SFK

Raidue, those Eye-talians and their 30 min. U.S. soap operas.

The word "fired" never crossed my mind either, though I sensed it was more of a mutual decision, like Lisa wanted to take a break as well. Two years later, she was playing Lila on AW (which looked even more fun for her than Ava). I like Lisa, but in my heart I'll always think of that exotic beauty, the late Roya Megnot as Ava, she was like Erica and Tina rolled into one. Gone fart oo young. I guess whoever edited this clip wasn't that much of a fan as he/she seems to have edited her scenes out.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I've seen. I'd love to see that Rue stuff too, and apparently some of it still exists in color kinescope form as seen in a short clip on her Intimate Portrait.

Carl, have you seen any of Strasser's Rachel? There's some of it out there, I'll try to get what I have up on YouTube ONE of these days.

Yes CSF, they made them for Capitol too. I was at an amusement park back in the mid-'80s, and in one of the gift shops they had a kiosk full of these novels from various soaps.

Remy was not used at all the until the "prestigious acting school graduate" took the role and Felicia when used had to have been the worst psychiatrist ever.

LOL, I'm leaving that alone.

But looking back, it really was an interesting time when we had Gilly there, and Vivian on contract with Charles recurring, Marcus I just never really liked, he annoyed me, and Dahlia was cool I suppose. My clearest memory of her was when she sung "Someone to Watch Over Me". I guess I took their presence for, er... Granted. Save for Y&R when Dru was still living, that was the last time I remember such a large African-American presence on a soap, not just a family but their outside relations as well. I was VERY excited about the black Spauldings, which turned out to be the black Spaulding, singular. What a let down. I wanted to see more Spauldings, regardless of color, because I enjoy watching interfamily fighting among the rich.

That's interesting, that the devil story was one of her favorites. I'd heard some didn't care for it.

Is this one of the ads?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCrrpfSlQDo

I love that Ernie Anderson is doing the v.o., this obviously aired in primetime. I used to love to hear him say "Dynasty" and "The Colbys", his voice just takes me back.

Okay, I just had to come back and say that I am in stitches over those clips. Those musical numbers are a trip, it's like that one time Natalie sang to baby Tommy on OLTL x 4 in ONE episode, like watching a Broadway musical. Especially the older black lady's number, with the other characters it could kinda pass off as just singing, but she basically breaks out in a sung monologue standing up in the kitchen no less while that boy with the parted blow-dried '80s hair just stares up at her for what feels like five minutes. Good times, good times...

LOLFanme has put up more episodes. They're all very interesting. They include the 1983 Christmas show, which is a mixture of family, friendship, some spiritual talk (they even mention Hanukkah, which tends to be ignored on soaps more often than not), and singing. Some of the songs are that cheesy stuff where someone's voice suddenly starts booming in their living room (like what used to happen with Karen on Knots Landing when she sang at Christmas), but others are more stripped down and fun to listen to.

L!O!L! That Michele is a warbler, I heard her sing live once.

Regardless of one's beliefs, I'm just impressed by the fact that Pat Robertson and whoever threw together a soap down in VA that looked just as good as (in some cases, better than) what was going on up in NY or over in CA. I feel like anybody could do it if they really tried, we were talking about this months ago, the idea of soaps relocating to less expensive cities, but now I'm totally threadjacking. At any rate, this is interesting material, I'm glad somebody out there pressed "Record"!

An article from Texas Monthly (page 138):

http://books.google.com/books?id=yioEAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Yeah, the Marland credit thing is weird, I assume it was an ABC/P&G issue. Agnes Nixon is huge enough of a name in the business, perhaps P&G didn't want "their" Marland of the brilliant ATWT era luring any viewers over to ABC at 12:30 with his name? Who knows, but I'm willing to bet that money was exchanged some way some how to get his name off those credits.

Yes indeed, Egypt was very Opal, just as Ava and Kate were Erica and Mona etc. Poor Loving, SUCH potential, I'm reminded of stories of Lemay's For Richer, For Poorer, or even The Colbys... I wish Nixon could have been even more hands on.

I agree that it was strange to start a soap with a movie pilot starring two big names that wouldn't go on to appear in the show. Had Geraldine Page been a regular on Loving, I'd be busy hunting down eps this very second. She was a brilliant actress, she would have done so much for soaps and soap acting.

So sad to read that Roya Megnot has passed away I loved her as Ava and always felt that she should be on another soap after her very successful Loving stint. She was briefly on B&B as Iman, during Ridge and Brooke's 1994 (?) wedding.

Oh my Lord! I am SO sorry to hear that! Such memories of watching her as a little kid in the '80s. Bless her family, may she rest in peace... always hoped to see her again on the screen.

I always thought Savage was a bit shorter than Tudor... and no thinner unless we're counting CT's weight gain that occurred after her return to the show. I liked her... I didn't think of her as a pod, though.

That said, I wouldn't compare her to Elaine Princi. I really felt Princi was a deeper actress than Strasser. She was far less of an over-the-top, shrieking scenery chewer... I felt Princi's Dorian was more of a threat to her rivals, and was able to convey more internalized pain... her motivations were more palpable. I guess to many, she wasn't as entertaining as Strasser. But I liked that she gave Dorian depth that I had not seen previously. (Think the story of Addie's abuse and Dorian revealing her scars to Blair.) A longer-time viewer once told me that Princi was sort of mix of Nancy Pinkerton's Dorian and Strasser's.

So I was totally taken aback when she was fired in favor of Strasser. And when Strasser came back, it was jarring for me and I, for a long time, felt she was a let down... back to scenery chewing, hairbrained scheming... the writing at that time definitely didn't serve her. That wasn't rectified until years later, when Claire Labine took over and introduced a new chapter in the childhood abuse story that Princi had played.

