Loving classic episode from its first year

[EricMontreal22]

Great thoughts! I have some sense of who wrote Loving during waht time in the 90s but not as keen a sense of EPs--what year did Fran Sears see? I know Bob Guza and Millee Taggert co-wrote the show around 91-92, followe dby Addie Walsh into 94 and then there was a good 6 months or so when Agnes Nixon was listed as headwriter until B&E came to do the last 3/4s year or so...

I think your points are valid--that Loving simply never really had the buzz stories or style for the time. (And even storylines you mention I know some people had complaints about--like many didn't like Lily coming back just to do a Fatal Attraction love triangle when her character in the Marland year was involve dina groundbreaking incest storyline, hardly mentioned when she returned) --I know initially Nixon thought it would air sandwiched betweeen AMC and OLTL which would make a lot more sense to me...

EVen in the period I watched it the turn around in characters was a big problem. I too amcurious about the Doug Marland thing--he only wrote the first year and seemed pretty eager to leave--one would normally think hima nd Agnes would get along great...

ANd you're right that by Loving's premiere soaps had nearly all taken on the influence of Dllas/Dynasty--that was around when AMC got Adam and Chandler Enterprises and the "poorer" characters began to seem less poor and OLTL of course became hardly about the less than rich whatsoever. Ialways assumed Agnes saw te appeal in doing Loving that she could have the old style AMC back . Then in the 90s when they tried yet again to boost ratings with an AMC character they had Debbi Morgan as Angie move to town followed by Jesse lookalike, Jacob... What always annoyed me about that was, while I lvoed their characters on Loving and the City, most AMC watchers wouldn't ahve even know that they were on Loving--they didn't even have ONE episode on AMC announcing their move so it seemed to ruin the very point...

Still I wish we had a Soapnet Classics or something--they could show Loving all the way through since it's a rare soap opera with all the episodes still in existance (there's obviously less than zero of a change that it would air on the existing soapnet)

[EricMontreal22]

I'm nto done spreading the Loving love--i've been home sick the past few days and pulled out 3 tapes of edits an old online friend made for me of Loving eps and scenes from 1991-1994. This was when the show had been refocused away from some of its 80s over the crime stories... I wish we had a complete list of the writers for each seasons (Waggert's Soap Encyclopedia was published in 1997 after City ended but their info on Loving/City is in the Past Soaps section which annoyingly doesn't have a list of various head writers... Schmering's better Soap Encyclopedia does offer a list but his last update before his suicide was in 1987and it doesn't have years... So by 1987 Loving had had three HWs--Doug Marland who I know wrote for nearly exactly a year, Agnes Nixon who I assume came in when he left to help reshape the show and Ralph Ellis whoever he is... That measn that the Devil stuff might have been made undr Agnes Nixon's first tenure which seems very out of character for her.

Anyway the tapes I have have some great stuff--by the early 90s I think Loving had succeeded once again in capturing the feel of old school AMC even if they still had a fairly quick turnaround on writers... The first episodes I have list Millee Taggert with Bob Guza as HWs, by 93-94 we have Addie Walsh (and the quality of stuff is VERY good--which is one reason I always wanted her to HW AMC) and then for much of 94 the writer listed is Agnes Nixon--until Brown and Esensten come in very early 95 (with Agnes now listed aas creative consultant--which makes me think her return in 94 was partly to restructure the show and to lead into the change to the City which had been decided on by 94)

One other storyline which feels a bit out of character for Agnes is the big focus on my tapes from '94--Thom Christopher in the crazy villain role of Dante Perdou. a "kindly" strnager who moves in by Dinah Lee and she befriends he's always talking about his "kitty" at home... Anyway it turns out his kitty is Curtis Alden who he had kidnapped (and is now once again played by his original 1983-84 cast member) and keeps in a cage! Goes into a huge police showdown

Withthe AMC/Loving comparisons and "clone" complaints I wondered if people coul dmention some of the similarities? I know that Ava Rescott--who it seems Agnes Nixon first made central to the show when she took over from Doug Marland--was very closely based on Erica Kane (who of course was based on Rachel from AW...) Egypt's character was a slightly more glamorous clone (though one I loved) of Dorothy Lyman's original Opal Gardner... (not AMC based but one of the early 90s Loving scenes i have is of Ava in Heaven when she was in a comma seeing some of her old past friends--something OLTL did first on a much grander and sillier scale)

[dc11786]

I watched this episode and didn't really know what to think. A lot of the information about the show in soap books from this time is about the Merrill/Roger/Doug/Lorna storyline and the aborted storylines about Lily's incest and Noreen's work with AIDS patients. I thought this episode was decent and I liked the little back and forth between Shana and Dane about Shana and Mike. I thought it was good.

Ceara and Jeremy appeared in Cornith in October/November 1991. Ceara stayed at Kate's boarding house and Jeremy spent some time with Trisha Alden. Ceara and Jeremy were also at Matt Ford's trial where he was accused of raping a young woman, a crime his step-father actually committed.

In October 1992, Dinah Lee had been sad since her breakup with Clay Alden after he learned that Tim Sullivan was actually his father. Clay left town for a short time and Dinah Lee showed up at the opening of 35 Maple Street naked and embarassed herself. Kate suggested that Dinah Lee visit Kate's friend Myrtle in Pine Valley. Dinah Lee went to Pine Valley ran into Carter Jones and Carter followed her back to Cornith. Carter claimed to be Harper and agreed to be Allie's date to the Harvest Ball after eying some jewelry she was wearing, which belonged to the Aldens. Ally was using Harper to make Casey jealous.

