watson71

AW was so good at this time with the Who Killed Jason Frame mystery, Felicia’s trial, the revelation that Iris was the chief of Bennett Publishing, the build up to the 25th Anniversary, etc. The ratings do not reflect the quality.

Paulina's mother, Maria Hernandez DeSilva, died when Paulina was only about a year old. With no one to care for her, Paulina was taken to the United States where she was placed in various orphanages. Remember they made the connection early on that Paulina and later Hannah Moore's foster mother Marsha Cantrell got them from an orphanage on Gold Street where both Fannie Grady (Felicia) and Derek grew up. I think initially the intention was to make her Felicia’s daughter, or they threw in a red herring to make the audience think she was Felicia’s daughter.

Definitely should add Mac Cory from Another World to this list. AW was never quite the same after his passing. And has any soap ended with a character that was off the show for 10 years as the final scene- after Rachel and Carl shut off the lights and the screen faded to black in the last episode, the final moment was a still of Mac Cory raising his glass to the audience one last time.

Don’t forget AW was in the middle of the Sin Stalker serial killer storyline, and the Sin Stalker tired to kill Crystal Gayle during this week before she sang sang the new theme song with Gary Morris on Friday’s episode.

The ratings the week of July 7th will be the last time that AW scored a rating of 6.0+ until its cancellation in 1999. This was during the Cecile kidnaps Cass and takes him to St. Thomas storyline. After this storyline concludes, several long running AW characters will be written out of the show- Larry, Clarice, Aunt Liz, Catlin- while other popular actors playing Donna, Cass, Kathleen, Jake, and Ellen Wheeler’s Marley and Victoria will leave as well by the end of 1996.

AW will see a bump in the ratings in February for Felicia and Zane’s wedding that was attended by Liberace. It scored a 6.0 the week of the wedding.

This is getting ready to air in November and December. Originally AW was to film scenes in Egypt and had to transfer to Arizona quickly after the the Achille Lauro ocean liner hijacking took place in early October when the ship was hijacked off the coast of Egypt by four men from the Palestine Liberation Front. It was in the news at the time that the safety of the cast and crew did not warrant the trip to Egypt. It was jarring onscreen that Carl Hutchins buried an Egyptian treasure in the Arizona desert.

Think how many Emmys AW would have won had the Daytime Emmys existed during Agnes Nixon’s time as headwriter…

Jacqueline Courtney’s yearlong return to AW ran from May 4, 1984 to April 15, 1985. Her return had little movement of the ratings with AW occasionally beating Capitol, but the show never moved from 8th or 9th place in the ratings. It will be curious to see how AW does in the summer and fall- the bright spot is that the character of Victoria will appear, but there are many bad choices made by TPTB- Perry is killed by falling on a pitchfork, Mary Page Keller’s Sally is recast with Taylor Miller, Larry gets involved in a “Miami Vice” plot about selling Ecstasy at a nightclub, Brittany continues to flounder going from a death mute to a scheming gold digger in a matter of weeks, and what I consider one of AW’s worst storylines ever- Carl Hutchins will fill an Egyptian urn with poisonous dust that will kill Grant Todd and put both Mac and Rachel near death in the hospital. The switch in EP from Allen Potter to Stephen Schenkel will result in a bunch of bad storyline decisions and useless characters.

Part of the problem with Michael Malone was that he was working with Charlotte Savitz as EP. She did so much damage to the show probably under the direction of NBC. The whole Vicky/Bobby Reno- Shane Roberts story was a convoluted mess. Even brining back John Aprea as a new character didn’t even work. They made Alexander so sinister, his relationship with Felicia didn’t even work. The only thing Malone did right was Victoria Wyndham’s 25th anniversary episode.

The biggest blunder AW ever committed was in Spring 1986 when someone approved that the character of Sally Frame should die. Granted Taylor Miller was not the best Sally, TPTB could have had Sally leave town for awhile and then come back as a recast. The “popular” Sally Mary Page Keller had some success in Hollywood in the late 80s, but AW probably could have coaxed her back to the show in the 90s. A lot of the stories given to the character of Vicky that dominated the show in the 90s could have been given to the character of Sally. Also, killing Sally guaranteed that her mother, Alice, was not needed on the show- eliminating the important Matthews/Frame connection.

I agree that AW should have kept Quinn around. Thomasina, Carter, and Grant Jr could have returned to the show at some point. Also, a Quinn/Marshall Kramer/Felicia triangle would have been more interesting than the Felicia/John/Sharlene triangle we saw. There was plenty to do with the character of Quinn, the show just chose not to do it.

The return of Jacqueline Courtney to AW happened on the 20th Anniversary episode on May 4, 1984.

Surprised that AW didn’t get a more of a bump during February sweeps. The Cory jet had crashed over the Canadian tundra, and Mac Cory was presumed dead only to show up alive in the Friday cliffhanger on February 10th. This episode is when Sally met Catlin as well.

The week of 12/5/83, AW passes Capitol for the first time in the ratings. This was the aftermath of Jennifer Thatcher getting killed in a car crash and the revelation that Kevin Thatcher is Sally Frame’s son. Carl Hutchins will arrive in Bay City for the first time during Christmas week.

During this time, AW has gotten rid of Paul Rauch as EP and replaced him with GL’s Allen Potter. He will stay at AW until the end of 1984. While he never moved AW out of 8-9 place in the ratings, he did produce a much better AW than what we have previously seen the past few years from Rauch. Potter was AW’s first producer when the show premiered in 1964.

Go to the 11 minute mark- Stephen discusses how Paul Rauch hired him to play Cass and his screen test with the brilliant Nancy Frangione. He says that Nancy was a cheerleader for him when he started on AW.

RIP 🙏🏼 She was a great actress and added so much to AW every time she visited Bay City. Nancy was yet another overlooked AW actress at Emmy time. She certainly at least deserved an Emmy nomination. Linda Dano and Stephen Schnetzer discussed Nancy on her podcast. I’m just sorry that they never got her on that podcast or any other podcast/interview since she was an important part of AW history.

Thanks so much- I knew the shows ended on 12/31/82. I was wondering how long NBC gave both to wrap up from the cancellation announcement to the last show aired. Hit Man and Just Men did not last long on the schedule, but Betty White did win an Emmy for game show host for Just Men. Also, if NBC had given AW, not Sunset Beach, the 6 month extension in 1999, AW, Somerset, and Texas all would have aired their last episodes on 12/31.

Does anyone know the exact date when NBC canceled Texas and The Doctors? Their new daytime lineup debuted the first week in January 1983.

The week of October 18th, AW had another big event in Wyoming after San Diego in March and the Bel Aire Towers collapse in July. In Wyoming, Buzz had kidnapped Blaine, and Sandy had to rescue her. At this point, P&G was still spending lots of money on AW, but the viewers just weren’t there.

The week of July 12 was when AW had the elaborate cave in at the Bel Aire Tower construction site that trapped Rachel and Steve. A slight increase but no real growth for the show. I wish we could see these episodes on YouTube. So far they have not popped up there.

The week of 3/15, AW featured the location sequence in San Diego with Mitch trying to kidnap Matthew and take him to Mexico. AW improved from a 4.4/16 to a 5/18. The next week it dropped back to a 4.5/16.

What was the date of the GL episode in August 1981 where Nola confesses to Kelly that she lied about the baby?

Lucy Johnson was the VP of NBC Daytime who revamped the schedule in January 1983.