Executive Producers: Stockton
Briggle, John Conboy
What was Capitol Well, the CBS press release announcing
this routine soap was almost as lurid and florid as some of
the shows dialogue, to wit: "Against the socially and politically
charged backdrop of today's Washington [D.C.], two lovers
yearn to cut through the barriers that have traditionally
divided their families, only to find themselves caught in a
dangerous web of power, passion and revenge." A TV Guide
reviewer gave a more realistic assessment: "This new serial
might be subtitled 'Romeo and Juliet Go to Washington/
though 'Blabscam' would be a good second choice."
The two warring families were the superpowerful Cleggs
and the ambitious McCandlesses, with the two young lovers
being university student Julie Clegg and Air Force hero
Tyier McCandless. Their screwed-up clans included Julie's
politician father Sam, her meddling socialite mother Myrna,
their children Jordy and Brenda, and Sam's son Trey (a
member of the House of Representatives) on the Clegg side,
and Tyier's mom Clarissa, his collegiate brothers Wally and
Matt and doctor brother Thomas, and his sister Gillian, an
adoptee, on the McCandless side. The animosity between
the families stemmed from Myrna, who destroyed the career
of Clarissa's father Judson Tyier in the 1950s by pegging him
as a Communist sympathizer. Myrna also hated Clarissa for
marrying Baxter McCandless, Myrna's one-time passion who
now was presumed dead.
Myrna was none too thrilled about Julie's planned
nuptials, and neither was Trey, who viewed it as a liability
in his effort to get ultimately elected President. Lucky for
them, Julie developed amnesia, so crafty Myrna planned for
her aide Lawrence Barrington to wed Julie and convinced
the unknowing girl to do so. But Myrna did not know that
Lawrence's real identity was that of Gordon Hull, a schemer.
Tyier interrupted that marriage after he and TV news reporter
Sloane Denning, the daughter of Sen. Mark Denning and his
wife Paula, had been war criminals together in the fictitious
land of N'shoba. Senator Denning had wanted Sloane to get
together with Tyier, but Tyier still loved Julie and married
her in 1983, while Sloane preferred the more ambitious Trey,
even though Tyier decided to run against Trey for Congress.
Senator Denning also had a yearning for Clarissa to be his
wife, even though he was wed to Paula.
The other children in the families exhibited some
dysfunctional behaviors, such as Jordy Clegg's drinking
problem and mooching off his parents. Jordy's problems
were later exacerbated when he was scarred in an automobile
accident (actor Todd Curtis was scarred by an accident in
real life). Other situations involved Wally McCandless's
gambling difficulties, which led to loan shark Danny Donato
blackmailing Wally s football hero brother Matt, and Dr.
Thomas McCandless, who seemed to be overcoming his
worries about his walking disability with a love for Lizbeth
Bachman, who actually had the hots for
Jordy.
Meanwhile, Myrna and her operatives tried to destroy
Tyier's run against Trey by making it appear that he had
leaked government secrets from a top-secret committee. They
blackmailed another committee member using prostitute
Shelley Granger, but when Shelley learned of their plot she
changed her name to Kelly Harper and went to work for
Trey. The two of them fell in love, but the affair came to an
end when she confessed her past and left town.
Following several more failed romances and intrigue
among the lead characters, Capitol went into plot overdrive
in 1986. That year Clarissa, thinking herself a widow, and
Senator Denning were about to marry until Clarissas very
much alive first husband Baxter, now calling himself Jarrett
Morgan, arrived. Then Denning turned out to be a traitor
working for foreign interests against the United States. Another
person believed dead, Prince Ali of the fictional Mideast
country Baracq, told Matt McCandless he was his real father
and wed Sloane Denning. Trey got word that Sam was his
child Scotty's father and got married to Angelica
Stimec. Sams
first wife Laureen, a disguised escapee from the insane asylum,
became Scotty's nanny. D. J. Phillips got Kelly Harper hooked
on drugs and sexually harassed his employee Brenda Clegg,
who dated Dylan Ross, and most dramatic of all, a firing
squad in Baracq prepared to shoot at Sloane on the last show!
CBS launched this show with great fanfare on a nighttime
special which aired March 26, 1982. The show also engaged
in some stunt casting, such as country music great Tammy
Wynette playing nightclub singer Darlene Stankowski and
Sachi Parker, Shirley MacLaine's daughter, playing a recovering
drug addict who befriended Kelly Harper. But despite fairly
respectable ratings, CBS believed the show could do better
and replaced it with The Bold and the Beautiful and a switch
in the time slot for As the World Turns.
IMPORTANT CHARACTERS INCLUDE:- JULIE ADAMS as Paula Denning / KIMBERLY BECK as Julie Clegg / BILL BEYERS as Wally McCandless / RORY CALHOUN as Judge Judson Tyler / TODD CURTIS as Jordy Clegg / DAVID MASON DANIELS as Tyler McCandless(1) / DANE WITHERSPOON as Tyler McCandless (2) / ALISHA DAS as Princess Yasmeen / DEBORAH FARENTINO as Sloane Denning / SHEA FARRELL as Matt McCandless / LESLIE GRAVES as Brneda Clegg / KAREN KELLY as Brenda Clegg / CAROLYN JONES as Myrna Clegg / TAWNY KITAEN as Meredith / ASHLEY LAWRENCE as Brenda Clegg / KELLY PRESTON as Gillian McCandless / KIMBERLY ROSS as Amy Burke / BRIAN ROBERT TAYLOR as Thomas McCandless / NICHOLAS
WALKER as Trey Clegg / LANA WOOD as Fran Burke
