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Forever8
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Posts posted by Forever8
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1 hour ago, dragonflies said:
Annika's Hope is too "Little House the Prairie" in comparison to Kim's Hope. KM's Hope was so much better
I think Annika is a decent actress, but I still do miss Kim Matula's Hope because it seemed, especially in the last year or two, that when she was on screen, Hope had become stronger in terms of personality, which seemed more Kim's input than the writing suggested. I still remember when she took that golf club through Bill's house.
Though when it comes to Annika, it seems like when she came back, she all of a sudden became this "bohemian heroine," which Hope wasn't before. Not to mention they make Hope sound overly passive at times; she should be firm when it comes to Liam and Thomas, not to mention Steffy. Though I believe that is a problem with the writing rather than the acting.
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Since 1994 has been a topic of discussion here's a news segment on behind the scenes.
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15 minutes ago, soapfan770 said:
I had forgotten all about that. Hopefully, Josh don't do singular character focused episodes ever again.
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In a way I wish they would've kept Esme in the young adult scene having her come in between Cam and Josslyn instead of what we have now.
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Thanks so much @DRW50it never hurts to see more Loving online.
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Someone has uploaded Melrose Place promos from Season 1 to 7.
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21 hours ago, Liberty City said:
Selina Wu can't get a damn set... but Josslyn got her dorm room? It's a cute set... but let's upgrade Ms. Selina Wu!
I wanted it revealed that Rory was Selina's son who had decided to get involved with law enforcement because he wanted to rebel against his mother and his family's criminal activities. But it seems Rory is just a dull placeholder until Spencer and Trina get together.
11 hours ago, AbcNbc247 said:Mo’s creepy son really needs to get lost.
Why is Carly the one being the voice of reason for Liz? I liked their scenes but Carly doesn’t need to be in Liz’s story.
And as always, I live for Sprina scenes. The only complaint I have is that these scenes and others like them needed to happen a few months ago.
I'm like, what's the point of Mo's son still being on this show? Is he attempting to obtain his equity card?
I felt like Carly didn't have to be in this episode. It should've been Laura or even Bobbie discussing Jeff and Carolyn with Liz since both of them actually knew Jeff. And both are well aware of Liz's difficulties as a result of having her parents MIA in her life for the past 25 years.
They need to take advantage of Sprina more before Nicholas Chavez moves onto greener pastures by 2024. I'm assuming that they're waiting for Trina to find out whether or not Curtis is her father at the wedding. If that's the case, I'd like Spencer and Trina to go on the run somewhere, come to terms with their feelings for each other, and end up kissing even more if possible.
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3 hours ago, dc11786 said:
@slick jonesThanks!
@Forever8I was unaware that Richard Dean Anderson and Sela Ward were once involved. It's just an odd choice to constantly feature Hilary's bedroom as a central meeting place for story. Hilary and Simon are great. When Patrick O'Neal was playing Harlan, they were a great family unit. I even like Jill St. John as Deanna trying to squirm her way in as the next Mrs. Harlan Adams. I feel almost nothing for Robert Vaughn's Harlan.
@SoaploversI have to agree with your mom for the most part. There is setup for something interesting, but it's never truly achieved. I'm rounding the bend to the final stretch of seven episodes and seems like things are slowly changing for the better. The espionage stuff is mostly now set in Adams Industries and the Navy is being downplayed, which I think it smart. Alexi's attempts at defection give Alexi and Leslie something very tangible to play with some very real ramifications. The 180 degree turn of Andrew Stevens' Glenn Matthews from sap to low level powerplay is very right field, but it sorta works (or I sorta want it to work?). David Marquette is around trying to romance Maggie and that seems to give Thomas a real challenge that wasn't being provided by Harlan.
The one thing I do struggle with is the relationships between characters are not as well developed as it should be nor the individual characterization. I love Deanna and Celia, but it would be interesting to see Deanna with the other girls or even more with Thomas. So much of Deanna seems underplayed. Her season long divorce has played entirely offscreen and why she had to be a Naval wife I'm still not sure. Harlan and Tom's relationship seems to be friendly adversaries, but I wish that piece was played more. I also don't know what makes Kay Mallory tick and was pretty shocked when she announced at some point she was a teacher around episode 7 or so (maybe it was mentioned earlier and I missed the reference).
I've paused on "Emerald Point" for a bit to watch some of "Central Park West."
Can't wait to read your summaries on Central Park West.
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18 hours ago, janea4old said:
who is this?
Good question? Is she going to be Jada's sister?
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On 11/7/2022 at 10:13 PM, dc11786 said:
After "Flamingo Road," I've been trying to make my way through "Emerald Point, N.A.S." I want to like it more than I actually like it. Some of the setup is clearly a retread of "Dynasty."
