WADE MEECHAM
FIRST APPEARANCE: September 1978
LAST APPEARANCE: May 18, 1979
PERFORMER: Dan Hamilton
Wade arrived in Monticello as a business associate and close friend of Margo Huntington, who had helped finance his lucrative career as a pornographer in Chicago. He hoped to open a new porn theater in the Cobble Hill area of Monticello, but faced massive opposition and threats from a concerned citizens group. Realizing that his former star Winter Austen had settled in Monticello and was involved with influential district attorney Logan Swift, Wade blackmailed both of them. Logan went against his own ethical nature to approve the Cobble Hill theater, and Winter went to Wade's bed to keep him from showing her porn film Lacy Lady. Unknown to anyone, Wade kept a video camera hidden behind a two-way mirror, using it to record his blackmail and bedroom antics. He gained more enemies by extorting money from Raven Jamison, threatening to expose his association with Margo with a revealing manuscript, drugging Nicole Drake and taking suggestive photos of them together, and promising to send Winter's friend Tank Jarvis back to prison for burning down the Cobble Hill theater. On March 2, 1979, Wade was found shot to death in his hotel suite by police detectives Deborah Saxon and Steve Guthrie. Winter was arrested and placed on trial for the crime despite protests of her innocence. Her fate seemed sealed when a tape arrived in the hands of the prosecution, its images showing Winter leaving Wade's dead body moments after he was shot. However, the defense proved the tape had been altered electronically to place Winter's image at the scene. Believing that Tank had framed her, the jury acquitted Winter. It was later revealed that Winter and Tank had deliberately altered the tape, certain that the jury wouldn't convict her if it was convinced she was being framed. Winter recalled the night she met Wade for the last time and remembered that she had indeed fired the shot that killed him.
FIRST APPEARANCE: September 1978
LAST APPEARANCE: May 18, 1979
PERFORMER: Dan Hamilton
Wade arrived in Monticello as a business associate and close friend of Margo Huntington, who had helped finance his lucrative career as a pornographer in Chicago. He hoped to open a new porn theater in the Cobble Hill area of Monticello, but faced massive opposition and threats from a concerned citizens group. Realizing that his former star Winter Austen had settled in Monticello and was involved with influential district attorney Logan Swift, Wade blackmailed both of them. Logan went against his own ethical nature to approve the Cobble Hill theater, and Winter went to Wade's bed to keep him from showing her porn film Lacy Lady. Unknown to anyone, Wade kept a video camera hidden behind a two-way mirror, using it to record his blackmail and bedroom antics. He gained more enemies by extorting money from Raven Jamison, threatening to expose his association with Margo with a revealing manuscript, drugging Nicole Drake and taking suggestive photos of them together, and promising to send Winter's friend Tank Jarvis back to prison for burning down the Cobble Hill theater. On March 2, 1979, Wade was found shot to death in his hotel suite by police detectives Deborah Saxon and Steve Guthrie. Winter was arrested and placed on trial for the crime despite protests of her innocence. Her fate seemed sealed when a tape arrived in the hands of the prosecution, its images showing Winter leaving Wade's dead body moments after he was shot. However, the defense proved the tape had been altered electronically to place Winter's image at the scene. Believing that Tank had framed her, the jury acquitted Winter. It was later revealed that Winter and Tank had deliberately altered the tape, certain that the jury wouldn't convict her if it was convinced she was being framed. Winter recalled the night she met Wade for the last time and remembered that she had indeed fired the shot that killed him.
Wade and Winter's final meeting. Aired May 17, 1979.
Wade begins another blackmail scheme, but Winter has murder in mind.