Loving is an American television soap opera that ran on ABC from June 26, 1983, to November 10, 1995, for a total of 3,169 episodes. The serial, set in the fictional town of Corinth, Pennsylvania, was co-created by Agnes Nixon and former actor Douglas Marland .
26-405: Laura Alice Wright (née Sisk; born September 11, 1970) is an American actress. She is best known for playing the roles of Allison "Ally" Rescott on Loving (1991 to 1995) and The City (1995 to 1997), Cassie Layne Winslow on Guiding Light (1997 to 2005) and Carly Corinthos (Spencer) on General Hospital (2005 to present). She won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in
52-504: A Drama Series for her role on General Hospital in 2011. She has since received six more nominations in the same category. Wright was born Laura Alice Sisk in Washington, D.C. and raised in Clinton, Maryland . She appeared in several high school plays such as Gypsy , Our Town , and You Can't Take It with You . She also directed a school production of Father Says No . She appeared in
78-530: A cast set for both a primetime premiere and a weekday run. Loving premiered on June 26, 1983 as a two-hour primetime movie. It starred much of the original cast and featured film actors Lloyd Bridges and Geraldine Page . Set in the fictional town of Corinth, Pennsylvania, 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 veterans were covered. Marland and Nixon left
104-617: A few local commercials and numerous fashion shows. After high school, Wright attended one semester of college before leaving and taking a full time job at a gas station owned by her father in Clinton. While working at her father's gas station, Wright took an acting class. The teacher submitted a videotape of her students to the ABC soap opera Loving . Wright almost missed the taping because she overslept that day. The show responded, and Wright (then using her maiden name of Sisk), flew to New York City for
130-606: A few years later. John proposed to her in the back of a New York taxi at 10 o'clock at night. The wedding was originally scheduled for June 1, 1996. They were married on October 7, 1995. They have a daughter, who was born in 1998, and a son, who was born in 2000. In April 2016, Wright announced that she and John had decided to end their marriage. Wright has been in a relationship with her General Hospital co-star Wes Ramsey since 2017. They first met several years earlier, when they worked together on Guiding Light . Loving (TV series) Loving premiered on June 26, 1983 with
156-465: A new series, The City , which would run until the series finale on March 28, 1997. In August 2013, the serial killer storyline was revisited on General Hospital as Luke Spencer and Holly Sutton found their way into the abandoned Alden mansion, in pursuit of an adversary who was hiding out in Corinth. Framed photographs of Gwyneth, Trisha and Cabot Alden could be seen, as Luke and Holly recounted
182-414: A new trend of youth orientation and storylines with more action and adventure, soap creator Agnes Nixon and actor/writer Douglas Marland sought to create a new serial that would be introduced as a traditional, classic soap opera for the 1980s. Romance would be the show's key centerpiece; its original working title was Love Without End . By early 1983, the new creation was fully developed as Loving , with
208-584: 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. Other longtime favorites included Stacey Donovan Forbes (portrayed by Lauren-Marie Taylor , the only continuously running original cast member), who was killed off via a poisoned powder puff in summer 1995; boarding house owner Kate Rescott ( Nada Rowand ), whose tenants often included teen and young adult characters in trouble, or in numerous romantic entanglements; and Gwyneth Alden (played for
234-579: A screen test. She was cast as Allison "Ally" Rescott, playing the role from 1991 until the show's cancellation in 1995. She then played the same role on The City , a spin off of Loving , from 1995 to 1997. After the cancellation of The City , Wright joined the cast of the CBS soap opera Guiding Light as Cassie Layne Winslow in August 1997. She won a Soap Opera Digest Award for Favorite New Character for her role on Guiding Light in 1998. Wright decided to leave
260-430: A statement, "Carly is a complex character, and we are excited to bring Laura's talent, beauty and intelligence to this role." Wright's first airdate was November 4, 2005, the day after her final episode of Guiding Light aired. In 2011, after 20 years on daytime soap operas, Wright received her first Daytime Emmy Award nomination. She was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress for her role on General Hospital and won
286-419: A two-hour primetime movie and, on the next day, debuted as a half-hour weekday soap opera. On July 4, 1995, ABC officially canceled Loving due to low ratings, and its final episode aired on November 10, 1995. On November 13, 1995, the following Monday, ABC replaced Loving with its spin-off The City , which ran until March 28, 1997. With the established and successful ABC daytime soap operas veering into
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#1732837464115312-509: The ABC soap opera General Hospital . He attended the Juilliard School 's drama division as a member of Group 29 (1996–2000), which also included Morena Baccarin and Glenn Howerton . Ramsey's first major acting role was playing Sam Spencer on the CBS daytime soap opera Guiding Light , a role he portrayed over the next eight years. In 2003, Ramsey played Greg on the short-lived Fox comedy series Luis . The same year he
338-568: The Devil . Circumstances became so desperate in the early 1990s that, in order to keep the show afloat, ABC assigned its own programming executives, network executive Haidee Granger and later, Vice President of Daytime Programming JoAnn Emmerich, to serve as executive producers. Despite its frequent subpar ratings, on June 26, 1993, Loving celebrated its 10th anniversary on ABC. Long-running characters included Ava Rescott (played by Patty Lotz, 1983–1984; Roya Megnot , 1984–1988; Lisa Peluso , 1988–1995),
