In a year when tabloid magazines often outpaced traditional news outlets in uncovering news stories, Soap Opera Central shined with several big exclusives.
Perhaps none scored higher than the reveal of One Life to Live's plans to develop a storyline that Jessica Buchanan was not really Viki's biological daughter.
The expose drew the ire of OLTL executive producer Gary Tomlin, who was also quick to point out that some of the details of our story were not entirely on-the-mark; several aspects of the storyline were redrawn between the time that the storyline idea was thought up and the time the storyline hit the airwaves.
The storyline may have been the year's best. Soaps are rewriting history all the time and developingback stories to shock its viewers. However, OLTL did more than just change history. The show expertly crafted a storyline with characters that fans truly cared about. Actress Erin Torpey (Jessica Buchanan) has been with OLTL since 1990 and viewers had literally seen her grow up. That long-term bond the audience had with Torpey made the storyline even more powerful.
Read The StorySOC exposes OLTL mega-storyline. [Aug 13, 2001]
Daytime viewers were stunned by the February arrest of Michael Nader (ex-Dimitri Marick, All My Children) on the felony crime of criminal sale of a controlled substance.
Nader, a patron at an unlicensed Lower East Side nightclub, had allegedly sold cocaine to an undercover police officer. Nader was released on $500 bail and faced a maximum of 25 years in jail if he had been convicted.
Nader checked into a drug treatment center for 30 days and hoped to return to work at AMC. ABC was forced to recast the role of Dimitri. Nader eventually pled guilty to misdemeanor charges of drug possession and the rest of the charges against him were dropped.
However, by the time Nader's situation was fully resolve, AMC had already written Dimitri off of the canvas... and the show announced that it had no immediate plans to bring Dimitri or Nader back.
Read The StoryNader arrested in NYC drug raid. [Mar 5, 2001]
Read The StoryNader speaks out about arrest. [Mar 26, 2001]
Read The StoryABC says door open for Nader to return. [Aug 13, 2001]
Read The StoryNader court date pushed back. [Apr 9, 2001]
Read The StoryCharges against Nader dropped. [May 14, 2001]
Read The StoryAddabbo, Dimitri to be written out. [Jun 11, 2001]
