dc11786

@EricMontreal22 I'm sure they were trying to bank on Genie Francis' name value. Ceara's story runs perfectly in Corinth. She arrives to accept a public relations job at Alden University and takes residence at the Rescott boarding house. Ceara was running from her impending marriage to Jeremy because she was still dealing with residual effects of the sexual abuse she had suffered at the hands of her father. In Corinth, she connected with Matt, who had only recently been exonerated of raping a young woman who had in fact been raped by his stepfather, Rev. Albert Ford. On AMC, Ceara confronted her mother about the years of abuse that went on noticed. On Loving, Ceara was there to witness a similar interaction between Matt and his mother. Ceara developed a very intense emotional connection to Matt, which Ally interpreted as sexual. I get the sense from Goodall's performance that there may have been a little bit of that there, but Francis made it clear that Ceara's intimate connection with Matt was motherly, not romantic. Ceara was not a true threat to Ally and Matt's relationship. It was actually Ally, jealous of Matt and Ceara's connection, who locked Ceara and Jeremy in the Rescott shed. Through her friendship with Matt, Ceara no longer feared that she could be a mother, which is why she had skirted her marriage plans with Jeremy. Ceara and Jeremy's reconciliation in the shed played out just as Matt was continuing to struggle with his emotions regarding his stepfather's influence on his life. Not only had Albert raped this one girl, there had been countless others. Matt talked about hearing the muffled screams and later being physically assaulted by Albert. This was all before the trial. Matt was listening to Paul Slavinsky's radio show and a caller rang in about Matt's situation. He basically said that Matt had no hope of having a normal life. Paul quickly cuts the caller off and tells him he's wrong, but the damage is done. It's too much for Matt and he ends up doing heroin and overdosing. Goodall performance during the overdose is pretty strong. Ally lets them out of the shed to help with Matt who she has found passed out. I haven't watched much of the Carter Jones stuff, but I have it. It's just not a particularly good time for the show in terms of the build to it. The Carter Jones stuff was definitely bigger, but I don't think of "Loving" as a show that tells those kind of stories well. Jeremy basically replaced Giff Bowman, who had to go crazy at the alter of Trucker and Trisha. It was Jeff Hartman, Part II. Jeremy came with too much baggage that just was bizarre (the mercenary stuff / the psychic visions). Jeremy's initial pairing with Stacey is just bland. I don't know what they thought they were accomplishing with that other than pairing someone from a higher rated show with one of the main heroines of the other. Millee Taggart and Robert Guza, bless their hearts, don't drop it immediately, but slowly pivot Jeremy and Stacey into the Ava / Leo / Shana triangle in a much more successful way than in the story that they were the focus (Hannah's crush on Jeremy leading to the accusation of sexual harassment). The Jeremy problem really continued no matter who the headwriter was. The Faison stuff is lame though the sexual tension between Leclerc and Peluso was exciting. They try to tag Jeremy into a lot of the police stuff which is so weird because he is an artist and that's not the angle they often played. Jeremy as the backer of Tess' ad agency and Gwyn's good-natured boyfriend worked best, but I can't imagine Leclerc was making scale for a role that didn't require him per se. No clue what happened with Munisteri. She may have been interim as I believe Walsh would have been finishing up the French soap "Riviera" when Munisteri stepped in. I don't know Walsh and McCarthy were let go. The statement from ABC was that their contracts were not renewed. Addie Walsh and Laurie McCarthy were the associate headwriters when Nixon was there and it Walsh/McCarthy, not Nixon, who would give the previews to the press. I imagine Nixon was grooming them to takeover. For me, Walsh and McCarthy is a mixed bad slightly better than Walsh on her own even with Fran Sears, but not nearly as good as the beginning half of 1994. They do do one really good story: Clay's hit and run on the night of Steffi's 21st birthday. Honestly, it was hard at that point to mess any of the Steffi / Cooper stuff up or Casey / Ally for that matter. I actually think they did the lead up to Jacob Johnson arriving in Corinth. Not sure when Nixon leaves and Walsh / McCarthy takeover or leave for that matter. @Paul Raven Meg Mundy wanted more money than ABC was offering her so she left. I think Dabney was let go during the Alden purge in the early half of 1991. She may have not renewed her contract, but it's also possible she was fired. Celeste Holms was fired by Haidee Granger. My guess was it was a budget consideration. Also, the version of Isabelle that Munisteri wrote and Walsh wrote were vastly different shades of the same character. Munisteri had made Isabelle savvy and calculating while also sentimental and mournful. Walsh played Holms' Isabelle as more of a heavy. She was manipulative and heartless when it came to protecting her secret from comin out. Sears brought Wesley Addy back for the coup of having husband and wife play husband and wife in scenes where Isabelle chats with Cabot's ghost. Through all but the final sequence, Isabelle and Cabot are loving and affectionate. In the last scene, Cabot lashes out at Isabelle over what she did all those years ago. Not subtle at all. I've read that Holms was pretty shocked by her firing. Pat Barry is basically playin the same type of character but without an ounce of subtly. To be fair, the scripts didn't call for it. Pat Barry's Isabelle would rant and rave about "those Mayberry girls." I can't see any other version of Isabelle going off like that. After Walsh's name is out of the credits, Isabelle appears infrequently. Guza and Taggart rest the character. She's still has her hands in the pot (mostly Ally's pregnancy), but nowhere to the extent she did before. Nixon uses her even less infrequently before shipping Isabelle off. Ironically, it's Nixon who abandons the college campus completely in her return in 1993. Haidee Granger definitely took an ax to by dropping Staige, Kent, and the sorority/frat plotline, but the rest of the gang is still in school. In one of their last stories, Taggart and Guza had Ava take courses at Alden University in order to better herself and spend time with Jeremy. Nixon shifts the stories from the college TO the hospital more than likely due to the arrival of Angie. With the number of issues based stories the show was telling (Curtis' PTSD, Steffi's eating disorder, Angie's HIV scare, Casey's descent into drugs related to mental health issues). the move to the hospital made sense. I hope that more of Ralph Ellis' period shows up. So much of "Loving" doesn't read well in summaries, but seems to play out much better onscreen. The little bit that has shown up is from a show that takes itself very seriously, which is something that was rare afterwards. I love imposter storylines so I really would like to see how the Clay Alden/Alex Masters story started before it went completely off the rails under King and Taggert. I've seen Ellis' work on "Search for Tomorrow" in 1982. It definitely has that drier Proctor and Gamble style with characters talking things over coffee and talk about their emotions rather than talking with their emotions. I think the romance between Cece and Rick looks sweet, but it was truncated. I've always heard good things about Lily's return storyline. It was very sweet seeing some of the end of Lily in that 1988 episode. I have no use for Dan Hollister and I love Susan Keith and Peter Davies seems more than competent, but most of the Shana / Jim stuff bores me. Again, maybe it would play differently than it reads.

