Loving classic episode from its first year

[dc11786]

Yes it is. Thank you

[EricMontreal22]

I always wonder why more soaps don't try to make use of a university setting. I know AMC has kinda dabbled in it but without much point and under Malone--both of his eras--OLTL did but it just seems such a perfect venue for soap storylines

[dc11786]

I think that soaps shy away from the university setting because for whatever reasons the show's ratings tend to be low. By the time "Loving" premiered, the idea of a professor sleeping with one of their students was cliche. It dated back to at least the 1960s when Amy Ames slept with her married professor Paul Britton and had baby Lisa as a result. In the tail end of the 1960s, both "Bright Promise" and "Where the Heart Is" were led by characters who worked in a university setting, however Julian Hathaway's focus seemed to be more on his students bodies rather than their minds while Thomas Boswell and his son Jim were written out six months after the show premiered.

"Love of Life" tried to revive the university setting in 1979, which it did well in the late sixties with its exploration of drug use and sexual awakening among the youth of America. Ann Marcus had Bruce become a law professor who was teaching his vengeful illegitimate daughter, while Van gained an admirer in young scoundrel Steve Harbach. Right before the series ended, ingenue Leann saw her younger sister arrive in town as did nasty Mia Marriott enjoy the arrival of her kid brother Wes. The show was gearing up for a younger set, but smartly balanced it with hospital and legal drama while maintaining characters that had made the show a success in the 1950s and 1960s (Meg, Van, Bruce) and the 1970s (Betsy, Arlene, Ben).

Also around the time "Loving" premiered, Ken Corday developed "Rituals" for syndication based on Charlene Keel's novel. A pilot was later produced starring Joe Lambie as the college professor who slept with all his female students. The novel dealt with four or five young ladies all trying to bed the professor or rebuff his advances. I remember one was named Sandy, and she was the British half-sister of the bitchy Priscilla. When Sandy confronted Priscilla's mother, the woman called her a liar claiming her husband was gay (he was actually bisexual). Priscilla was the nasty one of the group who became pregnant by professor Judd only for her mother to reveal Judd was her biological father. Priscilla aborted the baby and left town. One of the girls was the daughter of a rock star and I'm sure there were some others hanging around. I do remember Sandy was the ingenue who ended happily married to her longtime beau.

Anyway, somewhere along the line the pilot was scrapped in favor of what came on the air: a story about the girls school and the family that had founded it. As time went on, the girls school was less the focus and by the time the year ended with the Corringtons writing, "Rituals" dealt with two feuding families, the Robertsons and the Fields, with C.J. and Carter fighting it out for everything, while Christina lost her mind and C.J.'s ex-wife and Carter's half-sister Taylor returned to town for the final battle.

Even when "Loving" revived the university setting in spring 1992, I would say most of the university centric plots were gone by June 1993. The last major university set storyline was Stacey and Jeremy's romance being thwarted by Hannah Mayberry's accusations that Jeremy had sexually harassed her.

[danfling]

In the late 1980s, there were several storylines about literacy. John Danielle (Dr. Frank Grant from All My Children) played a police detective. For a very short time, the character of his son was on. The son was in high school but could not read. Can anyone tell me who played his son and the name of the character. Lt. Art Hindman was the name of the character that John Danielle played.

[Goldensoaps]

Yes, you can find this sypnoses in my page:

http://www.angelfire.com/80s/cultsoaps/lovsumm.html

[dc11786]

Bill Christopher-Myers played Dave Hindman, who appeared around 1989-1990. I have one note saying he was hired by Curtis to track down Rocky and Todd, Egypt's brother.

[dc11786]

bump for danfling