Loving/The City Discussion Thread

[dc11786]

Duke appeared from November 1983 to about February 1984. Lorna dated him because he had evidence related to the Garth Slater murder trial. I believe Duke robbed the Slater home the night of the murder. The trial ended in January so he may have left even earlier. I know Lorna immediately was thrown into a triangle with Stacey Donovan and Tony Perilli which lasted all of a minute despite the fact that Lorna got pregnant, got married (I think), and had an abortion.

 

I don't remember reading about Chuck Ellis.

[slick jones]

I believe Chuck Ellis was one of Billy Bristow's football players not long after the premiere, but I may be wrong.

 

 

 

[robbwolff]

Are you sure about John Allen Nelson playing both Duke and Chuck? I was just reading Loving synopses on Tumblr and both Duke and Chuck are mentioned in one synopsis. Apparently, Lorna was named queen of the winter carnival and there was some kind of drug-fueled party going on back at Duke and Chuck's apartment.

[slick jones]

I may have copied the name twice.  I've done that before.

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My lists have been re-written a number of times since 83 as well.

[j swift]

I was just reading the same synopsis. 

 

Poor Stacy, her whole family is leaving Corinth just as Lorna has stolen Tony. 

 

Also, I never realized Tony was introduced as Jack's roommate from boarding school or that he was adopted.  I wonder if there was ever a plan to find Tony's parents? Was he a prototype for Rick; who I always conflate with him?

 

Maybe you confused Duke with Dirk Snyder, who broke into the Slaters and Lorna tried to get information from him to save Jack, but Tony needed to rescue her; just like he rescued her from the drug party at Duke's?

 

Finally, I just watched JAN play a drug dealer on Booker, the 21 Jump Street, Richard Greco spin-off extravaganza.  He makes a better hero or a louse (like on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) that a straight up villain. 

Edited June 25, 2018 by j swift

[amybrickwallace]

SB premiered July 30, 1984. John Allen Nelson was definitely a charismatic and handsome guy who could actually ACT. SB made a big mistake by wasting him.

[dc11786]

Yeah, I definitely confused Dirk and Duke. 

[j swift]

It's funny, I was getting confused about the dates of the story because they were talking about New Years Eve in a February issue, then I remembered that SOD was weeks behind what was being shown on screen until around 1985.  I remember some longer issues when they were catching up to the current, then there were covers touting that they were now covering the current week.

 

Reading older issues, SOD really lost something in the catch up.  The 1984 synopsis was complete, a little cheeky, and easy to follow.  The synopses were obviously being written by people watching the show, rather than by using writer breakdowns as they did post-1985.  So, you get short asides about the charater's tone or their costume.  It is very similar to recap culture today on Vulture or other internet sites.  Today I occasionally buy SOD, but I can no longer relay on it to keep up with stories like I did in the 80's when I bought it every Tuesday with a box of red licorice.   However, on tumblr I was able to read the entire history of Rituals and it read like a novel rather than just highlights of the week.

[j swift]

In the soap openings discussion someone mentioned the theme during the "Loving Murders".  I'm sure others have noted the plot holes in the denouement of the story.  However, my nitpik is with the actual promo.  For weeks the promo suggested that the "click" would proceed every murder.  However, in the end the "click" was just a locket?  That locket held no clue to the murderer, we never saw Gwyneth wear it.  It is entirely possible to commit each of the murders without the use of a locket.  We're not even sure who gave her the locket.  It was a complete red herring but, the whole publicity campaign was based on this one plot device.    

Edited July 12, 2018 by j swift

[robbwolff]

 

The clicking sound was not a pen. The sound was made from the locket Gwynth wore around her neck. The sound was made from her opening and closing the locket. At some point, Gwyn had given Trisha the locket. She returned it to Gwynth when she returned to Corinth. In the scene I'm posting below, you can see Gwynth holding the locket in her hand:

 

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[j swift]

point taken - I went back, read the synopsis and, my recall was in error, I tried to erase the post but I can't.  I also didn't recall that Clay was one of the victims.

 

That being said...it is still my favorite soap serial killer story, along with Port Charles first serial killer plot, because the pace and number of victims was addicting to watch.

 

[vote4llama]

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Such a tease!  

Edited July 20, 2018 by vote4llama

[dc11786]

 

In the summer of 1983, Jack Forbes went to see his parents, an older couple who gave him to Ann and Roger because of their age. I don't know if these became his grandparents, the Hendersons, but by the time Tony Perilli arrives in the fall, I think its possible the plan was to make Dane Hammond Jack's father. Tony's parentage could have played into that story if had been played properly with either the Hendersons leading Dane to believe Tony was his son, but that certainly wasn't the angle pursued. I hadn't considered the Rick angle before, but combining the two would have been interesting. If the man that Dane thought was his son turned out to be Clay and Gwyn's son, there would definitely be some interesting dynamics to play there. 

 

The clip of Isabelle, Curtis, and Ava is nice. I believe that's from Bill Levinson's time as headwriter, correct? I wish the show had committed to the Curtis and Jack rivalry. Curtis should have had the Rick role in the triangle with Jack and Stacey. 

[Vee]

Roger Howarth (Kent) name-drops his Loving stint in a new interview:

 

[EricMontreal22]

Ha, I haven't been here in a very long while.  So to answer a year and a half later...  Carl said in this thread I would know for sure--and yeah, this is from the Agnes Nixon return that I really like (Nov 93 to about Nov/Dec 94).  I always wonder if there was any advertising at the time about her return--it doesn't seem like it.

Her Loving return featured, as Carl also says, a large cast, but also is one of her several rather Gothic eras (I guess she had just written the whole Natalie in a well/Wildwind/wife in the attic stuff for AMC so maybe it was a phase in general), leading off with the whole Dante's "pet" story that introduced Tess (the pet being of course Curtis) and later going into the ridiculous but, I thought, enjoyable Gilbert--Jeremy's evil twin--story.  I watched all this as it aired, but there used to be more of the Dante stuff on YT--it all seems to be gone, which is too bad.  (Oh, I think she also introduced Jacob--speaking of doubles--but that may have been Addie Walsh's brief period after her which was an interim before Brown/Esensten came to close off the show).  I really wish there was some interview or writing about why she returned and the stories, but of course it doesn't seem to be mentioned anywhere. 

Sadly that May 4th episode seems to be gone and I missed it--however a month back the same person posted the May 6th episode following the May 5th one which is still linked here, and I haven't seen it in this thread yet, so here ya go (the sound goes badly off sync in the middle for four or so minutes but gets back).  Some funny stuff, even if nothing major was happening in these episodes. 
 

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Edited September 21, 2018 by EricMontreal22