watson71

2 hours ago, DRW50 said:

 

These credits have to be early in the change of executive producers in Spring, 1983.  Paul Rauch had begun as AW executive producer in December, 1971.   He is gone by these April 6th credits and replaced by Allen M. Potter who was transferred to AW from Guiding Light.  Potter, who was AW's original producer in 1964, would stay with AW from Spring, 1983 until the end of 1984.  I always enjoyed Potter's AW in 1983-84 and wished he had stayed longer instead of retiring.  He managed to quickly clean up the mess he inherited from Rauch and ex- headwriter Corinne Jacker, and made AW watchable and entertaining again.

3 hours ago, Nothin'ButAttitude said:

 

While I loved Lila, I felt that after Frankie was killed off, Cecile should've been the woman Cass ended up with. Also, Cecile being the butt of every joke in her last stint was embarrassing. Along with her putting Maggie in danger to get her trust fund. Having watched clips/episodes of Cecile from the 80s, that seems even farfetched for her to do that to Maggie. 

 

Iris remaining in jail as long as she did was stupid. They should've brought Iris/Carmen Duncan back around '97 when the show skidded off the tracks and they had Carl obsessively feuding with Grant for the 100th time. Jamie should've been brought back around that time too to take over the hospital instead of bringing on Bobby Reno, who was garbage casting coup and stupid character. 

 

I've always felt Ryan should've just remained in a coma until PMV wanted to return, which was he following year. Vicky with Bobby and later Jake was just horrible. I always looked at Vicky with major side eye for marrying Jake after the history of him raping Marley. I bought their tense friendship but never could support that pairing. 

I agree about Cecile.  My biggest problem with her return in 1995 was when the writers chose to rewrite history and try to say that Cass was Maggie's father.   Cass was not even on the show when Cecile played both Jamie and Sandy into thinking they were Maggie's father.   Cecile could have been a real asset to the show in those final years.

The Bobby/Shane story was a mess.  A terrible, convoluted mess of a story.  Ryan should have never died.  I could have bought a Jake/ Vicky/ Ryan story.

Here are what I feel are AW's 10 most dubious casting decisions:

1. Sandy and Blaine Cory move to California with children Maggie and Alex in 1985.  While we would see a teen age Maggie in the 90s and a recasted Sandy for a handful of episodes, Blaine and Alex would never return to the show.

2. Jacqueline Courtney's Alice should have never left in 1985.  Again, she should have been showcased in a Rachel / Mac / Alice triangle.   It would have been great to see Alice scheme against an amnesiac Rachel.  Would have been great karma for Rachel.   It could have also provided great material for Ada and Liz as they chose sides.

3. The killing of Sally Frame in a car accident in 1986 made no sense.  She was both a Matthews and Frame, in addition, she was a "surrogate child" to Mac and Rachel.  She could have driven years of story.  Her son, Kevin, could have been aged as well.  Had the character of Sally lived, I suspect at some point the show could have lured Mary Page Keller back to the role.  While she starred in a few short lived prime time series, she could have been an asset to AW in the 90s.

4. The dismissal of Irene Dailey's Liz Matthews in 1986.  She was off of AW for approximately 18 months.  When she returned in late 1987, she was on recurring status.  I'm not sure why she wasn't put on recurring status in 1986 instead of being written off the show.

5. Cass and Kathleen left the show in late 1986- and a Cass look-alike returned in mid-1987 with Kathleen having died in a plane crash.  The fallout from the Cass look-alike lasted briefly, and Kathleen would turn up alive years later in the witness protection program.

6. The recast of Donna Love with Philece Sampler in 1987 was terrible.  She was all wrong for the part.  No doubt that NBC selected Sampler because of her popularity on DAYS.  It was a relief when Anna Stuart returned to the show.

7. Jane Cameron's Nancy was written off in 1987. She returned briefly in 1989 for the 25th Anniversary and in 1993 for Ada's funeral.  At some point, the character should have returned to the show full time.  The show created the character of Paulina.  They could have brought back Nancy instead of even creating Paulina.  Nancy always flirted with Jake , and she was always an ally of Marley and enemy of Vicky.  Cali Timmons/ Judi Evans could have easily have been a recasted Nancy- a character who was Ada's daughter and Rachel's sister.

8. Nancy Frangione's Cecile returned for short visits in 1986, 1989, and 1993.  In October, 1995, it looked like Frangione was willing to return to the show on a permanent basis.  She was written out in 1996 with little fanfare.  The show used her as a recurring character and wasted a great opportunity to have a villain on the show.

9. The characters of Jamie Frame and Iris Wheeler were written out of the show in the mid-90s.  Both characters were seldom mentioned and could have been used effectively in the show's latter years.

10.  The character of Ryan Harrison died on-screen, only to return the next year as a ghost.  The show should have had the character of Ryan fall from the train trestle with Justine, rather than shooting him in the back by Grant.   Clearly, Paul Michael  Valley was willing to return to the show.   Ryan's body could have "disappeared" only to return alive rather than rely on the ghost storyline.

Below is a great confrontation between Rachel and Alice that aired 4 days before the above posted episode on March 25th.  Jacqueline Courtney would air for another month before leaving the show.  The show was watchable at this point; however, Rachel would have amnesia well into the summer months! And she would leave Mac and move out of the Cory mansion to "find herself." The show blew a major opportunity to revisit the Rachel/ Mac/ Alice story, as Alice was engaged to marry Mac several years earlier.  This also would have been an opportunity to showcase Courtney's Alice.

Around this same time, Jake and Bridget were introduced to the show as two mysterious grifters who came to Bay City with an interest in the Love family.   It would be revealed that Marley had a twin named Vicky.  Carl's son, Perry, would discover Vicky's identity; however, he would die from a fall from the Love hayloft before telling anyone.

The week after the posted episode aired, Catlin and Sally would marry.  I think one of the main reasons the character of Brittany did not work was because the show would recast the character of Sally in 1985 with Taylor Miller.  Had Mary Page Keller stayed in the role, the Sally/ Catlin/ Brittany story would have been more successful.

AW would still remain enjoyable and watchable well into the Fall.  This is when the show aired a location shoot in Arizona about a stolen Egyptian treasure that Carl Hutchins had hidden.  The aftermath of the story was when the show fell apart.  Carl filled an Egyptian urn with poisonous dust from an Egyptian tomb that passed around Bay City until both Mac and Rachel opened it up and became hospitalized.  This was the big story at the start of 1986, prompting the overhaul in 1986.

Below is a great Alice/Rachel confrontation from March 25, 1985:

https://youtu.be/wH3ITLZ08EM

TV Guide ads for Another World from 1985:

Here is Allen Potter's obituary that appeared in Variety:

SEPTEMBER 18, 1995 | 12:00AM PT

The Doctors was the only non- P & G soap that Potter produced.  He was a producer on ATWT and its spin-off Our Private World. He was the original producer of AW and later returned in early 1983 to the end of 1984.  In between, was his successful stint at GL from 1976-82 where the show won two Emmys.  

He retired from soaps at the end of 1984 at the age of 65.  It would have been curious to see what he would have done with AW had he stayed there longer.   He did manage to put the show back together and make it watchable after the end of Paul Rauch's run as EP with Corinne Jacker as headwriter.  

It certainly looks like Charles Keating as he looked when he arrived on AW in 1983.

Does anyone know if AW ever tired to get Robin Strasser to return to the show after 1972?  After this point Victoria Wyndham owned the role of Rachel, but I'd be curious to know if they ever tried to get Robin back.  

Also, did AW ever try to get Beverlee McKinsey back in the role of Iris around the time she started playing Alexandra on GL in 1984?

The last scene between Alice and Rachel in the 1984-85 video clip was when Rachel was shot after being held hostage by Carl Hutchins.  Within a month after the scene in the hospital room, Jacqueline Courtney would be written off the show.  The show missed a big opportunity to move JC's Alice front and center.   Rachel would have amnesia from March well into the summer months.  During the story, Rachel leaves Mac and moves out of the mansion.   Just think of what could have been if Mac rekindled his romance with Alice while he was separated Rachel.   In the hospital scene, they even talk about having the same taste in men.   Alice, not Rachel, would have had the upper hand while Rachel was suffering from amnesia.  TPTB really missed a great opportunity to use the show's history to generate story for Alice, Mac, and Rachel.

SOD probably printed incorrect information.  Both Ted Bancroft (Luke Rielly)  and David Thatcher (Lewis Arlt) appeared in September 1983.  Jennifer Thatcher (Sofia Landon Geier) also showed up in September 1983, but she would later die in a car accident around Thanksgiving of 1983.

The September 5, 1988 episode aired the week before Harding Lemay returned as headwriter on September 12, 1988.  Lemay would remain headwriter until mid-November.   Under his pen, the show was much improved, including the return  of Iris to the show.

The gorilla "caper" was a throwback to the summer of 1984 when Felicia, Cass, and Cecile met Wallingford.  Felicia and Wally got stuck in a gorilla cage investigating the murder of David Thatcher.  The gorilla, Carolyn, was named after AW writer Carolyn Culliton.  She had a crush on Cass, and her mate, Richard did not like it.  Richard was named after longtime AW writer Richard Culliton.  The zookeeper was named after another AW writer Sam Radcliffe, who had died a few years earlier.  They could have condensed some of the gorilla "caper" and had the last episode be a series of flashbacks like Victoria Wyndham's 25th Anniversary episode in 1997.  All and all it could have been better, but I will cut the show some slack given the short amount of time it had to wrap-up.   On AW, all the characters got to say good-bye to the fans as their characters wished Cass and  Lila well at the wedding through the video camera.

At least AW did not suffer the "Peapack" experiment that GL suffered in its last year.  AW still had outstanding production values in its last episode.  Also, AW had 6 weeks to wrap up the show.  ATWT was given 9 months to wrap up and basically ignored its history.  AW tried to wrap-up and incorporate some history into its last episode.   At least Victoria Wyndham got the last scene and made the most out of it- especially when she stopped to kiss the photo of  Constance Ford's Ada.  Eileen Fulton ATWT's Lisa was treated like a day player in the last episode- a disgrace considering her importance to the history of ATWT.  ATWT also blew a great opportunity with the passing of Helen Wagner's Nancy to incorporate history/flashbacks into those last episodes.

17 years ago today- June 25, 1999- Another World aired its last episode on NBC.

I agree that a Rachel/Mac/Alice story could have been a big umbrella story for AW involving many characters taking sides.   It would have been an effective way to revive the Rachel/Alice feud.   Instead, TPTB release Courtney from the show, Rachel regains her memory in a bowling alley hold-up, and later in 1985 Rachel and Mac are poisoned by that deadly dust in that Egyptian urn courtesy of Carl Hutchins.   That storyline was probably one of the worst in AW history, right up there with Lumina.

After all the talk of Jacqueline Courtney, I went to the Another World Homepage to do some research about how she was let go in 1985.  I never knew that AW did not have a headwriter from February 1985 - July 1985, with a two-week writers' strike occurring within this time period.   There were a great number of on-screen changes on the show at this time.   Does anyone recall anything in the press about the show not having a headwriter for 5 months?  Were the subwriters working off a pre-written bible?   If so, who wrote the bible that would make so many on-screen changes to the show?

The many on-screen changes included at this time:
1. The introduction of pivotal characters of Vicky Hudson, Jake McKinnon, and Bridget Connell
2. McKinnon brother, Ben, leaves Bay City never to be seen again.
3. The character of Vince McKinnon leaves in March 1985 and does not return until March 1986.
4. The arrival of Sharon Gabet from Edge of Night as Catlin's supposedly dead wife Brittany Peterson with Zane Lindquist, who would become involved with Felicia.
5. The arrival of Tony the Tuna's niece Dee Evans who would develop a crush on Cass.
6. The introduction of Dr. Chris Chapin whose family had a connection to Carl Hutchins and the Egyptian treasure.  Chris would serve as a love interest for Nancy McGowan, who had a brief addiction to Ecstasy during this time.
7. Neal Cory, a never before mentioned nephew of Mac's, would be an undercover agent investigating Carl Hutchins.
8. Michaud Christoph, Daphne Grimaldi (killed by Carl who placed a venomous snake in her bed), Edward Gerard (past love of Felicia), and Daniel Gabriel  in the Le Soleil spa story.
9. The pivotal roles of Sally Frame and Peter Love would be recast with AMC's Taylor Miller and Y & R's Christopher Holder after Mary Page Keller and John Hutton leave.
10. The following long-term characters were written off the show: Brian Bancroft; Sandy, Blaine, Maggie, and Alex Cory; Jamie Frame; and Alice Frame
11. The character of Perry Hutchins died in a fall from the Love stable hayloft when he discovered that Marley had a twin. 

So nice that Courtney's daughter has fond memories of her mother.   Sad that there was so much that happened to Courtney in her last years.   I truly wish that AW had done more with her character of Alice when she returned in 1984.  She really wasn't given her own story, but Alice was used as a sounding board for her daughter, Sally.   In March, 1985, it finally looked as if AW was going to use Alice and Rachel's backstory when Alice was Rachel's doctor when she was shot and developed amnesia.  After Rachel returned home, she wanted nothing to do with Mac. This was the perfect chance to restart the Rachel/Mac/Alice story from 1981, but TPTB released Courtney from the show.   I think TPTB should had done more to keep Courtney's Alice on the show at this point.

Most of the P & G shows have episodes intact dating back to the late 70s and early 80s.   Episodes of AW, Texas, EON, and SFT were available on the AOL website.   Also, P & G made episodes of AW, GL, and ATWT available on Hulu for a brief period.  Then, they sold the GL and ATWT DVDs.  Then, suddenly nothing.   It's as if P & G wanted nothing more to do with the soap opera genre that they helped create.   Anyone know what happened to the surviving existing episodes of the P & G soaps?  I would hope that P & G would not have destroyed the surviving episodes.  There would definitely be an audience for their soaps to be rebroadcast on a station like MeTV or Antenna TV- the initial group of viewers who made their shows popular from the 1950s-70s- are now of retirement age and a audience familiarity of these programs would exist and attract viewers.   I believe a P & G soap block on MeTV or Antenna TV could be successful if promoted correctly and aired in the afternoon- 12:30 PM SFT, 1:00 ATWT, 2:00 AW, 3:00 GL, 4:00 EON.  

17 years ago today, NBC announced the cancellation of Another World.  Hard to believe that it has been 15+ years since AW left the airwaves.

TPTB would not put Nancy Frangione under contract for some reason?!?  They did not put her in the new opening credits in March 1996 because TPTB stated at the time that the credits only featured contract players.  Also, when the show aired the cast in the closing credits, Frangione was featured with the day players at the end of the cast credits.   

At at some point after she left in 1996, TPTB should have made an effort to bring Frangione back to the show.  A Cass/ Cecile wedding would have been a good way to end the show.  It made more sense than the Cass/ Lila wedding.

Shortly before MADD was named Executive in Charge of Production for the P&G shows, Charlotte Savitz was named the EP of AW.  Savitz, at the time, was working at NBC when she became the EP of AW.  No doubt, she was probably given orders by NBC to dismantle AW to the point where cancellation was the only option.  While Savitz successfully did this, I could never understand why she was allowed to hold on to the EP position for two years.  P&G gave her multiple head writers during her tenure as EP.  After MADD took over, she quickly replaced Michael Laibson at GL with Paul Rauch and John Valente at ATWT with Felicia Behr.  I wonder if MADD ever offered the EP job at AW to Laibson, Rauch, or Valente during her initial changes at GL and ATWT.  All held the EP job at AW previously- with Laibson and Rauch being able to produce AW with success. Were NBC and P&G hesitant to replace Savitz knowing that Laibson and/or Rauch produced AW would probably cause a bump in the ratings?  I also suspect that MADD knew that AW would be cancelled when she hired Chris Goutman as EP in November 1998, and that she promised him the EP job at ATWT from the get-go allowing him to get "practice" being an EP at AW in preparation for his job at ATWT.

I agree that P&G and TPTB did not care about their shows or the audience.  This really became apparent after Ed Trach retired as Executive in Charge of Production for the shows.  I wonder if he truly retired or was asked to retire by P&G.  Kenneth Fitts did that executive producer shuffle of the P&G shows, and that left all three shows in terrible shape in 1995.  Then MADD arrived and the rest is history.

