 |
| Ryan's Hope producers sent Mary (Kate Mulgrew) and Jack Fenelli (Michael Levin) to Ireland when they reconciled and remarried. The cameras followed, and viewers were treated to weeks of on-location filming. |
The Soap Box
Vol. IV No. 2 February 1979
by Linda Susman
(continued from Part 1)
Not all of Pine Valley's weddings have been so traditional or well-attended. The unorthodox "wedding" of Tara Martin and Phil Brent was the basis for a major AMC storyline that continues to complicate the lives of many Pine Valley residents even today.
Tara and Phil had been high school sweethearts; but after Phil ran away to New York when he found out he was adopted, Tara became engaged to Chuck Tyler, Phil's best friend. Although Phoebe Tyler, the boy's grandmother, wanted a huge, fancy affair, Tara chose a simpler wedding in her grandmother's garden. During the ceremony, Chuck fainted, suffering from a serious kidney disease. While he was in the hospital, Phil and Tara realized they were still in love, but they didn't want to upset Chuck until he had fully recovered. Meantime, Phil was drafted and they decided to marry secretly the night before he was to leave for Vietnam.
Although the young lovers made careful plans, they didn't count on a blizzard that would prevent them from reaching a justice of the peace. Desperate to take their vows before morning, they found a tiny, deserted chapel and performed a ceremony themselves they considered binding. Tara became pregnant that night, and when Phil was listed as missing-in-action, she finally told Chuck the whole story. He still loved her, and she agreed to marry him so her child would have a father.