thelma

Thomas123853 posted an episode from 1977 on youtube. It's the Man of the Year Awards dinner for Mike Bauer where Bill Bauer is secretly watching on the sidelines. It features so many wonderful characters and moments. Besides the Bauers, there's the original Hilary Bauer, Rita, Bert and Steve Jackson flirting, very early Katie Parker and Peggy Thorpe toward the end of her run. I love, love Fran Myers and she is typically understated and fabulous. She has the most beautiful eyes.

It's taped from the TV so turn your volume WAY up, but it's a gem.

Here's a great YouTube find. Another World, Christmas 1984. The episode has the orignal MJ and Vince Mckinnon, Ben McKinnon, Donna and Marly (pre-Vicky), the Corys, terrible Blaine recast, the Ewings, the Matthews (including Alice), Cass, Wally and Felicia. It's a pretty good episode.

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A rare find on YouTube. Someone posted a few AW episodes from 1980, just after Janice's death. I haven't watched the whole episode yet, but it has Mitch sniffing around Rachel and the original Cecile.

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Thanks for posting this article. Very interesting because it's a little before my memories. I probably was sitting in front of the TV watching with my Legos.

I wonder, do you know what explanation was given for Lahoma's absence when Sam returned to Bay City?

I love the picture of Steve, Alice and Rachel. I bet George Reinholt was quite a character in more ways than one!

Wouldn't it be neat if an Another World DVD was released with something from this era? I would love to see Alice's engagement party when Rachel told her was pregnant. Dare to dream!

For Another World fans, what are the 20 episodes from the 1979-1999 time frame that you would like to see on a DVD set? We should start thinking of it since it'll probably be released sometime next year.

1. I would love to see Mac on the witness stand during Rachel's trial when he found out Matthew was Mitch's baby.

2. The climax of Mac/Rachel/Janis in St. Croix

3. The death of John Randolph

4. Rachel, Mac, Blaine and Sandy's wedding.

5. The cave in where Steve and Rachel declared their love.

6. Pat shooting Marianne's boyfriend (although that might be pre-1979)

7. Any episodes with Alma gas lighting Blaine.

8. Mac's funeral.

9. Ada's funeral.

10. The conclusion of the 25th anniversary party.

11. Alice's return (Jacquline Courtney).

12. Sally's death.

13. Steve Frame's second death.

14. Anything with Felicia and Wally being crazy. Crashing into the diner.

15. The introduction of Victoria Hudson.

16. Jake's shooting or Vicky and Marley during the trial.

17. Iris admits she was the chief.

18. Any big moments with Beverlee McKinsey's Iris from 1979-1980 (can't think of any right now).

19. Cass and Kathleen's wedding.

20. Amanda or Matthew's births.

There's so many more, but these are off the top of my head.

It was definitely a time of transition. Was this after Corinne Jacker was gone? Was this when Purser had taken over?

Is it me or were they very blatantly building up Rachel/Mac again? Steve felt like an outsider. I know he'd be killed within a few months of this. Rachel and Mac had such amazing chemistry, whether fighting, or being friends.

I must say I also liked the chemistry between Elena and Mac. I'm sorry that they didn't seem to know what to do with her.

Clarice and Larry were such a normal, believable, likeable couple. I liked the moment where they agreed Henrietta and Quinn would stay and he joked that if he wanted it then it had to be right.

I am always happy to see more of Henrietta. Michelle Shay is such a unique actress and also very beautiful. I'm sorry the show didn't hold onto her, or to Quinn. I do find all this "They both lost the man they loved" stuff to be kind of strange - I don't know if they would be so chummy right after Bob died.

I was shocked at Steve in that house, even if it was technically Rachel's. It just didn't seem right at all.

I was glad to see more of Lynn Milgrim, as I remember during her awful ATWT days Michael Logan said she'd been a "soap queen" on AW. That made me think she had a larger role than she really did. I liked seeing more of Julia too. Too bad Kyra Sedgwick didn't stay around.

I loved the scenes with Jamie and Rachel when they were talking about how important he was to Mac.

It's funny - from the first time I saw AW, I felt a connection, even though I knew very little about it, and it wasn't a great period for the show. Through the tapes, and DVDs, and Youtube, and the few years on Soapnet, that has continued. My love for this show never seems to fade. I think it's the characters. Some of the richest, most believable, most fascinating characters ever on television.

