TWO FOR TUESDAY - ROSEANNE'S REALITY ("ONE LIFE TO LIVE")

'ROSEANNE'
"ISN'T IT ROMANTIC?"

During this episode, Roseanne fantasized about being romanced by three characters of the soap opera 'One Life To Live'.  All of them were members of the Buchanan family – the brothers Clint & Bo and Cord Roberts, Clint’s son.  Roseanne dreamed herself into the TV and into the Buchanan living room in Llanview, Pennsylvania.  One by one, she sampled what loving each of them might entail…..

CLINT BUCHANAN

CLINT:
Hold on, you two.
You may be my brother, and you may be my son, but this is a woman.
A woman I'm not related to.
ROSEANNE:
Wait a minute.
I'm looking for romance, but I can't have all of you.
At least, not at the same time.
CLINT:
If you'll be mine, my darling, I can give you everything you've always wanted.
Wow! I've always wanted everything that I’ve always wanted.

BO BUCHANAN

BO:
Don't listen to him.
Because what you need Is a soul mate.
Someone who can extinguish the loneliness burning in your soul.
Someone who knows your deepest, darkest thoughts.
ROSEANNE [as thought]:
Man, this guy is good.
He really knows what goes on inside of us women.
BO [as thought]:

It's true.
I do know what's going on inside of you.
ROSEANNE [as thought]:
Really? Can you hear this?
BO [as thought]:
Yes.
ROSEANNE [as thought]:
Can you hear this? (Bo nods.) 
Wow! Talk about being in sync.

CORD ROBERTS

ROSEANNE:
What about you, Cord? 

[Cord takes off his shirt.]

ROSEANNE:

Wow! Good answer.

At that point, the fantasy was interrupted…

DAN CONNER:
Roseanne, I’m home!
ROSEANNE:
Cheese it, it's my husband!

And the fantasy clicks off as if it was a TV show.

That fantasy was in the form of a TV soap because ‘One Life To Live’ is recognized not only as a TV show, but as a soap opera.  In this very episode, Roseanne refers to OLTL as a soap opera while her sister Jackie was watching it:

“You're not gonna get what you want
from these soap opera guys.
They can only love you for an hour a day.
'course, that is four times longer than Dan.”

And the ‘One Life To Live’ in Toobworld is not the same show from the real world.  As part of the fantasy realm, the characters of ‘One Life To Live’ actually exist in that same world in which ‘Roseanne’ exists.  Toobworld’s OLTL is a TV show based on the real lives of the people in Llanview, Pennsylvania.

And we know that this soap opera has to be a fictionalized look at life in Llanview because of this dialogue from it as heard in that episode of ‘Roseanne’:

Clint Buchanan:
I need to know, Bo,,,.
Does Viki really love Sloan? Or do I have a chance to win her back?

As in the Trueniverse, ‘One Life To Live’ seems to have hired the same actors to play the roles – Clint Ritchie (Clint), Robert S, Woods (Bo), and John Loprieno (Cord).  Only in Toobworld, they are playing actual people. 

It’s a Toobworld standard that eventually everybody will have a TV show about them.  It’s the only way to disable Zonks, those discrepancies where TV shows refer to other TV shows which should be sharing the same dimension.

I’ve got three other examples establishing ‘One Life To Live’ as a soap opera, and a fictional one at that:

‘Friends’
“The One with Joey's Award”

Joey Tribbiani, who was nominated for his role in the televersion of ‘Days Of Our Lives’ (but he didn’t win), presented the Soapy Awards telecast for Best Supporting Actress.

Joey Tribbiani:
“Any one of the brilliant actresses nominated for this award deserves to take it home. Unfortunately, only one can. 
The nominees for Favorite Supporting Actress aroee: 
From ‘Passions’, Erin Goff. 
From ‘One Life to Live’, Mary Lauren Bishop. 
‘All My Children’, Sarah Renee. 
And from ‘Days of Our Lives’, Jessica Ashley.”

O’Bservation: As far as the IMDb knows, Erin Goff and Mary Lauren Bishop don’t exist in the real world; Sarah Renee and Jessica Ashley are listed as actresses.  (Although the last name for Sarah Renee is spelled RENEE’.  That apostrophe could be a typo.)  But none of those women are listed in the cast for ‘One Life To Live’.  More evidence that Toobworld’s version is fictional.

Degrassi: Minis:
Good Times Part 2

Dave Turner and Bruce the Moose watch the angst-driven conflicts between their fellow students, which Bruce thinks resemble a soap opera…..

Dave Turner:
How often do you do... this?
Bruce The Moose:
Ever since I found these losers, I've totally given up 'One Life To Live'!

 
General Hospital:
Episode #1.12743

Tracy: 
Lauren is real, and between her and pickle-Lila, I'm gonna be back on top, starting right now.
Luke: 
Oh, Tracy, sadly, "One Life to Live" isn't on anymore.

O'Bservation: So even in Toobworld, ‘One Life To Live’ no longer exists as a TV show.

In this case, Roseanne interacted in a fantasy with characters from a soap opera w ho were based on "real life" citizens of Toobworld.  But there was another time when she actually met the real people"who were being portrayed in a soap opera.  And we'll be tackling that next.  No surfing!

I’m dedicating this blog post to Mary Brooks O’Creagh, who got me hooked on ‘One Life To Live’ once upon a time…..

Until next time.....


UPDATE: Thanks to Mike Doran, I've edited out a paragraph in which I claimed that Sloan was not an actual character in the show.  As Mike pointed out, he was and he was played by Roy Thinnes.  When I ran a search of the IMDb full cast list for 'One Life To Live', the name "Sloan" did not come up.  That's because only the first character played by Thinnes was listed - Alex Crown - and you couldn't see "Sloan Carpenter" unless you expanded the entry.  Thanks, Mike!