Khan

But, you know, I think Paul Rauch actually recycled certain elements from that opening when he updated AW's opening in '81 (?). I see as much in the silhouettes of the man and woman as well as in the lines shooting at you from the center of the screen.

Let's be honest, with an opening sequence such as theirs, Tom King and Paul Rauch never stood a chance. Even JFP's "hip" opening for AW was more provocative than that mess.

I've seen that clip as well. It's as if we're about to watch some horrendously low-budget video on sexual hygiene.

Such a brilliant episode. So good, in fact, I'll forgive it the occasional clunky line of dialogue. (Soliloquies are hard to write without them sounding...melodramatic.)

IIRC, that's the episode (or one of 'em) that won Tricia Cast and the writing team their Emmys that year.

No, Patrick Mulcahey was gone by that point. As a matter of fact, I think his departure -- which was abrupt, apparently, and allegedly resulted from a rift between him and JFP over his long-term projections -- left GL without an official HW for awhile, leaving those duties up to Nancy Williams Watt, Stephen Demorest, Millee Taggart, Leah Laiman, Carlson, King and Sloane (give or take one -- I think the most HW's, official or not, that GL ever had at the same time was six) -- the last three of which, of course, becoming 3/4ths of the next "official" HW'ing team before JFP introduced her Great Find, Douglas Anderson, whose reign was mercifully brief. Wait, this is the AW thread, isn't it? My bad. Really? I thought it was b.s., so I erased it. Thanks for saying that, though.

Come to think of it, it might -- MIGHT -- have been Jeanne Glynn who was named the fourth Co-HW at GL w/ Craig Carlson, Tom King and Peggy Sloane.

Take two... I, for one, would love to read or even conduct an interview with Tom King -- not just about his years at AW (under Lemay, on his own and with Robert Soderberg, and years later, with Elizabeth Page and Craig Carlson) but also his entire daytime career. He once called LOVING's resident anti-heroine, Ava Rescott, a "hoot" and I think that's true. He also made several statements (which I cannot recall offhand) about GL's Ross and Blake to SOW which I felt were "right-on" and showed a certain understanding of their relationship the previous 1 or 2 writing regimes had lacked. And of course, I would just love to know which "witch" on AMC he loved to watch BITD. Was it Erica? Was it Phoebe? Who was it, Mr. King, lol? I don't think so. Douglas (and not Sheri, thank you very much, Wikipedia) Anderson shared HW'ing duties with just Nancy Williams Watt.

No, I am pretty sure Tom King was part of a four-person HW'ing team while at GL. He might have started out as one of the AHW's -- in fact, I'm sure of it. At some point, though, JFP issued a statement to SOW (I think) making the announcement that he, Carlson, Sloane and the fourth person had been hired to fill that chair and how their combined vision and years of experience were signaling great things a-comin' to the LIGHT or some p.r. malarkey. I don't remember how long they lasted as official HW's, but I do remember that statement and thinking, "Jeez, FOUR head writers?!"

Skip.

Yep. Cassadine has mentioned ATWT and OLTL already. (Thanks, Cassadine! ) But, in addition to those two, he also head-wrote for GL (with Craig Carlson, Peggy Sloane and one other writer I'm forgetting), for LOVING (for three years (1988-91) with Millee Taggart, who collaborated with him at ATWT and RH as well) and for LOVERS & FRIENDS, once it was revamped into FOR RICHER, FOR POORER. In fact, FRFP might have been his first-ever gig as HW, but don't quote me on that, lol.

