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Leo Burnell, like so many characters on “Loving,” was only interesting depending on who was writing for him. Leo was introduced in the summer of 1992 shortly after Haidee Granger assumed the EP title from Fran Sears. Rumor is that Granger and headwriter Addie Walsh fought over the direction of the show and Walsh departed while Granger ghostwrote. Walsh was credited until January 1993 so who knows what really happened. Leo’s origin remains questionable as a result. I tend to suspect that Leo might have originally been intended to be a Curtis Alden recast, but that’s pure speculation on my part. Anyway, Leo was introduced in August 1992 as the mysterious owner of Burnell’s department store who had been lusting after Ava Rescott, recently employed as a manager at the department store. When we met Leo, it was revealed he had been an overweight nerd who had been in love with Ava while they were in high school together. As a result, Leo had created Burnell’s. None of this backstory made a lot of sense. Burnell’s had been an established entity in the “Loving” universe since January 1984. It was also a division of AE. A more realistic backstory would have been to reveal that Leo’s family had established Burnell’s years earlier, but had been swindled in business by the Aldens or had lost the business to the Aldens because of poor business dealings. Also, if the Burnell family had established the store there could have been internal conflict about Leo not meeting the physical standard of beauty given that the Burnell name was synonymous with fashion and beauty. Later in the year, October or November 1992, it was revealed Leo was also in cahoots with Clay Alden to buy up Alden Enterprises stock after Clay learned his father was horse trainer, Tim Sullivan, and was determined to destroy AE to get back at his mother Isabelle for passing him off as Cabot Alden’s son in order to secure a legacy for Clay. Leo was involved in some silver smuggling deal. When Robert Guza and Millee Taggert take over in January 1993, Leo becomes a much more complex character. He becomes much more chauvinistic (I believe tied to his self esteem issues) and plagued with money issues (explaining his role in both the silver deal and his unholy alliance with Clay). I liked Guza and Taggert’s Leo. I thought the pairing of Leo and Shana was unique and had the potential to allow both characters to play on their best and worst traits. Ava as the third wheel worked well. Taggert and Guza gave each Leo and Shana separate motives for the baby contract: (1) Shana was looking to restart her life after losing Jim and Jimmy years earlier and (2) Leo’s money problems had escalated to the point where he was on the verge of losing Burnell’s. Add in Ava’s motivation (she didn’t want to be alone after a string of failed relationships) and you had a solid story. Shana securing the funding for Burnell’s in exchange for Leo’s sperm was an interesting plot that played on the best (and worst) of Guza and Taggert. I also suspect that Guza and Taggert were reusing elements of the Mason and Julia baby contract, but with a stronger third wheel in the role of Ava. I appreciate that the show would switch the story focus between the three characters. Either Ava was scheming to keep Leo by her side, or Shana was trying to get pregnant, or Leo was acting to try and keep the department store afloat. The twist with the baby having developmental issues was a nice way to bond Shana and Leo. When that emotional drama settled, Leo defaulted on the loan and Shana assumed control of Burnell’s. The next step of the story was suppose to have Shana and Ava fighting over the day to day operations at Burnells, but Nixon stepped in in September 1993 and scrapped all that. Nixon had little use for Shana and Leo. Under Nixon, Leo struggled to accept that Patti might have developmental issues. This put some strain on the Shana and Leo’s relationship. The problem was that Nixon introduced several new story elements (Angie / Charles’ relationship, the ad agency) without really removing any story so Leo and Shana were sidelined and the entire Burnell’s aspect of their story was dumped. Personally, I think they should have continued the tension between Shana and Leo regarding Burnell’s. I also would have brought in someone from Leo’s past who claimed their child was Leo’s. Leo would bond with the new family until it was revealed that Leo was in fact not the father of this child, but, because the child was healthy, Leo continued to bond with the child. I would have allowed this tension to be the straw that broke the back of Shana and Leo which would have led to Leo and Shana splitting. If this had played out around summer of 1994, I would have slowly paired Shana and Alex, at first friendly, and later romantic after Alex and Ava came to blows over Ava’s refusal to return AE to the Aldens. Shana and Alex would have worked together to get AE back, while Ava would have found solace from Curtis while Clay was playing both sides. Of course, after Shana and Alex were closer, Leo’s former love interest would have run off leaving Leo to raise this child and Leo trying to get back in Shana’s good graces. *** I know this will be unpopular, but I find the Trisha / Trucker / Jeff stuff so unimaginative. It seems like something you'd find on "Days of our Lives" in the same time period. I thought the initial Jeff stuff was appealing when he was a selfish son of privilege looking to strike out on his own and build a name for himself while flirting with both Trisha and Gwyn. By the time Richard Steinmetz takes over, something goes in a different direction and Jeff goes from complicated romantic lead to romantic antagonist once they introduce Trucker McKenzie, who seemed like an attempt to retell the Trisha / Steve Sowolsky storyline. I do like elements of the Rick / Stacey / Jack stuff, but it would have all gone down a lot smoother if they had just cast Ron Nummi as Curtis Alden. Very little from Taggert / King interests me until Kate's cancer and Paul / Ava become a couple under Jacquie Babbin's run as EP.

