Sapounopera

I have never seen Robert Dubac. I liked RM as Clay, but I was shocked when he became Alex with long hair and different kind of clothes. During that period Lisa Peluso took over as Ava and I lost all interest in them. James Horan didn't make Clay Alden very interesting.

Ned and April were not really connected to the Lovingcanvas and they were not suited for such a storyline. 1987 was a nice era for the show, I enjoyed watching it. The change from Roya to Lisa bothered me more than I realised at the time. I lost my connection to Ava. The Clay/Alex mess was basically Roman/John 1.0 right? I never bought that story. Rick Alden was too dark for no real reason. His storyline with Stacey should be given to Curtis, but Curtis returned as a nice boy all of the sudden. Linden Ashby was the best Curtis. The show stopped airing here when Trisha was presumed dead and Jeff was holding her in 1989. It was not in the best shape, but it was still a show I wouldn't stop watching. I knew that the people who don't work for the show will always get replaced.

Was Diane Winston supposed to stay longer? They should have given JC a more prominent part. A Gwyneth or Anne recast perhaps.

And the music theme is one of the best soap themes ever

And you are right about Dave's name Reading all these storylines again I really miss Loving. I had forgotten all about Nick Dinatos, the Greek mobster who was involved with Trisha and whom Cabot Alden murdered. Before Nick it was Hunter Belden (played by B&B's Jeff Trachta; Thorne#2) and later Jeff. Trisha was always involved in a triangle and one of the guys was crazy. I remember Charles Hartman in the hospital and I am still certain that his nurse was Victoria Rowell, in a non-speaking part. Could be wrong though.

I liked Linden Ashby's Curtis. However the show turned him into a nice guy too soon by pairing him with Lotty. Jack and Curtis should have been fighting for years and Rick Stewart Alden's storyline could have been given to Curtis up to a point. Chris Marcantel was ok, Stan Albers was not really Curtis but a brand new character and Burke Moses was just boring. (I have to remind you that these were my thoughts as a teenager, I don't know how I would feel about all this today) Susan Walters was fine as a vixen, but O'Hara's version was very boring. Her pairing with Zach was not what the character needed. And then there was Zach's daughter Kelly and her teenaged friend, who reminded me of B&B's Rocco. Lily #2 was a brand new character, she was more of a Lorna. I liked Shannon Eubanks more as Ann. She looked more aristocratic and cold. If the show wanted to recast they should go with Christine Tudor. I think the structure of the Alden family was always a problem...

I think there were three brothers. Linc, Wade and Jude or Jarrett or something like that. Perhaps the show was trying to build a brand new family with Rebecca as the matriarch and Lorna & Ava being involved with her sons. I think there was a period Cabot and Isabelle were written out. Could it be that there were big plans for Rebecca and her boys?

Lisa Peluso was fine as Ava, but she was still Wendy Wilkins to me. Another problem was that I didn't care for the Clay/Alex storyline at all and the fact that Ava was no longer a part of the "younger crowd" with Jack, Stacey, Curtis and the others. That and the fact that Ava became a rich wife and mother spending too much time at Clay's office sooner than I expected. She should have been involved with Jack, Curtis and Stacey a little longer. Linc was Rebecca's son and Zona's husband. When Zona was murdered, Lorna was accused of killing her. There was another Beachum brother for five minutes, who was involved with Ava. I never understood what the plans for this family were... Steve and Trisha reminded me of Joe and Kelly on Santa Barbara for some reason. Steve was a boy, Trucker was the cover of a romance book. I liked Steve better, because of his connections to Harry, Kate, Ava and Cecelia and the fact that he was a regular guy. Trucker was involved in the Clay/Alex mess, which was another problem for me.

I am loving all this LOVING talk Roger and Merril were a horrible couple. I liked the Forbes family though, it's too bad that the show gave up on them so soon. There was so much potential. Roger and Ann were far more interesting than Clay and Gwyneth as a couple and Christine Tudor would be great as a recast Ann. I never cared for Clay Alden, I always thought his story was insane and I never bought the Clay/Alex mess. I remember falling in love with Doug and Edy at first, but then their storyline became way too dark. Don't get me started on Jonathan and Dolly and the snake.. Does anyone remember Art Hidman's kids? Frank and Tally? All of the sudden he got a family and his kids were involved with the younger group for about five seconds. This show never understood how lucky it was to have Roya as Ava. This character could so easily become a joke and she made it work I loved Trisha/Steve/Cecelia. The problem with LOVING was that it changed direction every six months without having a solid core (like B&. The early years were great, but I gave up on the show in 1989. Or to be honest, Greek TV gave up on the show after airing the 1989 episodes, but I wasn't really that upset..

Y&R and B&B blue-collar matriarchs Liz Foster and Beth Logan even shared the same name; Liz Henderson.

Thank you for the clips! Some thoughts: Jamie Lyn Bauer and Marla Adams: STUNNING Tom Ligon reminds me of Spencer Pratt. Eric Braden has had a nose job? He looks so different lying next to Eve Howard. Deborah Adair should have returned as Jill once Brenda was out. These clips are CRAZY. Women screaming, knives, opening caskets, tears etc. Terry Lester

You mean that they wouldn't fit in the new storylines or that they represented a very different Y&R era? From the little 70's Y&R I've seen on YouTube, the show was very similar to JER's first DAYS run.

