watson71

I'm sure AW had a storyline planned where Iris would get back into Mac's good graces, and Rachel would have been skeptical of everything Iris did.

In 1985, Another World had started a storyline involving Carl Hutchins stealing an Egyptian treasure with the show's younger couples- Nancy and Chris and Marley and Jake- involved as well. The show originally planned to film location sequences in Egypt; however, this changed when the Italian cruise ship The Achille Lauro was hijacked by four men representing the Palestine Liberation Front off the coast of Egypt on October 7, 1985. An American man in a wheelchair, Leon Klinghoffer, was murdered by the hijackers and thrown overboard. Since the location sequence in Egypt was deemed too dangerous, the show wrote into the storyline that Carl Hutchins had transferred the Egyptian treasure to the Arizona desert and hid it. The location sequence was filmed in Arizona later in October and aired in November.

Killing Lucas on Another World, then turning his wife Felicia into an alcoholic on Another World. Using a popular character in a storyline like this is a risk, but for over a year Linda Dano did a fantastic and realistic job playing an alcoholic who hit rock bottom. The storyline won Dano an Emmy and the show was nominated for writing Emmys as well. Felicia's intervention is on point- great acting, great writing, great directing. Dano, Alicia Coppola, Stephen Schnetzer, and Vicky Wyndham all gave great performances during that intervention.

After Mac died, I never understood why they did not pair Rachel with Russ. Vicky Wyndham did have chemistry with David Bailey's Russ. Even if it wasn't a long term pairing, having Rachel lean on Russ would have caused all kinds of conflict and the show could have used the history of these two characters. Once it was revealed that Russ was Josie's father, he left Bay City only to return for a few guest appearances.

The big problem with introducing Texas was that several characters were introduced and their storylines began on Another World in the months leading up to the Texas premiere in August. So if a new viewer who never watched Another World tuned in to the premiere of Texas on August 4, 1980, they were watching the debut, but they had a hard time following all the storylines because they were already playing out in June and July on Another World. Another World even ran extra long credits listing both casts and crews for both shows during June and July.

At one point, Gil's mom and dad were also introduced in 1983- Marie and George Fenton. Marie worked at Smiley's as a waitress with Maisie.

Tom Wiggin played Gil Fenton. He was introduced as Felicia's chauffeur and debuted on the same episode as Linda Dano's Felicia. He was involved with Felicia for awhile, then dated Julia Shearer. He worked for Frame Construction and disappeared from the show sometime in 1984.

Does any of JC's Maggie Ashley exist on YouTube? JC's Maggie sounds just like what happened to Vicky Wyndham playing Justine- a clipped British accent - and while they didn't give VW a bad wig and glasses- they did give her a deformed face and a hook for a hand.

Nancy Frangione's return in 1995 was a disaster because of the producers and writers. AW had tried to get her to return full time for many years to no avail. Frangione returned in 1986, 1989, and 1993 for short returns, but it finally looked like she was ready to return to the show full time in 1995. JFP treated her like a day player, listing her with the recurring cast members in the credits rather than signing her to a contract. Then, when JFP updated the opening credits in March, 1996 Frangione wasn't included because she was not on contract. The writers also did Cecile a disservice first by having her "kidnap" her own daughter to get ransom money. Then, the writers tried to say Cass was really Maggie's father when much of 1982 was taken up with Sandy or Jamie being Maggie's father. Cass wasn't even on the show at that time. Then, Cecile is written out of the show in June, 1996 broke and down on her luck never to be seen on the show again. What a waste of a talented actress and a character with years of history with the show that could have driven storylines for years.

I'm sure the story got changed many times given what we saw on TV, but I've always wondered what the original intention for Jordan Stark was. All of Bay City was invited to the costume party at the top of a skyscraper. I wonder if TPTB originally wanted to bring back a character like Ryan as the masked Jordan Stark. The other thing about the beginning of the Lumina story was that Jordan Stark had a young sidekick named Zak Wilder. Initially, I thought the show was going to do some Batman and Robin crime fighter storyline with Stark and Wilder. That would have been better than the time traveling picture ending we got. Remember in the party scenes, they had Joe Barbara play Jordan Stark with the mask on his face before they cast the role.

