skylark

On 11/12/2023 at 2:54 PM, dc11786 said:

December 1984 would have seen three key storylines playing out:

(1) Warren Carter, who had been sent to prison earlier in the year, was presumed dead in a prison fire back in October. With the help of photographer Brett Hamilton, III, Warren was hiding out in Henderson and was gaslighting his ex-wife, Suzi Wyatt, in order to get her hospitalized with the intention of taking their son, Jonah, and starting a new life. Around November/December, Wendy Wilkin, Warren´s other (ex?) wife, learns he is alive and has resumed their affair. Brett shared a romantic past with Justine Calvert, a McCleary family friend who had set out to snare Cagney McCleary away from Suzi for herself. Suzi, under the duress of the gaslighting, publicly attacks Justine verbally for all the games she has been playing in order to get Cagney. 

This all leads to a murder mystery party that ends with the bullets in the prop gun being replaced with real bullets.  

(2) T.R., the runaway that had been fostered by Travis and Liza Sentell, discovered that she was actually Rebecca Kendall, the long lost daughter of Lloyd and his absent ex-wife Estelle. T.R. doesn´t want to be a Kendall and desperately wants to push forward her adoption so that no one can separate her from the woman she has come to love as a mother. Meanwhile, Lloyd has begun to put the pieces together and suspects that T.R. might be his daughter because his son Chase shares with Lloyd a french lullaby that T.R. knows that Lloyd´s mother made up. 

In the meantime, Liza has become involved with Kentucky Bluebird, an airplane engineer. Liza and Kentucky worked together to oust Cord Tourneur, the mentally disturbed cousin of the late Travis, from his position at Tourneur Instruments. Now, Kentucky and Liza are in limbo or are about to start a minor plot involving Kentucky having a heart ailment. Will Patton, who played Col. Bluebird, refused to sign a contract and, as a result, was not always available. 

(3)The love triangle between the Kendall boys Chase and Alec and the innocent Adair McCleary is stalled because Adair has left town (Page Hannah was let go in November and Susan Carey Lamm doesn´t arrive until February). There is some angst because Chase and Adair, believing Alec to be dead after the sea vessel he was on was destroyed in a storm, went to bed together. When Alec returned from the dead, in early November, both were shocked. An emotional Adair leaves town to sort out her feelings, but more than likely she was picking up on the intense sexual tension between Alec and Chase and decided she didn´t want to be the third wheel in their staging of a queer ¨Flowers in the Attic¨ story. 

By December, there is a lot of chemistry testing for both Alec and Chase. Chase confides in Justine, Adair´s best friend, as well as having some scenes with Wendy, who he was paired with earlier. Stephanie deduces that Wendy has a secret man, and believes it is Alec, which Wendy goes along with since her secret man is in fact her not so dead husband Warren, who should be in prison. Ultimately, it is Chase and Alec who should be endgame. 

Out of curiousity, are you referring to physicality, performance, or both? I´ve been watching Cheatham in her 1990 run on ¨General Hospital¨ as Aunt Charlene and while Charlene has edges that Stephanie did, there are certainly differences that show Cheatham can play different types. By the 1980s, Cheatham definitely leans into the over the type, broad style, but I think that she (like Robin Strasser) showed earlier in her career she could play a more restrained character, and I could see her embodying Alex if she cultivated the right persona. I will concur that Miss Sally was more the type that Cheatham seemed to be most interested in playing by that point in her career.  

Martin leaves in May 1984 when there is a cast purge by Ellen Barrett about six months into her run as producer. Martin leaves to operate a club in the Caribbean. He later returns in a recurring capacity later in 1984. When Warren Carter has escaped prison, Carter begins to target all his enemies including his former business partner, Martin. Carter arranges for Martin´s club down in the islands to be torched forcing Martin to leave Henderson to deal with wreckage in October, 1984. 

A year later, there is a story about how Martin has gone missing in San Marcos (where his former lover Estelle Kendall has been hiding out for years). Jo goes down to the island to find out more information, but comes up empty handed. Eventually, Jo gets communication from Martin saying he is alright and hiding out in Europe and that if she wanted to get in contact with him she should do so through Justin Marshall of World Oil through their Paris operation. It was a nice little Easter egg for the NBC/P&G soap fans. 

I suspect Gary Tomlin wanted to bring Martin back into the story in his 1985/1986 run by the change over in producers, or the simple reluctance of NBC to have many players over the age of forty on the canvas, prevented Martin´s return. Steve comes back on contract for about a month alongside Estelle. Tomlin´s 1985-1986 run (from what I´ve seen) has a lot of stops and starts so it´s hard to tell where anything was going. 