There are four phases to the Dante story. The first phase (May - September 1993), Tess joins Buck in Corinth where they are suppose to conitnue their scheme to bilk Trucker out of Trisha's inheritance. By the time Tess has arrived in Corinth, Buck has already softened and doesn't want to continue with the plan. This is when we get the details about what happened in Kuwait: Tess was married Dante and had met Curtis and Buck, who helped her escape from Dante. On the airstrip, Dante caught up with Tess leaving Curtis to shoot and (presumably) kill Dante, while Tess and Buck fled the country leaving Curtis behind. At this point, Dante is presented as dead. Ronald Guttman appears in one sequence in June 1993 as Dante in a vision Jeremy Hunter has of Dante and Tess together in Monte Carlo, or somewhere else where they are gambling together. Tess uses the gun to blackmail Curtis into keeping quiet about why she is in Corinth. During this stage, both Michael Lord and Patrick Johnson play Curtis. By the time Lord leaves, the Dante stuff isn't getting much play (as I recall) however Curtis has already started to unravel mentally due to his father Clay lusting after his very new bride, Dinalee. In the second stage (about November - December 1993), you have the big Dante arc. This is where he is harassing the Aldens putting them all in danger. Dante first arrives in Corinth pretending to be Joe Young, some man who comes to live above the bowling alley. I don't remember when we learn Dante is Joe, but I know the clue was that Dante had a spider tattoo on his hand. Anyway, Joe kidnaps Tyler for a hot minute, is toying with Dinahlee, and has his mystery guest locked in his apartment. Soon, we learn it is Curtis just as Dinahlee has accepted that Curtis has abandoned her and decided to reunite with Trucker. Meanwhile, Alex is revealed to be on the case and agrees to impersonate Clay for a meeting with Dante, but things don't work out in Alex's favor and he gets caught in his own trap. I think the canvas finally realizes it is Dante in December when the spider shows up at the fashion show and Tess realizes it has been Dante all along. Then, there is the whole Dinahlee kidnapping showdown where Tess offers herself up to Dante in order to end all this with Dante being shot in the process and left (again) presumably dead. This sets the scene for the next stage, stage 3, where Dante is faking a coma and manipulating things behind the scenes. Dante has a series of accomplices (his guard, a doctor at the hospital who is in debt due to malpractice, and Egypt). The bulk of this stage is Dante helping Egypt with her plan to fake her own death in order to frame Ava. Egypt realizes she is in too deep when Dante threatens to hurt Alexis if Egypt is to say anything about him being alive. In the meantime, Curtis is convinced that Dante is awake; he is. Curtis tries to convince others of the case but cannot. Eventually, Dante is shipped off to surgery in a case of a wrong patient receiving the wrong surgery. I think he has his jaw wired shut or something. Anyway, Dante dies again shortly there after. Dante was pronounced dead by the doctor on his payroll so it was left vague whether or not he was actually dead. This would be late March / early April 1994. Finally, Dante appears again in the fall of 1994 as visions to Curtis. I think Curtis sees Dante when he shoots Gwyn. Thom Christopher reprises the role. The story got some heat in the press because of Dante being presented as a villain. Speculating here, but I think Nixon was hoping to revive the character once things quieted down. With that said, I didn't see much long term potential in Dante. He was a poor man's Stefano Dimera.

