Liza Colby appeared in Pine Valley in 1981, with a fierce crush on preppy Greg Nelson. Unfortunately for Liza, Greg was in love with a girl from the "wrong side of the tracks", the lovely Jenny Gardner. Liza vowed to break up Greg and Jenny, and when Jenny’s friend Jesse Hubbard told Liza off, Liza claimed he’d raped her. Jesse and Jenny took off for New York, and Liza turned her attention to Jenny’s rakish brother, Tad Martin, but that ended rather badly when she discovered that Tad was having an affair with her own mother, Marian. After a brief obsession with Dr. Cliff Warner, a humiliated Liza left Pine Valley.

A decade later, Liza returned to Pine Valley with an agenda: beat Tad for the position of station manager at WRCW and then replace Dixie as his wife. She managed to break up Tad and Dixie’s marriage and send Dixie out of town, but Tad wasn’t interested in continuing the relationship with her.

In 1996, she teamed up with station owner Adam Chandler in an attempt to make their respective ex’s, Tad and Brooke, jealous. To their extreme chagrin, Tad and Brooke wished them all the best, and Liza and Adam were married. A year later, the marriage of convenience was in trouble as Liza fell for Tad’s brother Jake just as Adam realized his love for his wife.

Liza and Adam separated and reconciled several times, their relationship even weathering a plot by Adam to father Liza’s baby, originally planned to have been the product of an artificial insemination using Jake’s contribution. The marriage collapsed when Liza uncovered a plot by Adam to break up her mother’s marriage to Stuart, Adam’s twin brother. Liza wrested control of Chandler Enterprises away from Adam, having him committed to a mental institution in the process. She had a change of heart and wanted to reconcile with him yet again after Stuart was believed killed, but Adam turned away from her to wed Arlene Vaughan. Liza, with Tad’s help, assumed leadership of Chandler Enterprises and washed her hands of Adam.  She couldn't forget  him entirely, though, and when the Col-Mar Tower collapsed, trapping Adam and Liza inside, she realized her true feelings.  Liza sat by Adam's bedside and when Stuart appeared in time to save his life, she thought they were back on track, despite his sham marriage to Arlene. Arlene turned up pregnant, though, just in time to foil the reunion.  The relationship faltered seriously once more when Liza took the blame for Arlene's miscarriage, and she refused Adam's attempt at reconciliation.