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Post by Dallas on May 14, 2017 9:30:48 GMT -5
I'm back after taking a couple weeks break. I went to Vancouver for a long weekend with my brother and then I did a week of daily episodes, which was busy and fun, but now that the regular schedule is back, I can post more about on the 15th Anniversary. This week, I'll talk about a story that sort of mirrored both the original version of ODaaT and the online one: Victoria's multiple personalities. Now, to be honest, when I first had this idea for the original series, it was very much because One Life to Live got so many years of story from Viki's multiple personalities. I never watched OLTL for a long period of time, but I will say that I don't know of any other story that Viki had other than her being other people. So, I decided that I would have a character on ODaaT that would have personalities and they could create drama on the series. At first, I struggled with who it would be, but it ended being Victoria. In both versions of the series, Victoria's father molested her as a child and her way of coping was to have the personalities. In terms of the story, things then took a change between versions. In the original, Victoria's father was named Victor and he came on and tried to rape her again. He was caught and sent to prison, only to escape years later and face off with Victoria again. When I was bringing the story to the online version, I had to change the father's name. I didn't want to have a character named Victoria, a character with the last name Victors (Vinny), and then a character with the name Victor. It seems like overkill, slightly, don't you think? So, I went with an Italian name that was still very strong in Ernesto (and kind of Stefano DiMera-ish). Ernesto came on for a short while, mostly for the reveal that Eva was Victoria & Donovan's mother. I couldn't actually think of a way to make his character last long because of what he did to Victoria as a child - how do you keep that kind of person on a series for a long time? I don't think there's redemption from that. Anyways, he came and was killed and that part of the story ended. Back to Victoria's multiple personalities, in both cases Brandy (the main alter ego) did a lot of bad things. In the original version, Brandy changed Leah's paternity test results when she didn't know who Paige's father was; she drugged Robin and helped Dominick try to fake her death (Will helped Dominick in the online version) and she set Adam/Helen's house on fire (which happened also in the online version.). Online, Brandy started the fire, killed Jackson (Jackson actually lived a lot longer in the original) and she rigged the chandelier to fall on Robbie at Cory & Natasha's wedding (it actually fell on Natasha) before she was caught. Unlike Viki on OLTL, I haven't revisited Victoria's personalities. It is a story that I would like to, potentially, when the time is right. But, to me, there has to be triggers to set it all off. And, unlike the first go around, I would have the fall out and Victoria getting better be a part of the story. What do you think of the Victoria/Brandy? Until next time - dzkw
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Post by Dallas on Jun 11, 2017 9:16:03 GMT -5
I'm back after a brief delay from these things ... This week, I wanted to share with you a plot point that happened in the original series that I actually used for inspiration with recent developments. So, part of the reason that the Calimo's were the only family on ODaaT in the original series, and even early in the online version, was because I was a huge Melrose Place fan growing up. On Melrose, the only family connection was Jane and Sydney being sisters. Of course, you had the odd brother (Jake's brother showed up) or Mom/Dad show up (Amanda's parents) even now and then, but for the most part, there wasn't a strong family presence on the show. Because of this, all of the characters could sleep with one another. By the time the series ended, I think Amanda had sex with everyone in the building except for Matt. Anyways, this kind of thinking is why I didn't want to have a lot of families on ODaat (in retrospect, I actually regret this - families ARE the key to a daytime show, which is why I've tried to build up families on the online version); the entire Robbie/Kim sleeping together came from that ideology "everyone can sleep with everyone" mentality. In my original series, Robbie was a man-whore. The series started with him and Leah being married, but he was having an affair with Robin (this happened online as well). Once Leah and Robin discovered that they were half-sisters, the affair ended, but Robbie moved on and had sex with Rebecca, Meggan and Kim! To keep Robbie as a likable character, I didn't have him cheat on Leah that many times. However, while I was thinking of something for Robbie to do to get revenge on Bob for his role in Leah's death (which didn't happen in the original series, btw), I ran across this week of ODaaT that I am presenting this week. Kim and Robbie had slept together and she ended up pregnant. Of course, in the original series, Kim and Bob never got married, nor were they a couple. That is new to the online series, but the idea that Robbie would sleep with Kim, now his father's wife, was really too good of a chance to pass up. It's very soapy, it's very dramatic, and it would be a great way for Robbie to get revenge. So, by looking at this week, randomly, I was able to come up with this new plot point that has worked, for the most part, really well. As we will see it unfold with this week's episode and the next couple, it's a great way to sort of end this chapter of a couple stories before moving into the next one. I still love that, to this day, I can flip through my ODaaT binder and be inspired to do things that I did years ago, or to bring plot points to the online series. And before you ask, Kim will NOT have Robbie's baby! lol Until next time - dzkw
