Tisy-Lish

Is anyone old enough to remember Aunt Janet Matthews on Another World? And if so, were Aunt Janet and Aunt Liz similar in any way? I am aware Janet was Jim and Will's sister, so she was a Matthews by blood -- while Liz had been married to Will, so she was actually an in-law of the Matthews clan. Were the two characters similar, or very different? Did they have many scenes together? Any idea when Aunt Janet was last mentioned on the show? I believe Agnes Nixon was the head-writer who wrote-off Janet. And Robert Cenedella later wrote-off Liz around 1971. Harding Lemay brought Aunt Liz back around 1974, but Aunt Janet was seldom (if ever) mentioned after her exit.

Thank you for the information. I never noticed an obvious age difference between McCay and Aniston. But the age difference between Stuart and Aniston was more obvious, in my opinion. Not the fault of the actors -- probably just my perception.

Does anyone remember if Susan Harney and Very Moore had many scenes together? I'm assuming they did since Linda was still one of Alice's closest friends, but I don't recall seeing Harney and Moore together. I watched AW nearly every day from 1971 until 1982, and I certainly noticed the pleasant chemistry between Courtney and Moore. But I have no memory of Harney and Moore working together.

Does anyone know the age difference between Mary Stuart and John Aniston? To me, Martin always seemed younger than Jo. Plus he was much more worldly, and a bit of a cad. Although I feel it was a good decision to directly connect Jo to the Tourner/Sentell family, the romance between Jo and Martin always seemed a little forced. I'm still glad the Corringtons wrote it, but the chemistry between the two characters was a bit off, in my opinion.

Well, cast credit norms have changed many times over the past 45 years -- especially on daytime. And they aren't always consistent from show to show even in 2026. Why would AW put Vera Moore back on contract in 1981, just so she could appear in a few episodes surrounding Rachel's murder trial? I'm not saying you are definitely incorrect -- just saying I disagree with your conclusion about the credits from the 1981 episode.

Not sure what you mean. How can an actor be both "on contract" and "recurring"? Doesn't recurring typically mean non-contract? I see in your screen shot that Moore is listed among the contract actors, but 45 years ago the norms of crediting may have been much looser than they are today. I'm not arguing with you, but I find it hard to believe Vera Moore was still on contract with so few appearances over so many years. But who knows??

I believe Ms Moore was not on contract during her final few years on AW. When Linda Metcalf first joined the show, she came on as the sister of Peggy Nolan. Peggy was a popular, fairly long-running character, and Harding Lemay wanted to build a family around her. So Lemay created Linda and the mother of both sisters, Gloria -- all contract characters, I assume. I believe Gloria and Linda lived together in an apartment, which became one of the sets on the show. Fairly soon, Linda started dating a young man (Zac Richards) who, if I remember correctly, had recently gotten out of prison or jail. This caused Gloria some concern and it seemed to be a developing story. Unfortunately about six months after Linda and Gloria were introduced, Micki Grant (who played Peggy) left the show. Grant's absence seemed to take the wind out of any plans Rauch and Lemay had for the Metcalf family, probably because Peggy was the most important of the three characters. Gloria stopped appearing, then Zac stopped appearing, although Linda would sometimes mention him, or Alice would ask about him. No plots were written for Linda, and she became little more than a colleague and friend of Alice, and a nurse when the show needed a nurse. So I'm assuming Ms Moore was taken off contract by 1974-ish, and then appeared rather infrequently, and usually in scenes at the hospital.

Does anyone know if Anita's scene with Gayle King is available to watch online? I couldn't find it on Youtube, and I don't subscribe to Paramount+.

Does anyone else remember Mary Stuart's one episode stint as Kate, the madame of a bordello in Louisiana who also happened to be Jo's doppelgänger? And I believe Kate was Martin Tourner's former girlfriend. I happened to see that episode when it originally aired, and the idea was quite intriguing. Nothing ever came of it, and no storyline was built around Kate. But I assume the Corringtons were toying with the idea of somehow getting Jo and Kate together -- ala Kathryn and Marge on Y&R. (I believe the Kathryn/Marge plot took place in the 1990s.) I'd love to see that episode again, but haven't found it on YouTube. Kate is mentioned during Martin and Jo's first meeting scene, which is on YouTube. When Martin first meets Jo, he thinks she is Kate. This particular scene was available on YouTube as late as about a year ago.

You mentioned Chastain was the head writer who got rid of the Hartford House. Although I was unaware of that, I do recall him being criticized for some of his other decisions. I remember posters on another message board mentioning that he had written several things that practically destroyed the show. I was not watching regularly at that time. Do you recall any other damaging occurrences that took place while Chastain was writing?

I didn't think the apartment building concept worked. It seemed so contrived -- moving most of the cast into the same building. It was a gimmick. It might have worked better if the building itself had been more interesting. For example, if the apartments had been lofts. Or if the building had been an old apartment building with lots of urban character. But the sets were generic and boring. It was very 1980s plain and simple. Plus the writing was not compelling. it seemed no one knew how to write SFT after the Corringtons who were extremely successful in my opinion. The show still had moments of greatness, but it was never again a great show after the Corringtons left.

I don't think SFT was ever as good after they destroyed the Hartford House. The show lost its gathering place.

Why would remotes be needed to write a successful long term romance? A compelling romance can be super popular with limited sets and no remotes. All it really requires is good writing and good acting. I could say the same about murder mysteries/murder trials. Just good writing and good acting, a few sets, and (of course) a courtroom set. That's all it takes.

Yes, that demonstrates the influence those two women had on AW, even though the show veered so far away from the original concept in the last half of its broadcast history.

Your research skills are amazing, and I appreciate your posts. It's ironic that despite the minimizing of the Matthews family during the last twenty years of AW, still four of the five longest running characters were members of the Matthews clan. And even Rachel had a member of that family for a couple of years. But if I'm not mistaken, Russ was written off for about a year near the end of Lemay's run as head-writer. And returned to Bay City while Tom King was writing. If I'm correct about that, Russ would be reduced to about 18 years. But would still be in the top five.