Loving/The City Discussion Thread

[Contessa Donatella]

Was there ever any information on why Morgan Fairchild was signed to only a one year contract as Sydney Chase? If I understood correctly Jane Elliot was an EP at CITY first year. Did she ever have any other experience in production? What was the point of marrying Tracy Q to a member of the Soleito family?

[Forever8]

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[SFK]

JE had been a producer on Loving years earlier, I don't recall her being involved bts on The City.

It seemed evident that MF wasn't happy with how The City was doing ratings wise. Michael Logan had interviewed her for TV Guide and when Morgan said she didn't know how the show was doing in the numbers, he added, "not at all convincingly."

It was sad and disconcerting to see the big star of the show abandon ship. JE had been appearing on GH leading up to her transition onto TC. I think it was a good example of making lemonade. In terms of big ABC crossovers, Tracy worked better on TC than Rae did... anywhere. (Coincidentally, my favorite Rae scene is Tracy laying into her at the hospital over her relationship with Alan and Skye's parentage.)

It's been a long time since I've watched TC, but JE is one of the best sparring partners in soaps. She and Carla were good at going at it.

[Contessa Donatella]

That's very interesting to me that JE was in Production at LOVING and then repeated a year as a Producer at CITY. I love it when smart cookie actors crossover into writing and/or production. And, JE is definitely one smart cookie, very savvy. I heard that before his sudden death Doug Marland was working out something to bring JE to whatever show he was HWing at the time. That would have been a blast! I'm still angry at Allen M. Potter for firing JE & ending the 3 Carries s/l prematurely at GL.

I enjoyed Rae best at GH although I liked the odds of her daughter being Eve on PC. And, I'd have liked the whole shebang better if Shapiro had parked Rae at either GH or PC & just left her there in ONE SPOT! I found the travel from show to show to be torture for the fans, the actors, & I imagine the writers.

[Vee]

Rae never worked anywhere.

[Forever8]

Recent upload of clips of Loving from 1983/1984 

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[TEdgeofNight]

Jane Elliot was never an EP at The City. 

[Contessa Donatella]

Thanks for the correction. I read that she had been in production there.

[John]

She was a producer at Loving from 1994-1995

[Contessa Donatella]

Yeah, I saw that later. I just bet that's what I got mixed up! I think she's great!

[DRW50]

Another rare '80s Loving episode, uploaded last November. Going by the promo for the royal variety special at the end this is likely May 24, 1988. 

I'm always fascinated by strike episodes, and this one is especially fascinating, as we get suburban dreamboat Jim having not one, but two sets of time-filling flashbacks, and one is something I rarely saw on soaps by this point (Ryan's Hope did this a lot in the '70s) - a set of photos with Shana set around Christmastime. He has very different hair in them so I guess they must have been done a few years earlier and dredged back up. These are set to a Carpenters tune, so you see again how much soaps had money to burn at this point, even the lowest-rated.

You also get some Gwyn (still Christine Tudor) and Jeff Hartman #1 (complete with hairy chest), latter day Roya Megnot Ava, Randolph's Alex, early Egypt, and a delightful scene of Kate and Minnie bumping booties (get your mind out of the gutter!) to Mahalia Jackson. 

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@SFK @dc11786 @slick jones @victoria foxton @Paul Raven @Forever8 @Vee

[Forever8]

Cannot wait to delve in. Thank You!!! 

[victoria foxton]

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Edited July 14, 2022 by victoria foxton

[Kane]

At the 9:12 mark is a promo for the Gwyneth secretly had a baby in high school story (with a dash of brother and sister start dating not knowing that they're siblings, courtesy of Rick and Trisha). A modified version of the promo is repeated at 38:23.

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[dc11786]

Clearly this is a script that ran short. I wonder if the Minnie and Kate stuff was scripted or it, too, was added in order to make the episode run at the right time.  

Scott Feraco, Jeff Hartman #1, is probably my favorite iteration of the character. I know Richard Steinmetz's psycho Jeff got more use, but I feel like there was real potential in the Hartman family. If the show was going to go with business stories, the Aldens needed a significant rival. Jeff working for the Aldens while his father Charles had a seperate empire is intriguing to me. Also, Jeff having brothers meant that Ava could have went after a rich husband outside the Alden family tree. 

Thanks. 

@slick jones Gwyn's parents seen in flashbacks in 1987.