Loving/The City Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

Thanks for reminding me I never posted that mention here. It's at about 55 minutes and goes on for longer than usual. I guess ABC/Capital Cities wanted their money's worth.

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One of the most interesting parts about '80s Loving and up to about '91 is you will find completely random characters who will be in one or two videos and then I never see them again and have never heard of them. In this episode, it's Ava's beau, Tony (whom I briefly thought was the Tony that Stacey and Lorna were involved with - odd to re-use that name so quickly), and this girl Kelly who is talking with Shana and Jim. I can't find anything on her. Considering she was staying with the Aldens you'd think they had bigger plans for her.

[dc11786]

Those outlines from 1992 are very early in Addie Walsh's run. She started in early January. The team is comprised of Mary Ryan Munisteri's crew. A good number of those writers are out over the next month or two. I don't have any tangible proof, but I think early Walsh is running off of the projections that Munisteri left. The Michael heart storyline is very stripped down Labine because of the way Walsh approaches it, but I imagine it would have been more meanignful had Munisteri stayed. The band romance between Ally and Matt's bandmate was recycled from "Tribes" as was Ally's breif claim that Giff had gotten her pregnant. 

Granger doesn't start until May. I am pretty sure Sears is there through the launch of the college reset in late March, early April. 

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The Devil stuff isn't for me. Recently saw the Russ goes to Hell sequence from "Another Life" and it gives the same hokey vibe. I get what Nixon was going for, but it doesn't work for me. I'm sure others will feel differently. It was nice to see the 1984 murder storyline. I still think Stephanie Payne was originally intended to be a Merrill recast.  

The turnover is crazy everyone on "Loving" in the 1980s. In March, 1987, I'm pretty sure Ralph Ellis takes over the writing team. He quickly brings the Nick Dinatos murder to end revealing Cabot killed him. I doubt that was the original plan, but who knows. Anyway, Kelly is Kelly Conway, Zach's daughter and Lorna's stepdaughter. Kelly was left with her new stepgrandparents while her parents went off on a honeymoon never to return. They build that brief teen scene around her with Teri Polo's rich bitch Kirsten (I think was her name), the punk Rob Carpenter with the mohawk and the alcoholic mom, Lotty's kid brother Ned Bates, and maybe Dave Hindmann (Art's son who can't read and plays basketball). Kelly is replaced by April Hathway, teen prostitute. They are all pretty much forgotten. 

Ava's beaus post Curtis are both unmemorable, Tony #2 and Judd Beacham. 

[DRW50]

Thanks. So I guess the previous team may have had plans for Kelly but Ellis didn't.

I'm still not sure why the show gave up so easily on Lorna. There was some talk about this on the Loving blog post for Colby Cantrell, but the huge turnover in the young female cast led to so much being on Trisha's shoulders (and Stacey's). 

I may have seen Kirsten, I'm not sure. I don't know if I ever saw Rob.

Dave was the longest lasting of them, vanishing somewhere in 1990 or 1991.