Loving/The City Discussion Thread

[j swift]

2 questions:

 

I was reading the Ultimate Soap Trivia book published before the end of Loving and they still refer to The City as LOV(heart) NYC; such a better name, does anyone know why it didn't stick?  Maybe because it's hard to write the title in a publication?

 

Did Lisa Peluso go away, get recast, and come back as Ava at some point?

Edited January 19, 2018 by j swift

[robbwolff]

I think it was a working title and there was very loud opposition for it from the soap press because the title was difficult to format in magazines. Personally, I’m glad they switched it though I didn’t like the title “The City.” I found the working title clunky.

[amybrickwallace]

I don't think Lisa Peluso was on The City.

Edited January 20, 2018 by amybrickwallace

[Paul Raven]

Can anyone come up with a better title?

 

How do you feel about 'New Yorkers'?

[j swift]

I think it would have been very 90's to name it after the loft building, like "75 Bleeker St." or an intersection like "'Prince & Charming"

[DRW50]

 

Lisa took a break in 1990 (I think) and Roya Megnot, her predecessor, filled in for her.

[Khan]

IIRC, too, Roya filled in while Ava's mother, Kate, was in the hospital.  One day, it was Lisa, as Ava, at her mother's bedside; and the next, it was Roya, decked out in her finest Erica Kane-esque wardrobe.

[DRW50]

 

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Another one:

 

 

[Khan]

My God.  The resemblance between Roya and Susan Lucci is STAGGERING.  I wish they had coaxed Roya into joining AMC as some long-lost relative of Erica's.  

[Franko]

If nothing else, I hope Susan and Roya at least met. Maybe Susan could have jokingly told her the Rosemary Prinz, "Don't get stuck here," story. Were AMC and Loving at the same studios? 

Edited January 20, 2018 by Franko

[dc11786]

A 1993 promo featuring one of the blink and you missed him Curtis Aldens as well as a bit of the Faison crossover.

 

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[j swift]

I was thinking about Clay Alden today because I was trying to recall how the whole Clay/Alex story worked out by the end of the show.  I forgot about the recasts of both characters and was wondering if anyone had any insights about the recasting.  I know that Loving was a show that favored a recasting throughout it's history but I was wondering about these two.

 

Did Clay come back because the actor playing Alex wanted to leave?  Thus the disappearance of Alex to South America?  I saw an interview with Randolph Mantooth where he mentioned working everyday and I wondered if the original intention was to get rid of the character?

 

Was Larkin Malloy a good Clay recast?

Did the character's personality change with any of the recastings?

Did the recastings coincide with the recast of the Clay's parents?

[dc11786]

Randolph Mantooth and James Horan, Alex #1 and Clay #1 respectively, were both on the show from 1989 - 1990. Based on the way the story was structured, the real Alex had to return eventually. Mantooth's contract may have been up in Spring 1989 around the time of the South America story and this was used as a negotiations tactic, but I don't know that for sure. Mantooth left of his own accord in early / spring 1990 with Robert Dubac replacing him. This was around the time of the merry go round of head writers and producers. I don't think Dubac was well received as Alex, and that may be why they paired Alex and Egypt and had them leave town in spring 1991. By that time, Ava was paired with Paul Slavinski (Joseph Breen) and Clay had impregnated Abril Domeq (Marisol Massey) but was casually seeing Carly Rescott (Coleen Quinn), Ava's sister and the mother of Paul's child. Dubac's Alex departed at a time where the show wrote off a bunch of Aldens (Wesley Addy's Cabot was killed off, Chip Albers's Curtis was shipped off to the Persian Gulf, and who knows what happened to Augusta Dabney's Isabelle). Alex's role was minimized by these departures. With that said, there was easy ways to work Alex back into Ava and Paul's story.

 

James Horan's Clay was written out a short while later in the summer of 1991. There was a change in producers and writers so Clay was rested for about six months before they brought back all the Aldens (Celeste Holms' Isabelle arrived in November 1991, Larkin Malloy's Clay arrived in January, and I'm pretty sure the show planned to bring Curtis back in the summer of 1992). Malloy and Holms played the poorly conceived "Clay Sullivan" storyline which I don't think was ever effectively used. Malloy's Clay doesn't work for me in what I've seen. I like Clay brooding and sullen, like Parlato and Horan. Malloy seems more misunderstood. To be fair, Malloy was brought back on the cusp of a writer's change (Mary Ryan Munisteri to Addie Walsh). Munisteri is not a writer many have fond memories of from across her soap experience, but I think the material from her period that has popped up has ranged from slightly below average to stunning. For instance, her interpretation of Isabelle Alden as a snobby aristocrat is vast departure from Augusta Dabney's stoic but motherly matriarch. 

 

In the fall of 1992, Malloy went out on a medical leave and Dennis Parlato took over temporarily. When Malloy was set to return, he was fired and Parlato continued in the role until the show was cancelled. I believe Parlato played the gaslighting of Stacey Forbes and was then paired with Gwyn, Deborah, Stephanie, and Tess in no particular order. The daily summaries I read of the Cradle Foundation story, where Clay was secretly hiding his father and was blackmailed into marriage by Deborah Brewster, is probably my favorite story Parlato's Clay was involved in. There are also some good bits of Clay and Alex (upon Mantooth's return) when Alex decides to impersonate Clay in order to trap Dante Partou, Tess' villainous ex-husband. I'm not sure if Alex and Clay interacted much after that arc. Parlato's Clay seemed more villainous like Horan, but I think that was more of a change in story direction (and writers and producers) rather than writing. 

 

Randolph Mantooth returned in September 1993 right around the time Agnes Nixon took over from Millee Taggert. Alex was reintroduced during a storm by running into Dinahlee Mayberry, who was Ava's friend. Dinahlee and Alex didn't overlap during Robert Dubac's run (Dubac left in March/April 1991 and Dinahlee first appeared in August 1991). I don't know if the intention was to use Dinahlee as a third wheel to Alex and Ava, but Alex was clearly brought back to give Ava a stronger love interest (she had been with Leo Burnell and Jeremy Hunter, but there didn't seem much place to go with either even though Peluso and Leclerc had decent chemistry). 

[victoria foxton]

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[John]

When did Bernie Barrow air on LOVING and who was the replacement