My guess is the business venture between Stephanie and Rusty was meant to escalate animosity between Rusty and Martin. At the time, November 1982, Stephanie and Martin maintained a loving friends type relationship. Given the history between Rusty and Martin regarding the Colonel, I imagine the plan was to keep those two characters at each others throats in every which way they could. The TR storyline is great. I didn't realize until recent years that the Kendalls weren't initially brought on to replace the Sentell / Tourneur clan, but provide them with a long standing enemy. The original animosity stemming from Lloyd's father's suicide bleeds right into the revelation that Steve Kendall is Martin's son. So a Tourneur was raised a Kendall. Now, you have TR being found and raised by the Sentells. I don't so much mind the Liza / Lloyd storyline in this context. Also, I think Travis' death was open enough that had the show continued, he would have returned from the dead. It would have been very interesting to see Travis return to a happily little family unit of Lloyd, Liza, TR, and Tourneur. The issue seems to be that when Travis dies, the family dies with him. A member of that generation needed to be present in order for the story to really continue. I think having Lee Sentell return with Roger Lee (say that Cissy has run off) could have created conflict for Liza and Sunny. Cord seems interesting. He definitely isn't a Travis-type, but I think they went too far with the PTSD and couldn't turn back. I think Peter Haskell was a very good Lloyd. He left the show in 1985 to take the role of C.J. Fields on "Rituals" only for that show to fold in six months. Joe Lambie was too young or to young looking to play Lloyd. The little of Robert Reed that has popped up has been unmemorable. The show would have been well off to offer Haskell the chance to return to the show in 1986 when Lambie left. Martin and Jo divorced in the 1981 or 1982 I think. They were definitely divorced by the fall of 1982. Martin and Jo were definitely viewed as endgame in the writers' eyes. Jo's kidnapping by Vargas played a lot on that with the ransom and such. Sunny and Hogan were fairly popular. Forsyth left the show after less than a year though and they never really were able to retell a meaningful story for Hogan and Sunny when Forsyth returned. I enjoy the Liza / Hogan relationship, but it comes at the expense of Sunny, at times.

I like what Fran Sears did. I think she set out to deal with the identity issues by reestablishing the college as a center point for some of the story. I would also she really tries to make "Loving" visually distinct. Boyd Dumrose, the set designer, had been there from the beginning and had done a marvelous job on the sets, but something seems to pop more under Sears. Sears introduces the Tides, the Alden family hunting cabin where Trisha and Trucker live in the final years of their marriage. It seems very symbolic of them as a couple, rustic like Trucker but opulent like Trisha. In the story, Trisha and Trucker are sniping at one another over the differences that seem to have come out more and more as their marriage has progressed. Trisha wants to go out to a French restaurant, while Trucker would rather stay in with a beer and pizza. When Granger comes in, that set is pretty quickly redecorated into a more modern environment. I don't know if I've seen anything that looks like the original Tides on any other soap as a permanent set. I could be wrong. Also, Paul and Ava move into a house outfitted to suit Paul's paralysis. The kitchen set is particularly nice. Even Flynn's studio apartment, which the Bowmans eventually move into, has some neat features. Sears also introduces the bowling alley, Pins, which not only highlights the class difference but is also bright and colorful like so much of Sears run. I just watched the October 7 episode on youtube with Paul in his studio. That bright blue background is very appealing. I think the use of Checkers, the restaurant where the waitresses wear different outfits every ngiht, stands out. I think the casting was pretty strong under Fran Sears. Jessica Collins started under her, but had previously had auditioned for Ally Rescott when Jackie Babbin was still there. Keith Pruitt and Richard Cox were both early hires in Sears' run. She also oversaw the casting the entire college crew (Hannah / Coop / Casey / Kent / Staige). Most of those actors went on to relatively successful in careers in and out of soaps. Casey may have been Haidee Granger. Sears had two headwriters (she may have also been there briefly with Millee Taggert). I like Mary Ryan Munisteri's material. It is often more emotion than plotting, but I feel the stories are pretty complex and winding. Munisteri continues the Ava / Paul / Carly triangle but switches out Clay for Flynn. I really liked the dynamic between Paul and Flynn; Flynn was a physical therapist and helped Paul shortly after he was paralyzed. Paul and Flynn were friends, but Pauls' demons, his lack of self confidence after his paralysis and his linger feelings for Carly, complicated it. It would have been easy to make Flynn an adversary, but Flynn remained pretty aware of Paul's reasons and didn't really bat too much of an eyelash. Munisteri continued the complicated dynamic between Ava and Carly and eventually had Ava make the decision to agree to help Carly find Michael even though she knew it could destroy her future with Paul. I think the Michael story could have gone on at least another year with Michael's presence creating a strong push-pull dynamic between Ava and Paul and Carly. Michael idolized Paul do to his radio show and had the personality of a young Ava. What was going to happen when Michael was slowly pulled into Paul and Ava's world leaving Carly in the dust? And what would have happened to Paul and Ava when Paul learned he has sterile as a result of the accident? Munisteri also pens the Trucker / Dinahlee affair, which I think was problematic. I mostly enjoy it, but it leaves too much of the tension in Trucker and Trisha's marriage strictly to subtext rather than actually calling out the rift that should have come from Trucker keeping secrets about Tommy's adoption. I think Trucker's draw to Dinahlee was practical and the end result is a decent story for Trucker, Trisha, Dinahlee, Jack, and Stacey. Trucker identified with Dinahlee; he was an outsider in the Alden clan. I think that identity worked given Trucker's history with the Aldens. I also think it was bold that Trucker and Dinahlee weren't a one night stand; he went back to Dinahlee a second time. I thought it was different not to alleviate Trucker's culpability by allowing the audience to right it off as an impulsive mistake. I really like how all of it played out even though I could see where the Trucker / Trisha crowd would be livid. I thought they were smart to weave in Giff and Gwyn, who took two very different stances on the affair. Gwyn salivated at the thought that she could finally removing Trucker from her daughter's life, while Giff took a more practical approach reminding Gwyn that people are complicated. There's a nice scene where Giff traps Gwyn in her office at AE overnight because he doesn't want her to squeal to Trisha. Of course, at some point, Gwyn tries to run Dinahlee out of town by offering her cash, which Dinahlee turns around and uses to by Pins. I think it set up Dinahlee nicely as the potential antagonist the Alden clan needed. The last big story that Fran Sears / Mary Ryan Munisteri tell is the Ally / Matt tale. Matt and Ally were introduced under Babbin / Taggert, but it was very late in the game. Matt runs the gambit of emotions in the course of the tail end of the accusation storyline. The drug angle is, at times, a little heavy handed as it is typically on most soaps. After hearing a caller on Paul's radio show comment how messed up his life will be, Matt does heroin and ends up overdosing. The Matt / Ally story was pretty well remembered by those who saw it. I would love to know the circumstances of Eric Goodall's departure in early 1992. I hope Sears fought for him. Of course, also weaved into the tale of Matt and Ally was Ceara Connors, who rented a room at Kate's and briefly worked at AU. Francis fit in well in Corinth. The tender motherly relationship that developed between Ceara and Matt was wonderful and progressed both Ceara and Matt's stories. I think Jeremy's interloping in the Trucker / Trisha story wasn't as exciting. The last thing to consider with Munisteri and Sears is that they were the ones to introduce Celeste Holms as Isabelle. I think the initial arrival is well done. The writing is strong enough to make this version of Isabelle captivating while heavy handed enough to let the audience know, "Yes, this is a very different version of Isabelle, but we think you'll like it." I know I've referenced this scene several times already, but I enjoy nothing more than watching Isabelle having Bethel Ford, Matt's mother who is applying to be Isabelle's secretary, call Shana so she can listen in while Shana talks crap about Isabelle. Delightful. Mary Ryan Munisteri leaves in early January 1992 and things are less delightful. It all shifts pretty quickly. Addie Walsh wasn't as interested in the emotional complexity of the characters, in my opinion. She seemed very adept at moving the story forward, but it didn't explore the motivation and reaction as much as Munisteri did. A bulk of Walsh's story revolves around the return of Clay Alden, his attempts to repair his relationship with Trisha, and his relationship with Dinahlee. Walsh plans a pretty windy story about the mystery room at the Tides that turns out to Isabelle and Tim Sullivan's love nest all to get us to the revelation that Clay wasn't an Alden but rather the product of an affair between Isabelle and a stablehand. I don't think the ends justify the means. A lot of the end of Sears and Walsh is really unmemorable excluding the arrival of all the young characters in the course of several days. The sorority / fraternity story ends pretty quickly under Granger so it's hard to see the full potential, but often it plays out like older people educating younger people about what life in college is like in the Greek system. Others may have a different opinion of Walsh, but I found her work the hardest to get into during both runs. The 1994 / 1995 run at least has some really good Steffi / Cooper and Casey / Ally material, but everything else under Walsh and McCarthy's run is of little interest to me.