We have been talking about Agnes Nixon's run so I watched some May 1994 episodes yesterday. By this point in time, most of the show is solid, but, as @Kane has said, characters waver a bit. Because it's sweeps, everyone seems to be appearing, but some more than others. The biggest lull in story is with Angie / Charles / Frankie though they will be more involved in story by the end of the month. Charles and Angie are still trying to navigate a relationship while Charles is adjusting to the idea he would be an insta-parent to a teenager. Shane McDemott appears as one of Frankie's friends in a party sequence. The AIDS scare must be over and done with because I know another medical crisis is looming. What was more interesting to me was seeing Angie hanging out with Stacey and Shana during Shana and Leo's dinner party. "Loving" really slid Angie into the Trisha position. I know Shana and Angie were acquainted due to Angie's involvement in Shana's pregnancy, but I'm trying to remember if they really even made an effort to create a relationship between Stacey and Angie. I vaguely recall the two talking in the park about dating after their husbands had died, which would have been months earlier, and everyone was present for Thanksgiving at Stacey's house. I wish a bit more was done with this grouping. Leo and Shana have slightly more story, but only in the sense that everything is coming to an end. Shana is still talking about feeling like an outsider. We get another reference to Shana and Isabelle animosity which seems to be foreshadowing Isabelle's return. Shana has received the offer from the Italian law firm that wants her to come work for them. The two are also planning their wedding. Very different from a very earlier where they were driving story under Millee Taggart and Robert Guza. The Patti story remains very vague. Does she have developmental issues? They skirt around it never stating whether or not that there are problems. Shana and Leo have been involved in early intervention programs with Patti, but in the latest consult with the doctor, it remains to soon to determine what kind of life Patti will have. Also present, but sort of spinning their wheels, are Ava and Alex. Ava is still recovering from her surgery from being shot in the head while trying to remember what Uncle Harry warned her about when she was in heaven. She has finally remembered that someone is going to die. Of course, Alex doesn't believe her. There is also some very minor tension between Ava and Alex involving Trudy, Ava's physical therapist, who is constantly around and makes Ava feel threatened. One thing I will say about Trudy that I appreciate is the actress bears a resemblance to Linda Cook so I could see why an Egypt doppleganger being in her home would cause Ava some anxiety. Now onto the most plot driven couple: Buck and Stacey. I like Buck and Stacey. They have nice chemistry. Stacey is very relatable. I definitely see her as the soccer mom who is trying to do it all (shuffling the kids, maintaining the house, and working a full time job). I like that Nixon has emphasized that Buck comes with baggage as it is leading into his next big (but aborted) story with Janie. Buck and Stacey have been on the outs since about March when Robert Lupone's loan shark character was threatening Stacey and the kids. In order to reunite Stacey and Buck, they literally put J.J. on the train tracks and have Buck and Stacey stumble upon his friend while driving. This is a bit preposterous and stands out because so much of the show is just really strongly written. After cutting J.J. off the tracks (his dumb @ss was literally tied to the tracks), Buck and Stacey admit they love one another and end up sleeping together. Don't get too excited though as Buck gets up and leaves moments later. To top things off, Buck goes to some random dive bar (a set I liked much more than the Rodeo Bar), gets drunk with Tess, and falls into bed with her. The Tess / Buck hook up I actually liked. Not in a way where I want them paired, but I appreciate the fact that Tess was looking for casual sex as a way of dealing with Cooper's rejection and Buck as a way to self destruct his relationship with Stacey. Also, Buck sleeps with both Tess and Stacey on the same evening, which, if it happened today, would have led to some baby switch storyline. The Dinahlee / Trucker / Curtis stuff is moving nicely. Dinahlee realizes she has gotten herself in over her head and that Curtis' mental health issues are going to take months, not weeks, to be treated. I do think that some of that day to day stuff is well done. Dinahlee is concerned about Curtis' lack of sleep and Curtis using this to try and get Dinahlee to spend the night (on his couch in the gatehouse). They also go to great depths to torture Curtis; he is definitely presented as a sympathetic antagonist. He still has flashbacks to his wedding day with that country song that was Dinahlee/Curtis' theme. Curtis learns that Dinahlee has taken the song off the jukebox at Pins as well as learning Dinahlee is staying at the Corinth Towers under her maiden name. Buck's annoying self has butt in, but has set the stage for Curtis' next scheme (to convince Trucker that Trisha is still alive). Dinahlee and Trucker have lots of tension trying to avoid sleeping together, which is really effective. @j swift While watching this, I do see more what you mean about Clay and Curtis. I think Nixon has chosen to go the mental health route because it gives Curtis a dimension that is different from Clay and Cooper. If I were writing, I would have allowed Curtis to be more sullen and brooding because, at present, they are playing Clay as sort of the casual, aging playboy, which is a role that would have made more sense for Chris Marcantel to play based on his initial characterization in the early 1980s. Ideally, I would have written Curtis and Clay as openly hostile whereas Clay would have done more to mentor Cooper, who would at times accept the advice and later reject it. This could have caused Curtis and Cooper tension, which would have sent Curtis to work for some rival of Clay's (possibly some relative of Dante's). Eventually, the Cooper / Clay / Steffi situation would have allowed Curtis to basically tell Cooper that he told him so. Also, it would have been very interesting to see what would have happened if it was Jack Forbes, not Cabot Alden, who had come back from the dead in 1994. Cooper manages to be different because his parents. Also, I feel like it should have been addressed either directly or in passing that Cooper's affair with Tess, an older woman, was an interesting choice given that he was sexual abuse survivor who abused by his nanny, who was also a woman several years older than him. Tess and Cooper's relationship is interesting. Both claim they want it to be just sexual even though there does appear to be a bit of actual feelings there. I don't necessarily want them together, but I like what is going on. Cooper and Steffi are where it is at and they have really just started. Steffi is still deeply devoted with Clay. Her eating disorder isn't really touched upon other than a passing comment about her weight by Cooper, but her insecurities have manifested in this obsessive need to have Clay love her. Clay does enjoy Steffi and Dennis Parlatou does a great job sort of balancing the icky quality of the dynamic by making Clay's concern for her at the forefront of their relationship. Clay wants Steffi to be happy. Is it because he wants to make her his wife or his new daughter? That doesn't seem clear, but it's a gray area that I find myself enjoying. Edmund Genest is appearing as the creepy Wendell Barnes who makes a pass at Steffi, while Susan Pratt is using some over the top posh accent as Wendell's socialite wife Elizabeth. There are bits and pieces of Clay's story happening offscreen which is annoying (there was a significant board meeting that we only see outside the doors and Elizabeth and Steffi have an outing that is important to getting Wendell to keep Clay in the CEO position), but overall I really enjoy this story. Now that Tess and Cooper are self destructing, Cooper makes a play for Steffi and kisses her during an argument. Meanwhile, Deborah has hired Tommy Fontana, a sleazy PI, to get the details on Clay. Tired of Deborah manipulating Steffi, Clay tracks Deborah down to her motel room and starts throwing money at her while she is in her nightgown trying to buy her off. He completely degrades her moments before she drops the bomb on him that she has proof of his underhanded dealings (the photos from Fontana). She then requests Clay to dance with her in some wild moment of victory. As a result, Deborah is back living at the Alden mansion which is just tons of fun because Cooper has no use for Deborah's meddling self. Clay also has his hand in the business at the ad agency. Still owning a controlling interest, Clay leverages his power to get Tess to break up Gwyn and Jeremy, which seems to be for both personal and professional reasons. Jeremy catches on to Tess' ploy (which it is implied Tess has done on purpose) leading to a confrontation between Clay and Tess, Jeremy, and Gwyn who convince Clay to sign over the ad agency. I'm not sure when he gets control of it again, but, for now, it seems to be out of Clay's hands. The other younger couple, Casey and Ally, are planning their wedding. Cooper makes a rather important gesture (helping Kate secure the permit to have the wedding in the park) as a way of having Cooper move on from loving Ally. Casey isn't that lucky. He remains convinced that Ally is still enamoured with Cooper or at least the life that Cooper could provide her so he has become focused on his work. He has been doing photography for the police department (putting himself in dangerous situtations) which upsets Ally. Casey quits only to be offered money by Tommy Fontana to do some work for him with a very omnious "That guy is going to get someone killed" comment from the cops regarding Fontana. I think this part of the year is very good. Once the initial Dante stuff concludes in December 1993, Nixon seems to have a much firmer grasp on where she wants things to be going.

I think "Generations" had massive potential, but it was rarely able to get all the pieces working at the same time. For example, I was rewatching some episodes I have from May 1989. For the most part, they are nothing special. The show is very low key. There is nothing that really grabs me as a viewer and demands that I watch this everyday, but the potential is there. The relationship between Laura Whitmore McCallum and Ruth Potter Marshall is fascinating. Both women had grown up in the same home and attended the same school. When Laura was done with something, it was handed down to Ruth. I would have loved to seen Laura's reaction to the revelation that not only had Ruth slept with her father, but that Chantal was Laura's half-sister. Joan Pringle, by herself, could have carried the show, and, at times, she did, often with the help of Jonelle Allen. Gail Ramsey seems incredibly capable, but Laura is dull as dirt. It would have been much more interesting to me if Laura was as desperate to maintain her privileged status as Ruth was to make it in the social circles of the Chicago North Shore elite. In a way, Laura is such a passive character, while Ruth is such an active character. I would have continued to find ways to keep Laura and Ruth together. It would have been interesting if Trevor's agency was suppose to be behind the marketing blitz that would have been used to launch Marshall's ice cream nationally. It would have put more at stake for this Marshall - Jackson deal. Also, I think it would have been interesting if the Women's Arts Council story had been something of a more competitive nature. Also, if the show wasn't going to go with Sam and Adam immediately, maybe the show could have explored Monique and Wally Beaumont and force Ruth and Laura to deal with that situation. Also, I think it would have been interesting if they paired Martin and Laura up after they both had divorced their spouses. I think Ruth would have a few choice words about that. Also, if Martin ended up in jail briefly, with Laura taking over the reigns of Jackson's business interests, Laura would have a say in Marshall Ice Cream. The Whitmores fall apart pretty quickly as a family unit. Once Laura and Trevor divorce, Laura is in a C-romance with Martin's right hand man and is a juror on the Eric Royal trial. JD is the first contract role jettisoned. Neither Trevor nor Rebecca make it on contract for a full year. Ultimately, it's just Sam and Monique, and Monique's story dries up too. Peter's return set up potential for the family to reemerge, but I wonder if it would have been successful.

