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This scene was probably written when Addie Walsh was still headwriter. At the time, Giff was Trisha's shoulder to cry on when Trucker boinked Dinahlee when Trisha was pregnant with Christopher. Giff was well intentioned and probably was intended to have a larger role when the show was focusing on the college set. Then, Walsh quit and Haidee Granger became defacto headwriter and Giff decided he needed to keep Trucker and Trisha apart so he kidnapped Christopher and gave the baby away. By the time Robert Guza and Millee Taggert arrrived, Giff was such a mess they just wrote him off quickly. I haven't watched the scenes in a while, but I remember the scene with Casey lamenting Alise's death being distinct.

Linda Cook appeared on "One Life to Live" as Ellen Foley, Ginger's mother and Margaret's sister. I LOVED Ginger Foley and the actress who played her, Shannon McGinnis. I don't know why she was killed off. I wanted her to try and snare Duke and the Buchanan millions so bad. Cook also appeared on "Guiding Light" a few years prior to that as the mother of some missing Spaulding employee. Her character's daughter was involved with Brad Green, Michael Swan's character. It was hinted Brad had offed the girl, but eventually she popped up. I think Cook's character was involved in the scheme to extort money from Spaulding or something. I'm not Eric, but I think you are referring to Minnie Madden. She eventually took over one of the residential hangouts. I want to say TJ's (the club/restaurant that Todd Jones ran).

I've read Janet, like Alice, was also unable to have children. This was supposedly part of her backstory. It was why her first engagement was broken off, and she kept it secret for fear it woudl ruin future relationships. Nancy Wickwire didn't die until 1974. She even appeared on "Days of our Lives" as Phyllis Anderson after departing "Another World."

Gwyn miscarried, I didn't mean an induced abortion. Marcantal and Ashby were good in the episodes I've seen.

First, Patrick T. Johnson was fired and replaced by Michael Lord, who was playing Curtis for less than two months when Curtis and Dinahlee married and by the fall Michael Lord had been fired after Curtis torched PINS with fauxLouie inside several weeks before Louie was killed off. When Dante popped up in November, he then made reference to his pet, who turned out to be Curtis and Chris Marcantel returned to the show in December after being off the serial for almost eight years. Marcantel, by the way, is working behind the scenes on "Gotham." Let's not forget that Gwyn was going to spawn Buck's offspring. Thankfully, Taggert aborted that plot, literally, right before she left or Nixon mended that very early on. Agnes takes credit for Jonathan Maitland's pact with the devil which came to a climax in December 1985. The rehearsal dinner was from February 1986. It's possible Ellis took over, but I don't think Ellis came aboard until later. No proof however. Nixon returned to AMC in summer 1987, so its likely she left Loving around that time.

Dinahlee and Curtis (Patrick T. Johnson).

