Joe Riley succumbed to a brain tumor and died in the fall of 1979, only weeks before Viki delivered their second son (whom she named Joseph in his memory).
(Ironically the Buchanan family has remained a popular fixture on the daytime soap to this day, outlasting their inspirations on Dallas by more than a decade.)
Throughout the 1980s, Asa took one young bride after another — including Delilah Ralston, Becky Lee Abbott, Pamela Stuart and Gabrielle Medina.
Although she expected to be able to control him, Herb proved to be more than a match for her, and their marriage was a tempestuous affair, although surprisingly long-lasting for two soap opera characters.
Karen's sister Jenny fell in love with David Renaldi (Michael Zaslow), a concert pianist, who had fathered Dorian's daughter Cassie.
Her schemes ultimately backfired; not only was she unsuccessful at breaking up David and Jenny, but Herb also found out about her fling and divorced her.
During the festivities, Olympia escaped captivity and revealed to Bo that she was still alive, and that Asa wasn't really his father (the last bit turned out not to be true.)
Later, aspiring country-western singer Becky Lee Abbott became pregnant with Bo's son Drew but married Asa instead.
Viki angrily refused to believe Tina's claims, until the discovery of a secret room in Llanfair (the Lord family mansion) that Victor had used as an illicit sex den.
It was during the Paul Rauch era when One Life to Live would maintain consistently high ratings, placing it in the top three daytime soap operas from 1985 into the late 1980s.
[citation needed] OLTL also found success with the enormously popular supercouple pairing of Tina and good-hearted cowboy Cordero 'Cord' Roberts (John Loprieno).
Complicating matters was Cord's mother Maria Roberts (Barbara Luna), who despised Tina and sought to undermine her at every turn.
Viki and Clint were the show's exemplary married couple; their love was strong enough to weather any crisis (no matter how bizarre.)
Also, at this time storylines became extremely campy but were told in a way that viewers could understand, and they seemed to enjoy the change that was made as they became more and more bizarre from the Maria Roberts Saga to Viki going to Heaven, Eterna and the Crown Jewels to Mendora.
Following the 'Niki Smith' saga, Allison Perkins (one of the 'late' Mitch Laurence's cult disciples) kidnapped Viki's baby Jessica for a while.
During the operation, Viki had an out-of-body experience in which she visited Heaven and was reunited with many deceased characters, such as Victor, Meredith, Eugenia, Tony, Irene, Samantha, Harry and Vinnie.
While the family was given some entertaining storylines (very similar to the Quartermains from General Hospital), both Brown and Sorel became restless and left after only a year.
Kibbee would remain on for another two years, only taken off of contract after Elizabeth was revealed to be the mastermind behind a plot to bring down the Buchannan family as part of revenge against both Asa and Cord.
She would return infrequently over the next year until a summer storyline in 1989 had her in cahoots with grandson Jaime to escape from prison, ultimately resulting in Cord and Tina being held captive by them.
After a riding accident in the Arizona desert, he regained his sight but found himself transported back in time to 1888, and the old west town "Buchanan City".
After getting out of jail, Tina learned she had not miscarried Cord's son after her plunge over the falls, but that a ring of baby-sellers had stolen the child.
Alas, Didi was killed, but Bo eventually found happiness again with Sarah Gordon (Jensen Buchanan), who had been Clint's therapist during the time he was blind.
OLTL engaged in some meta-humor in 1988 when several characters became involved with the production of a fictional soap opera called Fraternity Row.
Much to her surprise, Viki learned that she had become Niki Smith while still a teenager (much earlier than anyone knew) and that her father Victor had a hypnotist erase her memory of the incident.
(Adding insult to injury, Viki's longtime best friend Larry Wolek had delivered the baby and helped Victor cover the incident up.)
Alone with Viki in the underground city, Roger Gordon finally confessed his long-buried secret: He was raised in Eterna but had found a way to escape.
Audrey Ames (Pia Porter), also on the road that night, was hit by the car driven by Gabrielle, putting her in a wheelchair.
At the same time, Megan went into a fugue state in which she believed she was her Fraternity Row character Ruby Bright, a riff on her mother Viki's Niki Smith escapades.
Another infamous story saw the soap, Fraternity Row being stalked from January to March 1989 as numerous past death scenes were recreated and used to kill the cast and crew as producer Randy was killed by a falling chandelier, Bo was attacked, Audrey was nearly strangled, Bo saved Sarah from a bomb, an explosion destroyed the lab and many other death plots.
Tina Lord Roberts set out to pursue the lost Crown Jewels of Mendora for Michael Grande throughout the summer despite her family's dismay.