I don't recall, but the cage Dante kept Curtis in was intended for an animal. It wasn't very big.

This show always fascinates me. Glad to see some new memories from people. @Joseph I don't think the multiple personality storyline lasted very long. I have a couple of scripts from the final months (mostly from late January / early February 1973). The main thrust of the story is Peter Jardin's accident in the garage. He had gone out to start up the snowblower and ended up lighting himself on fire. Labine and Mayer were telling their first child in peril medical story. In the few episodes I have, it is pretty brutal. Peter doesn't die from the fire instantly, but lingers on for DAYS. It is touch and go for several days before Peter perishes at some point. In the last script I have, Peter is still alive and is being visited by a classmate who has clearly taken a romantic interest in Peter. This comes after Steve Prescott has delivered a long speech about the things that he worries Peter will never get to experience like his first love. This was intended to let the Prescotts know that Peter had lived a very rich life despite how short it would turn out. I'd imagine Kate's mental decline would have only last a few weeks between mid to late February until the show's final week in March. @Nicholas BlairThanks again for sharing memories. Labine is one of my favorite soap writers. I was able to her her speak several years before her death at a local high school. She had fond memories of Diana van der Vlis. I was disappointed when she alluded to the fact that she hadn't kept any of her material from her early soaps days, but had planned on donating her "Ryan's Hope" material to the WGA. @slick jones I always enjoy your cast lists. I think Christine Cameron's daughter was named Katina without the R. I always thought it was Katrina, but I have now read it was was Katina named after Christine's best friend, Kate. The details about Barbara Jessup and Harry Rowsky were interesting. I forgot that those early days had more of an underworld presence. The secondary families on the show, the Jessups and the Prescotts, intrigue me so I was happy to learn a bit more about Barbara and her husband.

Thom Christopher never seems to shy away from playing the homoeroticism in any storyline he has been given. I remember reading Christopher's comments about the Cristian Vega mind control story in the oral history book about "One Life to Live." Christopher talked about playing up the sexual element of the story and David Fumero being pretty open up until a certain point. From what I recall about the "One Life" story, that was most subtext, but the Dante story was less subtle. Dinahlee and Dante have a very specific conversation about Dinahlee thinking that Joe Young (Dante) has been sneaking a lover into his room above the bowling alley before Dante starts to referring to Curtis as his kitty. The story is very James E. Reilly. The suspense in the Dante story is very, very good.

@Nicholas Blair Thanks for sharing your memories of the Stacey / Josh / Gerry / Tod story. I am always interested to hear about this show because it seems to make so many shifts in direction over the years. The only Stacey stories I had heard about previously involved her initial arrival to reunite with her father Matt Corby (Paul Raven, back from the dead) with her Southern belle mama Evelyn, who was disturbed by Stacey's friendship with African American Daisy Allen as well as some plot involving ESP around the time Bill Prentiss was written off. The scene of the teens getting high and trashing the house sounds very interesting. I know I've heard someone describe a very similar scene on "The Young Marrieds" several years before that one. It's a shame more shows didn't embrace the idea of the show's mature leads taking on wards rather than rapidly aging the next generation. I think something has been lost in the soap opera genre now that characters no longer have an older adult to turn to talk about their problems. The lack of that intimacy makes the shows so hollow and is one of the reasons the genre has been dying for the last two and half decades.

Reena and Justin were childhood sweethearts. They had split because Justin went off to Europe on the racing circuit after Reena had desperately tried to convince Justin to go to college, study law, and work in her Daddy's law office. When the show opened, they were united when Justin returned for his father's funeral. Reena and Justin were able to bond over their hatred of Alex Wheeler (Justin blaming Alex for Mike Marshall's suicide and Reena angry because Alex had made a cuckold of her father). Reena knew that Alex and her mother Victoria had been carrying on for years and had the pictures to prove it. It was Reena who landed Justin the job at KVIK by threatening to use the photos against her own mother. Victoria kept mum because she knew, and Reena didn't, that Striker had a serious heart condition. Victoria feared the ramifications of Striker learning of the affair, which he did. I believe Clipper Curtis ended up spilling the beans. When Reena learned Justin's sister Courtney was sleeping with Reena's husband Dr. Kevin Cook, Reena and Justin hit the sheets again around the time an attraction was growing between Kevin and her mother's right hand woman at KVIK, Reena's cousin Samantha. To complete the mess, Courtney Marshall was the object of desire of Samantha's brother, Dr. Bart Walker. I definitely think the Corringtons were planning some sort of combination of Reena triangle with Justin and Max. I also felt they were chem testing a potential rivalry between Ginny and Reena with Reena potentially pursuing Ryan Connor at some point. So they could have also done a Max / Ginny / Ryan / Reena story. There was just so much potential and so many directions that the Corringtons could have gone with the first year of "Texas." I've reached mid-November 1980 and have a few more weeks of material on DVD to work my way through. I'm disappointed they didn't do more with the Sam / Justin / Reena combination, but Ann McCarthy lacks the presence that was needed to be Reena's rival though I think she and Borelli look like they could be family. I also wouldn't have hated them pursuing Kevin / Victoria in a more intimate friendship that frustrated Reena.