"Pod" isn't the right term. I suppose Joanne Dorian's Viki or Margie Impert's Rachel were "pods", lookalikes hired in hopes of cloning the original's magic, the whole thing's a bust when TIIC realize they're dealing with unique human beings. I only meant to draw the Elaine/Elizabeth comparison in terms of good, capable, perfectly acceptable actresses playing the show's "diva" character and being replaced by their own predecessors. Maybe it's the memories of a then young mind, but Gwyn #2 always seemed taller, maybe it was the long hair. Tudor was indeed svelte, but Savage seemed longer-limbed to me. Who knows, maybe it's just my imagination. But there was something very feline, slinky about her, whereas CT was sexual, but on the brittle side, like Ann... I won't go so far as to say we're talking Mary Fickett/Lee Meriwether here, but it can take a little getting used to when a character changes not just physically, but their whole vibe as a human seems to change what you believe motivates them, screws with what you believe they would or would not do.

We need some eps on YouTube! I have the desire to compare all these yeas later.

Did Alex go on OLTL to work with Bo or did Bo show up on the City?

It happened on OLTL, but Bo went to NY to team up with Alex. It was kinda funny b/c when Bo got to NY, the OLTL camera guys did all of these herky jerky establishing shots over cheesy "funky" music to let us know that we were in "The City".

A few years ago, I had the idea for a fan fiction about the messed up emo kids growing up under the shadow of the serial murders in Corinth ("Children of the Corrinth"-silly working title ) It would be a nice touch if Corinth got a mention every now and then, or if a new character/family was from there.

Where there ever Crossovers between Loving and OLTL or Loving and GH. I never got the chance to see Loving, but i seen some of the Tracy Quartermaine episodes of The City. I never Loving was popular, since it didn't last very long.

Yes! Jeremy, Ceara, Angie, Frankie, Pat, Jesse lookalike Jacob all came to Loving in contract roles (except for Pat). There was an AMC crossover with Dinah Lee and Hannah, Myrtle came to Loving too. Joey Buchanan on OLTL once mentioned Corinth, but I don't believe there were any Loving/OLTL crossovers until Loving became The City and Alex worked with Bo. Another The City/AMC crossover was when Jackson Montgomery would visit, he had a flirtation/history with Sydney.

I have many of the Italian eps through trading with Claudio and I've seen his site and what he's posted on YouTube. I don't think he's trading anymore. Thanks for the suggestion, however, and I'm looking forward to seeing your clips on YouTube someday. The eps I'm looking for are really hard to find and that's why I wish they would re-air the show somewhere, whether it be on DVD, online, or on some cable/satellite network. Unfortunately, I don't think there's enough demand for that to happen.

I found a site online once, I guess it was geared towards foreign TV markets, but they were advertising Capitol. They gave a brief synopsis, the number of episodes, et cetera. It's too bad that it's not available for purchase to the average Joe.

I've only seen very little of Tammy Wynette on the show, I can't really judge. But she seemed like a charming, sassy Southern lady. I know she sang on the show with Wally.

That is so funny, I mentioned "the other Gwyn" in my orignal post before my computer screwed up and I had to retype it. She was taller and thinner, had long red hair. She was good from what I remember, she was a sexier Gwyn. She had a seductive, mellifluous voice. Kind of reminds me of how Anita Morris replaced Bette Midler in the Down and Out in Beverly Hills sitcom. Or for a soap example, I guess she was the Elaine Princi to Tudor's Robin Strasser? Capable and perfectly watchable/passable, just not "the real deal." This was long before I was familiar with the term, but she was sort of "pod Gwyn" to me.

My biggest memory of Loving is the dynamo performance from Christine Tudor.

Christine Tudor was great, she definitely should have played someone's mother on one of the other ABC soaps by now.

I don't have any of that material, but I do have some episodes on tape at my other home. I promise one of these days I'll get them on YouTube!

A man called Claudio has many great eps (in Italian) on tape, I'm sure you've seen them on YouTube. He also runs the Capitol Megasite.

I liked it when Syddy asked Jack if he was still with "What's-her-name". Hearing Erica Kane referred to as "What's-Her-Name" was definitely new and unexpected. Michael Logan did a cover article on Morgan back then, he seemed pretty convinced that there was a new diva in town, that Morgan rolled into ABC Daytime and got the Lucci treatment (if not better) right off the bat.

I'm surprised that we haven't seen Amy Van Horne on another soap, just as I was wondering where the hell Lisa LoCicero was until I was surprised to see her on GH. They both are perfect GH mob material.

Did you pull out your tapes for that? :-P All this CITY talk made me put a tape on.

That scene's on YouTube, the sound's pretty poor though. I have some eps on tape, I gotta figure this YouTube thing out. I have a scene where Uncle Gino meets Tracy and calls her "Ms. Quarterhorse".

Oops! I meant Kate! The one who was blackmailing Sam!

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.

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.

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.

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.

The pilot movie was taped, but it looks quite good and has held up rather well. There are a lot of outdoor scenes that look better/more realistic than the interior scenes. I think the fact that it was so cold and wintery helped greatly with the look of the telefilm, it lends a darker, more realistic tone. Had it been a bunch of bright sunny days, I think it would have looked a lot cheesier. Sloane and Mark riding their horses along the C&O canal is a very nice sequence, the setting, the witty banter, it's very primetime. Trey's limo almost mowing down Clarissa in the VA burbs, and Myrna in fox hat and muff marching up the Capitol steps are also great outdoor sequences.

The earlier daytime eps of Capitol have a more filmic look. I don't know exactly what process Conboy was using, but there is a film-like graininess, akin to the look The City and more recently AMC adopted. Of course, a more primitive version of this, but nonetheless, later eps look typically Y&R/B&B.