Mona Kane Croft

You are correct. It is a myth, and I wish it would go away. At least two former soap head-writers have stated in interviews that ii is not the truth. I believe those writers may have been Claire Labine and Agnes Nixon, but I could be wrong about that. The creator(s) of a soap opera, and their estate(s), may get royalties, depending on their original agreements/contracts and the Writer's Guild regulations at that time. But head-writers do not get royalties for characters they create.

I don't see any reason for choosing between Alice and Iris. The characters were very different.

At what point did Lisa become rich? Was it after her divorce from John Eldridge, and her return from "Our Private World"? Or was it when she married Whit McCall?

Nancy Wickwire is one of the actors. She played Liz Matthews after Audra Lindley left the show, and she certainly resembles Lindley in this film. Wickwire has been rumored to have been Connie Ford's partner. And it has long been speculated the character Nancy McGowen was named after Wickwire, who had been ill and passed-away just a few days after Ada's baby was born.

There was no viable explanation to explain why Susan would be living in Ellen's house all those years. Except TPTB simply wanted to keep the set and use it. Most people don't realize, the Steward/Lowell house was (at the time) the longest running soap opera set still in use -- having been used on ATWT since the beginning. They also probably put Susan in Ellen's house simply to save money by using an existing set, rather than building a new set for Susan.

Sorry, but I don't know what you mean by this. Aren't all soaps completely different soaps?

Great photos! Thank you for posting. I always thought the actor cast as Martin Peyton in the daytime version looked too young and healthy to play the role. In the primetime show, Martin Payton was very frail, and seemed to be at death's door.

It's been about a decade since I re-read the book, but wasn't there one actor with a drinking problem (Fitzpatrick), and another actor who had trouble with his lines exacerbated by drinking (Coster)?? Not sure about the details, but I believe Coster had trouble with lines (and maybe drinking), and Fitzpatrick had a drinking problem. It's all really speculation, however.

Yes, most fans of Lemay's book speculate that actor was Coster. And Lemay's statements about Nic's problem learning lines may have been influenced by complaints from Beverly McKenzie. The "problem" didn't seem to come up, until Nic was working opposite her.

Perhaps, but if books contain only the things people remember anyway, then why write books? Especially biographies and autobiographies. 90 percent of the stuff in Nic's book is remembered only by him. Yet he recorded it for posterity. That's one of the most important purposes of books, in my opinion.

Somebody must have convinced Nic to limit the Another World information in his book. They probably told him it took place too long ago and nobody would care about it. With all the crap that was happening in that studio in the mid-1970s, it's ridiculous that Nic didn't discuss it in his book. Another World was on fire in the ratings and it had critical acclaim, all while the cast and crew were being booed, screwed, tattooed, and barbecued by Paul Rauch and Harding Lemay. Santa Barbara got an entire chapter, even though SB never got the ratings AW had -- even while SB was running. And of course SB never even got close to number 2 in the ratings, where Another World spent most of the 1970s (while Nic was there). I don't mean to be critical of Santa Barbara, but it was certainly not a more important soap opera than Another World.

About a year ago, several fans of classic AW tried to convince Allan to interview remaining AW actors from the 1970s -- the show's highest rated period. We even provided him with a list of actors to contact. Allan didn't even respond to us.

Is that an old interview? If so, I've probably read it.

Of course they will mention Another World, but I'm confident any discussion of Nic's soaps will focus mostly on Santa Barbara, and possibly ATWT. I doubt they will spend more than 5 minutes on Another World. Especially since Nic was on that show in the mid-1970s, and Allan probably wasn't even born at that time. Plus, AW was embroiled in controversy in 1975, and Allan won't touch that. He should definitely ask Nic about working with George Reinholt and Jacquie Courtney, but I doubt he will. He should also ask Nic about head-writer Harding Lemay and his unique writing style -- but he won't. Sadly.

