Capitol (TV series)
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This article does not cite any references or sources. (September 2010) |
| Capitol | |
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 Final Main title card |
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| Genre | Soap opera |
| Created by | Stephen Karpf Elinor Karpf |
| Starring | Constance Towers Carolyn Jones Marj Dusay Rory Calhoun Debrah Farentino Nicholas Walker Catherine Hickland Tawny Kitaen Ginger Alden Richard Egan Julie Adams Tonja Walker Teri Hatcher |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of episodes | 1,270 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | John Conboy |
| Producer(s) | Stockton Briggle |
| Location(s) | CBS Television City Hollywood, California |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CBS |
| Original run | March 29, 1982 – March 20, 1987 |
Capitol is an American soap opera which aired on CBS from March 29, 1982 to March 20, 1987 for 1,270 episodes. As its name suggests, the storyline usually revolves around the political intrigues of people whose lives intertwined in Washington D.C.
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Synopsis[edit]
Capitol revolves around the Denning, Clegg, and McCandless families, who live in the fictional Washington, D.C. suburb of Jeffersonia. At the center of the drama are feuding matriarchs Clarissa Tyler McCandless (Constance Towers) and Myrna Clegg (Carolyn Jones; Marla Adams; Marj Dusay). Kindly and down-to-earth Clarissa and vituperative and vindictive Myrna are former best friends who in their youth had been rivals over the love of Baxter McCandless; in retaliation for Baxter falling for Clarissa and not her, scheming Myrna had spread lies about Clarissa's father, liberal Congressman Judson (Rory Calhoun), linking him to communists during the McCarthy era.
Baxter has left Clarissa a widow, and Myrna is married to government worker Sam Clegg (Robert Sampson; Richard Egan). The longstanding feud between the women is inflamed when Clarissa's war-hero son Tyler McCandless (David Mason Daniels; Dane Witherspoon) falls in love with Myrna's daughter, Julie Clegg (Kimberly Beck; Catherine Hickland). Despite Myrna's best efforts to destroy this match, they eventually marry. Also featured are Myrna's other children: Trey (Nicholas Walker), who is being groomed for the presidency; Brenda (Leslie Graves; Shannon Terhune; Ashley Laurence; Karen Kelly), and Jordy (Todd Curtis). Ironically, despite their mother's scheming and conniving, Trey, Julie, Jordy and Brenda were not like Myrna whatsoever. Besides Tyler and her father, Judson, Clarissa's family includes sons Wally (Bill Beyers), a young man with a gambling problem, Thomas (Brian Robert Taylor; Michael Catlin), a doctor, and Matt (Shea Farrell; Christopher Durham), a handsome athlete. Also living with them for a time was Clarissa's niece, Gillian (Kelly Palzis). Meanwhile Clarissa is in love with Senator Mark Denning (Ed Nelson) who is in an unhappy marriage with agoraphobic Paula (Julie Adams) and is the father of reporter Sloane Denning (Debrah Farentino). Clarissa later falls for Jarrett Morgan (Ron Harper), who turns out to be her presumed-dead husband Baxter.
While the original focus was on the Romeo and Juliet style love story of Tyler and Julie, the bulk of the storyline quickly switched to Trey and Sloane whose 1984 wedding was filmed on location at the Jefferson Memorial. Trey's previous relationship with former prostitute Kelly Harper (Jane Daly Gamble; Jess Walton) produced a son, Scotty, and eventually caused Trey and Sloane to divorce. Julie and Tyler dealt with constant interference by Myrna as well as Julie's inability to have a child. Playboy Jordy had several serious romances, most notably with feisty Lizabeth Bachman (Tonja Walker and sweet Leanne Foster (Christine Kellogg). The older characters were busy in storylines as well, most notably Clarissa and Mark who had to deal with the psychotic Paula (Julie Adams). The performances of the older actors were honored with several Soap Opera Digest Nominations, but none of the cast were ever Emmy Nominated.
Production[edit]
CBS asked The Young and the Restless producer John Conboy to produce an equivalent in daytime during Summer 1981. Capitol became the first soap opera to be produced in Los Angeles since The Young and the Restless began in 1973.
The show's title sequence during its early years showed aerial scenes of Washington, D.C. shot during the winter of 1980 to 1981. In the final year, a computerized sequence was instituted, illustrating glamour and sex in addition to the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial.
Cancellation[edit]
During most of its run the show had steady ratings and held on in the middle of the pack of the soaps. The storylines of the last year however caused a rather steep fall in ratings. Not only was Scotty Harper revealed to have been fathered by Sam Clegg, Senator Mark Denning turned out to be a spy. Sloane was paired with an Arab prince, Prince Ali Peter Lochran, which gave the opportunity for some exotic love scenes. With Clarissa not sure if the man she thought was Baxter was really her long presumed dead husband, the show veered further off track by revealing that Clarissa and Baxter's son, Matt, was really Prince Ali's long-lost brother, adopted by Baxter to prevent him from being killed. However, the addition of film and stage actress Janis Paige as Sam's long gone first wife Laureen was filled with potential that never got the chance to be explored.