Meanwhile, Jeremy arrived for the Harvest Ball and was courted for a position at Alden University. He struck up a friendship with Stacey Donovan, who was considering teaching a writing course at Alden University. This all happened in October. In December, "Ceara" was killed in a shootout at Cornith airport during a struggle with Mr. Butler, an associate of Ava's then beau Leo Burnell, who was involved in illegal deals involving stolen silver. I think Ceara was only seen from behind as Genie Francis wasn't available by that time.

Jeremy did appear twice in Cornith. Once briefly in 1991 and then from October 1992 until his death in September 1995. Very few places mention both crossovers though.

I believe, though I'm not sure, that the show revisited Shana and Dane in the early 1990s after Jim and Jimmy died in the accident. Dane wanted to marry Shana to get a hold of Alden Enterprises, but he also did have genuine feelings for her I believe. I don't remember all the details though.

I thought they botched Cooper sexual abuse story. I read that they passed it off as Coop wanted to have sex with his nanny Selina rather than him being molested. However, I do remember reading an episode synopsis from 1994 where Coop did admit to Steffi that he had been abused, but the sex abuse story originally played out in 1992.

Shana and Jim had romanced in Rome prior to the start of the series and I know the show did flashbacks of their romance in Rome, but I don't know if they went on location.

There is a promo on youtube from May 1989 of Jeff Hartman and Trisha Alden and the two went to Rome together.

I cannot remember the details because I think that "Loving" repeated the story in the 1990s. I know that Trisha was presumed dead in March 1993. Jeff Hartman was released from Dunellyn and found an amnesiac Trisha who was working in a dinner calling herself Crystal and Jeff wisked her off to Rome again. They were nearly discovered by Shana and Leo in June 1994 when they moved to Rome, but no one figured the whole puzzle out until January/February 1995 when Trisha's grave was exhumed. I believe in 1989 Trisha also suffered amnesia and was working as Jeff's secretary, but that may actually just be the 1993 story.

It may be interesting to note that they were being chased by "General Hospital" villain Faison.

There is a website devoted to Randolph Mantooth that covers the Alex Masters story. Egypt and Alex were interesting and I've read that there were people who preferred Alex with Egypt over Ava. I also read some prefered Roya Megot to Lisa Peluso. Egypt's return in 1994 was interesting as it lead into Ava's coma, which was well received by many "Loving" fans.

She was there before Haidee Granger, who SOD prefaced as the new executive producer in a September 1992 article. The Soap Opera Themes and Openings Website states Sears predecessor Jacqueline Babbit left in July 1991. So Fran Sears helmed "Loving" from July 1991 to the summer of 1992.

Sears was there when "Loving" refocused on the college setting and Toups database has Addie Walsh as headwriter during this time. In February 1991, Cabot died setting in motion a chain of events. Clay wanted Tommy, the son he had with Abril Domeq that his daughter Trisha adopted, and fought for custody. Clay also attempted to remarry Gwyneth to fulfill a part of his father's will. The Forbes nanny Dinah Lee Mayberry seduced Jack Forbes, who was then the heir of Alden Enterprises. Other stories in 1991 revolved around the romance between Ava Rescott, Paul Slavinski, Carly Rescott, and Flynn Reilly as well as Ally's romance with Matt Ford, a drug addict who was accused of raping a girl. I know that in the summer of 1992 Isabelle had a heart attack, Jack 'died' in the boating accident, Trisha and Trucker fought for custody of Christopher, and Clay was devastated to learn that Tim Sullivan was his father.

For executive producers, the list I have is a little different from Toups:

Joe Stuart June 1983-spring 1988

Joe Hardy Spring 1988-November 1989

Mary Ellis Bunim November 1989-spring 1990 (about five months)

Jacqueline Babbin Spring 1990-July 1991

Fran Sears July 1991-Summer 1992

Haidee Granger August/September 1992-at least august 1993 (new in September 1992)

Josie Emmerich at least April 1994-January/February 1995 (fired in January 1995)

Jean Dadario Burke January/February 1995-November 1995

Toups list Doug Marland in 1984, but he was the headwriter from 1983 to 1984. Agnes Nixon then wrote the show, and Ralph Ellis is said to be the show's longest headwriter. Ellis also wrote for other soaps though only "Search for Tomorrow" is coming to mind. I believe he worked with his wife Eugenie Hunt on "Search". In the 1990s, James Brown and Barbara Esensten were the last headwriters. Before them, Addie Walsh and Laurie McCarthy wrote the show, and where there by the fall of 1994. SOD announced in October 1993 that Agnes Nixon was going to be headwriter as former headwriter Millee Taggert was leaving because of illness. Mary Ryan Munisteri wrote in the latter half of 1991 with Fran Sears as EP.

Dante was Tess' ex-husband and his arrival was crucial to a storyline that had been set in motion earlier in the year. Buck arrived in town to meet his half-brother Trucker and had a past with Curtis Alden, who had just returned from the Persian Gulf. Apparently they fought over a woman and a man died. The woman in question was Tess, who had been hired as Christopher's nanny after Trisha's "death". The man was eventually revealed to be Tess' Kuwaiti husband Dante. Dante was apparently getting revenge on Curtis for the death. I know that the Dinah Lee-Curtis relationship revolved on secret identities (she called herself Betty and he also had an alias) and I think they hinted at a Curtis/Dinah Lee/Buck triangle, but Buck ended up with Gwyneth Alden after her relationship with Alden lawyer Armand ended. There was a Gwyneth/Buck/Stacey triangle, but that ended after Gwyn lost Buck's baby. At some point, Gwyn and Buck nearly married, but I don't remember if that was before or after her miscarriage.

