Capitol (TV Series) - Synopsis

Synopsis

Capitol revolves around the Denning, Clegg, and McCandless families, who live in the fictional Washington, D.C. suburb of Jeffersonia. At the center of the drama are feuding matriarchs Clarissa Tyler McCandless (Constance Towers) and Myrna Clegg (Carolyn Jones; Marla Adams; Marj Dusay). Kindly and down-to-earth Clarissa and vituperative and vindictive Myrna are former best friends who in their youth had been rivals over the love of Baxter McCandless; in retaliation for Baxter falling for Clarissa and not her, scheming Myrna had spread lies about Clarissa's father, liberal Congressman Judson (Rory Calhoun), linking him to communists during the McCarthy era.

Baxter has left Clarissa a widow, and Myrna is married to government worker Sam Clegg (Robert Sampson; Richard Egan). The longstanding feud between the women is inflamed when Clarissa's war-hero son Tyler McCandless (David Mason Daniels; Dane Witherspoon) falls in love with Myrna's daughter, Julie Clegg (Kimberly Beck; Catherine Hickland). Despite Myrna's best efforts to destroy this match, they eventually marry. Also featured are Myrna's other children: Trey (Nicholas Walker), who is being groomed for the presidency; Brenda (Leslie Graves; Shannon Terhune; Ashley Laurence; Karen Kelly), and Jordy (Todd Curtis). Ironically, despite their mother's scheming and conniving, Trey, Julie, Jordy and Brenda were not like Myrna whatsoever. Besides Tyler and her father, Judson, Clarissa's family includes sons Wally (Bill Beyers), a young man with a gambling problem, Thomas (Brian Robert Taylor; Michael Catlin), a doctor, and Matt (Shea Farrell; Christopher Durham), a handsome athlete. Also living with them for a time was Clarissa's niece, Gillian (Kelly Palzis). Meanwhile Clarissa is in love with Senator Mark Denning (Ed Nelson) who is in an unhappy marriage with agoraphobic Paula (Julie Adams) and is the father of reporter Sloane Denning (Debrah Farentino). Clarissa later falls for Jarrett Morgan (Ron Harper), who turns out to be her presumed-dead husband Baxter.

While the original focus was on the Romeo and Juliet style love story of Tyler and Julie, the bulk of the storyline quickly switched to Trey and Sloane whose 1984 wedding was filmed on location at the Jefferson Memorial. Trey's previous relationship with former prostitute Kelly Harper (Jane Daly Gamble; Jess Walton) produced a son, Scotty, and eventually caused Trey and Sloane to divorce. Julie and Tyler dealt with constant interference by Myrna as well as Julie's inability to have a child. Playboy Jordy had several serious romances, most notably with feisty Lizabeth Bachman (Tonja Walker and sweet Leanne Foster (Christine Kellogg). The older characters were busy in storylines as well, most notably Clarissa and Mark who had to deal with the psychotic Paula (Julie Adams). The performances of the older actors were honored with several Soap Opera Digest Nominations, but none of the cast were ever Emmy Nominated.