Todd Manning

Todd Manning
One Life to Live character
File:TrevorStJohn.jpg Trevor St. John as Todd Manning in the One Life to Live opening sequence
Portrayed by	Roger Howarth (1992-1995, 1996-1998, 2000-2003) Trevor St. John (2003-present)
First appearance	1992
Created by	Michael Malone
In-universe information Other names Todd Lord Victor Toddson Walker Laurence Occupation Publisher of The Sun Parents Victor Lord (deceased) Irene Manning (deceased) Peter Manning (adoptive father/second cousin, deceased) Siblings Tina Clayton Lord (sister) Victoria Lord (half-sister) Meredith Lord Wolek (half-sister, deceased) Tony Lord (half-brother, deceased) Spouse Blair Cramer (February 1995-August 1995, annulled; November 1995-June 1997, divorced; December 2001-September 2002, divorced; November 2003-January 2004, annulled; September 2007-present) Téa Delgado (15 July 1997-1998, divorced) Children Starr Manning Jack Manning Tommy Manning First cousins Powell Lord II (deceased) Richard Abbott Powell Lord III Other relatives C.J. Roberts (nephew) Sarah Roberts (niece) Megan Gordon (niece, deceased) Kevin Buchanan (nephew) Joey Buchanan (nephew) Jessica Buchanan (niece) Natalie Buchanan (niece) Brian Kendall (nephew, deceased) Daniel Wolek (nephew)

Todd Manning is a fictional character from the ABC daytime drama One Life to Live. The role was originated in 1992 by actor Roger Howarth, and is currently being portrayed by actor Trevor St. John.

The character was conceived as a short-term role; Howarth is credited with "turning what was a day player role into a compelling, long-term character." Initially designed to be a ruthless, cunning and one-dimensional villain, throughout the years Todd has evolved into a complex character, often selfish and acting the villain but also passionate about protecting his loved ones and even showing kindness and a conscience.

During his time in the fictional town of Llanview, Pennsylvania, the character has had much trouble with the law, including the infamous gang rape of Marty Saybrooke. In 1994, it was revealed that he was the son of Victor Lord, and half-brother to longtime One Life to Live heroine Victoria Lord.

He is currently married to longtime love Blair Cramer Manning. They married in September 2007 for the fifth time. Todd and Blair have two living children, Starr and Jack Manning. He has another child, Thomas "Tommy" McBain, also known as Sam Manning. Todd discovered that the kidnapped son he thought had died was in fact alive and being raised by people he knew. In temporary police custody from an assault charge, Todd overpowered an officer and escaped from jail, storming into a courtroom to demand his son be returned to him.

Todd has been the subject of numerous soap opera articles, been alluded to and studied in books, and inspired the creation of a doll in his likeness. He has been called daytime's most popular character, and is considered one of the show's breakout characters.

Character creation

Constructing a villain

Todd Manning was originally intended to be a short-lived role, but notable positive viewer reaction to Howarth's portrayal prompted an expansion of the character, and an increased presence of Todd on the canvas. Michael Malone, the character's creator, discussed fleshing out the villain as being a part of what he loves about soap operas: "the story-telling is a genuine collaboration, not just among writers but by the actors." Malone felt that he could not take all of the credit for the development of the character from Marty Saybrooke's gang rapist to what the character later became, and also pointed to Howarth's impact:

In the creation of Todd Manning, no one played a larger role than the remarkably talented Josh Griffith, first associate head writer, then co-head writer, during my stay at One Life. Josh loved, lived and breathed Todd and fought passionately for his position on the show. Second, Todd never would have evolved from "first frat boy" to the major cast member he became without the powerful talent of Roger Howarth. Because of Roger's ability to convey the complexity of Todd (the hurt as well as anger, the insecurity as well as bluster, the brains, yearning, manipulativeness, sexiness, tenderness, nastiness) we were able to explore both the deeply dark side of this character (the effort to destroy Marty to cover the rape, the attempted revenge on his lawyer Nora, the attack on Luna) and at the same time slowly uncover his growing struggle (usually a failed struggle) towards some kind of redemption. Romantic leads have often begun their careers playing villains (Valentino, Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart among them). These characters appeal because they make women feel both the thrill of the "bad" and the lure of the hidden "good": they can lead the man to change through love. "I'll save him!" Fans loved Todd from the beginning because he always had that appeal. The network was therefore happy to have him return to Llanview whenever Roger would come back, and happy to have him move into story in major ways.

