Everything posted by vetsoapfan
- Another World Discussion Thread
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Another World Discussion Thread
Material from the episode in which Rachel tells Alice the truth about the baby is only available on audio CD, as far as I know. I got my copy from the AW website. Eddie also has many other audio CDs with a ton of great material from the 1960s and 1970s, including a 1971 Christmas episode. While I loathe how Rauch butchered so many of the soaps he produced, I doubt the story about him being responsible for destroying all the old tapes is true. P&G routinely erased all their soaps up until about 1978 or so, with only occasional episodes from here or there surviving.
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Another World Discussion Thread
In a box of memorabilia somewhere, I have a magazine interview with Jacqueline Courtney in which she said that she had had kinescopes made of important, significant scenes from her run on AW. It would be nice to know these vintage episodes still existed somewhere, if only in Courtney's daughter's possession.
- Y&R: Old Articles
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Guiding Light Discussion Thread
I disagree about Hulswit's looks. I thought he developed into a very warm, cute and cuddly daddy figure, perfect for the role of the new Bauer patriarch on TGL. Peter Simon was a good actor, but did not project the same warmth and paternalism. As for Richard Van Fleet in the role...um, just no.
- Y&R: Old Articles
- Y&R: Old Articles
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HOW TO SURVIVE A MARRIAGE
I have a scrapbook with dozens of articles and interviews on HTSAM, and there's a great interview with Fran Brill, talking about the wonderful story involving Bachman's death. She quite rightly described writer Rick Edlestein (who wrote the series in its brilliant middle period, between hacks Anne Howard Bailey and Margaret DePriest) as a genius. With Edelstein's literate, adult scripts, the show was like a character-driven stage play every day. According to Brill, however, she got trench mouth from sobbing so much during the tragic storyline of losing her husband.
- Y&R: Old Articles
- DAYS: Behind the Scenes, Articles/Photos
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Another World Discussion Thread
Jacker only lasted a season. She was later quoted as saying she "hated" working on AW, but the reasons why were not explained. Her material was quite poor and ineffective; whether this was because she just did not have the gift for writing soaps, or because of network interference, who knows? I believe she was replaced by Robert Soderberg.
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Another World Discussion Thread
Youtube is certainly a godsend to vintage soap fans. Before the internet, we collectors of vintage episodes had to negotiate for, and trade, classic material through the post office. It was a slow and tedious process, and you never knew if the person to whom you had sent material through the mail would be honest enough to send anything back. With youtube, collectors can upload their treasures for all the world to enjoy, and no one has to endure any of the hassles associated with mail-order trading. We are very lucky.
- Another World Discussion Thread
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Another World Discussion Thread
Actually, when Lemay took over the reigns of AW (his scripts started airing in August, 1971), Lyle B. Hill (who was also producing SOMERSET at the time) was the producer. Paul Rauch was not there, and would not be hired until the following year. In his autobiography, on page 52, Lemay recalls his first trip to the studio, and his initial meeting with the actors. He asserts that during his prior months of watching the show from home, Jacquie Courtney had "rarely" looked directly at her costars during scenes; that she would repeatedly glance downwards in a demure fashion, like a silent movie heroine. The writer found this intriguing at first, but was later irritated by the habit, and said that he discovered during his first studio visit that Courtney's downward gaze was a way for her to read key words from the scripts, which she had written on her nurse's uniform. In a typical bitchy manner, Lemay proclaimed that she did so because she didn't feel like going through the drudgery of learning lines. It is pretty clear that he had a hair up his butt about the actress from the get-go. There is only about 90 minutes or so of available material featuring Courtney from AW's golden era, but even viewers of such a small sample can see that the charge of her "rarely" looking at her costars is bogus. When he wrote various outrageous comments about the actors whom he chose to denigrate, Lemay did not know that their work, or at least some of their work, would later show up on the internet.
