Loving (TV series)

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Loving
Format soap opera
Created by Agnes Nixon, Douglas Marland
Country of origin Flag of the United States United States
No. of episodes 3,169
Production
Running time 30 Minutes
Broadcast
Original channel ABC
Original run June 27, 1983 – November 10, 1995

Loving was an American television daytime drama which aired on ABC's daytime lineup from June 27, 1983 to November 10, 1995 for 3,169 episodes.[citation needed]. The serial was co-created by Agnes Nixon and former actor Douglas Marland. ABC took the unusual step of premiering the show with a 2-hour primetime movie, starring much of the cast as well as Lloyd Bridges and Geraldine Page.

Contents

[edit] Loving History

The early years of the show revolved around the blue-collar Donovans and the blue-blood Aldens. Major social issues such as incest, alcoholism and post-traumatic stress syndrome of Vietnam vets were covered. But Marland and Nixon left the series after a few years and in spite of ABC bumping down Ryan's Hope to give Loving a choice timeslot, and cast additions of such popular All My Children stars as Debbi Morgan and Jean LeClerc, the ratings remained poor throughout the show's run. Loving suffered from a constant revolving door of writers and producers, leading to questionable story moments such as a heroine's addiction to cough syrup and one character selling his soul to the Devil.

Long-running characters included Ava (played by Roya Megnot and then Lisa Peluso), a schemer whose adventures ranged from stuffing a pillow in her dress to simulate pregnancy to being kidnapped at Universal Studios to being menaced by her lover's identical twin, Gilbert. Another longtime favorite was Stacey Donovan (played by Lauren Marie Taylor) who was the only continuously running original cast member left when she was killed via a poisoned powder puff in summer 1995, and Gwyneth Alden (Christine L. Tudor, Elizabeth Savage, then Tudor), the long-suffering matriarch who never stopped loving her roguish ex Clay (James Horan, Randolph Mantooth and Dennis Parlato) or her mentally disturbed children Trisha (Noelle Beck) and Curtis (Christopher Marcantel).

In early 1995, ABC Daytime planned to cancel the show, and asked new Head Writers James Harmon Brown and Barbara Esensten to find a way to salvage a few components of the series. The writers embarked upon the show's last big storyline, and what many considered one of the show's best storylines, the Corinth serial killer. Stacey, Clay, Curtis, Cabot (Wesley Addy), Isabelle (Augusta Dabney, Celeste Holm, Patricia Barry) and Jeremy lost their lives, culminating in the revelation that an insane Gwyn had murdered most of her friends and family in a bid to "make their pain go away". Gwyn then injected herself with poison before the police could take her into custody. Loving characters Steffi (Amelia Heinle), Ally (Laura Wright), Alex (Randolph Mantooth), Angie (Debbi Morgan), Buck (Phillip Brown), Jacob (Darnell Williams), and Tess (Catherine Hickland) moved to Soho and began a new series, The City, which would run until March 1997.