— Michael Malone

In making the character Victoria Lord's younger brother and an heir to the Lord fortune, it was to give the writers quite a large amount of story to work with. They "could lead in with the mystery of the false heir (the David Vickers con-man and his corruption of Tina) and then develop Todd not only as Viki's unwanted sibling (what horror for the good Viki to learn that the bad Todd was her blood), but as her professional rival when he uses a splashy tabloid newspaper to wipe out her venerable Banner."

Makeup

Signature scar and the hair

File:Toddscar.jpg

Todd's scar being applied to Roger Howarth.

To make the character seem even more menacing, a nasty-looking scar was given to his right cheek when Marty's friend, Luna Moody, stopped his second physical attack on Marty by whacking him with a crowbar. The camera would often emphasize this villainous scar, that would later become synonymous with the character.

Independent casting director Howard Meltzer explained that "Todd wears the scar like a badge. It’s a warning to others: Don’t mess with me. But Howarth underplays Todd; he doesn’t mug, he doesn’t rant and he gets a lot more from the raising of an eyebrow than raising the volume of his voice. Most of Todd’s performance is reacting to the environment around him, and thanks to Howarth’s expressiveness, viewers can see the wheels turning."

The hair of Todd was just as integral to the character, and was described to be "enigmatic, with an air of innate authority. The hair shows a lack of pretense, as if he just doesn’t care. Overhanging brow seems threatening, but is more designed to conceal the intense, vulnerable eyes underneath. The pouty, sensual mouth confers a charming, boyish quality. But make no mistake: His caution signals aren’t bravado, if crossed, he can be redoubtable."

Photographer Robert Milazzo noted that the hair was the softening part of the character, as portrayed by Howarth; that "you don’t expect that intensity because of it" and that it made Todd more intriguing.

Music

Todd's theme

Powerfully dark theme music was applied to the Todd Manning character to go along with his volatile nature. Whenever played, the theme served to signal to the viewer that Todd Manning was about to commit a vicious, dangerous, or threatening act. This was especially evident in Roger Howarth's portrayal of the character, though later present in Trevor St. John's early portrayal as well.

The original creator of Todd's theme music, composer David Nichtern, loved Todd and really enjoyed implementing the different versions of the Todd theme. While describing Todd's "return from the dead" music (as Todd's return was a big event at the time) of 1996, Nichtern addressed the broader aspect of his music composition for the character:

All of Todd's music has had a certain 'vibe' to it, especially since the character is so well-drawn. It also has seemed particularly well-suited to my guitar style, so I've enjoyed 'becoming' Todd musically. The key is always to represent his dark side, but with the possibility of redemption and power behind the whole thing. That's what makes him such an interesting character. Todd's cues are always custom-made so to speak, so there is energy and attention going toward getting the exact flavor of what the current story-line is saying about his journey.

— David Nichtern

Concept on redemption

Todd's spiritual journey was crafted as a man who wanted forgiveness for his past misdeeds, but whether or not he felt that he deserved it was a factor that contributed to him feeling unworthy of such, therefore mainly staying set in his dangerous ways. Malone was intrigued by telling this type of character aspect, and felt that it worked even better due to Howarth being an actor who would not let Todd acquire redemption easily.

The most important part of Todd's redemption was to re-confront Marty Saybrooke, the woman he had gangraped. Malone had Todd risk his freedom of prison to instead save Marty from a car crash, even going so far as to donate his own blood to Marty to ensure that she survived the wreck. Todd would later help Marty's lover at the time, Patrick Thornhart, as well. But these good deeds never took away from Todd feeling like a monster for having raped Marty.

