Loving (TV series)

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Loving

The Loving logo used in 1991 and early 1992
Format soap opera
Created by Agnes Nixon, Douglas Marland
Country of origin Flag of the United States United States
No. of episodes 3169
Production
Running time 30 Minutes
Broadcast
Original channel ABC
Original run June 27, 1983 – November 10, 1995

The United States soap opera Loving aired on ABC from June 27, 1983 to November 10, 1995 for 3,169 episodes.

It 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.

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 (Angie) and Jean LeClerc (Jeremy), the ratings remained poor throughout the show's run. Loving, dubbed "the little show that could" by viewers, 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 planned to cancel the show, and asked new headwriters 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, then Dabney) 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 from All My Children), Ally (Laura Wright from General Hospital), 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.

Contents

See also: List of Loving characters
See also: List of Loving cast members

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.

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 ditty, was titled "Theme from Loving".

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, which overlapped each other while glass letters of the Loving logo flew over them (one at a time). At the end of the sequence, the show's title in glass would zoom inward, with another layer meeting it in the back, over the final 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.

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.

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.

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 caress 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.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_%28TV_series%29"
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