The earliest storylines of One Life to Live focused on the blue collar, Polish Catholic Wolek family, and the super-rich Lords.
Assumed to be Italian American,[1] Carla Benari is an important character immediately upon her arrival, becoming involved in a love triangle between Dr. Craig and internist Price Trainor (Peter DeAnda).
[4] Nixon has said she was inspired to create the Carla Gray character after seeing singer Eartha Kitt in a television interview.
Kitt expressed her own frustration at facing prejudice from both white and black audiences because of her light-skinned complexion, and the feeling of not belonging to either group.
According to actress Ellen Holly's memoir, One Life: An Autobiography of an African American Actress, Nixon based Carla's mother Sadie on a maid who worked for Nixon's family when she was growing up much the same way that Sadie on One Life initially worked as a maid for the Lord family.
Nixon based Carla and Sadie's original story on the film Imitation of Life,[4] in which a light-skinned Black woman denies her heritage and her darker-complected mother, and enters white society by passing.
[1] Holly spoke about the historic episodes in a 2018 Television Academy Foundation interview: [In] the fifth month in which everybody's invested all their energy in learning about these people for these five months, that day, on a Friday — deliberately chosen for Friday — the cameras started following a whole bunch of people during their daily [routines], including Carla and Sadie...And at the end of the day, five minutes before that, Sadie and Carla Benari meet in front of Anna Wolek's door.
The backstory was that she was an actress and she wanted to be a big star and she went to the bright lights of the big city and found out nobody could give a damn, and also it wasn't helpful to be black, so she started passing for white, and that didn't do too well either, and she ended up on some lousy bus-and-truck tour that had come back to town.Carla chooses to live as "Carla Benari" for a little while longer, eventually becoming engaged to Dr. Craig, who was willing to keep her secret should she continue to want to live as "Carla Benari".
The storyline eventually ended with Carla calling off her engagement and informing everyone in Llanview of her true identity, including to Price Trainor, who is furious.
While originally very heartbroken by Carla's rejection, Sadie regains a close and loving relationship with her daughter, who apologizes for her hurtful actions.
[6] Young intern Dr. Larry Wolek (Paul Tulley, Jim Storm, from 1969 onward Michael Storm) falls in love with Meredith Lord (Trish Van Devere, Lynn Benesch) the younger of two daughters of Victor Lord (Ernest Graves, Shepperd Strudwick).
Frustrated, Larry turned to Karen Martin (Niki Flacks), a nurse who saved his life when he was trapped in a fire.
Meanwhile, a heart-broken Merrie became involved with Tom Edwards (Joseph Gallison), a young man whom she found wandering in the park with amnesia and who was more to Victor's liking.
Merrie went through her own extremely difficult pregnancy, but successfully delivered twins, a son Danny (who would eventually grow up to be a doctor as well) and a daughter who died at birth.
Merrie's sister Victoria Lord (originated by Gillian Spencer, from 1971 onward Erika Slezak) was a sexually repressed young woman who lived for her father's approval.
Joe's best friend, truck-driver (and later police officer) Vinny Wolek (Antony Ponzini, Jordan Charney, Michael Ingram), fell in love with Niki.
Viki married reporter Steve Burke (Bernard Grant), who at the time was being stalked by the psychopathic Marcy Wade (Francesca James).
Steve went on trial for her murder, and was ultimately cleared by none other than Joe himself, who had survived his presumably fatal car crash, but had been amnesiac for over a year.
The show also had a sustained anti-drug storyline centering on wild child Cathy Craig (Catherine Burns, Amy Levitt, Jane Alice Brandon, Dorrie Kavanaugh, Jennifer Harmon).
She resented her father's second marriage to Anna Wolek (Doris Belack, Kathleen Maguire, Phyllis Behar).
While on a bad acid trip, she murdered her drug dealer Artie Duncan (John Cullum), but blocked the incident out of her memory.
In an unusual move, Cathy's portrayer, actress Amy Levitt, was videotaped while sitting in on real-life therapy sessions at Odyssey House, which were then broadcast as OLTL episodes during the summer of 1970.
Dr. Dorian Cramer (Nancy Pinkerton, on-and-off from 1979 Robin Strasser) arrived in Llanview in April 1973 with her sister, Melinda (Patricia Pearcy); the following year she and her married lover Dr. Mark Toland (Tommy Lee Jones) conspired to cover up their complicity in the death of patient, Rachel Wilson (Nancy Barrett).
As social issue-oriented stories on matters such as race and drug addiction played themselves out, ratings fell; in response, in 1975 ABC hired high-priced Another World actors George Reinholt and Jacqueline Courtney to portray Tony Lord and Pat Ashley.
Later, Jenny married bad boy Brad Vernon (Steve Fletcher, Jameson Parker), a philandering Lothario who caused her no small amount of grief.
But Karen, bored with married life and suffering overwhelming self-esteem problems, began turning tricks in the daytime with rich suitors in exchange for expensive 'gifts.'
The sleazy opportunist Marco Dane (Gerald Anthony) discovered Karen's trysts and blackmailed her into becoming a housewife hooker, turning tricks for his clientele while Larry was at work.
Marco was horrified to discover the dead body of his brother Mario, and made the instant decision to exchange identities with the corpse.
When Brick and an accomplice tried to rob the pharmacy, they were caught by Dr. Jack Scott (Arthur Burghardt), who was shot and paralyzed in the violent exchange.
Viki poured her energies into working with Clint at The Banner, and fending off a takeover attempt by her arch-rival, Dorian Lord.