Specific writing

In writing storylines to revolve around Todd, the writers of One Life to Live sometimes used names to symbolize good or bad characters. Powell Lord (the III), a character who initially resisted the gang rape of Marty Saybrooke, was set up as "the good" to "Todd's bad" and harbored deep guilt for his part in having physically harmed the woman, acting as a conscience to Todd. A conscience that Todd ignored.

The writing was certain to showcase, for the men who raped Marty, it was not about the sex, about women, or even about Marty. It was rather about what takes place between men and women in the aftermath of rape (especially in the soap opera realm). Powerful archetypes were drawn out, such as the fight between good and evil. And were reminiscent of nineteenth-century melodrama, where critique would be given to "power relations, especially the oppression of the poor by the rich and of women by men."

Todd was "unequivocally bad", displaying no remorse, no charm, and very broody. He was the pure embodiment of evil. Certain plot points were to only further demonstrate this, such as his attempting to rape Marty for a second time, all just "to punish her for 'winning' the trial against him." Though Todd's second attempt to physically harm Marty was thwarted by the woman's close friend, the scuffle between the two in which would leave the character with a scar gracing the right side of his face.

As Todd's popularity with viewers grew, and as a solution not to have to kill off such a monster, executive producer Susan Bedsow Horgan and head writer Michael Malone chose an option that was highly controversial at the time — the decision to complicate their character, ensuring that he was not a one-dimensional rapist. When, after attempting suicide, Powell Lord confessed to raping Marty Saybrooke and was publicly forgiven by Marty herself, Todd was set for revenge when he and fellow rapist Zach received eight-year sentences behind prison as compared to Powell's three months of jail time. Todd made a vow that he would be out of prison in three months as well. To carry out this vow, Todd was written to escape by "drugging himself, waking from a coma to leap from a speeding ambulance, and then reviving himself again by stabbing a knife through his hand while rolling his eyes heavenward and exulting, 'Pain. Pain is good.'" The scary determination of the character had become characteristic of him by then, and with his escape from prison, he set out to attack the woman who had ensured his fate behind bars, his former lawyer, Nora Gannon, who had thrown his case once she discovered that he had indeed raped Marty. Nora was spared from Todd's attack by her then-husband Bo Buchanan showing up before Todd could strike, but the writers had Todd's fury only increase from there, writing him to yet again attempt to rape Marty, another failed attempt. But his vengeance on Marty proved a success when he killed her boyfriend at the time, Suede. The character was then pushed into a storyline where he kidnapped an ingenue named Rebecca Lewis, hid out with her, committed grand theft auto, and was later found by the police and shot in the chest, falling off a bridge "into the freezing river of the far upstate New York."

Steps to early redemption

Upon the character's return, "the team used four techniques drawn from the conventions of Victorian sentimental fiction." To begin with, the audience is informed of Todd's tragically sad childhood, that he had a powerful love for his mother, while understandably harboring a deep hate for his rich, abusive, controlling adoptive father. Next, Todd visiting a church to repent for his past misdeeds and his current disturbing thoughts are implemented. Third, Todd's love for the innocent, very religious virgin, Rebecca Lewis, helps him let her in emotionally, and regularly vocalize his detest for his father. "With her pre-Raphelite curls, 'drooping head,' and inarticulate cries, Rebecca is almost a caricature of Dickens' more sentimental and less felicitious heroines." The scenes between Todd and Rebecca were detailed as heavily iconic, with symbolic representation that consisted of homages to the Virgin, the Mother, and Freud, as the feminization of Todd was present in instances as well. One such feminization point included Todd picking up Rebecca's purse and making a correlation between it and his mother's purse, and then briefly proceeding to use makeup to cover up the scar symbolizing his rough past. The final and crucial addition to Todd's early redemption was his friendship with two children at the time, C.J. and Sarah Roberts. This particular aspect bore "an uncanny (and almost certainly deliberate, given Malone's affection for ninteenth-century literature) resemblance to the monster's narrative in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein." Mary Shelley's monster saves a young girl from drowning, but instead of the incident being seen as heroic, it is misinterpreted as an attack on her. From the hidden shadows, the monster also watches two children living happy lives. In similar comparison, Malone's Todd Manning character rescues the cousin of C.J. and Sarah, Jessica Buchanan (who would later turn out to be his niece), from being manhandled by an older boy. This serves as the start to Todd's road to meeting the two children (also of blood relation to him). Like Shelley's monster, Todd observes the family's moments together from afar, and wishes to be a part of their happy life. He uses his time alone to make toys for the two children. Once they accidentally discover him, he manipulates the children into keeping his whereabouts a secret, relaying to them that he is "a genie on the run from an evil master." And the stories Todd tells them reflect his feelings about his own father.

