Loving/The City Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

 

I don't know most of them either. April was an ingenue played by the bland Alexandra Wilson (Josie #1, AW). She was kidnapped by an obsessive Jeff Trachta. Her boyfriend was played by Luke Perry. Dolly was some sort of woman paired with Bryan Cranston and had some lengthy storyline about looking for her daughter who was sexually exploited or something. Or maybe Dolly was sexually exploited. I think this was also the story that had John O'Hurley as twins. 

 

I think Rio and Rocky were written out sometime in 1992. 

[NothinButAttitude]

 

Was that around the time they were bringing in Cooper, Steffy, Ally, etc?

[DRW50]

 

Yes.

[NothinButAttitude]

 

Who was the actor that played Rio? He was hot!

[DRW50]

 

Rick Telles. He later became a reality show producer.

[NothinButAttitude]

 

OMG! I didn't know that he produced VH1's The Surreal Life!! Those were the days...

[dc11786]

 

I think they were trying to go for a more balanced tone, but I think it doesn't work. The material at the church was pretty weak. I did like that Alex gave the speech and thought that was well written. JJ (I assume that was JJ) sitting with Isabelle was a nice touch. 

 

 

The events surrounding the funeral were rather underplayed given the fact that Cabot's death was suppose to be a big deal. I think Cabot's demise was rather plot-driven; a way to clean up the messy story involving Alden Enterprises and the faulty airline parts storyline. Most of the fallout seems functional rather than poignant. I did think Shana turning to Dane in her darkest hour and then scolding herself was well played. Shana's entire speech about Dane bringing Cabot into her life was a very nice character moment. It would have been interesting if Dane brought up the fact that if Dane hadn't brought her to Corinth she never would have reunited with Jim to begin with, but then they would have to deal with Jim and Jimmy's death, I guess.

 

Ava bought Johnny from Sherri Watley, her sister with the boatload of kids including another one named Ava. Sherri popped up in 1994 under Nixon when Ava was in a coma during another fantasy sequence (Ava played cards in Heaven with Uncle Harry who gave Ava some prophecies, which was basically a neat way to give spoilers within the context of the series.) Had the show made it into the early 2000s, a rivalry between Johnny and JJ would have been a must.

 

As you see in the other episodes, there was some animosity between Cabot and Trisha over the Aldens pinning the manufacturing problems that led to the plane crash (the one that killed Jim and Jimmy Vochek) on Trucker. Having Cabot's funeral while Trisha and baby Benjamin (I think that was his name) fought for their lives was probably overkill, but it was sweeps and the show was low rated. 

 

I don't know why they didn't bring back Ann at least. She was name dropped a couple of times and I think they brought Callan White back in 1990 for a wedding (maybe Trucker and Trisha's? or Jack and Stacey's?). It would have been especially nice to have played her in the Cabot story given Dane's return and Shana's animosity for Cabot. 

 

 

I was more fascinated by Carly though I thought her friendship with Abril was a nice touch especially given that Carly and Clay were getting closer together. I think Abril's storyline was interesting (Abril giving Trucker and Trisha a child who was actually Trisha's half-brother and now the added element of Abril's friend Carly going after the father of Abril's child). There were clearly some interesting elements to play: the tension between Carly/Abril over Clay's eventual play for the child, Carly raising a child when she gave her own away, Clay trying to take his child away from his own daughter). I just find Marisol Massey to be too low key for all this. I don't find the character as compelling as her situation was.

 

Similarly, I don't understand where they were going with Robert Leeshock's Monty character. He seems like a decent guy, but Carly hates him and he eventually ends up dead. I love Ilene Kristen but all the Norma / Denny / Wally stuff seems so extra and unnecessary. Maybe if they were tied to the other working class characters, the Slavinskis and the Rescotts, they would have worked better for me. Especially if Norma ended up as a boarder at Kate's and Ava had to deal with her. 