Stephanie and Rusty Sentell bought the TV station when Suzy, Warren, and Brian’s plane crashed in South America. I believe she wanted to send Sunny down there and the station manager wouldn’t so she bought it. Initially, it was a story point under Ralph Ellis and Eugenia Hunt in their final days. David Cherrill really had Stephanie working at the station. When Rusty was murdered, Travis inherited the station. Liza handled that asset for him under Joanna Lee/Gary Tomlin. I enjoyed the friendly rivalry between those two.

That's Augusta Dabney as Isabelle. Mundy was only in the pilot. She had wanted more money than "Loving" was willing to give her so she bowed out. @EricMontreal22 that is the one I'm referring to (welcome back, btw). That seems to be the second half of the first episode. I believe it pretty much matches up with what John O'Connor wrote about in his review for the New York Times. Here is the first part and the part of the second episode (in Italian): As we've been talking about ownership and creation of "Loving," I do enjoy the speculating. I think there are definitely issues that Nixon and Marland were both interested in exploring as a lot of those concepts would be later revisited in their work on "As the World Turns" (for Marland) and "All My Children" and "Loving" (for Nixon). I think this may be why they were able to work together. I'm completely speculating here, but I saw a comment in I believe the "Guiding Light" thread about Marland thanking Nixon at the Daytime Emmys or something around the time of his departure from "Guiding Light." Since Marland was vocal about his disappointment in not being able to finish the Carrie Marler story, I wonder if Nixon used the chance to finish telling that story (the multiple personality plotline) on "Loving" with Lily Slater. Granted, the storylines are significantly different, but this type of story is something that both seemed interested in. I have 9 of the last 10 of Marland's "A New Day in Eden" scripts. The first of the lot (which features the exit of the Garth Slater equivalent Emmett Claybourne, was set to be filmed around Thanksgiving 1982). Marland was already doing a similar plotline as the Lily Slater storyline. I imagine that Nixon and Marland were able to find enough common ground to initially make it work. The Lily story fascinates me because of the duality of the story, not just in terms of Lily and her alter Trista, but in the two boyfriends. Cousins Curtis and Jack are complete opposites of one another. Curtis tends to be more dark than light and Jack more light than dark. In an early sequence, there is again more of the dual natures portrayed with Curtis impersonating Jack when he is seducing Rita Mae Bristow. Jack, of course, has his dual parentage: Roger Forbes / Ann Alden and Dane Hammond / Linda Henderson. As the story progresses past Lily, it is Curtis who quietly rejects Stacey Donovan's advances in the spring of 1984 when she is acting out due to Tony Perilli's marriage to Lorna. Yet, it is Jack who beds down with Ava Rescott and gets her pregnant when he can't handle that his family enemy Dane Hammond is his biological father. Lily seems to be the jumping off point for a lot of this. One can only imagine what the original plan was. It's a shame there isn't a bible for "Loving" floating around somewhere.

I believe "The Guiding Light" (1947) is legally a spinoff of "The Guiding Light" (1937). Irna Phillips lost creative ownership of the original in a court battle in 1946, which I've read was the reason why the network cancelled it. Reading the Wikipedia reason, I wonder if both were contributing factors to cancellation. For the first reason I've given, @EricMontreal22 is right that there isn't much connection character wise. In his book "The Fan Who Knew Too Much," Anthony Heilburt goes into some detail about the transition from one show to another. If you are interested radio soaps, the book is worth a read. He definitely exerts some energy on explaining different personalities behind the stage while also delving into some of the gay subtext of different writers work. I can't find my copy of the book at the moment, but I think it may have a preview on Google Books. "The Guiding Light" (1947) was originally about Ray Brandon, a man who had been wrongfully convicted for embezzlement many years before. He came out of jail and learned that his wife, Julie, had remarried and raised their son without really acknowledging his true paternity. The son was in love with the daughter of Martin McClure, who was Ray's former employer who had set him up for murder. I believe one of the ministers from "The Guiding Light" (1937) dropped off Reverend Ruthledge's lamp to Rev. Richard Gaylord, the main minister on the new series. I believe the only real crossover storyline involved Claire Lawrence, a war pilot's widow with a young son. Her storyline may have only been a year or two. I know it had something to do with her late husband's brother coming back into the picture. I'd suggest using SoapCentral, but given the recent analysis of the Stanley Norris biography, I would look at it in a broader sense rather than at specific details. I don't think Lee Philip and Irna Phillips were related though it would be really cool if that was the case. Imagine what those family dinners would have been like? A brief search of the census records on Ancestry.com suggest they were not related. I think the confusion arises in the origin story of William Bell meeting Irna Phillips. In one article, he states he had originally tried out to work for her in the late 1940s, but nothing happened. Later, he ran into Irna Phillips' niece and was able to convince her to talk to Irna because Irna knew of Lee Phillip, his wife and popular television personality. I don't think they were actually related. With that said, Bell's work is definitely influenced by Phillips. I hadn't considered the Dickie Martin case being similar to the Chuckie White case. Didn't Rose Kransky's kid also perish? That Heilburt book I referenced goes into some of the psychology of those storylines. Anyway, shortly after Phillips dies, Bell replicated a story written on "The Road of Life," which was another Phillips' serial. On "Days of our Lives," Mickey had amnesia, saw his belt buckle said MH, and stumbled onto a farm where he called himself Marty Brent where he fell in love with a beautiful crippled woman, Maggie Simmons. On "The Road of Life," Dr. Jim Brent was on his way to John Hopkins, suffered amnesia, arrived on a farm with a widow and her crippled sister-in-law, and fell for the widow. I don't know if Bell submitted scripts for this show and reused the ideas later or if he was simply a fan of the show and replayed the storyline. I wouldn't be surprised if William Bell was a Charles Gusman fan. Gussman wrote a large chunk of the last year of "The Road of Life" and was involved in the creation of "Days of our Lives" I believe. Gussman brought very upper class families like the Overtons and the Malloys who I think could easily have survived in the Genoa City social scene.

