Xanthe

Did Alice "slut shame" Sally? I don't recall her being around between the reveal that Sally was Kevin's mother and David Thatcher's murder, and she seemed to be nothing but supportive of Sally throughout. After Sally's death, Aunt Liz took Kevin out of town, leaving Catlin at a loose end to protect loathsome Brittany. When they left town there was no indication that the Ewings also took Kevin. I have always assumed that Liz and Alice raised him.

Thanks (and to @Forever8 as well). My work schedule would make it difficult to watch at 2pm so I just needed to make sure I wasn't going to have to lie to get out of a Skype call to be able to watch it.

Will the reunion only be shown live or can it be watched later?

My understanding was that Robyn Griggs was generally difficult and it wasn't just one innocent interaction with Bobbitt that got her fired. She was there for nearly 2 years. I liked her in the role though. Jodi Lyn O'Keefe was on until November 1995. The first episode of Nash Bridges aired March 29, 1996. It seems more likely that O'Keefe quit AW to work on Nash Bridges than she was fired from AW and subsequently hired immediately on Nash Bridges which would have needed some time to film, edit etc. before airing.

Thanks! Wow, that never even crossed my mind as an option. I think seeing Brett made me think it must be someone relevant to her storyline. The only thing I remember about Marley and Dennis was that I found Chris Bruno dull and thought Marley should wind up with Byron.

Who are the couple in the coat closet in the first scene turning Brett away? It's so dark I can't make out their faces and I don't recognize their voices.

Alice ran away from Bay City and got hired by Eliot Carrington as Dennis' private nurse under an assumed name. Iris was maddened by the idea that Alice and Eliot were romantically interested in each other and schemed and connived to keep them apart. Iris found out who Alice really was and that her brother was a doctor, and I guess there was also something that suggested he had expertise in Dennis' specific heart problem, so she made an appointment for Dennis with Russ. Even before that for some reason Eliot took Dennis and Alice to St Croix when Steve and Rachel were also there. I had always associated St Croix with the Mitch/Janice storyline years later but for some reason it was already a place that featured in Another World even this early.

Based on what is in the Soaps & Serials novelization (book 4, "Love's Encore"), Iris thought poorly of Rachel and was only interested in how she could use her to influence Steve to take Alice away from Eliot Carrington [Iris' estranged/ ex-husband], and Rachel wanted to social-climb Iris. They didn't actually like each other and they didn't really have the same goals. Iris on Rachel: "She's not the brightest creature you'll ever meet, but she is actually pretty in a common sort of way, and she's also extremely sexy." "Iris found Rachel an unbelievably ignorant social climber of the worst order." Rachel on Iris: "Because Iris could introduce her to all kinds of people, all kinds of important people, she very much wanted Iris as a friend." Iris offered to take Rachel to NYC for a shopping spree after Rachel and Steve's honeymoon in order to leave Steve at home alone on the theory that he would then be in contact with Alice. She had Louise eavesdropping on all kinds of conversations and when there is info about the possibility of Steve meeting up with Alice in Rachel's absence she maliciously wishes she could tell Rachel about it. In general it seems like Iris actively dislikes Rachel and Rachel is just incapable of liking anyone, she only thinks in terms of how they benefit her.

Was the koi pond incident Rachel describes a real on-screen event?

Bridget was certainly always a supporting character, never really had any desires of her own. I don't know if it was ever clearly defined when Vicky's adoptive parents (Grace and Philip Carson) were supposed to have died. On the one hand it was supposed to explain why Vicky had been raised poor and was so close to Bridget, but on the other Vicky treated Bridget more like a servant than a parent. That suggests to me that Vicky must have been old enough to think of Bridget as an employee before she lost the Carsons. Ada was a more fully-realized character and had her own storylines independent of Rachel from time to time.

The link @DRW50 provided to the AWHP does talk about JFP's treatment of older characters:

I believe he was born (Larkin Douglass Watson III) with the extra S but some of his early credits are without it for some reason, either his decision or the unwillingness of someone to believe in non-standard spellings.