From the Sunday, May 11, 1975 issue (p. 20) of The Anniston Star (Anniston, AL): Home names are heard on 'Another World' By DIANE HARTMAN Star Staff Writer Is Anniston really "Another World?" All serious discussion of that matter aside, regular viewers of that popular daytime "soap opera" may recognize some very familiar names once in a while. Tom C. King III, son of Dr. and Mrs. Tom C. King Jr. from Anniston, and a writer for that show, throws in an occasional hometown name just for fun. "And oddly enough," King said, "sometimes the story line is like things that happened in Anniston." KING, 28, now lives in New York -- where he's wanted to be for as long as he can remember. His eighth-floor apartment in Manhattan is large and roomy and overlooks the Hudson River, he says. Some of his neighbors in the building are actors, writers and artists. King spends three days a week in his home/office writing a script for one day's segment of "Another World." Four other writers come up with dialogue for the rest of the week. The head writer, King said, outlines the plot and also does rewriting. KING SAID he knows the characters on the hour-long show so well that continuity is not a problem. "They talk in my head all the time," he said. The producer on the show, he said, believes all good writing comes from character, not plot. "We have no amnesia or murder trials, like other soaps. We write about people falling in love -- sometimes with the right people, sometimes with the wrong people. Our philosophy is that the romantic side is a very important part of people's lives," he said. One of the show's characters, King said, reminds him of a woman in Anniston many people gossiped about. The character's name is Rachel -- "She used to be one of the 'bad' characters, but now she's reformed. Love changed her. She was a villainess when she was deprived of love -- she broke up marriages and such things. But now she has a husband who loves her and she's 'good.' I guess if she loses him she'll be 'bad' again." IS THAT going to happen? "I can't tell you!" King laughed. "That's against the rules." So viewers will [have] to keep watching to find out what "Rachel," "Iris Carrington" and "Carol Lamont" will do next. King said he watches the program every day and also "All My Children" because "they have a real witch I love to see." King said fiction writing was one of his three ambitions -- the other two, being a newspaper reporter and working for an advertising agency -- he's already done. AFTER WORKING as an Anniston Star intern in summers away from Harvard, King worked as a Star reporter nine months after his graduation, but decided not to stay in the newspaper business. "I enjoyed the work -- it was satisfying in a way. But most of the stories excited me because I saw fictional possibilities. I always wished I was writing a novel -- but you always had [a] deadline." He took off for New York with no promised job, but he had a few friends willing to put him up. AFTER TWO "harrowing months" of hunting, he landed a job with J. Walter Thompson, one of the biggest advertising agencies in New York. "It was the only one receptive to new people. They were willing to train me and teach me copywriting. Of course the salary was low, but raises were good," he said. At first the ad business was fun, he said. He was only writing the kind of ads he likes to see. "But none of them were produced, and after awhile you find out you'll only succeed if you do things the client likes. And they like a hard sell. But I never agonized over it." He didn't write much on the side while he worked at the ad agency. "AT FIRST I had no inclination -- New York is a hard town to adjust too [sic]," he said. "There's a lot to learn. It takes a long time to make close friends. The people are friendly, contrary to popular belief, but it's hard to go beyond a surface friendship." He had the usual trouble getting a place to live -- the first apartment he found to live in was one-room for $225. But slowly, he said, he made friends -- many of whom were writers. After he began to meet screen writers and read their work, he decided he could do that too. He finished his first screen play in three months. "It got tremendous response from educators and producers. Even though it didn't sell, they encouraged me to try writing for daytime television." BY THIS time, a good friend had become his manager. They sent out about 40 resumes to different daytime shows and got two responses, one from "Another World." After a rather grueling interview, the producer tried him, liked his work and he became a regular writer. King has been with the show for almost two years. This year, writers for "Another World" have been nominated for an Emmy Award for Daytime Television, to be announced May 15. He's still writing in his off time, and has done four screen plays. "One of those has been placed with a nighttime television producer, who's trying to sell it to a network or sponsor," King said. He's also trying to sell ideas for TV movies. "WHAT I really want to write is plays -- they're the hardest to do. I've written about two that I wouldn't show to anybody, but they're good enough to convince me I could write plays." Also on his things-to-do list is writing for nighttime TV, writing a musical and producing. "All my challenges in writing are ahead -- and those things take a long time. I feel like I've just started." End of article.

Et tu, Donna?

Wow, Doreen referenced Ann Larimer! That would never happen on a soap today!

You mean she was standing in front of the McCleary house in the show's final moments? But I thought her place was one of the few that had survived the flood?

I'm sure Mary Stuart wasn't surprised either. I'm just glad Jo got her house back before the show was done.

It was, but I felt Val "worked" best as a full-time wife and mother (or, once she and Gary had divorced, a full-time mother whose alimony and child support checks were signed by a Ewing, lol). If anyone was cut out to be a writer, IMO, it was Karen, who I could've seen as an Erma Bombeck-type columnist and author. Or perhaps Ginger, as a novelist for children and young adults.

I always thought it strange for Val to have any career, let alone one as a novelist.

No, she didn't. At one point in the late 1990's, she was all set to join the GH writing staff. Then, she learned she was pregnant. That was when she decided to "retire" and become a full-time mother.

Unfortunately, I'm on an iPad mini these days and whoever uploaded it hasn't made it available for mobile devices. Thanks anyway, Carl!

If only someone would hire us to run one of 'em.

Same here, NBA! Carl's taste in soap opera is incredible!

I remember when Joan Rivers said Erica Kane was the only woman whose purse folded out into a Murphy bed.

I might have been hard on Laurel at the time (I can't remember) but in retrospect, she wasn't as awful as one might have thought. I only wish they had kept the Dillon family interact. AMC needed a solid, middle-class family to contrast with everyone else in Pine Valley.

I don't believe John Amos was playing Ed Hall, Carl. I thought his character's name was Det. Johnson, but I could be wrong.