364-560: The 12:30 timeslot, Loving never achieved the ratings Ryan's Hope had during its glory years. In the Central, Mountain and Pacific time zones, Loving was often pre-empted at 11:30 for local newscasts, airing on a one-day delay earlier in the morning or not at all. On August 17, 1992, ABC officially stopped programming the Noon/11:00am CT timeslot. Loving was then made available to affiliates at Noon/11 or 12:30/11:30. Some affiliates in
390-604: The Central and Pacific Time Zones moved Loving to 11:00 AM to air local newscasts at 11:30. Despite the time slot changes on some affiliates, the national ratings for the show never improved. In fact, the show's national ratings were never strong enough to climb above tenth place. However, Loving did beat the genre's top-rated program, CBS' The Young and the Restless , in markets such as New York City , Los Angeles , Chicago , and Philadelphia , which were home to four of ABC's owned-and-operated stations, despite only competing with
416-478: The Corinth serial killer . Stacey, Clay, Curtis, Cabot, Isabelle, 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 Ally, Alex, Angie , Buck, Frankie , Jacob, Steffi, Jocelyn, Richard, Tony, Danny and Tess moved to New York City's SoHo District and began
442-761: The award. Wright was nominated again in the same category in 2012. She also received nominations in 2015, 2017 to 2019, and 2022. In 2013, Wright guest starred on an episode of the VH1 series Hit the Floor . In 2015, she made a cameo appearance in the film Joy , alongside General Hospital co-stars Maurice Benard and Donna Mills . She starred as Dr. Lori Hanson in the Lifetime film Deadly Patient (also titled Stalked by My Patient ) in 2018. Wright announced her engagement to architect John Wright in August 1995. They had dated on and off throughout high school and college before reuniting
468-953: The first half hour of The Young and the Restless . The show had a short two-year run in the early years of UK satellite and cable channel Sky One, starting in February 1989. Loving aired in an afternoon slot, Monday to Friday at 14:45, later moved to 14:30, before being cancelled and replaced by Santa Barbara in February 1991. The show was broadcast in France under the title Amoureusement vôtre ( Lovingly Yours ), in Croatia as Ljubav , in Germany as Loving - Wege der Liebe , in Greece as "Έρωτες έρωτες έρωτες" ("Love, Love, Love") and in Italy as Quando si ama ( When you're in love ). In South Africa as "Loving", broadcast on Mnet
494-652: The lowest rated of the ten network daytime soaps." When it originally premiered, the show aired at 11:30 AM ET /10:30 AM CT / MT / PT . On October 8, 1984, the show was moved to the later 12:30 PM /11:30 AM timeslot, bumping Ryan's Hope up to Noon/11:00. This caused Ryan's Hope 's ratings to plummet because many East Coast ABC stations pre-empted network programming at Noon for local news. Some affiliates, such as WSB-TV in Atlanta , chose to keep Ryan's Hope at 12:30, not airing Loving until after Ryan's Hope 's cancellation in 1989. Despite airing in
520-420: The majority of the run by Christine Tudor), the long-suffering matriarch who never stopped loving her roguish ex, Clay, or her mentally disturbed children, Trisha and Curtis. 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,
546-468: The series after a few years and in spite of ABC's 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 low 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's selling his soul to
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#1732837464115572-580: The show when her contract expired in October 2005. She said her exit wasn't related to budget cuts or backstage drama, she simply wanted to try other opportunities. Her final airdate was November 3, 2005. The role was recast. On September 12, 2005, it was announced that Wright would begin playing Carly Corinthos on the ABC soap opera General Hospital . She was the fourth actress to play the role, succeeding Jennifer Bransford. ABC Daytime executive Brian Frons said in
598-467: The story of "The Loving Murders". Holly ruminated upon Gwyn's rationale for being the killer as being her need to "spare the people she loved from their pain." Following this, Luke found his ex-wife Laura tied up in the Alden family basement. Although Loving had low ratings throughout its history, its first few years were relatively encouraging. In its debut year (1983), it finished in 11th place and 3.9, above
624-442: The then ailing soaps The Edge of Night and Search for Tomorrow . 1984 saw the show's ratings climb to a fairly comfortable 10th place and 4.1, holding that position for the 1985-1986 television 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 ). The slow but steady ratings growth
650-505: Was not sustained in the long run. Loving fell back to 11th place, hitting last place for the first time, in early 1989 (between the January series finale of Ryan's Hope and the March premiere of NBC 's Generations ). In 1990, the show ranked 11th place as well. After Santa Barbara went off the air on January 15, 1993, Loving , according to television historian Alex McNeil, "was consistently
676-466: Was on open time, weekdays. In Turkey as Sevgi Bağları broadcast on Turkish Radio Television channel. Wes Ramsey Wes Ramsey (born October 6, 1977) is an American actor. He is known for his performance in the romantic drama film Latter Days , and for playing Sam Spencer on the CBS daytime soap opera Guiding Light and for his recurring role as Wyatt Halliwell on The WB supernatural drama Charmed . He portrayed Peter August on
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