Paul Rauch created Grosse Pointe as a replacement for the serial in 1986. During her absence from Ryan's Hope, Michael Brockman, former President of CBS Daytime, asked Claire Labine to develop a new serial in 1986. Her proposal was entitled Celebration which was ment to be less of a glamour soap like Capitol or The Young and the Restless and more of a relationships and family crisis series along the lines of As The World Turns or Another World or many of the serials of the past but with a more modern twist for the 80's. However it never made it to the air.
CBS announced the series' cancellation in December 1986. With the last two months of episodes taped in the span of a month to accommodate the beginning of replacement soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful, Conboy and head writer James Lipton ended the series with the cliffhanger of Sam being blackmailed by his lover Kate into asking Myrna for a divorce, and Sloane placed in front of a firing squad in the Middle Eastern kingdom of her lover, King Ali.
Cast[edit]
During its run, Capitol featured several well-known actors in contract roles, including Richard Egan, Carolyn Jones, Rory Calhoun, and Constance Towers. In the show's earlier years, singer Lola Falana played wealthy entertainment mogul Charity Blake, and Natalie Wood's sister Lana Wood played Fran Burke. In 1986, country music singer Tammy Wynette made appearances as hairstylist-turned-singer Darlene Stankowski.
- Carolyn Jones as Myrna Clegg #1 (1982–1983)
- Marla Adams as Myrna Clegg #2 (1983)
- Marj Dusay as Myrna Clegg #3 (1983–1987)
- Teri Hatcher as Angelica Stimac Clegg (1986–1987)
- Robert Sampson as Samuel Clegg II #1 (1982)
- Richard Egan as Samuel Clegg II #2 (1982–1987)
- Tonja Walker as Lizbeth Bachman (1982–1984)
- Kimberly Beck-Hilton as Julie Clegg #1 (1982–1983)
- Catherine Hickland as Julie Clegg McCandless #2 (1983–1987)
- Todd Curtis as Jordy Clegg
- Leslie Graves as Brenda Clegg #1 (1982–1984)
- Shannon Terhune as Brenda Clegg #2 (1984)
- Ashley Laurence as Brenda Clegg #3 (1984–1985)
- Karen Kelly as Brenda Clegg #4 (1985–1987)
- Constance Towers as Clarissa McCandless
- David Mason Daniels as Tyler McCandless #1 (1982–1985)
- Dane Witherspoon as Tyler McCandless #2 (1985–1986)
- Kelly Palzis as Gillian McCandless
- Bill Beyers as Wallace "Wally" McCandless
- Brian Robert Taylor as Thomas McCandless #1 (1982–1983)
- Burke Byrnes as Dr. Franklin
- Michael Catlin as Thomas McCandless #2 (1983–1987)
- Shea Farrell as Matt McCandless #1 (1982)
- Christopher Durham as Matt McCandless #2 (1982–1984)
- Ed Nelson as Senator Mark Denning
- Tawny Kitaen as Meredith Ross #1 (unknown)
- Ginger Alden as Meredith Ross #2 (1986-1987)
- Tammy Wynette as Darlene Stankowski (1986–1987)
- Billy Warlock as Ricky Driscoll (1984–1985)
- Jess Walton as Kelly Harper (1984–1987)
- Debrah Farentino as Sloane Denning (1982–1987)
- Julie Parrish as Maggie Brady
- Rodney Saulsberry as Jeff Johnson (1982–1983)
Main Crew[edit]
- Peggy O'Shea
- Craig Carlson
- Granville Burgess
- Richard Camp
- Peggy Sloane
- John Sedlak
- Steve Hayes
- John William Corrington
- Joyce Corrington
- Shirley Hartman
- Susan Goldberg
- David Carren
- Carly Cady
- Stephen Karpf
- Elinor Karpf
Scheduling/ratings[edit]
On June 8, 1981, CBS moved Search for Tomorrow, daytime television's longest-tenured soap and a fixture for nearly 30 years at 12:30 PM/11:30 AM Central, to the 2:30/1:30 PM timeslot between As the World Turns and Guiding Light in order to accommodate the hit serial The Young and the Restless. Procter & Gamble, who owned Search for Tomorrow, urged CBS to return the show to its former slot. The network refused, and when their contract with CBS expired, P&G sold Search for Tomorrow to NBC Daytime and the show premiered there on March 26, 1982. CBS replaced Search for Tomorrow with Capitol, scheduled against the last halves of NBC's Another World and ABC's One Life to Live, the latter of which dominated the ratings at the time.
Capitol debuted on CBS in 1982 in 8th place in the ratings, roughly the same as Search for Tomorrow had done. Capitol remained in 8th place throughout its five-year run, with its best ratings points of 6.4 achieved in the 1983-1984 television season. In 1985, ratings fell slightly from a 5.8 to a 5.1, prompting some CBS affiliates to drop the show. CBS subsequently canceled the show and replaced it with The Bold and the Beautiful on March 23, 1987. However, CBS put The Bold and the Beautiful in the 1:30/12:30 timeslot, bumping As the World Turns to 2/1. The Bold and the Beautiful became both CBS' and America's second-highest rated soap opera, but its ratings never surpassed Capitol's ratings peak.
