Tisy-Lish

Does the city were BTG takes place have a name? Or is it just a vague suburb of Washington DC? And obviously, Fairmont Crest is the name of the gated community, not the name of the city.

Well technically, on AW Will Matthews had already died before the show premiered, and even the funeral had already happened. So during the premiere episode the family was still dealing with and discussing him. But the first real death during AW's run was likely Tom Baxter.

At this point, I only watch Y&R because I love the characters. The storylines are barely storylines at all. The writing makes me yawn. And its been this way for several years. I feel like it's Another World all over again -- just watching for the characters, not the storylines. And I felt that way about AW for the final twenty-years of the show. I'm not going to make the 20-year mark for Y&R, I'm afraid. Please give Y&R an effective and experienced head-writer asap.

Absolutely. For example -- the 25th anniversary of Brava Magazine, or the 25th anniversary of the Russian Art Series, or the 25th anniversary of Cory Publishing's move to Bay City. And even though those dates would have still been askew, at least none would have been as embarrassingly bad as declaring that Cory Publishing was only 25 years old in 1989.

Hmm. . . Many of the characters she created were stereotypes. Frankie Frame - wide-eyed psychic; Derek Dane - Beauty and the Beast; Lucas - mobster; Ken Jordan - Indiana Jones; Dennis Wheeler (not created by Swajeski) brought back as a race-car driving rich alpha-man, etc, etc... Did Swajeski create even one believable character, who did not start as a stereotype??

I certainly do. Oh Lordy!! No doubt, deflated... When I read that, it finally confirmed that woman was not a good successor to Harding Lemay. The fact that she went forward with a storyline, after her leading man was dead, makes me shake my head and sweat profusely. Dear God in Heaven...

I tend to agree. Although the Coleridge family was far wealthier than the Ryans, their closeness and inter-connectedness made them seem almost peers. But Rae's wealth set her apart, even from the Coleridges. Plus Rae was fairly skeptical of the Ryans, which added some needed spice to the show.

I had forgotten that bit of information. But even that episode was written after Lemay had left AW, and was itself a retcon, and historically inaccurate according to Mac's previous comments about his company. Still, it would have been more believable than 1964. You know, all AW needed was a big reason to celebrate the show's 25th anniversary. Whatever the characters celebrated in the scripts did not need to the be literally the 25th of anything. For example, in 1986 ATWT celebrated the show's 30th anniversary with a week of special episodes celebrating the 50th wedding anniversary of Chris and Nancy. And that worked perfectly. So maybe to celebrate Another World's 25th anniversary of broadcasting in 1989, the characters should have celebrated the 50th anniversary of Cory Publishing. Or even the 100th anniversary of Cory Publishing. Either would have made a lot more sense and would have avoided some big errors in historical continuity.

The Cory Publishing anniversary episodes were taping less than week after Watson died. And it was more an event, less a storyline (similar to ATWT 30th anniversary week in 1986). Of course there would have been a huge focus on Douglass Watson. But I've never believed the 25th anniversary week was the "big storyline" Swajeski had planned for Mac. Especially after I read the interview I mentioned in an earlier post. And regarding the mention on AWHP that indicates Cory Publishing began in 1964 -- that information is retcon to go along with what was said on the show at the time of the 25th anniversary week. Eddie makes clear that whenever there is a lack of continuity with historical facts, he always leans toward the most recent revision, not the historical. And I can understand why he does that. But when Mac moved his company headquarters from NYC to Bay City in 1975 (Lemay's Cory origin story), Mac talked frequently about how he had inherited Cory Publishing from his father, and even implied it was started by an even earlier generation of Corys. Mac was not a self-made man. The Cory's had been old-money New Yorkers. So the idea that Cory Publishing was literally started in 1964 is rather silly. For example, Iris would have been an adult with a young son in 1964. And how old would Mac have been in 1964? At least mid-40s, I'd suggest. Not attempting to argue here. Just pointing out some issues with continuity regarding Cory Publishing 25th anniversary taking place in 1989. To a detail-oriented person, it just doesn't add-up. Or course, we are all free to believe whatever we wish.

I recall reading an interview with Donna Swajeski (a year or two after Watson's death) in which she said she had plotted a big storyline for Mac, and it was the Red Swan mystery. But when Douglass Watson died, she was at a loss -- not knowing how to go forward. So she just plunged ahead with the Red Swan mystery and rewrote it in significant ways, with Mac being deceased. Perhaps this is the reason the Red Swan mystery seemed so silly and empty to so many fans. Franky, the entire plot rang false to me, and very un-Another World. Perhaps the necessary re-writes after Watson's death took the integrity out of the storyline. Swajeski might have been wiser to scrap the entire plot, and write something else for Rachel and the Corys.

