Sam Hall Eulogized in Son Matt Hall's Blog, Tells Interesting 'One Life to Live' Story

Former Dark Shadows and One Life to Live writer Sam Hall died on Friday, September 26. He was 93. On October 4, his son Matt Hall, took to his blog to eulogize his late father.

Matt shared an interesting story about his time at One Life to Live while Sam was the head writer.

"One quick story—after college, for a period of about a year, I worked at One Life to Live during my father's tenure as head writer," Sam explained. "The team had collaborated on a six-month arc of story, and submitted it to the network, as was standard. The head of daytime—still and yet, my favorite job title ever—had rejected it, as was also standard. Sam and I—just the two of us— came in on a Saturday to build a new story to submit that Monday. We sat across from each other at a desk, spent fifteen minutes discussing what the network hadn’t liked, and then stared at our yellow legal pads, trying to think up solutions."

"After about five minutes, Sam began to write. And once he started he did not stop—he filled up a legal pad page, flipped it over and kept on, pages and pages of finely wrought story that took the characters into utterly new situations and emotional places that simply hadn’t existed when we walked into the room. After about 15 minutes, I had a pokey little idea, and then another, and then I began to write as well. By the end of the afternoon he had solved the problem, and had even incorporated a couple of my ideas into the thread of story, suitably transmogrified, as necessary. Mostly, though, I had sat there and watched, in awe."

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* Sam Hall Dead at 93

Sam Hall Dead at 93

Writer Sam Hall died on Friday at age 93.

Former Dark Shadows and One Life to Live writer Sam Hall died on Friday, September 26. He was 93.

Allison Samuel Hall was born on March 11, 1921, in Carrollton, Ohio, and graduated from Dartmouth and Yale. A veteran of the World War II Battle of the Bulge, "Sam" was married to actress Grayson Hall in 1952.

Sam was a playwright who had spent several years working on the CBS daytime drama The Brighter Day. He was not really interested in accepting another TV job but the family had been struggling for a while, and Sam was considering moving back to Ohio to work at his father’s rubber gloves factory. Then Grayson got a short-term acting role on ABC's afternoon soap opera Dark Shadows, which turned into a long-term gig, and that kept them in New York. So when creator Dan Curtis said he needed a new writer to replace Malcolm Marmorstein, Sam said he would give it a try. The series became a cult classic and won the devotion of a loyal fanbase that would continue to follow the characters in novels, comic books, movies, audio stories, a primetime television revival and more. Dark Shadows featured the traditional themes of love and family during its five-year run (1966-1971), but mixed in were werewolves, zombies, man-made monsters, witches, warlocks, time travel, and even a parallel universe.