Marland Monday: Amelia with big hats, Johnny is a sailor
It’s November 1! 11/1, so for anyone doing NaNoWriMo this month, may the writing be with you. I’ll try and post some writing pep talks the next month. And since it’s Monday it means it’s…
Marland Monday!
That’s right, I am saluting Douglas Marland, the writer who some say was the best at his genre: soap opera writing. The past several months I’ve been looking back at the rules he came up with before his death in 1993 about writing soaps (also NaNoWriMo folks his rules can help you too) Two weeks ago I wrote about how he and fellow GOAT Agnes Nixon decided Mickey and Judy style to put on a show. Last week I wrote about casting the show they created called Loving. Today we are going to look at the pilot two-hour film.
Let’s review:
June 1983. The fact Loving is getting such a high-profile start is a credit to both Marland and Nixon. Not only that but it was directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who directed the Let it Be documentary (where the Beatles look ticked at each other) and the Brideshead Revisited miniseries. In other words, they didn’t choose a guy at the 7–11 to direct this one. Another FYI: Actress Geraldine Fitzgerald was Lindsay-Hogg’s mother.
Another Geraldine agreed to appear in the pilot, the woman when she finally won an Oscar F. Murray Abraham choked up then announced “I consider this woman the greatest actress in the English language.”
Ladies and gentlemen, Geraldine Page as Miss Amelia Marshall.
The other big guest star would be Lloyd Bridges as Johnny Forbes, known for Sea Hunt, Roots, The Rainmaker, and the role of Steve McCroskey, who sniffed glue on Airplane.
When asked about the show, Bridges told Audrey Pecht: “I’m in love with the cast. I want the show to be a success because I know everyone now. I’ll be watching.”
Okay! On with the show!
It’s Spring Break in Cornith. Police Officer Mike Donovan (James Kiberd) is called to a motel to investigate something suspicious while anchorwoman (and Mike’s sister in law) Merrill Vochek (Patricia Kalember) is working on a story about prostitution at Alden University, which is about to get a new president. Right behind her is a familar looking guy we might’ve seen in other things: Bryan Cranston as Doug Donovan.
We find out Garth Slater the acting president of Alden U won’t be the new president. Rather it will be Roger Forbes, Cabot Alden’s son in law. We also meet Page’s Amelia Marshall, who has a fondness for wearing big hats and smoking cahoots (small cigars)
Amelia calls Johnny. Bridges look fit as a fiddle by the sea, ahoy!
They bicker, he hangs up. They have a history and it’s a complicated one.
We see Lorna Forbes and her mother Ann getting ready for a party.
Finally, after ten… long… minutes… we see Mike Donovan again. Mike is not a happy camper. He just found a murdered woman in the motel. Money is still in her wallet. In the bathroom written in lipstick: WHORES MUST DIE. The victim? The whistleblower sex worker who just talked to Merrill Vochek.
Okay, here’s the deal: Many long-time readers know I’ve been writing about a cold case of a murder that was solved four years ago. The trial is supposed to happen in days. I hate saying this, but a mystery of a young woman being murdered with WHORES MUST DIE written in lipstick on a mirror is not, well, my cup of tea these days. Also, the stories are being introduced incredibly slowly even for a soap opera.
We are introduced to the cast and more stories as the mystery goes on. Merrill is trying to track down another co-ed (Played by Debbie Morgan, on loan from All My Children) who might know who was running the sex workers ring at Alden University. Everyone is excellent. The sets are beautiful and stylish.
It’s just that everything…is… slow. Please don’t get me wrong; I love slow stories. Marland was great at them because the viewer knew you would get the best payoff at the end. But when we do get the payoff at the end (I won’t reveal but let’s just say Page and Bridges decided to do other things) I honestly felt like well, okay, is that all there is?
I know I’m alone in feeling Loving’s slowness; Christopher Schemering said in The Soap Opera Encyclopedia wrote that he found the TV movie was “sluggish”Of course, a TV movie is different than a soap. Next week I will watch the first two episodes of Loving, the show.
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Tune in next week…
