Thursday, July 26, 2012

50 Greatest Soap Couples: #23 Travis & Liza From SEARCH FOR TOMORROW

COUPLE: Travis Sentell & Liza Kaslo
SHOW: SEARCH FOR TOMORROW
RANK: 23
PLAYED BY:
Travis: Rod Arrants
Liza: Sherry Mathis
YEARS: 1978-1984

STORY:
Liza was in mourning after her husband, Steve, lost his battle with leukemia.  Travis arrived bringing his family's company, Tourneur Instruments, to Henderson.  He became smitten with Liza and when Liza's mother, Janet (Millee Taggart), refused to help fund the rock opera movie Steve had written, "You Can Love Again," Travis started anonymously pouring money into it.  When Liza found out, she was upset but eventually realized Travis only had good intentions.  The two of them fell in love but the road to happiness was filled with complications, family drama and international intrigue.

Travis and Liza eventually married but she was unable to have a baby.  So they adopted Roger Lee, but lost him to his biological mother, Cissy (Patsy Pease), in a bitter custody battle.  Liza finally had a baby of their own, Tourner, but Travis was killed in 1984, another tragic heartbreak for Liza.

IMPACT:
SEARCH FOR TOMORROW revolved around Liza and Travis for several years.  They were the show's supercouple and the show pulled out all the stops including a remote in Hong Kong, which played out in the Fall of 1981, and taping aboard a real cruise of the Queen Elizabeth II.

When SEARCH moved to NBC from CBS in March 1982 the show used the explosion of Travis and Liza's boat to keep viewers tuned in.

Arrants won a 1979 Soapy Award as Most Exciting New Actor.  He went on to roles in DAYS OF OUR LIVES, DALLAS, FALCON CREST and, most notably, THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS.

Mathis left the show in 1985 to spend more time with husband at the time, Jerry Lanning, saying she was "physically exhausted" from the role.  Lanning played Nick D'Antoni on SEARCH in the late 1970s.  Mathis passed away 1994 at age 44.

CLASSIC CLIPS:
Travis and Liza falling in love (1979); Plus, Liza sings!
Liza in Rome (1980)
Liza, Travis and Cissy (1981)
Liza shoots Rusty (1983)

Share your thoughts on Travis and Liza in our Comments section below or on our message board.

RELATED:
- 50 Greatest Soap Opera Actors: The Complete List
- 50 Greatest Soap Opera Actresses: The Complete List
- THE COMPLETE LIST: 25 Biggest Blunders In Daytime Soap Opera History

8 comments:

  1. Made me tune in at NBC...loved SFT, especially the period when crazy Jennifer (deliciously MF) shot and killed Euice...that was stunner because Euice was such a core character, Jo's sister! SFT was such under-rated soap. CBS treated SFT with so much more respect then NBC.

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  2. CBS pulled CAPITOL five years later with decent ratings so they could have just kept SFT.

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  3. yes CBS should have kept SFT because the way NBC moved it around by '84 I stopped watching. Capitol was a good soap, won't soaps today love to have Capitol's end ratings! Capitol was getting better ratings when cancelled then Y&R today....shame.

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  4. Roger I do have a question, wasn't Sherry a recast? She isn't the original Liza? I kept thinking another actress played Liza first, but Sherry made Liza (as did Maureen Garrett). I remember Janet she was Stu's & Marge's daughter, if I remember correctly?

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  5. Kathleen Beller (later on DYNASTY) was the young Liza. After Sherry left, Louan Gideon took on the role. And in SFT's final episode, the had her meet a "Travis lookalike" as a nod to the couple's former popularity. (Trivia you might enjoy: my friend Louan was recently married in Lake Como and BREAKING BAD star Bryan Cranston got ordained to perform the ceremony! They're longtime pals and we had a fun time when he was on MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE doing a fun story where she "Feng Shui'd" his house!

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  6. I had no idea about Louan's wedding! Cool!

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  7. I am happy to see them on the list. I used to watch SFT after school when I was younger. They were my first favorite couple. The area of the US I lived had SFT on at 330 pm.

    Cool about Louann's wedding. I liked her as Liza as well but to me Liza will always be Sherry.

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  8. I am so happy you put them on the list!!!

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