The first episode is online in Italian. It’s under the Italian name Quando Si AMA. It’s in two parts. I don’t think I’ve ever watched all of it just skimmed

Chris Marcantel said he was planning to edit it and clean it up. Given that he runs a production company, I think he probably took it down until they can put the more polished version up. It was really great to see all of the actresses. A nice pop in from Linden Ashby and talks of an all Curtis reunion (that would be amazing). It was really great to hear that this seems like the start of a recurring thing. I honestly expected maybe one or two more (the Men of Loving and maybe one more). I hope that Marcantel is able to get it back up because it was a pretty candid conversation that became pretty centered around Joe Stuart's atrocious behavior and treatment of a large number of young actresses working on the show. I'm still processing all that these women talked about. I think the woman who's story I found most impactful was Jennifer Ashe, who spoke about what a profound role that playing the father-daughter incest story had on her life. She spoke about how once it became clear what was happening to Lily, a number of young women came up to her and shared their stories with her. She spoke about a neighbor who told her she was happy she had had a son because she was afraid she would look differently at her husband. It was very powerful. Ashe seemed pretty hurt that the story had been curtailed in order to promote a TV movie of the week, and in a very real sense of loss rather than just losing a job. Susan Walters talking about the terrible things that Joe Stuart would say to her (she was only 19 when she started) was particularly painful especially given how self aware of herself she seems to be. I chuckled when she talked about checking her hair while James Kiberd was crawling on the floor preparing to play Mike suffering from PTSD. It was interesting to hear her talk about how she started out as this young model who had never acted before and became a pretty popular character. It wasn't facetious. From what I can tell, Lorna quickly became a pretty layered character. It was she who got a lot of the Erica Kane treatment under Marland (getting pregnant by Tony Perilli and aborting her baby so she could sign a modeling contract with Burnells). I would love to see the scene where Tony and Lorna had sex after Tony left her. Lorna finally thought that she had got Tony back and he callously told her it was just sex and it meant nothing. It's a shame that she wasn't brought back. I know she had a bit of a career, but I really think she would have done well as an older jaded Lorna, a divorcee who comes to town to fight with Tess for control of the ad agency while setting out to seduce Buck. Patty Lotz shared a pretty graphic story about her audition. She revealed that the audition script was very crude and very sexual. I actually think another actress who tried out for Ava has posted her screen test featuring this script. I seem to recall we all mentioned then how racy it was. Her firing was pretty awful; she was too nice. It was interesting to hear her talk about how the character of Ava was originally envisioned, Corinth's answer to Jennifer Beale in "Flashdance." Pamela Bowen shared a rather amusing story about asking James Kiberd to kiss her so that she didn't have to have her first screen kiss during her screentest; she was auditioning for Shana at the time. Her character, Colby, was created for her. I wonder how the story would have played out if Colby hadn't been there. I believe Bowen also implied that Joe Stuart was terrible. Noelle Beck was pretty quiet. She did tell a pretty shocking story about how her hiring initially contingent on a nose job and that they planned on writing it into the story. Gwyn was suppose to find Trisha in her boarding school, realize she didn't look WASPy enough, and get her daughter a nose job. Beck refused the nose job, but still managed to get the job. Elizabeth Burr talked about Joe Stuart berating her during her audition, which she joked helped her during her run as Noreen because the character cried every day. Burr originally auditioned for Sheree, who was Ava's trashy sister with a southern accent. That character definitely mellowed. The ladies who escaped Joe's reign of terror were Lauren Marie Taylor and Christine Tudor Newman. Taylor implied that Joe understood her Bronx demeanor and Newman implied she was too old for Joe. Newman gave a great story about telling Joe Stuart off during her audition only to later learn that he was the producer. When she apologized, Stuart said she had responded exactly as Gwyn would have. I'm sure there are more things people will share. Callan White seemed very proud of the work she did during the Mike Donovan VIetnam Wall episodes (which happened right at the start of her run). I was impressed how she stood up to someone about holding someone's baby while drunk claiming Ann would never do that. She wasn't sure who's kid it was, but thought it was Stacey's. I think it might have been Jack and Ava's "baby," but I could be wrong. Jennifer Ashe talked about auditioning for Lorna before being offered Lily. Lauren Marie Taylor said that Linda Gottlieb was involved in the production at the end. She specifically mentioned the teaser material for episodes. There was definitely a Gottlieb influence in those Loving murder promos. Her firing story was a bit cruel too. She figured it out because they approved her vacation, which they never did. Newman talked about being told she was the killer and how she had been asking for a beefy storyline for years. She knew she wasn't going to the city ("they're taking all the kids under 30"). She seemed pretty disappointed that she hadn't gotten any story in those last few years. I really hope it is put online. I haven't attended any of the other soap reunions, but this seemed much heavier than the other reunions I've heard about.

Thanks for sharing. I think it was in Gloria Monty’s contract with ABC that she get a prime time series while working on General Hospital. I also think they did the typical “it’s a miniseries but if it’s good we will pick it up” marketing. Did they implicate Peter in Penny’s murder? I know books have said it ended with that or at least I thought it did. Maybe they did change the ending

Colby was Rita Mae's niece. I think she comes in late spring or early summer 1984. She's pretty much Curtis next big romantic interest after Lily Slater leaves town. She worked as a buyer at Burnell's department store around the time that Curtis became involved in that division of Alden Enterprises. I believe later she became involved with one of John O'Hurley's characters. I'm thinking it was Keith Lane, the Amourelle chemist who was bedding down with Gwyneth. Super stoked to see this group's interview. Interesting to see both Susan Walters and Jennifer Ashe featured in the promotional picture. I know Marcantel has kept in touch through Facebook. Because Marcantel's production company is involved, we are seeing people that he has kept in contact with. I'm not really surprised by anyone he's landed so far based on his previous social media, but it is surprising that they all seem to have maintained friendships nearly 30+ years later. The only person I'm surprised is NOT listed is Susan Keith. I know her and Trevor Kiberd seem to pop up a bit in the Marcantel has posted.

@te. Thanks for sharing. That clip of the opening has such a low budget "Dynasty" feel that I can't help but adore it. Funny, I also look for the breaks in material for compilations. I did the same thing when I watched the "Romance Theatre" videos, which were mostly awful. This looks like cheap fun. I do think they filmed on Long Island so it would make sense that the locations might be similar to the ones on "Revenge." Your comments made me realize that Besch and Dezina do look lot a like. The story with Cheryl and David seems like filler. Were they well incorporated into this? Thanks for sharing these. The "Freshman Dorm" opening was also a treat.

Very interesting. I know some of the failed soap shows have been repackaged internationally. The syndicated anthology series “Romance Theatre” was cut and shown as movie containing the individual stories. In the US, the Romance Theatre movies were also released on VHS. The 1960s flop “The Survivors” was sold as “The Last of the Power Seekers” or something along those lines. In the case of “Power Seekers,” I believe the film included material from the unused pilots. The Hamptons was short. Monty or whoever the distributor was probably hopes to make some money off it.

