So, if you follow entertainment news, you know that long-running soap operas All My Children and One Life to Live were both cancelled by ABC. I have been an ABC soap-watcher since I was a child (my mom weaned me on AMC, and at one point I watched every single soap, including Loving/The City), and even though I stopped watching both AMC and OLTL a few years ago (killing Dixie was the beginning of the end of AMC, in my opinion, and the straw that broke this here camel’s back – the day they did that, I said to the TV (yes, I talk to the TV, so what?), “That’s it, All My Children, I am DONE with you forever!” You just can’t kill a main character and not expect fans to be outraged. But I digress.), I still have a soft spot in my heart for those shows and will be very sad to see them go.
I bet most of you don’t know this, but I actually did my college internship at One Life to Live. I told you, I love soaps, and my goal back then was a) move to New York and work in television and b) work on a soap opera. Amazingly, I did both! It was an amazing experience and one I haven’t really talked about that often, so I thought I’d let you know what life on a soap opera is really like.
It was the fall semester of 1993, and it was time to choose my senior year internship. Everyone else in the program at FSU was looking for local news internships, but I had my eyes set on something bigger, something more exciting. I didn’t want to work behind a camera or in a control room (although I did end up doing that for years) – I wanted to be part of something special. I sent letters to all the soap operas in New York, as well as the big networks (HBO, MTV, VH-1, etc.). I was surprised to actually get responses from a few places, including Loving/AMC, OLTL, HBO and As The World Turns (I think … it was so long ago!). I quickly made plans to go up to NY to interview – I called my aunt for a place to stay, I booked my plane ticket (my first time flying since I was a small child), and I was off!
I hadn’t been up to New York in a long time (we moved to Florida from Long Island when I was 12), and hardly ever went into Manhattan as a child (my mom was not comfortable driving/taking the train to the city), so going there as a semi-adult was beyond exciting. My cousin went into the city with me, I think it was sometime Thanksgiving week, and I distinctly remember going up the escalator at Penn Station, hearing the sounds of the city getting louder and louder, and finally, BAM! the city surrounded me. Some people do not like the hustle and bustle of the city, but as soon as I got off that escalator, I felt at home.
We were early, so we stopped at a diner and my cousin got some coffee while we waited for my first interview. Sitting in that diner, watching the people hurrying to work, I was in heaven. The energy of New York was so exhilarating, and I thrived on it. We finally walked off to my first interview, at HBO. I met with HR first, and then a gentleman who worked at Cinemax in the On-Air Promotions department. He was very nice, but I was really gunning for the soap opera jobs, so I can’t say I remember too much about that interview. Also, it was 18 years ago, and I have trouble remembering yesterday.
Funny aside – years later, when I was living in NY and sending my resume out to any and every network/production company/show in town, I got a call from a woman at USA network for a job interview. Apparently, she was the HR person at HBO when I interviewed there, and she remembered me! I didn’t get the job, but man, she was pretty good at hers!
After that interview was over, we went to AWTW. It’s funny, but I don’t remember that interview either – like I said before, I am an ABC soap-watcher, so even interviewing at a rival network’s soap felt a bit traitorous to me. Of course, I would have been happy to do an intership there, but I REALLY wanted to work on an ABC soap.
Now, the main event – my interviews at Loving/AMC and OLTL. Loving and All My Children were in the same building, down at the very end of 66th street on the West Side. We got lost and had to almost run to get there on time – that was my first experience with streets v. avenues. Walking a street block is not so bad, but walking an avenue takes FOREVER! When I walked into that building, I was first struck by all the cast pictures – imagine, having watched these people for years, and now to actually be IN the place where they worked! It was beyond thrilling. I was taken up to a meeting room and waited for a very long time for someone to come interview me. I guess there was some sort of drama (ha) going on … or was someone sick? I can’t remember now, but I know that all that waiting made me even more nervous. Finally, they interviewed me, and I thought it went well. I thought I might get a position at Loving, which would have been great because even if I wasn’t at AMC, I was still in the same building. After that interview, I went to OLTL for my interview there. I met one of the producers, Frank Valentini, and that interview went well, too.
And that was it. I went back to Florida and waited/hoped for a call. I had put all my eggs in NY’s basket, and if I didn’t get an internship there (and it had to be a full internship, meaning I had to have 12 hours of credit in order to leave FSU and be at this internship full-time), I didn’t have a backup plan for an internship in Florida.
Mid December, I got calls from both HBO and OLTL. None of the other jobs panned out. OLTL could only offer me two days a week, so I accepted three days at HBO/Cinemax and YES! I was moving to New York!!
I was going to be living at my aunt’s house, and it was crowded. Her daughter and her daughter’s 3 year old son were living there, and because of custody issues, he had to have his own room, and it had to look like a child’s room. That didn’t leave a room for me, so I was going to be sharing his room. Imagine being a 20 year old woman sharing a room with a 3 year old who called you “Tory”. It actually wasn’t that bad, but it’s funny when I think back on it. My uncle would drive me to the train station in Babylon every morning, and even though I always thought I was going to miss the train, he always got me there on time. He drove pretty fast, and loved to honk his horn to alert people that he was coming. My uncle would pack my lunch every day and my aunt would have dinner waiting for me when I got home at night. It was pretty sweet. My uncle would always brag to family, “When Korey lived with us, I fattened her up!” because I used to be extremely thin. Well, having someone make your meals for you definitely helps you gain weight!
My commute into the city was an hour on the Long Island Railroad (LIRR), both ways. I was going to be working 9am-5pm Monday, Tuesday and Thursday at HBO/Cinemax and Wednesday/Friday at OLTL. HBO’s headquarters were on 6th Avenue (the Avenue of the Americas) and 42nd street, and OLTL was at 66th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues (I think). After getting off the LIRR at Penn Station, I would take a subway, either up to 42nd street (the subway for my HBO trip was conveniently located right at the HBO building) or to Lincoln Square for OLTL. I felt so very adult, commuting into Manhattan everyday.
I’m going to stop here and continue this saga in another post. I’m getting to the good stuff, I promise!
