One Life to Live (often abbreviated as OLTL) is an American soap opera created by Agnes Nixon. During the 1980s, the show was broadcast on the ABC television network and episodes were an hour long.

1980–1983

The early 1980s were a time of big changes for One Life to Live. The Wolek sisters were the spotlight characters of the show as the new decade began. The primary storyline on the show in 1979 concentrated on Viki's trial for the murder of Marco Dane (Gerald Anthony). Anthony was so popular with fans that he quickly returned (a quick rewrite revealed Marco's heretofore unknown twin brother Mario was killed instead; Marco impersonated him for several years). Karen discovers Marco's secret but realizes he was genuinely trying to rehabilitate, so she didn't expose him. Meanwhile, Jenny was treated badly by her husband Brad who then manipulated her into taking him back over and over again. Brad also raped Karen. Jenny was in a high-risk pregnancy at the time, and the news of the rape sent her into early labor. When the baby died in the nursery, Karen forced Marco to switch the child with fellow hooker Katrina Karr's child. Jenny finally left Brad for good and married Dr. Peter Janssen, who was later killed in a car accident. It would be several years before she found out the truth about 'her' baby and in a heartbreaking sequence, gave her daughter back to Katrina.

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). Viki buried herself in work as a publisher of the Banner, and in looking after Tina, who was perpetually involved with one bad-news boyfriend after another. Although she deliberately avoided a new relationship, she attracted two prospective love interests. One was Ted Clayton, Tina's father (actually stepfather, though she didn't know it at the time) who was more interested in Viki's wealth than her. The other was Clint Buchanan (Clint Ritchie), who took over Joe's position as chief editor of the Llanview Banner. Viki and Clint clashed both professionally and personally – Clint was a no-nonsense cowboy who initially saw Viki as a pampered Primadonna. Eventually, though true love won out and, despite numerous schemes by Ted, Viki and Clint were married. Ted was finally gunned down, prompting a devastated Tina to leave Llanview for a while.

Quickly following Clint to Llanview were his brother Bo Buchanan (Robert S. Woods), and Father Asa Buchanan (Phil Carey). Asa is a Texas oil baron millionaire who has a love-hate relationship with his sons, and practically everyone he knew. The Buchanan clan was an obvious attempt to imitate the then wildly popular prime-time soap Dallas, but the Buchanans proved to be such big hits that they soon dominated the entire show. Most of the Wolek and Lord family members who anchored OLTL since its inception were written out, or (in the case of Viki) married into the Buchanan family. (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.) Asa was as much a scoundrel as J.R. Ewing in his business dealings but he was also an irrepressible ladies' man. Almost immediately after arriving in Llanview, Asa wooed Brad Vernon's sister Samantha, who was decades younger than he was. What no one knew was that Asa's first wife Olympia (mother of Clint and Bo) was still alive, still legally Asa's wife, and being held prisoner by him. Throughout the 1980s, Asa took one young bride after another — including Delilah Ralston, Becky Lee Abbott, Pamela Stuart and Gabrielle Medina. He also locked horns with his sons, particularly Bo, who had his own romantic interest in both Delilah and Becky Lee.

The role of Dorian was recast with Robin Strasser, who arguably became the definitive portrait of the character. While continuing to be a thorn in Viki's side (she briefly romanced Clint when he and Viki were on the outs), her character was fleshed out a little more. She married Herb Callison, the district attorney who prosecuted Viki for murder. 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. Another complication in Dorian's life was the abrupt arrival of Cassie Howard, the illegitimate daughter whom Dorian had given up years earlier. Dorian at first resists becoming a mother to Cassie but eventually accepts the girl into her home.

Karen's "housewife hooker" storyline was rehashed in 1981 by having Karen go undercover, posing as a prostitute while investigating the murder of her cousin Vinnie Wolek. Karen and Marco are framed for murder and have to go on the run from the mob. The reality-based tales took a turn towards the absurd in the early 1980s, as Karen and Larry have control chips implanted in their brains by Dr. Ivan Kipling (Jack Betts) and Larry has to save Karen from Kipling's jungle hideaway.

1983–1986 In 1983 Karen falls in love with fugitive Steve Piermont (Robert Desiderio, Light's real-life husband.) In spite of Larry urging her to remain in Llanview, she decided she would rather go on the run with a man who needed her than stay with her old demons.

Karen's sister Jenny fell in love with David Renaldi (Michael Zaslow), a concert pianist, who had fathered Dorian's daughter Cassie. Although married to Herb, Dorian was at turns furiously bitter towards, and jealously possessive of David. She sought to drive a wedge between David and Jenny, going as far as seducing him. 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. David and Jenny were then embroiled in a spy storyline in 1985, taking them to Vienna, Austria with Viki & Clint. Jenny and David remained in Vienna.

