Chris B

@watson71 Thanks for that info! It seems like NBC was a powerhouse for soaps in the 70s but what I’ve noticed here and with The Doctors is the constant changes in time slot and writers ultimately killed all the goodwill they build. DAYS seemed to really benefit from consistency in terms of writers and cast and a good time slot. AW is lucky to have lasted as long as it did with all the changes. The list of writers and produces after Lemay left makes my head spin. Seems like they were constantly in transition which is probably how the history was so easily lost. If you search Another World 1979(or any year) it pops a playlist that I’m assuming compiles all that is available on YouTube for each year. I’ve been working my way through the 1979 stuff. I’m currently in the May 21st episode with Jamie returning. 1979 is not all full episodes but enough to follow the plot lines before I get to 1980-1981 which I think are complete from the AOL airings. The Cory mansion set is absolutely gorgeous and completely unrecognizable from later episodes I’ve seen. I guess Y&R was the only soap to keep the similar looks to their sets. I love Louise and Brooks. You really get the sense these people have money. I like that there’s a clear separation between the different classes. Also I’m not usually a couple person, but the chemistry between Mac and Rachel is truly unbelievable. I also like that their breakup seems more about her meddling in her sons life than you typical cheating scandal. Janice only seems to be coming into the picture after they’re already living apart. I’m also enjoying what I’ve seen of the Randolph’s. This Marianne is pretty good but I know none of them stick around so I know not to get attached. Janice seems like an interesting character as well. I was surprised to see Katherine Widdoes on here looking so young. Certainly a more interesting character than he’d longer running ATWT role. Knowing Iris only from Texas shows me what a disservice they did to her character. I enjoyed Texas, but the characters weren’t interesting enough to play against her. You could tell she was greasy but nobody ever really gave her anything to work with on that show.

I just watched this episode which I believe is the first 90 minute episode. It’s nice to see one of the stories Lemay spoke about in his book. Crazy to think this is something he didn’t want to do in terms of the 90 minute format and senseless murder plots, but I still found it very engaging. It also was very fast paced for the length although I can see how that would be difficult to carry on. I’ve found a few playlists separated by the year for AW so I’m going to keep watching all I can find. It seems like more so than the other soaps there are so many different eras and so many different characters and families. Prior to watching when I think of Another World I think Felicia, Donna, Vicky and Marley who Id heard of just being a soap fan and none of them are even heard of yet. It’s crazy to think they had so many popular characters who left and never returned. Finally getting to see Pat it amazes me she was written off. Not only was she a long term vet, but the actress is very beautiful plus she’s part of a core family and has kids that could’ve easily been developed long term. Does anybody know why they wrote her off?

I’m still searching through YouTube for Another World clips and episodes. I see there’s lots of stuff from the 80s so I plan to start with that once I get past all the 1979 episodes I seem to be finding. Something interesting I found is a series of video complications for the 5 different Alice’s. Considering recasting her was a big part of Lemay’s book, this was a great find for me. Each video is separated by actress and besides the Courtney one which is two parts, they’re each around 15 minutes. I’ll give me thoughts on each actress. Jacqueline Courtney - the clips for her were a mix of 70s scenes plus some from her return in the mid 80s. I’d also seen her in the episode with Robin Strasser as Rachel on YouTube. I found her to be good in the older scenes. Strikingly beautiful and very charismatic. I can see why she was so popular. She seemed like the perfect romantic lead. In the 80s scenes I do feel she was a little flat and she felt more cold. Overall she felt perfectly cast though Susan Harney - she was excellent IMO. I didn’t feel much chemistry with her leading man but she was a very strong actress from the scenes I saw. I can definitely see why she lasted as long as she did. If she didn’t choose to leave I could see her Alice remaining as long as she wanted. Also physically she looked the part. For such a popular role it’s interesting they seemed to get it right off the back. Usually it takes a couple recasts to find that perfect fit. Wesley Pfenning - her video is the shortest being under two minutes. It’s a clip from One Day At A Time so it’s hard to say how she fit as Alice. She seemed like she can act but being a brunette I can’t see why they’d cast her. Vans Tribbey - I felt she was all wrong for Alice but a good actress. She felt more like a Faith from Ryan’s Hope. I did like the scene with Rachel and considering roles change with recasts I’d have kept her a little longer to see how she worked out. Linda Borgeson - she was beautiful and looked the part but felt weak as an actress. I’m not surprised they rested the character after her. After seeing off of this though it is shocking to me that Alice last appeared in 89 and the show continued so long. It seems sad that AW had so many living, popular legacy characters they never brought back. It’s insane to think none of the HWs thought to bring people like Alice or Pat back. I still haven’t seen Pat but I know she was another popular character that left before her time.

