MEET NORA (IN HILLARY B. SMITH'S OWN WORDS)

Emmy-winner Hillary B. Smith is bringing Nora Hanon Gannon Buchanan to General Hospital!

To find out how fans feel about that, click here.

And those who never watched her on One Life to Live, read on for an exclusive interview about what made Nora and Bo so beloved:


This interview was initially posted on January 11, 2012


LIVE STRONG!

As One Life to Live approaches the end of its ABC Daytime run, Soap Opera 451 takes a look back at some of our favorite show memories.

When I interviewed Emmy-Award winning actress Hillary B. Smith for my book, Soap Opera 451: A Time Capsule of Daytime Drama's Greatest Moments, she talked specifically about Nora and Bo's first wedding (with Little Richard!), and more generally about the couple's appeal as whole, telling me:

They were friends first. I think the key to a couple working is you’re just having a good time, and you’re not thinking about the results. We just were having a good time and having a lot of fun, and the writers were having a good time writing for us because there was no big agenda on the scene for these two. The writers were allowed to write whatever they wanted to. And the network kind of stayed out of it. It happened and it was perfect. The audience was rooting for them. The audience wanted them to be a couple before they were a couple, before Bo and Nora knew they were destined to be a couple. Hillary and Woodsy knew where we were going, but Bo and Nora didn’t....

It was an honest relationship. You saw them at their worst, and you still saw them as a team. It was an enviable relationship. Everyone wanted a relationship like that. Bob Woods tells the story of women going up to his wife, Loyita, and saying, “Oh, you’re so lucky, I wish I was married to Bo Buchanan.” And she says, “So do I.”...

People hang on to Bo and Nora because it was romantic. And it still is. We try to bring in as much romance as we can. We try to bring that aspect of marriage and that aspect of life back into play.

Click here for more OLTL memories and interviews with:

Headwriter Michael Malone

Judith Light (Karen)