Wow! This is really great to hear. Marcantel is one of the few have been there at the beginning and at the end. He has remained in recent contact with a lot of the cast from the first few years when he was there. This picture is from last year:

Great find! Some of this material was up before. The previous upload included material from no earlier than May 1985 when the surrogate/tumor storyline was beginning to play out. This material appears to cover Mary Beth Evans’ entire run as Koty. but I did find the playlist and saw that there was also some unlisted material included. If this person was the one who uploaded it before, there may have been material I missed. One of the most interesting things was seeing the station indent on some of the material. Is Channel 7 an Australian broadcaster? I recognize this from the “Generations” material that popped up a year or two ago. If this is the case, I’m curious if the original source material has complete episodes of the entire series. At one point, I had found someone on ioffer who claimed to have Kyle and Sam edits as well as complete episodes of “Generations.” If this is the same source, I wonder if they have the entire run of “Rituals” as well. I’ve only watched a little bit, but the early stuff I believe is from November/December 1984 right when Mary Beth Evans first took over. TV Guide listed who would appear in the daily episodes. It’s around Thanksgiving that Mary Beth Evans name first appears. The surgery being successful and Brady proposing seems to be the end of the show from September 1985. I was hoping the person would have included/taped the ending narration where Christina said the fate of the different characters, including Koty. In that material from the surgery, I see a resemblance between Mary Beth Evans and Allison Sweeney. That 1984 material is a bit slow and creaky. I do think some of the material has the possibility to be interesting (Koty’s nude scenes and Jeff’s drug problem), but it isn’t really being delivered in the most exciting manner. I think this was when Gene Palumbo was still headwriter. This seems potential fresh in terms of content matter (Koty’s nude scenes and Jeff’s drug problem) but it’s still presented without much energy. I did really like Brady’s rationale for claiming the drugs were his. I wouldn’t matter a frank discussion about either issue. This all seems to be rehashing exposition rather than using the material to delve deeper into either character. Koty’s ending is rather nice. She’s going to live, she’s keeping the baby, and she and Brady are going to live happily ever after. I believe all of this was originally filmed as a cliffhanger hoping for a reprieve and having something exciting to jump start a new season with (Sara's shooting). I would imagine had this happened, Koty and Brady’s relationship would eventually be threatened by a recast Mike Gallagher returning to town wanting to claim his child.

@cassadine1991 I think Marina is the missing female. I think the boys in the bottom right corner are Kevin and Jason Marler. I think Shayne has one of Buzz's boys (Coop?). I think Holly is holding Rocky, but it may be Matt and Vanessa's daughter Maureen.

Didn't Robert Mandan return for one of the "Search for Tomorrow" anniversary party during the years he was on "Soap." I feel like I've seen a picture of that. By that time, the late 1970s, there weren't many people left but Mary Stuart and Larry Haines from that era. I think a lot of the soap stars who were there a long time felt very protective of their shows, and naturally their roles on the show. They certainly had more years with the company then so many other people who came and went. You read that Victoria Wyndham article and there is that same vibe. I think there's a reference to Mary Stuart suggesting that they use the theme music for one of her love triangles, maybe Sam / Jo / Tony. Jo would hear the other man's tune based on whichever man she was with to let the audience know she was also thinking of the other man. I know Susan Seaforth Hayes has talked about making suggestions that have received mixed reactions. It's really great to see some of that 1984 material. I know Ellen Barrett's work isn't beloved, but I do think that she, or maybe the writers, do seem to commit to certain character types that were established on the show. Victoria Windsor seems to be a successor to Aja Doyan as the TI scientist. I don't think much happened with her and Hogan because he left in the fall and she was gone before he came back. It was nice to see the end of Travis Sentell. So it seems like this was more like a soap opera death than an actual death. I wonder if the body they buried would eventually be revealed to be Ringo's. Unless someone has more info about the followup. The train accident was neat for that moment where Sunny had to deliver the news. That was incredibly effective. It's great seeing the early stuff between Adair / Chase / Alec. I think if they could have kept any combination of actors for a substantial length of time that stuff could have worked. I really wish we saw more of Kevin Conroy as the sort of sh%t stirrer he seems like in these episodes. By the time the AOL episodes roll around, he is a bit more tortured by Alec's death and pining for Adair. I don't get all of the background story between the characters. Did Adair know the Kendall brothers before coming to town? I'm pretty sure Alec and Chase come in June 1984 after the casting purge (Ringo, Warren, Brian, Travis and Kristen), Adair and Alec's conversation seems much deeper than several weeks. I either didn't know or had forgotten that Jo went back to college. That was cute.

I hadn't considered the element of Gwyn's frumpishness in connection to Trisha's death. That would make sense. My problem more lies in the way we are getting there. In my opinion, you have a lot of characters who are acting very idiotically in order to generate the mystery. I guess I can buy that Curtis would frame Buck, who was already in jail but might possibly get out even though it just made him look guilty. I don't buy that Isabelle would light candles from a mysterious person when people are being murdered left and right. I don't get a sense from the writing that Alex Masters knows these characters as well as he does. I really struggle with Alex attacking Curtis without any sort of feeling for someone who once called him Dad. Or that Alex was once Clay Alden. I just don't get the sense of any of that. I did appreciate the moment where Alex broke down after Cabot and Isabelle died. That rang true to me. On the otherhand, I definitely think there are seeds to this story. The idea of the Alden family being cursed, ala the Kennedys, had been suggested for several years prior to the killings. The Alden in peril plot was pretty successful when Dante came to Corinth. I also think that there is an attempt to connect to the pilot. I don't think there had been reference to WCN-TV, or whatever the station is, since Merrill left. The logo on the station from Richard's broadcast seems to be very similar to the one featured in the pilot. It would have been interesting to link the two killers. Maybe reveal that the killer's actual mother was Amelia Whitley or something. I don't know. I understand why most people enjoy the story. It brings an energy that wasn't really there even during the better runs of the show. It's just such an adjustment because "Loving" is a quieter show. Those big stories (the crossover/the Universal remote) rarely worked. What worked best was investing in characters and a long story, which was nearly impossible with the turnover. Nixon and Josie Emmerich seem to have a fairly lengthy run together (maybe a full year). I think that's the longest combo since Taggert & King with Joe Hardy. I think Babbin and Taggert made a year, but Tom King left at one point so even that wasn't without change. I think it feel more modern than anything that came before it. It is definitely more adult, in a different way. than what had been happening. It feels like the show is set more in the real world. It's not something I require of my soaps though. I think of the Tim Burton "Batman" films. That world feels right for those characters. I feel like my ideal soap town crazy things can happen as long as the characters react the way one would given that situation. I feel, in this case, plot is coming first. People may argue otherwise and I can respect that. At the end of the day, this is the story people most remember the show for, which I feel is unfortunate in the sense that it is not a true representation of what the show aimed to be or could be. It also suggests that this world was mostly expendable. If this was a English language telenovela, I would be completely cool with it. It reminds me of a Brazilian series "A Proximia Vitimia," which was rerun in the states in the late 1990s. I will say I think it speaks to Harmon Brown and Essensten's range that their revamp of "Loving" and their revamp of "Port Charles" went in two complete different directions while maintain some similar elements. Yet, it is also modern in the sense that this new crop of characters are so unlikeable. I don't remember disliking Tony or Danny as much as I what I've seen of the last few months of "The City," but Danny is awful and Tony is propped by Alex to no end. Catherine Hickland does her best with writing that really roots against her in every conceivable way. My apologies about OJ. I knew there was almost a full week of preemptions in July that through things off that I was always told was connected to OJ. @DRW50 The actors make the show work. They seem to manage to always find something at the core of the character to make whatever characterization whatever new writer gives them to work. I'm sure it helped this was back in the day when people had time to rehearse and directors had time to give notes.