[edit] Cast

See also: List of Loving characters
See also: List of Loving cast members
  • Nancy Addison-Altman (Deborah Brewster Alden) (1993-1995)
  • Linden Ashby (Curtis Alden #1) (1985-1986)
  • Jennifer Ashe (Lily Slater #1) (1983-1984)
  • Alimi Ballard (Frankie Hubbard) (1993-1995)
  • Bernard Barrow (Louie Slavinsky) (1990-1993)
  • Noelle Beck (Patricia "Trisha" Alden Sowolsky Hartman McKenzie) (1984-1993, 1995)
  • Victor Bevine (Douglas "Doug" Donovan #2) (1985-1986)
  • Pamela Blair (Rita Mae Bristow) (1983-1985)
  • Philip Brown (Lyndon "Buck" Huston) (1993-1995)
  • James Carroll (Leo Burnell) (1992-1994)
  • Jessica Collins (Dinah-Lee Mayberry Alden #1) (1991-1994)
  • Matthew Cowles (Eban Japes) (1986-1987)
  • Bryan Cranston (Douglas "Doug" Donovan #1) (1983-1985)
  • John Cunningham (Garth Slater) (1983-1984)
  • Ronnie Davidson (Hassan) (1984)
  • Peter Davies (Fr. Jim Vochek) (1983-1989)
  • Geoffrey C. Ewing (Charles Harrison) (1993-1995)
  • John Gabriel (Zack Conway) (1986-1987)
  • Rebecca Gayheart (Hannah Mayberry) (1992-1993)
  • Meta Golding (Brianna Hawkins) (1995)
  • Amelia Heinle (Stephanie "Steffi" Brewster) (1993-1995)
  • Catherine Hickland (Tess Wilder Partou) (1993-1995)
  • Judith Hoag (Charlotte "Lottie" Bates Alden) (1986-1988)
  • John R. Johnston (Steven Sowolsky) (1984-1988)
  • Patricia Kalember (Merrill Vochek) (1983-1984)
  • Teri Keane (Rose Donovan #1) (1983-1984)
  • Susan Keith (Shana Sloane Burnell) (1984-1989, 1990-1994)
  • James Kiberd (Michael "Mike" Donovan) (1983-1985)
  • Alexander Kniffin (Michael Slavinsky) (1991-1992)
  • Jean LeClerc (Jeremy Hunter) (1991, 1992-1995)/ (Gilbert Nostrand) (1994-1995)
  • Tom Ligon (Billy Bristow) (1983-1985)
  • Patty Lotz (Ava Rescott Masters #1) (1984)
  • Randolph Mantooth (Clay Alden/Alex Masters) (1987-1990, 1993-1995)
  • Christopher Marcantel (Curtis Alden #1) (1983-1985, 1993-1995)
  • Marisol Massey (Abril Domecq Alden) (1989-1991)
  • Roya Megnot (Ava Rescott Forbes Alden Masters #2) (1984-1988, 1990)
  • Elizabeth Mitchell (Dinah-Lee Mayberry Alden #2) (1994-1995)
  • Ed Moore (Harry Sowolsky) (1984-1989, 1994)
  • Debbi Morgan (Dr. Angela Hubbard Harrison) (1993-1995)
  • John O'Hurley (Keith Lane/Jonathan Matalaine) (1984-1986)
  • Corey Page (Richard Wilkins) (1991-1995)
  • Lisa Peluso (Ava Rescott Forbes Alden Masters #3) (1988-1990, 1990-1995)
  • Luke Perry (Ned Bates) (1987-1988)
  • Nada Rowland (Katherine Rescott Slavinsky) (1984-1995)
  • Maggie Rush (Lorraine Hawkins) (1995)
  • Rena Sofer (Amelia "Rocky" McKenzie Domecq) (1988-1991)
  • Perry Stephens (Jack Forbes #1) (1983-1990)
  • Carina Finn (Young Trisha Alden) (1995)
  • Paul Anthony Stewart (Casey Bowman) (1992-1995)
  • Lauren Marie Taylor (Stacey Donovan Forbes) (1983-1995)
  • Rick Telles (Rio Domecq) (1989-1991)
  • Christine L Tudor (Gwyneth Alden) (1984-1989, 1991-1995)
  • Robert Tyler (Thomas "Trucker" McKenzie) (1988-1995)
  • Susan Walters (Lorna Forbes Perelli #1) (1983-1986)
  • Michael Weatherly (Cooper Alden) (1992-1995)
  • Ann Williams (June Slater) (1983-1984)
  • Eric Woodall (Matt Ford) (1991-1992)
  • Laura Wright (Allison "Ally" Rescott Alden Bowman) (1991-1995)

[edit] Main Crew

[edit] Executive Producers

June 27, 1983 - 1988: Joseph Stuart
1988 - November 1989: Joseph Hardy
November 1989 - March 1990: Mary-Ellis Bunim
March 1990 - July 1991: Jacqueline Babbin
July 1991 - 1994: Fran Sears
1994 - 1995: Jean Dadario Burke

[edit] Producers & Directors

Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Robert Scinto, Francesca James, Casey Childs, Jean Dadario Burke, Gigi Van Deckter, Andrew D. Weyman, Stuart Silver, Bobby Hoffman, Gail Zimmerman, Barbara Duggan, and Mark Teschner

[edit] Writers

[edit] Crew Bios

Jacqueline Babbin (d. 2001) was an American television/theater writer, producer, and executive. She entered high school at the age of eleven and Smith College at fifteen. She worked as an assistant to the renowned literary agent Audrey Wood in 1943, and Irene Selznick. She was briefly married to a Warner Bros. executive.

Babbin began her television career in 1954 at David Susskind’s production company Talent Associates, starting out as a script editor. She formed a successful writing partnership with Audrey Gellen. The two women collaborated on several adaptations of stage plays, including Harvey, The Browning Version, Ethan Frome, The Member of The Wedding, Our Town, and Billy Budd.

In 1961, Susskind and Babbin produced a short-lived dramatic anthology, Way Out, which was a series of macabre stories by Roald Dahl. They also continued their collaboration throughout the decade as producers on TV specials, including Hedda Gabler (with Ingrid Bergman and Michael Redgrave), and The Crucible (with George C. Scott, Colleen Dewhurst, and Fritz Weaver).

