[dmarex]

"Loving," a soap opera created by Agnes Nixon & Douglas Marland in 1983, aired for 12 long years on ABC,
but never was a success on daytime. The show premiered as a TV movie on primetime, and during it's early years,
it centered around the blue-collar Donovans and the blue-blood Aldens. The stories revolved around alcoholism,
post-traumatic stress syndrome, murders, and all storylines known to the world of soap operas.

In 1995, ABC no longer wanted to keep "Loving" on it's schedule. The ratings kept falling. Yet, ABC didn't want to
just make it disappear, so they asked the head writers to write a storyline which could allow some of the character
to return in a spin-off called "The City." Relocated from the fictional town of Corinth, Pennsylvania to the trendy SoHo
neighborhood of New York, the residents all lived and worked together in a single building. This building became the
new setting for the series and housed a bar, a medical clinic, an ad agency, several residential lofts and a penthouse.

Unfortunately, none of these changes were enough to ensure the success of the series. After initial viewer curiosity wore off,
the show began to post lower ratings than its predecessor Loving. Then, in October 1996, the series star Morgan Fairchild
departed the show after her one-year contract expired. In a last ditch effort to keep the show alive, the show transplanted the
popular General Hospital character, Tracy Quartermaine to replace Fairchild as the show's lead villainess. However, ratings
did not improve and the show was canceled after less than a year and a half.

[SFK]

My biggest memory of Loving is the dynamo performance from Christine Tudor.

Christine Tudor was great, she definitely should have played someone's mother on one of the other ABC soaps by now.

[juniorz1]

Christine Tudor was phenom as Gwen on Loving. I also remember her being recast for a period of time with a red head and she was actually quite good as well. Anyone remember her name?

[CarlD2]

Was she Elizabeth Savage?

http://imdb.com/name...292/maindetails

[SFK]

That is so funny, I mentioned "the other Gwyn" in my orignal post before my computer screwed up and I had to retype it. She was taller and thinner, had long red hair. She was good from what I remember, she was a sexier Gwyn. She had a seductive, mellifluous voice. Kind of reminds me of how Anita Morris replaced Bette Midler in the Down and Out in Beverly Hills sitcom. Or for a soap example, I guess she was the Elaine Princi to Tudor's Robin Strasser? Capable and perfectly watchable/passable, just not "the real deal." This was long before I was familiar with the term, but she was sort of "pod Gwyn" to me.

[juniorz1]

It was definitely Elizabeth Savage- I had remembered her last name started with an S. And while I loved me some Tudor-Newman, Savage's Gwyn was just as fierce. I didn't consider her a pod at all.

[Dr Neil Curtis]

Where there ever Crossovers between Loving and OLTL or Loving and GH. I never got the chance to see Loving, but i seen some of the Tracy Quartermaine episodes of The City. I never Loving was popular, since it didn't last very long.

[SFK]

Where there ever Crossovers between Loving and OLTL or Loving and GH. I never got the chance to see Loving, but i seen some of the Tracy Quartermaine episodes of The City. I never Loving was popular, since it didn't last very long.

Yes! Jeremy, Ceara, Angie, Frankie, Pat, Jesse lookalike Jacob all came to Loving in contract roles (except for Pat). There was an AMC crossover with Dinah Lee and Hannah, Myrtle came to Loving too. Joey Buchanan on OLTL once mentioned Corinth, but I don't believe there were any Loving/OLTL crossovers until Loving became The City and Alex worked with Bo. Another The City/AMC crossover was when Jackson Montgomery would visit, he had a flirtation/history with Sydney.

This post has been edited by SFK: 28 January 2009 - 04:34 PM

[CarlD2]

What role did Myrtle have on Loving?

Cesar Faison appeared on Loving several years after being "killed" on GH. He kidnapped Ava and I think they went to Disneyworld or something.

[Dr Neil Curtis]

What role did Myrtle have on Loving?

Cesar Faison appeared on Loving several years after being "killed" on GH. He kidnapped Ava and I think they went to Disneyworld or something.

Myrtle knew Dinah Lee's family or something like that, it was during that Carter Jones stuff. I never knew facison came to Corinth. They should mention Corinth now and then on both soaps or have someone from Corinth show up on one of the soaps.

[Paul Raven]

Elizabeth Savage played Lynx(!)on GH after her Loving stint.Then pretty much disappeared from view.

[SFK]

A few years ago, I had the idea for a fan fiction about the messed up emo kids growing up under the shadow of the serial murders in Corinth ("Children of the Corrinth"-silly working title ) It would be a nice touch if Corinth got a mention every now and then, or if a new character/family was from there.

[Eric200]

Yes! Jeremy, Ceara, Angie, Frankie, Pat, Jesse lookalike Jacob all came to Loving in contract roles (except for Pat). There was an AMC crossover with Dinah Lee and Hannah, Myrtle came to Loving too. Joey Buchanan on OLTL once mentioned Corinth, but I don't believe there were any Loving/OLTL crossovers until Loving became The City and Alex worked with Bo. Another The City/AMC crossover was when Jackson Montgomery would visit, he had a flirtation/history with Sydney.

Did Alex go on OLTL to work with Bo or did Bo show up on the City?I always thought on GH that AZ should know of Tracy Quatermaine since she was married to a big NYC mob guy.

[SFK]

Did Alex go on OLTL to work with Bo or did Bo show up on the City?

It happened on OLTL, but Bo went to NY to team up with Alex. It was kinda funny b/c when Bo got to NY, the OLTL camera guys did all of these herky jerky establishing shots over cheesy "funky" music to let us know that we were in "The City".

[Eric200]

It happened on OLTL, but Bo went to NY to team up with Alex. It was kinda funny b/c when Bo got to NY, the OLTL camera guys did all of these herky jerky establishing shots over cheesy "funky" music to let us know that we were in "The City".

Lol that rules. It is funny how the City was the lowest rated show but looking back the way it was filmed looks way better than any 2009 ABC soap.

[Paul Raven]

From SOD

New Kids On The Block
LOVING’s Boys And Girls Of Summer Are Pumping The Show Full Of Young Blood
By Jennifer Woodhouse

You've read in these pages about LOVING's nationwide search to find new young talent. The hunt is over — now's your chance to judge the results. These fresh faces will be on LOVING's front burner all summer in stories that take the show, according to Executive Producer Fran Sears, "back to basics. We're going back to Alden University, which was so much a part of the show's beginnings."


Not that the kids are flying solo, without benefit of family ties. According to Head Writer Addie Walsh, "We're connecting them strongly to their families; we're not just isolating them." Cooper is an Alden, Casey is Gift's son and Hannah is Dinah Lee's little sister. The writers are using these relationships, as well as the fraternity/sorority setting, as springboards for the new characters.

The summer storylines revolve around Cooper Alden, their "wild card," according to Walsh. A traumatic incident lurks in rebellious Cooper's background. "We're building a classic quadrangle around him," reveals Walsh. Watch for action between Cooper, Hannah, Ally and Staige, with Kent acting as spoiler.

Ally Rescott, an outsider to Corinth society, will learn the hard way that social climbing rarely pays. She is the first to attract Cooper. But Cooper is drawn to the sweet, innocent Hannah Mayberry, to whom he will open up like never before. "Hannah is the person who perceives the troubled soul in Cooper," says Walsh. "And that will be a major plot point."


Meanwhile, Kent and Staige, AU's "face man" and "star girl" (terms the writers discovered when interviewing students about the Greek system), are out to cause nothing but trouble for Cooper. Nasty, nouveauriche Kent loathes the young Alden, and superficial Staige, Kent's girlfriend, wants Cooper — but only because he's an Alden. "Kent feels very threatened by Cooper coming onto his turf, which will result in physical and emotional injury for the young men," says Walsh.

Casey Bowman, Giff Bowman's son, will act as a sobering force on the scene. "He finds himself in the position of a child raising a parent, which has matured him faster in some ways, but he lost some of his childhood. He is the wiser one of our kids. He's going to have a very strong effect on Ally, and there will be a chemistry between him and Ally that both of them will deny. They're like oil and water, but the oil and water might do a little mixing," Walsh hints.

[dc11786]

Funny, neither Sears nor Walsh lasted long enough to see this fully happen. Sears was out by May, replaced by Haidee Granger, and Walsh left shortly after in conflict with Granger, who took over as defacto headwriter until hiring Taggert and Guza in the fall. The summer was a mess as a result. I do have to wonder though what Sears and Walsh would have done. I suspect the show would have been a bit more rooted in its history with the younger set and the return of Curtis Alden.

[CarlD2]

Guza wrote for Loving? Did he suck there too?

Laura Wright, Michael Weatherly, and Paul Anthony Stewart are all such charismatic performers (and Laura Wright had such an earnestness back then and in her early years as Cassie on GL), most soaps would have been lucky to have found even one of them, much less three at the same time.

