Xanthe

Some random googling led me to this Dark Shadows blog with some snarky remarks about Another World and Somerset. Apparently Julian Cannell was very handsome?

"Another World takes place in Bay City, which everyone refers to as fictional even though it’s sitting right there in Michigan, and there’s no use pretending that it isn’t."

I don't know whether they ever specified that our Bay City was in Illinois, but they certainly talked about Chicago a lot and rarely if ever Detroit. 

18 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

I think that's right. Really Dennis should have been a priority character, not an afterthought.

He was in the right age group, related and linked to the Cory's etc.

I'm not surprised they waited until after they had Iris back on the canvas to bring Dennis back though. They could have created any old part for Chris Bruno if they wanted him. Adding Dennis without Iris would have left everyone wanting Iris.

Beverlee McKinsey was such a powerhouse I never really got used to Carmen Duncan as Iris and thought of her as a different person. If they had recast Iris sooner though we might never have had Donna Love, which would have been sad. 

33 minutes ago, Forever8 said:

 

Agnes had used her template over the years i.e. Headstrong vixens on the make and their single mothers who try to keep them grounded. 

I just need to sit and admire your phrasing for a moment. 

When I first saw photos of Robin Strasser's Rachel I was amazed by how much she reminded me of Erica Kane. 

This also reminds me of the SCTV soap parody "The Days of the Week" with blonde socialite Mrs McKay and her half-witted maid Mojo. I always thought they were Iris and Vivian but then I found out about Kay and Esther on Y&R.

This post re James MacDonald in the Soap Hoppers thread reminded me of a pet theory I had at the time when he appeared as "Blade" on Another World in 1986. Blade was an ex-con who hung around with a gang of creeps who menaced Nancy and kidnapped Victoria (thinking she was Marley). Michael hired him to help protect Donna when he knew Reginald was on the verge of coming back from the dead, and then Quinn hired him with Mitch to renovate the Cory mansion because they needed employment as conditions of their parole. He seemed to just disappear after that, but I think there must have been something in the soap press at the time hinting that Jake might have a brother because I really thought it was possible that it would turn out that that was the case, since he seemed to keep having significant interactions with Jake as well as other people. Nothing ever came of it and if it was the idea it was dropped and Jake left town with Marley soon after.

35 minutes ago, rlj said:

 

Why would Jerry rape Clarice?

Based on the Another World home page synopsis for 1981 it sounds like Jerry sustained some kind of brain injury that made him stalk and rape Clarice. The synopsis uses the word "schizophrenic" but it's not clear whether they portrayed any symptoms of the disease like hearing voices or suggested anything like a split personality (which back then was the popular conception of what schizophrenic meant).

11 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

 

I do think Lorna/Felicia being mother/daughter was great idea (though I sometimes wonder if Lisa Grady was meant to be her long lost daughter, but the actress quitting made the show abandon that idea).

That doesn't sound impossible, but from a story perspective it feels as though the creation of Lorna broadened the story opportunities more. Lisa already had a close family relationship with Felicia, so making her her daughter would serve only to add Lucas to the mix. It seems more likely to me that Lisa was replaced by Jenna in Felicia's life. If Jenna had not been there Lisa would have been the obvious character to feel pushed out by Lorna's arrival.

On 10/13/2019 at 7:14 PM, j swift said:

Clarice and Larry are such an odd case because at one time they each had an entire family built around their characters.  Clarice had a couple of brothers, who both dated Sally, and Larry had Catlin, who also dated Sally.  In addition, Clarice's son was the heir to Delaney Brands of Somerset, so there was lots of potential for both characters.

Denny Hobson and Sally were married, which somehow never came up after she got involved with Catlin, even though he talked a lot about his misspent youth and even when she felt betrayed by the fact he had been married to Brittany. Clarice's father married Ada as well (wasn't Ada using the Hobson surname to the end of her life?). 

On 10/9/2019 at 7:35 AM, AbcNbc247 said:

The last great moments of 1981. After this, the show just fell apart.

