Xanthe

11 minutes ago, j swift said:

However, was Victoria expecting to be handed a large lottery style check?  I think some ID, beyond wearing a similar wig, would be required for most bank transactions.

There were No Wigs apparent in the Ellen Wheeler days. Marley wore her hair very neat and straight, and Victoria's hair was typically tousled and wavy, although sometimes she would do it up in a very tight knot. Regarding The Plan, it is difficult to say how well-developed it was since we only got Step One: Jake records video of Marley for Vic to study and learn Marley's voice and mannerisms and Step Two: Bridget Infiltrates the Love household. Since Bridget was on the spot she could have facilitated borrowing any ID Vicky needed to move money around as Marley. Of course transferring large sums of cash would probably have been easy to trace unless Jake and Vicky had a more sophisticated plan to cover their tracks.

On 5/13/2021 at 1:42 PM, AbcNbc247 said:

Marley was supposed to be 18 in 1984, right?

 

The twins turned 18 in 1985. On Marley's 18th birthday she was supposed to receive her inheritance. Victoria had intended to impersonate Marley, claim the inheritance, and leave town. However when Marley needed bone marrow Vicky revealed herself and derailed the impersonation plan. And sweet innocent generous Marley voluntarily said they should split the money anyway. However on their 18th birthday (July 19, 1985 according to the AWHP) it turned out that they would not receive it outright -- they would get an income until they turned 21 when the rest of the money would be released. But soap time being how it is that doesn't necessarily mean that they would be 21 in 1988. Jamie was born onscreen in 1969 but is obviously older than Marley and Victoria during 1985. He seems to be treated as not inappropriately older than Victoria when she gets pregnant with Steven.

9 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

 

I thought it was supposed to be Vietnam. The "flashbacks" we got of Donna and John also seemed to be '60s themed (in one he is playing Donna the Primadonna on the car radio).

I remember "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" in flashbacks as well. 

On 5/9/2021 at 2:19 PM, DRW50 said:

 

They nearly have sex on the Love yacht, I think, but they stop; then they hear her running off and then she gets into a car accident.

"Love yacht" didn't sound quite right to me -- I think it was a [house]boat that John was living on. And IIRC it wasn't so much that *they* stopped but that John nobly rejected her because he could not betray Michael or something.

On 5/10/2021 at 12:04 PM, DRW50 said:

 

David Forsyth was a good actor but I think Sharlene is what made him work as a character. That's probably one of the reasons so many fans were put off by the Felicia/John pairing.

 

I remember liking Forsyth on SFT and I never had a problem with his performance on AW as such, but John as a character wasn't appealing before Sharlene. The bitter war vet part was fine, but retroactively forcing him into the role of spoiler in Donna and Michael's past and waffling on whether he had been truly bad or if it was really all Donna's fault was typical clumsy DePriest and made the whole thing nasty.

Who was writing when John and Felicia started up? I think one normally blames JFP for the sins of that era and there is less discussion of the writer.

5 hours ago, DRW50 said:

 

I haven't seen this stuff since the Soapnet repeat but I probably got a few details wrong. The story was terrible, for the reasons you mention, and also because they lacked any chemistry and Philece Sampler was so badly miscast. The only moment I remember enjoying was when at one point she tore into "Mother Hudson" and poor Clara keeled over. It was like something from Soap.

Reading the AWHP summary reminds me of how gross it was when John first came back. 

http://www.anotherworldhomepage.com/donnal2.html

I had forgotten or perhaps never knew that Donna and John had slept together after Sharlene was presumed dead and  Anna Stuart was back in the role. 

3 hours ago, DRW50 said:

 

They nearly have sex on the Love yacht, I think, but they stop; then they hear her running off and then she gets into a car accident.

Thanks. I probably discount all of the longing panting "summer ... is ... so ... hot" Donna and John got up to because I was so disgusted by the  handling of the question of whether or not he had raped her when she was a teenager.

26 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

 

The promo suggests that Vicky confirms Donna and John are having an affair but they didn't, did they? I thought Peter planted evidence but nothing actually happened. 

6 hours ago, AbcNbc247 said:

I think Mac and Janice lived there too for a little while. And so did Cass, I think, once Cecile owned it.

Was that where Cass was living after Cecile left in 1984, until she sent an emissary to evict him in early 1985? The AWHP has an address for that place as 30 Meadow Lane. (Not that addresses are mentioned often enough to be sure whether there is accurate continuity.)