Can you post a link to these videos please? I love vintage Y&R I am so curious what would have happened if JLB hadn't left the show in the early eighties. What would have happened to Lori Brooks? Was there even room for Lori back then? Would she marry Victor, fight against Ashley, marry Jack and basically have Nikki's stories? Or perhaps Jill's once Brenda Dickson was out?

I am fascinated by this thread! Thanks for all this interesting info SS sounds like such a melodramatic soap opera. The storylines I've read remind me of classic movies I adore. And Marla Adams... OMG. She is still a very beautiful woman and it's too bad that she was never on a soap for many years (apart from her Y&R stint) after that.

I think that Rena Sofer would be more suited for the part of a young Amanda and this has nothing to do with Christine Tucci. Amanda as a kid was always played by dark-haired girls and Sandra Ferguson was the first blonde Amanda Cory. AW had way too many young blonde actresses at the time and Sofer (who looks a little bit like Vicky Wyndham) would be a far more interesting choice, at least for me

Patti Weaver... Wow! Mike, Trish, David and Valerie shouldn't have been written out so early. (I consider later Mikes brand new characters with new careers and personalities). I understand that DAYS had to choose between Mickey & Maggie and Bill & Laura at some point, but there was no reason for the younger generation to leave. The soaps became so arrogant in the eighties

I never understood why GL didn't bring Billy Fletcher instead of Kelly Nelson as a young man connected to the Bauers.

Who was Mark on Loving? I don't remember him at all.

Love reading your SB posts people Some thoughts: * Judith McConnell was (and still is) one of the most beautiful actresses ever on a soap. She will always be my #1 SB beauty. * Amy Perkins was involved in a rather big storyline when her infant son was kidnapped by an evil doctor and was given to a prince. It was 1984 or 1985. * Victoria Lane was never a real threat to Mason and Julia, whom I adored as a couple. * I never understood why this show wrote out promising characters so easily. The Lockridge kids, Keith Timmons, Hayley, Santana, Brick could have stayed around for years. Even Amy Perkins. Why did they have to change everything every six months? Maggie Wallace and Janice (the Lockridge driver) were both involved with Warren1. Who remembers them? SB was not even interested in keeping Tricia Cast around who played Christi. A Christi/Ted/Laken triangle could have gone on for years, but after a few months a lonely Ted was in search of a new storyline. Does anybody remember the story of an African American maid who was scheming against the Capwells? The actress later appeared on Generations as Adam's lover and her SB storyline was dropped VERY quickly.

Is it true that there were plans for another AW spin-off in the late eighties, which would be created by Margaret DePriest and focus on the Loves, the Hudsons and the McKinnons? Perhaps that's the reason they turned Donna into a tortured heroine, in order to headline the new soap. That's the reason they hired Denise Alexander, in order to play the McKinnon matriarch on the new soap. I have no idea what would be left for AW if they took three of the show's prominent families at the time.

Caroline was more or less Rita Bauer 2.0. It might as well have been the same character. I don't remember what happened to Lionel after that. A reunion with Augusta or did he just leave town once again? Warren, Jane and Alice were all gone rather quickly as well.

The Dobsons were furious with Ann Howard Baily for killing off Caroline. And so was I. I don't think Lenore wanted out and it's sad that she never had another soap gig apart from playing Brooke Logan's lawyer Pamela Geller for two or three episodes in the mid-nineties.

Caroline Wilson Lockridge was played by gorgeous Lenore Karsdorf (ex-Rita Bauer, GL). Caroline was estranged from her daughter Jane and then it was revealed that she had been involved with an African American man years ago and she gave up his daughter Alice. Alice was in a mental hospital with Kelly Capwell, she was released, reunited with her mother and sister and they all moved in with Lionel Lockridge. I liked seeing the Lockridge house full of people again. Yes, that was Warren, Lionel's son. Who turned out not being Lionel's son for an uninspired romance with Cassandra Benedict, Lionel's half-sister. The Ming Li story was indeed very odd. Those four characters were so isolated, they were a sick little soap opera of their own. As for Eden's rape.. I cared for Cruz and Eden too much during that time to see them go through this. The fact that the show was full of characters and storylines I didn't care for made tuning out much easier.

A number of things ruined SB for me.. Robin Wright leaving and Kelly getting involved with T.J. Daniels, her mother's lover. I hated that storyline. Lionel, Caroline, Warren, Jane and Alice were a nice family unit and they were destroyed after Caroline's death. Eden's rape and Adrianna's kidnapping was waay too dark for me The Donellys and the DiNapolis. Cain, Andrea, Ming Li and Philip Hamilton. Ming Li was hired by Philip to play Cain's daughter and she was flirting with her "father". It was sick. Who were these people? Ethan and Laura. 1984-85-86-87 were good SB years. It became watchable (watchable, not very good) again during the Robert/Quinn mess and when the Dobsons returned along with the old Capwell sets, Rosa and nu-Santana, whom I liked. OMG, I just remembered Cassandra and her story. I hated it. It was Marianne Carruthers before Marianne Carruthers. Mason, Craig, Ethan, Derek were all involved from what I remember.

Rena Sofer would have been a great choice for Amanda Cory.