Susan Dey's Celia is a a combination of Steven and Fallon Carrington. Of the three Mallory daughters, Celia is the most intriguing, but Susan Dey isn't bringing the edge to the character that is written and it falls flat. In her defense, some of the sequences are beyond bizarre, a drunken Celia playing hide and seek between cars with Richard Dean Anderson's very unamused Simon Adams is a sight to see. Though, I do find Anderson and Dey have passable enough chemistry that makes them rootable, and Celia's main central conflict, that the Navy has been a dominating force that has controlled every aspect of her life, gives us the foundation of an intriguing triangle between Celia and Simon (a test pilot instructor) and her husband, Jack Warren (a JAG attorney). In the pilot, Celia is frustrated as she is unexpectedly pregnant and refuses to bare another generation of Mallory naval officers. She threatens to abort the baby if Jack doesn't leave the Navy. Jack initially considers work from Harlan Adams, Simon's industrialist father who's company has many government contracts and has a significant airplane manufacturing division, however, a court case leaves him staying in the Navy.
Celia is an alcoholic. She ends up having a miscarriage leaving Jack with lingering doubts what role Celia's drinking played in the loss of their child. Celia is done. She and Jack's marriage deteriorates further and further and Celia decides to break free and start with Simon. Just as she is doing so, Jack decides he will leave the Navy, which may, or may not, have Celia back in his arms.
The central older set is strong, at first. Maud Adams' character Maggie Farrell is a civilian with an MIA POW husband who she is convinced is still out there. This prevents her from getting to romantically inclined with the widowed Thomas Mallory. Dennis Weaver doesn't bring the sense of domineering stoicism that John Forsythe seems to better embody in Blake Carrington, but both men are built from the same mold.
I'm trying to enjoy Deanna played by Jill St. John (who looks like Brenda Vaccaro's more glamorous sister to me. Julia Blake would definitely be calling up Deanna if they were related). Deanna initially seems to have a bit of thing for Blake and seems to be the Alexis of the group accept she pops up in episode four rather than waiting a full season. Deanna as a former Navy wife doesn't really work for me, but I am assuming they wanted her to have a familiarity with the whole system. I think I would have gone another route and had Deanna's son be a Naval officer who had been killed in the line of duty. Possibly in a drill like the one that Simon Adams criticized in the pilot (an element of Simon's character that I found intriguing but seems to have been squashed). Deanna trying to worm her way into the Adams family with Patrick O'Neil as Harlan was fun. I'm only an episode into Robert Vaughn and Harlan already feels less larger than life and more like a poor man's version of Cecil Colby.
The Russian plotline is very cringey, but I am sure fit the culture of the time. Michael Carven slips in and out of the accent in a scene with Simon. I am never sure what the point of the Simon - Alexi rivalry is. Is Simon suppose to also care for Leslie Mallory? Is this just an embodiment of the American-Russian conflict? Or is Simon just jealous that Leslie is monopolizing Alexi's time and wants his own Russian invasion? Who knows at this point, and most of the time I don't really care. I can't even remember what is the purpose of Thomas Mallory entertaining Robert Loggia's character. The latest twist involving Deanna in the Russian plot is preposterous, which is a shame because Deanna was making interesting gains in the Adams household when she bought Hilary's blackmail tape.
Sela Ward's Hilary is fun. The decision to have most of her scenes with Richard Dean Anderson's Simon, her half-brother, in her bedroom is an odd choice that definitely places an odd level of sexuality between the siblings. Besides the possible incest, Hilary is the most engaging of the younger female characters even though she remains one of the flattest in the early episodes. The way she manipulates her bestie Kay Mallory is the most interesting Kay has been in those early episodes. Hilary going after Glenn after he marries Kay while in the Caribbean bar dancing with other men to "Sweet Dreams" is a fun sequence. Almost as fun as Celia flirting with John Bennett Perry (does Dinah Caswell know what Michael is up to?) to The Police's "Every Breath You Take."
I have little nice to say about Kay or Leslie. Leslie as the female naval member is intriguing but she is too deep into the Russian story. Kay the school teacher is too saccharine for my taste. The hinted at dynamic between the sisters is intriguing but they can't seem to stick the landing on what that dynamic is actually going to be.
I almost wish this got a second season because I see the foundation of a really interesting show.
@dc11786I don't know if you know this or not, but Sela Ward and Richard Dean Anderson were together for years that's why it's probably the feel of incest between the characters.
Someone uploaded the pilot episode of the short-lived Cane that aired on CBS in 2007 starring Jimmy Smits, Nestor Carbonell, Hector Elizondo and Rita Moreno.
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52 minutes ago, NothinButAttitude said:
I am going to be emotional watching this one. Kathy Hays/Kim was one of my favorite daytime dames. She exuded the energy that reminded me so much of my grandmother--loveable yet no nonsense. It was be the icing on the cake if Alan was to pop a surprise in there in the form of Julianne Moore. I know that won't happen, but if it did, I wouldn't be surprised as Julianne is such a class act and clearly had love for Kathy.
