‘Loving’ Turns 40: 10 Famous Cast Members From the Soap Opera
After Agnes Nixon created One Life to Live and All My Children, she and Douglas Marland collaborated to create another daytime soap opera for ABC, a half-hour drama titled Loving, which premiered 40 years ago, on June 26, 1983.
There was plenty of Loving to go around the fictional town of Corinth — between the Aldens, the Forbeses, and the Donovans, for starters — but viewers and critics didn’t share the love. Loving was the lowest-rated network soap during most of its run, according to The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television, and it eventually became known as “The Little Show That Couldn’t,” per the Los Angeles Times.
ABC canceled the show in 1995, and the writers ended Loving with a serial killer plot that killed off half the cast of characters. The survivors of that bloodbath decamped to a Morgan Fairchild-led, NYC-set spinoff called The City, but even that show ended after two seasons.
On the bright side, Loving advanced the careers of TV stars and not just daytime faves like Genie Francis, Debbi Morgan, Laura Wright, Amelia Heinle, and Roger Howarth. Scroll down to see ten other TV stars who have Loving in their filmographies.
Julie Bowen
More than a decade ahead of her Modern Family fame, Bowen played a character named Steffy on Loving in 1992, and a clip of her appearance is on YouTube.
Bryan Cranston
A New York Times review of Loving describes Cranston’s character, Douglas Donovan, as the “boy next door who is a model of innocent goodness,” a far cry from the actor’s career-defining role as Breaking Bad’s Walter White.
Edie Falco
Before her Emmy-winning run on Nurse Jackie — and a few years before The Sopranos, even — Falco played another nurse, Nurse Becker, on Loving.
Daisy Fuentes
Now a model, an entrepreneur, and a former MTV VJ, Fuentes joined Loving in 1992 as a character named Tess (not to be confused with Catherine Hickland’s Tess Wilder, who popped up the following year).
Meta Golding
Before her roles in film’s Hunger Games series and TV’s Rabbit Hole, Golding played Briana Hawkins on Loving in 1995.
Elizabeth Mitchell
Mitchell, an alum of Lost, the V reboot, and Revolution, replaced Jessica Collins in the role of Dinah Lee Mayberry on Loving in 1994.
Luke Perry
Perry, the late Beverly Hills, 90210, and Riverdale actor, landed his first named screen role when he started playing Ned Bates on Loving in 1987.
Teri Polo
Long before her starring roles in the Meet the Parents film trilogy and the TV series The Fosters, Polo played Kirsten Larsen on Loving in 1986.
John Schneider
Between his longtime jobs on The Dukes of Hazzard and Smallville, Schneider played Larry Lamont on Loving in 1992.
Isaiah Washington
Even before he scrubbed in for Grey’s Anatomy, Washington was a TV doctor: He played Dr. Ron Turner on Loving in 1992.