From 1979 to 1982, Babbin served as Vice President, Novels For Television And Miniseries for ABC Entertainment. In 1982, she was hired by ABC Daytime and Agnes Nixon to be All My Children's Executive Producer. During her tenure there, she hired Elizabeth Taylor and Carol Burnett as guest stars. She left AMC in 1986, began writing novels shortly after, and became the Executive Producer of Loving in 1990.

Novels: Prime Time Corpse, Bloody Soaps

Awards/Nominations: Babbin was nominated for 4 Daytime Emmy Awards.

[edit] Ratings history

See also: List of US daytime soap opera ratings

Although Loving rated poorly throughout its history, its first few years were relatively encouraging. In its debut 1983-84 season it finished in 11th place and 3.9, above the now ailing soaps The Edge of Night and Search for Tomorrow. The following season it moved to a fairly comfortable 10th place and 4.1, holding that for the 1985-86 season with 4.2. A change in timeslot, with Loving occupying the slot previously held by Ryan's Hope, was a major factor in ratings improvement (albeit having the opposite effect on Ryan's Hope).

Unfortunately, the slow but steady ratings growth was not sustained- Loving would fall back to 11th place and down to last place by 1991, where it remained until its cancellation.

When it originally premiered, the show aired at 11:30am (EST). In the fall of 1984, the show was given the 12:30pm EST timeslot bumping Ryan's Hope up to noon. This caused Ryan's Hope's ratings to plummet because many ABC stations pre-empted network programming at noon for local news. Despite airing in the 12:30pm timeslot, Loving never achieved the ratings Ryan's Hope had during its glory years.

After ABC stopped airing network programming at Noon EST/11am PST/CST, Loving was made available to affiliates at Noon or 12:30pm. Many ABC O&Os in the Pacific and Central time zones moved Loving to 11am to air local newscasts at 11:30. Despite the timeslot changes on some affiliates, the national ratings for the show never improved.

It should be noted however that Loving did beat the #1 soap The Young and the Restless in strong ABC markets (New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Philadelphia), however nationally the show was last place among all daytime soaps.


[edit] Opening Sequences

During Loving's 12 year-run, the series went through quite a few theme and visual changes, primarily due to the ever-changing role of executive producer, and each attempt to make the show more attractive to viewers (in order to boost ratings). In addition, Loving was one of the few soaps in history to implement a special, limited-run opening sequence to represent a major storyline, for The Loving Murders in 1995.
Image:.jpg
June 27, 1983 - March 24, 1989		 Nixon & Marland's Original Loving Image

For its first six years on the air, Loving's main title visual consisted of a rather simple flash of the show's iconic script logo against a sky blue background. The outline of the title would appear in pink, entering diagonally, and then match itself with a white layer of the title; the two would zoom out together until the pink outline in the background disappeared, leaving the title in white. An underline under the Loving title was used in both opens and closes during this period. The instrumental theme, a pleasant 10-second waltz in D-major, was titled "Theme from Loving". The short opening cut and the longer, complete version used in the closing sequence was written and composed by Michael Karp.

The original closing credits sequence, which for the most part remained unchanged for Loving's first nine years on the air, used a live-action extended scene with a single character or more (minus dialogue), while the credits scrolled in white Goudy Bold Italic font. Since the soap was fully owned by Agnes Nixon's Dramatic Creations company, it's copyright notice appeared much different than on its ABC-owned weekday stablemates: it was in the same Goudy font, on three different lines as "(year) Copyright, Dramatic Creations, Inc., All Rights Reserved", and showed up separately on the screen before the Loving logo.
Image:.JPG
March 27, 1989 - February 1, 1991		 The Johnny Mathis Loving Package

After Joseph Hardy replaced original executive producer Joseph Stuart in the spring of 1988, it was imminent that Hardy would revamp the show's theme and visuals, among other points. On Monday, March 27, 1989, a new theme package debuted on Loving. The new theme, a full orchestral sung by Johnny Mathis, was accompanied by visuals of charcoal and pastel paintings of couples in love. The opening begins with a glass version of the iconic Loving logo moving gingerly toward the screen, at the bottom, over a replica of a religious painting of two boy and girl infant angels showing affection. This view proceeds into a series of paintings which chronicle one couple's romance throughout a single lifetime. The paintings overlapped each other while glass letters of the Loving logo flew over them (one at a time), and were comprised of the exact following:

The pre-teen boy and girl sharing a first kiss
The teenagers having a slow dance at their prom
The two young adults having passionate lovemaking
The couple in a suit and vail on their wedding day
Husband and wife holding their first child
The couple embracing during older age (as evidenced by the man's white hair)

At the end of the sequence, the show's title in glass would zoom inward, with another layer meeting it in the back, over a variation of the original angel painting.