I would also love a surprise visit from Scott DeFreitas too.
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1 hour ago, SteelCity said:
Can't we at least get ONE bedroom set that they can just redecorate?! The couch sex is just trifling now!
THIS!
They aren't two college co-eds. They're grown and wealth thirty-somethings.
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21 minutes ago, victoria foxton said:
Also, Jada and Eric were paired so quickly. We didn't see their relationship progress normally.
I've also said that this on Twitter, but it seems Jada is more of a placeholder to be the third wheel on the road to reconciliation of Eric and Nicole. I would like to see Jada become her own character as well. I would like her to have more scenes with Steve and Kayla. In addition to her building a friendship with Stephanie as well. I love her connection of being Marcus' daughter, but I want more too. And who is her mother? Is it going to turn out to be Gail, Faith or someone else entirely?
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Join us as we pay tribute to the beloved Kathryn Hays live in The Locher Room on Thursday, November 17th at 3 p.m. EST / 12 p.m. PST. Kathryn joined the cast of As the World Turns as Kim Sullivan Reynolds Dixon Stewart Andropoulos Hughes in 1972 and remained with the show for 38 years until the world stopped turning in September of 2010. Her long-time co-stars and friends Larry Bryggman, Eileen Fulton and Don Hastings will help us celebrate the life of this beloved mom and actress. Joining Larry, Eileen & Don for this tribute are Kathryn’s real-life daughter Sherri Mancusi as well as her on-screen daughters Mary Ellen Stuart and Claire Beckman. Don’t miss this very special tribute to a very special lady we all loved and miss. See you on November 17th in The Locher Room.
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I wonder where they any plans for the Jeffrey D Sams character (Ron Turner Jr.) who was on the show in the early 90's episodes.
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17 hours ago, dc11786 said:
The arrival of Angie and Charles and the return of Alex really impacted the nature of storytelling on "Loving." I do like Agnes Nixon's 1993-1994 run, but it is very heavy on police and hospital stories when they hadn't been before. It shifted the tone. Angie at 35 Maple Street would have kept her in the thick of the college story. She was already involved in Steffi's bulimia storyline.
Ron Nummi would have been a great Curtis. Stan Albers was a workable actor, but I never get any sense of what direction they want to go with Curtis. It's almost as if they looked at Marcantel's snarky Curtis and Moses' nice guy Curtis and tried to settle on a middle ground. It just didn't work.
In the original story bible for "Loving," Lorna was paired with Jeff Turner, Jack's best friend and the son of Dr. Ron Turner, who had been a psychologist who was involved in treating both Lily's DID and Mike's PTSD. Jeff and Lorna would have married and divorced without much fanfare. It was going to be an interracial relationship were the race differences were downplayed. Lorna would eventually cause problems for Doug, but I don't think it was made clear if that would be before, during, or after her marriage. ABC most likely got skittish. Jeff was retooled and the character became Tony Perilli.
Angie was another example of collapse of the social class structure of the prior years. For the second act of the college revamp, Addie Walsh introduced four new contract characters: Staige Prince, Kent Winslow, Cooper Alden, and Casey Bowman. To make space, characters had to go. Walsh made the decision to eliminate the Carly / Paul story which eliminated a large part of the show's working class contigent between Carly, Paul, and Flynn being shuffled off the canvas. Angie ended up in pseudo-working class group with Leo (who owned a department store), Shana (a lawyer), Stacey (a novelist and college professor), Dinahlee (a small business owner), Trucker (another small business own), Tess (once married to a millionaire), and Buck. I don't get a sense they had story for Angie. The pairing with Trucker was interesting, but I don't know what the thoughts would have been long term.
It seemed Loving's college revamp with the young adults also suffered from what soaps often do, which is quickly move the young adult set into more adult stories by having characters marry and have children and start working in the corporate field without any experience or, on the rare occasion, graduate from school off screen.
They should've had Janie live at Kate's boarding house; I could see her bonding with her since she would've probably reminded her of a young Ava which could've opened up more of the working-class section of the show.
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On 11/3/2022 at 11:50 PM, soapfan770 said:
The Neil flashbacks were great, but it also served as a reminder that Nate, Devon, & Lily really need Olivia and Malcolm around in some fashion.
TBH Lily really needs to dump Billy after proclaiming himself as Chelsea’s savior but the show doesn’t do drama.
And has the show dropped Imani for good? It would have been juicy for Elena to return only to find Nate and Imani having celebratory sex following Nate getting the Newman CEO position.
Agreed on all three points made, especially Lily, Devon, and Nate needing Olivia and Malcolm around since it's obvious they aren't ready to be the matriarch and patriarch of the Barber-Winters family just yet. Not to mention it's quite ridiculous that Nate has been back for six years and haven't one scene with his on-screen mother.