On 5/4/2021 at 6:29 PM, FrenchBug82 said:

 

Wasn't there an issue of having to convert them to a new format or something - a time-consuming expansive process - or something? I seem to vaguely remember something like this.
Still hard to believe they thought it made more business sense for that content to be lost forever.

I remember reading that some old shows were lost because production reused the same tapes. Not sure about conversion issues. 

Back when they were making these decisions there were also a lot fewer distribution options. Before home video, cable channels, YouTube, streaming services ... where could they broadcast such a long form? The soap serial form has no real internal start and end points -- and some of the storylines might be too dated to attract a general audience. 

3 hours ago, AbcNbc247 said:

I'll never understand how execs. at that time actually thought that no one would ever want to see old episodes again and got rid of them. Not even just with soaps, but game shows and primetime shows as well.

It's not that they thought that no one would want to see the episodes as much as the cost to them was much more in the short term than even the long term benefit. We live in a time when data storage is relatively cheap and there are a lot of options. But back then it was significantly more expensive and they would have had to be able to see how to make money from choosing to preserve the shows. 

5 hours ago, Neil Johnson said:

 

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.   

Iris and Elliot were separated when they started on AW, and had been for at least a year I think. I always assumed they were supposed to have been married before Dennis was born, but I don't know how Texas defined the timeline around Dennis' conception and their wedding and whether Iris deceived Elliot into believing the baby was his. 

22 hours ago, j swift said:

From Nurse Emily Benson to Dr Royal Dunning, and from Dr Fax Newman to Dr Taylor Benson, Bay City University Hospital had more than its share of crooks and psychopaths.

I'll grant you Emily, Fax, and Taylor, but did Royal Dunning practice in Bay City? I thought his super secret baby ring was out of town, possibly in Crystal Lake. 

16 hours ago, j swift said:

From Feb 1985

 

Who would let Sandy the gigolo-turned-jounalist become a hospital administrator?  Did he slash the budget by suggesting the doctors perform surgery shirtless? This guy wasn't smart enough to figure out who fathered his own daughter, how was he going to manage a medical center?

Did Donna put him in the hospital admin role? I recall she was very interested in him around this time. She might not have been evaluating him on his business acumen. 

11 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

I guess there is a place for playfulness on the set, especially in the high pressure environment of live to tape soaps, but I wonder how much is too much?

We've seen evidence of how performers would camp up their line readings in rehearsal to let off steam but were Coster's/Considine's 'pranks' during actual tapings? Hopefully not.

Well Coster refers to both events as "on camera" so it sounds like during taping.

9 hours ago, FrenchBug82 said:

I guess someone who is focused, professional and blindering out the outside world when trying to be in character is more my jam so his line of thinking didn't really occur to me.
I am not a big fan of pranksters at work either and I don't think it makes us stick in the mud or rote. Just there is a time and place for everything.
But those are the wonders of different personalities...
 

On the one hand, the scene is supposed to cohere so the performance of the other actors are not really the outside world -- your pace and tone should be appropriate in reaction to what is going on. I don't know if you have ever seen Noises Off -- it is about actors putting on a farce. There is one character (played by Nicolette Sheridan in the movie) who is completely oblivious to everything going on around her and she just continues to say her lines and follow her blocking so that it looks completely ridiculous when the other actors have missed their cues. On some level I can understand that if Coster felt that there was no give and take in their performance he would be frustrated. But on the other hand if she found him too unreliable and unprofessional and felt she had to ignore him rather than engage I have sympathy for that as well.

16 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

Mmmm...maybe Team Bev on this one. 

I recall how he and Considine were the practical jokers on the set. That can get a little tedious after a while, when you are supposed to be on board with  somebody else's idea of fun.

And the jokes Coster describes both involve trying to make each other 

"break" during scenes, and rather lewdly.  Considine would stand nearby and make vulgar noises during Coster's love scenes. And one time Coster put pornographic photos in a set of architectural drawings Vic was showing Alice. Oh how they laughed! 

5 minutes ago, FrenchBug82 said:

Maybe I am slow-witted but how does this show her up? I am confused how him showing up without pants is supposed to be embarassing her?

I was being a little facetious, but: he felt he was demonstrating that she was oblivious to what was going on around her and performed by rote rather than by reacting to her scene partner. On the day in question she had been annoyed with him for not knowing his lines. 

