1987 Heaven
Viki in Heaven — 1987
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Viki and Clint’s marriage was in trouble when Viki encountered Tom Dennison, the identical twin of her late husband, Joe Riley. The shock caused Viki to lose eight years of her memory, and she became convinced that Tom was actually Joe. Soon afterward, doctors discovered that Viki had a life-threatening brain aneurysm requiring immediate surgery.
During the operation, Viki left her body and found herself accompanied by Virgil, a mysterious guide who helped her understand that she was caught between life and death. Finding herself in this strange new world, Viki observed, “I’ve got a feeling we’re no longer in Kansas.”
Viki was reunited with people from throughout her life, including her parents, Victor and Eugenia Lord; her sister Meredith; her half-brother Tony; Irene Manning; Samantha Vernon; Harry O’Neill; Vinnie Wolek; and her beloved late husband, Joe Riley. The extraordinary storyline brought a number of former One Life to Live performers back to the show.
But Viki’s journey was not simply a joyful reunion. She confronted painful and frightening parts of her past as well, including her alter ego Niki Smith and figures such as Tracy James and Stick. Dr. Marcus Polk, Viki’s longtime psychiatrist whom Tracy had murdered, was also among the familiar faces from her past. Tracy and Stick themselves had died after Tracy’s bomb exploded.
Most importantly, Virgil forced Viki to confront what would happen to the people she loved if she did not return to them. Viki saw a future without her and realized how profoundly her absence would affect her family. Faced with remaining with those she had already lost—including Joe—or fighting her way back to Clint, her children and her life in Llanview, Viki chose life.
After making that choice, Viki returned to her body, survived the surgery and began her recovery. Her remarkable journey ended with Viki reunited with Clint and given another chance at the life she had nearly left behind.
Soap Opera Weekly named “Viki in Heaven” one of its 100 Most Memorable Moments (September 30, 1997). The Paley Center for Media preserves the March 24, 1987 episode in its collection under the title “Viki in Heaven.”
Comments From Erika:
It was beautiful, it was fun, I got to talk to everybody and see all these wonderful friends who had ‘left the show.’ And I was comfortable the whole time—I wore flat shoes and white chiffon. I always said, ‘I hope when I die, that’s how I go—in white ballet flats and white chiffon with my hair neatly combed and almost no makeup on.’”
Viki’s out-of-body experience brought back deceased characters from the show and was an enormous production that kept the cast and crew working long hours. Erika remembered that viewers loved it.
Erika recalled receiving an extraordinary reaction from viewers, including people who stopped her and told her that the story had made them feel better about dying because it presented another possibility of what might happen after death. She also remembered Heaven as one of her most challenging assignments—and one of the most rewarding—saying she loved every second of it.
From the Archives: Read the 1987 “Heavenly Experience” newspaper clipping about Viki's journey to Heaven. In the June–August 1987 issue of Erika's World, Erika answers fans' questions about filming the storyline in Ask Erika.
John Fiedler on Working with Erika
“Erika is first a most outstanding human being and a truly gifted actress. She was so easy and fun to work with in the heaven section especially. It's been a joy to know her and act with her.”
— John Fiedler, who portrayed Virgil, Viki's guide through Heaven. Interviewed by Kit Swanson for Erika's World, September–November 1987.