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Another World Discussion Thread
That's a good point. Although NBC did not keep episodes of the show for many years, kinescopes of the show were made for other markets, like Australia. Claire Labine once said that they found missing episodes of Ryan's Hope from other countries' collections. I just wonder how many such kinescopes of AW would have been kept. Would foreign markets have seen the benefit of preserving them? (By the way, I love your photograph of "the other Mike Powers." )
- Another World Discussion Thread
- Another World Discussion Thread
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Another World Discussion Thread
Jacqueline Courtney once revealed in an interview that she had had copies made of many of her most memorable episodes, and a 60-minute highlight compilation of her best work was saved for Emmy consideration in 1974. She made it available for the 50th Anniversary of Soaps telecast. The show could have used material from that, for great flashbacks.
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Another World Discussion Thread
Hugh Marlowe also had increasing trouble remembering his lines, starting back in the early-to-mid-1970s. Harding Lemay blamed Virginia Dwyer, who played Marlowe's wife, for not giving him correct cues, but those of us who watched religiously back then knew that Marlowe would often stumble over his dialogue, no matter with what actor he played. As for a Liz/Jim romance, I think it would have been within character for lonely Aunt Liz to develop stronger feelings for Jim, but of course he would have never reciprocated. Like Jo and Stu on SFT, who ended up step-siblings when their widowed parents married each other, some romantic relationships would simply never work.
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Another World Discussion Thread
Yes, I began watching AW again on May 4, 1994, to see JC return as Alice, but soon realized it was going to be a bust. The show had no idea what to do with her (Gary Tomlin, the writer at the time, later admitted that he didn't know much about the Alice/Rachel history and didn't know how to use Courtney effectively). Alice was soon sporting a very, very short, severe haircut which was totally wrong for her, and wearing the most hideous, mannish clothes. They paired her with an amiable but bland actor as her romantic partner, and then gave them no story. What a disaster. It's like luring Susan Lucci back to AMC, only to shave her head, dress her in polyester pantsuits, pair Erica romantically with Walter Matthau, and then keep her in the background for the next 12 months. What a waste! The 1989 returns of JC and GR were better written and more satisfying, although I wish they had used some meaningful flashbacks. During the 25th anniversary gala, Alice had a brief flashback to a 1984 scene with her and Rachel, but it would have been so much better if they had used something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeZa_erR6dg Or this: Or this: Or this: I'll bet that the show did not want to use classic scenes, because using vintage flashbacks would have made the current episodes look so weak in comparison, LOL.
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Another World Discussion Thread
No, I stopped watching regularly (well, I actually felt ''driven away") in 1975, when so many of my favorite actors and characters were eliminated from the series. I stuck around for a few more years, as an occasional viewer, because I cared for the characters of Pat, John, and Aunt Liz, but after Lemay left, the writing became so poor, I basically dropped AW completely and concentrated on GH and OLTL, which were both thrilling and on fire at the time.
- Another World Discussion Thread
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Another World Discussion Thread
Accepting recasts is often hard, particularly when the audience has been fond of the original actor in the role. ALL IN THE FAMILY could replace Carroll O'Connor with Sir Laurence Olivier, and there would be viewers screaming that he was a terrible actor, LOL. Canary is a strong, dynamic performer, and certainly his suitability for the role is open to personal interpretation, but I do think the show could have done significantly worse in recasting Steven Frame. What if we had gotten...Kale Brown? It's a shame you were not able to see ANOTHER WORLD every day, back in the 1960s and '70s; it might have given you a different perspective on Courtney's talent, which led to her remaining atop the Best Actress polls in Daytime TV for years, and which won her several awards as Best Actress from editors, critics, and fans. While the petulant Lemay criticized her for a variety of reasons, I don't recall Rauch ever being quoted as finding fault with JC's acting. Indeed, upon Courtney's death, Rauch told Soap Opera Weekly that she had been a "great gal," who could always be counted on to give top-notch performances. For myself, from a decade of viewing the show regularly, I felt Jacquie Courtney was an excellent actress, and I reacted to other actresses in the role of Alice with the same distaste other viewers felt for the replacement actors in different roles...like that of Steven Frame.
- Guiding Light Discussion Thread
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Santa Barbara Discussion Thread
Hold back my hair, I'm going to hurl, LOL.