Monday, March 26, 2007

SEARCH FOR TOMORROW: LIZA WALTON SENTELL

SFT's Liza came from good soap opera stock. She was a member of a core Henderson family, the granddaughter of everyone's beloved Stu Bergman.

Of course, being from a core family meant that Liza was destined to suffer more than her share of heartache and trauma -- and to go through more than a few faces, in the process.

One of Liza's earliest portrayers was Kathleen Beller, who would go on to greater, long-tressed fame in the 1980s as the unfortunately named Kirby Colby on Dynasty.

Meg Bennett -- Y&R's future Julia, multiple soap writer and Mrs. GH Headwriter Bob Guza (above) -- stepped into the role in 1974, just in time for Liza to fall for Steve -- played by future watcher of Jennifer Beals' clever bra-removing in Flashdance, Michael Nouri (above). Steve was a musician. Steve was soulful. Steve was dreamy. Steve was dying of leukemia, not unlike Ali McGraw in Love Story. (The 70s were a big decade for blood cancer).

Sherry Mathis was the first truly adult Liza. After Steve's death, Liza fell in love with Travis (Rod Arrants), whose uncle, Martin, was played by John Aniston, father of future Friend, Jennifer.

Liza and Travis -- who, in the early 1980s, mysteriously began sporting a perm not unlike a certain other hero on a certain other show on another network that had rocketed to #1 in the ratings (though probably in spite, not because of, the perm) -- found themselves traveling to exotic locations like Hong Kong to get kidnapped, blown up, and otherwise menaced. (The 80s were a big decade for on location mayhem).

Though Liza and Travis did manage to wed, Liza's infertility was a source of great sadness for them. They adopted a baby boy, Roger Lee, only to lose custody to his biological mother -- played by a pre-DOOL Patsy, now Patricia, Pease (ex-Kim).

Travis was killed in 1984, though Liza did manage to give birth to their son, Tourner. After Travis' death, Liza tried to adopt a teenage runaway, T.R. -- a pre-30 Rock Jane Krakowski -- unaware that the girl's real father was Lloyd, the man currently courting her. Liza liked Lloyd. Especially in comparison to one Kentucky Bluebird, who was working for her at Tourner Enterprises. Liza thought Kentucky was arrogant and infuriating. So certainly nothing could ever develop between them, right?

Will Liza find happiness before the sun goes down on Henderson permanently? Tune into the current episodes of Search for Tomorrow airing on the AOL/PGP Classic Soap Channel and find out!

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