I suspect you're right about the writer during this time but I'd have to look it up to be sure.

I loved the chemistry between Richard Bekins Jamie and Rachel. They were the best together no matter what the emotions. Jamie was so well written and acted. I wonder how much influence the actor had because even when the show's writing was bad, Richard Bekins could pull it off and be believable as Jamie. I also loved how torn he felt between Mac and Steve.

It's interesting you see Steve as the outsider as well. It's weird because Mac was the outsider once Steve came back. That's why Liz and everyone showed up at his apartment. Little did we know, Steve would be dead in a few months and Mac would be back with Rachel.

I never saw Lynn Milgrim as a soap queen when she played Susan. I wasn't impressed. Was she on another show before AW?

I think you hit the nail on the head with the richest most believable characters. Henrietta and Clarice were so normal and realistic. That's why they didn't fit in during the later years when Cass, Felicia and Love's came to the forefront. It was sad. I love Gail Brown's Clarice. She could be ditzy, sympathetic, but never dumb. Just not worldly educated. There was also something about Larry that I liked. Not a great actor, but the two of them together were a perfect couple you rooted for no matter what.

Thank you for letting me know about this, sungrey. It turns out there are several other episodes I never even noticed saynotoursoap uploaded, as something went wrong with my subscription thing.

Thanks for the heads up on this classic Christmas episode. Wow another time of transition though. Not one of my favorite eras for sure. What did you think?

Steve Frame and Rachel living in Mac's house was a huge bone of contention for me not to mention how by then David Canary's Steve was so watered down and boring. When he first arrived he was good, but by this point, not so much.

The Matthews were almost done by the New Year. Susan was leaving again, Pat, Russ and Alice were gone. Sad.

The direction was interesting too. David Canary seemed to be forgetting his lines and did you catch Larry Ewing calling Jamie Sandy? Weird!

All in all, what a treat though! I wish Blaine and Cecile were in the episode though.

I always assume that someone may have loved Rachel and hated Alice, or vice/versa, so it's always nice to know how fans felt at the time. I really wish that I'd seen more of Jacquie and Victoria Wyndham together, I loved their work in the 1989 anniversary episodes.

Michael doesn't seem like the greatest actor but he's easy on the eye. It's too bad the gay storyline he was supposed to be in was killed. That would have been very groundbreaking drama, and shaken up the Matthews family. Imagine Liz's reactions.

I also loved the chemistry between Alice and Rachel at the anniversary party and Mac's funeral. Those two had something special.

You're right. Michael was just an OK actor, but I think he would have done well with the gay storyline. Liz would have swallowed the sofa if one of her relatives came out of the closet. Then again, I would have loved it if Liz would have been the accepting one and the other Matthew's had the problem with it. That would have been more unexpected.

Just from how he was written, Michael coming out would have caused a problem for John and isolated him more from his family. He always seemed to be on the outs with one or more of the Randolphs.

My mom loved Rachel. She always sided with Rachel against Alice because she thought Alice was a victim. Personally I liked them both.

I agree about Brian. Although I liked him, once Iris left, he drifted around, but basically went nowhere. They even tried to pair him with Pat which was boring.

I'm not sure why Marianne left or was let go? She and Michael were both written out within a few months of each other. Of course Marianne was recast and the character was given one more shot. I liked her the best of all the recasts.

What did you think of Maeve Kinkead(sp) as Angie? She was very subtle. A huge difference from when she went on to play spoiled Vanessa. I never liked Rose her mother though. I never understood the appeal of the actress.

Wow Carl, thanks for linking to this video from Saynotoursoap. What a classic that needed to be seen again. I saw it as a kid, but it's been a long time. I forgot just how LONG 90 minutes was. Did you notice how many of the scenes moved so slowly without dialogue? Liz and Jim were so good. You're right. I wonder why they dropped the idea of pairing them. I also loved revisiting Willis, Vince, Angie and Janice (although I wish Gwen was there too). Willis was a favorite of mine. If you close your eyes, he sounds a lot like George Reinholt. I had forgotten how Janice was involved with trying to break up Willis and Gwen in favor of Angie.