Casting the 2nd generation of Aldens (Clay, Gwyn, Ann) and the 3rd generation of Aldens (Curtis, Jack, Rick, Trisha) with actors with such a small age gap I do think complicated things. I do think this may have been why Ann was never brough back in the 1990s. I don't think Curtis served the same story purpose as Clay. Curtis' bigger issue was the evolution of the character from unloved bad boy to more a reformed playboy to traditional romantic lead. By the time Curtis returns in the 1990s, the character has been reset to a man haunted by his past while Clay is more bitter and vengeful. Clay looms as a omnious vision of who Curtis can become if Curtis falls too deeply into the Alden rabbit hole. With all that said, I would accept the argument that Cooper rendered Curtis unnecessary as a younger Alden male heir with the potential to be Clay or reject the world Clay presents to him. Nixon ultimately plucks Clay out of the triangle with Dinahlee and Curtis and places him into a similar situation with Cooper and Steffi. In the end, I think the Clay / Cooper dynamic was more well developed, but it definitely benefitted from a stronger actor and more care and nuance. I think if TPTB had found an actor that more suited their vision of Curtis, then he would have still been in town in October 1993. Millee Taggert and Robert Guza's 1993 run definitely integrated the cast more into other stories. The show storylines didn't feel so isolated. While I didn't like how all encompassing it became, I don't think the ad agency was a terrible idea. I think that was a smart set piece given the canvas in place at the time. I appreciate what Nixon did to rehab the character of Tess, but I wish they had just put Lorna in charge of the ad agency (even if it was Catherine Hickland playing Lorna). I know a lot of people don't like Egypt's murder scheme, but I did. I like that Egypt roped in Buck, which laid the groundwork for the Janie Sinclaire reveal. I also felt the Dante angle gave Egypt a very valid reason for leaving Alexis in Corinth and running away. The minute Mary Ryan Munisteri left "Loving" Dinahlee becomes less interesting. Walsh makes her into some weak, clingy heroine which was completely unnecessary given the story in place. I much rather Clay have approached Dinahlee in order to BREAK up Trucker and Trisha's marriage. Clay would have pursued Dinahlee in order to keep Trucker involved in Dinahlee's orbit, which would have infuriated Trisha and hopefully, for Clay, instigated a separation between Trucker and Trisha. Of course, Dinahlee would have seen dollar signs. Also, Dinahlee's pursuit of the Alden fortune via Clay may have made Isabelle put more stipulations on her plans to make CLay the president of Alden. There was a way to keep Dinahlee in the Alden orbit as an active instigator rather than a passive pawn. I agree, though, I wish Dinahlee got back more of her backbone even though I enjoy much of the Curtis / Dinahlee / Trucker triangle. I think they kept Robert Tyler around because they hoped Noelle Beck would return one day. Having Trucker with Dinahlee when Trisha returned would have been a smart setup, but unnecessary. I was intrigued by the Trucker / Angie relationship, but the most interesting angle of that, Trucker taking Frankie under his wing, was used by Nixon with Frankie and Charles. Thinking about your point regarding Clay / Dinahlee, I wonder if the original plan wasn't to play Clay / Dinahlee / Alex triangle for several months before Curtis returned to town with Alex taking on the role similar to that Jeremy took on with Stacey when she was married to Clay. The Dante story is fun, but it is has a spontaneous quality that is a bit disappointing. I remember the suggestion that the people stalking Clay were behind Trisha's murder. I believe there may have been a lingering question about what Trisha was in a rush to tell Trucker the day she died. Ultimately, it was that Curtis and Buck knew each other, but I can't remember if everyone knew that at the time. I believe the original intention may have been to reveal Trisha was alive sooner rather than later. There was also a great beat in the Dante story where Gwyn brings in a psychic who is able to track down Gwyn's child, but Gwyn dismisses Mrs. Quackenbush because she talks about Gwyn's female child rather than her male child. There was backlash about Dante being the only Middle Eastern character and a villain. It would have been interesting to bring on another member of Dante's family who people questioned their motives, but ultimately they would have been on the up and up. Potentially a business rival for the Aldens. I liked disliking Leo. I was disappointed how quickly they downplayed that.

Nixon wrote from September 1993 until August 1994. There were episodes online from September 1993. In an episode leading up to the tornado (before Michael Lord's Curtis left town), Millee Taggert and Robert Guza are still credited as headwriters. By the time the tornado is over, Agnes Nixon is credited. This is about mid to late September. It doesn't feel like Nixon returned with some sort of grand plan. SOD reported that Millee Taggert left the show in 1993 because she was ill so its possible that Nixon's decision to takeover was sudden and not meant to be as longterm. I believe Nixon tended to do short runs in the late 1990s / early 2000s on "All My Children" between writers. Nixon's associate headwriters during her 1990s run were Laurie McCarthy and Addie Walsh who would assume the role of headwriters once Nixon departed. Despite this, McCarthy and Walsh were the ones that the soap press were speaking with when they were getting information about the show. Nixon's first months are rough. I don't think things really settle in until January 1994 though there is definitely some good stuff in between. I don't think any of the scam stuff worked. There were a lot of elements of Tess' character that felt very Guza. When watching the 1993 episodes several years back, Tess reminded me very much of Summer (Brittney Powell) from "General Hospital." I think Taggert was resetting Tess in September by scrapping the scam stuff, downplaying the Curtis / Buck stuff, and putting Tess in Shana and Leo's orbit. I think its possible Taggert may have intended to fashion more into an early Dinahlee type, which I think would have worked. Honestly, a lot of characters became less complex under Nixon than they were under Guza / Taggert. I'm not sure if the show was really dumping Curtis as much they were Michael Lord. The setup was there for Curtis' return, but Nixon didn't go the route that Taggert and Guza hinted at. In the final days of Michael Lord's run, Curtis switches out Dinahlee's birth control pills and is looking to have a baby with Dinahlee. I felt Curtis was going to return to a pregnant Dinahlee. Jeremy in Corinth was a mistake. LeClerc and Peluso had nice chemistry, but Jeremy was an albatross. They would have been better off developing a different character for him. Similarly, I don't think bringing on Angie in the way they did was smart. It would have been better to have Angie working at the university in either a research position or clinical work. I really liked the Gwyn / Stacey rivalry. I thought it was disappointing to dump that. It would have been better to keep Gwyn and Buck friends, as Gwyn suggested, and Buck becoming concerned about Gwyn and Clay based on Clay's recent machinations involving Stacey leading to Stacey and Buck tension. Buck feeling not good enough for Stacey for financial reasons was a serious shift that I felt worked, but it was a huge shift that could have been handled another way. The first part of the Dante story was interesting, but the timeline was wonky. I'm pretty sure Alex arrived in town right before or right as Curtis left so that whole angle seemed to be a different direction than what was initially intended. Nixon completely dropped the tension between Leo and Shana regarding Shana's ownership of Burnell's as well as the angle that Ava had gone to college to be near Jeremy. The baby situation was interesting, but it wasn't the kind of situation you could tell everyday. Curtis was older than Trisha.