In the years following, Todd would continue to evolve into an ever-complex character, starting with amends to his former victim, Marty, the next phase of his redemption.

Actors' approach to the character

Roger Howarth

File:Roger Howarth as Todd Manning.jpg

Roger Howarth as Todd Manning.

During an August 1993 interview with magazine Soap Opera Digest, Roger Howarth grimaced as he was read a quote from a previous profile where he stated, "I was happy to get the part of Todd, but it was the furthest thing from the fabric of my personality." Howarth responded to hearing this quote by saying, "What a totally self-involved, pretentious thing to say." He clarified that "when it comes to creating a character for a soap opera, they have to go with an archetype, one that's recognizable. The one they created with Todd is that he's privileged and very rich. My upbringing was not like that at all. Status is really important to the characters I seem to be playing. To me, Roger, I don't think it's that important."

Howarth was constantly being cast as a bad guy when it came to his acting, and he had no idea why, but loved it, deciding that he "would never want to come in now and play a nice guy for three months." The bad-boy persona fit him well. He felt that playing nice would be "dreadfully" boring, but that it was just as easy to portray a bad guy as to portray a good guy. He detailed that the key to understanding the Todd Manning character is Todd's concern for how he is perceived by people. "I don't think Todd's obnoxious," Howarth stated, "and I can't try to play obnoxious. It's so important to him to think he looks good to others. He's able to mistreat people, which in turn pumps him up. He doesn't appear to the world to be vulnerable in any way. His defense mechanisms have spun out of control."

Howarth explained Todd's rape of Marty as being complex: Todd was in love with Marty, is how Howarth saw it. When Marty rejected Todd's romantic advances, it began to upset Todd, and eventually started to fester. Todd failing an exam only added to his frustration because everything "had always come so easy to him." Rather than admitting that he himself was the reason for failing his exam, he blamed Marty; it had to be his tutor's fault. Todd tried to cast all of his problems off on Marty.

In a 1994 interview to the same magazine, Howarth commented on Todd's clothing style (this before Todd would eventually start dressing in suits more) as "all Ralph Lauren. Double R.L.: 80 dollar pants and a 400-and-something-dollar jacket" when it came to the grunge, Salvation Army-like "rags" in which Todd slithered around in. At the time, the clothing was the only thing that Howarth admired about the character, and found it disturbing that people could romantically desire a character that, as he described, is unhealthy: "I don't get it. I don't want to insult anybody, but I don't know why he's attractive." Though the interviewer noted that Howarth's own good looks may have attributed to it, Howarth surmised that, for some reason, skinny white guys were in demand.

Queried on the matter of Todd's future, in a later 1994 interview, Howarth stated that he had no predictions on what was going to happen to the character, but that he would be happy portraying Todd regardless. Howarth did have concerns, however, on the matter of what the writers would do to Todd, and he expressed as much:

I've been lucky because Todd's done a lot of things and he's gotten the chance to show different parts of his personality. He's not one-dimensional. We've covered many things and I'm not sure what's left to do, but I hope they just don't compromise Todd. I just want him to stay the jerk that everyone loves!

