watson71

Once Agnes Nixon made Another World a ratings success, I'm surprised that NBC and P&G did not revisit the All My Children idea in the late 60s. If P&G had owned both AW and AMC and airing on NBC, they could have utilized the spin-off idea by introducing the AMC characters on AW, like they did with Somerset.

Your synopsis of Nancy in 1985 is 100% correct. Nancy was buying drugs at a disco and taking them. Larry Ewing even went undercover with the drug dealers in the Summer 1985 storyline which was clearly a Miami Vice ripoff. They did talk about Pammy returning in 1988. I wonder if Harding Lemay changed this to Iris when he was rehired as headwriter. Jason Frame's two daughters were changed to Sharlene Frame and Josie Watts. I am sure that Lemay did make this switch. Judi Evans Luciano could have been a Nancy recast in 1991 rather than recasting her as Paulina. You are correct, all the Paulina storylines could have been Nancy's stories. I'm sure Nancy would not have liked Rachel marrying Carl. Also, when Joe Carlino was introduced they made it a point to say he dated Nancy in high school, so it definitely could have worked by bringing Nancy back.

The character of Hunter Bradshaw appeared on AW in the Fall of 1984. Donna Love thought he was an appropriate suitor for Marley because his family had money. Donna did not approve of Marley dating Ben McKinnon. Ben and Carter Todd were Hunter's rivals on the high school football team. Hunter also had a drinking problem, driving drunk and crashing his car into Mac and Rachel's car. By 1985, the character was off the show, and Jake McKinnon would appear in February 1985.

Jean Dadario Burke, Sherrell Hoffman, and Gigi Van Deckter were all directing Another World in 1988-89. Susan Strickler and Linda Barker Laundra directed the show in the early 90s after being producers on the show.

This was during the time that Alice was Rachel's doctor, and all their past history was brought up. If TPTB were wise they would have had Alice start dating Mac again as a plot device. Instead, TPTB clearly had no idea what they were doing and fired Jacqueline Courtney.

On Deadline.com I saw that ABC has renewed all its prime time game shows with the exception of the Disney-owned Millionaire and Fremantle's The Match Game. I would not be shocked in the coming weeks if CBS announces that The Talk will be replaced by a daytime version of The Match Game. Fremantle already produces Price is Right and Lets Make a Deal. They already have the set built for Match Game, but I'm not sure they could keep Alec Baldwin as host of a 5-day a week game show.

The character was Lily Tran played by Bok Yun Chon in the Summer and Fall of 1992. She came to Bay City looking for John Hudson who knew her father in Vietnam. The change in writers from Donna Swajeski to Peggy Sloane caused the story to be dropped with Lily returning to Vietnam for an arranged marriage. It was never clear if they intended for Lily to be a love interest for John or his long lost daughter from the war.

There has been much talk on the board about AW's theme song (You Take Me Away to) Another World. The composer of the song, Ralph Shuckett, passed away this week. The song is mentioned in his Variety obituary. https://variety.com/2021/music/news/ralph-schuckett-dead-keyboard-player-todd-rundgren-utopia-pokemon-1234945718/

According to the Another World Homepage Ada appears on February 28, 1967. She is introduced as Liz Matthews hairdresser. Her brother Sam lives with her as well. Rachel appears on March 8, 1967. Were they living at their house on Bowman Street at this time?

Felicia was such a different character when she first arrived in Bay City in January 1983. In the few episodes that exist around her arrival, it's almost as if the writers were trying to make her into a daytime version of Dynasty's Alexis. They would continue to write her this way right through the Alma Rudder murder mystery, then they made Felicia more likeable. It is definitely fun to see the beginning of Felicia's relationship with frenemy/step-daughter Cecile.

I suspect that P&G was waiting to see if the show would be renewed before they updated the late 90s credits. If it was renewed, then we probably would have gotten updated credits.

Here is Elizabeth Franz as Belia Pirenko

The part of Belia Pirenko, Nikolai's wife was played by Elizabeth Franz, who would show up again in 1982 as crazy Alma Rudder, the Cory maid who helped Cecile terrorize Blaine.