I don't think he's staying around for long, but I wouldn't mind a Daniel and Lily reunion. He could've ended things with Heather by now.
I think the show has dropped for Imani due to probably the factors of Mishael now on recurring and Leigh Ann Rose doing outside projects. Not to mention with Audra now being around as they've been hinting a chem test with Nate too.
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On 11/5/2022 at 12:06 PM, dc11786 said:
Debbi Morgan arrived in Corinth as Angie in August, 1993 when Robert Guza and Millee Taggert were still writing the show. I never go the sense that they knew what to do with Angie. I believe the show was intending to bring back some past characters in celebration of the show's tenth anniversary (hence Curtis and Alex's returns), but I wonder what the circumstances were that shifted Angie to "Loving." Angie does end up spending most of her scenes with Trucker as the story with Tess, Curtis, Buck, and Kuwait wasn't really well received. Trucker and Tess had initially appeared as end game, but, by the time Angie arrived, it was clear that Tess was going to be between Clay and Curtis.
Part of the issue was that there was no real build to Angie. Part of the issue was Angie was connected with people who were the most disconnected from the canvas. The show had never had much of a medical presence so her work at the hospital wasn't going to initial build much story. Angie was involved in Shana's pregnancy and that kinda of created an Angie-Shana friendship, but Shana was always two steps away from being let go. Similarly, Jeremy, while having more of a setpiece to work with in terms of the college, felt very forced into the series. Personally, I would have, at the very least, given Angie an office at 35 Maple Street which would have kept her in the thick of things with the college kids. Also, it would have given her access to Kate Rescott, which I think might have been a nice friendship.
Trucker asks Angie out on a date in like September or October 1993. I cannot remember if its under Nixon or Guza/Taggert. Whenever it is, Angie turns him down and the story is dropped. In late October, Charles Harrison is introduced as Alex's FBI buddy during the someone is targetting the Aldens plot, but the initial Charles/Angie stuff is initially about Charles' past with the dead fiancee and the Charles/Frankie relationship which was clearly recycled Trucker/Frankie kind of material. Angie is weaved into the social stories... she ends up suspecting Steffi's eating disorder in January and she has some play in the Patti may have developmental issues. I don't think it's really til February/March 1994 that they start building the HIV storyline for Angie. The initial strand is Angie and Charles talking about escalating their relationship and the need for protection living in the era of AIDS. In April, Angie ends up being stabbed by a syringe that had been used on a heavy intravenous drug user and the patient refuses to submit to an HIV test. This plays out briefly because then things shift into the aplastic anemia stuff requiring the bone marrow transplant that begins with Angie being kidnapped by Janie's boyfriend in Boston.
The stuff with the plane crash I believe was very early in Nixon's run before she dropped Gwyn / Buck.
I think when it comes to writers, I'm not sure there is one that ever made it all come together to a point that gave the show a distinctive original tone that the show was known for. Almost every writer made a significant contribution, but they just never completely pulled it together long enough (mostly because they were never given time) to do so.
The writers who were given the most time at the show were Millee Taggert (with Tom King from September 1988-May 1991, solo from May to August 1991, and with Robert Guza from January to September 1993) and Addie Walsh (from January 1992 to Januarry 1993 and August 1994 until early spring 1995).
Taggert and King had been working on sitcoms and immediately embedded a sense of humor into the show, which became a trademark of the series. They were also the ones who introduced Trucker McKenzie and the real Clay Alden while starting the Who's the Daddy? story with Stacey and cousins Jack Forbes and Rick Alden. Some of the issues relate to the executive producer situation. Joe Stuart's toxic misogyny had its impact on the set leading to Joe Hardy arriving and wanting to make the show more in line with the big adventure stories of "General Hospital." The spy stuff with Alex and Clay and Jelka is bad. I still confuse the unmemorable Jolie and Juliette. The biggest flaw though in this era is the failure to develop a strong youth storyline. In theory, with Trucker and Trisha as the show's big couple, centering around their siblings should have been a nice way to keep Trucker and Trisha in the thick of things without needing to keep them front and center. The problem was that Curtis was the older brother and to make Rocky and Curtis the youth story, you had to ignore all the history that came before it with Curtis. Also, because Curtis had gone through so many iterations prior to Stan Albers arrival, there is no sense of character. Is he a good guy or a bad guy? This inability to pin down a sense of who Curtis was at his core haunts the show until its end.
The problem I have is it is all so generic and flavorless in big story for so much of the initial stretch (1988-1990) until Jacqueline Babbin comes in. Babbin wanted the show to be more of a mini "All My Children" and was big on reestablishing Corinth as a town of haves and have nots. Under Babbin, there was a more cohesive sense of community with the recentering of the havenots around Kate's boarding house with Rocky, Rio, Abril, and Monty. Under Babbin, I believe we see the return of Patrick and Rose Donovan after a several year hiatus and Ilene Kristen's Norma Gilpin is brought into the fold. The story regarding Abril's baby (she was pregnant by Clay, giving her baby to Trucker and Trisha, and befriending Carly who was involved with Clay) is pretty solid and had the bones to go on for a long time. Pairing that with the Carly, Paul, and Ava triangle while also reuniting Gwyn and Dane Hammond had the potential for a rich place.
Fran Sears replaces Jackie Babbin after a year as Babbin only agreed to give Nixon and ABC a specific amount of time before returning to writing her murder mystery novels. In the final months of Taggert, she introduced several significant characters (Ally Rescott, Matt Ford, and Dinahlee Mayberry). Ally and Matt's romance was very well received. Eric Woodall was phenomenal. Laura Sisk Wright was green but showed the potential that made Ally a long running character. Jessica Collins Dinah was just electric.
The fatal flaw during Mary Ryan Munisteri's run is her approach to Trucker and Trisha, which was to naturally bring to the service the differences in their upbringings. As a natural extension of the have and have not angle, this makes sense, but Trisha comes off as boorish and Trucker comes off as stubborn and gullible. Making these characters messy gave them long term internal issues to deal with, but this was a turn off to the audience. I enjoy them, but I have never been a huge Trisha/Trucker fan.
Fran Sears had a very clear vision to continue the haves / have nots angle but to bring Alden University back into focus. Sears introduced Pins, the bowling alley which was such a uniquely "Loving" set as well as the Tides, which was initially this beautifully rustic hunting lodge with a hint of gothic mystery. Giff's studio at the university is very nicely lit with a large sky light. Ava is working at Checkers, a theme restaurant in line with the type of establishments popping up in the 1990s. Sears sense of color was very vibrant, but also soft and romantic.
Ryan Munisteri is replaced by Addie Walsh who is most remembered as the one who spearheaded the college revamp because under her pen we saw the introduction of Cooper Alden, Kent Winslow, Staige Prince, Casey Bowman, and Hannah Mayberry. Casey was a character that was proposed by Mary Ryan Munisteri as she had introduced Giff. Ryan Munisteri had utilized an art space in 1990 on "Tribes" and had a triangle between two friends in a band just as Munisteri seemed to be doing with Revel, Ally, and Matt except Walsh held back on introducing Revel and instead introduced a minor character named James. It would seem that Walsh may have cherry picked from Munisteri's long story while developing the college set. Hannah may have been a Munisteri suggestion as her arrival precedes the rest by two months in early February 1992. Cooper, by all accounts, is all Walsh. His introduction story with the dead parents is something that Walsh had done the previous year when she was head writing the French soap opera "Riviera." The wealthy de Courcey family were housing two orphaned teenaged cousis of the main set. Kent and Staige were very thinly written as a part of the Greek system set that was quickly abandoned.
Besides the intro of the young people, Walsh's run is pretty heavy on the Clay / Dinahlee pairing which didn't work. The disillusioned romantic version of Clay that returned from Hollywood paired with a very humbled Dinahlee did no favors to either character. If the origins hadn't been during Noelle Beck's second maternity leave, it may have worked out better, but the focus on Clay's new parentage was a shift that destabilized most of the canvas. It tied into the fairly unmemorable Tides ghost story. Giff going off the deep end was also dumb. Gwyn joined Shana in the land of Alden women who had no sense of story or purpose. Jack's death and the Clay and Stacey story didn't suit the original actors involved. Dennis Parlato gave Clay more of a convincing menace than Larkin Malloy did.
Walsh plays the class conflict in much broader terms. Initially, its the Greek system with the wealthy Kent and Staige with poor Ally Rescott representing the new class system of Corinth. Walsh turns Munisteri's regal, patrician Isabelle Alden played by Celeste Holm into a poor man's Phoebe Wallingford making Patricia Barry's Isabelle into a classist buffoon who is determined to keep them "damn Mayberry girls" away from her Alden boys. Walsh has Isabelle driven by a need to maintain power by securing her son Clay's role in the Alden family despite being the product of an affair she had with stablehand Tim Sullivan. It takes a richly complex part of the canvas and waters it down to the point where you would prefer it just not be a thing.
To be fair to Walsh, her run was also known for being paired with Haidee Granger, who from most accounts, was not the show's strongest executive producer. On the heels of Sears, Granger's "Loving" seemed very disjointed. Granger had previously worked on British television and I think there may have been an attempt to take a very different approach by deemphasizing long story. Characters materialize and become contract without having much sense of development (Armand Rosario and Leo Burnell). Her run is remembered positively for the crossover with "All My Children" where Carter Jones went after Dinahlee. On the heels of Giff kidnapping Trisha and taking her to the belfry, it was too much. Giff died around September 30 and the Carter Jones saga was most of October leading into sweeps.
The final issue within the Walsh / Granger era is the introduction of Jean Le Clerc's Jeremy Hunter from Pine Valley. Jeremy had appeared the previous year in an arc with his wife Ceara (played by Genie Francis) as she had fled Pine Valley to try and work through her feelings after uncovering that she had sexually abused as a child. The initial arc (under Munisteri and Sears) was brilliant as it enhanced the Matt / Ally story and also gave Trisha a shoulder to cry on during the Dinahlee/Trucker affair. The issue was that Jeremy's role in 1991 was very minimal. In 1992, Jeremy is brought on for Stacey after the decision was made to dump Trucker/Stacey. It would have made more story sense to pursue Jeremy and Trisha, but with Noelle Beck on the edge of leaving, maybe they figured it would be better to go another direction. Anyway, Walsh's run ends pretty much in autopilot mode but sets up a decent situation with Ally's pregnancy to propel the younger set forward. Louie Slavinski's prostate cancer diagnosis was also set in motion in Walsh's final days.
Tonally, Walsh downplays the trademark comedy in order to enhance the emotional resonance of the work. Munisteri and Taggert were both able to build strong emotional sequences, but they had script writers who made those scenes memorable. Walsh's work falls flat with the script writing team in place. In terms of plotting, Walsh is strong. Something is always happening it just might not last a long time.
When Taggert and Guza arrive, there is an immediate turn around. They focus the show around three major story threads: (1) Shana deciding she wants a baby and wants Ava's boyfriend Leo to be the father, (2) a haunted Curtis returning to Corinth and his pairing with his father's lover Dinahlee, and (3) Casey and Ally's romance being threatened by Cooper's role as the father of Ally's baby. From there, other stories spin off. The introduction of Amelia Heinle as Stephanie Brewster in January 1993 marks the final member of the quad that "Loving" was remembered for. Guza and Taggert's Steffi is an emotionally manipulative party girl who uses that exterior to hide the deep loneliness she feels growing up with a mother who is out of touch with reality. The Brewsters of Corinth, like the Brewsters of Point Claire, are old money who are now broke but desperate to maintain the facade that they are still able to maintain a lifestyle that keeps them in the upper echelons of Corinth society. Steffi is paid by Isabelle to keep Casey occupied so that Cooper and Ally can marry with the Alden heir being legitimate. The concept of Steffi is not new to "Loving." This was the original concept for Staige Prince, but there was no development into her character and Eden Atwood was very broad in her performance. There was also a brief character Mia who seemed set to fill a similar role, but Mia was ditched when Walsh exited.
While Steffi certainly reinstills a sense of social class in Corinth, Taggert and Guza's have nots are not as strong as as Taggert's last run. Tess is living at the boarding house. Buck comes on as an opportunist like Tess. Similarly, Dinahlee lives above her bowling alley, but she is still a small business owner. Taggert and Guza keep Isabelle on the fringes of the story which is probably best given what Isabelle had become. The only positive working class character I can recall being added was the waitress that helps Trisha after her accident. Robert Huston and his girlfriend Dolly are grifters. Tess is suppose to be a grifter with a heart of gold. Angie and Frankie are presented as dealing with more working class issues (gangs in California), but it isn't really resonating because of Angie's position as a doctor.
The final days of Trisha in Corinth are marked by the arrival of Trucker's unknown half-brother Buck Huston, who is involved in a scheme with Tess Wilder to bilk Trucker out of Trisha's inheritance. Tess and Buck turn out to involved in Curtis' chilling experience in Kuwait. The Kuwait story is a real mark on a very positive era. Patrick Johnson is convincing as a soldier, but not as an Alden. Michael Lord was more convincing as Alden, but less as a soldier. Lord had a tendency to overplay Curtis, while Johnson underplayed him. Tess seems to be a bit of Taggert's early intentions for Dinahlee as the scheming nanny and Guza's penchant for manipulative blond conwomen like Summer Holloway. If a lesser actress had been in the role, Tess would have departed at the time of Nixon's arrival.
There is a strong sense of sexuality to Guza and Taggert's loving. Shana's insemination plot is suppose to be a no-strings attached sexual encounter that is clearly complicated by the emotional intimacy that is shared by two people who are having a child together. Steffi is a sex positive character who has no problem coaxing Cooper into the Arabian Nights window display at Burnell's and proceeds to publicly undress him as foreplay in front of a group of shoppers and Ava. Gwyn's bubble bath with Buck seems to push the boundaries as does a sequence where Dinalee and Curtis are getting handsy under the table at L'Auberge waiting for the Aldens to join them. Also, proving that sex has no age, Kate's attempts to reassure a post-operative Louis that she still wants to be intimate with him are very touching and end with Kate and Louis in their bedroom. The return of a passionate Ava leaves her dangling between Leo and Jeremy for much of the year before suggesting that Alex Masters will also be thrown into the mix.
