I don't remember this very well, but I know that the show
ruined the character of Tea after Roger Howarth left at the end
of 1998. Tea's family history had been that she had a brother
Enrique, who had a daughter Roseanne, a character on the show.
But at some point the writers changed Roseanne's father to be
Tea's brother-in-law, who had seduced Tea. When SOD chose
some episode related to this as "Editors' Choice," it prompted
me to send this letter. They printed nothing of it, but they
definitely later acknowledged that Tea's history had been
rewritten.
Dear Editors:
I am amazed that a recent "Editors' Choice" honor went to
an overwrought storyline that I had only watched out of
horrified curiosity.
One Life To Live's Tea has been given a distasteful and
unbelievable backstory, and an unnecessary one: her having
been abandoned by a parent was sufficient explanation for her
troubled personality and poor choices.
On top of this, Tea's ugly new history necessitated an
inconsistency for Roseanne's character. Roseanne had been
introduced as the daughter of Tea's brother Enrique. Then
suddenly Roseanne's father was Miguel, Tea's brother-in-law.
Then, by some laughably tacky patchwork by the writers,
the guy's name became Enrique Miguel! (Now tell us why
Roseanne's last name is Delgado, the same as Tea's.)
As for the gun-play climax of this mess, it was, at best,
worthy of an old grade-B movie.
This is "exactly what OLTL fans want"? That is bad news
for me. If hackneyed, tawdry material is rewarded, that is all
we are going to get. (Or are other viewers only watching out
of horrified curiosity?)
(End of letter)
Author's note: I'm pretty sure I'm recalling this correctly
-- Pamela K. Long was fired at the end of 1998. As I've
noted elsewhere, the ratings had plummeted. The show
actually had no Head Writer for a while, just Executive
Producer Jill Farren Phelps "leading" the writing staff
(disaster). Pamela must have come up with the charming
"trail of keys," which was abruptly, and forever, dropped.
