December may bring the first signs of the winter season, but as the month begins things will be heating up on “One Life to Live” when several familiar faces return to the canvas as the show’s ABC run prepares to come to an end.

Art imitates life as “One Life to Live” does what it does best by poking fun at itself for an upcoming storyline. Beginning next month, the show’s once popular soap-within-a-soap, “Fraternity Row,” gets canceled due to sagging ratings, leading one loyal Llanview fan to take drastic action to save her soap. The plot mirrors “OLTL’s” own predicament, having been dumped by ABC earlier this year.

With only one week left to go until production on its ABC Daytime run is finished, the list of former “One Life to Live” cast members returning to Llanview continues to grow.

Prospect Park executives Jeff Kwatinetz and Rich Frank have confirmed to Soap Opera Network that the production company has signed “One Life to Live” cast members Tuc Watkins (David), Josh Kelly (Cutter), Florencia Lozano (Tea), and Shenell Edmonds (Destiny) for the online version of the ABC soap pending final Guild agreements.

Tuc Watkins returns to “One Life to Live” once again as David Vickers Buchanan, becoming the latest in a series of former cast members returning to the show before it leaves ABC Daytime.

It’s official! Another fan favorite is on her way back to “One Life to Live.” In a message on her Facebook page, Tonja Walker not only confirms that she will be reprising her role of Alex Olanov, but also reveals a few of the characters she will be mingling with when she returns later this fall.

For the second time this year, comedienne Chelsea Handler singles out the recently canceled ABC soap saying that “‘One Life to Live’ is one of the soaps that is headed to an early grave and, unlike many of its characters, it won’t be able to come back as its separated at birth evil, retarded twin.” And while the joke was an obvious reference to the “Tale of Two Todd’s” storyline, it wasn’t the only current plot on the soap targeted by Handler on her E! show “Chelsea Lately.”

You’ve likely heard of the big September returns like Erin Torpey, Andrea Evans and John Loprieno, but they aren’t the only familiar faces coming back to “One Life to Live” in the coming weeks. A few other minor, but noteworthy characters will also be making appearances as summer turns into fall.

Yesterday, we reported that Barret Helms was out as Baz on ABC’s “One Life to Live,” now we can also confirm that Nafessa Williams is also out as Deanne Forbes on the drama series.

“One Life to Live” fans hoping to catch another glimpse of some of their favorite recurring characters before the show wraps production on its TV run in November, can now breath a collective sigh of relief. In the coming weeks, several of Llanview’s “seen, but not heard” characters will be appearing in upcoming episodes.

On “One Life to Live” Shenell Edmonds plays Destiny Evans, a teenager who is seventeen and pregnant. That alone would be enough to scare the average teenager. But it is even worse for Destiny, considering she is estranged from her grandparents, her father is in jail, and her boyfriend recovering from severe brain injuries in a special treatment center hours away. Next month, the frightened young mother-to-be weighs her options, and has her world turned upside down yet again, thanks to forces (and people) beyond her control.

As we previously reported, Robin Strasser (Dorian) is leaving “One Life to Live” before the show wraps up on its television run on ABC due to reports that she was contemplating having back surgery. Having taped her last scenes on Friday, June 24, we now know when Llanview’s grand dame will make her final appearance on the show.