— Roger Howarth

Trevor St. John

File:Trevor St. John as Todd, Main.jpg

Trevor St. John as Todd Manning.

In 2003, some time after Roger Howarth left the role of Todd Manning, the character was recast. Actor Trevor St. John stepped into the villainous role. However, it was not yet determined that the character he was portraying onscreen was indeed Todd Manning, until several months later. St. John initially took the role of Walker Laurence, while exhibiting uncanny similarities to that of Todd. Eventually, the audience started to take notice, creating suspicion throughout the soap opera community on just who Walker Laurence was. Magazine TV Guide soon caught on to the matter as well. Wanting to get straight to the question, Delaina Dixon of the magazine bluntly asked St. John if he was Todd. St. John replied, "I don't look anything like Todd." Further pressed on if maybe he is Todd, but with plastic surgery, St. John still did not give anything away, pointing out, "He had a different voice and height." The interviewer noted that anything is possible in the soap opera world. To that, St. John agreed, but informed that the audience would definitively know on August 26, and that they should keep watching.

As suspected, Walker Laurence was eventually revealed to be Todd Manning; Todd had indeed had plastic surgery, though not of his own volition.

Analyzing Todd, St. John felt that it was nice to step into the role and have instant concrete relationships: "There was so much history with Todd. I became a core character. It was grounding. I could look at old scripts and ask people, 'What was your relationship with Todd like?' Whereas with Walker, no one knew." St. John cited that this is what acting is all about — "your relationship to people when you figure out how to play a scene."

On the style of Todd Manning, St. John seemed to focus more on the hair of the character, telling magazine Soap Opera Weekly that he (St. John) wanted to get a haircut. He hoped that the show's writers and producers would let him trim off a little of it, commenting, "It's just not me to be this shaggy. Right now it's OK, because I've made the creative choice that I'm letting myself go because [Todd's] not really right in the old noggin. They asked me to leave it alone until further notice. I even gained a little weight so it looks like I'm not thinking about appearance. But personally, I'd like to be a little cleaner."

Due to Howarth's praise for his portrayal of the character, as well as the length of his portrayal, it became inevitable that viewers and the soap opera media would start to compare St. John's performance as the villain to that of Howarth's, wondering how Howarth might have acted out certain scenes, recited certain lines. To this, St. John made his feelings well-known:

It's like saying that if you play Hamlet, every actor who plays it has to play each line with the same inflection, the same intention. I don't care what the other guy did. That's his time. Those are the characteristics that Todd had simply because he was the only one who played it. As far as I'm concerned, it's just a name and words on a page. What I do after that is up to me. I'm playing it now. I know that sounds very arrogant and overconfident, but it would be no fun to try to mimic somebody.

— Trevor St. John

Impact and criticism

The Todd Manning character made an immediate and significant impact on television and its media, from his rape of Marty Saybrooke, to viewers demanding his stay on the show, to being analyzed in books, as well as being the center of a controversial toy in the character's image.

Manning madness

Roger Howarth's portrayal of Todd Manning launched Todd into legendary status, and earned him a Daytime Emmy Award for the role. At the height of Todd's popularity, there were female viewers expressing ardent desire for the fictional rapist in such a way that it unnerved the actor. Howarth leaving the show only served to pre-occupy fans even more with their love for the villain, and his returns were met with much anticipation and hype, one such return being the character coming back in 2000 for his love at the time, Téa Delgado.

Soap Opera Magazine felt that Howarth's face greatly attributed to the character's success, as they listed him in their February 24 1998 article Daytime's Most Fascinating Faces:

Although the scar that traverses his face while he plays Llanview’s dark prince isn’t real, the menacing intensity that Roger Howarth can so effortlessly convey with his eyes and furrowed brow are frighteningly authentic.

Howarth's acclaim as Todd continued throughout his entire tenure on the show.