Angie and Frankie Hubbard's introduction to Corinth gives "Loving" its first major African American characters. Minor characters like Egypt and Kate's pal Minnie Madden, police chief Art Hindman, and Hindman's kids Dave and Tally all remained fairly secondary. Frankie's brashness is refreshing and the interaction between Frankie and Steffi promised to revisit the idea of playgirl socialite Lorna Forbes dating African American Ron Turner's son.
The downside of this time is Curtis Alden. Trying to refocus the canvas on Curtis with Trisha departing the canvas was a brilliant idea. Casting was sloppy as already discussed. I like Michael Lord. If he reigned the character in a bit, I think I would have liked where his Curtis was going though I have to wonder if his over the top antics as Curtis didn't inspire Nixon to push Curtis over the edge and destabilize his mental health. Besides casting, the story with Tess and Buck was time consuming. By the time Trucker and Buck's father is introduced, even Guza and Taggert realize this was too much and wrap the story up and start sending everyone in different directions.
Guza and Taggert may be the ones to reach the closest to the true potential of "Loving."
Nixon's return in September 1993 promised to continue the greatness of the previous year, but Nixon really shifted things in her own direction. Her period, while definitely enjoyable, is probably one of the roughest transitions only to be surpassed by going from Munisteri to Walsh while Walsh is trying to establish the college set. Nixon blows up the Jeremy / Ava / Leo / Shana story which had constantly found ways to keep everyone in the same orbit in favor of downplaying the business angle (Leo defaulted on his loan that Shana gave him in exchange for him fathering her child leaving Shana as owner of Burnell's) and focused on Patti's developmental issues while never fully committing to whether or not she had any issues. The dead Kuwait story was revived with a very alive Dante Partou meaning that the only Middle Eastern character on the show was a Stefano Dimera-esque super villain.
Nixon rids herself of the college campus in short order. By November, Casey runs out of money so he drops out of school and Steffi gets a modelling offer so she leaves college. By January, Tess has roped Jeremy into a partnership at the ad agency. 35 Maple Street disappears. In its place, Nixon establishes the ad agency, which became a critical piece of the final years of "Loving" and the short run of "The City." The ad agency harkened back to one of Nixon's original goals for the series by centering the show on a young female lead in the media (Merrill Vochek). The ad agency ends up being an excellent setpiece and makes the loss of the college palatable.
Class distinctions are downplayed, but subtle. Trucker and Dinahlee reuniting at the video rental store definitely reminds the audience that these two may have been in the Alden orbit, but neither truly fit in there. It's hard to imagine Isabelle Alden in the video store to return her copy of "A Summer Place." While Casey is presented as a struggling artist, his artist loft space is huge. A beautiful set but the smaller repurposed apartment that the Bowmans had shared (and I'm pretty sure dated back to the early/mid 1980s) was more reflective of how Casey should have been living given his source of income. The Donovan home remains the epitome of working class comfort with Angie's home matching that energy with a prominent use of African art and other decorations. The bike shop, introduced by Walsh, remains as the central workplace for working class men like brothers Trucker and Buck. Robert Lupone's seedy loan shark is less memorable than his run several years earlier under Munisteri as Michael Rescott's alcoholic musician father.
Where Nixon excells is in the story and the couples. The Clay / Steffi pairing should by no means work, but it does. Steffi's daddy issues, Clay's daughter issues, the potential rivalry between younger and older alpha Alden male, and just Dennis Parlato and Amelia Heinle's understanding of their characters make the story engaging. Nancy Addison Altman's addition as Deborah gives Steffi a very tangible reason for the audience to sympathize with her. And brava to Altman for not fearing to play the ugliness of Deborah. Steffi's bulimia is a very compelling arc for the character. Steffi's friendship with Tess enhances both characters.
In another case of pairings that shouldn't work, but do, Tess and Cooper help to round out the new quad. Cooper going after the blond former nanny plays on his trauma. Tess, while not completely aware of Cooper's story, senses enough that she knows what they are doing is wrong and knows that it won't last. The decision to reveal that Tess had been anorexic in the past during her modeling days as well as at the start of her marriage to Dante was a nice way to connect Tess and Steffi's stories.
A bit lost in the shuffle though is Casey and Ally, who after Cooper is revealed to be a louse are going to finally get their happily ever after. The problem is happy endings are not the fodder of great soap opera so they flounder a bit. Ally's choice to be a stay at home mom is compelling, but not a rich source of drama. Casey's desire to provide his family with a home while affluent Cooper is able to provide Tyler with everything is a great source of strain on Casey and Ally's marriage.