The church was a hold over from Trisha and Trucker's 1992 wedding. It's a nice set. I believe it is used one more time. Someone gets stranded there during a rainstorm. I want to say it is Trucker and Dinahlee, but that would be a guess. Dennis Parlato is very good and had the ability to make truly terrible stories tolerable. When he came on, Clay was gaslighting Stacey and had tricked her into marriage. It's a really bizarre story that has bits of Shakespeare and Carmryn Manheim thrown in there for good measure. Anyway, he sells it as best he can, but its pretty bad. This is during the tailend of the year Addie Walsh is credited. When Guza and Taggart come on in January 1993, the story is quickly wrapped up and Stacey is thrown at Jeremy Hunter. Parlato's Clay is left to pine for Dinahlee, who is, naturally, pretty disgusted with him. In those funeral episodes, you can see that Dinahlee and Curtis become involved. If I can find time, I'll try to get the ones including Trisha's death on there. There is a good Clay / Cooper scene and some nice Clay self loathing that is pretty memorable. Parlato plays Clay perfectly. I think he plays Clay with a tragic self awareness that the writing (at its best) really supports. OJ is was 1994. "Loving" was preempted a lot. Not for entire shows, but for chunks. I'm not sure this was so much a case of actual catching the audience up as much as it may have been a chance for the production staff to have an extra week to create the sets for "The City." They were filmed in the same building weren't they? @DRW50 Collins manages to sell a lot of story she shouldn't be. At times, I think of her like Arianne Zuker. Two actresses who have mostly bad storylines during their times on their respective shows, but manage to make the character stay when they could have easily been tossed away. I don't hate Malloy and Collins, but it's such a weird take on the characters. Malloy comes in with Addie Walsh in January 1992 and Noelle Beck is out for maternity leave in February 1992. Walsh backburners Ava / Paul / Flynn / Carly in preparation to write them out and play this storybook romance. It's bizarre. Its a story that works if you accept Larkin Malloy's romantic lead version of Clay, which is clearly how the character is written. Those spring 1992 episodes are mostly interesting in the sense that it shows what the pre- college revamp looked like. In context of Beck's maternity leave, I think they played up the Hannah angle, which would have been less necessary if Trisha was on the scene. I am the one who complained about how Walsh handled Carly / Flynn. In a month, Carly connects again with Flynn, they become engaged, Flynn dies, and Carly turns to alcohol. It's a little much. I suspect that Walsh followed whatever outline Mary Ryan Munisteri left for the storyline, but just didn't spend any time developing it the way that Munisteri did. There is quick storyline (briefly talked about by Carly in that first episode) where Michael develops a heart condition. I speculate that Munisteri, a student of Claire Labine, may have been the one to develop a child in a medical crisis storyline. Maybe I'm wrong. When it came to Munisteri, there was more character working and emoting than under Walsh. Walsh seemed to move the story along at a quicker pace, but I struggle to get emotionally invested in the characters. The Louie/Dinahlee relationship is very sweet and Larkin Malloy/Bernie Barrows also play well off each other. I don't think Parlato and Barrows had many scenes together, and Clay doesn't even go to the offscreen funeral for Louie. What happens to Tudor is awful, but also typical "Loving." She comes back in April/May 1991 when Tom King is leaving. By summer, Taggart is also gone as is Jacquie Babbin. Under Sears/Munisteri, Gwyn is still a sexually desireable. Richard Cox's Giff Bowman is brought on for her. They have a great dynamic, which is why I am rather disappointed they did what they did to Giff. A triangle in 1994/1995 with Cox / Parlato / Tudor-Newman would have been dynamite. Anyway, Walsh ends it Gwyn and Giff in January when she arrives and never looks back. Walsh planned to redo the "let's force Gwyn and Clay to remarry" plot which had been abandoned in 1991 with the turnover in writing, producers, and cast (Horan and Herrera both departed). In many ways, this is the start of the decline of Gwyn as a well a renaissance. While Walsh doesn't overemphasis Gwyn's love life, there is an intense introspection into her personal life. Gwyn reflects a lot on being the poor daughter of a minister who arrives at the Alden mansion as Anne Alden's charity case and ends up marrying into the family. Isabelle grooms Gwyn to take over Alden, but it seems mostly to be a ploy to get Clay back in AE. Some of the strongest scenes, in my opinion, of early Walsh is Gwyn looking back on how she has come to be where she is in her life. It's just a shame she couldn't have done it with Giff Bowman at her side. By those spring 1992 episodes, they are still playing Gwyn as a threat to Clay and Dinahlee's happiness. When Gwyn and Clay do remarry, it is summer of 1992 and now Haidee Granger is in. This all changes rather quickly. Walsh's major plotline seems to be Clay's paternity story. So Clay stays at the center, but Dinahlee and Gwyn kind of get lost in the plot. Gwyn marries Clay in June and has annulment in July. Clay leaves Dinahlee after learning Tim Sullivan was his father and comes back to Corinth ready to make people pay. Dinahlee ends up collateral damage in the Stacey / Clay marriage though Clay remains a threat to Curtis / Dinahlee. Gwyn is always around Clay, but I imagine in the same way "Search for Tomorrow" would have Stu and Jo improve phone conversations. Gwyn/Clay was a nice relationship to fall back on. After the Dinahlee/Clay/Gwyn story ends, Gwyn is given a C-level romance with Armand Rosario, who is the Alden lawyer who initially represented Trisha in her custody hearing. Armand remains on contract through August 1993, but Guza and Taggart dump the romance pretty quickly into their run. Gwyn is portrayed as more pathetic under Guza/Taggert. Her relationship with Buck is often treated like she has scored herself a gigolo and there are jokes about Gwyn being a grandmother. Nixon, like most writers, dumps the Buck relationship pretty quickly to focus on Gwyn and Clay during the Dante Partou story. It is a nice story thread, but it doesn't develop into anything big in terms of their relationship. By January, they've already teased both Clay / Deborah, Clay / Steffi, and Gwyn / Jeremy, which brings you well into 1994. I do like that Steffi views Gwyn as a legitimate threat to her happiness with Clay and I suspect Nixon had Gwyn / Clay as endgame with Jeremy ending up with Tess. Yeah, the constant dropping of Gwyn's relationships creates this façade of Gwyn being frumpy and certainly the clothing choices don't help. Susan Keith doesn't do well under Walsh or Munisteri. Munisteri uses her as a lawyer. Walsh gives her a brief romance with John Schneider and then has her on the backburner the rest of her run. Taggart and Guza give Keith the Shana / Leo / Ava story which definitely plays on the idea that Shana is less sexual than Ava, but more attractive. James Carroll and Susan Keith have some rather intense love scenes early on in the romance. Shana and Leo are well written. They start to peter out in the tail end of Taggert/Guza's run, but the show was transitioning from the second act of the story (the baby might have developmental issues) to the third act (Shana takes over the reigns of Burnells'). Nixon doesn't play any of the Shana takes over Burnells' story instead focusing the story solely on the baby's problems. Also, a lot of the fire in the Shana / Leo relationship came from Leo's characterization; a more typical Guza male, openly chauvinistic and needing be in control. A lot of their energy came from Shana playing against it and more often than not proving Leo wrong. Nixon immediately waters down Leo, which, in turn, gives Shana less to do. I apologize for rambling.

Since there were questions about Trisha's exit from Corinth. These are her last few episodes starting with her funeral and the reveal she survived the crash.

