Loving/The City Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

This is a great promo. Roya's Ava was something special.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAcTb2SYWM4&feature=related

[SFK]

I love her in the black and white with the silver necklace. See what I mean by sort of an Erica/Tina mix?

[SFK]

i really liked Alimi. He really did look like an older version of the child actor who played Frankie. Did they ever have some dialogue about Frankie's switch from film school to med school? I guess that would have been during the Jason Olive years.

Wow, that saxophone really takes me back. Where have all the soap saxophones gone?

[DRW50]

She also looks and reacts a lot like Barbara Luna in that ad.

She never looks the same in any two shots. And wow she was a stunningly beautiful woman.

She's a little exotic compared to Lisa Peluso - it's not the same, clearly, but I wonder if they got any criticism similar to OLTL with the Mia/Kassie switch. Probably not.

I can't remember. Didn't Frankie say something during Olive's run about how he was filming someone for a documentary, he was filming an ambulance or something, and he saw a person dying, and he wished that he had been able to save the man's life (which led him to become a doctor)? Didn't this have to do with some relative of Simone's or Mia's? Or am I making that up?

Edited November 13, 2011 by CarlD2

[KMan101]

TFP Carl!

[DRW50]

Thanks for reading - I have some other recaps I'll post when I get them together. Sorry that they're out of order...

[SFK]

That's an interesting explanation, makes sense. Yeah, I really wasn't watching much then, I missed a lot of the stuff with Frankie, Mia, and Simone, I think I was still very busy with college. That was probably around '02/'03.

Yeah, I doubt people made a fuss about that Roya to Lisa transition at least in terms of looks. Kim on One Life has a times reminded me of Roya in the exotic looks department. And I titally see the BarBara Luna thing. BTW, that's probably a pretty rare shot of Patty Lotz in that recap you posted.

[DRW50]

Freudian slip!

It probably is a rare shot...I think they only had that one and one or two others of her during her run.

[SFK]

:lol:

I'd like to see some of Patty, wasn't she a welder like on Flashdance or something? It sounds like Roya got all of the '80s greed and avarice type stuff.

[DRW50]

4/10/84 Digest. John Kelly Genovese reviews Loving.

When word leaked out last year that Agnes Nixon and Douglas Marland had collaborated on a daytime serial which Joe Stuart was to produce, we knew we were in for a winner.

Over the past few years, much of soapdom turned to hyped-up ersatz. The two notable exceptions were "All My Children", under the creative helm of Mrs. Nixon, and "Guiding Light," which was penned by Marland. Add to this team producer Stuart, a keen, sensitive perfectionist, and the result is a collaboration of rare creative dignity. And "Loving" has dignity.

To round out the other vital facets of production are two imaginative, energetic young directors with glowing track records on other serials - Andy Weyman, previously of "Edge of Night," "Another World" and "Texas," and Bob Scinto, who squeezed unimaginable life out of the trite dying days of both "Love of Life" and "The Doctors." Boyd Dumrose was hired to design believable, often downright breathtaking sets.

The early castings were dynamic for the most part. As "old money" family heads Cabot and Isabelle Alden, Wesley Addy and Augusta Dabney, display a grace and understated believability which is all too rare among TV patriarchs and matriarchs. Other standouts are Susan Walters, who has grown magnificently as scheming but scared young Lorna Forbes; Perry Stephens, who as hero Jack Forbes is emerging as possibly the best new male lead of the season; Pamela Blair and Tom Ligon as Rita Mae and Billy Bristow, the crackerbarrel southern couple dealing with Rita Mae's alternately riotous and touching search for an identity; and Marilyn McIntyre and James Kiberd's heartbreaking portrayals of Noreen and Mike Donovan, a "loving" couple torn apart by Mike's refusal to get professional help for Vietnam-induced nightmares and hallucinations.

It is highly unfortunate, however, that the show saw fit to dismiss such sterling talent as Shannon Eubanks (Ann Forbes), Patricia Kalember (Merill Vochek), Jennifer Ashe (Lily Slater) and Ann Williams (June Slater), especially since they constituted the two front-burning storylines for the show's first six months.