Thank you all for this great insight! It seems clear Another World has a storied history and we’re lucky to have a window into it unlike most soaps. I plan on reading Bill Bell and Agnes Nixon’s memoirs but I know they won’t be as frank.

Oh that is hugely disappointing.

@Efulton From the book he made it clear they made several attempts to work things out with her from Paul Rauch talking to her and he even went to lunch with her and she was adamant she wasn’t willing to make any adjustments. Granted we only have his perspective but it seemed like they had a few divas in the cast and seemed to give them chance after chance before doing anything to them. Even the guy he said was his friend was given several reprieves before Rauch fired him. I do think it’s a shame the show lost a matriarch but it does seem like it was her doing. In general did Lemay feature much of the Matthews family or did he phase them out?

I never watched this show when it was on or during the SOAPnet or AOL/Hulu reruns. I tried here and there but it never caught my eye like other soaps. I did watch the AOL reruns of Texas where I fell in love with Iris. I decided to buy Harding Lemay’s book and now I am so obsessed with this world which is a shame since his material isn’t even available lol. I did find some 70s scenes between Alice and Steve and I agree with his assessment of Jacqueline Courtney but I found the actor playing Steve to be terrible. I also loved the snippets in the book about the actress who played Mary. How do y’all feel about her being written out? I think it’s a shame she let her ego get the best of her because I’m sure he would’ve wrote great things for her. I’m not sure what she expected by refusing to read the lines as intended. All the talk of Ada and Rachel and Mac has me wanting to explore Another World, even if it isn’t the stuff Lemay wrote! Looks like an interesting show with quite the backstory.

Danielle as a Friend with no talking heads makes no sense. They’ve spent two episodes in a tropical location centered around her wedding and we have no insight from her? Huh? I get it with Pandora on BH, but that was Lisa’s daughter and she planned the wedding. This just felt weird, especially the most recent episode. Considering how much she’s around I’m not sure why they didn’t just commit even if only for one season. I do agree with everyone that Jennifer is a total dud. She’s boring, vain and her family life isn’t interesting to me. Jackie on the other hand I love. The feud with Teresa is interesting and I like how strong she is without being overbearing. It’s sad that Danielle ruined her friendship with Margaret. She was a good ally to have and that won’t help her longevity on the show. Dolores is so irrelevant I’m not sure why Danielle is letting her affect her so much. Andy posted the reunion is being filmed soon so I’m guessing we have another short season. That’s a shame because I feel like they could keep this stuff going for a while since they finally have an interesting cast. I’m looking forward to their cast trip and seeing where this season goes.

I’m surprised more people aren’t enjoying season 11! Last season I remember everybody saying they were tired of Sheree and definitely done with Kim and that the show needed fresh storylines. Kenya I’ve always loved but she always had her fair share of detractors. I find it a very enjoyable reboot. It reminds me of a good RHOC reboot. Shamari and Tanya both have potential IMO and I’m leaning strongly towards Tanya getting a second season. The more I see her the more curious I get for what happened on Tokyo that almost landed her a peach. She’s a revelation.

Another fun episode of RHOA! This cast is starting to gel and let loose. I loved the little competition and all the humor with Porsha maybe being pregnant. Now the main event was Shamari and Marlo fighting. I don’t understand why Shamari got so upset. She’s very defensive about her Citi Trends fashions, but I would’ve just told Marlo no and keep it moving. I didn’t think it was a big enough deal to argue over when Marlo was trying to help her. She looks terrible and the girl is gorgeous. I guarantee you if she gets a second season she’ll have a makeover. The surprise for me was Miss Tanya. This girl EARNED that peach and I’m so upset that we have to see a minimized version of her story because she seems educated, youthful and fun. I’ll admit she doesn’t photograph the best so I assumed she was this mid-to-late 40s wife with two kids. I’m shocked how different she is from my perception and also how beautiful she looks on the show. Nene pulled out old school season 2 Nene with the jealousy. The girl did absolutely nothing wrong and Nene is coming for her. Tf?! That was truly bizarre! I can’t wait to see how this develops. Its a damn shame too because Nene was having a good season. Once again she’s her own worst enemy.