Of course another treat for me was Pat. Loved her and her reunion with Marianne. Very touching. It still drives me nuts that they killed off John and never reunited him with Pat. They should have been a tent pole couple for years to come.

I also instantly thought of my mom when the episode was playing because she used to always say, "It's All About Alice." She hated how Alice made everything about HER. In the coming weeks, she acts like she lost her husband/father instead of the poor Randolphs.

I wish we could see more of crazy Olive. What a NUT!

What I don't really understand is why they got rid of Pat but kept Alice. Was it only because of the upcoming Steve story?

It seems like AW had a very hard time with younger heroines beyond the early set (Alice, Pat). By the early 80s, when youth was the heyday, they only seemed to have Sally and Blaine. I guess there's Julia but I don't know if she was popular or not - the show seemed happy to discard her.

I wonder if it was P&G who wanted Pat gone.

You'd think, since there was a history of younger men being attracted (wasn't Marianne's boyfriend - the one Pat killed after he tried to attack her - younger?) to Pat, they might have done a Pat/Jamie storyline, especially with the tension over his book. Wouldn't that make more sense than his random relationship with long-missing Susan Shearer?

What did you think of Lynn Milgrim's Susan?

Firing Beverly Penberthy was a HUGE mistake and saying she had no story was a cop-out. I also wonder what the behind the scenes story was. She was still around when Steve returned so it doesn't seem like they traded Alice for Pat. She could have been paired with Mac when he and Alice broke up. Rachel was already starting to pine for Steve anyway. The two actors had a lot of chemistry and I think their friendship could have easily turned into a romance. Liz would have been THRILLED!

I also really liked the actress playing Marianne at the time. She was a good contrast to Cecile and Blaine. She was a good girl, but she still married a guy she didn't love and secretly lusted after Jamie. (Although who didn't at the time!)

I didn't care for Susan and her relationship with Jamie didn't do much for me. She wasn't around that long so I think someone agreed with me.

That really is an incredibly beautiful opening theme.

Who is playing her husband? He looks familiar to me.

The pictures in the theme are really nice too. I like them better than the Y&R drawings of the time.

I think the husband is the guy who played Andy Norris on Guiding Light. It sure looks like him.

I don't know if this has ever been posted before. I never saw much of Love of Life, but this video is in great shape and contains a nice edit of the opening.

I assume this is the same character Christopher Reeve played in the previous video.

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Great observations. I totally agree. Chris Robinson would have been great as Willis Frame. They basically tried to re-create the Willis character with a different brother. Esp. using the storyline of exposing Sharlene as a prostitute. Willis did that in the 70's and Jason threatened to do it before he died I just wish they bought the offspring of the Frames to Bay City. Gwen and Willis supposedly had many children Irene Daily is one of my all time favs from AW

I totally agree. Chris Robinson should have been Willis. They could have tied him to Mary and Reginald as happening before he came on screen. They rewrote history already having Frames in Bay City before Steve's introduction. It would have also explained why Gwen was so crazy when she came back. She wanted revenge for her estranged husband's murder.

I wasn't a big Dean Frame fan, but he could have been one of Willis and Gwen's kids instead of some new Frame sibling we never heard about.

Totally with you on Liz and Irene Daily. I loved how much she loved Mac. In the later years she was used a lot as comic relief, but this is one of my favorite Liz moments. It showed her going against her beloved family to help Dennis when Olivia ran off with their baby.

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I rewatched Doug Watson's final scenes recently, as well as the 25th Anniversary episodes and Mac's death and funeral. What powerful stuff and a great reminder of what a fabulous actor Watson was.

Knowing that his untimely death impacted storyline for years, does anyone know what was planned for Mac, Rachel, Iris, Amanda, the Corys et al that needed to be scrapped or altered after Watson's passing?

The 25th anniversary was amazing. I agree. I especially loved the scenes with Jamie and Steve Frame and Rachel and Alice talking about seeing Steve's ghost. Great stuff. My only disappointment was Pat barely appearing and making Gwen into a lunatic, but I got over it. I also wondered why they didn't bring Sandy and Blaine back for the party? I wonder if the show made an offer for the anniversary or Mac's funeral?