I'm making my way through the interview (seen about an hour so far) and very interested. Sussman Morina talking about the origins of the development was interesting. I knew the African American family angle was suggested by Brian Frons. I did not realize that the success that New World had selling "Santa Barbara" overseas was a major factor in why NBC wanted to produce their own in-house soap opera. In many ways, you can see how that element plays out in the show. Initially, the show's tone is very stoic and clearly influenced by Sussman's experience at "The Young and the Restless" without the solid plotting that was need to make the day to day writing interesting. There were concepts that were floated around (Ruth wanting to buy the old Marshall house, Hugh Gardner's inheritance, Jessica's alcoholism) that were intriguing but poorly executed. Even Martin Jackson buying the Marshall Ice Cream stock wasn't as interesting as it could have been. By the end of the year, the show was much more colorful and had much quicker pace. Jason Craig's "murder" worked well as it tied several couples together under one story. Similarly, introducing the Winston Hotel, the Chicago branch of the Hale hotel chain, worked well. The secret of Danielle's paternity was very effective as well as the Maya / Adam / Doreen / Daniel quad. Jorn Winter definitely injected the show with some energy that wasn't really there by the summer time. All the actors spoke about the chemistry, and I agree a bit. As I said, I haven't finished, but I wonder if anyone asked about the possibility of pairing Adam and Sam, which was flirted with occassionally. Jonelle Allen was delightful. Her getting choked up about Kristoff St. John was very poignant. I wonder how much of Doreen was influenced by Allen herself given the singing and the struggle with alcohol. Allen as Doreen (along with Joan Pringle as Ruth) really manages to make the character's throughline very strong. I have seen some (and have some) of the final months, but I really would like to see more of her interaction with nephew Tyrone. I thought Rick Fitts' comments about playing a villain were interesting. Martin was definitely an Alan Spaulding type and I do wish they had managed to find a way to keep Martin in the story as I enjoyed him a lot. I know they chemistry tested him with a couple of people (Sharon Brown's Chantal, Maya), but they eventually just dumped him in Brazil. Nancy Sorel seems sweet. Monique was very dull. Early on, there were just too many characters in places of employment without overlap with a bunch of side characters associated with them. Jason and Monique were pretty bland after they removed Sam from the equation. George De Loy's character Rob Donnelly was enjoyable in his pairing with Linda Gibboney's Jessica. Like Fitts, I wish they had managed to find a place for him on the canvas as I really liked him in the Daniel Reubens underground storyline. I think they chose a good group. The only person I really wish they could have gotten was Joan Pringle. I wouldn't have minded Gail Ramsey or Linda Gibboney, but I would have really loved to hear Pringle speak about playing Ruth.

Great to see a full episode in English! I think the first two episodes were online years ago dubbed in Italian. I believe this episode is about a week or so after the infamous "murder mystery contest" episode that ended with a bunch of different cliffhangers most of which seemed to be very quickly resolved by this episode. The episode itself was very plot heavy, but, coming off the previous week, the writers were probably trying to maintain momentum when it might have made more sense to slow things down. It was interesting seeing Kelly Bennett as Michelle Davenport. This character was eventually revealed to be Sarah Gallagher's daughter by Patrick Chapin, but not before she slept with her half-brother Carter Robertson. It was also nice seeing Janice Heiden playing Marissa Mallory. I liked the potential in that friendship (Michelle / Marissa) but I think Marissa is on her way out. I think her trying to poison Carter was her last hurrah. I was actually surprised they mentioned the poisoning (the issue with the vents). I am actually really surprised by how engaging I find Laurie Burton, the actress who plays Sarah Gallagher. I see why the show made her a more central figure as time went on. I believe they briefly paired her with Anthony Ponzini's police captain character. The stuff with Christina and Clay was less than appealing. I like both characters, but this just was pure plot. In regards to the connection between the book and the show, as previously stated, there were significant rewrites and story evolution that is grounded in the original source material. The Taylor Chapin / Julia Field / Logan Williams set up is lifted straight from the novel. In the book, Judd McBroom would bed most of the female students, which was one of the 'rituals' at the all girls' school. Judd impregnated Charlotte, who married a wealthy bisexual, and passed Judd's daughter Priscilla off as Sterling Lawson's. In the original pilot, Joe Lambie played Judd McBroom, Philece Sampler played Priscilla, and Christine Jones played Charlotte. Also in the pilot was Barbara Crampton as Sandy, who, in the book, is revealed to be the daughter of Priscilla's perceived father. When the pilot tested poorly, there were several significant rewrites. In one unused version, the show managed to retain the original source material by keeping the story ingrained in the all girls school but by adding in some significant older characters. Bayard Lawson was the industrialist grandfather of Laura Lawson, previously Priscilla. Bayard would eventually become Patrick Chapin. There was also an older female president who was a sort of Alice Horton type. Sarah Gallagher was originally named Jenny and played in the pilot by Stephanie Braxton. In this alternate version, Jenny had been raped by Turner Lawson, Bayard's son and Laura's "father," and birthed a police officer son (who would later evolve into Tom Gallagher). I recently read a newsbrief about Christine Jones from September 1984 saying that her character had gone from Charlotte Lawson to Ashley Tafton to Whitney Robertson to Susan Robertson to Christina Robertson. So the tweaking was pretty insane. Going back to Charlotte / Judd / Prisc story, in the soap, Taylor and Logan were lovers in their youth before Taylor married Carson Field and quickly birthed a daughter, Julia. Taylor and Logan were rekindling their romance and Julia was attempting to act as a spoiler. From what I've read, there seems to be hints that Logan was suppose to be Julia's father, but that was never revealed. I suspect that this was going to replay many of the elemetns of the original source, but they decided to scrap it. Julia had daddy issues and was involved with her older lover Berhardt, who eventually married Julia's frumpy roomate, heiress Patty Dupont. Julia was briefly involved with Clay Travis, who is involved with Christina in this clip, before they paired her with African American cop Lucky Washington. Once they brought on Peter Haskell as C.J., I think they had long abandoned the idea of Julia being another man's child. As disappointing as this episode was, it gives me hope more of it is out there.

