Loving/The City Discussion Thread

[EricMontreal22]

No, but in the age when soaps were all getting bigger and bigger (richer people, etc) it may have not ben what the market wanted.

I believe Ellen Holly's memoirs mentions the Loving thing. Anyway, she saw it as a bad thing (going to such a low rated show).

[DRW50]

I'd never seen this ad. It's at about 3:20.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17g4ijhxeUs

[SFK]

CD looks sexy as hell in that ad. She never really did anything for me, but she looks all tawny and hot here.

[DRW50]

Love Ava here. "I'm a born victim!" She and this Curtis worked well together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3nIPAWBv5A

[EricMontreal22]

Great scene!

[JWDrama1980]

http://thesoapoperasaga.blogspot.com/2013/01/loving-recap-august-13-1985.html

[Vee]

I was just rewatching some of the old Loving Murders stuff. WEHT Trisha at the end of all of that? She had amnesia? She left Gwyneth behind? She was there and then gone again? I don't understand what that was all about or what happened when or the context.

Edited February 2, 2013 by Vee

[DRW50]

I think the story was that Trisha had left a few years earlier, with her ex, while she had amnesia. After the murders began, Trisha for some reason returned to Corinth, although she still couldn't remember who she was. She was a suspect in the murders. Soon after, I think she ran off again.

[Vee]

That is terribly anticlimactic.

[DRW50]

I think they mostly just brought her back to make her a suspect. There were rumors that they wanted to try to get her for The City, I think, but that didn't happen.

[dc11786]

Noelle Beck left the show in early 1993. In March,Trisha was in a car accident and presumed dead, but, in reality, she had been carjacked and the carjacker died. An amnesiac Trisha ended up working at a diner on the outskirts of Corinth where she donned the name Crystal and waited on Jeff Hartman, her ex-husband freshly released from Dunellyn, Corinth's local asylum. A shocked Jeff tried to call the Alden clan to let them know Trisha was alive, but no one answered when he called. Instead, Jeff decided to whisk "Crystal" off to Rome while her friends and family were led to believe she was dead.

Trisha ultimately became the Phillip Spaulding of "Loving" where whole stories would be built around this absent character and at the denoument Noelle Beck would never reappear. There was a delightfully twisted story where Curtis Alden, Trisha's rascal brother, decided to torment Trucker McKenzie, Trisha's 'widower,' and his new flame Dinahlee Mayberry, Curtis' ex-wife, by leaving little signs around Corinth that Trisha was alive. When the truth came out about Curtis' scheme, everyone (including mama Gwyn) was appalled by Curtis' behavior. At one point, Richard Steinmetz returned for a second time, June 1994, and Shana Burnell, Trisha's best friend and relative, almost figured it all out.

When Robert Tyler decided to leave the show in early 1995, Trucker dug up Trisha's grave and had tests run again that proved Trisha was in fact alive. In February, Trucker tracked Trisha down in Rome and had a conversation, offscreen, with her. In the end, Trisha chose a life with Jeff. Around the time of the Corinth killings, the Aldens received word from Jeff Hartman that Trisha had suffered a miscarriage and had run off as a result. Since everyone who died was tied to Trisha, Trisha was a major suspect. Trisha returned to Corinth to learn if everything Trucker had told her earlier in the year was true. Gwyn Alden and Neal Warren, who was recently revealed to be Gwyn's biological father, kept Trisha hidden from the rest of town with Neal even taking the blame for the murders. Years earler, Neal had spent time in prison for ending the life of his terminally ill wife so Neal had already been on the Corinh PD's radar.

In her final appearances, Trisha was struggling with her dual identities and trying to figure out her place in the world, but I think she simply faded from the scene. Once Gwyn died, most of Trisha's connections to the show were long gone or dead and buried.

[cityfan01]

I believe I read somewhere that Noelle agreed to return at the end ONLY if she 1. wasn't the killer and 2. wasn't a victim

[DRW50]

I wonder why. If you think about it, Gwyn killing Trisha would have been a fantastic twist.

[JWDrama1980]

http://thesoapoperasaga.blogspot.com/

http://thesoapoperasaga.blogspot.com/

[dc11786]

It would have been a grand gesture to show that the "Loving" of old was dead--- once and for all.

You've got me thinking, though. In the end, what if Trisha had been the one to kill Gwyn, instead of Steffi. In this revised version, you'd still have the killer stalk Tess with the audience only seeing what they assume is the back of Trisha's head. How great would it have been if, as all of this was happening, Noelle Beck opened the door and stumbled upon Gwyn in the Trisha wig. Also, I think Gwyn's "Trisha" confessions would have taken on a more twisted turn as Gwyn informed Trisha about all the pain Gwyn had felt since Trisha's death and how Gwyn had to kill all the people Trisha loved in order to relieve herself of the pain. Then, once Gwyn's hands were crushed, Gwyn would beg Trisha to end her life. When the police would find Trisha, they would still believe she was the killer, but Tess would be able to confirm that Trisha was innocent.

Overall, my feelings about the Loving Murders is mixed. It ruined whatever foundation "Loving" had, but that was really the goal. Knock it all down and start fresh. It certainly built anticipation for what was to come, but I don't think the ends justified the means. Don't get me wrong, in the long run, "Loving" was a weak series because it had no solid core and no strong sense of identity. Something big would have had to happen, but I'm not sure "The City" was the right approach.