From what I've read, 1994 was a really good year for Loving. Agnes Nixon did revive the show and helped to solidify the canvas. The Curtis/Dinah Lee/Trucker storyline was good especially when Curtis pretended to be Trisha. Steffi and Cooper were a good pair of scheming lovers, and the show introduced an interesting young troublemaker named Janie Sinclaire. Leo and Shana went to Rome and ran into Jeff Hartman and Jeff contemplated what he had done. Clay was blackmailed into marriage by his girlfriend Steffi's mom Deborah. Stacey and Buck were a good couple and Ava's coma was well done.

I didn't think that 1995 was as good as the year before even though the Loving murders were well liked. I missed the characters that had been featured the year before as the show seemed to head in a completely new direction, which of course was the intention. While Casey and Ally weren't my favorite pairing, Ally getting involved with the man who was involved with her husband's death was a storyline I would have enjoyed playing out. I thought that the Jacob story was a little too reminiscent of the Charles story the year before and Charles' long lost daughter story was boring. I did like the hints of a Curtis/Stacey pairing before both died, but other than that I didn't really like what I've read of Brown & Esensten's stint.

I don't think that Nixon was brought in to usher in "The City". ABC announced Nixon's return in October 1993 and the beginning stages of 1994 really set up a canvas that could have carried "Loving" for a long time. She reinvigorated the Alden family with bringing back Cabot and Isabelle, giving Curtis a sense of direction that was lacking in his 1993 return story involving Tess and Buck, and bringing Deborah Brewster into the fold as Clay's new wife. I think that when Addie Walsh and Laurie McCarthy dropped the ball on all the intriguing stories that Nixon had sent up (the Cradle foundation, the introduction of Janie Sinclair, and Ava's predicitions). It doesn't help that "Loving" was preempted for the OJ trial several times during July as the show was finally heating up. I could be wrong, but I don't think Nixon's tenure was a precursor to "The City". Her 1994 stuff seems more back to the show's roots rather than creating something new.

[EricMontreal22]

dc11 Thanks so much for your post--it's exactly what I needed to try to help organize my own jumbled thoughts and also raises a lot of interesting questions about this much *not* talked about soap in my mind...

Maybe I exagerated things about this episode--yeah it's not mindblowing, and doesn't really get into any of the early storylines that the soap books heavily praised (even Mike, who's present, has nothing about his Vietnam flashbacks, etc) but it just feels like such a good, solid, "everyday"e pisode to me and one that could stand side by side with the best "everyday" (ie not in the depths of a major famous storyline) episodes of better known soaps out there, though of course being only a year in, and being Loving which never really established huge audience/family ties it's hard to compare with, say, a Marland episode from ATWT. (It's true that Loving early on suffered a couple of storylines which never got to go to their full conclusion--liek the incest one which ABC seems to have stopped for the most inane of reasons--to promote a TV movie they were making on the same subject as "the first on tv"--although callign them aborted from what I read is a bit premature--they did get goign and have some sort of brief fallout, just not a proper one).

The first episode of Loving I have randomly saved from when I used to watch is actually one with Matt Ford (not his trial though I saw his trial episode on wost.org a while back) and Ceara being locked by Jeremy in a shed--I thinkit must be Fall 1991 as I remember autumn leaves outside the shed lol and I obviously ahd already been watching AMC for a bit when it happened. I remember as a pretty young guy (I guess Iw as 11) the Matt Ford taking drugs scene really stood out in my mind--funny as a soap reference book I have says he remained with the show till 1993 but I don't remember anything about him after that storyline.

I also remember the Carter Jones crossover being all really well done, compared to, say, more recent AMC/OLTL attempts or the minor OLTL/The City crossover--but then again I was young, new to soaps and the idea of soap worlds "crossing over" really captured me and I haven't seen any of those episodes since. You are right that when Jeremy moved to Corinth Ceara was killed but we never actually saw Genie Francis--and as a young viewer I foudn that all pretty pointless (her death didn't make much sense--why would Jeremy then decide to stay there, it not even being the actress--it all struck me as odd). And then we got the Jeremy evil twin story...

"I thought they botched Cooper sexual abuse story. I read that they passed it off as Coop wanted to have sex with his nanny Selina rather than him being molested. However, I do remember reading an episode synopsis from 1994 where Coop did admit to Steffi that he had been abused, but the sex abuse story originally played out in 1992. "

I can't fairly say--it made a really storng impression in my mind, for a variety of reasons so, especially as I was 12 or so I guess, I may have seen and remembered it not exactly how it was. But I do know he brought it up again (and didn't say the nanny angle) with Steffi later on when she was havign her eating disorder problems... If that was '94 when Agnes Nixon was writing maybe Agnes just rewrote it to how she thought it shoulda been--who knows. Either way at least some of it was well done from what I remember (that was aroudn the same time that B&B had a sex abuse story that they also botched, wasn't it?)

Re Trisha and Jeff--that's the kinda story that at the time I wish I had had the internet to clear up for me. Since I hadn't watched before when she had been with Jeff, I had no idea who he was (he left the show in 1990) and then having him come back in '93 just so he could whisk the amnesiac Trisha away from Trucker and her life didn't make much sense to me back then. I remember it also seemed liek they were toying with the idea of recasting Noelle Beck because it certainly seemed liek they'd return to the story (she did return as you mention during the Loving Murders in what was basically a cameo). (Similarly at the time, never having watched GH, I had no idea who Faison was or why he was on Loving chasing Jeremy/Ava...)