[YurSoakinginit]

Elizabeth Savage played Lynx(!)on GH after her Loving stint.Then pretty much disappeared from view.

I'm pretty sure it was the other way around. She was in the ABC fold on GH, and tapped to play Loving's Gwyneth when Christine Tudor left. (There was a very brief, temporary replacement in between... just a few episodes.) Savage was in fact several years younger than Tudor, but seemed to be well-suited to play older. I thought she was a good recast... entertaining in the role; sort of elevating the campy side of Gwyn. But she lacked Tudor's emotional depth.

After Loving, she got a gig hosting a lifestyle show on Lifetime - sort of new version of "Attitudes," the show Linda Dano had co-hosted. I remember Anthony Herrera (Loving's Dane; ATWT's James Stenbeck) was a guest and I caught his episode. It appeared that he and Savage had remained friends for some period after her Loving exit (replaced by her predecessor).

[YurSoakinginit]

That is so funny, I mentioned "the other Gwyn" in my orignal post before my computer screwed up and I had to retype it. She was taller and thinner, had long red hair... for a soap example, I guess she was the Elaine Princi to Tudor's Robin Strasser? Capable and perfectly watchable/passable, just not "the real deal." This was long before I was familiar with the term, but she was sort of "pod Gwyn" to me.

I always thought Savage was a bit shorter than Tudor... and no thinner unless we're counting CT's weight gain that occurred after her return to the show. I liked her... I didn't think of her as a pod, though.

That said, I wouldn't compare her to Elaine Princi. I really felt Princi was a deeper actress than Strasser. She was far less of an over-the-top, shrieking scenery chewer... I felt Princi's Dorian was more of a threat to her rivals, and was able to convey more internalized pain... her motivations were more palpable. I guess to many, she wasn't as entertaining as Strasser. But I liked that she gave Dorian depth that I had not seen previously. (Think the story of Addie's abuse and Dorian revealing her scars to Blair.) A longer-time viewer once told me that Princi was sort of mix of Nancy Pinkerton's Dorian and Strasser's.

So I was totally taken aback when she was fired in favor of Strasser. And when Strasser came back, it was jarring for me and I, for a long time, felt she was a let down... back to scenery chewing, hairbrained scheming... the writing at that time definitely didn't serve her. That wasn't rectified until years later, when Claire Labine took over and introduced a new chapter in the childhood abuse story that Princi had played.

[SFK]

I always thought Savage was a bit shorter than Tudor... and no thinner unless we're counting CT's weight gain that occurred after her return to the show. I liked her... I didn't think of her as a pod, though.

That said, I wouldn't compare her to Elaine Princi. I really felt Princi was a deeper actress than Strasser. She was far less of an over-the-top, shrieking scenery chewer... I felt Princi's Dorian was more of a threat to her rivals, and was able to convey more internalized pain... her motivations were more palpable. I guess to many, she wasn't as entertaining as Strasser. But I liked that she gave Dorian depth that I had not seen previously. (Think the story of Addie's abuse and Dorian revealing her scars to Blair.) A longer-time viewer once told me that Princi was sort of mix of Nancy Pinkerton's Dorian and Strasser's.

So I was totally taken aback when she was fired in favor of Strasser. And when Strasser came back, it was jarring for me and I, for a long time, felt she was a let down... back to scenery chewing, hairbrained scheming... the writing at that time definitely didn't serve her. That wasn't rectified until years later, when Claire Labine took over and introduced a new chapter in the childhood abuse story that Princi had played.

"Pod" isn't the right term. I suppose Joanne Dorian's Viki or Margie Impert's Rachel were "pods", lookalikes hired in hopes of cloning the original's magic, the whole thing's a bust when TIIC realize they're dealing with unique human beings. I only meant to draw the Elaine/Elizabeth comparison in terms of good, capable, perfectly acceptable actresses playing the show's "diva" character and being replaced by their own predecessors. Maybe it's the memories of a then young mind, but Gwyn #2 always seemed taller, maybe it was the long hair. Tudor was indeed svelte, but Savage seemed longer-limbed to me. Who knows, maybe it's just my imagination. But there was something very feline, slinky about her, whereas CT was sexual, but on the brittle side, like Ann... I won't go so far as to say we're talking Mary Fickett/Lee Meriwether here, but it can take a little getting used to when a character changes not just physically, but their whole vibe as a human seems to change what you believe motivates them, screws with what you believe they would or would not do.

We need some eps on YouTube! I have the desire to compare all these yeas later.

This post has been edited by SFK: 10 February 2009 - 04:26 AM