I think that Victoria Wyndham and Beverlee McKinsey's nominations in 1978 and 1979 canceled each other out by the Academy voters. The ironic thing was that in both those years, they were beat by another AW actress that was nominated in the lead actress category. Laurie Heineman as Sharlene Frame in 1978 and Irene Dailey as Liz Matthews in 1979. i can think of 3 distinct times that Wyndham should have at least been nominated for an Emmy: in 1989-90 for the reveal of Iris as the Chief, Mac's death and aftermath, and her showdown with Vicky right before the Cory Publishing board meeting; in 1992-93 if she submitted herself for supporting actress, which she was, for Felicia's alcoholism storyline and the scene where she confronts Felicia at her intervention she would have won that Emmy- it was excellent; in 1993-94 where she leaves Bay City after everyone believed that Mac was part of the crooked rainforest deal, moves to New York City under her maiden name Rachel Davis, befriends Loretta, and is romanced by Carl. The 1995 scenes as Rachel and Justine would not have gotten her a nomination because Justine was so over the top and such a cartoonish villain.

Two of Rachel's better looks was in the mid-70s when she first met Mac Cory and around 1993-94 before she grew her hair long when she married Carl

Once Jamie left Bay City in 1993, never to return again- Sandy, Blaine, and Alex Cory should have made their way back to Bay City. Blaine and Alex Cory were never seen on the show after 1985, and a replacement Sandy made a few appearances with Maggie.

Most definitely agree. The best part of the AW finale were when each cast member filmed their best wishes for Cass and Lila, but it was really the actors talking to the fans. I wonder if these lines were written in the script or they allowed them to ad lib their lines. Also, when Rachel was doing her sweep of the Cory living room, Vicky Wyndham stopped at Constance Ford's picture and kissed the frame. I'm sure Wyndham improvised that.

I think AWs finale was head and shoulders above the finale of ATWT. Goutman knew for nine months that ATWT was canceled- never pretaped anything with 90-something Helen Wagner to include in the finale, gave her a slapped together funeral when Wagner passed away, treated Eileen Fulton's Lisa like a day-player after being on the show 50+ years, and ended the show with Dr. Bob cleaning his office and talking to a cheap light up spinning globe. Now that shows you Goutman could have cared less about ATWT at that point.

Carolyn the gorilla was a nod to Carolyn Culliton the longtime AW writer. Carolyn's gorilla mate was named Richard after Richard Culliton and the zookeeper's name was Sam Radcliffe after AW writer Samuel D. Radcliffe who passed away in 1995. This was a wink n smile to the AW writers that were on the show in 1984 who wrote the Felicia/Cass/Cecile capers, including being locked in a cage with Carolyn the Gorilla, and introduced the character of Wallingford in 1984. I was fine with the return of Carolyn the gorilla since it was probably done for Linda Dano and Stephen Schnetzer to remember how they met Wallingford. I just wished it was done on Thursday- the day before the finale. This would have given the 10 minutes of the finale devoted to Carolyn back so that we could have seen some flashbacks in the final scene as Rachel reminisced in the Cory living room. Also, it has long been rumored that in the last few scenes Bette Midler's In This Life was not the original song selected, but it was Crystal Gayle and Gary Morris' You Take Me Away to Another World. It would be cool if that ever shows up on YouTube one day.

Most likely- they pretaped a scene of Grant alive and well in Tanquir and placed it in the finale. It would have been nice to get Iris and Cecile (Queen of Tanquir) back for that scene with Grant plotting revenge against the citizens of Bay City.

About 6 weeks- they canceled the show in mid April and had to be done filming by the end of May.

