
Photo Credit: JPI Studios
Daytime Emmy award winning actress Robin Strasser (Dorian) of One Life to Live discusses with TV Guide many questions that fans have wanted to know and to understand since last May when Robin told ABC she’d needed to exit OLTL early to deal with a severely bad back that’s plagued her for years. Strasser was hoping a schedule could be worked out where she would be seen on air through the fall, closer to the end of OLTL’s network television run. However, Strasser has said that the ABC network abruptly gave her her walking papers as part of a major summer cast-cutting and budget measure.
In this very compelling interview, Strasser give her thoughts on what went down with OLTL, plus now that her medical treatment plan for her back has been altered, if she would entertain the thought of making some more appearances on the show before its conclusion, and then if she would move to the web with the series if asked to be part of the online version. Here are a few juicy excerpts!
Strasser on if OLTLcalled… would she be up for taping a return appearance before the shows network finale: “Since I am not going to be having an immediate surgery, if the show needed me and I can walk, I’d run to Llanview! If they want, they can consider me part of the recurring group. It’s a badge of honor as far as I’m concerned — that would put me in the company of the fabulous Ilene Kristen [Roxie] and Patricia Elliott [Renee]. I would have been fine about becoming Great Aunt Dorian with the hair and the clothes just getting flashier and crazier as the years go on. I really would! I just love that whole Cramer family of female energy and being a part of it. Just thinking about it, I get all crushy for it! I call myself “the team-playing diva” — an anomaly in some circles but not in my universe. There was a point, about a year and a half ago, where I even volunteered to go off contract and become recurring.”
Strasser on how Mayor Doriane exits Llanview: “She’s going to become a United States senator. They have her being appointed by the governor and going to Washington to replace the current senator who is caught in a scandal. They wanted to do the old thing about the men’s room and the tapping foot and I said, “I will not!” It was in the middle of the Weiner thing, so I said, “Make it a sexting scandal.” I just wasn’t going to do the bathroom thing. [Laughs] I think they were, like, “She’s on her way out. We’re not going to argue with her.” So it was changed. They also say Dorian will be running for the dethroned senator’s seat in November… apparently without a primary. Hey, I just say the words! Mine was not to question why, mine was to do it and die! [Laughs] It’s okay. It’s nice to know that, at least forensically, Dorian is still alive. Did I ever tell you about the time [former OLTL executive producer] Paul Rauch thought Elaine Princi was practically my lookalike twin and told me to my face — to my face! — “They are going to forget all about you, Robin! I have found a woman to replace you!”