Controversy

Though the rape storyline of Marty Saybrooke received praise, it was also met with criticism, with points being made that it polarized the gap between rapists and the raped. And that the show "also departs from the rape paradigm by not only insisting the essential "'goodness' of Powell Lord," which didn't sit well with many viewers, considering that he did rape her, "but 'for a crime in which peer pressure made me do it' is hardly an adequate (or even physiologically possible) excuse, but even more startlingly by redeeming the evil Todd."

In a June 1994 interview with TV Guide, Michael Malone described the pattern of rapists redeemed as "the bond between the woman and violator is a great historical tradition in fiction and films...Rudolph Valentino, Humphrey Bogart, Kirk Douglas, and Clark Gable all began as totally irredeemable villains... You certainly don't want to say that these women want to be raped or that they are drawn to violence, because that's not true. But they are responding to the intensity of passion and an actor who lets you inside the torment. Some [women] believe they can be swept up in that passion and still turn it good. They think, 'With me, he'd be different.'" To this, the publisher of the article, Michael Logan, created controversy when he commented on Malone's analysis by stating that "there is a large contingent of American female soap viewers who find something very attractive about rapists."

The actual female viewers who were aware of Logan's rape comment were infuriated by it. A woman from her r.a.t.s group criticized this argument of Logan's, elaborating that she did not like Todd because he is a rapist; but that she liked Todd because of Roger Howarth's performances as the character.

Merchandising

ABC executives saw their main bad-guy, Todd, as a great idea to market in the form of a toy. In 2002, they finally acted on this notion, releasing a rag doll into their store based on the character, but were thwarted by a backlash. As did other news outlets, on May 6 2002, The Stranger, self-titled as Seattle's only newspaper, gave insight into the matter of what went wrong:

Today the Associated Press reported on the messy merchandising mishap currently making waves at ABC. At the center of the mini-snafu is Todd Manning, a fictional character on ABC's never-say-die soap opera One Life To Live, portrayed by actor Roger Howarth. So popular was the recurring character that ABC execs licensed and produced a collectible Todd Manning doll, selling the daytime-TV action figure through the network's online store for $19.95. But after only a few days, the Manning doll was unceremoniously yanked from the ABC site, with marketing execs citing Todd Manning's "unsavory past" as the reason for the about-face. For those out of the soap opera loop, Manning's unsavory past includes one attempted murder and two attempted rapes, the latter of which left him with a menacing scar down his right cheek--a flaw lovingly reproduced on the Manning doll. "We didn't exercise proper sensitivity to the history of the character of Todd," said Sally Schoneboom, vice president of media and talent relations. "We have reevaluated and decided not to sell the doll."

The uproar started when The Jack Myers Report harshly criticized the network's judgment on creating and releasing the doll.

Bob Tedeschi of The New York Times stated, "In the charge toward e-commerce revenues, ABC learned a useful lesson last week: Don't try to sell cuddly rag dolls depicting homicidal rapists."

Recast

Some time after Howarth left the show in 2003, and Todd Manning was recast later that same year, controversy ensued again, with a large outcry from fans who felt that Todd Manning is a character that should never be recast, voicing that Howarth would always be the only Todd to them.

However, Trevor St. John, the character's recast, managed to win over his share of fans by integrating his own spin on the character. A spin which resulted in positive response from viewers who had come to accept St. John's portrayal. Eventually, the soap opera media took notice as well.

Soap opera columnist Jill Berry professed her love for the new spin in her weekly commentary:

Trevor's Todd continues to impress me. He has given some sweetness to Todd that I find totally appealing.

See also

• Todd Manning and Blair Cramer

Further reading

• Jennifer Hayward (1997). Consuming Pleasures: Active Audiences and Serial Fictions from Dickens to ... University Press of Kentucky. p. 232. ISBN 081312025X. {{cite book}}: External link in |title= (help)

• Martha Fineman, Martha T. McCluskey (1997). Feminism, Media, and the Law. Oxford University Press US. p. 336. ISBN 0195096290. {{cite book}}: External link in |title= (help)

External links

• Character bios: Todd Manning - ABC.com
• Who's Who in Llanview: Todd Manning - SoapCentral.com