@Vee Thank you! I’ve never seen those interviews. Gonna check them out now.

Lmao!!! I agree but I did love Donna in those early years! She was a fun comedic side character. She only suffered when they made her into the heroine all the guys fell over. Although I will say I had a soft spot for Tori. She did some good comedies after leaving the show and her Lifetime movies are iconic. But he now? I just can’t imagine.

They are too old to let their old feuds affect the show. Valerie was such a huge part of the original I’d want to see her in some capacity and Brenda is a MUST. And when I say must I mean she needs to be full time. If you expect me to stare at Tori Spelling and god knows if she can still act, the star better be there.

I know exactly what you mean which is why I don’t hold the original reboots against them too much. 90210 in particular gave you a proper reboot with some originals but mostly following a new cast of teens at the same school. Melrose similarly gave you a new crop of tenants in the same complex. I guess what I view this as is more of a spin-off because I do feel their is value in seeing these characters again. I remember Courtney Throne-Smith talking about wondering what Allison was up to and I’d love to see that. It wouldn’t make sense for them to be living in those tiny apartments again so why not keep it set in California but showcase their lives as middle aged adults with families? Same goes with 90210. The last few years were so far removed from school anyway so I wouldn’t necessarily need to see that again, plus they just did it with the previous reboot. I think it’s very clever to do a proper spin-off/reboot around the originals. Most shows people want to see the original casts back and I wouldn’t let the initial school setting hold them back in that regard.

I wish! I’ve been wanting to relive her time as Gloria as well but I can’t find anything beyond her first scene. She was *so* good as Gloria I hate she left. She brought such depth to the role, she was darker and despite being very humorous I loved that she wasn’t a joke like Judith Chapman’s cartoonish take. Letting Joan go was one of the biggest mistakes they ever made. She was so good with Christian LeBlanc and Greg Rikaart.

The 90210 revival wasn’t very 90210 after season two but I don’t think it was bad enough to avoid when it comes to this series. Melrose on the other hand I found horrific. The writers wanting to kill Amanda in the pilot and not knowing any of the original characters was bizarre. It was such a fun show but they wrote it so dark with none of the humor from the original. If they ever did a reboot With the originals (which Id set away from the complex) I would ignore that reboot. Back to 90210, I do hope this ends up on a streaming service. I was recently rewatching the original on Hulu until I realized so many episodes, including the series finale are missing. Before this airs they’ve definitely got to fix that. My core cast for a reboot would be: Brenda, Brandon, Kelly, Valerie, David, Donna and Andrea. I don’t want Andrea forgotten again. I could do without Steve and Janet full time but I wouldn’t mind it either. I’m also curious what new characters would be around. This is the type of reboot more shows should consider.

The RHOBH promo looked way better than I expected! I had no idea Kim and Brandi we’re back. I’m most excited to see Kim, clearly the greatest housewife of all time. I hope she stays long enough to torment Kyle. Im happy to see Vanderpump isn’t letting those hoes breathe. I didn’t expect her to come off as strong as she did. I hope she tears Dorit’s ass up!🥰

Link: https://deadline.com/2018/12/beverly-hills-90210-reboot-series-original-cast-stars-shopped-jennie-garth-tori-spelling-jason-priestley-ian-ziering-brian-austin-green-and-gabrielle-carteris-1202524313/ The Melrose Place cast has been saying this for years and I’d always dreamed of that happening. I’m shocked they’re doing it with 90210 but I hope it happens! They have a good bunch to choose from with the strong original cast (Brenda MUST return) plus some of the people added later! I’m so excited! This is a nice treat for soap fans who are often overlooked.

Make sure to record WWHL tonight. There will be news on RHOBH. Andy was tweeting the trailer is coming sooner than we think and WWHL retweeted it in relation to tonight’s show.

The RHOBH girls will say she’s covering for misdeeds but that’s kinda hard to prove if Vanderpump Rules started filming first and she’s already showing she’s upset and depressed. Just like always I predict it’ll be another “Take Down Vanderpump” season and it’ll blow up in their faces.