RIght--it was Egypt's return in '94, which is the only tiem I saw her, where I was really reminded of the old school writing for Opal on AMC when DOrothy Lyman played her.

Thanks for the writer list--I need to check the tapes I have with end credits as I think I had it mixed my head whether Addie Walsh wrote and then was followed by Taggert/Guza (and later just Taggert) or the other way around--I think you're right it was Walsh then Taggert/Guza, Taggert, Nixon, Brown/E. I know that my earliest episode on tape--the Fall 1991 one with Matt and Ceara and Jeremy lists Walsh as HW. But did Walsh come back after Nixon before B/E? *ugh* so confused lol

It sounds like Ellis wrote all the stuff that many people thought was where Loving sorta lost its way--the crime story base, etc. And it sounds liek Nixon did write the "Selling soul to the devil" story...

Thanks for the clarification on Dante's storyline--yeah Tess was key (and I instantly loved her--she remained a fave all thru City). It does seem still like a very gothic story for Agnes Nixon but then again she's done some gothic stuff on AMC (I just mean the whole guy in a cage thing lol). But you're right, it was the best year of Loving I watched undoubtedly even though I thought '95 wasn't much of a drop in terms of quality.

I don't remember much about Janie Sinclair--and what was the Cradle foundation?

As for the City--while it took a good 6-8 months to find its feet and had a lot of troubles early on, I really feel it was the best that coulda been done in terms of trying to find a new style soap but also please long term Loving fans--and I was really sad it was canceled just as it had found its stride (I actually thougth the last few months of it were stronger than any other ABC soap in 1997 that I followed at the same time--and '97 was one of my fave years for AMC)

Thanks again!

E

[EricMontreal22]

*edit* just checked my tapes--the stuff involving Matt Ford I have--two eps, the last (trial) labeled Nov 26, 1991 are EPed by Fran Sears and HW by Mary Ryan Munisteri (who I only know as the much hated Ryan's Hope writer) with a writing team that involves Matthew Labine. The next ep I have is from 1992 but I don't know when (I think Spring though), with Dinah Lee, Clay (played then by Larkin Malloy) etc and it again has Fran Sears as EP but Addie Walsh is HW by now... (Matt Labine and most of the same writing team are under her)

E

[Andrew]

Has anyone any idea of any great loving page, for recaps from the 80s..........

Celeste Holm as Isabelle?, right was another one to miss.

What really happened to Egypt and Ava?, anyone who can fill in the questions?...........

[dc11786]

Maybe I exagerated things about this episode--yeah it's not mindblowing, and doesn't really get into any of the early storylines that the soap books heavily praised (even Mike, who's present, has nothing about his Vietnam flashbacks, etc) but it just feels like such a good, solid, "everyday"e pisode to me and one that could stand side by side with the best "everyday" (ie not in the depths of a major famous storyline) episodes of better known soaps out there, though of course being only a year in, and being Loving which never really established huge audience/family ties it's hard to compare with, say, a Marland episode from ATWT.

I agree it's solid and the Tony/Stacey/Lorna storyline is often considered noteworthy in many of the soap books of that time period because of Lorna's abortion.

(It's true that Loving early on suffered a couple of storylines which never got to go to their full conclusion--liek the incest one which ABC seems to have stopped for the most inane of reasons--to promote a TV movie they were making on the same subject as "the first on tv"--although callign them aborted from what I read is a bit premature--they did get goign and have some sort of brief fallout, just not a proper one).

I have too soap books that were printed around the time of the premier of "Loving". Robert LaGuardia's "Soap World" said that the show would be exploring AIDS and in another published a year later states a trial balloon was sent up about Noreen working with AIDS patients but it was dropped because how could Cornith be the home to drug addicts and homosexuals.

The first episode of Loving I have randomly saved from when I used to watch is actually one with Matt Ford (not his trial though I saw his trial episode on wost.org a while back) and Ceara being locked by Jeremy in a shed--I thinkit must be Fall 1991 as I remember autumn leaves outside the shed lol and I obviously ahd already been watching AMC for a bit when it happened. I remember as a pretty young guy (I guess Iw as 11) the Matt Ford taking drugs scene really stood out in my mind--funny as a soap reference book I have says he remained with the show till 1993 but I don't remember anything about him after that storyline.

Here's an excerpt from an SOD article from around October 20, 1991:

I suspect the episode you are watching is from early November 1991. The WoST episode of Loving was from late November I believe, but I could be wrong.

Matt Ford was only there until early 1992 I believe. By June 1992, the younger group was Ally, Cooper, Staige, Kent, and Casey. Kent departed in late July/early August after trying to plant drugs on Cooper and Staige left town in November to visit family and never returned. I assume that's the Daytime Television Encyclopedia? That book appears to be the best book published for "Loving" of the 1980s, but very weak on the Loving of the 1990s. Gerald Waggert's Encyclopedia has a much better cast list.

The evil Jeremy started in August 1994, so I suspect that this was Addie Walsh/Laurie McCarthy's work. It wasn't on par with what had been going on earlier with the year so I suspected that Agnes Nixon departed around July.

I can't fairly say--it made a really storng impression in my mind, for a variety of reasons so, especially as I was 12 or so I guess, I may have seen and remembered it not exactly how it was. But I do know he brought it up again (and didn't say the nanny angle) with Steffi later on when she was havign her eating disorder problems... If that was '94 when Agnes Nixon was writing maybe Agnes just rewrote it to how she thought it shoulda been--who knows. Either way at least some of it was well done from what I remember (that was aroudn the same time that B&B had a sex abuse story that they also botched, wasn't it?)