Thanksgiving 1983, Asa held a lavish costume ball in honor of his young wife, Samantha. 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.) Olympia tried coaxing Bo into shooting Asa, but he couldn't pull the trigger. When Olympia herself tried to kill her husband, Samantha lunged to save Asa and knocked Olympia and herself out a window. Only Samantha survived the fall. When she was informed that Asa was a liar and a bigamist, she dumped him then and there. Perhaps the most spectacular part of this storyline was its length. While it was all supposed to occur in the space of one night, it took up an entire month's worth of episodes, with five, hour-long episodes being aired for four whole weeks. These episodes took up approximately 20 hours of airtime and were all dedicated to the events of one single evening.

Asa and Bo promptly went on fighting — mainly over women. Bo fell in love with Delila Ralston, but Asa deliberately led them both to believe that they were half-siblings (Bo had been told by Olympia that his real father had been Yancey Ralston — Delila's father). Asa let them know that they weren't actually related only after he married Delila. Soon afterward, Asa faked his death to test Delila's fidelity — she wasted no time marrying Bo! Later, aspiring country-western singer Becky Lee Abbott became pregnant with Bo's son Drew but married Asa instead. Later still, Bo fell in love with and married Didi O'Neill, whose father Harry O'Neill (Frank Converse) was a blue-collar working man fighting Asa's plans to gentrify east Llanview. In 1986, it was revealed that throughout all the convoluted events of the past several years, Asa had been bigamously married to another woman, Pamela Stuart. Pamela was never involved with Bo in any way.

In 1985, Viki returned to the spotlight in one of the show's landmark storylines – the return of Niki Smith. Tina returned to Llanview and uncovered proof that she was Victor Lord's illegitimate daughter. 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. Shocked to discover this side of her father's persona, Viki began having 'Niki Smith' episodes once again. Tina hooked up with sleazy con man Mitch Laurence (Roscoe Born), who concocted a plan to turn Viki into Niki permanently, which (thanks to a clause in Victor Lord's will) would leave Tina in control of the vast Lord fortune. But when Tina discovered Mitch wanted to kill Niki, she turned against him. Niki remained in control for months, causing misery for Clint. Tina rebounded from her uncharacteristic bout of selflessness in order to seduce Clint. Niki was able to imitate Viki's mannerisms well enough to fool people into thinking she was really Viki. She then used Clint's transgression with Tina as grounds to divorce him. Clint was eventually able to shock Viki back to her senses. With Niki banished once more, Viki happily remarried Clint. On their wedding day, she broke the news to him that she was pregnant with his child. Almost nine months later, Viki delivered her daughter Jessica.

The wildly popular Niki Smith storyline re-energized OLTL. 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.

OLTL also found success with the enormously popular supercouple pairing of Tina and good-hearted cowboy Cordero 'Cord' Roberts (John Loprieno). The two fell madly in love from the moment they met, but Tina was intent on marrying a rich husband. When she discovered that Cord was the illegitimate son of Clint (and potential heir to Buchanan mega-millions), she wasted no time marrying him! Cord however would soon become disgusted by Tina's conniving ways. Complicating matters was Cord's mother Maria Roberts (Barbara Luna), who despised Tina and sought to undermine her at every turn. Maria was also still in love with Clint and wanted to break up Clint and Viki in order to win him back. Maria even went as far as tracking down the late Joe's heretofore unknown long-lost twin brother Tom Dennison (like Joe, played by Lee Patterson) and bringing him to Llanview in hopes that Viki would leave Clint for him.

Mitch Laurence also returned to town to menace both Tina and Viki. In the guise of a fundamentalist minister, Mitch began leading a religious cult composed mainly of young women he seduced. He tried to rape Cassie but was (presumably) killed in self-defense by Dorian. Dorian was wrongly found guilty of premeditated murder and sent to prison. But evidence would lead to her conviction being overturned, releasing Dorian from jail. She would continue her TV journalism career at WVLE while finding romance with a private investigator, Jon Russell.

With Cassie visiting her father, David in Vienna, Dorian also found a young protege in Diane Bristol. But Diane had a dark side and was secretly involved with Jon's sociopath nephew, Jamie Sanders' criminal activity. Cassie returned to Llanview and became suspicious of Diane's focus on Dorian. Jon shared Cassie's concern and the two paired up to uncover Diane's motives. Cassie soon found herself alongside Dorian in a dangerous confrontation with an unhinged and gun-toting Diane. Dorian saved Cassie by intercepting Diane, causing her to fall to her death through her penthouse's plate glass window. Soon Dorian noticed that Cassie had grown close with Jon during the ordeal. After confronting both of them, Cassie admitted to having feelings for him, leading Dorian to break up with Jon and to her falling out with her daughter. Dorian was soon offered the opportunity to become U.S. Ambassador to the country of Mendora. After mending her rift with Cassie, Dorian would leave Llanview to begin work in her new role.

1987–1989