Interesting observations, and I won't suggest you are wrong. But what about Robin Strasser's version of Rachel? Strasser was not Latino, or noted as being ethnic in any way. Yet, it was already blonde vs. brunette, rich vs. working class, good girl vs. trouble, all the way back to 1968.

Great Information. And if my memory is correct, Ralph Camargo played a Supreme Court justice on AW -- an old New York friend of Mac Cory. So there stands working-class Rachel Davis before a Supreme Court justice, as she marries Mac. Lemay took us into the world of the very wealthy, but in a believable way.

Agreed. We both have different takes on BTG, and we notice or appreciate different nuances. It does seem we both enjoy the show, despite its imperfections.

I appreciate your point of view. You make several good points. But as an older soap fan once clarified for me, "believable is not the same as realistic." And I never used the word realistic. I don't think any soap opera (or any TV show) has been realistic. But many have been believable. And I personally find BTG believable, while most soaps post-1980s, have not been. That's just my personal observation. It's cool to disagree.

Seems to me, BTG is using a pre-1980s (or pre-Luke and Laura) style of story-telling. And I'm enjoying it, although it does require adjustment of expectations. BTG is telling stories in a similar way to how they were told in the 1970s, when soap ratings were very high and soap operas were arguably at their creative zenith. BTG has created its own unique identity, as every soap did pre-1980s. Note the believability of the plots -- yes there is some over-the-top behavior on the part of some of the characters, but the plots are very believable. No moustache-twirling super villains, no multiple returns from the dead, no pseudo science-fiction, no comedy (although there is some believable humor), and no friggin' stand-alone episodes. And I am here for all of that! BTG is not perfect. But damn, it is good.

Agreed. And actually, I understand stop signs on privately owned streets and parking lots (like country clubs, shopping centers, grocery store parking lots, private gated communities, etc.), are only enforceable if there is an accident. In other words -- as long as you don't cause an accident, you can run stop signs all day long on private streets and parking lots, without getting a ticket. That's the way it is in Ohio anyway.

I enjoyed watching the premiere episode again, although I did not think I would. I'm reminded how nearly flawless this episode is. I've been watching soaps since the mid-1960's, and BTG's first episode is the best and most compelling premiere episode of a soap opera I have ever seen. The ongoing episodes are not flawless, but even they are compelling enough to keep me tuning in. Others may disagree, but I love it.

The days of radio soaps must have been interesting. Having so many different stories to choose from, and then being able to listen while doing other things. No need to sit and "watch."

Yes, she did.

I always thought it was strange that Josie didn't start using the name Matthews after she found out Russ was her father. I realize Russ and Josie never had the closest relationship, but Josie continued to use the name Watts. Floyd Watts had been Sharlene's first husband who died years before Josie was even born. So Josie had absolutelyy no connection to or relationship with that man. If I'm not mistaken, I believe Floyd had been killed in Vietnam before Sharlene ever showed up in Bay City the first time.

Agreed. And if I am correct, neither Jim Matthews nor Chris Hughes had an on camera funeral. Crazy!! Today, it's funny -- many soap characters get funerals that last nearly an entire 60-minute episode. And that is often over-kill, in my opinion. I'm thinking of Bobbie Spencer and others.

That's surprising. But at least Pa got an on-camera funeral. Many many important soap characters didn't even get that. Another World's Mary Matthews (the show's matriarch) is one, of many, examples. And of course, Nancy Hughes herself. Who was head-writing at this point? Was it the Soderbergs?

This is amazing. I'd love to see that entire episode. And reading it, I'm wondering if Don Hastings may have written the eulogy himself. Who knows? Thank you for posting this!

I've watched nearly every episode of BTG, and I know they have done a little location shooting for exterior scenes. Tonight I started wondering -- has BTG shot any "exterior" scenes on the sound-stage with a fake exterior set?? Hmm... aside from a couple of front porch scenes, I don't remember any. Some posters have complained that the show has only three "public space" sets -- Orphie Jean's, Uptown, and the Country Club. Perhaps the original plan was to do a little more location shooting to add other public spaces to the show. But since the location shooting seems to have been curtailed, maybe BTG should add a public park set within the studio. A park set would give us an additional public space, where any characters could interact. Those are just my thoughts.

Was Tony Barclay the guy who killed Jenny Gardner?