EricMontreal22

No! thank you! It's amazing how at first archaic these radio soaps seem and then you quickly get wrapped up into them. At least the Irna ones (of which the best I'veheardhave been Guiding Light--probably as it was the only one she head wrote throughout--and Right to Happiness even though she gave the main writing job over quite early on). The Hummert Factory ones I find entertaining but pretty ridiculous--and once I got a set of Stella Dallas and after a few episodes I just couldn't take anymore (to be fair, they're not meant to be listened to back to back).

Yes, you're absolutely right. I guess I'd like to get a clearer time line on the radio version--I've heard a few late 30s episodes, and those 90 episodes from roughly 1950 (which are great).

Ha yeah recently I ent through my boxes of old soap tapes and finally organized them... Hrmm straining your eyes doesn't seem worth it, though I would be curious to see why the first year of AW with those sensational stories didn't go over well. I would love to see Lenore's Wedding again which I remember being two standout episodes... (And now you have me curious about this guy in the lettuce green speedo )

Two random thoughts/questions... Does anybody know when in 1966 Agnes Nixon stopped writing for GL? (which led to one of the most ridiculous turnarounds in HWs in soap history with David Lesan, Julian Funt, Theordore Ferro, Mathilde Ferro, John Boruff,James Lipton and Gabrielle Upton all writing in under 2 years till Irna returned to try to straighten things out for a year and then Soderberg and Sommer had a sucessful run). I have the opportunity to get 30 episodes from the Summer of 66, but I admit, being the Nixon fanboy (and hearing that GL dropped hugely in quality when she left) I'd like to know if she was still writing, if there's anyway of knowing. Also, isn't it kinda a misnomer (though not a huge one, I know this is nitpicking) to call GL the longest running scripted program in broadcasting? On radio, it took several "breaks" after being canceled until Irna could find another sponsor and/or network first between Dec 41-March 42 and then Nov 46-June 47. But also, the story wasn't truly coninuous, was it? I get the impression from Schemering's great 50th Anniversary book that the show was revamped when it moved to Selby Flats and the Bauers eventually came in--but there was no slow transition from Five Points, it just stopped and started...

I'm not sure what got me thinking about AW. I admit it's a soap that I'd love to see more of--at least from the start to the early 80s--the rest interests me far far less--and obviously I'd especially like to see Nixon episodes and some early Lemay. There is a soap DVD trader who has two of the Irna episodes listed (as well as the Lenore wedding episodes Agnes wrote), though I think some of the Lemay stuff is on youtube--this is his AW list: ANOTHER WORLD 5/24/64 JIM AND MARY CELEBRATE MEMORIAL DAY/ TOM SEDUCES PAT 11/10/64 PAT RETURNS HOME AFTER KILLING TOM BAXTER 7/68 2.5 SHOWS WALTER AND LENORE’S WEDDING 1973-74 60 MIN OF SCENES ALICE/ STEVE/ RACHEL TRIANGLE 9/4/74 RACHEL HELPS JOHN AFTER HE IS FIRED BY STEVE 8/15/75 MAC AND RACHEL THROW A GARDEN PARTY 11/23/76 3/6/79 FIRST 90 MIN SHOW JOHN RANDOLPH IS KILLED IN A FIRE 11/28/80

Re what made AW different and wrong for Irna,compared to ATWT, I found this quote attributed t a "writer" on AW from the late 60s (so your gues is as good as mine). Anyway basically he/she says that AW set out to tell story by grappling from the get go with high emotion and dramatic tension, whereas ATWT's focus was on the day to day realities of life. In fact, up until the Dobson's came in to ATWT, really, soap books say that the stories (which Proctor and Gamble never allowed to be too controversial or out there--few bedroom scenes, many topical disease stories weren't allowed, one actor said they had learned whenever they tried any minority character that audiences didn't like them and ratings fell, etc) were secondary. the main focus was the mundane day to day, with the stories almost being a loose backdrop or excuse for dialogue scenes. I guess AAW was completely opposite to this in approach.

Wha?? If you ever have 35 bucks to spare I'd just buy the complete set plus movies from ioffer like I did. I hate to support that but they look really good, and Shout Factory has announced that Fox refuses to license any more volumes, but were so disappointed with sales they won't release any soon by themselves (grr frustrating).

It probably was a bit too late to reunite fans of the show (plus the previous movie, Murder in Peyton Place is ABYSMAL--and was forgotten for this one).

I think AW set out to be more plot driven as well--which is usually seen as an insult but in this case I mean more so than ATWT which was so incredibly character driven back then, plot was VERY slow to happen. SHe also spoke about how GL being 15 mins allowed her only one core family and the characters associated--30 min soaps allowed two core families and the characters between them.

Great point (and thanks Paul! I've had trouble sleeping since the AMC last week drama--sad I know--and was reading soap books late in bed and just thought of that) And yes, i doubt bell had the freedom to really go where he would want to, fully, while working with irna. Certainly his nearly ten years writing ATWT with her didn't really show what he would bring to DAYS and then to his own shows With Agnes at AW she also got to do something Bell (IMHO--I hope nobody complains) rarely was too good at, which was bring her over the top humour into the show, even if she only did it to a small degree.

I need to start back on the show--took a long break over summer, but did sneak a look at the Peyton Place the Next Generation pilot movie. This opening doesn't really show it, but it's actually quite strong, more than some other primetime soaps of the era--I sorta wonder why it wasn't given a shot. (Besides Ruth Warrick, AMC fans can see the original fake Silver Kane, in the cast) #!