For those who didn't know, it probably seemed like Lily's story ran it's course. Lily revealed to Jack that daddy raped her and they ran off together. Garth had the police track them down and suddenly Lily's other side, Trista, emerged and flirted with Curtis Alden. During sweeps, Garth ended up dead and the police walked in to find Jack holding the gun that killed Garth. Anyway, Jack was arrested for the crime, and Trista emerged and went on the run with Curtis to New York City. Lorna was determined to track down some petty thug, who had robbed the Slater home the night of the murder. Lorna dated him to get information from him hoping to free her brother. People were looking for Lily because she was in the room at the time and saw the murder happen. Lily returned to Cornith and freed Jack with her testimony. During the trial, Trista emerged and told off part of the audience. Trista promised Curtis that she was going to remain in power and that they would have a life together. Once June revealed she was the killer, June and Lily left town for Lily to receive psychiatric therapy. Jack, and probably the audience, were led to believe that Lily might return to him. In the meantime, Jack decided to look into his parentage and met Ava at Forbes Construction and so the story goes. The first months of "Loving" was so disjointed. Characters were tested with one another romantically without any followup. Plot threads would play out for a couple of weeks and fail to develop. The 1987 clip is from Ralph Ellis, who was Nixon's successor. I don't know when Ellis started, but he was there at least Sept 1987 (the date of this clip) until the beginning of the Writer's Strike in April/May 1988. Taggert and King were hired to write the post-strike episodes. Overall, Loving was never able to find a head writer who could really give the show a strong group of characters to work with. I feel like Marland left the show in good shape in 1985, but Nixon's follow up was so vastly different from Marland's style that it simply didn't work. Marland had such a rich executive set with Alden Enterprises and its subdivisions Amourelle and Burnell's. Nixon really isn't a business stories kind of writer so this left her in a bit of a bind. Lorna and Linc seemed farcical dealing with Linc's secret wife Zona (the name alone was too much) and her fake pregnancy. The hooker with a heart of gold (Dolly) was too dated a concept by then to really work. Nixon was able to coast off the baby switch plotline for some time with Ava/Jack/Stacey/Curtis, but, other than that, most of the work seemed so bizarre. What I think worked in 1993-1994 was that Nixon made the canvas work rather than installing what she thought it needed to make it work. She repaired Ava and Alex, put Trucker in a triangle with Dinah and Curtis, kept Steffi/Casey/Ally/Coop front burner, and create compelling stories based on what was there. Nixon was much more suited for the stories the show was telling then. Walsh really wasn't there long either time. Maybe six months in 1992 and another six to eight months in 1994-1995. Taggert was the show's writer in the 1990s. She wrote 1988-1991 with King and 1992-1993 with Guza (and briefly solo). Somewhere in there you had brief stints by Mary Ryan Munisteri and unofficial headwriter Haidee Granger.

I don't think it really came together until the final six months of Marland's tenure. Dane Hammond finally snared Alden Enterprises in a plot with the Beecham brothers, which caused conflict for Lorna and her lover, Linc Beecham. Dane paid Ava money to buy a baby so Jack would marry her. Shana and Mike's relationship was complicated by the return of Noreen. Curtis and Colby continued their love affair. Rita Mae was involved in a younger man-older woman affair with Tony Perilli after Tony and Stacey's aborted wedding. The show gelled very well. Nixon alone didn't seem as exciting. She wrote the Jonathan Maitland sold his soul to the devil story. Keith ended up romanicng a hooker named Dolly who had a baby by her pimp who she thought was the star of child pornography. Doug Donovan returned and hooked up with Shana for a Shana/Jim/Doug triangle. Most of it didn't seem to make a lot of sense. I think Rose and Patrick were dropped to recurring fairly quickly. The Donovans went to Florida in Janaury 1984, but would pop up occassionally. Merrill left in March or April. Noreen left in June with Warren, but returned in March 1985. Doug left in December 1984 before returing in September 1985. Noreen and Mike remarried and left in the fall of 1985. Millee Taggert and Tom King wrote out the Vochek clan in May 1989, and were there when Shana returned in September 1990 only to watch her husband and son die. Nixon's 'plane crash' is a bit of urban legend from what I understand. Shana didn't have much of a love life after Jim and Jimmy's deaths. She was engaged to Dane when she had amnesia, but after that she didn't have much of a story until February 1993 when she decided to have a baby via artificial insemination. Leo Burnell agreed to be the father and then they had sex and fell in love.