I base what I know on "Loving" from rats posts. Many people seemed impressed with the Cooper sexual abuse story until they revealed that Cooper 'wanted' it. I don't remember when in 1994 it was brought up, but for some reason I'm thinking it was around November, when Addie Walsh and Laurie McCarthy took over. I thought the rewrite made sense, Coop wanting it was a rather lame explanation. I think Addie Walsh may have started the story and someone else may have finished the story (Millee Taggert and Robert Guza?).

Re Trisha and Jeff--that's the kinda story that at the time I wish I had had the internet to clear up for me. Since I hadn't watched before when she had been with Jeff, I had no idea who he was (he left the show in 1990) and then having him come back in '93 just so he could whisk the amnesiac Trisha away from Trucker and her life didn't make much sense to me back then. I remember it also seemed liek they were toying with the idea of recasting Noelle Beck because it certainly seemed liek they'd return to the story (she did return as you mention during the Loving Murders in what was basically a cameo). (Similarly at the time, never having watched GH, I had no idea who Faison was or why he was on Loving chasing Jeremy/Ava...)

I really thought 1993 was a jumbled mess. I know Millee Taggert wrote the end of 1993 and that was kind of blah. Toups lists Guza/Taggert as writing from 1992-1993 so I suspect Haidee Granger was EP during there time.

Thanks for the writer list--I need to check the tapes I have with end credits as I think I had it mixed my head whether Addie Walsh wrote and then was followed by Taggert/Guza (and later just Taggert) or the other way around--I think you're right it was Walsh then Taggert/Guza, Taggert, Nixon, Brown/E. I know that my earliest episode on tape--the Fall 1991 one with Matt and Ceara and Jeremy lists Walsh as HW. But did Walsh come back after Nixon before B/E? *ugh* so confused lol

According to Toups, whose headwriter list I agree with, it was:

Mary Ryan Munisteri in 1991 (yahoo states started in July 1991 through at least November 1991)

Addie Walsh from 1991 to 1992 (I believe she was the writer during the college revamp. There use to be an article online about the revamp but it is since gone.)

Millee Taggert and Robert Guza (1992 through 1993)

Millee Taggert until October/November 1993

Agnes Nixon

Addie Walsh/Laurie McCarthy until late 1991

James Harmon Brown/Barbara Essensten

I thought I read somewhere that Agnes Nixon loved the Jonathan Maitland/Keith Lane storyline, that it was one of her favorites. Considering in March 1984, Doug Marland is still headwriter and Erica-esque Ava appeared in 1984 than I would suspect that Agnes was definitely there in 1984. However, I have heard someone say that when she first appeared, Ava was a construction worker (as played by Paty Lotz). I find that hard to believe, but if true maybe Ava was Marland creation who Agnes Erica-ized when she took over.

Dante appeared during the transition between Millee Taggert and Agnes Nixon. Taggert, and maybe Guza, definitely created the Dante/Buck/Tess/Curtis mess, but Nixon did keep it going bringing Egypt into the mix before complaints about the depiction of Kuwaiti Dante required the character to depart in March 1994.

Janie appeared from May 1994 until August 1994. Angie went to Boston and was kidnapped by a drug dealer, who was Janie's boyfriend. Janie looked after Angie and Angie noticed that the boyfriend had abused her. When Elise Neal was cast, it was said that Janie was going to be Frankie's love interest. Janie came back to Cornith where she had a rough start with Frankie. Frankie didn't like her involvement in Angie's kidnapping, but Angie felt bad for her because of the relationship abuse. Janie caught on that there was something going on at the Alden house (Deborah had just blackmailed Clay into their sham of a marriage). Coop was trying to figure out what it was and thought Janie was the link. Janie claimed to know the truth and got Coop to put her up. Janie claimed to be Clay's illegitimate daughter and Coop was in shock because Janie was black. Janie also claimed to be Clay's mistress at one point, but I forget all the details. This all happened in July 1994 and the show was preempted for OJ a lot which makes stuff hard to find from this time. Janie befriended Buck Huston, who I think she took an interest in, while Buck was searching for his daughter. Janie was revealed to be a bone marrow donor for Angie Hubbard, who was extremely ill in August. Janie was afraid of being operated on and went with Buck to bring Dinah Lee back from New York, where she had been staying with Hannah (Jessica Collins has just left and Elizabeth Mitchell was being introduced). Curtis had tampered with the plane so that it wouldn't start, but it did and it ended up crashing upon return to Cornith. The crash resulted in Janie's death and the loss of Dinah Lee's baby. Curtis had also learned that Janie was Buck's daughter by his old girlfriend Pam Dawson and Curtis was forced to reveal the truth after Janie died because Angie was in need of her bone marrow and needed a family member to sign off on donating a dead Janie's bone marrow.

I assume Janie was an Agnes Nixon creation that McCarthy/Walsh killed off. The Janie/Frankie relationship never really happened and Uncle Harry had warned Ava about a death that would affect her. Janie and Ava barely knew each other, I'm not even sure if they had a scene together. I suspect Dinah Lee was intended to die in the plane crash and Janie would survive, but that Walsh/McCarthy kept Dinah Lee around to pursue Dinah Lee/Trucker since Noelle Beck wasn't going to return as Trisha. Anyway, Robert Tyler left the show around February 1995 and Elizabeth Mitchell was poorly received as Dinah Lee.