Things really began to unravel at AW in 1996. I don't think they thought that JFP would raise AWs ratings demographics- there were weeks where AW was beating both GL and ATWT in the demographics and a few weeks where AW actually passed GL in the weekly ratings. JFP leaves AW in a huff and is replaced by Charlotte Savitz who was working at NBC at the time. I think she did the most damage to AW by dismantling the cast- the worst firing being Charles Keating in 1998 after winning an Emmy. The week Carl "died" in the hospital explosion, was the same week they had Donna run over Jensen Buchanan's Marley and Grant. Marley is disfigured in the hospital explosion and wakes up a foot taller now being played by Ellen Wheeler again thus ending 13 years of Marley and Vicky being identical twins. Savitz went through eight headwriting teams in two years: Margaret DePriest- September 1996-January 1997 Elizabeth Page, Tom King, and Craig Carlson, January 1997 - March 1997 Tom King and Craig Carlson, March 1997 - April 1997 Michael Malone, April 1997 - December 1997 Richard Culliton, December 1997 - May 1998 Richard Culliton and Jean Passanante, May 1998 - July 1998 Jean Passanante, July 1998 Leah Laiman and Jean Passanante, July 1998 - November 1998 MADD was made Executive in Charge of Production in 1996 and immediately makes Executive Producer changes at ATWT and GL but suspiciously Savitz remains at AW until November 1998. I truly believe that P&G knew at that point that AW would be canceled and gave the EP job to Christopher Goutman to "cut his teeth as EP" on AW with the promise to be transferred to either ATWT or GL once AW was off the air. NBC could not risk to keep AW on the air and cancel Sunset Beach instead. NBC gave SB a six month extension until December 1999 then canceled it. Had NBC given AW a six month extension, NBC knew AW probably would have had higher ratings than Passions which probably would have been a flop from its premiere. It would have been fitting if AW left the air on December 31st- just like Somerset (1976) and Texas (1982) did.

In November 1997, Felicia ran away from the hospital after seeing her disfigured face after she fell through the skylight in Alexander's penthouse. Felicia is befriended by a homeless man named "Wally" who reminds Felicia of Wallingford. Rachel goes looking for Felicia and finds her and Wally at a church slated for demolition. Alexander follows Rachel and kidnaps her and places her in a sarcophagus in the church, unbeknownst to Felicia or Wally. Alexander blamed Carl for the murder of his wife, Diana, and for Felicia falling through the skylight. Alexander rescued Rachel at the last second before the church demolition and then returned her home. This escalated the feud between Alexander and Carl, which resulted in Alexander putting on a mask to look like Carl. Rachel killed Alexander when she realized he was not the real Carl, and Alexander died with Felicia by his side. This was the beginning of the end of AW....

I think the intention originally was to proceed with the Bobby Reno story. When Michael Malone took over as headwriter in April, 1997, that is when things went haywire. I think Malone borrowed heavily from his bible for the unaired 13 Bourbon Street and just transferred the ideas to the characters on Another World. Bobby Reno become Shane, Lila his-ex southern belle appears, Cindy and the glowing tiki idol, Lucas lookalike Alexander Nikos, Amanda posing as Hadley Prescott, Rachel being locked in a casket in a church about to be demolished, etc.

It's a wonder that P&G and NBC never considered moving Somerset to the 3:30 PM timeslot following Another World, since Bright Promise did not work in the timeslot. P&G had that mandate that their shows would not compete with one another, but they would move Edge of Night in 1972, Somerset technically could have moved to the 3:30 timeslot. Not sure it would have helped Somerset's ratings, but it made sense from a scheduling standpoint to have a one hour block of P&G shows on NBC.

On the last few years of Another World (1997-99), Vicky shared scenes with Jake, Marley, Donna, Grant. She did not have a lot of interaction with the cast as she did in pre-1997.

The first episode was not bad- it was easy to follow for someone who does not watch DAYS regularly. I suspect by Friday that they are either leading up to Kristian Alfonso returning as Hope/Princess Gina or recasting the character of Hope/Princess Gina given the amount of time the show spent talking about the characters in the first episode.

In March, 1973, CBS moved The Price is Right to 3:00 PM to go up against NBC's Another World. When AW expanded to an hour in January, 1975, it was up against The Price is Right and Match Game, and then later All in the Family reruns (which was the top rated prime time program at the time). With Price is Right/Match Game/All in the Family scoring high ratings, and Another World being the #1 or #2 soap at the time- was anyone watching ABC between 3:00-4:00 PM? It would be interesting to know how large the combined audience share was between CBS and NBC at this time. I would imagine between them combined, the audience share was between 70-80% of all US TV sets were tuned to CBS or NBC.