Ken R

It went something like this.... 1. Steve and Max's parents were Wingate and Patricia Holden. Patricia left Wingate when Max was a kid and later married Baxter Harrison, with whom she had Andy. Jake was Andy's half-brother. All the parents were dead; Andy came to Llanview shortly after Patricia died, and much of the backstory was revealed then. Later, when Max thought he was Asa's son, more of the Wingate/Asa rivalry was revealed. (Asa had taken Wingate's ranch in Sweetwater, Texas.) A bit of the Wingate stuff resurfaced in 1996 when Asa was pretending to be crazy and started calling Max "Wingate." 2. Not that I recall. Originally DuAnn Demerest claimed that Patricia Holden had had an affair with Asa -- which turned out to be true. The focus was on that story, and Max was ultimately shown not be related to Asa. The Renee stuff came up later around 1999, which was a bit of a rewrite. 3. Drew Ralston was shot in a flower shop, as someone else mentioned. 4. No, Gabrielle's father was Dante Medina. Al (Alonzo) Holden was originally named after Cord's adoptive father, Al Roberts, because Tina was passing him off as their child. Later, Max and Gabrielle renamed him after Don Alonzo, Max's rancher friend in Argentina who had also been a friend of the Medinas.

In regards to The City, I posted one of the episodes I saved a few days ago. The City was just starting to find its footing after such a rocky start. It was still really wobbly—they didn't really know what to do with Lorraine and went the stereotypical soap route at first, for example—but I found the show to get better the further away they got from Loving and Corinth.

Generally speaking, yes, though it wasn't a huge boost. Loving was hit terribly by OJ. Before OJ, Loving hovered around a 2.8 or 2.9 in households. By November of 1994 the ratings had hit an all-time low of 2.0. Granted, that was also as the horrible Jeremy/Gilbert storyline was in high gear, but most likely the dropoff was OJ's fault. Loving dawdled along with those awful numbers, rising and falling between 2.0 and 2.4 that spring and through the beginning of the murders. As the Murders storyline progressed and it got more attention, the numbers rose to 2.6, I believe, perhaps even slightly higher, in spite of the OJ trial wrapping up around the same time—I'd have to go back and check to give you specific weekly ratings, or perhaps someone else here has that data. That number held steady for the first week of The City, after which the ratings fell back down to 2.3, and then steadily lower to what Loving had been getting prior to the murders.

Alan Locher did a reunion of GL and ATWT writers that included Millee Taggart and James Harmon Brown. In addition to talking about how she transitioned from acting to writing, she talks a bit about Loving—she recalls writing Kate's cancer story against the wishes of the network. She really wanted Kate's cancer to work as a vehicle to redeem Ava, but ABC was against a "disease" story. Her comments on this begin around the 35:47 mark. James Harmon Brown doesn't give many specifics from Loving, but he does mention purposely bringing Laura Wright over to GL because he loved her work on Loving and The City. Courtney Simon is also part of the conversation—she wrote briefly under Taggart—but doesn't say a lot about Loving. But it's one of the more Interesting reunions Alan Locher has done.

This was a fantastic event—great recap by dc11786. Sure, there were technical issues, but all around it was such an enjoyable and interesting time. There was so much divulged that we as viewers never really knew. Maybe it feels that way because ABC or the soap media never gave Loving this level of attention, but it was a great treat to hear their stories. I've only watched a couple of the other soap reunions (GL), and I couldn't sit through them because they were sort of dull and covered a lot of well-worn ground. Plus they seemed to only answer softball questions with equally bland answers. But that's what you get when it's all organized by a publicist. The Loving reunion was frank, fun, and you could tell they really enjoy seeing other and connecting with fans.

That's interesting. I don't remember it being that confusing, although I was seeing everything the second time around. I lived in France from 1994 to 95 -- B&B aired at 9 am after Loving (I remember it was a stupidly early time for soaps), and the episodes were from 1993, when Sheila was switching Bridget's paternity tests. But Y&R aired at 1 or 2 pm, and the episodes were from 1990, when Cricket and Danny were getting married in Hawaii. Y&R was the more popular show, and most folks I knew didn't watch B&B, so nothing was really spoiled for them. But I imagine anyone watching B&B didn't need to watch Y&R to understand because Sheila's crossover was really self-contained. The Loving episodes at that time, BTW, were from 1990, around the time Rick was making trouble and then was shot.

Hi there -- longtime lurker, first-time poster. I watched Loving for years and followed The City from beginning to end so I just wanted to chime in: