watson71

Potter stayed at AW a little over a year and a half. You have to give him his due that he did clean up the mess that Paul Rauch and Corrine Jacker made of the show rather quickly and got the show on the right track. The only fault I can find with Potter's tenure was that they brought back Jacqueline Courtney's Alice with a lot of fanfare for the 20th Anniversary, but gave her little to do but be a supporting character in Sally's storyline.

From the Alma Rudder murder mystery in 1983 to the end of 1984, AW was great and must see TV. While the ratings the show got improved, AW was never able to raise their ratings from #8 or #9. I suspect had the ratings risen higher, Allen Potter would have stayed on as EP. Originally, P&G was going to transfer Mary Ellis Bunim from ATWT to AW, but she went to Santa Barbara instead. Not sure where P&G found Stephen Schenkel, but he was not a good EP and did AW no favors.

1985 was a bad year for AW. Executive Producer Allen Potter retired at end of 1984, and Stephen Schenkel took over at the beginning of 1985. A writer's strike happened in the Spring of 1985, and the show did not officially have headwriters until August 1985- with Sam Hall and Gillian Spencer who were terrible for the show. About the only thing that worked well in 1985 was the introduction of Victoria Love, Jake McKinnon, and Bridget Connell. Early in 1985, Carl Hutchins would kidnap Rachel Cory and her sister Nancy McGowan. This would result in Rachel getting shot and having amnesia. Rachel had some great scenes with her doctor, Alice Matthews, discussing their past history. For a brief minute, it looked like the show was going to set up a Rachel/Mac/Alice triangle, then the show fired Jacqueline Courtney in April and Alice left Bay City. Hall and Spencer would introduce a Le Soleil spa storyline with three forgettable characters- Michaud Christophe, Edward Gerard, and Daphne Grimaldi. Carl Hutchins would kill Daphne, and he framed Cass for her murder. Edward was the person who transformed Fanny Grady into Felicia Gallant. This spa storyline was tied to an Egyptian treasure that Carl Hutchins wanted to get his hands on. Somehow, the treasure wound up in Arizona, and Carl Hutchins would disappear after a fight with Nancy's boyfriend, Dr. Chris Chapin. Chris would be involved in possibly one of AW's worst storylines- Nancy was going to give Mac and Rachel an Egyptian urn that Carl poisoned with deadly dust from an Egyptian tomb. The urn got lost and was passed from person to person in Bay City killing Grant Todd, and later hospitalizing Mac and Rachel after they inhaled the dust. Chris had to come up with anecdote to save MAC and Rachel. Peter Love located Catlin's long dead wife, Brittany Peterson, and she came to Bay City with fisherman Zane Lindquist to stop Catlin's wedding to Sally Frame. Brittany was miraculously cured of being a deaf mute, and she tried to break up Sally and Catlin's marriage. The problem with this storyline was that the popular Mary Page Keller left the role of Sally shortly after her wedding to Catlin. The role was recast with Taylor Miller who was not popular with the viewers. Then, the Peter Love (Christopher Holder) who originally brought Brittany and Zane to Bay City was recast with Marcus Smythe. The role of Peter Love was played by three different actors within the course of one year. With Smythe in the role, Brittany would be involved in the abusive marriage storyline. Several other long term characters were written out of the show- Brian Bancroft disappeared from the canvas. Perry Hutchins would die when he discovered who Victoria Love was and fell from a hay loft. Ben McKinnon would leave Bay City never to be seen again. The most glaring characters written out of the show were Sandy and Blaine Cory and Jamie Frame. For a majority of 1985, Mac and Rachel had no adult children in Bay City to interact with, as Amanda and Matthew were still small children at this time.

The actor I immediately thought of that Barrett, Coppola, and Tucci did not care for was Jensen Buchanan. They pretty much had favorable things to say about everyone else. Also, I wonder what 18 month storyline had to be scrapped because of Douglass Watson's death? I'm sure it was a story that Donna Swajeski took from Harding Lemay's story projection.

Caroline was introduced shortly after Harding Lemay returned as headwriter in 1988. She was involved with Evan Frame and was involved with Sam Fowler's art career. I suspect that Lemay probably had plans for her, but they were probably scrapped when Donna Swajeski took over as headwriter.

About the only good thing Corrine Jacker did was integrate Another World's Bay City. The actors were certainly talented, but they were given typical soap storylines. AW also gave several recurring dayplayer parts to African American actors when Bob and Henrietta's son, RJ, got involved with gang members. I believe if AW's ratings had increased with the integrated cast, then more shows would have integrated their casts at the time. It would take until 1989 for NBC to attempt this integration again with Generations.

The audio is off too- the dialogue doesn't match their mouths moving- looks like a foreign movie that was dubbed into English. I wonder why they did this.