Neat article. If I had to venture a guess, it wasn't Patrick Johnson alone that the audience was rejecting, but the Curtis storyline. My first introduction to "Loving" were the old rec.arts.television.soaps messages; that crowd was not found of the Kuwait storyline. Watching those episodes in more recent years, Patrick Johnson has the misfortune of arriving several weeks before Noelle Beck leaves and is positioned in a major pairing with Dinahlee with some very bizarre trappings (the false names, the introduction of the country western bar). Jessica Collins had managed to sell so many different versions of the Dinahlee character, but this just wasn't going to work. The idea of a Curtis / Dinahlee / Clay triangle was much more interesting on paper than it was in execution. I prefer Lord over Johnson, but Lord overplayed a lot of the material. Also, I'm not sure we would have gotten crazy Curtis if it wasn't for Lord. With that said, I would have liked to see what would have happened if he had been given a few more months in the role. Prior to Lord's Curtis leaving, Curtis had been messing with Dinahlee's birthcontrol and I suspect they might have done a Who's the Daddy storyline involving Curtis, Dinahlee, and Clay or maybe Trucker. Part of the issue with Curytis was the character had been a mess for several iterations prior to his 1993 return. Chip Albers Curtis was too young and sending Curtis off to the Persian Gulf would have worked better if they used the experience to age the character (both in terms of actor and characterization). Instead, they continued playing him in the younger crowd when he was Trisha's older brother. I don't think anyone could have made that material work as it was written. The Shana / Leo storyline is good. Shana's desire to have a child was a smart move for the character. Taggart and Guza made Leo super chauvinistic which gave the characters some very natural conflict to play. Add in Ava and you had a very interesting set of circumstances. Sometimes they overplayed the slapstick in this story, but I felt the meat of the story (Shana's baby having developmental delays, Burnell's being owned by Shana) was enough to keep the story going much longer than Nixon did.

Ruby mostly was with Lloyd and Stephanie in the stuff I've seen, but the pre-AOL material is spotty in places. Summer of 1983 is definitely one of them. I believe there was initially some build up to the owner of the paper. I want to say both Lloyd and Stephanie were separately trying to buy it because the owner had died and the widow was looking to sell it. In the character's backstory, Ruby and Stephanie had both vied, I believe, for the newspaper owner, but Ruby had won out. Given where the story was heading, I think the show was just using Ruby to help set up more situations for Lloyd and Stephanie, who I suspect were the show's longterm goal. I think the Steve stuff was more foundational than longterm.

I think at the start of the storyline, Gina mentioned that there had been medical advances made which is why she was thinking of having a child. Though, it was definitely a minor detail that was never explored or developed further. I know this is unpopular, but I've enjoyed the bulk of what I've seen of the Dobsons 1991 run, but more scenes than storylines. As someone who doesn't live, eat, and breath Cruz and Eden, I find the final Eden storyline captivating in terms of the Eden is Channing, Jr. personality. Those scenes are just wonderful. Louise Sorel is also given some wonderful drunken monologues as she stumbles into a hospital room and laments on her life. I think the trial for Dr. Jameson running down Santana plays on the show's history nicely. I think the shooting of Mason leads to some nice courtroom drama as well. I don't hate Mason / Cassandra / Warren the way others do, but they do take up so much of the storyline. There are also way too many storylines that introduce international characters strictly to appear in criminal storylines or act as pure agitators. That said, to get through these scenes, you often have to put up with waste of space scenes with characters like Katrina and Dash or Eileen Davidson's Kelly. I also am not a huge fan of the Michael Brainard in those early scenes.

Would Rosemary Forsyth's departure and Judith McConnell's arrival line up with Mary-Ellis Bunim's arrival on the show? Ava Lazar mentioned that Bunim (the new producer) wanted to work with actors she had worked with in New York. I believe McConnell would fall into that category.

Ruby Ashford was on for a few weeks between June and July 1983. She first arrived during some big fundraiser party and left a little while later after selling Lloyd Kendall the newspaper.

@JosephNatalie Schafer's Eleanor Carlyle was mentally ill. I believe she was released from a mental hospital and arrived on the scene after they killed of Baylor. If I remember reading correctly, Eleanor was Duncan's mother and Tracey's stepmother. Somewhere, I have the original proposal for "The Survivors" which was very different. I believe Duncan was originally suppose to be the focus and the storyline for the first year was very action oriented. There were a lot of production problems and I believe several episodes were filmed quite early on that were thrown out. Actually, they ended up being repackaged as a telefilm called "The Last of the Power Seekers" and it aired internationally. In regards to Krystle/Alexis angle, one of the only other forgotten 1980s soaps that went that angle, and has been seemingly forgotten, was the late night "Behind the Screen." The patriarch character, Gerry Holmby, headwriter for the soap opera "Generations," had a second wife, his writing partner Dory, and his ambitious first wife, Angela Aries. I wish "Behind the Screen" would pop up the way other 1980s primetime soaps have.

I don't think the show really appreciated what they had in Clay and Gwyn. I know bickering divorced couples who love each other in a different way are a staple of soap opera, but it would have been nice to have a least a few weeks of them happy together before they would tear the band aid off. Parlato and Heinle shouldn't have worked as well together as they did. Parlato kept Clay from being completely creepy despite the fact that the age of his girlfriends seem to consistently decrease. Trisha and Jack were both dead to Trucker and Stacey. The guilt about betraying the loves of their lives is about the only energy the story would have had. I'm not personally advocating for a grand romance, but I do think that Stacey and Trucker heading a mixed match brood of kids in a working class surburban household would have made a semblance of sense. It just would have reduced the characters to tentpoles rather than active agents in the story. I have complained about Tess for many years. Catherine Hickland is talented, but Tess was such a cluster of a character. Hickland managed to salavage the character when the writing wasn't there. I would argue the only time Tess worked was when Nixon was writing and she was mostly just manipulative and self destructive. Taggart and Guza's grifter was unlikeable. I don't remember much of Tess' story under Walsh/McCarthy, but Tess just seemed present. The final version of Tess under Brown and Essensten was terribly harsh and crass. It was really a turn off. With that said, she had great chemistry with everyone. I thought Tess and Cooper worked together in a twisted way. That was probably my favorite pairing for Hickland on "Loving." Though I think they could have done a nice marriage made in hell between Tess and Clay if Deborah hadn't shown up. It was great seeing Woodall. I wish he had tried another show. He still has the same energy and vibe that he did when he was on "Loving" 30 years ago. It was a nice treat. I still think they should have tried to bring Matt back when they wrote out Casey.