I don't think Steve was sacrificed for Trucker. I believe there was a bit of an overlap. Trucker was brought in as a part of the Clay/Alex tale. Clay had paid Trucker off to take the fall for some crime he committed. The tale was very convulted from what I've read and I don't think I've ever understood the whole thing. Something about hypnosis and bullseyes and a corrupt Maine sherriff. Jim died in 1990. Shana and Jim left town with their baby, Jimmy, in 1988 or 1989. Shana returned to Cornith solo and watched Jim and Jimmy's plane crash. Shana suffered amnesia and was duped by Dane into an engagement. Shana later married Leo Burnell, suddenly Burnell's was no longer an Alden entity but a business created by a self-made man, and had a daughter Patti. Nixon wrote out Shana and Leo during her 1993-1994 stint. The cast was becoming bloated, but it was a shame. Leo and Shana are who you are thinking of and they ended up in Rome. Rick did come back and was the next chapter in the Stacey/Jack saga. Rick and Stacey became an item after learning of the infidelity. I believe Rick plotted with Jolie, Jack's love interest, to keep them apart. Anyway, Rick ended up fathering Stacey's daughter Heather and Stacey penned a romance novel about her love for the Alden cousins. When it looked like Stacey and JAck were going to reunite, Rick kidnapped Heather and was involved in a shady business deal to extort money from his father. Rick ended up murdered, Stacey went on trial, and it was all revealed that the business associate Denny was behind the scheme. What I know I've gathered from reading weekly newspaper columns online by people like Jon-Michael Reed, Lynda Hirsch, Seli Groves, and others. Duboc's Alex was more involved with Egypt. I think the Clay/Ava/Alex story was more interesting than Ava/Alex/Egypt. Matt Ford was a runaway. His minister stepfather raped a young woman who accused Matt of rape. Ceara and Jeremy Hunter helped Matt when they were in town in 1991, a year before Jeremy permanently relocated to Cornith. Funny, I never heard the cut hair story. I know the show made a big deal when they scrapped the Merrill/Roger love story claiming that the story played out the way it was intended and that Shana and Jim were going to be the show's it couple. I call BS. No one would play out stories in the first six months that were going nowhere. THat would have been foolish on Marland and Nixon's part. Ultimately, I wonder if Marland didn't want to tell a politically heavy story bouncing between D.C. and Cornith as the show did in the opening months. Roger was only presumed dead, a body was never found. I suspect Marland left that open for future writers. How Marland came to Loving still puzzles me. Marland claims that when he wrote General Hospital he worked with Nixon at the network because she was a consult for all of ABC. Nixon says that when Wakefield had to leave, she thought of Marland from those meeting about General Hospital. Yet, at this point in time, Marland's soap "A New Day in Eden" would have barely hit the airwaves. Flannery claims the show was a moneymaker, and I found another article from Michael Jaffe talking about how "A New Day in Eden" was not going into the red, yet in some pre-premier press for "Loving" Marland claims financial arrangements were going to do the show in. Marland bounced around a lot. I suspect he may have liked that but settled into his role at As the World Turns because of the lack of network hassle he was given, but that's personal speculation. Merrill's brohter was Jim, the priest. The first clip is more June's alcoholism/Lily and Jack's first meeting, while the second is from Jack's trial where he was accused of killing Garth Slater. All threads were tied into the incest storyline. I believe these scenes are from June and Lily's final weeks. Despite being labelled December 1983, I'm almost positive that was simply the tape date. The trial wrapped up in January. Marland said they weren't allowed to reference the storyline after January 15th or something and then learned of the Something About Amelia movie. I do know that Lily was mentioned in February 1984, and her progress wasn't good. Jack and Lily were the original 'it' couple with Curtis Alden as the third wheel. Curtis romanced Trista, Lily's slutty alter, who ran off to New York wiht Curtis during Jack's trial. I believe Stacey pined for Jack early on, even though Jack had just returned to Cornith, but her first major love interest was Tony Perelli, Jack's boarding school pal who attended on scholarship. Tony ended up briefly married to Lorna when she got knocked up and later aborted her baby to pursue her modelling career. Marland had a two-year contract to write "Loving." This all played out in the first six months. 1984 was a rough year. Stories and characters were dropped on a dime. Warren Hodges, the D.A. in the trial scenes, was romancing Noreen Donovan and talking about moving his teenage daughter to town. Then suddenly Warren and Noreen were both written off. After Merrill left, Doug was suddenly involved with an old flame Edy Lester and was marrying her in May only for her to end up dead after a labrynith murder mystery set in San Francisco involving Edy's secret husband Jonathan Maitland. Doug's novel was suppose to become a movie or TV series and he gained a writing partner Stephanie Smith who was helping him solve the murders. It all went nowhere. Curtis' romance with Colby Cantrell hit a snag when it turned out Burnell's model Sasha Hale had starred in some pornographic films Curtis had financed during his days in Europe, but this really didn't go anywhere.