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Post by Dallas on Jul 9, 2017 9:49:53 GMT -5
I'm back with a new blog post about the 15th anniversary. This week, I'm going to get into a character that was never really on the original series, but I added him into the online series. This is Andy Spinnes. In the original series, Kim had a secret son who came into town but within a month of introducing him, I had him die of HIV. In retrospect, it was extremely silly to bring a character on like that only to kill him off within weeks. I suppose that is the dramatic mind of a 12 year old though. In 2004, which was nearing close to the hiatus, I brought Andy onto the series. Initially, he was just going to come on and be the one to discover that Victoria was suffering from multiple personalities, however, I realized that I could actually turn Andy into a longer running character. While I was flipping through my ODaaT binder, I saw that Kim had a son that came back into her life. Now, Kim's image representation is far too young looking to have a fully grown son, so instead, I had that Kim and Andy bonded and when he revealed that he didn't have a family, she adopted him as her brother. This worked on many levels because Kim didn't have any family connections and, obviously, Andy didn't either, so it created a mini-family unit. Kim and Andy have been through a lot together since then but at least they have one another. The next phase of the character of Andy was that I made him gay and it opened the door for characters like Reese, Craig, JC, Dean, Donovan and Lukas to all appear on the series. The character of Andy was also the way I brought Trenyce on to the series at first. So, the character who was only brought on for one plot point, really has created a lot of stories and characters for ODaaT. What was your favorite Andy moment? A couple of my highlights are: Andy forcing to admit that he isn't Andrew's father after Trenyce & Andrew were in a car accident and Andrew needed a blood transfusion to live; Andy and Reese's first time making love; and drunk Andy was a lot of fun! Until next time - dzkw
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Post by Dallas on Jul 16, 2017 10:37:37 GMT -5
This week's retrospective takes us back a few years during the online series, but it is a storyline that happened in both the online version and the original series: Sofia not being Natasha's mother. In the original series, Bob and Sofia were very small, recurring characters as they lived in Europe and only appeared when their children (Robbie/Natasha) needed them. They showed up for weddings (Natasha to Cory, Robbie to Leah), but then they would disappear again. By the end of the season full year of ODaaT, I decided to bring them back to Twin Peaks as full time characters, because I was trying to bring more family into the series. In the online version, I always Bob and Sofia in the series because family is important. The big piece for me, in both versions of ODaaT, was that they needed to have a storyline. In both versions, Sofia was torn between Bob and Dominick. However, the last thing I wanted to do was to say is "Robbie is really Dominick's son" because Robbie was involved with Leah and that would have meant that they were committing incest; that is definitely a story that I didn't want to go down. I can't remember which online series featured a story like this, but the characters involved in the incest story line never really recovered and they were both written off the series. In the original series, Eva McCloud came to the series with a torrid past with Bob. The character did the same online; she was the woman Bob turned to after he learned Sofia had an affair with Dominick. But she ended up pregnant, Bob and Sofia agreed to raise the child as their own. This child was Natasha. The thing that I loved most about this story is that it really pulled in many different stories into this one. This secret impacted the marriage of Bob and Sofia, which in turn impacted Dominick and Eva. Robin learned the truth and blackmailed Sofia into helping her keep Cory away from Natasha (this happened in both versions of the series). Of course, the biggest story was the fall out of Natasha learning the truth. In both versions, she went on a drug binge. I have to say, writing Natasha as a druggie was one of my most favorite things to write because she's always so prim and proper (or at least she acts like she is), so for her to be stoned in a seedy hotel, it was such a turn around for the character. Do you remember this story? If so, what were your favorite parts? until next time dzkw
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Post by Dallas on Jul 23, 2017 11:01:24 GMT -5