Larkin played Clay until November 1992. Malloy required surgery and Dennis Partlou took over as Clay. Partlou was only intended to be a temporary replacement, but Malloy wasn't well liked by the online fans of Loving and Parlou stayed. Malloy was fired when he returned to the show after he recovered.

[dc11786]

re: The Cradle Foundation

Deborah had a secret about Clay and was blackmailing him. In May 1994, Deborah and Clay married because Deborah was holding the secret of Clay's head. Coop started investigating Clay, I presume to prove how wrong he was for Steffi, and learned about the Cradle Foundation, a company that was supposedly taking care of someone who was dead. There was a question of who that person was and Coop went as far as telling Stacey that Jack was alive. Of course, the actual return from the dead was Cabot Alden who was working at a cook at a diner going by the name Buddy.

Apparently, Cabot couldn't handle the fact that Lady Alden Soap, the item that brought the Alden family all there money, was actually created by John Sowlowsky, Kate's father. Cabot instead lived in the past as Buddy, who was living in a time pre-war. Cabot sent Kate flowers and there were hints of a romance, but it was dropped. Cabot turned Alden Enterprises over to the Rescotts and Kate refused. The only real fall out of this big story was Cabot was back and Ava acquired ownership of Burnell's.

[EricMontreal22]

I believe thanks to Snark, in honour of Loving's 25th anniversary, this great classic episode is back up online

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-ZBYPOJcmQ

[Paul Raven]

Here is a summary of Loving's main stories during it's run.

I found it on the net and kept it.

1983

TV reporter Merrill Vochek [ Patricia Kalember] has a secret affair with politician Roger Forbes [John Shearin], husband of wealthy Ann Alden Forbes [Callan White]. When the affair becomes public, Ann divorces Roger.

Noreen Donovan's [Marilyn McIntyre] troubled marriage to Vietnam vet Mike Donovan [James Kiberd] ends in divorce when Mike refuses to seek help for emotional problems he brought home from the war. Mike dinfs confort in the arms of Ann Alden Forbes.

Jack Forbes [Perry Stephans], the handsome and athletic son of Ann and Roger, falls in love with brilliant young pianist Lily Slater [Jennifer Ashe]. Their youthful romance is doomed when Lily develops a split personality as a result of being sexually abused by her domineering father, Garth [John Cunningham].

1984

Jack Forces is cleared in the mysterious murder of Harth Slater, when the killer is revealed to be the dead man's wife, June [Ann Williams]. Jack falls in love with his best friend, Stacey Donovan [Lauren-Marie Taylor], who is on the rebound from an ill-fated love affair with Jack's pal, Tony Perelli [Richard McWilliams].

Cabot Alden [Wesley Addy], the patriarch of Corinth's wealthiest family, fires his right hand man, Dane Hammond [Anthony Herrera]. Determined to ruin Cabot, a vengeful Dane locates Cabot's illegitimate daughter, Shana Sloan [susan Keith], and brings her to Corinth. When Shana refuses to cooperate in his scheme, Dane, still obsessed with ruining Cabot, marries his daughter, Ann Alden Forbes.

Mike saves Shana from her kidnapper, Harry Sowolsky [Ed Moore], and the lovers get engaged.

1985

Jack breaks up with Stacey when he learns the shocking truth that his family's bitter enemy, Dane Hammond, who is now married to his mother, is actually his real father. Jack reluctantly marries the conniving Ava [Roya Megnot] when she becomes pregnant with his child. Ava miscarries, but keeps the loss a secret. Determined to hold onto Jack, Ava presents Jack a son, her sister's baby!

Cabot and Isabelle's [Augusta Dabney] teenage granddaughter, Trisha Alden [Noelle Beck], falls deeply in love with mechanic Steve Sowolsky [John R. Johnston]. Jealous of Steve's love for Trisha, sexy Cecilia Thompson [Colleen Dion] unjustly charges the young man with statutory rape, and later forces him into a loveless marriage.

Shana is heartbroken when Mike breaks their engagement and reconciles with ex-wife, Noreen. Shana is able to get on with her life with the support of Father Jim Vochek [Peter Davies], a priest with whom, before he took his vows, she had an affair.

1986

Jack divorces Ava, and marries Stacey on Valentine's Day. In the fall, Stacey gives birth to a son, Jack Jr. Jack undergoes successful surgery for a brain tumor. On the rebound from Jack, the upwardly mobile Ava enters into a short-lives marriage to Alden grandson, Curtis [Chris Marcantel].

After her breakup with Steve, Trisha enters into a regrettable relationship with sleazy casino owner Nick Dinatos [Jeff Gendelman], who is later murdered. Trisha's grandfather, Cabot, stands trial for killing Nick, but is acquitted when it is proven that he fired the fatal shot in self defense.

Cabot and Isabelle's granddaughter Lorna Forbes [Parker O'Hara], the daughter of Roger and Ann, marries her lawyer, Zach Conway [John Gabriel]. Jim Vochek, who has lost his memory, forgoes the priesthood to marry Shana.

1987

The Alden family is shocked when long lost son, Clay [Randolph Mantooth], returns from the dead witha new face that he claims has been altered by plastic surgery. Clay divorces his wife, Gwyneth [Christine Tudor], and proposes marriage to Ava after they survive a plane crash.

Rick Stewart [Ron Nummi], the illegitimate son whom Gwyneth and Clay had when they were teenagers and gave up for adoption, turns up in Corinth, and blackmails his mother.

Finally free from obsticles, Trisha and Steve are married, but sadly, Steve is gunned down and killed during a bank robbery.

1988

Ava marries Clay, but later she discovers that her new husband is an imposter named Alex Masters. Alex's secret is threatened when his first wife, Egypt Jones [Linda Cook], unexpectadly appears to claim her man.