JFP did a lot of damage in her year as EP.  She let Ryan (Paul Michael Valley) die on-screen at the end of the Justine story.  If she was smart, JFP should have let Justine die on the train trestle, and Ryan fall off the trestle and have his body gone missing.  Clearly, PMV would have returned to the show because he was willing to come back as Ryan's ghost.  If PMV refused to return, the character of Ryan could have been recast.  This would have avoided the convoluted Bobby Reno/Shane Roberts story.  Ryan could have taken up with Lila after he fell off the train trestle, and he could have returned to town just as Vicky and Jake were about to marry.  That would have been so much better than what we got under JFP and Charlotte Savitz.

JFP also brought back Nancy Frangione as Cecile in 1995.  It appeared that Frangione was willing to stay with AW for the long term at this point.  TPTB did not give Frangione a contract and treated her as a glorified day player.  Then, TPTB created the storyline that Cass was really Maggie's father, rather than Sandy.  Cass wasn't even on the show when Maggie was born.  TPTB also did not include Cecile when they redid the opening credits in March 1996- stating that only people on contract were included in the opening- including all those forgettable teen characters.  Cecile could have driven years of story on AW- take the place of Iris as the villainess of the show since Iris was in jail; tested Rachel and Carl's marriage by having her plot and scheme with Carl; insert herself in Cass and Frankie's marriage; be a rival with Vicky since they were both ex-wives of Jamie Frame; or have a storyline where Sandy, Blaine, and their son, Alex, return to Bay City to help Maggie with her mother.  TPTB let Cecile leave Bay City will no fanfare and never to be seen onscreen again.

Completely agree that if they went to the bother to get Sam Groom to appear in the last episode, then it should have been as Russ Matthews.   It would have been nice to see Irene Dailey's Liz Matthews one more time as well.  Dailey appeared at the 1999 Daytime Emmys during the Best Actor/Actress segment.  I'm sure she would have returned to AW if she was asked.

While Carolyn the Gorilla ( named after longtime AW writer Carolyn Culliton) was a nod to how Cass and Felicia originally met Wallingford in 1984- this could have been handled earlier in the last week of episodes.   More time should have been spent on Carl regaining his memory with flashbacks galore- much like Victoria Wyndham's 25th anniversary episode.  That would have made more sense with Rachel's sweep of the Cory living room looking at pictures and saying good bye to all the past characters on the show.  It also would have been nice to hear a voice over of Mac's (Douglass Watson) "I am grateful for the awareness of the sheer munificence of life..." speech one last time before they showed his freeze frame toasting the audience.

All and all, the AW ending was head and shoulders above the ATWT ending considering the fact that AW had about 6 weeks to wrap up production, while ATWT had about 8 months from its cancellation announcement til it left the air.  ATWT treated some of its vets terribly, especially Eileen Fulton (Lisa) who was treated like a day player in the final episode.  At least AW had the good sense to put Rachel front and center in the last scene of the program. 

It has been documented that AW's last executive producer, Chris Goutman, tried to lure Beverlee McKinsey out of retirement for a short story arc to jumpstart the show.  For a number of reasons this never happened in late 1998-99.  In my opinion, this story arc was probably being the "Chief" behind the Lumina Corporation.  Remember how disjointed and illogical that story was.  If Iris was the chief, Jordan Stark would have been her henchman like Evan was when she tried to take over Cory Publishing in 1989.  Iris could have been there to stir up trouble for a few months, then leave Jordan in Bay City as she left town.

I also think AW missed a big opportunity in its last episode.  When Grant turned up alive in Tanquir, think what a treat it would have been if Grant was plotting against the citizens of Bay City with McKinsey's Iris and Nancy Frangione's Cecile as they toast to "revenge."  AW did not have a lot of time to wrap up, but that would have been a treat to long time fans of the show if three of AW's greatest villains appeared in the last episode plotting their revenge.

Anna Stuart (Donna Love Hudon) has started appearing as lab technician Toni Ferra in Retro TV's episodes of The Doctors that are currently airing from February, 1971.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3yn45u_hope-memorial-thur-feb-4-mon-feb-8-1971-premmpted-feb-5-for-apollo-14-moonwalk_tv

Anyone here in contact in Linda Dano?  Her website and Facebook page have not been updated since October.  Her Twitter page was last updated in November.   It is not like her to be out of touch with her fans.  I hope that she is doing well and just taking a break from social media.