Loved reading your thoughts. I've just been sampling through this stuff, but in general it reaffirms my own personal feelings on Loving (a show many here know I have a ton of affection for.) Namely, that I love the early stuff under Marland with heavy Nixon interference, and want to see more, and I think it remained mostly compelling, although definitely a mixed bag, until 1987 or so (was that around when people think Nixon had stopped ghost writing? I know Ralph Ellis was the credited writer but in the credits didn't have a separate headwriter notation--Wiki, for what it's worth, seems to think Ellis continued for a year after Nixon, "reportedly" left.)
And then the late 80s Taggart/King stuff kinda loses me. It's fun to see some episodes just to see more Loving history, and certain actors, but it all feels generic (so many bland office sets, etc...) I do agree that, not too surprising, when Babbin came on as EP (and gave that great interview) the show picks up, but of course she always only agreed to do a year as a favour to Nixon and that's really not long enough for an EP to correct course. It's not until 1992 that the show feels like it has an identity to me again. Now, I have a huge bias because back when I was 12 I discovered Loving (I had never even HEARD of it before) in fall of 1992 due to the AMC Carter Jones crossover which I remember had a lot of ads run during AMC. Even though it was halfhearted, focusing on college students (though the actual college element also was pretty quickly dropped) again made sense and they lucked out in finding a compelling young cast--I think some complained the show focused too much on the younger characters but I didn't think the balance was too off (and I think it also made sense for Loving to focus slightly more on the young cast than the other ABC soaps at the time, if partly to make it distinct.) I know 1992 was rocky--wasn't that when Haidee Granger was at odds with her HW Addie Walsh who then left and according to one of the SOD interviews with Paul Anthony Stewart at the time, they had no HW for a while? So the show was still, plot wise, often a bit of a mess, but I liked the cast (actors and characters) a lot and always looked forward to the show at the time.
I also really like the Taggart/Guza stuff, and I think that's when I really got hooked on the show when it aired. Not sure why they were replaced by Nixon (when she could have swooped in as HW at one of the less compelling eras) but I have to assume it was to appease ABC and one of the final ditch efforts to raise ratings. Oddly, I don't remember the soap press making a big deal about her HWing the show at all, but then again by that time the soap press didn't seem to focus on writers much at all.
I admit to having rose coloured glasses with Agnes Nixon but I still think her year on the show was really compelling--a mix of her usual stuff with social issue stories (Shana and Leo's child with down syndrome, Steffi and bulimia) but also leaning very heavily into the Gothic--which Nixon seemed to feel was a good fit for Loving given that during her 1980s run on the show the Jonathan-Devil story was one of her last storylines, one that in her story proposal for she obviously seemed delighted with. I mean Nixon's run started with the Dante and his "pussycat" Curtis in a cage story, and then ended with the whole Gilbert "haunting" stuff. But I think the balance mostly worked, especially for a 30 minute soap. I actually think when Addie Walsh and Laurie McCarthy took over from Nixon they undid some of her more compelling stuff, but no matter as we relatively quickly moved into the Loving Murders era...
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EricMontreal22 ·
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