Like has been mentioned, I think the main attempts were the rape accusation and saving Tyler when he fell down the well. There is even some dialogue in these episodes where Danny downplays his role because he specifically didn't shoot Casey. I do appreciate that Casey manages have some legacy on the show through Ally's photography and Steffi naming her daughter Casey. I don't think Ally and Danny could have worked, not that doesn't mean it didn't stop them from trying. If "Loving" had continued as "Loving," the best bet the show had was bringing on a recast Cooper. I also think the show might have been well suited to have tried and lured Eric Woodall back as Matt Ford. I think if they had Matt Ford return as a cop involved in the drug storyline working undercover they could have accomplished what they were trying to do. I think it would have blended what they were trying to do with Tony and Danny more effectively. The episodes I have rarely have credits. I don't know if King was brought on contract or recurring in 1994. I cannot imagine that the show wasn't aware that Weatherly or Stewart might leave. There should have been some contingency plan in place. However, everyone was jumping ship at the time. All the good will that Nixon had bought the previous year was gone because Weatherly, Stewart, Collins, and Tyler quit. Sidelining Marcantel was clearly a mistake. They could have easily gone the route of Buck / Stacey / Curtis for a bit before bringing Jack Forbes back to town. I recently read that Dennis Parlato had informed Jean Dadario Burke he wasn't resigning with the show either and that he had only stayed on into the summer because of the revamp. The last episode is on YouTube. Charles and Lorraine get back together, but I thought they were staying in Corinth. I don't think Bree or Frankie are featured, but maybe they are. Amelia Heinle was very good on "Loving." Nixon spends most of 1994 crafting her into one of the best drawn characters on the show at the time. For their time and their show, I think Coop and Steffi were a decent draw. My guess is they knew that they couldn't keep Heinle, but they figured they might get people to watch "The City" if they could see Cooper and Steffi reunite and leave together. I agree. When Charles was first introduced, I didn't care much for his backstory (the dead fiancée), but when they focused on Charles and Frankie, I liked the story a bit better. I think there was some interesting beats to the original Charles / Angie relationship involving Frankie's jealousy and the frank talk about sex in the age of HIV and AIDS. I also really like Janie Sinclaire, Buck's daughter who was involved in kidnapping Angie and later dates Frankie. I think it was a mistake to kill her off so quickly. Bree is more interesting than I expected. There are definite shades of Steffi Brewster to her with the model with mommy issues. I think Pat Baxter is a wonderful talk to. I'm surprised they didn't bring her back to AMC when they Jesse / Angie returned towards the end even briefly.

Marland penned an incest story for "A New Day in Eden" around the same time. Emmett Clayborne was an attorney or the Lewises, the central rich family in the story. He had a daughter, Cynthia, who was a nursing student played by Britt Hefler, who would incidentally later play Lilly Slater during her late 1980s return. I don't know how long they played the Cynthia / Emmett relationship, but right before Emmett left town it was implied he had taken Cynthia, who was in her bathrobe, into a room and raped her. Around the same time, Logan Clayborne, Emmett's son, arrived in Eden looking to find out why Emmett had run their mother out of Eden years ago. Logan was also curious about what had led to Emmett keeping Cynthia and his mother taking Logan. Logan's investigation led him to his father's study in the final episode. Before Logan could determine anything there was a gun shot. The storyline was never resolved. Never specifically shown, it would appear that Emmett had returned to town and shot his son. As the show wasn't renewed, the storyline wasn't resolved as far as I know. I imagine that Logan's shooting, possible death, would have played out as Garth's murder trial would have with the revelation. Someone would have been accused of shooting Logan with Emmett being the actual shooter and Cynthia being forced to testify in court what her father had been doing to her. I wouldn't be surprised if Marland left projections with something similar for Phillip. Nixon replayed some of the Donovan story elements from 1983 in 1994 return. Angie is exposed to HIV which is an obstacle in her relationship with Charles. I wonder if there was something similar planned with Noreen and Mike. Curtis suffered from post traumatic stress like Mike did. I think the show eventually turned Trisha into the heart of the show. Of course, she doesn't arrive until December 1984. When Trisha leaves, the show doesn't really have that sort of central couple from what I gather. Had Michael Weatherly stayed, I imagine it would have been Coop and Steffy. The Casey / Ally / Cooper / Steffy quad had potential to play out for a long time if the show had continued and people hadn't left. Kate Rescott was positioned into the moral compass position down the line. After Louie dies, Dinahlee asks her to come work at Pins, which gives her a location to spout advice to everyone. She definitely becomes a go-to for Dinahlee and Curtis for a bit and is always advising Ava, Ally, and the men in their lives. I haven't seen much of Roya Megnot as Ava. She seems really competent and fun. Her Ava also seems very different from Peluso's Ava, who seems to change with whoever is writing her at the moment. Peluso seems to play whatever she is given. Nixon seems to position Ava as a more mature romantic lead than she had been in the last few years. Nixon's Egypt is much more over the top until the last few episodes of Linda Cook's 1994 run.

Danny Roberts shows up late in 1994. He was Casey's drug dealer. This is why everyone has an issue with Danny. After Casey and Ally married, they bought a home that Casey was trying to support on just his income as a photographer. At this stage, Ally had made the decision to be a full time mom. In the fall, Casey started becoming fearful that he was going to end up like his father Giff, who I believe they diagnosed as bipolar. Casey saw a therapist for a hot minute, but flipped out when the individual tried to diagnose him. As the pressure mounted, the bills, the fear of being his father, not being able to spend time with his family, Casey started using drugs to cope (cocaine, I think). At this point, Danny Roberts arrives. My last episodes are from January 1995. Danny is pushing Casey to purchase more of his product. At this point, Ally and Coop are aware of the issue. Casey left a bag of coke in his camera bag and Tyler found it. Nothing serious happened, but Coop wanted Tyler out of the household. At the same time, Steffi and Coop are together and her eating disorder has reemerged. She also may have resorted to using drugs with Casey. I'd have to look over them again. Anyway, between the winter and the spring, Casey was caught purchasing drugs or something that led him to become involved with the police department. The Corinth PD was looking to take down a drug ring. Lisa Brown was brought in to play a federal agent as a part of the story. I think they were trying to take down Danny's supplier, who turned out to be Graham, a member of the police department. I believe he was commissioner. During the climax of the drug storyline, Casey was shot and killed. Paul Anthony Stewart's contract was up. I believe he, like Michael Weatherly several months before, chose not to renew his contract. Graham's capture is some of the shading to the Corinth murders investigation. Because the chief of police was a drug dealer, Charles is being very by the book.

This is the episode with the Buck / Stacey montage. It's a little longer than the one from one Stacey died.

