I only knew Tom starting from the early 90s but I always found him to be boring. What was he doing in the 80s after his marriage to Brooke up till he paired up with Livia?

Brooke divorced him while pregnant with Laura because he got wasted and screwed Erica the night before her first wedding to Adam. He married Skye and then Barbara and was married to Barbara when she did a crappy job of babysitting and Laura got run over by a drunk driver. Barbara cheated with Travis after Travis and Erica's first marriage broke up, and Barbara initially passed off Molly as Tom's daughter. Travis and Barbara eventually got back together and had another baby ostensibly to "save" Molly via a bone marrow transplant, but Molly was supposedly in remission, so Sean was pretty much a "eh, just in case we need bone marrow later" baby, which was how they played it in 2006/2007 when Sean and Barbara came back to PV.

After Barbara and Travis left for Seattle with the kids, Tom got back together with Brooke, who was pregnant with a presumed dead Tad's baby, and Tom publicly claimed the baby for Brooke, who was in martyr "spare everyone's feelings" mode and didn't want anyone to know Tad was the father. They were engaged but then broke up, and Brooke hooked up with Jack for a while. Tom was kind of on his own until he got paired with Livia.

Barbara and Tom weren't married when little Laura died.

oh yeah I forgot about Skye

Wasn't Tom involved with Donna, too, at one point?

Sounds like they had no idea what to do with Tom and kept throwing him in relationships

Yes, Tom and Donna became a couple for a VERY short period. They lived together. I think this was before she married Benny.

Also, at one point (when Dorothy Lyman was playing Opal), Opal decided that she was going to get with Tom. This was ironic because Ms. Lyman and Richard Shoberg had played brother and sister on The Edge of Night.

Sounds like they had no idea what to do with Tom and kept throwing him in relationships.

Actually, KMan, ALL MY CHILDREN often played a sort of "romantic roulette" with its characters throughout the '80's, when supercouples on that particular show were the exception rather than rule. It's only in the '90's and '00's that the show began observing the "one character, one romance" rule.

I think Donna was living with Tom one of the times she was on the outs with (I think) Benny, but I don't know if they were actually romantically involved.

Wasn't Donna also tested with Jack?

I know there is a scene where Opal is giving Brooke a massage at the Glamourama, and trying to make Brooke jealous.

Donna and Tom were romantically paired at one point for certain, but not sure how serious they were.

Tom was certainly tamed to the point of zzzzzz in the late eighties/early nineties. He was practically a new age Joe Martin in terms of being an upstanding Pine Valley male with zero controversy and no edge. I had no problem with this, but as we all know, in the world of Soap, that is practically a death sentence for a leading man. I will never forget religious man Tom telling Livia, I think, that God will never give us more than we can bear. That was a sentiment I was freshly familiar to in church and it really stuck to me coming from Tom.

Wasn't Donna also tested with Jack?

Apparently there was a point where Jack was being tested with Donna and with Julie, which is kind of

I don't remember Donna and Jack. I do remember a scene in which Travis and Donna were in a car together and the car broke down. Donna said that nothing like this ever happened to her - only to Erica.

There was also a pairing of Ross and Donna. He began dating Donna, and I think that the show was headed toward a Palmer-Donna-Ross triangle. (or, at least, a competition between father and son - Palmer and Ross). I remember Edna warning Ross to not hurt Donna because she had already had enough hurt. He dropped her, and he then became interested in Natalie. He later raped Natalie.

I know there is a scene where Opal is giving Brooke a massage at the Glamourama, and trying to make Brooke jealous.

Donna and Tom were romantically paired at one point for certain, but not sure how serious they were.

Yes, Tom and Donna became a couple for a VERY short period. They lived together. I think this was before she married Benny.

Also, at one point (when Dorothy Lyman was playing Opal), Opal decided that she was going to get with Tom. This was ironic because Ms. Lyman and Richard Shoberg had played brother and sister on The Edge of Night.

So Tom (if still alive) would vote for Romney.

Anyway....

(as mentioned above)

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