I've always wondered the same thing about the show's plans for Mac and the Cory's before his untimely death. They did an amazing job incorporating it almost immediately following his passing. It almost seemed planned. It was eerie.

I agree that they should have kept Liz around. I think the problem for her was that she and Rachel were never very close, and she wasn't overly close to the Corys, outside of Mac. They could have expanded on these relationships. I also wish they'd brought in another young Matthews (I'm sure Susan could have had some kids) to spend time with Liz. Or she could have been close to Cass, which would have caused conflict with Frankie, given Liz's hatred of the Frames.

I also wish they had kept Aunt Liz around. She was a favorite of mine. After Ada died, it might have been interesting to see her grow into a confidant or mother figure to Rachel. Can you imagine her reaction to Rachel dating and marrying Carl Hutchins?

I think if they really had cared about the actress and the character, something could have been done to keep her on the show. Josie, who was on the show up to the end was her great-niece. I would have loved to have seen Liz and Sharlene duel over what was best for Josie or Liz trying to turn her into a proper Matthews family member. I barely remember the two interacting at all after Russ was revealed as her father.

I was reading a late 91 Digest that talked about why actors left shows. They had some discussion with Cali Timmins, which helped shed some light on exactly why they recast her. For a long time I'd just assumed they were waiting until Judi Evans was available but that seems less and less likely.

She says in the article that she felt Paulina was becoming more and more of a victim. She was upset about this. She spoke with TPTB several times and never got a response. Finally, a day after an Emmy party, she was told she'd been replaced.

Michael Laibson just said something to the effect that she couldn't find the strength in the character and that it was a bad mix of actor and character, and he wished her well.

I do see her point - Paulina became very weak in the last 6 months of Cali's run (although Paulina had never been a tough heroine anyway).

I wish she hadn't left that way. But I guess she was prophetic, especially considering the mess Paulina was in the last 3-4 years on AW.

Thanks for the recap of the article. I always wondered why she was replaced too.

I loved Cali as Paulina. I don't know what it is about her, but she's an appealing actress. Not a powerhouse maybe, but there's something special about her. I also could totally buy her and Sandra Fergusen as half sisters and I loved how she played off Carmen Duncan. It's a shame they replaced her. Judi Evans didn't have the same icy sexuality as Cali. I grew to like her in the role (and I loathed her as Beth Raines) even though, you're right, the character became a big mess. I couldn't stand her with Joe.

The user on YouTube who's been posting The Love/McKinnon storyline uploaded the infamous scene where Reginald shows Donna a mysterious picture sending her off the deep end. She also clutches three pillows before being carted off to the loony bin.

I really wish they had gone with Scott being her third baby.

I'll admit. I'm enjoying re-watching this stuff and appreciating it more and more. Better than anything else on the air today for sure. One observation is the amazing background music in some of the scenes. (Not the 80's pop stuff at Mary's Place though.)

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The rather unsuccessful recasts of MJ and Donna have been addressed here recently...what are everyone's thoughts on Taylor Miller as Sally, Anne Howard as Nicole, and Christopher Holder and Marcus Smythe as Peter? As much as I liked Taylor Miller on AMC, she really came aboard with everything going against her IMHO. Mary Page Keller was very successful in the role, married her leading man, and was gone only a few weeks before Taylor Miller replaced her. As I recall, her first storyline was also an entirely new arc with the Le Soleil story. I didn't like the story, and she seemed to be an entirely different character. I thought Anne Howard fared better as Nicole, but she was also the second recast after Kim Morgan Greene originated the role. The character of Peter seemed to change based on whoever was playing him, but I did think Smythe made a good villain. I would have preferred him as a different character since he was originally a nice guy under John Hutton.

I wasn't a fan of any of the Peter's as characters or actors, but I kind of liked the last Peter as a villain. Same with the Nicole's. I didn't care for any of the actresses or the character although I thought Ann Howard's last few months as desperate, crazy Nicole were kind of good. I had hoped Nicole would have been revealed to have been Jason Frame's daughter. There were hints of that at one point, but it went nowhere. It might have been cool to have her find this out after she killed him.

Replacing Mary Page Keller with a stunt recast like Taylor Miller was a flop for me, but killing off Sally was a HUGE mistake. She was too important of a character to die and basically not be thought of again.