The extended Alden family was being widdled down to Clay and Gwyn's nuclear family most likely because of the success of the Trisha and Steve pairing. The show's big couple, Shana and Jim, were written off within a year or two of Anne's absence. The show definitely seemed more focused on the romantic entanglements of Trisha and the mammouth Clay Alden saga which played out for much of the late 1980s/early 1990s when it came to the Alden family. Britt Hefler, the Lily in this video, is Lily#2. Lily was off canvas for a good three years before she returned. Wasn't Ashe already playing Meg Snyder at this point and time?

This should be from about September 1987. Not really a good period for Loving.

Rivera was the serial killer. He killed Stephanie and Sarah in 1985 and may, or may not, have killed Wendy Wilkins. Wendy disappeared around the time of the serial killer and it was left unclear what happened to her. Realistically, Wendy was alive and well, but it was left up in the air. I believe the show planned a rivalry between Estelle and Jo, so Stephanie would have been considered expendable. Estelle and Jo had shared a common past love interest, Jo's ex-husband Martin Tourneur had fathered Estelle's son Steve Kendall. Steve came back around this time and Martin was even mentioned. I believe Jo learned he had disappeared. Anyway, somewhere it all fell apart. Maybe Martin Tourneur was the original mystery backer behind the Liberty House deal? I think it was a bigger mistake to kill off Sarah Whiting. Michelle Joyce wasn't that bad of an actress and the Quinn-Sarah-Wendy triangle featured a talented group of young players. I think the show could have kept them at the forefront and it might have been a winner over time. I think the problem "Search" had was throwing away, or unable to keep, its strong younger set including Susan Scanell, Craig Augustine, Jay Avocone, and Cynthia Gibbs.

The clips are from 1985 and 1986. The clip you've posted is probably the Monday episode directly following the full English episode in which Ava announces her marriage to Curtis.

Just to clarify, Genie Francis only appeared on "Loving" from October until December 1991. When Jeremy arrived in Cornith in October 1992, he was alone. Ceara had agreed to move with him and was set to arrive in Decemeber. When Ceara arrived at the airport, a drug dealer was being apprehended and Ceara was shot and killed during a shoot out. I believe a body double was used.

