One thing about (The Idiots In Charge) of One Life To Live, if they mess up, they usually come up with some contingency plan, no matter how absurd it is.
Let’s face it! They messed up big time with the Todd/Tea/Ross/Dani story. I don’t know what Ron Carlivati was thinking when he began to tell this story, but what he did was establish Ross Rayburn as a very loving father. Even prior to Carlivati’s writing, Ross was also established as a very caring and considerate man when he was first introduced to the canvas. He was tall, very sexy and very handsome. He was hired by Todd to keep his eye on Blair and to report her plans to him. He had a job to do and he did it, to a point. He did, however try to thwart Todd’s plans to have his children kidnapped by common thugs. He revealed the plans to Sam who alerted the authorities. Once he did that, he attempted to leave, via his boat. Todd tried to escape also and right behind him was Tea. The ship was wrecked and the rest is history. Todd, Ross and Tea ended up on a deserted island. Ross was nothing but kind and considerate to Tea. Todd on the other hand was a jerk. He even threw a hand grenade a Ross and Tea when the two of them cozied up to one another in the bunker. When Todd finally came around to Tea’s way of thinking and the two of them had sex, he left on a raft to get back to his family. It has been established that Ross took care of Tea once Todd left the island. They comforted each other by having sex. When Tea became pregnant and told Ross, he married her, assuming that the child was his. It has been established that Ross helped deliver their daughter, that he cut the cord and handed her to Tea. It has been established that Ross was the care giver and the teacher of their child. But somewhere in their fifteen years of marriage, Tea decided that Ross was a violent man, so she left him for the love of her life, Todd Manning because he’s a really nice guy.
Here’s the thing, and it’s been the thing with OLTL way too often. Even though Ron tried to throw Ross under the bus, he was well liked; so much so, that many chose him over Todd. That’s right, viewers were rooting for Ross. At the time, Ross was played by Michael Lowry an actor who had chemistry with both Blair and Dani, his daughter. This is how (The Idiots In Charge) fixed that. They hired another actor to play Ross, one half his size and one who does “weasel” extremely well, Billy Warlock (ex-AJ Quartermaine, King of the Losers).
The result: Todd Manning wins the rootability contest by a technical knock out! Ross's arms were too short to box with Todd.
