CT_Helena_Fan

I remember reading somewhere online that Richard Egan (Sam Clegg) was very ill at the time of Capitol's cancellation and had the show continued he would have soon retired. Sam would have been murdered, and there'd be a murder mystery s/l with Myrna, Leanne, et al the likely suspects.

Yes, Bill Beyers and a few other cast members have passed. Just think, had Capitol continued we'd probably have never seen Marj Dusay in her many other soap roles, or Catherine Hickland on Loving/The City and OLTL, and perhaps most notable seeing as how it's the #1 show, Jess Walton as Jill on Y&R. Who would have been our Jill for the last 20 years!? I can hardly believe it's been that long.

Leanne couldn't have been a suspect because she died shortly before the show ended. She got into an argument with Kate and fell down the Clegg staircase.

As for the actors and their other roles, you're right, but I guess I grew attached to them in their Capitol roles. The only other soap I've watched was GH and I no longer watch that show because it has become way too mob-centric. As the writing on GH went downhill, I was collecting Capitol episodes from tape traders and finding it to be my favorite soap of all-time. I'm in a very small minority in this respect and probably even smaller, considering that my favorite characters on the show, while they were considered leads, were probably not as popular as, say, Sloane and Trey.

IIRC, in the original bible Trey (referred to as Sam) is written as a satellite character and Sam and Myrna get a passing reference. In the revised bible, the Cleggs are descibed as "new money" with an ostentatious home, Myrna adorned with gold, silk, reptile, and Blackglama. I'm assuming it's the network who pushed the Romeo (Tyler) and Juliet (Julie) thing, the Montagues (McCandlesses) vs. the Capulets (Cleggs). That's a perfectly acceptable beginning, but unlike a primetime series, a soap has 52 weeks a year to try everything under the sun... the show really should have fleshed out and explored more.

For example, D.C. has a huge black population and I'm sure a lot of people not familiar with the area associate that with the high drug/murder rate of the Southeast quadrant that the city has become infamous for. Georgetown (where Trey and Sloane lived in a townhouse) is in Northwest, along with all of the other affluent neighborhoods. But D.C. also has a high (it's suburbs in Prince George's County, MD have the highest in the country) concentration of wealthy blacks. The 16th street cooridor in NW is nicknamed "the Gold Coast" for being synonymous with rich blacks. To me, Capitol could have had two more families at odds, perhaps two brothers or two sisters and their families, one stuck in SE, the other prosperous in NW. I could sit here and list several potential storylines/plot points on that simple concept alone, there are so many stories in the black community that have yet to be told. Conboy could have beat Bell to the Winterses, and NBC to the families on Generations. I know social relevance was never really his thing, but black folk can be glamorous too. Especially on Sunday morning in D.C.

I think having a black core family on the show could have widened its appeal as well as made the show more representative of the DC population. You're right about the storyline possibilities. I wish the show could have lasted longer because there was so much more that could have been done. I would have liked to have seen Julie and Tyler try to have a natural child through surrogacy. That storyline might have been a little before it's time, but it would've been interesting to see how it would play out. Had they continued a few more years, however, they would have had to address the issue of Bill Beyers' passing. Would they have re-cast Wally or would he have died on the show as well? So many things we'll never know... I often wonder what the show would be like if it were still on the air today.

Apparently, the lack of chocolate in Chocolate City was an issue raised during the show's tenure. What's crazy is that in the original story bible, the young female lead was a biracial Halle Berry/Randi on AMC-type named Merle. This (among several other things) was scrapped, and the Cleggs vs. the McCandlesses took center stage. The Cleggs seemed pretty peripheral in the bible, but of course an '80s glamour soap needs an Alexis Colby, and the role of Myrna Clegg got beefed up. Capitol would eventually get its own Dominique Deveraux in the form of Lola Falana as Charity Blake. Beah Richards also guest starred as a voodoo priestess. I think Falana was the only black actor ever on contract.

I agree, the show was very "vanilla" for having taken place in the DC area. It would have been interesting to see the biracial storyline in the original bible, or another interracial dating storyline play out.

I don't remember the Cleggs having even been in the original bible. There was a Clegg-like family with a different last name (Renselier or something like that). Also, Clarissa seemed to have some Myrna-like qualities in the original bible, in that she was written as a social climber.

I'm a HUGE fan of Capitol. Ironically, I discovered the show many years after it had been canceled. I had become a fan of Constance Towers from watching GH and learned that she was on this 1980s soap called Capitol and I was able find a lot of episodes via tape trading. As I watched them, I fell in love with the show, especially the McCandlesses. There are still a lot of episodes I haven't seen, but I've seen enough to be able to follow most of the storylines. I wish that some network would air reruns of the show so that I could fill in the blanks and see parts of my favorite storylines that I haven't been able to get through trades.

Since I'm such a fan of Ms. Towers, Clarissa was/is my favorite character. As much fun as she was on GH as the evil Helena, it was nice to see her play the sympathetic character, one I didn't have any qualms about rooting for. The rest of the McCandlesses, including Judson Tyler, were also high on my list. I'm glad someone started a thread for this show.