 

Colleen Quinn was the real star in this. She and Lisa Peluso were dynamite together. Peluso is fun as a vixen, but I like when she gets to play her character's insecurities. The stuff with Ava and Kate was remarkably layered. I thought Kate's running commentary was hilarious and tragic at the same time. It was nice to have Kate call Ava out, though, when she said she (Ava) was trying to be the woman her mother wanted her to be rather than the woman she wanted to be herself. On that note, I thought the Wizard of Oz fantasy was very well done, and this isn't the type of material I really go for. 

 

 

Abril first appeared in April 1989. She took care of Alex Masters when he had been shot in some fictional island nation. She departed in July/August 1991 when she got custody of her son, Tommy, and moved to New York. Rio arrived in March 1990.

 

Colby was Colby Cantrell. She was Rita Mae Bristow's niece. She appeared in 1984. Colby worked as a buyer for Burnell's department store and was Curtis' big romance post-Lily. Prior to returning to Corinth, Curtis had been slumming it in Europe where he knew Sasha. Sasha was Sasha Hale who arrived after Colby and worked as a model for Burnell's. Sasha had known Curtis in Europe and had starred in a pornographic film that Curtis had financed. I believe this was the breaking point for Colby and Curtis, and I believe Colby developed some feelings for Keith Lane, the chemist at Amourelle. Sasha also had ties to Jonathan Maitlane and/or Edy Lester Donovan. She somehow was tied to the byzantine San Francisco serial murders and I believe Jonathan tried to kill her at some point. 

 

I'm blanking on Juliet. I assume she was later on, 1987-1989 era, and I think she may have been tied to the spy story involving Mark Pinter's Dan Hollister.

 

 

April was the teenage prostitute who loved Luke Perry's Ned Bates, who worked with Steve Sowolosky at the garage. Ned's sister Lotty was Lorna Forbes' cellmate, and later married Curtis (I believe when Burke Moses was playing the role) and dealt with her scummy common law husband Eban Japes (Matthew Cowles). April had an alcoholic aunt who longed for Jim Vochek and Jackie Courtney briefly played April's madame. April's stalker was actually Steve Fletcher's Alan Howard. Trachta played the wealthy masochist who tormented Dolly Jones, another prostitute. When Jonathan Maitlane (John O'Hurley's bad twin) took over his brother's life, Keith (the good brother) ended up locked up in a brothel with Dolly, who saved him. Dolly reformed and fell for Keith. They were tested by Hunter Belden, who knew where Dolly's daughter was. Hunter claimed the daughter was in the hands of child pornographers and used his knowledge of the little girl to get Dolly to sleep with him. Completely understandable why you'd confuse the stories: similar tropes and both sound like awful plots. 

 

The woman that Cranston was paired with was Lesley Vogel's Edy Lester, who had been married to John O'Hurley's Jonathan Maitlane. Edy had been a nurse in San Francisco for wealthy older women who Maitlane would kill to get his hands on some of their money. 

[NothinButAttitude]

Thanks, @dc11786! Glad that there is another brain to pick when it comes to Loving. 

 

As I keep saying, I wish that ABC would just release the entire library of the show. It truly is a show I'd like to see from start to finish. 

[Sapounopera]

 

From what I remember Juliet was involved in the Jack/Stacey/Rick story and the woman tied to the Dan Hollister story was Carrie. 

[DRW50]

Thanks for the memory jog @dc11786. I hope some of that pops up someday, even if it sounds just awful...

[NothinButAttitude]

Please register in order to view this content

 

[Soaplovers]

I liked that Ava had fantasies on occasion even into the early 90s...since she was conceived to be more like No la Reardon then Erica Kane.  Peluso played Ava more like a scarlet ohara with the fantasy/social climbing aspects of Nola.

 

I liked Ava's sister Carly..and I do think the show wrote her out when she still had a lot of mileage left to utilize.

[rlj]

The original concept of Ava was nothing like original Nola or what Nola morphed into later on GL

[DRW50]

 

Wasn't she supposed to be blue-collar, like Nola? I know she was more of a worker than Nola.

[John]

How were the actors before richard Steinmetz as Jeff Hartman?