Tuesday, May 17, 2011

CALLING OTALIA FANS!

Several viewers have nominated Guiding Light's Olivia and Natalia romance for inclusion in Soap Opera 451: A Time Capsule of Daytime Drama's Greatest Moments, including one who wrote:

Not only did they tackle homophobia, but they tackled religion, faith, trust, spirituality and the acceptance of love when you feel unlovable. It was such a great Journey to watch these two women go from adversaries, to friends, to an honest couple in love. Just as the feelings between these two women changed, my feelings toward homosexuality and acceptance changed as well.

Do you have feelings or thoughts about that story that you'd like to share for possible inclusion in the book? Let us know in the Comments below, or e-mail me at AlinaAdams@gmail.com.

Also looking for thoughts on Y&R's Dru/Malcolm/Neil story, and Edge of Night's Great Train Escape!

Looking forward to reading what you have to say!

2 comments:

lucy_chappell said...

The Otalia storyline was well written to the point that you felt yourselves slipping off into the story as if these character were people you knew in your day to day life. The casting couldn't have been better either Crystal Chappell and Jessica Leccia made you want the characters to succeed and I loved every minute of it. It will always be a timeless love story!

Ceridwyn2 said...

I'm a daytime soap fan for over 25 years, and this is the first time that I can say that I was truly invested in a soap. Whether that was because of the addition of the wider online community that I became involved with or not, the story was amazingly well written, and because of the slow build, reminicient of the early writing on building supercouples, I became invested in the characters and the storyline.

While other soaps have had GLB characters on them (AMC, OLTL, ATWT), GL's Otalia drew me in like none before. Furthermore, I identified with many aspects of both Olivia and Natalia and for me that is what kept me. It wasn't anything grand, it was the small things that said 'this was a regular family, doing regular things, looking after Emma, worrying about health and other issues...and really that was even before they admitted that they loved each other. So, when that did happen, they could face it because they've gone through so much together up until then.

I mention above about the community that formed around the Otalia relationship. That so many people (over 6000 by the end of the show, and the forum had only started in Feb 2009) became involved from across the spectrum of gay to straight, of different faiths (incl. non-religious), of different economic, social, backgrounds and around the country. People were drawn into the Otalia relationship and the friendships in many cases became lasting friendships and relationships. I've formed friendships with people around the world because of Otalia and that I will always take with me forward.

There were occasional missteps, but I still maintain that it was one of the best storylines I've seen on daytime - and really also primetime - that I have ever seen.

So, thank you to Ellen Wheeler, Jill Lorie Hurst, Jessica Leccia, Crystal Chappell, and the Guiding Light team.