To me, Trucker and Trisha were simply a Trisha / Steve redux. If you were going to go that road, why not make Trucker a Sowolosky or a Rescott and call it a day. In the final days (March 1993) of Trisha and Trucker, they were simple a young married couple hanging out with their friends and living a happy life. Without all the constant melodrama, I understood why the couple was appealing, but they were just a lot to take as the show's central couple. I certainly agree that Stacey and Trucker would have been a thing had the show just continued. I just felt they got along too well and had nothing unique to keep them together as a couple. If the show was okay with Stacey and Trucker setting up house in the Donovan place and offering advice to the miserable people of Corinth that would have been fine. I just can't see them driving major story as a couple as either did in other pairings. There are times I wish they had cast Larkin Malloy as an Alden cousin. I don't think the writing was necessarily bad, but it wasn't right for Clay. I didn't appreciate how Addie Walsh found it necessary to write Dinahlee as a victim in order to keep her relationship with Clay going. Parlato's Clay cohabitating at the Alden mansion with Tudor Newman's Gwyn lusting after Collins' Dinahlee while Marcantel's Curtis slowly unraveled was a missed opportunity. If Buck wasn't brought on for that specific reason, I do think the idea occurred along the way. Buck was an invention of Guza and Taggart who arrived shortly before Noelle Beck departed. The whole Persian Gulf backstory with Buck, Tess, and Curtis wasn't my favorite. I think Taggart and Guza would have commited to Tess / Trucker as end game which I think would have been very unfortunate. Stacey / Buck / Gwyn was an unlikely storyline that really worked. Brown had nice chemistry with both actresses. I didn't like the pregnancy storyline, but I do think it was a mistake to move Gwyn out of Stacey and Buck's orbit so quickly only to turn around and blow up a Clay / Gwyn revisit all in the name of accomodating the albatross that was Jeremy Hunter. @DRW50, you are spot on. I'd say there are a few more I enjoy. After Ally gets pregnant, I can take pretty much any configuration of the youth quad: Ally / Casey, Casey / Steffi, Cooper / Steffi, and Cooper / Ally. To be honest, Casey / Steffi was my favorite. I liked Clay and Gwyn with Parlato and Tudor Newman. Under Taggart / Guza, I did like Shana / Leo. After the initial reunion in the fall of 1993, I felt the Ava / Alex story could be trying at times. I enjoy things like Egypt's murder, but it is a story that required Egypt to go to the extremes in order to facilitate it. Ava taking over AE had huge potential, but that story was quickly nixed. I don't know if they ever properly dealt with the fallout of Alex shooting Gilbert, but I think that also had some legs. Ultimately, I don't hate that Alex and Ava didn't end together, but rather that Alex moved on with Jocelyn. Nixon is credited in September 1993. Debbi Morgan arrived in August 1993. It's entirely possible this was all in place and due to contracts. Taggart had previewed some big surprise returns for the show's tenth anniversary but none of that came to be. I'm not sure if she was talking about Alex Masters and Angie (return to daytime). Angie is introduced as the doctor helping Shana with her pregnancy. We also see her dealing with a very rebellious Frankie, who Trucker offers to take under his wing. Through Frankie, Trucker and Angie meet and Trucker asks Angie out, but Angie rejects this. The show had just moved Tess out of Trucker's orbit and into Curtis / Clay's worlds. Peluso definitely could deliver a solid performance even when the writing wasn't up to par. Jeremy and Ava had potential, but there stories didn't work. I actually liked Gilbert and Ava a little bit, but only in the sense of a tragic couple who would never be able to make it work. Ava and Alex in the mid 1990s always seemed to be in a story bubble and it would have been nice to seen them a bit more integrated.

I do believe they made Rick a bit crazy. Originally, it appeared that Rick was brought on to replace Curtis on the canvas as the Alden troublemaker, but in a different way. By that point in the story, Curtis was involved with Lotty and they were already making him more of a traditional romantic lead. Rick seemed like he could be trouble. Rick was involved in the Lily story, which would have made more sense with Curtis in the role given Curtis' history with everyone. I wasn't one who was impressed with Taggart's 2002-2003 stint the way others were. To be fair, she was still contending with Paul Raunch for most of it. I thought the Marah / Tony rape me scene was very off putting as was Cassie stripping for Danny. The end worked much better for me with the stalker storyline and the mystery about Gus. I have come to appreciate her work a lot more in recent years when it comes to "Loving," but also still hold to the belief that significant periods of her run with the show were mediocre at best. The 1991 material from Taggart (and Tom King) can be a bit heavy. The birth and death of Trisha and Trucker's son is pretty rough. Killing both Jim and Jimmy in a plane crash was a bit much. I thought the Abril baby story was a nice unifying thread that united many parts of the canvas. I also liked the love triangle with Carly / Ava / Paul even if it wasn't anything terribly original.

@Broderick I believe you are talking about the summer of 1979. Your comment about the looseness of the canvas would make sense. John and Joyce Corrington were the headwriters at the time. They can write some very enjoyable soap opera, but they were not always great about keeping connected characters interacting. On their own show "Texas," they often kept members of the Marshall family in segmented parts of the canvas. Also, the Dekkers also had a tendency not interact enough as a family. I'm curious if this was a "Search for Tomorrow" isuse or a writer's issue. With that said, "Search for Tomorrow" also had a tendency to keep characters even after their connections faded. I'm always surprised how long David Sutton stays on for example.

From the limited episdoes I've seen of that period, Robin Mattson's Gina doesn't really gel under the Dobsons until they introduced Lily Light. Gibboney and Mattson played them so differently. Anne Howard Bailey taking over the writing really benefitted Mattson. Mattson's Gina worked well with Justin Deas' Keith, and it was under Bailey that they really succeeded as a couple. I didn't hate the stuff with Michael Conrad and Gina, but I'm not sure they could have gone much farther than they did with that couple. I wish the Lily stuff had gone on longer.

This is a quote from Todd McDurmott explaining his departure from "Loving." Joe Hardy was EP at the time and Millee Taggart and Tom King were headwriting. Honestly, I think McDurmott made the right choice. That proposed storyline sounds pretty terrible. Also, King and Taggart definitely had a history of taking third wheel characters to the extreme (Dan Hollister and Jeff Hartman spring to mind). To be quite honest, I don't think King and Taggart's work was very good until Jacqueline Babbin came in and Babbin inferred that she had to lean heavy into the writers to adjust the writing. Taggart's 1993 run is much stronger and set up Nixon very well for her return even though she used very little of the foundations.