Lotty was originally introduced as Lorna Forbes' cellmate when she was accused of killing Zona Beecham. Lotty was romanced by Curtis, but I think she was already married to Eban Japes. It may have been a common law marriage, but Eban seemed to make a big deal about it. Eban was killed at TRisha and Steve's wedding. Ned worked Steve at the garage keeping them all connected. Lotty and Curtis did marry after Curtis and Ava'a marriage went kaput and I think they left town shortly after. They must have done it by contract because I think Curtis left first followed by Lotty and then Ned joined them. I may be remembering this bit incorrectly. Stephens was replaced by Christopher Cass who played the part for year, or maybe two. I believe Cass' big story was his infidelity with Dinahlee or Stacey believing Jack had banged their nanny, Dinahlee. I don't think the intention was to kill off Jack. In February 1991, Cabot Alden kicked the bucket and left the fortune to Jack unless Clay was able to produce an heir (apparently Curtis was non-existant). Anyway, CLay had impregnanted San Rafael refugee/Amourelle model Abril Domeq who was going to give her baby to Trisha and Trucker after their own child, Christopher, had died. Trisha and Trucker even named Abril's baby, a boy, Thomas after Trucker (Trucker was simply a nickname). Tommy was suppose to inherit the fortune upon becoming legal, but until that point Jack was given the fortune. In June 1992, Clay Alden learned AE janitor Tim Sullivan was his biological father just as he was passing away. Apparently, Isabelle had slept with Tim while Cabot was off fighting a war and little Clay was the result. Clay was devastated and determined to ruin the family. In June/July, Jack and Stacey remarried and Jack managed to disappear during their honeymoon cruise. Around the same time, Clay disappeared. When he returned, he managed to drug Stacey, the new AE heir, into marriage and proceeded to have her locked away after driving her insane. Initally, it seemed Clay might have known about Jack's whereabouts, but it was never really stated firmly. The last time it was really handled was during the Cradle Foundation storyline which brought Cabot Alden back from the dead. Cooper believed Jack was actually alive and went as far as telling Stacey he was alive. This was July or August 1994 when the show was being preempted left and right for OJ Simpson. Simpson did really hurt "Loving" who was in the middle of a creative renaissance. I don't know why Stephens left. I've read some early reviews which state he could be wooden at times. Since he was recast I assume he left of his own accord. Sadly, he passed away a few years ago. I know most love the Cornith serial killer plot, but I don't think it was a good idea. In the end, the Alden family was to important to those few fans who were left. Many were not impressed with the final year as a whole. Stacey/Jack and Shana/Jim were the shows first 'big' couples and neither of them got together until 1984. Stacey/Jack did care for one another, but Jack was dealing with the revelation Dane Hammond was his father. Jack sought comfort from Ava, who Dane admired. Ava got pregnant just as Stacey became engaged to Jack's boarding school chum Tony Perelli. On Tony and Stacey's wedding day, Stacey said, "I take thee, Jack...." YIKES! Anyway, Jack didn't want to marry Ava, and then she lost the baby. Her sister Sheri was preggers as well and Dane offered to give Ava the money to buy Sheri's baby. Sheri had another daughter, Patty, who needed hip surgery so her desire for money was centered in a love for her child. Anyway, Jack and Ava married, but their marriage was a shame. Almost immediately, Jack and Stacey got back togehter infuriating Ava. Ava and Jack divorced and Ava got custody of little Johnny. At some point, Tony and Stacey reunited and went to live in California. Jack eventually joined them with baby Johnny. Later, Johnny was given back to his real parents and Jack suffered a brain tumor while Stacey was pregnant with their son. This took them til about the end of 1986. From 1987 to 1988, you have the return of Lily Slater, freshly escaped from the nuthouse. Lily comes back to town to seduce Jack away from his wife while Rick Alden decides he wants Stacey for himself. Lily and Jack had an affair and Lily went nuts again, while Jack wanted to back off after Steve died saving Stacey and J.J.'s life. Stacey learned the truth and turned to Rick for comfort. During the Writer's Strike, Lily was involved with a battered woman and her abusive husband at a homeless shelter. I'm not really clear on the details. Anyway, Tom King and Millee Taggert arrived and wrote Lily off. Jack became involved with a character name Jolie, but I'm not clear on how this all came about. Rick Alden was the son Gwyn gave up for adoption. He came to town after Clay turned out to be alive, but turned out to be a 'fraud' when the blood test showed he couldn't be Clay and Gwyn's son. Of course, this was because Clay was really Alex Masters. I'm not sure what Rick during the Ron Tummi run, but the recast was involved with Stacey. She wrote a book about her romance with the Alden cousins, had a baby by Rick, was drugged into marriage by Rick, and was later accused of Rick's murder. Rick was a baddie who got involved in one scheme too many and ended up dead because of it.

