With the established and successful ABC daytime soap operas veering into a new trend of youth orientation and storylines with more action and adventure, soap creator Agnes Nixon and actor/writer Douglas Marland sought to create a new serial that would be introduced as a traditional, classic soap opera for the 1980s. Romance would be the show's key centerpiece; its original working title was "Love Without End". By early 1983, the new creation was fully developed, as "Loving", with a cast set for both a primetime premiere and a weekday run.