(This interview was originally was published on Examiner.com on July 5, 2013.) — When “All My Children” and “One Life To Live,” produced by Prospect Park, debuted with new episodes on Hulu back in April, something had some longtime viewers up in arms. Free of some of the restrictions the shows had on during their 1968 to 2012 ABC run, Prospect Park decided to try something different.
Cursing was added into the language of the shows in order to add a little realism and some edginess to the legendary soaps.
The change proved to be too much for some fans who took to the show’s Facebook and Hulu comment sections to say they didn’t like it. While it seemed to work in some situations, many times it seemed forced and didn’t feel natural.
The company relented and recently announced that the swearing would be removed and even released a video of “curse word bloopers” as a goodbye of sorts.
The timing seemed right as the news came just beforeOprah Winfrey’s OWN Network announced that it would be bringing the shows back to television, beginning on July 15th. That date also marks the 45th anniversary of “One Life To Live,” Agnes Nixon’s first created soap.
With so many opinions being weighed on the topic, “One Life To Live” actors Bob Woods (Bo) and Hillary B Smith (Nora) shared their thoughts on the controversial subject with Daytime TV Examiner during a press call with reporters.
Both actors feel the curse words weren’t needed.
“I don’t think people walk around cursing all the time, that’s my whole thing” said Smith. “My feeling is if it’s natural and you find yourself cursing there then I, you know, like in the privacy of your own place you probably would. But people don’t walk around dropping the F bomb all the time. I know I’ve kind of made an effort to not, you know, to say things like poop or things like that instead of swearing.”
Smith did say that every once and a while a word slips in while doing a scene. “I did let one rip the other day and it was totally natural,” she admitted. “It wasn’t in the script it just. I let the F word kind of fly. I was like ooh, woops. But it was real and it was right for that time.”
Woods agrees, believing that the shows had already began toning the cursing down before the ultimate decision to cut it all together was made. Still he concedes that times have changed as cursing is more a part of our everyday language.
“It was more current than [before],” said Woods. “…Like being on a subway, when I was down in the city, I noticed that, what you hear now is not what you heard when I was in high school, unless it was a bunch of guys around trying to, make a point talking like what they think guys should talk like. But in general, just right out in the middle of, you know, with people down the sidewalk. Some of the language you hear, that’s kind of startling too but I don’t think it’s necessary.”
Woods, who first joined the show as Bo Buchanan in 1979, knows of long time viewers who would object to the cursing.
“I just don’t want to alienate some of people that have been really looking forward to us coming back and then all of a sudden maybe now they don’t want to hear that kind of talk or something,” the actor said. “I know I have relatives down in the South in Texas and I haven’t talked to them since it’s been airing but I don’t think they would like to hear that.”
“I do, I just think it was a shock element that was there that the writers kind of went okay well let’s do this, let’s push the envelope, let’s make it real,” Smith concludes. “And I just think it was, you know, the pendulum swing and I think it’s coming back to a nice place where it’s right, it means well. I think it was refreshing to some people and offensive to others and, you know, the idea is not to offend, the idea is to tell a story. So…”
Both Woods and Smith liked how quickly the issue was addressed.
“But here’s the good thing,” starts Smith. “The response was immediate and I think that the show immediately responded and said ‘okay let’s pull it back. Let’s take it out of the writing and that was the first thing.’ Take it out of the writing it’s easy. It was a nice thing is that there was an immediate response to it.”
One of Smith’s most memorable performances was as Nora the attorney during the Fraternity House Rape Storyline, a performance that won her the Outstanding Lead Actress Emmy in 1994. Could viewers see Nora in the courtroom again?
“I don’t know. I have no idea,” Smith said. “Now you’re just sort of seeing me come in from work. I have to tell you I kind of enjoy the break from it and just being light and lively Bo and Nora and doing the Nightbird. “It’s been really, really fun. I love courtroom and all, but I would like to go back to being a defense attorney because that’s a lot more fun than being the district attorney, but we’ll see. I don’t know. So far, you know, nobody in Llanview is bad and I like that. I like the fact that, you know, it’s not just the courtroom stuff all the time. I hope that when it goes there, it goes there for a reason. Like the rape trial, right, because that was the beginning of it and I think that meant something.”
“One Life To Live” is scheduled to resume production of new episodes beginning September 9th.
Brand new episodes of “All My Children,” “One Life to Live” and “More AMC and OLTL” stream Mondays on Hulu, Hulu Plus and iTunes. Check out theonlinenetwork.com for more info.
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