Just so its clear, my information comes from weekly columns written by people like Lynda Hirsch and Selig Seligman (spelling?). The only video I've seen was online. I also read second hand accounts from 1992-1995 on RATS. No one was around much in the 1980s. They would be on contract for about one storyline and then they would be written off. Post-Marland, there doesn't seem to be much focus on characterization. Teri Polo was on for at least six months. She was brought on as the spoiler to the April/Ned relationship. Teri Polo's Kristen was a classmate of theirs who was in love with Ned and learned April was prostituting. Ned learned the truth and abandoned April for Kristen. Ned ended up joining his sister Lotty and her husband Curtis in Germany. I think Ned was on for at least a year while Teri Polo was on about six months to a year. I found Casey's introduction scenes odd. The dialogue was a bit hookey in my opinion. I just didn't buy into the scenario and some of the commune stuff seemed a bit much. Also, Casey's real name was Revel or something. Gifford was ultimately replaced with Jeremy Hunter as the central AU figure. I don't think it made much a difference. I think Giff's death was a defining moment for Casey and allowed him to deal with abandonment issues that helped shape him. Mary Ryan Munisteri wrote around late 1991 til early 1992. She replaced Taggert and King and was followed by Addie Walsh. I think she was the one who reestablished the Alden family after they had been written off early in 1991. Unfortunately, I think her vision clashed with Fran Sears. Sears wanted to establish the college as the central focus and had Addie Walsh spend time researching modern univeristy life including the Greek system and spending a lot of time casting generation X. Yet, someone in the upper echleons most have not liked it cause Sears was replaced with Granger either before or in the early stages of the material hitting the air. Granger's wikipedia page talks about her stint on "Loving." I suspect Granger may have written it herself. The AMC rejects weren't incorporated very well into the "Loving" cavas. Angie was brought on as Shana's obstetrician and then was paired with newcomer Charles Harrison, the partner of the recently returned Alex Masters. I haven't seen Wright much on "General Hospital," but I never could accept Nicole Forrester as Cassie. As defacto headwriter, her summer was rough. The college story petered out without much plot. There was a ghost story plot and the revelation that a preteen Cooper had seduced his nanny. Jack Forbes 'died' during his honeymoon after finally reuniting with his love Stacey. There was the blink and you miss it reunion between Gwyn and Clay before Gwyn slept with lawyer Armando Rosario. Ava found work at Burnell's only to become involved in a drug ring and have her secret boss turn out to be Leo Burnell, an old high school classmate. Originally, Curtis Alden seemed the likely secret admirer. The mysterious boss of Burnell's seemed to care for Ava. Ava had been married to Curtis and Burnell's was an Alden Enterprises company in the 1980s. Granger did manage to hire Amelia Heinle and I believe one of her final moves was to hire Dennis Partalo as temp Clay Alden. Casting wise her run was pretty successful. Hiring Millee Taggert and Robert Guza should have been a good move given Taggert's history with the show ( she had written "Loving" with Tom King from September 1988 until sometime in 1991). Taggert and Guza won a Writer's Guild award for their work, but their storytelling was weak. The Curtis/Tess/Buck storyline was bad. Trucker's dad faking an illness was bad. The Ava/Jeremy pairing wasn't very exciting. What I did like was the quad focusing on Ally's pregnancy and Shana's insemination leading to her love for Leo. OT: Munisteri's stint on "Ryan's Hope" wasn't as bad as people make it out to be. It wasn't Labine & Mayer, but it was hardly "Kirkland's Hope." THe only person really involved with the show to call it that was Ron Hale, who was backburnered during Munisteri's run. Most of the other major players had major story from Jack to Siobhan to Pat to Seneca to Delia. The final months of Munisteri's tenure were definitely Kirkland overload, but Munisteri was probably out by then.

