Loving/The City Discussion Thread

[cassadine1991]

Was it the writing or EPs or the time slot it was in?

Wonder if Laura Wright's first scenes are available anywhere?

[John]

yesthe college was revisited a few years 1991-93 but then it disappeared again

[KMan101]

Loved the post on the last page recapping a lot of the early years. I'd love to see a full run of the show. I've always been interested by it. It does come off as a show that had so much potential and just couldn't really ever gain traction. Too much writer turnover and cast turnover. I was always annoyed SoapNet never aired the show.

[NothinButAttitude]

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[dc11786]

Regarding AU in the 1990s, yes, the show reintroduced the college campus with some fanfare in the spring of 1992. The previous year, Fran Sears was EP with Mary Ryan Munisteri as HW when it was announced the show would be reviving the college setting. At some point early in 1992, Addie Walsh took over as HW and was promoting the college storyline claiming that she and her associates had researched modern colleges and the Greek system. As a result, Allie Rescott, who was already on the canvas, attended AU and was involved in sorority life with rich girl Staige Prince (Eden Atwood), the sometimes girlfriend of frat president Kent Winslow (a pre-OLTL Roger Howarth). Staige and Kent were supporting players in the story as all the rest had major ties to the canvas. The men vying for Ally's love were Casey Bowman (Paul Anthony Stewart) and Cooper Alden (Michael Weatherly). Cooper was a scion of the Alden clan, a grandson of Cabot Alden's brother, I think. Cooper was young, entitled, and rich so, of course, Ally like all Rescott women were drawn to him. More sensitive to Ally's ways was Casey Bowman, the son of college professor Giff Bowman (Richard Cox). The previous year Giff had arrived in town and was a source of comfort for Trisha McKenzie (Noelle Beck), after Trucker bedded down with Dinahlee Mayberry (Jessica Collins), who had unsuccessfully seduced Jack Forbes (Christopher Cass). Ally was given a rival in the form of sweet as syrup Hannah Mayberry (Rebecca Gayheart), schemer Dinahlee's 'innocent' baby sister. Hannah was your typical Agnes Nixon ingénue, a naïve, virginal country girl and, like several of the attempts made in the 1990s by Nixon, the character didn't work.

 

For whatever reasons, there was struggles behind the scenes. Munisteri left, Addie Walsh came on, Fran Sears left, Haidee Granger came on, Addie Walsh left, there was no headwriter for three or four months, and then Robert Guza and Millee Taggert arrive sometime in the fall of 1992. This makes for a very turbulent year. It was clear some of the stuff Walsh planned was used and some of it was twisted. I wouldn't be surprised if Nixon consulted because there were a lot of minor details from the past that were utilized to jump start stories that were never really referred to or completely developed. In the summer of 1992, the show briefly hinted that Cooper Alden had been the victim of sexual abuse as a child at the hand of his nanny, Selina, but the story was quickly squashed and Cooper claimed he wanted to have sex with her, but he was just so young. When Nixon returned the next year, Cooper admitted to Steffi the truth, Selina had molested him. Also, Coop sought help from Ron Turner, Jr., played by Jeffrey D. Sams. In 1983, a Dr. Ron Turner had treated sexual abuse survivor Lily Slater and PTSD sufferer Mike Donovan. Similarly, in the summer of 1992, Ava returned to Burnell's, a property owned by the Alden family, and was being watched by her mysterious boss who had always had feelings for her. Later, we learned this was Leo Burnell, an old high school classmate, which made no sense. What would have made sense was that the Burnell's boss was Curtis Alden, and I believe the character was even briefly referred to as Mr. C by his associates.

 

Anyway, the college stuff didn't last long. In the summer, the show wrote Kent out after he drugged Ally's drink and she crashed her car. Staige stuck around in a more sympathetic role (she lost her money) until the fall. Ally continued to thwart Coop and Hannah's romance, which led to the messy (in a good way) Coop / Ally / Casey / Steffi quad. In November/December 1992, Hannah went to NYC to try out for some piano competition and ended up at her tutor's apartment. Ally brought Coop there and he spotted Hannah and the tutor and assumed the worse. Ally and Coop fell into bed together, and surprise, Ally ended up pregnant. I believe Coop and Hannah may have become engaged in early 1993, but I may be wrong. Anyway, when the truth came out, Hannah and Coop were done. Hannah hung around until June 1993 and had a minor storyline, she stalked her professor, Pine Valley transplant Jeremy Hunter. Jeremy was involved with Stacey Forbes at the time, but, after the Hannah fiasco, Jeremy was paired with Ava and Stacey became involved in a triangle with Gwyn Alden and Buck Huston, Trucker's half-brother. I believe Hannah last appeared when Dinahlee married Curtis Alden before fading from the canvas.