I'm curious in what sense it fell apart. This is well after the expansion to 90 minutes and the spin-off of Texas, both of which are discussed as the beginning of the end. Was there a major change in the writing or in the cast that made the wheels come off?

16 minutes ago, amybrickwallace said:

 

Yeah, Taylor Miller had two strikes against her going in - she wasn't Mary Page Keller, and she was too closely identified with AMC's Nina Cortlandt Warner.

The only thing I knew about Nina was her name, so I had no preconceived notions about her character. What was wrong with her?

Taylor Miller's storyline as the Lesoleil Woman was ridiculous, but at the time I was glad that they didn't kill Sally off when Mary Page Keller left and had her leave town to visit Alice when she and Catlin were feeling more optimistic even though Brittany's arrival had caused some trouble in their relationship. I didn't think that Taylor Miller was terrible, but it felt like they did a lot to emphasize that her Sally came from a more middle class world than Catlin's rodeo past. And even though Catlin and Sally were not what they had been with Mary Page Keller, I have to admit that when Catlin slept with Brittany I was actually devastated and cried quite a bit.

7 hours ago, DRW50 said:

 

I guess they got rid of Chris Holder to make Peter more of a clearcut villain, but, while I had no real problem with Smythe, Holder was a very good fit for the show - likeable and charismatic, with a bit of an edge. Their loss. 

That's funny -- I always thought of Chris Holder's Peter as a bigger jerk because he was interfering in Sally's life for no reason other than selfishness. However Marcus Smythe's Peter was behaving badly because he wanted the approval of his villainous father Reginald. It was one of the few areas where I thought Reginald actually made a valuable and interesting contribution to the canvas.

On 7/29/2019 at 11:36 AM, j swift said:

As I recall from one of the podcast interviews with the actress, her real-life pregnancy and resulting child with special needs were impetuous for her character's departure, which was sad to hear and made me give AW a pass on their exit, but not on the prior errors in establishing the character.   

Since we've been discussing Brittany and Sharon Gabet again . . . when she started on Another World she had just had her first child. While she was on Another World she got pregnant with her second and left. It was actually her third child who was born later (during or after her stint on OLTL) who had special needs.

https://www.serialscoop.com/2014/11/the-sharon-gabet-interview-journey-from.html

I had three kids, a newborn, three-year-old and five-year-old. ... my third child was born with autism...

SERIAL SCOOP: What was your experience like at Another World? Did you ever have any regrets about joining the show?
SHARON GABET: I liked my work the first few months. I thought it was some of the best work I've ever done - when Brittany was deaf and describing her ordeal with sign language. Then AW became a nightmare. I had to commute to Brooklyn, my new daughter was young and I never saw her, the hours were so long. I was very unhappy. Linda Dano gave me the name of her shrink, I was so unhappy. I got pregnant again and left as soon as I could.

6 hours ago, AbcNbc247 said:

I think I may have said this before, but it's like the character of Brittany underwent a complete change under every writer. It was like they didn't know what to do with her.

I'm not sure where the blame falls. I think in this specific episode there should have been an undercurrent of the scheming that was going on but she seems to be playing it straight. I'd blame the actor and director before the writer.

Was there any writer who depicted her as having any scruples about what she was willing to do to get what she wanted?

The character was always given sympathetic hooks:

• Lost everything (husband, baby, voice, hearing) in an accident;

• Zane liked her;

• Sally's son Kevin liked her and she rescued him from some danger;
• Donna was a snob to her;
• Peter became monstrously abusive to her, physically and psychologically;
• Rachel became her confidante during her marriage to Peter;
• Widowed Catlin became her protector.

Maybe once Sally died and Peter started abusing Britt they stopped treating her as a villain and made her a victim, because of course she had to protect herself and her baby and there was no longer any reason why she couldn't have Catlin.

5 hours ago, Donna B said:

 

Maybe that's why I so disliked Brittany. Who is her #2 man?

