Loving/The City Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

I kept trying to think if this is George Palermo (Tony). Probably not...

 

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[Jagger1966]

I don't know.  It sure does look like him though!

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[KMan101]

 

Pulling this up as I'm reading the thread. YEP! I'm looking at you DAYS.

 

Anywho ... the budget seems to get worse with the soap and I thought some later episodes looked very cheap and poorly done. Nice to see earlier years looked better.

[Soaplovers]

I've always wondered what exactly was Loving's identity?  All My Children and One life to Live (by Nixon) had strong identites.. even using their locales as characters itself (Pine Valley and Llanview were distinct characters in themselves).

 

But what exactly was Loving's identity and purpose when it was in the story bible/creation stage?  Was it about a college?  A college town?  Was it to focus on the college itself, or the inhabitants of a college town?  I never got the sense even in the early months of the show.. that even the writers (Marland, and later Nixon) even knew.

 

It took the final year (before the serial killer story) before we got an idea on what the show could have been...imho.

[Khan]

 

 

Someone (forget who) once said even the show's title sounded generic and betrayed a lack of definition for the entire show.

[victoria foxton]

https://www.facebook.com/DaytimeTVPreservationSociety/videos/2663461020581555/?t=306 Loving - Full Episode - 3/6/92

Edited April 6, 2020 by victoria foxton

[DRW50]

Thanks. I don't think I've ever seen that one. 

[BetterForgotten]

Ha, that was me, but I’m sure others felt that way too.

 

I know Agnes wanted her soaps to be based in close proximity to one another, but Corinth always felt like it should have been a sleepy New England town vs. being sandwiched between Pine Valley and Llandview somewhere in Pennsylvania to me.

[DRW50]

I feel like Loving was a "because I can" soap more than a soap where the creators had any real ideas in mind.

[pdm1974]

Agnes Nixon also, rarely if ever, discussed or talked about LOVING in the same way she did with AMC and OLTL. It was like the little forgotten step-child. Going up against Y&R when it exploded in popularity couldn't have been easy. Still, the fact that the show lasted as long as it did, it can't be thought of as a failure. Rarely does any TV show air for that many years.

 

 

[BetterForgotten]

The fact it lasted as long as it did probably spoke a lot about the clout Agnes had at ABC at the time. ABC certainly had a lot of faith to keep in as long as they did with ratings never really moving substantially. Hell, they put the final nail in Ryan's Hope (which they owned outright at that point) coffin by switching its time-slot just to appease Agnes as well. 

 

It was definitely majorly ignored by the soap press (for the most part) and by the viewing audience for it's entire run. Had this been the late 90's and certainly today, no soap would last as long with those conditions. 

Edited April 6, 2020 by BetterForgotten

[Khan]

 

Same, although I'm sure Agnes Nixon, like Bill Bell, also missed the appeal of having a half-hour soap on the air.

[Forever8]

On the same site as the link. I found an episode from 1984.

https://www.facebook.com/DaytimeTVPreservationSociety/videos/218484999468825/?d=null&vh=e

[pdm1974]

Even though it would never happen, if a network tried to launch a new soap, a half-hour would be a better idea.

[Khan]

 

Agree.  But, if a streaming platform wanted to jump into the soap business, my advice would be to return to this genre's roots and produce 15-minute (or less) episodes.  Streaming a series that you can watch anywhere on any number of devices isn't the same as planning your lunch break around a half-hour or hour-long show that airs on network TV.  Even now, with virtually the entire world on lockdown to the COVID-19 outbreak, I don't believe the patience is there to watch a half-hour show on your phone, tablet or computer.