Debuting on 26 June 1983 with a two-hour telemovie starring Lloyd Bridges and Geraldine Page (neither of whom stuck around for the series), this long-running daytime drama from ABC took place in the fictional sleepy college town of Corinth, Pennsylvania – home of sleepy Alden University – and centred on the lives of the wealthy Alden family, headed up by the prestigious Cabot (Wesley Addy) and Isabelle (Augusta Dabney) Alden.
The charismatic new president of the university, Roger Forbes (John Shearin initially, then Peter Brown) was the son of a self-made millionaire. A former Congressman and ambassador, Roger had national political ambitions. His wife, Ann (Shannon Eubanks then Callan White) was a member of the Alden family, and the social-climbing couple had two children – Lorna (Susan Walters), a pretty trouble-maker, and Jack (Perry Stephens) a clean-cut athlete.
Their sibling rivalry was compounded by the sudden and mysterious arrival from Europe of their scheming and manipulative cousin, Curtis Alden (Christopher Marcantel).
Key characters initially included magnetic WCN-Television anchorwoman Merrill Vochek (Patricia Kalember) who was idealistic, caring and ready to fight for what she wanted from life.
Merrill and her family were longtime neighbours of the working-class Donovans. One of the Donovan sons, Douglas (future Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston) – Merrill’s sweetheart from childhood – was a playwright and drama professor at the university.
By contrast, his police officer brother Mike (James Kiberd) went to Vietnam instead of college and still bore the emotional scars. Mike’s spunky wife Noreen (Marilyn McIntyre and then Elizabeth Burr) was a nurse at Corinth Memorial Hospital who longed for a family Mike wasn’t willing to give her.
The pride of the Donovan family was sportswoman Stacey (Lauren-Marie Taylor), a college freshman.
Other long-running characters included Ava Rescott (played by Patty Lotz, Roya Megnot, and 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; boarding house owner Kate Rescott (Nada Rowand), mother of Ava and Carly, whose tenants often included teen and young adult characters in trouble, or in numerous romantic entanglements; and Gwyneth Alden (played for the majority of the run by Christine Tudor), the long-suffering matriarch who never stopped loving her roguish ex, Clay (played by James Horan, Larkin Malloy and Dennis Parlato in succession) or her mentally disturbed children, Trisha (Noelle Beck) and Curtis.
Up against The Young and the Restless, the series never really stood a chance, and a flurry of ever-changing head writers didn’t help, keeping the plots unfocused and inconsistent.
Languishing as the lowest-rating soap opera, Loving received a makeover and was reinvented as The City in November 1995. Gone was sleepy Alden University. Gone too were half-a-dozen characters who were done in by a fiendishly clever serial killer – spoiler alert: it was the long-suffering Gwyneth – who not only thinned out the cast but also spiked up the Loving ratings.
Sweet-as-pie Stacey Forbes (Lauren-Marie Taylor) – who had been with Loving since its inception – was the first to go. A poisoned powder puff did her in. Clay, Curtis, Cabot and Isabelle Alen went next, wiping out the Alden clan, followed by the fantastic plaster death of artist Jeremy Hunter (Jean Leclerc) in which he was turned into a statue.
A dozen survivors got the hell out of Corinth and moved into a lovely old sprawling cast-iron loft building in Manhattan’s SoHo district. The new series also brought in the big guns, in the shape of Morgan Fairchild as media mogul Sydney Chase. The City ran until March 1997.
Cabot Alden
Wesley Addy Isabelle Alden
Augusta Dabney (1)
Celeste Holm (2)
Patricia Barry (3) Curtis Alden
Christopher Marcantel (1)
Linden Ashby (2)
Burke Moses (3)
Chip Albers (4)
Patrick T. Johnson (5)
Michael Lord (6) Clay Alden James Horan (1)
Larkin Malloy (2)
Dennis Parlato (3) Gwyneth Alden
Christine L. Tudor Cooper Alden
Michael Weatherly Ann Alden Forbes
Shannon Eubanks (1)
Callan White (2) Dinah Lee Mayberry Alden
Jessica Collins Ava Rescott
Lisa Peluso Carly Rescott Alden
Colleen Quinn Ally Rescott Alden Bowman
Laura Wright Michael Rescott
Alexander Kniffen Trisha Alden McKenzie
Noelle Beck Trucker McKenzie
Robert Tyler Merrill Vochek
Patricia Kalember Stacey Donovan Forbes
Lauren-Marie Taylor Douglas Donovan
Bryan Cranston (1)
Victor Bevine (2) Mike Donovan
James Kiberd Patrick Donovan
Noah Keen (1)
George L Smith (2)
Ed Bryce (3) Noreen Volchek Donovan
Marilyn McIntyre (1)
Elizabeth Burr (2) Rose Donovan
Dorothy Stinnette (2) Kate Rescott Slavinsky
Nada Rowand Shana Sloane Vocheck Burnell
Susan Keith JJ Forbes
Geoffrey Wigdor Jack Forbes
Perry Stephens (1)
Christopher Cass (2) Roger Forbesc
John Shearin (1)
Peter Brown (2) Lorna Forbes Conway
Susan Walters (1)
O’Hara Parker (2) Heather Forbes
Hallee Hirsh Casey Bowman
Paul Anthony Stewart Gifford Bowman
Richard Cox Jeremy Hunter
Jean Leclerc Leo Burnell
James Carroll Buck Huston
Philip Brown Louie Slavinsky
Bernard Barrow Stephanie Brewster
Amelia Heinle Deborah Brewster
Nancy Addison Alex Masters
Randolph Mantooth (1)
Robert Dubac (2) Sandy Masters
Jacob Zelik Penn Hannah Mayberry
Rebecca Gayheart Tess Wilder
Catherine Hickland Dr Angie Hubbard
Debbi Morgan Frankie Hubbard
Alimi Ballard Armand Rosario
Michael Galardi Charles Harrison
Geoffrey Ewing Arthur Davis
Keith Grumet Paul Slavinsky
Joseph Breen Flynn Reilly
Keith Pruitt Dante Partou
Thom Christopher Staige Prince
Eden Atwood Egypt Jones Masters
Linda Cook Lenox
Simon Prebble Harry Sowolsky
Ed Moore Matthew Ford
Eric Woodall Janey Sinclair
Elise Neal Father Jim Vochek
Peter Davies
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By contrast, his police officer brother Mike (James Kiberd) went to Vietnam instead of college and still bore the emotional scars. Mike’s spunky wife Noreen (Marilyn McIntyre and then Elizabeth Burr) was a nurse at Corinth Memorial Hospital who longed for a family Mike wasn’t willing to give her.