I haven’t watched much 1984, but it’s kind of surprising to hear Warren was so conniving after he was so against continuing his life of crime under Rusty in ’82-’83. I’ll have to check it out. Him and Martin enemies? I gotta see what happened.

Does anyone know when Martin Tourneur left the show and what happened to him?

Does anyone have any info/clippings about the fan clubs that were active during the show's run? I'm super curious about them. Since I'm in a small group of david gale fans, I'd be especially interested to see if he had one mentioned in any magazines during the last few years of the secret storm.

@dc11786 Thank you for the reply! I love analyzing these characters lol. Rusty is definitely kind of a mess; David Gale himself was also a bit disappointed with how the character strayed from the original pitch. (Here's a snippet where he responds to the question: "What would you like to see your character do?")

I missed the intro episodes to Sunburst, so I haven't seen a whole lot from the era when things were loaded with ninjas, spies, etc. I've seen a couple of episodes where Aja and Dane go up against a lady in Hong Kong (? I think?) as well as one ninja, but that's it. I wish I could take a look at more from then, particularly the Alex doppelganger thing, who I only have one very short clip of. I really want to see the climax to that where the two look-alikes are on screen together! 

I totally agree that Rusty and Liza's passive-aggressive back-and-forths are pretty good. In those scenes, they do a really great job at making Rusty's dialogue so painful and uncomfortable that I always cringe. Especially during that dinner scene kind of early on where Rusty invades her date with Travis at the Riverboat and goes on and on about Aja's success. I love Rusty because he's crazy, but that makes me cringe every time.

I agree also that Rusty's whole motive with the General's will and the Torneur stock is convoluted. I've tried to explain to friends what he's up to and it's a mouthful. I guess they made Rusty in charge of the inheritance because the General must have really liked him (lol) and they needed some angle for him to try to take TI. Though you make a good point about Rusty having been "dead" up until this point.. I hadn't thought about how that might change the course of the inheritance. Yeah, Rusty really shouldn't be in charge of this will. *edit: also, the fact that Rusty ended up having the same goals as his evil doppelganger still bugs me! 

Oh, that also just reminded me. After Rusty Sr. dies, Dane reveals that he learned Rusty Sr. never had any money to his name at all and this whole time he was just using his crime syndicate's checkbook. I thought that was interesting. It shows how much of a fraud Rusty really was, but at the same time, almost left me feeling disappointed because it took away some "authority" from Rusty's image.

You make a good point about Martin, too. All the scenes of Rusty constantly sassing him felt like insult to injury, but you're right, Martin is in the way, so a guy like Rusty wouldn't care to be decent to him lol. However, I think Rusty was a bit careless with being rude to people. If he put a little more effort into being pleasant to people he didn't like he would have made himself a lot less suspicious. I feel like he was smart enough to know that, but still mouthed off anyways. I guess it's more entertaining this way.

I feel multiple ways about Rusty and Aja's relationship, but I agree that it can be strange. At times I find their relationship pretty endearing (picturing Rusty helping to raise a young Aja, showing her how to operate planes, etc., does make me grin) but other times they seem a bit too cozy with each other, at least to me. I can't tell how much of that is due to the writing and how much of it is just the actors having good chemistry together. Aja could have used some friends to make her appear less dependent on her father figure for companionship. I suppose that is part of the toxic relationship they were supposed to have, but alas. Other than Rusty, she only had Dane. Sometimes I wonder if Dane and Aja would have been decent romantically instead of Dane x Sunny (Not that I have strong feelings about Dane x Sunny one way or the other, but just a passing thought). Either way, I like Aja. The matchup of a gun racketeer father and a rocket scientist daughter I find kind of fun because of how outlandish it is.

Ah, yes, and the gunrunning. Rusty is busy lol. I like the gunrunning because David Gale works well as that kind of over-the-top-mafia-boss type, but it certainly isn't realistic by any means and makes Rusty's character even more all over the place. Although it is kind of funny to see him rent Janet's place and fill it floor to ceiling with guns. He's a piece of work. That scene where Jo walks in his doorway and stops dead in her tracks while the camera pans silently to Rusty's living room covered in an assortment of loaded guns strewn across all the furniture is pretty comedic.

Rusty and Jenny was an interesting side plot. I think someone mentioned it in this thread a while back, and it may have even been you, but I agree with the sentiment that it was likely an attempt to humanize/soften Rusty's character that didn't really work. He was pretty creepy to her and crossed a lot of boundaries. And when he goes on long shpeals about how love is just a tool for manipulation, all the while confessing to Jenny that he has deep feelings for her, it all just really confuses me. I can't tell what Rusty believes.

Oh, I wasn't aware of the Collins Corporation. I need to go back and watch some episodes before '82. Also, super interesting suggestion to switch Aja with Lee. The tension issue would be solved if that were the case. 

4 hours ago, j swift said:

TIL, Rusty was their given name and Travis was his nickname?  That's nutty

Hmmm, I thought Travis' mother Mignon started calling Travis "Rusty" (originally his Father's nickname) after his Father passed away since they both shared the same red hair. I'd have to check and see if that's correct or not.

"Rusty" isn't Rusty Sr.'s real name, either. His is William Barrett Travis Sentell (according to the episode where Mignon reads a letter of his). Lol!

I've been meaning to blab the many thoughts I've had on the '82-'83 Rusty Sentell Sr. arc somewhere for a while, so I hope it isn't disruptive if I lay them down here! (God this turned into an essay!)

I've taken the most interest in Rusty Sr., so it's interesting to see all the changes and rewrites they've made to the character as the show changed writers. First, with the reveal that he was still alive in Italy with Gina and Renata here (after apparently faking his death in a "B-47 crash in WWII", which wouldn't have been possible as that jet was introduced in 1951 ).

Then, the whole Alex/Rusty doppelganger thing in the Summer of '82...  That one's a doozy. I haven't seen those episodes myself, but going off the summaries, Alex was a “clone” of Rusty Sr. who altered his appearance via plastic surgery in an attempt to manipulate Travis (?) and take over Sunburst. I find this so fascinating because after Rusty kills off Alex, they reintroduce Rusty as "a good guy now" only to reveal that he has the same exact intentions as his evil doppelganger? Did the wrong clone get shot or something? It seems like there were some really conflicting ideas as to where to take Rusty's character.

From what I've seen, they also paint Rusty as having an irrational disdain for Martin, bullying and jeering him at every opportunity, being responsible for his sister’s decline and death, hitting on his soon-to-be-ex-wife before they’ve even finalized their divorce papers, flirting a bit with his current fling, Stephanie, and scamming him out of every dollar and share he owns. He’s a total bully and it’s so unnecessarily cruel that it’s kind of funny. Not to validate Rusty’s crazy behavior, but wasn’t Martin responsible for the death of Rusty’s daughter, Renata, after falling asleep with a lit cigarette that caused the building to burn down? If Rusty has it out for Martin that much, I feel like maybe they should have circled back to that stuff and even Mignon, because although it’s funny that Rusty wants to torment Martin seemingly because he gets a kick out of it, they could have actually had them talk about their lingering history which would have been super interesting. They only ever had Martin yell at Rusty while he stayed quiet and avoided every topic, which makes sense, because Rusty was trying to make Martin look irrational and crazy, but still, it would have been so satisfying to see them actually go back and forth about the real stuff.

Another thing I’ve thought about is how "Rusty was saved by Aja’s father during some sort of 'underground spy escape attempt' in which he sacrificed himself to rescue him". That’s why Rusty raised Aja and supported her family: to repay his sacrifice (well, after subsequently romancing with Aja’s mother, Sophia, too).  Maybe this is a little far-fetched, but since the show has already established that Rusty is a total liar and fraud, the writers could have revealed that Rusty actually killed Aja’s Father or was otherwise responsible for his death in a way that wasn't so valiant, instead of the glorious tale of spying and selflessness and sacrifice, because after seeing how shady Rusty is, I don't buy his story.

I've also done some brainstorming about where they could have taken things if Rusty didn't get killed off, but I'll keep it short as I've already written a novel:

If Rusty tried to repair his relationship with Liza before her and Dane figured him out, he would have been able to slip under the radar and continue meddling with the relationship. That, or he'd give that up considering Liza was pregnant, and just focus on maintaining a good image while racketeering under everyone's nose. I would have liked to see them bring Rusty's brother, Edward (Lee's Father), into the picture and see those two interact. Who knows, maybe Edward's shady too. (I know they had Edward appear briefly before Rusty joined the cast, but I could see them recasting and rewriting Edward to fit this new plot). I see a lot of people compare the actor Fritz Weaver to David Gale, so maybe he could have come in to play him. 

Alright! I better shut up now!

Hi! I'm a fan of David Gale and heard that he appeared on Loving from approx. 1986-1987 playing a character named Bishop McMahon. Does anyone have any recollections, pictures, or episodes that include this character? 

Thanks so much!