The original Tess / Buck / Curtis stuff was Millee Taggert and Robert Guza. They arrived in January 1993. Dinahlee ended up at Trucker's cabin with "Ronnie," her mystery man, in February. Taggart had sent Curtis off to the Persian Gulf in March 1991. Somewhere in between, Curtis had met up with Buck and they both had met Tess Wilder, who was married to a wealthy but dangerous Middle Eastern man. Tess convinced Curtis to help her escape her husband and Buck was going to fly the plane to get them out of Kuwait. During Tess' escape, Dante showed up and Curtis was forced to shoot him. While Curtis was shooting Dante, Tess and Buck flew away on Buck's helicopter. This is all backstory that is revealed over several months. Initially, we just know Tess as the woman that was between Curtis and Buck. In May, Tess shows up at a medical clinic in Maine where Trucker has taken Christopher to get some peace after Trisha's death. Tess follows Trucker back to Corinth and gets a job as Christopher's nanny. Buck and Curtis are both concerned that Tess is back. Tess is blackmailing Buck and Curtis into silence. Curtis has killed a man and Tess knows that Buck was scheming when he first arrived in Corinth. When Tess leaves her job as Christopher's nanny, she ends up working as a secretary at AE when Curtis arrives to work there before he leaves town. Tess still has the gun that Curtis used to kill Dante. At the same time, she tracks down Mac Huston, Trucker and Buck's father, and brings him to town. Mac claims to be dying of an illness that would require expensive treatment. In late August or early September, right before Guza and Taggert leave, Tess reveals Mac has been conning Trucker and Mac reveals the same about Tess. This is around the time that Curtis and Dinahlee are talking about having a baby until Curtis learns that Dinahlee has been secretly on birth control. Curtis torches Pins right around the time Nixon arrives in September 1993. When Dante appears in late October 1993, this is Nixon. Nixon reframes Alex Masters return story stating that the reason he came to town was to protect Clay Alden and he used the excuse that he was in love with Ava as his cover. Dante menaces the Aldens while taking over Dinahlee's apartment above the bowling alley. It is there that Dante keeps his mystery prisoner. There are definite homoerotic elements to the Dante / Curtis story that are played up. When we first learn of Dante's 'friend,' Dinahlee suspects that Joe (Dante's alias) is hiding a lover from Dinahlee. Joe admits he has another male in the apartment before revealing it is a cat. It is Dinahlee who suggests that Joe name his new cat "Kitty." Dante spends the rest of the time referring to the guest as Kitty. After a couple weeks, it becomes clear that Curtis is the person even though he isn't seen. They even reshoot pictures with Chris Marcantel in the role before he is actually seen as Curtis. Kidnapping Curtis was only part of Dante's plan. He also learns that Buck wants money so that he can support Stacey, who is well off thanks to Jack. Buck gets involved in a stock market transaction with John Bolger's Malcolm Christopher, who is on Dante's payroll. Dante also starts tormented Tess by first sending her a scarf she wore on their wedding day and later putting a spider in her flowers at the fashion show. It is the spider that leads everyone to think that Dante is the one tormenting the Aldens. Dante kidnaps Dinahlee and holds her hostage in a cave. I believe Curtis also turns himself over hoping that he will be able to save Dinahlee. In the end, it is Tess who turns herself over to Dante, offers to kiss his spider tattoo, and then plans to shoot him if it wasn't for the syringe that Dante sticks himself with. The cave stuff all happens around Christmas 1993. Dante becomes involved with Egypt in February and supplies her the means to go through with her staged murder. Egypt's murder was really fun. It's so bizarre watching how the cops acted during the Egypt murder case vs the Corinth murders. Just two completely different tones.

Buck Huston arrived in town in March 1993. Trisha was working at Alden University in the art department. One day, Trisha was crossing campus and was attacked by a mugger. Buck saved her. The McKenzies were so grateful that they offered Buck a place to stay since he had just arrived in town. What they didn't know was that Buck was Trucker's half-brother (they shared a father). Buck had come to town to scam the McKenzies. Shortly before this, Curtis Alden, Trisha's brother, returned to Corinth after a stint in the Persian Gulf. While overseas, Trucker and Curtis had met and had a secret they shared (they were involved in the death of Dante Partou). Eventually, Trisha found a picture of Buck and her brother together and began to put together there was more to the story. She confronted Buck and fled from the ties. On the road, Trisha called Trucker from the road. She told him that she had something to tell him regarding Buck. As she was getting back in the car, she was carjacked by some random dayplayer. The carjacker crashed the car. The car exploded. The audience was left thing Trisha died. Several episodes later, Trisha woke up and stumbled into the back of bread truck. She ended up at some small diner not far from Dunellyn, the mental hospital. At the diner, she couldn't remember anything, but I think downplayed her situation to Marge, her new waitress friend. Based on the bruises and Trisha's elusiveness, Marge assumed she had been a battered wife. Shortly after, Jeff Hartman, Trisha's ex-husband, was released from Dunellyn stating he planned to stay far away from Trisha. He ends up at the diner and sees Trisha, who is now claiming she is Crystal. Marge tells Jeff that "Crystal's" husband beat her. Jeff tells Trisha he is going to Rome and she asks to join him. At the time, April 1993, I do believe the hope was that Noelle Beck would return. I also think the setup was there for a revival of the Jeff / Trucker / Trisha triangle. Through the rest of 1993, you have Tess Wilder come to town to work as Christopher's nanny and scam Trucker of the money he was receiving from Trisha's estate. Trucker knows Tess is being dishonest, but doesn't know the true extent. In the meantime, Curtis has married Dinahlee and become paranoid about the relationship between Dinahlee and his father. At the same time, Tess starts threatening Curtis by revealing she is possession of the gun he used to kill Dante Partou, her then dead husband. The problems escalate quickly in Curtis and Dinahlee's marriage where he is envious of the amount of time Dinahlee spends at Pins due to Clay's prior involvement with the bowling alley. Curtis torched the place, felt guilty, and fled Corinth. During Curtis' time out of Corinth, Dinahlee and Trucker reconnect. Dante Partou, Tess' husband who Curtis believed he kills, arrives in Corinth and starts stalking the Alden family. Curtis is missing at the time. Dinahlee, believing that Curtis abandons her, gives into her feelings and kisses Trucker just as Curtis, who has been locked in a cage escapes in order to see Trucker and Dinahlee kiss. Curtis is eventually freed and resumes his marriage to Dinahlee. From his time in captivity, Curtis' previous anxiety and paranoid has developed into trouble sleeping. He is diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome around the start of 1994. Curtis knows that Trucker is a threat to his marriage and offers a cash strapped Buck money to convince Trucker to leave town. Buck refuses, but becomes more suspicious when Curtis asks Trucker to become his partner in the Rodeo bar. Dinahlee stays with Curtis because of his health issues while Curtis desperately hopes he will be able to get Dinahlee to love him. Most people are aware of Curtis' condition and its treated fairly seriously. In the spring of 1994, Trucker starts receiving signs that Trisha is alive. There was something to do with a bird, and some rocks. Finally, Trucker drops flowers on Trisha's graves and finds them on his doorstep at the Tides. He is convinced Trisha is alive and asks Alex Masters to investigate. At this point, June 1994, Shana and Leo married in Las Vegas and moved to Rome when Shana received a job offer. In Rome, Shana and Leo ran into Jeff, who is with Trisha, but manages to hide her from Shana and Leo. At this point, Jeff learns that Trisha is "dead" and wonders how Trucker handled it. This tips Shana off. She fears that Jeff might hurt Trucker so she calls Trucker. Trucker calls Dunellyn and learns that Jeff was released on the day Trisha died. Trucker goes to Rome to investigate. In Corinth, Buck doesn't believe Trisha is alive. Based on Curtis' previous actions, Buck believes Curtis is behind the gifts. He eventually gets Curtis to confess the truth, which leads Dinahlee to learning the truth. Dinahlee chases after Trucker and tells him Curtis' role in Trisha's gifts. At this point, Trucker drops the issue. Robert Tyler decides to not renew his contract late in 1994. In January, Trucker has a nagging feeling that Trisha is alive and has her body exhumed. Either in June 1994 or January 1995, it was revealed that the coroner have never matched dental records to prove that the body belonged to Trisha. It was just assumed Trisha had died. Anyway, Trucker learned Trisha was alive and went to Rome to try and bring her home. I believe Dinahlee returns to Corinth with the letter from Trisha to the Alden family saying Trisha wants to continue her life as Jeff's wife. At some point between February and July, Trisha has a miscarriage and goes off the rails. This is revealed I think in September or October 1995 when they begin to suspect Trisha is the murderer. When Trisha returns in 1995, most of the people she has interacted with are dead or offcamera. Other than Gwyn the only other people she would know would be Alex, Ava, Ally, Buck, and Kate. Everyone else had arrived in Corinth after her departure or had no connection that I recall (Steffy).