I thought I remembered reading that Steve Schnetzer campaigned for the Maggie storyline at the time. And I can understand the argument that just because Cass wasn't on the canvas at the time [when Maggie was conceived] doesn't rule out the possibility that Cecile could have met Cass and had a fling with him offscreen within that timeline. There would have to be an explanation for why she never tried to use Maggie as leverage earlier in their relationship though. As for Cass marrying Cecile in the finale ... Cass matured so much from his beginning through his first marriage to Kathleen and then later with Frankie and Charlie that in order for that to be satisfying, the character of Cecile would have had to grow a lot as well. Otherwise she and Cass would have been too far apart. How would it have been possible to rehabilitate the character so that the audience could imagine Cecile and Cass living happily ever after?

I remember the info that HWs had this incentive to create new characters coming up in the mid-80s. It seems rather perverse since on the one hand viewers seem to crave familiar characters but also it is so easy for a show to completely change almost everything about a character -- usually with a recast -- other than the name. I'd be curious to know whether this really means for example that when Maggie Cory was played by Robyn Griggs, Jodi O'Keefe, and then Lisa Brenner in the early-mid 90s, did Corinne Jacker receive a residual just because she was the head writer when Maggie was born?

Tom Eplin and Ellen Wheeler left in September. Their storyline spun its wheels for a little while first though with Marley out of town and their engagement in doubt. Anna Stuart left in November and Donna was off the canvas until February. Donna and Michael did get married before she was hospitalized. Stephen Schnetzer and Julie Osburn left in December (at the same time as Duke Stroud when Vince had to go on the lam), after Kathleen had had some time with her returned-from-the-dead mother Mary. Sharon Gabet left the following January with Thomas Ian Griffith. Brittany's storyline was about trying to figure out how to escape from her abusive marriage with Peter with her baby, and then of course she shot him, was found guilty, and left the state intending to appeal the verdict. Basically all of their storylines had the underlying theme of Reginald Love's villainy. I'm not sure that any storylines at the time managed to avoid it -- even the return of Mitch touched on it since Mitch was secretly working for Reginald and Reginald had killed Felicia's husband Zane, making her available to spend time with Mitch while writing a series of exposes on Reginald Love. I guess Nancy dating Greg had nothing to do with Reginald, so that's something.

Dana Klaboe played Amanda until 1986 before she was aged to blonde Sandra Ferguson. I liked her a lot as Amanda and Mac's daughter. It seems likely that they chose the dark colouring to emphasize that she was Rachel's, especially if Mac was engaged to Alice. The hair colour was one superficial reason why I was disappointed in the first adult Amanda. When they cast Christine Tucci she felt more like the grown up version of the dark-haired little girl.

Thanks!

Interesting article with some fascinatingly dated language. Thanks. Does anyone know who the performers were who went on David Frost and what they bitched and moaned about?

Speaking of changes in history, the Another World Homepage gives Stacey Winthrop and Mark Singleton's daughter's name as Megan, and I know that is the name they used when Hilary Edson played Stacey and Mark and her daughter were said to have died in a car accident. However in the Christmas Day episode from 1984 when Felicia comes to celebrate Christmas with Cass he clearly comments that one of the presents looks like Marie wrapped it herself. Did Cass misspeak in 1984 or was the Hilary Edson era changing history?

1987 was a time when Margaret DePriest ignored huge swaths of history for sure. I was looking at the Soaps & Serials books from the 1980s as well as the Kate Lowe Kerrigan novelizations from the 1970s to see if those could shed some light. Rachel has some thoughts about the population of Bay City being 50,000 people which is consistent with the real Bay City in Michigan. And she and Russ discuss eloping to Illinois, which suggests it's not the state they're in. Missy was on trial in Chicago, and Aunt Liz flies there (rather than drives) to talk her out of marrying Bill.

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.

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.

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.

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).