On 1/15/2021 at 2:21 PM, Neil Johnson said:

Nic Coster (Robert Delany on AW) announced on Facebook a couple of days ago, that his memoir will be released very soon -- within weeks, I believe.  In an earlier FB post, a few months ago, he did promise a couple of chapters about his experiences on Another World.   He doesn't talk about AW much on FB.  But he has commented he loved working with Susan Sullivan, did not enjoy working with Beverly McKenzie, and liked Harding Lemay's writing.  He has never commented (on FB) about the actor firings of 1975, the atmosphere in the studio, or George Reinholt (with whom he shared many scenes).   I hope we get lots details in his book.   

It's out, title Another Whole Afternoon. I haven't found much more behind the scenes stuff than you mention here -- he declines to name Beverlee McKinsey as the costar he didn't like, but describes how he showed her up by coming to rehearsal of the scene where he smashes a bust of her father without any pants on and she didn't notice right away. He goes into more detail about how much he liked the people he worked with on SB and OLTL. No mention of George Reinholt as far as I can tell, but he is good friends with John Considine and mentions him a lot.

Is the bust scene with Robert and Iris anywhere online?

John Considine also has a memoir (Improvising, My Life and Show Business) in which he does discuss how hectic it was when he started on AW as Reginald -- last minute replacement of another actor and he had to do 5 days of work in one to catch up. He describes how he didn't have time to understand who the characters he was meeting were, and thought perhaps the young blonde who slapped him when they met was an ex-girlfriend or something, but no! She was his granddaughter! And not only that, but played by Anne Heche, future star! That didn't sound quite right -- I remember it was Reginald who brought Rhonda Lewin as Vicky to Jake and Marley's wedding, so Ellen Wheeler must actually have been playing Marley/Vicky when Reginald came back from the dead. And I believe Marley did start by hitting Reginald as soon as she saw him, possibly at Zane's funeral. I'm sure John Considine remembers working with Anne Heche but his memory has misled him here.

On 4/4/2021 at 10:06 PM, Efulton said:

Felicia Gallant was based on romance novelist Jacqueline Susann not Alexis Carrington. Headwriter Robert Soderberg had been friends with Jacqueline. 

This is what I have always heard as well -- although I don't know enough about Jacqueline Susann to have a sense of what aspects really informed the character of Felicia beyond Fabulous Best-Selling Novelist.

On 4/3/2021 at 6:20 PM, denzo30 said:

Felicia started off as being cold and then all of a sudden she is a heorine

Was Felicia's evolution so different from Cass'? When he first came on he was portrayed as self-centred and calculating, and then once Cecile was out of the picture he eventually mellowed in order to be worthy of Kathleen. Wallingford joined their friend group around the same time and Felicia was mostly on the side of the angels after that.

On 3/25/2021 at 6:15 PM, DRW50 said:

 

Thanks for the more precise date. If you aren't on Youtube then I will try to tell them this info later.

Thank you!

On 3/27/2021 at 12:54 PM, watson71 said:

 

The only other thing that Corinne Jacker did well was integrate Bay City with African American characters.  While she gave them typical soap opera storylines, all of the actors were good.   By 1987, all of those actors were off the show with Quinn Harding being the last one when she was killed by the Sin Stalker.

Most of the other actors stayed for less than 2 years. I think only Henrietta, Thomasina, and Lily were around for more than 2 years and all of the men did less. Not sure whether they were on contract and were released early or if they were only recurring.

On 3/27/2021 at 2:28 PM, watson71 said:

 

Here is Elizabeth Franz as Belia Pirenko

I don't remember knowing Paul Hecht was the Russian, but I didn't really know of him until 1984 when I saw him in Noises Off on Broadway and then of course he was Allie's ex-husband on Kate & Allie.

5 hours ago, RavenWhitney said:

One of the worst soap themes ever.

I am happy for those who enjoyed the Crystal Gayle theme, but although I would hesitate to call it the actual worst I have to say that it didn't do anything for me and I would have preferred to keep the instrumental themes I was used to. I didn't mind the music especially but I found the lyrics dull and generic.

Speaking of themes, watching AW videos provoked YouTube to suggest someone playing the earlier 80s theme by Jonathan Segal. I had never paid attention to the composer's name but apparently he has a lot of YouTube videos up.