Random question that probably has no answer, but... We know that technically AW was created by Irna WITH Bill Bell (the way ATWT was created by Irna with Agnes Nixon--and then after a year Nixon became HW of GL and Bell became co-HW of ATWT with Irna). His interview in World's Without End goes on about how he co-wrote AW's first year with Irna while still co-writing ATWT with her. We also know, or always hear how Irna was out of her depth with AW--she couldn't do the type of melodrama she had created the soap to be. But--wasn't it largely the kind of melodrama Bell WAS great at? I wonder why it took Agnes Nixon (who seems less key to that kind of storytelling than Bell) was the one who finally turned it around, and not Bell? Of course Bell became headwriter after it ran a year, of Days of our Lives (a soap Irna helped create, but never wrote for), and saved it in many ways, ratings and critical wise, the way Agnes saved AW--but it just always strikes me as odd that he didn't use that melodramatic sweep on AW if that's what was called for.

Ah I was wondering wy he was replaced as he didn't seem particularly bad.

I was just talking to someone about how I didn't recognize Buffy's Marc Blucas as Dave Clark in Revenge and he had no idea what I meant--then I found out since I downloaded the leaked version a few weeks back--he was only in the unaired pilot...

It really looks like elements of that were used in some of the lofts on The City...

SOD: Do you worry AMC will age Timmy? TM: "They wouldn't age Timmy because then they'd have to make Kate Collins [Natalie] and James Kiberd [Trevor] older." Tommy has come a long way on ALL MY CHILDREN in the past two years, but he still has a lot to learn about soaps. HAHAHA. Though I guess they didn't age him for a while--and then they just dropped him...

He was... OK he played Ted as a shy, quiet, and kinda slow guy. Far from brilliant, but you could tell who was who and it wasn't as campy as it could have been in scenes between the two. I actually kinda liked Julia at first as the rebelious sister--but I swear if she dated Terrence it was only a number of scenes.

I don't even remember Julia and Terrence. But being Canadian, I always found it slightly hysterical that that whole Ted/Dixie/Tad story culminated in the wild Canadian wilderness.

The owner had his videos up on a server for about a year after and was kindly giving out the addresses to certain of them to people who emailed him. I just dunno why out of all the ones I managed to save--I forgot to save the two Agnes Nixon/Robin Strasser AW eps GRRRR.

I have that How to Host a Murder game and still have never played it because I don't know enough people who watch the show (especially back then) to play lol, so still don't know who the killer was. I did play a number of them at early high school drunk parties...

Hated Chris--HATED. ANd never understood how he was meant to be Ryan's father or something... ANd yes Clohessy is a great actor (in musical theatre too) and I remember him doing his best with fairly brief material--I also remember his confrontation was in their home which was a tiny run down shack that you'd never see in Pine Valley now lol I actually don't remember a lot of these details and stories, but I have remembered nearly all of the Applause/Applause picks.

Yes sorry it was Ridings the Net hated--you're right. He didn't hook up with Laurie till later Rayfield though because it was connected with Liza and Adam going to new age therapist Lysistrate (who dated tad briefly and was one of the few Rayfield creations I really admit i liked)--she told Adam and Liza to go to a movie date together where Adam threw a fit cuz he saw Laurie and JR. Laurie was a poor actress too which didn't help (unlike Joanie) and her issue story was really forced. Bennett;s JR was during Culliton's brief era-I assume he left on his own to persue other aroles, and yeah he had next to no stoy. Of course Ridings quickly ran away on the steam liner to be reacast by Young under McTavish. I never liked mcCartney though a lot of fans did--for a teen actor anyway. Was Tim really around that long? I remember they thought he might have DNA for Hayley's kid or whatever--all I literally remember is a few scenes in the hospital and that's it--didn't even remember he saw Maggie.

And always a joy to read an interview with Agnes. Interesting, that was dated end of June, and I am pretty sure from when I checked credits obsessively that McTavish (who was probably one of the co headwriters she mentioned earlier) was officially given credit by April or May--Wiki says May. Also the Who Shot Will story is almost always credited as one of McTavish's earliest plots that got her credit for the job, but Agnes sounds heavily involved (McTavish copied many elements of it in the Michael Cambias murder mystery). But I know often back then Agnes would still oversea overall story but not get credit (apparently when Wasam was listed as HW and Agnes wasn't even, he has said her and him co wrote together).

It's great to read, just takes me a while. But don't apologize. It did make sense for Tim--LSD is a drug that I think since the mid 90s has fallen out of fashion for teens to experiment with--I NEVER hear about it anymore and I did in Jr High, so I wonder if they ever use it anymore. And it wasn't all that badly done--but the effects were cheesy. When Tim went bad afterwards, he didn't fall back into drugs, though it would have made sense. Such a wasted opportunity not bringing Tim back (that one week stint with the actor who went on to Passions does not count... I think that was one of Culliton's dropped stories/characters). McCartney was JR. He was acting out, hanging with the cool older kids at the boathouse (I miss the boathouse lol), dropping E. They were the kids who were mean to Bianca who tried to befriend JR--Mindy was one, just vacant badly portrayed teens. I think JR drove with Mrcus and he got into a coma because they crashed, not sure if he woke up. Very shortly after he was replaced by Bennett, who I liked as JR (though oddly a lot of people online hated his acting) but he had pretty lame stories under Rayfield. He liked that random girl who had the drunk abusive father that I believe Liza helped in a weird short term story, etc (Amanda Seyfried was her best friend Joanie and was interested in Jamie--she lasted a bit longer than the others but not much).

I had no idea Marco Dane returned in 91--was this to lead to his GH role? He won for OLTL the Soap Opera Digest award for best short term character. I also can't find the video of Roy Orbison's Crying that stared Max and Luna that Linda Gottlieb set up, but I remember it played a lot.