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I'm probably gonna be one of them.

I heard that the Achille Lauro hijacking was the reason why the Egypt shoot was cancelled. Makes you wonder if the story and everything that happened (Carl kidnapping Marley, Kathleen becoming paralyzed) were part of the original plans or had to be rewritten too. And I agree with you about how this messed up AW. This was like the first time the show veered off into unrealistic plots and it messed it up badly.

Agreed 85 started well, but once Hall and Spencer became headwriters it just fell apart. The revamp started in May 1986.

Yes. That's his voice also, in the second clip, in the scene with Blaine

Audio clips from the first 90 minute episode, featuring that awesome fight between Mac and Rachel!

I think it might have just been a case of new producers and writers preferring their own characters as opposed to somebody else's. Didn't JFP also not like Tom Eplin and Jake and Paulina as a couple?

I always believed that 1995 was when the sabotage began in order to justify AW's cancellation.

That picture makes me think of Hidden Passions. Glad I still have my copy.

I hate that AOL stopped uploading episodes right at the beginning of the Hitopah storyline. I would have loved to have seen it.

Augusta was written into a corner because she murdered Phil Brewer, right? Or were there other things that hurt her character too?

I can't see Cass and Cecile ending up together. They had both evolved so much during the 80's and 90's, but whereas Cass got better, Cecile got worse. If anything, I would've brought Kathleen back in those final years for Cass to be with.

Does anybody know what Pat Falken Smith’s original plans were for the Ice Princess story? I know she hated the whole Mikkos freezing Port Charles arc that was written during the strike.

That was definitely true in terms of AW

Thank you, Eddie Drueding!

Thanks. I wish that Diana was brought back, as opposed to the snobby psycho that Judith Chapman played. If she had just been played a lot more subtlety, I think the whole Diana/Leo story would have been much more well received.

Sorry B&B fans, couldn't resist lol

Was the John/Roman and Diana pairing popular with fans?

Anna Stuart (Donna, AW) is currently married to James Cromwell

I would have had Monica shoot the bastard right after it was revealed that he killed AJ, but she was pretty much forgotten about once everyone found out. When I was watching GH on and off, I actually liked Sonny, but after I started watching everyday he really began to annoy me. What really made me start to dislike him was Avery's conception. That was just nasty.

In that case, I think the character of Franco has run out of story possibilities lol

I've seen them and I really enjoyed them too. Soderberg, Purser, Culliton, etc. really did clean up the mess that Jacker made. I hope more old episodes get rediscovered and posted to YT, including 1982 episodes. As lousy as that year was, I'd love to see more of it. She was one of the pets. Like with Connie Ford, he probably blamed himself if Beverly Penberthy had a problem with the story. Unlike with George Reinholt, Jacquie Courtney and Virginia Dwyer lol One of P&G's biggest mistakes. I would've loved to have seen that story play out. On the bright side, it seems like Bev got the last laugh. She's still remembered and loved as Pat to this day, whereas Corinne Jacker is pretty much only remembered for being the worst head writer AW ever had. As for Rauch, he was probably freaking out about the show and how much it was declining that he probably said yes immediately when Jacker said she wanted Pat gone.

Wow. This is an amazing article. Thanks for posting @Efulton It’s really a shame what happened to AW in the late 70s and early 80s. The show never really recovered after General Hospital got so popular. There’s so much we don’t know about what went on behind the scenes during Corinne Jacker’s tenure and this sheds so much light on it. It sounds like Beverly Penberthy was hinting that the only reason CJ brought in so many new characters was to make money, rather than try to save the show.

Thanks for posting! I never knew SB beat B&B, and poor AW, all those changes in 86-87 and they did nothing for the show.

Nice to see AW get a little bump in August. I'm pretty sure those were the weeks that Zane died and Reginald and Mitch came back. Unfortunately later in the year, Reginald's machinations, Mary's return and Mac/Rachel/Mitch part 2 didn't seem to help at all. DAYS was still hanging in there, but was starting to decline a little. What was happening on GH in the Fall that caused it knock Y&R out of the top spot?

If anybody's interested, the 8/12/80 episodes of Another World and Texas are uploaded on Youtube. I watched them along with the episode of DAYS one day just for fun, and IMO, on that particular day, DAYS was the most interesting. I think it may have had something to do with the writer and the network. The consensus was that Nina Laemmle didn't know how to write for a soap, plus it's clear NBC execs were stupid in the late 70's and early 80's. But also, I have to ask, had the fans changed that much already around that time? Were they so crazy for the action/adventure stories that GH was doing that they didn't care for the character studies/melodramatic storylines anymore?