Final Days Part I

OLTL is in its last weeks of broadcasting on ABC and the problems with the show have people pointing their fingers at Prospect Park as the culprit. A particular "insider" at Daytime Dish gives updates on storyboards and breakdowns with constant reminders that stories have been changed for PP. Maybe that’s true BUT…. I DO NOT fault them for the colossal mess that has been penned by Ron Carlivati and sanctioned by Frank Valentini.

What is going on with Blair right now has the smear of RC all over it. Let’s face it. For three years Ron wrote a story of TnT TRUEST LOVE EVER! He discounted Blair. He did his damndest to make her a non-entity, but Ron could not do that without cutting off his nose because he needed Blair to prop his favorite pairing or to prop the latest new comer on the show. People like to play this down, but let’s look at the facts.

I won’t even go back as far as two or three years ago. I’ll go back to ONE year ago. It was last year, at this very time that Blair was presented with a mysterious box which was left to her by Eli. News of this box evinced last October. Theories spread about what could be in “The Box”. Finally Blair opened it in January. When she opened it, people recognized that it was not only a portrait of Blair in the box, but they recognized that it was a portrait from the Gold Balloon Wedding. One cannot think of the GBW without thinking of Todd Manning. Immediately after that portrait was presented, ABC and Soapnet aired the GBW. Also, it was at this time that word was out that Roger Howarth was coming back to OLTL. SON was not wrong. They knew what they were talking about, yet others claimed to be the first to break the news. (I’m digressing.) The point is that Blair (Kassie DePaiva) ushered in what should have been one of the biggest stories of the year. You know where I’m going with this.

Why has she been absent in her own story? (Remember that RC spoke of “Blair’s Journey”.) Everybody who tuned back in knows that the story should have been about Blair and Todd finding their way back to each other. (I’m not foolish enough to believe that everybody wanted a Todd and Blair reunion, I am saying that anybody who knows Todd and Blair’s history, knew that a reunion was expected.) Not only THAT, but Todd had been absent for eight years, and RC and FV failed to seize the opportunity to tell a very human story of a man and a woman working out past issues and gaining new insight into each other, but they also failed to capitalize on the aspect of Todd getting to know his family, the family that he longed to get back to.

Who in their right mind would prefer to see Todd interact with strangers? Hell! Even TNTers would prefer to see him interacting with Tea and Dani than to see him with this endless parade of NOBODIES.

Prospect Park does not OWN OLTL, so how is it that they got the power to reroute stories or to utterly destroy them? This “Tale of Two Todds” was strictly Ron’s vision and because it was Ron’s vision, everything and everybody other than Todd, the woman he loves and his family are magnified. Again, Ron is going for his epic close, which has always spelled disaster because the people who should matter get thrown under the bus, while virtual strangers to the canvas get to express their love for one another,gain entrance into core families and relationships with beloved characters and even get their happy endings.