On 1/24/2019 at 7:57 PM, slick jones said:

SARA BOTSFORD          

 

ANOTHER WORLD         Wendy Robeson        Unknown Year

GUIDING LIGHT          Lucy Rogers            1984

AS THE WORLD TURNS     Lilith DeVries McKechnie    1988-90

ONE LIFE TO LIVE    Lilith  Carlson    Unknown Year

GUIDING LIGHT    Judge at Annie's trial   Unknown Year

ALLY McBEAL     Attorney Post            1999

 

and...

E.N.G.                   Ann Hildebrandt               1989-94

SOPHIE                       Estelle Burroughs      2008-09

RIDE                     Lady Covington      2016

I was watching a clip from AW dated January 7 1985 and Sara Botsford was there as Wendy with Carl.

9 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Not sure if this episode was already around or not.

 

 

I'm sure this can't be April 8 (the possible date listed on YT) because Catlin and Sally's wedding started April 5. If they're talking about the night before the wedding I would guess it must be somewhere between April 2 and 4. (Maybe the 3rd is the most likely based on the daily synopsis on the AWHP? http://www.anotherworldhomepage.com/aw1985d.htm)

On 3/13/2021 at 1:42 PM, j swift said:

Finally, an actual question that people can answer - when did they stop calling her Victoria and began referring to her as Vicky?  Throughout 1984-1986 she is always referenced as Victoria, even by Jake and Bridget, so who started calling her Vicky?

I don't think this is quite true. Bridget and Donna tended to stick to Victoria, but in the below videos Jake and Marley and Neal Cory are all saying Vicky. I couldn't find an example but I also could have sworn that Jake called her "Vic" from time to time in 1985.

https://youtu.be/XjedejLD2Yo

33 minutes ago, AlexGrimaldi said:

 

All dubbed (nowadays In Italy every foreign tv show can be watch on tv with the option of the double audio. In the past there was Only the dubbed version). 

 

Guiding Light was renamed Sentieri (=Paths) 

 

Search for tomorrow renamed Aspettando il domani (Searching for tomorrow) 

 

As the world turns renamed Così gira il mondo (the italian translation) 

 

Edge of night renamed Ai confini della notte (the italian translation)

 

Another World renamed Destini (Destinies) and - after a hiatus due to poor ratings and a time jump - renamed Stagioni (Seasons) 

Thank you! 

2 hours ago, AlexGrimaldi said:

Hi! 

I'm from Italy. 

In my Country they were shown almost all the american soaps (though now The Bold And The Beautiful is the one that is still on). 

 

About P&G soaps

 

Guiding Light aired from 1982 to 2012 (Us episodes 1979-2007)

It was really popular in the 80s and in the 90s

 

Search for tomorrow aired from 1982 to 1994 (Us episodes 1979-1986)

 

The Edge Of Night aired from 1985 to 1986 (Us episodes 1981-1982)

 

As the world turns aired from 1986 to 1992 (Us episodes 1982-1985)

 

Another World aired from 1989 to 1992 (Us episodes 1984-1985 and may-july 1988) 

 

Were they dubbed or subtitled? Did they air under their English titles or were they translated into Italian titles?

1 hour ago, j swift said:

First, in 1985, we have the stupefying scene of Donna telling Peter that she is Marley's mother.  Again, I get the dramatic purpose that Donna needed to admit her secret out loud so the audience knew her dilemma.   However, Peter was three years younger that Donna, wouldn't he have suspected that Marley needed to come from somewhere other than his mother who had already died when Marley was born?  I know Reg kept Donna in the cellar, (which was introduced much earlier in the plot than I remembered, I thought it was first mentioned around the time when Reg was trying to drive Donna crazy with the baby picture, but it was actually originally referenced during the Royal Dunning/David Thatcher murder mystery), but wouldn't Peter have been suspicious about the sudden appearance of a baby in the house when he was a teenager?

Donna told Peter in 1984 during the Royal Dunning stuff because she needed help making sure her secret was not discovered in Dunning's files. The secret room in the basement was also a huge feature of 1984. At one point Donna hid a wounded and delirious Catlin in the room (presumably after hypnotized Sally shot him).

Mother and Donna were supposed to both be abroad together during Donna's pregnancy, but Donna was actually in the cellar room. Since Peter and Nicole were not with Mother they could have believed that she was pregnant. I don't believe there is any terminus post or ante quem in the story that requires Mother to be dead before Marley could have been born, however. She was still alive when Reginald was fooling around with Mary, wasn't she? And Mary didn't get mixed up with him until after Cheryl was born which had to be later than Marley was born.