Out there in Middle America, where the rate of addiction to soap opera is high, viewers of ABC's "One Life to Live" … have been getting regular five-minute doses of unrehearsed, spontaneous confrontations between real-life former dope addicts and the actress who plays Cathy Craig, "One Life"'s troubled teen-ager….

When Amy Levitt, who acts Cathy, began to interact with the ex-addicts the cameras turned, the resulting talk was much gutsier than the written dialogue usually heard on daytime TV….

Mrs. Agnes Nixon, writer of "One Life" …, claims that this is the first time a soap has blended fact with fiction. Since the start of the Odyssey House episodes, heart-rending letters have been pouring into ABC by the hundreds….

As a result of such responses, Mrs. Nixon is now planning to have a mockup of an Odyssey House storefront rehabilitation center built in the "One Life" studio. Instead of...