - and the cuts are free to
contract actors and day players.
Getting OLTL on the air is a 24-hour process. At the conclusion of the taping day, a reset
crew of up to 30 people works through the night to set the stage for next day's
taping.
The oldest set currently in use is the Lord Library. This set has been renovated at least
four times since 1968 (most recently, in 1991 and 1995 after the two Llanfair fires), but it
still retains its original look.
OLTL was nearly named Between Heaven and Hell. The title was changed just prior to
the program's first airing.
The wardrobe department stocks 20 different pairs of Western boots for the well-heeled
Buchanan men.
While many weapons used on the program are authentic, the prop department maintains a
supply of rubber daggers, rubber guns and even a rubber sledgehammer.
Twelve cartons of white paper, containing 10 reams of 500 sheets each, are used to print
one month's worth of OLTL scripts. The paper is, of course, recycled.
The lag time between when an episode is taped and when it airs is usually three
weeks.
On average, OLTL's design staff creates eight new sets each week.
Many of the OLTL sets are repainted, reappointed and reused. For example, Max and
Gabrielle Holden's house in 1991 later became Carlo Hesser's summer home.
Many of the horses in the Buchanan and Country Club stables are the same animals that
pull New York City's famous horse-drawn cabs.
OLTL actors go through one case of hairspray each month.
Four of the dressing rooms contain private showers. Those who had the prized rooms in
1992 were Robert S. Woods (Bo), Erika Slezak (Viki), Michael Storm (Larry) and Clint
Ritchie (Clint)
Each night, a crew works to put down and take up between 3500 and 5000 square feet of
linoleum and carpet in the studio.
The magnificent marble floors in both Llanfair and Alexandria (Asa's mansion) aren't really
marble at all. They are actually rolls of painted canvas stretched out and taped to the
cement studio floor.
During the dramatic conclusion of 1991's Loon Lake remote, only three characters - Bo,
Cassie and Alex, were seen on-screen. But, just out of camera range were three stunt
people, a stunt coordinator, two safety divers, an underwater consultant, one underwater
camera operator, and 90 crew people!
The most elaborate prop ever used on OLTL was well-drilling equipment obtained for the
Eterna storyline. The men who feverishly dug the characters out of the underground city
were not actors but actual well-drillers who were hired to operate the heavy
machinery.
One of the longest taping days took place in September 1984. Cast and crew worked
from 7:00am until 3:45am the following morning to tape scenes involving a shooting at
the Crown Casino Hotel.
Extreme precautions are taken when a fire is incorporated into scenes, such as the
burnings of Llanfair. Permission must be granted by the New York City Fire Department,
and a fire consultant is hired to ensure that the studio has proper ventilation and safety
equipment on board.
A typical one-hour episode of OLTL features between 200 and 300 separate camera
shots.
OLTL has done shows in foreign locations, including Italy, France, Austria, Argentina and
Jamaica.
Actors must memorize all of their lines. TelePrompTers and cue cards were removed
from the OLTL studio in 1988.
OLTL was the first serial to feature minority characters in major front-burner
storylines.
OLTL sometimes works overtime to tape six shows in five days. Individual scenes from
the sixth show are taped over the course of several days and are edited together to make
one single episode. This is known behind-the-scenes as "six-packing" a show.
The opening credits have been modified six times in the past 37 years. In 1968, OLTL
began with the image of a roaring fire. Later, this was changed to a sunrise, and later to
the faces of the cast superimposed over scenes of Llanview (with Peabo Bryson singing
the popular theme song). In January 1992, the opening was switched to a series of scenes
depicting the life of a person: birth, love, marriage, children, death, with original music
composed by Lee Holdridge. In November 1995, to commemorate the show's 7000th
episode, a new opening was created, once again featuring the faces of the cast
superimposed over scenes of Llanview. In 2004 they remixed the last theme and put more color to the pictures who were blueish in the last theme.
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