They should have left Cali Timmins in the role of Paulina and if they needed to bring Judi Evans on the show they should have recast her as Rachel's sister Nancy McGowan.

Here is the 25th Anniversay promo with Josie

Here is the promo with Vicky. I remember one with Evan Frame talking about Gwen returning to town to get revenge on Rachel for all the trouble she caused the Frame family. These promos were probably only broadcast on NBC- I doubt that Soapnet aired the promos when these episodes aired.

I looked and did not find just the specific promos- they could be included on clips, as many of the May 1989 episodes are not specific episodes- they are portions of episodes based on specific storylines.

These promos aired for a few weeks before the actual anniversary episodes. They actually aired after each episode before the closing credits. Each promo used the Another World 25th Anniversary Celebration logo below...

I've always believed that McKinsey and Victoria Wyndham's nominations cancelled each other out on AW. During that time McKinsey lost to two other AW actresses Laurie Heineman (Sharlene) and Irene Dailey (Liz). Her never receiving a nomination for GL is ridiculous. McKinsey should have won an Emmy for both AW and GL.

Absolutely- when Liz ran her mouth to Matthew about how Rachel slept with Mitch to save Mac and Rachel killing Janice. Good use of history.

Potter was a very capable producer. When he was at The Doctors, the show had high ratings and won a Best Show Emmy, same goes for Guiding Light. P&G transferred him back to Another World in the Spring of 1983 and he took the mess that Paul Rauch left him with and whipped the show into shape pretty quickly. His AW from mid 83-1984, like his version of The Doctors and GL was engaging and entertaining. He retired at the end of 1984. I wish he would have stayed longer at AW- the show would become a convoluted mess under the next producer, Stephen Schenkel.

A variation on the same publicity photo. Other than the hospital scene, did Rachel and Liz ever come to blows and exchange punches?

I agree- from what I've seen of Marlowe on YouTube, he always looked like he was struggling to get his lines out and trying to find his place on the cue cards 🤣

Had AW kept the character of Mary alive and active on the show's canvas, Dwyer could have been on the show for its entire 35 year run. Dwyer passed away in 2012. The show really could have used a mother figure in its later years after Ada passed away in 1993.

Charita Bauer (Bert) passed away in February 1985. Does anyone remember why TPTB waited an entire year before they acknowledged her passing onscreen? They gave excuse after excuse why she was absent from Springfield- visiting Meta, etc. Since they did wait an entire year, TPTB should have tried to get as many past characters as they could who had ties to Bert for her memorial. Given her importance to the history of the show, her memorial wasnt't what it should have been.

Happy 56th Anniversary Another World. Another World debuted today on May 4, 1964!

P&G constantly did that with producers. In 1984, Edge of Night is cancelled, so P&G hires Erwin Nicholson as executive producer of Search for Tomorrow. In 1999, Another World is cancelled, so P&G hires Christopher Goutman as executive producer of As the World Turns and leaves him in the job for 11 years. He has the distinction of being the executive producer of two of daytime's longest running soaps at the time of their cancellation.

According to this newspaper article dated January 15, 1983 Millette Alexander decided to leave the show of her own accord. Interesting that Giancarlo Esposito (currently Moff Gideon on The Mandalorian) was cast on the show at the time as Clay Tynan and that Micki Grant who played John Randolph's secretary Peggy Nolan for much of the 60s and early 70s on Another World was playing his mother Ms. Tynan. Was GL planning on making the Tynans a new African-American family on GL and they got lost in the shuffle in the change of headwriters?

I have binge watched Netflix's On My Block and Outer Banks. On My Block is the perfect mix of comedy and drama. All three seasons were excellent and full of surprises. The Season 3, Episode 8 (Chapter 28) cliffhanger has one of the most brilliant flash forwards I have seen in a series as it jumps two years in the future and leaves you shocked. The entire ensemble cast is good, but the two standouts are Diego Tinoco (Cesar) and Jessica Marie Garcia (Jasmin). Below is a fanmade tribute of all three seasons of the show that does not give too many spoilers away, but gives you a good preview of the show. Outer Banks is the story of 4 friends who are trying to solve the disappearance of one of the four's dad. The story has a lot of plot twists and turns. If you like mystery and action/adventure stories, you will like Outer Banks.

Interesting that Rauch would even entertain talking to Reinholt in 1981. His dislike of Courtney continued well into the 90s- remember when he made a disparaging comment about her in the soap press and she responded in a letter to the editor to tell her version of the story to set the record straight.

AW would use this theme from time to time when the show was running short and utilized a longer closing credit sequence, sometimes running 3+ minutes. A portion of this version of the theme was used in 1986-87 when Bill Wolff introduced that day's sponsor at the beginning of the second commercial break rather than being incorporated into the opening credits. An example of this starts at 9:27 in the video below: