Here’s Looking At You, Mr. Tylo: A Marland Special

I know it’s not Marland Monday, but sometimes life happens and you have to sit down and write something Douglas Marland-related. Today a man who played one of Marland’s characters died. He was on other soaps and even TV shows and movies. But to me, he will always be Quinton McCord Chamberlain on Guiding Light, the shy mysterious man who became half of a beloved super-couple.

I’ve written before that when Nola (Lisa Brown) found herself pregnant and unsure of what to do next, she had to reinvent herself. She moved out of her mother’s boardinghouse, then looked for a job. Nola found an ad looking for a household assistant. Since she’d been helping run the boarding house for years, Nola applied for the job. She found herself in a white gazebo where a man appeared. His name was Quinton McCord, an archaeologist. He found himself taken with Nola and hired her on the spot. When she gave birth three months later, he brought her heather. Why? Because he knew she loved the movie Wuthering Heights. He called her Miss Reardon. She called him Mr. McCord. It was incredibly romantic, worthy of a movie Nola would watch late at night in the boarding house living room.

Of course, this being a soap opera, there were complications. Nola was still crushing on Dr. Kelly Nelson (John Wesley Shipp) and named her daughter Kelly Louise for him. However, the father was Floyd Parker (Tom Nielsen) who had no idea he had been used in order for Nola to get Kelly. Just read this Marland Monday to save us all some time here. There’s nothing better than a love triangle, and Nola had fantasies with both Kelly and Quentin, and she was always the star, be it Elsa in Casablanca or Cathy in Wuthering Heights.

In June 1982, the show went to St. Croix where they went snorkling together. This is when the show used their song for the first time. As mentioned before, they were an old fashioned couple, so they needed a song that captured who they were. Enter Pachelbel’s Canon in d. Whenever I hear the music, I tear up and think “It’s Quint and Nola’s song.” The underwater scenes were beautiful, a ballet.

That summer Bertie Higgins who had a popular song called “Key Largo” came on, with clips of Quint and Nola playing as he sang the song.

Quint finally revealed he was in love with Nola after he rescued her from being kidnapped. For the first time, he called her Nola. During a fever dream, she called out for him, still calling him Mr. McCord. However, it turned out he was really a Chamberlain-Henry Chamberlain’s long long son. Mr. Chamberlain, by the way, was one of the richest people in Springfield. Of course! After she recovered, Nola renamed her baby Anastasia, Stacy for short for Ingrid Bergman’s Anastasia. She then could admit that she loved Mr. McCord-Quinton-too.

In the fall of 1982, Marland left due to a dispute with the executive producer at the time. I’ve tried to undestand what happened between then and June 1983, but it’s a bit convoluted. I will say the romance slowly blossomed even more. In June 1983 they were married. it was bit of a screwball comedy; first the church they were supposed to be married in burnt down. Then there were complications with the wedding gown, so much so several sex workers had to come and do alterations (don’t ask. Just…don’t ask) Then Nola had no way getting to the church on time, so she had a fire truck take her. Finally, Pacibel’s Canon in D played, and they were married. They were whisked away by a hot air balloon with a honeymoon in Ireland where they finally made love for the first time. Yes, they waited. It was incredibly romantic.

To be honest, they didn’t have much storylines the next two years. Oh, they were on the show. Nola got pregnant (Lisa Brown was pregnant in real life) and there was a cute “Name the Baby” contest. The winner? Anthony James, for Nola’s brothers. (Brown’s real life baby was named James Anthony)

Quint started teaching at the college. But they were secondary characters, supporting characters. And they weren’t supposed to be supprting characters. Finally in April 1985, Lisa Brown and Michael Tylo left the show. Nola and Quint were offered an oppotunity they couldn’t refuse, so with Stacy and the baby they packed up and left.

Tylo went on to do another soap All My Children, where he met his second wife Deborah. They married in 1987, and she renamed herself Hunter (her maiden name) Tylo her married name. In 1990, she made her debut as Dr. Taylor Hayes on The Bold and Beautiful. He went on The Young and Restless as Blade Bladerson (Look I don’t make up these names) Hunter Tylo became famous for playing Dr. Hayes, and for suing Aaron Spelling in the late 90s when he fired her for being pregnant, therefore she wasn’t sexy (it doesn’t make sense to me either) She won the lawsuit.

In 1996 Tylo came back to Guiding Light. Brown was back as Nola. But it was all wrong; the writing was just bad and had Nola leave Quinton because of an affair. The writing wasn’t the same, and Tylo left, disgusted (The two reunited off screen) Quola fans were furious. Tylo left acting and concentrated on his family. One of his daughters survived cancer, but his marriage to Hunter broke up. His son Michael Junior died in 2007. He remarried and had another daughter with his third wife Rachelle. He was a professor at the University of Las Vegas, teaching film and acting. It was UNLV who annouced Michael Tylo’s death today at age seventy-three.

When I heard about his death, it felt like a punch to the stomach. Not sure if it’s because I’ve written about Douglas Marland this summer so I got to rewatch so many great clips, or if it’s 2021 and there’s been so much loss with Beverly Cleary, Larry McMurtry, Walter Mondale and Anne Beatts, plus countless victims of COVID. Maybe it’s both. Someone on Twitter said simply “Fly high in the balloon while we wave goodbye.”

So if I was writing Guiding Light and if it was still on, this is how I’d write it. Nola finds out Quinton is dead. She faints, then finds herself in a field, then she sees a hot air balloon. She knows he’s in the balloon, leaving. Nola waves goodbye, trying to be brave. All the while, Pacibel’s Canon in D plays us out until the screen goes dark.

Fly high, Mr. Tylo. Here’s looking at you, man.