All of these characters and convoluted storylines on the show had to be confusing to those who watched the show daily. In one month from March to April 1982, Tom and Mitch kidnap Matthew, and Rachel tracks them down to a sailboat in San Diego. This leads to the car chase through the streets of San Diego as Rachel tries to escape with Matthew. Meanwhile, Steve and Alice postpone their wedding so he could help Rachel in San Diego. Tom is arrested once Steve and Mitch rescue Rachel and Matthew. The Male Panthers implicate Mitch in Matthew's kidnapping and Mitch is sent to prison. The next week, Rachel is swept off her feet by sculptor Nikolai Pirenko. Nikolai gives Rachel the smuggled writings of a comrade.

The only other thing that Corinne Jacker did well was integrate Bay City with African American characters. While she gave them typical soap opera storylines, all of the actors were good. By 1987, all of those actors were off the show with Quinn Harding being the last one when she was killed by the Sin Stalker.

Another World April 12-13, 1982 Episodes

Here is the Another World closing credits from April 13, 1982. This closing uses the rarely used variation of the theme song and clocks in at long 3 minutes and 34 seconds- with 57 actors listed in the cast. Definitely a rare find...

On Another World, they were setting up that Reginald Love's adopted son, Scott LaSalle, was really a triplet to Marley and Vicky. Reginald showed Donna a picture that caused a nervous breakdown when Anna Stuart left the show. When she left, Donna was clutching three pillows. A few months later, when Philece Sampler took over the role of Donna, the triplet storyline was dropped, and it was revealed that Reginald showed her a picture of John Hudson that caused her nervous breakdown. Scott's true parentage was never revealed before he left the show.

It's terrible that all these great episodes are gone from YouTube. CBS owns Pluto TV. P&G should allow their soaps to be place on this channel. Pluto TV already has a 24/7 Dark Shadows and The Price is Right Bob Barker channels. It also airs Buzzr, another game show channel that airs almost every old Goodson/Todman game show, including vintage B&W episodes of their programs. Each P&G soap could have its own channel on Pluto TV or just create one channel, like SoapNet and air the shows in a block and repeat them throughout the day and switch the episodes each day.

After watching the December 30, 1983 episode of AW, anyone think the Mac's speech at the end of show about the old and new Royal Hotel was actually a speech about the show itself. Talking about how the hotel had fallen into disrepair (AW's 1981-82) and the renovations trying to restore the hotel to its' former grandeur (AW in 1983).

The only storylines that Felicia had between her alcoholism story in 1993 and her affair with John Hudson in 1995 was the Misery ripoff storyline where Felicia was kidnapped by Walter Trask and when she shot Lorna's rapist Kyle Barkley in self-defense.

Jason Frame was supposed to have two daughters. I think it got lost in the change of writers from Sheri Anderson to Harding Lemay with the writer's strike thrown in too. I suspect Harding Lemay changed Jason's two daughters into the return of Sharlene and Josie to Bay City. There was also a change in executive producer at this time from John Whitesell to Michael Laibson in March 1988.

With news coming this week that DAYS has hired both Jackee Harry and Linda Dano for upcoming roles in 2021, I really hope they get to interact on screen. It's not Felicia Gallant and Lily Mason, but I do find it interesting that DAYS announced their hirings during the same week. Now if they can get Stephen Schnetzer back on DAYS as Julie's brother Steven Olson.

I think NBC and P&G also thought that Courtney's return would raise AW back to the top of the ratings after those terrible ratings in 1981-82. When a huge increase in the ratings did not happen, I wonder if TPTB thought that Alice was an expendable character who could easily be written out of the show. Something just wasn't right....

I thought that AW was vastly improved and highly entertaining during 1984 with Allen Potter as EP and Gary Tomlin and Richard Culliton as headwriters. Potter retired at the end of 1984, and was supposed to replaced by Mary Ellis Bunim who was the EP of ATWT. Bunim instead joined the Dobsons on Santa Barbara. Stephen Schenkel took over AW in January 1985. He was an executive at Benton & Bowles, one of the advertising agencies that P&G used to assist in producing their soaps. Tomlin was still headwriter, then there was a writer's strike. Courtney left the show during the writer's strike episodes in April. So for a few months in 1985 I don't think the show had an official headwriter in Spring and early summer. Sam Hall and Gillian Spencer were named headwriters in the summer. The decline in quality was quite noticeable from 1984 to 1985.