One Life to Live (often abbreviated as OLTL) is an American soap opera broadcast on the ABC television network for more than 43 years, from July 15, 1968, to January 13, 2012, and then on the internet as a web series on Hulu and iTunes via The Online Network from April 29 to August 19, 2013. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature ethnically and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social issues. One Life to Live was expanded from 30 minutes to 45 minutes on July 26, 1976, and then to an hour on January 16, 1978.
One Life to Live heavily focuses on the members and relationships of the Lord family. Actress Erika Slezak began portraying the series’ central protagonist Victoria “Viki” Lord in March 1971 and played the character continuously for the rest of the show’s run on ABC Daytime, winning a record six Daytime Emmy Awards for the role. In 2002, the series won an Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series. One Life to Live was the last American daytime soap opera taped in New York City.
RYAN PHILLIPPE’S CHARACTER:
Billy Douglas is a fictional character on the American soap opera One Life to Live. Newcomer actor Ryan Phillippe played the role from April 1992 until May 1993. The character is the first openly gay teenager featured in a television series, and Phillippe’s breakthrough role is considered groundbreaking in daytime television.
CASTING AND BACKGROUND:
In 1992, One Life to Live executive producer Linda Gottlieb hired a fresh-faced 17-year-old Ryan Phillippe to play the newly created role. Phillippe said he was warned against playing the “risky” role at the height of the AIDS crisis in the United States. Phillippe said that when he auditioned to play the character, he “had no idea Billy was gay.” He initially expressed reservation to pursue the opportunity, telling Entertainment Weekly in 1992, “I thought, ‘What is my family going to think? What about my friends?’ But I realized that for [the character] Billy, the torment is a hundred times that.”
Show head writer Michael Malone developed Billy Douglas as a popular but closeted high school senior who is jock that becomes class president. At the time, the role was regarded as “one of the longest and complex narratives to deal with a lesbian or gay character.”
When playing the role, Phillippe said that he hoped to leave a positive impact, saying, “Maybe some kids will see that there are ways to deal with this positively.”[6] Years after leaving soap operas and starting his film career, Phillippe said of playing the character, “I felt lucky playing the first gay teenager on television—not just daytime, but television, period.”
The role was portrayed as a heroic figure, displaying traits of courage in spite of facing homophobia from his father Walter (Jonathan Hogan), high school classmates, and members of the fictional Llanview community.
EPISODES:
– Episode #1.6291 (1993) … Billy Douglas
– Episode #1.6290 (1993) … Billy Douglas
– Episode #1.6289 (1993) … Billy Douglas
– Episode #1.6287 (1993) … Billy Douglas
– Episode dated 1 December 1993 (1993) … Billy Douglas
– Episode dated 30 August 1993 (1993) … Billy Douglas
– Episode dated 5 April 1993 (1993) … Billy Douglas
– Episode dated 2 April 1993 (1993) … Billy Douglas
– Episode dated 26 February 1993 (1993) … Billy Douglas
– Episode dated 25 February 1993 (1993) … Billy Douglas
– Episode dated 25 September 1992 (1992) … Billy Douglas
– Episode dated 22 September 1992 (1992) … Billy Douglas
– Episode dated 8 July 1992 (1992) … Billy Douglas
RECEPTION:
The character of Billy, created by Michael Malone, is considered one of the first serious attempts at portraying young gay characters on American television. The portrayal of the role by newcomer actor Ryan Phillippe was well received. Authors Robin Anderson and Jonathan Gray say, “Billy’s story was an important TV milestone in that he was depicted as a well-adjusted and functional gay teen.”
Hundreds to thousands of pieces of fan mail arrived at the show’s Lincoln Square, New York City studios at ABC due to both Phillippe and character’s popularity. The actor called the fan response in the letters “amazing,” and said, “Kids who’d never seen themselves represented on TV or in movies would write to say what a huge support they found it to be.”Interestingly, gay teenagers were not the audience for which the story was targeted, but rather prejudiced viewers, in the style of series creator and original head writer Agnes Nixon and her Carla Gray character played actress Ellen Holly. GLAAD lauded Ryan Phillippe for his work in playing Billy.
The program began receiving negative fan mail amid pairing Billy in a romantic relationship with Rick Mitchell (Joe Fiske) in December 1992, and wrote the character out with Phillippe leaving the series in 1993, with one show writer remarking that it was “difficult to maintain a homosexual character as a hero.”In spite of any difficulty with showcasing the role, a viewer expressed disappointment with the “well-researched, well-written” character being written off the show to Soap Opera Digest, continuing that “[Michael] Malone is doing a great disservice by not opening up the next chapter in this character’s life.”