Peter was her second string if she couldn't get Catlin. Catlin was her first choice but he wanted to stay with Sally (as we see in this episode) even though he had cheated on her with Brittany.

Zane had been in love with her but fortunately she never tried to trick him into thinking he could be the father of her baby.

45 minutes ago, Franko said:

"I don't want her relish." You and me both, Donna.

Exactly.

Watching that episode in isolation I can see how it wouldn't be clear whether Brittany is a sympathetic character or not -- she comes across as simply grateful to Peter for his kindness. And who could blame her for bristling at Donna's unreasonable attitude? But the previous day Brittany was hanging all over Catlin, trying to convince him that he must prefer her to Sally and trying to figure out how to make the best use of her pregnancy (which she hasn't told either of the men in her life about . . . I believe she hasn't slept with Peter yet so she has to get moving on how to set it up so that he can be persuaded that he is the father of her enormous "premature" infant). Actually the part where she beats him at chess ("I'm good at games") was I think supposed to be suggestive of the fact that she is playing him, but I'm not sure that comes across without the context.

On 9/30/2019 at 8:29 PM, Donna B said:

While we're eyeballing the lovely and talented Susan Sullivan, I have a question, from way back. Does anyone know if the author Rita Mae Brown "outed" Susan Sullivan? I think she did. And, I know she outed Fanny Flagg who wrote Fried Green Tomatoes and another book. And, I know that Rita Mae Brown "outed" another blonde-blonde woman but I don't know who that is. I can guess. LOL

Could this be a confusion of two Susans? I don't find any info re Susan Sullivan (who seems to have been partnered with a man for years) and Rita Mae Brown, but Susan Flannery's Wikipedia page notes her relationship with Fannie Flagg and their friendship with Rita Mae Brown.

45 minutes ago, Donna B said:

I just don't remember Lauri Landry. Who was with her?

She bridged the gap between Anna Stuart's Donna and Philece Sampler's Donna. She mostly functioned as a sidekick for Michael against Reginald.

On 9/28/2019 at 7:39 AM, Donna B said:

Same question: which Vicky? which Nicole #1 cocaine user? #2 Cass's lover & a fashion designer?

Rhonda Lewin was the only Vicky who can be said not to have had much of a chance, IMO. All of the others were popular and lasted for years.

As for Nicole, Kim Morgan Greene was cocaine Nicole who dated Jamie. Lauri Landry was singing Nicole who didn't get much to do. Anne Howard was the last Nicole, the fashion designer who was engaged to Cass and killed Jason Frame. 

I have been watching some of the episodes from 1986. Adam is supposed to be a fine upstanding honourable man, and I know I shouldn't expect much from the DePriest era, but I was somewhat shocked by how it was totally fine that he made his work colleague (and really I guess subordinate because she had been demoted to uniform for no good reason) MJ feel uncomfortable about having to sleep in Cecile's hotel room in scanty lingerie on their stakeout. 

On 9/28/2019 at 7:39 AM, Donna B said:

Which Jamie are you speaking of here & what was his occupation? Richard Bekins, novelist? Larry Lau, doctor? Russell Todd, I forgot because I never really cared for him.

Larry Lau was the Jamie who came home as a doctor. (There was also Stephen Yates between Richard Bekins and Larry Lau. He worked at Cory Publishing and had no patience for Peter Love's nonsense. He dated MJ.)

Larry Lau didn't appeal to me as Jamie. He was somehow too self-satisfied. I preferred Russell Todd (whose Jamie was still a doctor; was he the one who had the whole sexual harassment problem with Kelsey?) probably only because Larry Lau had set the precedent for bland and pompous Jamie and I shallowly preferred Russell Todd's looks for it.

21 hours ago, AbcNbc247 said:

21 hours ago, Xanthe said:

 

Yes. He almost killed her three times. You could say the first two times were accidents and that Rachel was just collateral damage, but the third and final time in 1991 he hired someone to kill her because he was worried that she could implicate him in Grant's shooting. 

Yes, that was what I was getting at, he never intended to kill her in the 1980s, he just came up with cockamamie schemes that wound up putting her in danger in his quest to kill Mac. It's hard to blame Matthew and Amanda for being suspicious about whether it was a good idea to trust Carl. Of course Matthew also seemed to forgive Mitch for his crimes, so...

2 hours ago, Donna B said:

In May 1984 they celebrated the show's 20th anniversary & brought Alice back & along with her the star-crossed lovers who became so popular Sally and Catlin. Unfortunately the show brought on Margaret De Priest and she created her first serial killer mystery.

Alice's arrival coincided with the murder of David Thatcher. Sally had already been growing close with Catlin since his arrival earlier in 1984, so I would hardly say that Alice brought that romance with her. And Margaret dePriest arrived a couple of years later after a lot of intervening stories and then she killed off Sally and invented: Reginald and Mary; MJ's prostitute past and her pimp/boyfriend Chad; John Hudson and the idea that he, not Michael, could have been Marley and Victoria's father; and Lisa Grady and the serial killer the Sin Stalker.

2 hours ago, Khan said:

Which was so dumb.  Bringing back Steve from the dead...just to kill him off again?  If David Canary wasn't working out, either recast or just let Steve leave town until you DO find someone who could play the part well!

If they had been able to create a story with Alice and Steve that didn't undermine her maturity and her career as a doctor, that could have been more interesting than what she did get (mild romance with Mark Singleton and maternal support of Sally). Did Steve interact with Sally much during his David Canary phase?

1 hour ago, Donna B said:

Did Osborn have an e on the end of it? I can't remember.

Osburn with a u and no e on the end.

Reading this interview on the AWHP, both Sally Spencer and Kathleen Layman attended Julie Osburn's wedding where they met each other for the first time.

I always thought Julie Osburn was brilliantly cast. She played so well with Cass and Felicia but she also had a real rapport with Kathleen Layman -- and they looked like they could be real sisters. Sally Spencer looked less like Julie, but it's nice to hear they were friends offscreen.

12 hours ago, AbcNbc247 said:

AW took it to the extreme though. Instead of a woman falling in her love with her rapist, they had a woman fall in love with the guy who tried to kill her lol. Luckily both actors and characters were talented and popular. 

Did Carl ever reach the point of trying to kill Rachel? For a long time his shtick was that he had it in for Mac and wanted Mac to die and/or suffer, but he had a thing for Rachel (presented as Richard III and Anne at least once) and swore that no real harm should ever come to her. I mean, she got amnesia and things, and he tormented and killed other people along the way, and they should not really have made the effort to redeem the character, but still, I thought he had always drawn the line at killing Rachel.

5 hours ago, Donna B said:

I don't know. Matt was so upset. But, I don't know what it was about.

Matt Crane was only on-screen for about a year before Douglass Watson's death, so there's not a lot of storyline to look through. My guess is that he wouldn't have been so upset about any of the things going on in his love life at the time. So the likeliest possibilities look like either when he found out about Janice/Mitch/Mac/Rachel or when he was forced to turn in evidence that implicated Mac in the alleged murder of Drew Marston. And Mac's message of "have faith" sounds more appropriate to the Drew situation, so I'm guessing that.

41 minutes ago, Donna B said:

I just think Matt wanted Carl gone & missed Mac so much.

That was why he was emotional with Rachel and thinking about Mac. I was wondering about the storyline within the flashback, where something had made him emotional and Mac was comforting him.

Kevin McClatchey was such a poor JFP hire. 

Did she fire Justin Chambers (who seemed like a much more interesting performer) in order to hire him, or was she forced to come up with a replacement on short notice?

1 hour ago, Donna B said:

"BobbaReno" was not a character that Another World needed!

 

 

Mark Mortimer as Nick Hudson seems more competent than I remembered. I had recalled him as a vacuous prettyboy and rather dull. (Not that I liked Kevin McClatchy better in the role.)

Jensen seemed very subdued, for Vicky.

Does anyone know what was upsetting Matthew in his flashback with Mac?