During the run of the Mathis theme/painting visuals, there would be an accelerated turnover in Loving staff, especially in the executive producer's chair. First, ABC moved Joseph Hardy over to General Hospital in November 1989, replacing him with veteran daytime producer and future Real World creator/producer Mary-Ellis Bunim. Bunim, however, only served four months as the show's EP before abruptly leaving. In March 1990, former All My Children producer Jacqueline Babbin took over. Babbin decided to make some noticeable adjustments of her own, which eventually included the Loving theme package. After just less than two years, the Mathis theme was retired on February 1, 1991.
Image:.jpg
February 4, 1991 - February 13, 1992		 New Age Loving - The Contender For the Shortest Lived Soap Opening Ever

On February 4, 1991, new opening visuals premiered, composed of a series of videotaped, live-action shots of a couple's romance. These shots include a man feeding a strawberry into a woman's mouth, a shattering wine glass, the man placing a ring on the woman's finger, etc. The last scene is a silhouette of the man and woman holding hands, and then embracing, over a sunset sky visual, while the Loving logo flashes to the center of the screen, with the font clear and transparent. The visuals, and the new age, synthesized theme song that accompanied it, were later seen as a preview of the similar "New Age" visuals of One Life to Live, which ran from January 1992 to November 1995. While this Loving theme package was still running when OLTL's new package debuted, it would be gone a month later - due to the fact that Jacqueline Babbin was replaced with new EP Fran Sears in July 1991, with Sears wanting to implement different visuals of her own.

On the same day this package began, the extended scene closing format was replaced with beauty shots; however, the Goudy Bold Italic credits would remain for another year. Also, the old-fashioned, "classical" copyright notice was changed to the more conventional version of "© (year) Dramatic Creations, Inc. All Rights Reserved". It was now in a separate Arial Italic font and for the first time appeared under the Loving logo at the end.
Image:.jpg
February 14, 1992 - November 10, 1995		 The Final Main Package ft. Jeffrey Osborne

Appropriately enough, for Valentine's Day on Friday, February 14, 1992, the final Loving main title visuals and theme debuted. It was clear that Fran Sears wanted to bring back a vocal theme, but this time with a more contemporary artist, R&B star Jeffrey Osborne. The new theme by Osborne was joined by new visuals that panned over the inside of the master bedroom of two lovers, over to their bed, which was followed by overlapping squares and shots of rose pedals. The entire sequence was tinted in shades of red and pink. The final scene displayed a "dollhouse model" of the lover's home, while a brand new Loving logo appeared over it; the logo consisted of each letter of the title, in white capital script, encased in individual black boxes. With the exception of the period during late summer to early fall of 1995, which was the special storyline period of The Loving Murders, the Jeffrey Osborne theme package ran until Loving's final telecast on November 10, 1995.

Originally, an all-new, innovative closing credits format accompanied these visuals. Scenes that were based on, and directly from the opening were seen on the left side of the screen while the credits, in a new, smaller white font, appeared against a black square potion of the screen on the right. Most often the credits now faded in and out, but at times they would even scroll. Joining the closing visuals was a full instrumental version of Jeffrey Osborne's Loving theme, with minor vocal contingents being heard in the end of it. Possibly due to an unfavorable reaction from viewers, this credits sequence was scrapped after only a month. Thereafter, beauty shots of the characters were reinstated; the credit font changed yet again to a Times New Roman type. The closing version of the Osborne theme remained, but by 1995, live action clips from the episode aired replaced the beauty shot.
Image:.jpg
July 1995 - October 1995		 The Loving Murders Special Sequence

After ABC announced that Loving would be folded into the new soap The City, the producers planned to kill off many of the show's central and veteran characters, while the survivors would ultimately be carried over to The City. In July of 1995, The Loving Murders plot began, in which a mysterious character killed each selected citizen of Corinth in a unique way. For the duration of the storyline, a special opening was used which encouraged viewers to "figure it out". It consisted of black-and-white or dark color shots of various objects ticking - from a pen, to a metronome, clock, a purse, etc. During the series of objects, a woman narrated the official epigram to the plotline:

"This is the sound of trouble. The kind that caresses lives, even as it steals them away. That delicately unravels the fabric of entire towns like Corinth, Pennsylvania. When the trouble comes, it will sound like this. And Loving, will never be the same again. Trouble, with a capital L. Figure it out."

At the end of the sequence, there are the letters L-O-V-I-N-G cut out from magazines, ala a ransom note. Then, they are blown away. The final scene has the original Loving logo (the one used in openings from 1983-1992, but still in the closing to the very end) floating around like it is on a curtain that is blowing, with "Figure it out" on the bottom right corner.

[edit] External links

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