Not necessarily. Larry King, arguably one of the best television interviewers ever, never read the books his guests had written. He felt his questions would be more genuine, without already knowing what was in the book. Plus, he said most of the audience would not have read the book either, making his curiosity more parallel to that of the audience. On the other hand, other great interviewers, (Oprah for example) always read the books their guests have written. So it really depends on the interviewing style of the interviewer. But Allan needs to be willing to use those questions in the interview. Plus, Allan doesn't like to discuss anything controversial about soaps, and Nic was on Another World during a period with lots of well-known volatility in the studio -- leading to the firings of three of the lead actors in the same year (1975). If they don't discuss that, then the entire interview will be worthless to fans of Another World.

Sorry to be negative, but I bet they say very little about Nic's experience on Another World. Allen knows almost nothing about AW -- especially the 1970s, when Nic was on the show. Plus, Nic doesn't say much about Another World in his book.

Anyone remember this one?? On Another World around 1976-77, they introduced new characters, Dino and Sharon Amate. Dino was a painter, and Sharon was his wife. They moved to Bay City socialized with the artistic circle of characters -- Rachel, Elena, Quentin Ames, etc.. Neither character ever did much on the show, but there was a scene in which Rachel and Dino were alone in his painting studio. Rachel was curious about his work, and Dino seemed unusually interested in Rachel. Dino left the room for a few minutes, leaving Rachel alone in the studio. She was looking through a few unfinished paintings stacked against the wall, and she found a painting of a nude woman with long blonde hair. The woman in the painting was facing away, shown only from the back. The side of her face would have been visible, but it was unfinished. Rachel stopped and looked curiously at the painting while the camera focused closely on it, then Dino returned to the studio. Rachel asked Dino about the painting, and he made a dismissive remark to change the subject. It seemed like the beginnings of a new plot, some kind of mystery, maybe. But I'm not sure the painting or the blonde woman were ever mentioned again. Dino and Sharon stayed on the show for about 6-months, but got little screen time, and no storyline. Then they were quietly written off. So what was the purpose of those two characters (Dino and Sharon)? And what was the plan for Rachel and that painting?

Is that Lawrence Hugo in the SFT clip? He played Mike Karr on Edge of Night in the 1960s, and was the best Mike Karr, in my opinion.

You are probably right, because I was thinking Mac owned it too, briefly during one of his divorces from Rachel. Wow, that house really got around. Undoubtedly holds AW's record for house owned by the most different characters. I remember when Walter and Lenore moved into Bill and Missy Matthews' former house, and I thought that was a big deal. Later, Lenore lived in the same house with Robert Delany. That was the house with the sunken living room.

The house Steve bought from Blaine had originally been Iris's mansion -- the house she built when she was engaged to Russ Matthews. Her mansion had been designed by Robert Delany (before she married him), and built by Frame Enterprises (the original Steve's company). Iris lived there for a few years, before she moved into the penthouse. I believe Iris sold her house to Elena, who sold it to Miranda Bishop. The house had several owners possibly including Reena Cook, then Blaine, then Steve, before the set was finally retired.

I don't mean to argue, but Mac definitely owned the newspapers for which Elliot wrote. There was a specific plot point when it was revealed the real reason Elliot had never divorced Iris, despite their long separation, was that Mac had threatened to fire Elliot and black-ball him to the rest of the industry, if Elliot divorced Iris. This was explained in a scene between Elliot and Mac when Robert Emhardt was playing Mac and Mac was more of a ruthless businessman than he was later. I specifically remember this. Also, I'm not suggesting Elliot came from poverty, but just saying his background was left vague. And it was not established that he came from wealth. He may have, but it was just never mentioned.

I don't think it was ever established that Elliot Carrington was independently wealthy or came from a wealthy family. He was a hard working journalist who worked for the newspaper syndicate that Mac owned. And Mac threatened to fire him, if he ever divorced Iris. I always assumed that Elliot's wealth came from Iris. So there probably was not a Carrington family fortune -- other than that which Iris provided. And Iris's money had actually been part of the Cory family fortune -- or perhaps from her mother's family, who Mac mentioned had been wealthy.

Yes, it was probably Iris's longest on screen marriage during both runs on the show. We don't know how long she was married to Elliot Carrington, but most of that marriage took place off screen before the characters were introduced.

Is the one scene between Bert and Alexandra available on Youtube? I'd love to see them together.

I've been told that RDA is no longer "camera ready." A recast would be great. The show needs Jeff to play the Steve Hardy role.