Cassie's money woes was a stretch. Richard was the prince of an island nation. Were her assets all tied up in the Beacon? Casey and Steffi were together around late 1993. I believe Coop and Ally were engaged at the time because of Tyler. Heinle played Steffi as this hot mess of a character and it worked. I think there is this haunted quality to Heinle's performances that worked for Steffi, but hasn't worked for her other roles. I loved Mia after she had been dumped by Edmund and Jake returned engaged to Carolyn. Gifford was introduced by Mary Ryan-Munisteri as a love interest for Gwyn Alden. He worked at the university as an art professor and was a part of the early stages of the Alden U revamp in 1992, even though he was introduced in late 1991. Giff eventually became involved with Trisha Alden when Trucker slept with nanny Dinahlee. A few months later, Addie Walsh was the headwriter and she introduced Casey, Giff's son by Alise Casey. Giff and Casey were reunited at Alise's grave and Giff talked about his time in a commune. Then Walsh fought with new producer Haidee Granger. Granger was defacto headwriter and had Giff go insane. Giff kidnapped Christopher from Trisha when she was shopping at Burnell's and gave the baby up for adoption. When it all came out, Giff kidnapped Trisha and held her in the belfry at Alden U. He ended up falling from the belfry and died. Giff did appear after his death when Casey was doing drugs and was haunted by his father. "Loving" struggled introducing characters because it had no focus. For a while, the show focused on youth storylines featuring future stars Teri Polo and Luke Perry. The only new characters that worked were Alex, Clay, and Egypt. Other characters came and went with ease and were forgotten. This continued into the early 1990s. Characters like Rocky, Rio, Todd, Norma, Armando, Kent, and Abril came and went without being remembered. f

Ugh. I hated Danny and Cassie together almost as much as I hated Danny and Marina together. I know most people absolutely loved Millee Taggert, but she and Lucky Gold wrote some pretty degrading stuff for the women on "Guiding Light." Cassie stripping for Danny as payment for the loan was by no means the start of romance. I guess the intention was to play on Cassie's past by showing how far she was willing to go for her family, but Stewart just brought nothing to the scene. Danny worked better as a town pariah after the warehouse bombing, which was the last sweeps storyline "Guiding Light" did that I enjoyed. I love what I've read about the quad between Ally/Casey/Steffi/Cooper. I was shocked by how much chemistry Stewart had with Amelia Heinle as well. I cannot say enough how strong that younger set became. It's too bad Weatherly and Stewart left when they did. I know I'm in the minority, but I think Laura Wright is a talented actress. I thought she and Stephanie Gatschet had wonderful mother-daughter chemistry. Also, Tognoni worked really well with Wright and Dinah never really worked for me after Wright (and ver Dorn) left. There are a lot of Casey/Ally clips up on youtube covering most of their love story. I think the last set of clips are from their wedding.

I don't know anything about this, but I do know they played lovers in the 1980s on the deliciously wicked short lived primetime soap "Paper Dolls."

FrenchFan, reading either one of those responses would be a delight. I knew you pursuing your hunt of the old daytime newsletters, I just hadn't realized there was more to the newsletter than the recaps. Personally, I've been reading the syndicated columns that were printed in local papers starting in the late 1970s. I know you've been paying for some, but there are some papers that have their archives online for free. Jon Michael Reed's columns are my favorite. Some of his wording bothers me at times, but there I get his passion for the show if it is really working at that moment. Lydia Hirsch's soap recaps are there too, but I prefer Reed's style. I was surprised to see Reed and Hirsch covered the syndicated soaps (Canadian "High Hopes" and the Norman Lear serials), but most of the local papers usually edited them out for space. I have't read enough of Mary Anne Cooper's synopses or Steven Shenkle (spelling) to really get a grasp on their style, but I was surprised by the number of soap columnist that were out there.

Wow. Thank you for this. I don't think I ever heard Kate was planning to become a lawyer. Curious since I been reading a lot of different syndicated columns, what is the source? An old Daytime TV? One of the things I really like about this is there is such a sense of the show's pacing. You can read a summary in a soap book that says, "Adrienne and Liz plot to use Liz's baby to land John and Michael respectively," but seeing it play out in all its grandness is wonderful. Scripts or actual episodes would be wonderful. "Where the Heart Is" is one of the few shows were the more I learn about it, the more I enjoy it. So many times short lived soaps were cancelled because they were plain awful. There are actually a few reviews of the final months online from various papers. It's one of the few shows that seemed to really grab writers attention because of its pacing. I do wonder how long Mayer and Labine would have been able to keep upping the ante. I believe Labine said they wrote the final 18 months, but I don't remember if that's the exact number or if that's even true. Maybe they would have been able to considering they kept "Love of Life" going for some time as well. BTW, I would die to see the confrontation between Loretta and Liz in the classroom. I love the one upmanship going on in that scene.