Jim regains his memory, but keeps the revelation a secret fron Shana. When she uncovers his deception, a pregnant and confused Shana argues with Jim, tumbles down a staircase, and loses their baby. The heartbroken Vocheks divorce, but eventually remarry and leave town.

Lily Slater [britt Helfer] is release from a mental institution and lures Jack into a forbidden love affair. A furious Stacey divorces Jack and sets up housekeeping with manipulative Rick.

A love struck Trisha falls for slick TV producer Jeff Hartman [Richard Steinmetz], unaware that her mother, Gwyneth, is having a secret affair with him too. When Jeff tries to break up with Gwyneth, she videotapes them making love, and uses it to blackmail Jeff into dumping Trisha. In the park, Trisha encounters the handsome and elusive Trucker McKenszie [Robert Tyler], once the Alden family chauffeur, who took the rap for Clay in a hit and run accident and was sent to prison for eight years.

1989

When the fake Clay, Alex, is missing and presumed dead in South America, the real Clay [James Horan] makes a miraculous return to Corinth and becomes intimately involved with Ava [Lisa Peluso]. Alex returns and fights Clay for Ava's affections.

Gwyneth and Jeff form an unholy alliance to keep Trucker and Trisha apart. When they convince Trisha that Trucker is an irrational womanizer, Trisha marries Jeff in Rome. Jeff fights with Trucker, falls, and is paralyzed. later, a deranged Jeff regains the use of his legs, and kidnaps Trisha, but she is saved by Trucker. Jeff is institutionalized. Trucker clears his name in the hit and run accident, adn discovers that Clay was innocent of the crime as well.

Just as Jack and Stacey are about to reconcile, Stacey discovers she is pregnant with Rick's child. Stacey marries Rick but soon discovers the depth of his treachery. Stacey gives birth to daughter Heather, and realizes that her heart still belongs to Jack.

1990

Egypt fights Ava tooth and nail to regain Alex's [Robert Dubac] love. Egypt emerges victorious and soon becomes pregnant with Alex's baby. They become closer and marry, and Egypy risks her life to bear him a baby girl, Alexis.

Trucker's younger sister, Rocky [Rena Sofer], dates illegal immigrant, Rio Domecq [Rick Telles], but Curtis [stan Albers] is determined to remove Rio as competition for Rocky's affections. Curtis loses out to Rio and leaves for the Persian Gulf.

With the loving support of sanitation man Louie Slavinsky [bernard Barrow], Kate Rescott [Nada Rowanr] recovers from cancer surgery. Kate and Louie marry in a double ceremony with Rocky and Rio. Ava vies with her sister, Carly [Colleen Quinn] for the affections of Louie's mobster son, Paul [Joseph Breen].

On Jack and Stacey's wedding day, Rick [brian Fitzpatrick] kidnaps his daughter, heather. later, Rick is murdered, and Stacey stands trial for the crime. She is freed when the killer is revealed to be Rick's accomplice, Denny [Walter Bobbie].

Trucker and Trisha marry in a simple ceremony held in a rustic chapel in the woods. Jack and Stacey remarry.

1991

Cabot dies, leaving a video will that throws the Alden family into chaos. Trisha gives birth to a son, who soon dies. Later, she and Trucker adopt Abril Domecq's [Marisol Massey] baby. When Clay discovers that he is the father of this child [the new Alden heir], he takes Trucker and Trisha to court to try to gain custody. Ultimately, the court awards the child to Abril, who leaves town with her son to start a new life. Clay's obsessive behavior leads to the quick demise of his recent marriage to Carly.

When Stacey takes an extended cruise, Jack [Christopher Cass] hires seductive nanny, Dinah Lee Mayberry [Jessica Collins] to take care of their son, J.J. [Timothy Salter]. Dinah Lee tries, but fails, to seduce Jack.

Kate's granddaughter, Allison Rescott [Laura Sisk], falls in love with teenage runaway, matt Ford [Eric Woodall]. Together, they go on the run to prove that Matt was falsely accused of a rape committed by his abusive stepfather.

Paul and Ava are engaged, but the wedding is postponed when Paul is paralyzed in a warehouse explosion. Carly locates her long lost son [fathered by Paul], whom she had given up as a teenager.

1992

Trisha gives birth to a healthy son, Christopher, but breaks up with Trucker over Dinah Lee. Trisha is terrorized by deranged art professor Giff Bowman [Richard Cox], who dies in a fall. Trucher and Trisha reconcile and remarry in a glass chapel in the woods.

Ally breaks up with Matt, and despite her love for Giff's son Casey Bowman [Paul Anthony Stewart], she sleeps with wild adn deeply troubled Cooper Alden [Michael Weatherly] adn becomes pregnant.

Ava and Casey break up a cocaine selling operation run by Leo Burnell [James Carroll], the nephew of a department store mogul. After Paul reunites with Carly, Ava falls for the elusive Leo.

While cruising on the Alden yacht with Stacey, Jack disappears and is presumed dead. Clay [Larkin Malloy], who's out to destroy the Aldens after learning that Tim Sullivan, not Cabot, was his real father, attempts to drive Stacey insave to gain control of her shaves of Alden Enterprises.

1993

New Corinth resident, Jeremy Hunter [Jean LeClerc] helps Stacey to expose her new husband Clay's [Dennis Parlato] treachery. However, Clay's mother, Isabelle [Patricia Barry], takes the rap and saves her son from a long jail sentence. Meanwhile, Jeremy and Stacey become closer.