 

In Hannah's place was Steffi Brewster (Amelia Heinle), an insecure model with a rough home life. She claimed to come from money, but the family home was empty. Steffi was intended as Coop's main love, but she was also effective with Casey, who developed an eye as a photographer. Self destructive Steffi occasionally found a bound with soulful Coop who had lost many things in his life. Ally and Coop entered a marriage of convenience for a bit, which upset everybody and later Tyler Alden was born.

 

Again, the college stories really didn't last long, but this was probably a more effective use, and longer (spring 1992 - summer 1993). By the fall of 1993, Taggert was solo headwriter and things were getting a bit questionable. Gwyn found herself pregnant by Buck and running off to a quickie wedding. The show had invested a good amount of story time in the Curtis / Tess / Buck backstory, but Curtis torched PINS! (Dinahlee's bowling alley) with Louie Slavinski inside and fled town. Tess was a bizarre character, the widow of a Middle Eastern arms dealer who had been saved by pilot Buck Huston and American solider Curtis Alden. When Tess arrived onscreen, she was answering phones in a brothel. By the fall, Tess was involved with Clay Alden, for which I could only hope they were planning on creating a quad with Buck and Gwyn. Nixon quickly cleaned house and reset the show to make 1994 a pretty strong year.  

Edited April 24, 2016 by dc11786

[NothinButAttitude]

Oh wow! Thanks for that detailed recap. I wish a lot of Loving's material was available online.

[KMan101]

Echoing this .... really want to see the run of this show. Sigh.

[slick jones]

Watching an old Matlock and Susan Walters and John Allen Nelson (Lorna and Duke Rochelle) were in it as co-conspirators. They should have used the two on Loving, because they have great chemistry...I know Nelson was just starting out(he was also on EON), but he's been a TV guest staple for years now.

[DRW50]

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[NothinButAttitude]

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[DRW50]

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[DRW50]

About 7-8 minutes in, Larry Atlas, who created some computer casting service, says he got a role on Loving. Apparently it was a character named Jules. What was his story?

 

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[dc11786]

Larry Atlas' Jules was involved in Steve / Trisha's Quebec adventure.

In late 1985, Steve Sowolsky had been accused of sleeping with underage Cece Thompson by Cece's father, which led to Steve's stint in prison. In prison, Steve encounter Spider, who ended up being tied to Hunter Beldon, the wealthy playboy who ran drugs and paid for the services of Dolly Lane. Spider kept threatening to get out and to get Trisha so when provided the opportunity to escape, Steve left prison, grabbed Trisha, and they ended up on the run together. When they ended up in Quebec, Jules was a man who asked a lot of questions about the couple. Initially, Jules seemed like he was part of the drug connection which involved a bunch of unmemorable minor characters, but eventually Jules revealed he was investigating the drug ring. Jules did have a bit of an infatuation with Trisha, he kissed her in her sleep, because she bore a resemblance to his dead wife. When Hunter wanted the couple killed, Spider went to Quebec, tracked them down, and shot Trisha, who ended up in near death in a hospital. Steve called Corinth to reveal where they were. Steve was arrested and Jules seems to disappear from the SOD synopses from that time.

 

[DRW50]

Thanks. I wonder if they had more plans but something was dropped or if they didn't.

[DRW50]

A nice surprise treat:

 

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Best parts for me are the Kate/Louie scenes - I can see why they were so popular with viewers. It all feels very genuine compared to the rest of the episode, which is watchable enough, but feels generic. 

 

I also love that ridiculous soapy moment from Cabot near the end. 

 

Watch for the familiar face in the Kate/Louie scene.

 

It was also interesting to get to see the credits - I guess Egypt was gone by this point. I was surprised to see Alex in this episode so presumably he wasn't far behind.