Yes, I meant your mother. I'm glad she liked it. I can imagine that the scenes Sharlene had with Rachel around the time Josie and Matt were first getting together were great viewing for loyal fans like your mother who'd seen all those moments.

I was a bit put off at how quickly they made Jason such a monster, just for the murder mystery. I wasn't a fan of the character but it felt cheap to me.

There was a fair amount of criticism of the DID story...Soap Opera Digest panned it twice. I didn't think it was that bad, but I thought it went on a little too long and I thought it smacked of, "We don't know what to do with this character."

She loved the interactions with Sharlene, Rachel and Matt and Josie. She was funny because she said right from the start, "I bet Aunt Liz will be the one who spills the beans to Matthew about how he was conceived." She was dead on. I wish Liz had told Josie about Sharlene's past. That would have been pretty devastating and caused all kinds of conflict with Sharlene and Liz. "Oh Liz!"

I agree about Jason. They made him a total scum bag too quickly.

I didn't know the DID story was criticized. That's interesting. I agree with you. It was long and definitely felt like, we have to do something to cause conflict with this lady now that the town knows she was hooker and got over it!

Did she see Sharlene when she returned in 1988?

I assume you mean my mom? She did and she really liked the new actress and her storyline until the multiple personality story. I remember her hating that. I didn't mind it other than the stuff about Jason "pimping" her out to his friends (or something along that line).

What did you think of all the stuff with the Warren Burton character (Jason?) and Elsa, and the death of Tracy? Did you think it made sense to randomly recast a friend of Iris' from 3-4 years earlier?

What did you think of David Bailey as Russ? I wasn't overly fond of him from what I've seen, mostly because I didn't feel the warmth that I think the character would have, but I didn't see that much of him.

Warren Burton pining over Tracy was boring stuff. It got old fast. His voice grated on me. David Bailey is the only Russ I ever knew. I kind of liked Tracy and Russ as a couple. She made Russ act more human because think Russ was supposed to be kind of cold and unemotional. Especially after being so unlucky in love. That's how I always remembered him. My mom hated him. Especially how he treated Sharlene. I have limited recollections of that storyline other than my mom hating the way Russ, Liz and Willis treated Sharlene.

Did the first actor leave or was he fired?

I don't know if he was fired. Incidentally, I was thinking of the second Jerry Grove, Kevin Conroy. I had to look him up on the Another World homepage. He's the one I liked.

I didn't know there was a first actor. I don't even remember him.

What did you think of Jerry?

He raped Clarice, didn't he?

Original Jerry I loved. He was handsome. A little too nice, but a good solid leading man. I loved his friendship with Larry and Clarice.

They recast him with an unappealing, wooden actor which I think killed any chance of a reunion with Blaine. Then he got hit in head or something and went psycho, stalked Clarice and raped her. THAT upset me. I was a big Clarice fan and I hated seeing her victimized. I hate when they do that on shows, especially to someone sweet and innocent like Clarice.

How soon into Blaine's run did they make her sympathetic? It seems like it was pretty early to me but I don't know. What did she do right after the breakup with Jamie? Was she given a rape by redemption story? I think she was raped by someone when she was with Sandy, wasn't she? One of those "save my man with sex" things? Hate those.

From what I remember of Blaine and from watching some of the 80's episodes on AOL, she became more sympathetic when she hooked up with Jerry Grove. (It was around the same time Cecile was becoming a total bad girl.) Unfortunately, Blaine was torn by settling into normalcy with nice guy Jerry or finally getting the high life she wanted by getting involved with creepy Jordan. She had shades of grey which made her so interesting. She wanted to be good, but temptation and wanting "things" got in her way. She made bad choices.

She loved sweet Jerry, but liked what Jordan offered and was afraid of him. She and Sandy didn't get involved until awhile later. After Jerry went whacko and got carted away. They were friendly, but Blaine kind of drifted around after the rape and Jordan's murder. I don't recall it as a "rape redemption" even though I did feel sorry for her.

When she and Sandy finally got involved, she started becoming more one-dimensional and a total good girl. I guess they wanted her to be the opposite of Cecile who was the bad girl. I didn't see the Alma Rudder story, but I assume being gas-lighted and victimized made Blaine a total heroine. Isn't that how it usually happens hence your original question?