This week's retrospective is about location's, which is something I've tried to really incorporate into the online version of ODaaT because to me, it represents the glory days of soap operas, in the 80's and the 90's, when the shows still had budgets to go away to these amazing locations. I'm too young to remember some of the classic Days location shoots, like Greece, but what I do remember from Days is some of the great "location" shoots that were really big story arches, like Masion Blanche, Aremid or even the Cruise of Deception. I'm too young to remember the cruise, but the first two were really arches that upped the drama in a big way. On ODaaT, I've gone to Italy (with Robbie and Victoria trying to prove Donovan didn't kill Ernesto; it was also the time that they were romancing one another, which was fun); Lake Tahoe (the arch with Felicia kidnapping Leah and the farm housing exploding, killing Leah) and coming up this summer, I am going to Santa Barbara. Like I said, I love the idea of being an old school soap with a budget to still go to places to create more story. In the original ODaaT, I did have a location shoot. I've never actually used this premise in my online version because, well, it was bad, in my opinion. At the time that I wrote this arch, I was very into Days. On the show, most of the cast was in Aremid for Peter & Jennifer's wedding. In the mansion that Peter & Kristen grew up in, there was a mysterious woman in white (whom turned out to be Peter & Kristen's Mom; she had scars on her face, hence the white lace over her face), running around with secrets. So, on ODaaT, I had a "woman in black". Some of the characters ended up going to Africa on a safari to track her down, which they did, and she turned out being a long lost sister of Robin. I never explained why she had this black vail over her face or anything ... Robin just had a sister on the series moving forward. At the time, being 12 or 13, you don't always think through storylines, which is why it was a bust, really. And, why I've never even thought of doing a version of the storyline online. Anyways - here's the proof of some of the cast going to Africa! Where should I go to next for location? I'm open to ideas! Until next time - dzkw
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Post by Dallas on Jul 30, 2017 9:12:57 GMT -5
This week's retrospective is about a storyline that did play out on both versions of ODaaT, and that is Victoria leaving Helen for dead. Some back story before we get to the story itself. Growing up, I really loved the character of John Black on Days of Our Lives. Every couple years when his current story arch would end, his new story would be "what happened in my past" because when he was rather young, Stefano DiMera had brainwashed him so he had no memory. The concept of having a character that you could, literally, do anything you wanted to with was very appealing to me. So, I came up with this idea with Helen on ODaaT. The only question was: how could I have her lose her memory and not remember anything about her past? Enter Victoria. On both versions, Victoria was suffering from multiple personalities. Victoria, herself, at the time was in love with Adam, although Adam was romancing Helen. So, one of Victoria's alter ego's attacked Helen and left her for dead. Of course, Helen survived but she had no memory of her past life, thus I had created my own version of the John Black character. One of the things, I guess, I haven't explored a lot of with Helen, at least in the current online version of the series, is her past. I touched on it briefly with Olivia & Preston and how Helen assisted them with robbing some banks; then Casey arrived as her brother; of course, the major impact was with the introduction of Barbara & Reg. The core of Helen's drama has typically been with her family and marriage - but you never know when more of her past could be mentioned, because she has no memory. In my initial version of ODaaT - Helen had some crazy parts of her past. Very much like John Black, who literally seemed to do anything and everything. What would YOU like to see from Helen's past? Until next time! dzkw
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Post by Dallas on Sept 3, 2017 9:23:03 GMT -5
I'm back after a couple weeks off (I didn't want this to be a distraction from the finale of Chasing Diamonds & the daily episodes of ODaaT), but here is another retrospective. I think this one is rather fitting too, considering the episodes that have just come out from ODaaT; this is Leah and Robbie's first wedding. In my first version of the storyline, it was a very big, grande event. I remember growing up, soap operas went all out for weddings: the entire cast would be gathered, the dress would be amazing, there was always drama bubbling under the surface; this is usually why weddings on ODaaT rarely go off as planned, because that's what I grew up with. Leah & Robbie's wedding was no different. Both versions of ODaaT really mirrored one another with the storyline. Jeff had come back to town and wanted to get Leah back; Dominick stopped the wedding the first time and told Leah to be with Jeff; there were many other juicy storylines going on at the same time as well. In the online version, the wedding was my first "mini-series" (if you will), or series of episodes that strung together nicely with the White Wedding episodes. Looking back, I wish I had released them as a daily episodes because it would have fit together better, but what's done is done. In the end, Leah and Robbie DID get married in both versions of the series. And eventually they divorced (like any good soap couple!). What are your memories of the White Wedding? Until next time - dzkw
