Lovers and Friends

Lovers and Friends is an American soap opera that aired on NBC from January 3 to May 6, 1977. When the show didn't catch on immediately, NBC put the show on hiatus for seven months, and then brought it back on December 6, 1977, as a retooled show with the title For Richer, For Poorer. The show continued on until it came to an end on September 29, 1978.

The show was created by Harding Lemay and Paul Rauch, who were both also working for the daytime drama Another World. Lovers and Friends was not a spinoff or an indirect spin-off of the former series; however, it did take the place of the direct Another World spinoff, Somerset, on the NBC schedule upon its premiere. None of the show's characters came from Another World, nor did any of that show's characters appear on it until it became For Richer, For Poorer.

The show was set in the fictional Chicago suburb of Point Clair, Illinois, and focused on the trials and tribulations of two neighboring families, the wealthy Cushings and the middle class Saxtons. Point Clair was a highly wealthy suburb, allegedly modeled after the real life community of Lake Forest, Illinois, the wealthiest of the North Shore suburbs in the Chicago Metropolitan area.

The Cushings were Richard Cushing (Ron Randell), a successful stockbroker who owned a brokerage house called Cushing and Sons, who also had an affair with his secretary, Barbara Manners; his proper and high society wife, Edith (Nancy Marchand, Laurinda Barrett), who stayed in the marriage, even though she knew about and tended to tolerate Richard's infidelity; their college aged son, Austin (Rod Arrants) who was an alcoholic due to his inability to be an artist and finding out his girlfriend, Laurie Brewster was sent to Europe by her mother to break up their relationship; and their daughter, Megan (Patricia Estrin; Darlene Parks) who was unhappily engaged to wealthy and stuffy Desmond Hamilton (David Knapp). She was engaged to him, because she felt that was what was prudent for her upbringing and she feared defying her mother.

Also living with and offering some sage, down-to-earth advice and also a touch of humor to the often stuffy Cushing home was Edith's mother, Sophia Slocum (Margaret Barker). It was Sophia, who wasn't constrained by wealth or societal pretensions, who counseled Megan to look into her heart and to marry for love, and not for money or societal propriety, the way she and Edith had. These words of advice from Sophia helped Megan to break off her unhappy engagement.

The Cushing's new neighbors were the Saxtons, who were newcomers to Point Clair. The father, Lester (John Heffernan; Albert Stratton) was a former factory worker and alcoholic, who had recently acquired a higher paying job as a warehouse supervisor, thanks to the help of his married daughter, Eleanor Kimball (Flora Plumb) and her husband, wealthy attorney, George Kimball (Stephen Joyce), which also allowed them to purchase the house next door to the Cushings in Point Clair.

He was married to the compassionate Josie (Patricia Englund) and was the father of four other children, besides Eleanor, the oldest daughter. Rhett (Bob Purvey, David Ramsey, Tom Happer), the oldest son, a professional photographer who had been engaged to longtime girlfriend, Connie Ferguson (Susan Foster, Cynthia Bostick) until he fell in love with his neighbor Megan Cushing; Jason (Richard Backus) who was somewhat conniving and scheming, always wanting to get ahead, but always meant well; youngest brother, Bentley (David Abbott) and youngest sister, Tessa (Vicky Dawson; Breon Gorman). Both Bentley and Tessa, who were in high school, felt out of place in wealthy Point Clair, and longed to return to Hammond, their former neighborhood in Chicago. In fact, of the siblings, Rhett, Jason and Ellie (as Eleanor was called) were all in approval of the move.

Also living with the Saxtons was their cousin Amy Gifford (Christine Jones), who had fallen in love with Austin Cushing. (Christine Jones brought the Amy Gifford character from Another World, hence the ties to Lovers and Friends. Jones would later return to Another World as Steve Frame's sister, Janice.)