Shana [whose husband Jim and infant son were killed in a 1991 plane crash] pays Leo to father a child for her. A jealous Ava plots revenge when Shana and Leo fall in love.

Trisha's car goes over a cliff, and she is presumed dead. [The body found in her car is really that of a car-jacker]. In actualily, she has amnesia and, by chance, meets up with ex-husband Jeff Hartman, and flies off to Rome with him.

Curtis [Patrick Johnson] returns from the war, and falls in love with Dinah Lee, unaware that she is his father's former love.

Mysterious newcomer Buck Huston [Phillip Brown] arrives in Corinth, and moves in with Gwyneth. Her son Curtis, who knew Buck frlom the Persian Gulf, vehemently disaproves.

When a pregnant Ally cant pay her medical bills, Casey and Cooper concoct a scheme to secure Alden money for her.

Hannah, Dinah Lee's sister, develops a crush on Jeremy, her professor, and the crush grows into an obsession.

1994

Alex [Randolph Mantooth] returns, and is a thorn in Jeremy and Ava's romance. Ava and Jeremy eventually break up, and Ava and Alex remarry. Jeremy then starts up a romance with Gwyneth, after her miscarriage with Buck.

Curtis [Chris Marcantal] marries Dinah Lee Mayberry, but is slowly going insane. A mad man named Dante Partou [Thom Christopher] kidnaps him, and locks him in a cage, calling him "!@#$%^&*] cat". Dante was Tess's [Catherine Hickland] ex-husband. Curtis was freed, and Dante was killed.

Doctor Angela Hubbard [Debbi Morgan] comes to Corinth with her son Frankie, and meets police officer Charles Harrison [Geoffery Ewing].

Cabot Alden was found very much alive, and gave half of his company, Alden Enterprises, to Kate Rescott, because Cabot's father had scammed Kate's. Kate turned him down, but Cabot gave Ava, Kate's daughter, Burnell's, Leo's store which he sold to AE once he and Shane left town with their daughter.

1995

Jeremy is kidnapped by his presumed dead twin brother Gilbert, who in turn takes over Jeremy's life. Ava and Sandy are then kidnapped, and Alex shoots an unarmed Gilbert. Alex turns in his badge, but then takes it back.

Ally's life was turned upside down when Casey started doing drugs. It got worse once he started selling them. In the climax of the story, Casey was shot by Mr. Big, who was really the chief of police, Graham. Ally went into seclusion, and Charles was asked to be the next chief fo police. Angie and Charles were married.

Curtis went insane after being kidnapped by Dante, and Dinah Lee divorced him. She started a romance with Trucker, and Curtis started sending Trucker signs that Trisha was alive. Trucker searched Rome for her and Jeff, and found them. Trisha wouldnt come home, but sent a letter to her family, telling them that she didnt know who they were, and wanted them to get on with their lives. Trucker, Dinah Lee, and Christopher moved to Maine.

A serial killer came to Corinth, killing some of their most beloved residents. Stacey Forbes was murdered with poisoned body powder. Clay was the next to go with poisoned brandy. Curtis was then killed by drowning. On their 50th wedding anniversary, dear old Cabot and Isabelle were murdered with poisoned candles. Gwyneth and Ally were almost killed by carbon monoxide poisoning, but were saved by Ava, Buck, and Alex. Jeremy Hunter was killed when the killer poured quick drying plaster on him. Neal Warren [Larry Haines] was in town, and everyone suspected him, he even confessed. Tess was almost killed, but Steffi Brewster [Amelia Heinle] saved her when she walked in on Gwyneth. She was the murderer! Neal was really Gwyn's father, and was protecting her. Gwyn thought she was Trisha, and that she was putting her friends and family out of pain. When she realized what she had done, she asked Steffi to push the hypodermic needle in her, which she did, and she died.

After the murders, Ava and the kids moved to Florida, after she and Alex broke up. Kate and Neal got engaged. Deborah Brewster won the lottery. Ally, Tony, Steffi, Danny, Richard, Alex, Jocelyn, Tess, Buck, Jacob, Angie, and Frankie moved to New York City's SOHO district, and brought forth THE CITY......

[Sapounopera]

LOVING episodes from 1983 to 1989 aired here in Greece in the early nineties.

The show was unrecognizable within a year with the Slaters, Donovans and the Forbeses gone and the introduction of Curtis's family and the Rescotts.

I didn't like 1989 very much. The Alex-Clay storyline came out of nowhere and it didn't belong to the show. Rick and Stacey, Jack and Juliet... boring... boring. Too many Aldens!

The Egypt-Minnie friendship was great

[All My Shadows]

I'm glad that episode is finally back online. I think I'll be giving my dial-up a workout with it!

HAPPY 25th, LOVING!

and also, HAPPY 42nd, DARK SHADOWS!

[LeClerc]

I think this may be the article you are referring to:

http://www.column-of-life.com/loving01.html

[EricMontreal22]

I really liked Loving as a college based, old school AMC style show (which was as this long confulated thread already says when I got into the show thanks to the AMC crossovers)

Elsa I loved Egypt too--sorta a more glamorous Opal from AMC. I get what you mean about too many character changes--although the Forbes were tied to the Alden's (Curtis family) early on even in the pilot movie

[EricMontreal22]

LeClerc that article's great--I know Roger H had a role on Loving pre One Life to Live but I thought it was even more minor than it was. I really liked that college set--of course I was a yougn teenager at the time and was prob imaginign that'swhat college life would/should be like (Dinah Lee and Hannah styaign with Myrtle on AMC for part of the crossover helped).