Many serials have splashy production values and exciting performers to hook viewers. "Loving" is especially lucky - it also happens to have an intelligent, satisfying story.

Take Mike Donovan's nightmares. So many hacks have used shell shock as an excuse to bring presumed-dead heroes back as twisted evildoers. Nixon and Marland could easily have fallen into this trap. Instead, they carefully depicted the gradual breakup of Mike's basically happy marriage, and his imaginary confrontations with his dead Army buddy, even while he continued to function as brother, friend and policeman.

The split-personality of incest victim Lily Slater (Jennifer Ashe) was admittedly melodramatic at times. How much longer could Lily's personality change every time Curtis (Christopher Marcantel) walked in the room? What saved the story, however - outside of some dynamite acting by Ms. Ashe and her on-screen parents, John Cunningham and Ann Williams - was the natural intensification of the Jack vs. Curtis conflict, Marland's skillful use of the two personalities in the murder of demented daddy Garth and the simple fact that this was one of the few split personality stories ever done in soaps which was sufficiently motivated. (Parental abuse is almost always the determining factor in split personality cases.)

This is not to imply that "Loving" is all eerie psychodrama, however, for it lives up to its simple title very well. The explosive love affair of Merrill Vochek and Roger Forbes (John Shearin, Peter Brown) was not only realistically handled in terms of Roger's confusion between Merrill and wife Ann (played to perfection by the beautiful Eubanks) but it had an exciting ripple effect on every other character in the show through Merrill's engagement to childhood sweetheart Douglas Donovan (Bryan Cranston). The triangle involving Lorna, hardworking Tony Perelli (Richard McWilliams) and down-to-earth Stacey Donovan (Lauren-Marie Taylor) promises to be more fun than the majority of teen triangles on today's soaps. And the confusion of Father Jim Vochek (Peter Davies) upon unexpectedly meeting up with a former flame, Cabot's illegitimate daughter Shana Sloane (Susan Keith), is one of the most human and innovative sequences seen on daytime in years.

In short, "Loving" is not only a tasty production, it is an honest, intricately woven story which evolves form a group of people who truly care about each other.

Who could ask for anything more?

[KMan101]

Man! I so want to see this show, LOL. I wish Agnes would try pushing for a DVD release, though I doubt it would sell well.

[Max]

The below is a quote that Eric made in the now-locked "AMC & OLTL Will Move Online" thread. (The context of the quote was that I originally stated that when compared to AMC & GH, the P&G soaps failed to get decent recognition for their "socially relevant" storylines. I'm sorry that I took so long to respond to Eric's reply; it's just that the news of the PP venture collapsing came shortly after Eric made this response.)

Eric, on one matter, I have to disagree with you: I actually think that the AW abortion was a bigger deal than Erica's abortion, given that the former abortion was actually illegal.

I stand corrected regarding the AIDS storyline; honestly, I read in one of the AW books that it was the first soap to do an AIDS storyline. I'm guessing that the author was completely unaware of the AIDS storyline on Loving. It's sad that Loving--much like the P&G soaps--was completely ignored for its socially relevant storylines. (Loving also may have been the first soap to have a storyline with a character in a wheelchair.)

When the ABC soaps get acclaim for socially relevant storylines, the only two soaps that are usually being referred to are AMC & GH. The fact that Loving, RH, and (much of the time) OLTL are ignored by the soap elites is just as perplexing to me as the fact that few recognize the P&G soaps for their forward-thinking stories.

Edited November 26, 2011 by Max

[DRW50]

10/7/86 Digest

[DRW50]

5/5/87 Digest

Edited November 27, 2011 by CarlD2

[SFK]

^^How dare folks get indignant when we talk about crazy soap fans? Thanks for sharing that Carl, she was so beautiful. And incredibly lucky! When she turned down mystery role/Felicia(?), that could have easily been the end of it. Interesting to see that there really was a Tina connection, as I've said, her Ava felt like a bit of an Erica/Tina hybrid. They probably would have made her dye her hair.

I always thought it was pronounced "Mehn-yo".