Paul Avila Mayer wrote with Stephanie Braxton. I really liked their work. It was much more balanced than the previous headwriters, Carolyn Franz and Jeanne Glynn. Glyn and Franz work tended to be very heavy and dark. There was the murder mystery story where Suzi shot Justine. Brett blackmailing Justine about her hooker past. Cagney being blamed for the payroll robbery. Warren escaping prison to terrorize Suzi. The climax of the Cord Tourneur storyline with his mental demons. Even young romance between Adair and Kevin Conroy's Chase was marred by Alec's presumed death. It was all really depressing Mayer and Braxton took the show in a lighter direction, but I do think they would have pissed off modern internet fans. The McClearys, who were weak, had a stronger family bond and the dialogue between the characters was crisper and filled with fond recollections of growing up together. Some of their stuff didn't work (the circus people yikes!) New characters came and dominated the show. Sarah Whiting was the Nathan Horton of her day, completely new to the canvas with only some semblance to past events. I liked Sarah and there was a wonderful scene with Quinn, who really wanted to make something of himself. There was a third wheel there in longtime Wendy Wilkins. I liked it and really wish the storyline played out longer. Similarly, I loved the passion between Mathis and Forsythe and the drama that would ensue as Lloyd and Sunny found out. I thought this was all really good. Tomlin wrote off Sarah and reintroduced Patti. His 1982-1984 stint was pretty well regarded by fans so I don't know what was wrong in the second stint, and there did to be something off. I still liked some of what I saw: the Women to Watch campaign, San Marcos, and Estelle Kendall. For me, the McClearys suffered as a whole because they didn't seem like a real family most of the time. Hogan, Cagney, Adair, and Quinn were interesting on their own, but not as a unit. They were the Ryans-lite, who themselves underplayed crucial dynamics.

Great list. The only error I see is Harding Lemay being there until September 1981. Don Chastain wrote the Writer's Strike episodes which would have been during the summer of 1981. Summer of 1981 was probably uncredited. Michael, Gary Tomlin was there for well over a year. Also, the Corringtons' "Search for Tomorrow" is considered by many to be the show's last hurrah. They introduced Travis Sentell and paired him with Liza, which became one of daytime more memorable romances. They weaved in the Sentell/Tourneur clan and the Adamsons in with the existing characters. Martin romanced Jo and later Stephanie. Ted Adamson attempted to steal Collins Corporation (I think) and then ran against Jo for town council. Laine Adamson was Gary Walton's shoulder to cry on when Gary couldn't save Steve Kaslo. The Corringtons' were able to balance the domestic and the action oriented stuff. Paul, what was better about the final few months of "Search for Tomorrow?" I've heard people say this before, but from the weekly synopses I've read, it seems very action oriented and focused mainly on the McCleary/Henderson mystery.

I think it was Steinmetz, but I'm not sure if he is ever credited for his 1993 or 1994 appearances online or in books.

In early 1995, the Aldens learned Trisha was really alive. This was actually Gwyn Alden's motivation for slaughtering the Alden family in the show's final storyline. I don't remember why, but Trucker decided to exhume Trisha's body in January 1995. In February 1995, Trucker had tracked Trisha down to Rome and learned of her existance. Trisha, now calling herself Crystal Hartman, wrote a letter to the Aldens claiming she had no memory of them and didn't want to disrupt her life in Rome. Later, when Trisha's family and friends were being murdered, Jeff Hartman was contacted. He revealed that Trisha/Crystal had suffered a miscarriage and had lost her sanity. In the final weeks of "Loving," Trisha returned to Corinth and was being sheltered by Gwyn, but Trisha managed to escape again. Trisha's close friend and psuedo family member Shana almost ran into her Rome in June 1994. Shana and Leo married in Rome and relocated there, departing "Loving." Shana ran into Jeff Hartman there who was worried about Shana discovering he was living in Rome with Trisha.