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Post by Dallas on Oct 15, 2017 9:24:36 GMT -5
This week's retrospective is a plot point that was a lot of fun, and it happened in both versions of the series! After Natasha drove her car off the bridge and was presumed dead, she was actually suffering from amnesia. In both versions of the series, Leah found Natasha at the Calimo cabin and called Shane to help her since he is a doctor. This is the time in the series when Shane fell in love with Natasha, and Natasha fell in love with him, despite being married to Cory. I knew that something would have to happen to trigger the return of Natasha's memory, so I had her fall into the lake/pond that is on the property of the cabin. Shane would save her but the near death experience would bring her memory back. It would also bring Shane and Natasha closer together because he saved her life. The entire idea is a pretty classic soap staple as well; many characters from various shows over the years have fall into a body of water, either for humor (think B&B with Sally) or for drama (Colleen & Brad dying on Y&R), so it seemed like it would be a fun way for Natasha to regain her memory. With Shane and Natasha's married currently falling apart, it seemed this weeks' retrospective would be fun to see them back at, almost, the start of their relationship. Until next time! dzkw
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Post by Dallas on Oct 29, 2017 9:26:07 GMT -5
This week's retrospective is about characters who don't always turn into long-running characters, for various reasons. As you can imagine, telling this kind on-going saga, there will always be times when (1) new characters have to be introduced to keep things interesting and (2) regular characters sometimes need to take a break from the series. For the most part, I think the "cast" of characters on ODaaT has remained pretty steady for through the years. Unlike real life soap operas, I'm blessed with being 100% in control of who comes and who goes (real life you have those people called actors that can make decisions for you ). That being said, there have always been those characters who come in and out as I see fit. The best example is Rebecca DeWitt. She is the half sister of Robin, so she has family ties to the show, but she never really fit into the overall show itself. Her first story was being involved with the Vinny triplet saga early on when I first brought the show to the web. To keep her around once the mystery wrapped up, I revealed her connection to Robin and placed in her a messy love story with Shane/Natasha/Cassie/Robin/Cory/Jason. There were too many people involved to really set this story line up in away that was going to work, so when I brought the series back in 2009, I quickly wrapped up some of the parts. Rebecca and Jason left town together and I focused on the quaderangle that was remained. Rebecca, since then, has popped up a couple of more times through the series history. She returned, with Jason in tow, for Robin and Cory's wedding, and again most recently in the last couple of years while Robin was in the mental hospital. This time, however, I had revealed that she and Jason had split up and Rebecca fell in love with Cory, even though her plan with Melissa was just to sleep with him to break up Cory's marriage to Robin. A long sorted out tail that recently wrapped up with the truth coming up and Robin ordering Rebecca and Melissa out of town. Rebecca is one of those characters that could come back again in the future, but for now, the time had come for her to leave again. It's interesting how you can have these characters just come and go, but when I write for them, it's like "wow, I missed you!", but when they're gone, you don't always feel the impact of them not being seen/heard. I guess that's the beauty of having them come and go. Which characters from the past would you like to see make a comeback to Twin Peaks?
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Post by Dallas on Nov 13, 2017 21:46:09 GMT -5
Hey - welcome back to my final retrospective for the 15th anniversary. I know what you're thinking, "There's still a couple of weeks left in 2017, why end the retrospective's now?"; well, with Chasing Diamonds coming back, and ODaaT just finishing the last set of daily episodes for the year, I'm going to focus on wrapping up the 2017 year with ODaaT and releasing a 2018 preview among other things. When I first started writing ODaaT, every year I always tried to do something to honor the "anniversary" of the series, if you will. The first year, I had a big gala at St. Joseph's. It was sort of like a wedding, where the entire cast got together and there was a party. There wasn't a lot of drama, because I wanted to celebrate the anniversary of the series. Now, to celebrate, I often will do daily episodes the week in August that ODaaT premiered. This year, the Santa Barbara arch happened and it is one of my favorite arches I've ever done! I am still pretty far ahead in my writings, so I haven't planned anything for the 20th, but hopefully when I get there it is something just as epic! Have you enjoyed these retrospectives? Until my next blog ... dzkw
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