Buck and Stacey are wonderful together. Tying Buck to other parts of the canvas was smart. Utilizing him as Egypt's partner in crime allowed us to see another side of Buck and confirmed that Buck's stories would always be about how his past would come back to haunt him as the man he is now. Stacey is less active in this period, which is disappointing. I did appreciate her being pulled into Curtis' orbit towards the end of Nixon's run and would have loved to see where that would have gone. I would have liked to see Stacey reacting to Janie.
Janie was such a brilliant addition to the show. An African American Ava Rescott, the young woman came on the scene with such a presence and such a personality. She was one of Angie's kidnappers who Angie learned was actually in an abusive relationship with the man holding Angie hostage. The very hurt Janie had a tendency to lash out at others to prevent them from ever causing her any pain again. Janie was a character who was just allowed to travel the canvas. Frankie liked her, Angie wanted to help her, Cooper wanted to know what she knew about Clay's secret, Gwyn mothered her, and she was Buck's daughter. The character had the ability to enter any scene and add some energy that wasn't there.
The main crux of the Nixon run though was the Curtis / Trucker / Dinahlee story. This story was a twist on the two friends loving them the same woman plot by throwing in Curtis' PTSD as well as the lingering question of Trisha's fate. The highlight of this to me is Curtis pretending Trisha is still alive to keep Trucker and Dinahlee apart because, in the end, Curtis was right even if his intentions were malicious. Dinahlee had well been established as a lead heroine at this point so this was probably her strongest period in that position stuck between loving Trucker and wanting to save Curtis from himself.
Nixon's departure after almost a year in August 1994 signaled a significant shift in the canvas. The lightheartedness of the show was definitely replaced with a stronger sense of drama with a very somber tone. Laurie McCarthy and Addie Walsh's run was much more effective than Walsh's first, but Walsh and McCarthy had been working with Nixon for a better part of a year. Though they immediately dropped potentially interesting elements of the canvas (Janie is quickly killed in a plane crash and Ava gaining control of AE is quickly squashed) while enhancing other neglected parts of the canvas.
Casey's mental health crisis leading to drug overuse and addiction is compelling material. Steffi and Cooper's tragic romance culminating in Clay's deception by having Steffi believing that her mother and boyfriend are having an affair is heart breaking material leading to a Steffi's flashbacks of her mother accusing her father of having incestuous feelings for her. Casey and Steffi reconnecting during this period is a powerful use of their history and gives the show a chance to play a different beat.
Walsh and McCarthy revive the gothic tone with the introduction of Gilbert. Masquerading as Jeremy is not as compelling as it is when Gilbert kidnaps Ava and Sandy bringing them to the church. The church set is evocative of the mood the show is looking to capture. Marian Seldes as Gilbert's kidnapper/"mother" brings the right mix of menace and concern to the part. The resolution of that story, Alex shooting an unarmed Gilbert, had the potential to set in motion some dramatic material.
Trucker and Dinahlee and Buck and Stacey both fall into the story abyss during this period. Dinahlee is recast with Elizabeth Mitchell when Jessica Collins' contract is up. Mitchell is given a heavy story to play off the bat; Dinahlee loses her baby and is badly hurt requiring her to receive physical therapy. Buck and Stacey just struggle to find anything before Buck clearly just becomes Tess' himbo.
The stark tone of the show is jarring at first, but is mostly manageable until it isn't. Clay's hit and run is probably the last strong story the show tells before going into yet another major direction.
I've already gone on too long and my feelings about Essensten and Harmon Brown are too clouded by the damage they did.
I always love reading your in-depth analysis about Loving. I also like your ideas especially about having Angie get an office at 35 Maple. I could definitely see her being the go-to doctor to the young adults on canvas.
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More video of Trucker and Angie.
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38 minutes ago, janea4old said:
SOD comings/goings section reports that Denise Crosby finishes airing as Carolyn Webber when Elizabeth returns to Port Charles.
I wonder was this always planned or did something come up with Denise?
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17 hours ago, carolineg said:
Yes! And some of them were odd switches! Julia hooked up with Bill, Ned, and AJ. Those characters aren't even similar. I couldn't even tell you what half of the 1992's cast type was because the choices of partners often felt random.
I remember Emma Samms later said on social media that it wasn't Ron's fault that initially it was acknowledged in the script that Holly knew Bill in another lifetime. But since she or Tony didn't remember they had taken it out instead. Though someone should've went on YT or into the archives to say otherwise.
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3 hours ago, dragonflies said:
RM posted on IG she's having major knee surgery that's why she can't return
I didn't know that. I thought it was because she had retired.
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General Hospital: November 2022 Discussion Thread
in Discussion Thread Archive
Posted
This is what I want too. But I wouldn't hate Emma transferring to PCU. I'm like whichever happens first.
Josslyn and Dex are also a repeat of Zander and Emily and Liz and Jason though in my opinion Joss and Dex don't have that much chemistry in my opinion. Not to mention some missing factors from this story too.