RHOA was good again I thought. There’s nothing major because you have so many newbies so they’re still getting to know each other and developing relationships. I like how people are gradually realizing how Eva is which is in turn causing her to be less shady and hopefully more transparent in the future. I agree with @Cheap21 that Kandi needs to stop talking about Porsha. This is so unlike her to be so messy and such a hater but I’m looking forward to Porsha hopefully digging into her ass later on. I also agree with u that Cynthia is useless this season. She need to move to CA as rumored and focus on her businesses at this point. Shamari gets better each episode but nobody is hating when they say she needs a makeover. The wigs and “fashions” her stylist brought were shameful. I’m a drag queen and I wouldn’t wear them. I will say she finally looked good in her confessional with the black wig that actually looked natural on her. The feud with Marlo looks juicy but tbh she should’ve let Marlo help her. They’re trying to prevent her from looking a fool on tv...why she so mad?! Also have to give Nene a shout out for looking absolutely gorgeous this week! I loved her wig in that kitchen scene with Greg. It’s so rare Nene looks good so I’m impressed this year she seems to look fairly decent.

That is disastrous for the show. I could easily see it being canceled now. Surprising for me is that Dushku is a very popular and respected tv actress. It's not like they did this to a newbie without power in the industry. This would've been easy to resolve, but they simply didn't care. The fact that the producer was even saying she is HELPING the show and fit in, yet they still fired her is baffling. I'm glad she used her power in the industry to get a settlement out of it, but truly they are idiots for not working this out to begin with.

With the political climate I decided to buy RHODC on Amazon and give it another go. I always liked it, but I'm loving it now. It's so weird to have a show centered around Obama in office considering how wild things are now. Had this show never happened and they did a version now it would've probably been a typical Housewives show considering how crazy DC is now. Still, it's a fun re-watch. I'm 5 episodes in and it's much better than I remembered. The cast of five was a very strong first season cast. Everybody had an interesting story from Lynda with Ebong, her kids and business to Stacie finding out her mom is white and her dad is from Nigera to Cat's young and troubled marriage, Mary and her huge family and of course the crazy Salahi's. The Salahi's make Taylor and Russell seem normal. They are the ultimate in famewhores and it's amazing to see what a good job they did at first of fooling the new wives into thinking they were normal, wealthy people and then watching the facade slowly crumble. The trip to the winery was epic! The heavy security, the grapes from the grocery store, accusing Mary's daughter of grand theft in an FBI investigation! It was wild! These ladies definitely deserves a second season! I'll also say Stacie was a unique housewife that I don't think we've seen repeated, especially with Black housewives. She's a foster child that went on to graduate from HARVARD and is a successful real estate agent. I loved that she wasn't all into the wigs and fashion and just was a smart, cool lady. People like Stacie and Lynda are really why I wish they had another season. They were among the best!

I'm just gonna vent a little. The reunion looks amazing after yet another great season. I'm sick of the way Bravo is treating this show! Even without RHOA they were getting over a million viewers on Sunday, but got pushed first to saturday and then to friday. Everybody is raving about tired, overrated RHOD, but that show is promoted and pimped out heavily and three seasons in has no audience. This show isn't promoted, is on HORRIBLE nights and still manages better ratings. Hell, I believe the saturday episodes had higher ratings than RHOD. If Bravo were smart (and not low key racist) they would've opened up a second night with Married to Medicine years ago, which would've helped the Houston and upcoming LA spin off's. Instead because blacks are only allowed one good night (sunday) it's completely ignored. It's ridiculous!

AndTanya is nothing like I expected. She’s young and fun and rich. Just what this show needs. When I saw her house tour I was stunned they didn’t see she needed to be full time. I still like Shamari for youthfulness and how trashy she is, but Tanya is more immediate for me. I anticipate Shamari will be good for drama, but Tanya is the full package. That Yovanna chick was bizarre. Pretty but thirsty and came out of nowhere. Marlo’s comment about how she met her man was the line of the night! RHOC I cannot say enough good things about. After a boring season that was such a good three part reunion. Kelly Dodd is legendary and needs to stay. Gina was so thirsty for cameratime but her ass need to go back to that room she renting. Praying Shannon doesn’t fall for Tamra’s fake tears.