watson71

35 year ago, on January 6, 1983, Linda Dano made her Another World debut as Felicia Gallant- where has time time gone?!? 🤔

Not sure of the exact dates, but it probably ran the length of The Catlins from 1983-85 since they aired in a one hour block. I wonder if the episodes of The Catlins are still in tact. It would be interesting to watch the show online.

The Catlins aired on TBS for 30 minutes- it was paired with 30 minute episodes of the AW spin-off Texas. Apparently TBS edited the 60 minute Texas episodes into two 30 minute episodes.

Barrett also played Jacqui McCormick on the P&G soap The Catlins that aired on TBS from 1983-1985. The Catlins was produced by Joe Rothenberger who produced both Another World and As the World Turns.

I believe that Iris and Louise were tape recording Alice's conversations with Elliot when Alice was Dennis' nurse. Rachel somehow got the tapes from Iris to play them for Steve to show him that Alice was no longer interested in him. This was around the time of the Watergate tape scandal and AW received mainstream press comparing the tape story to Watergate. I am sure that was Lemay's idea, as well as bringing Russ back to Bay City in March 1989. Lemay was already gone from the show in November 1988, but it is always been stated that Swajeski borrowed heavily from Lemay's pre-written bible of story projections. We probably did not see Swajeski's original storylines until Summer 1989 when the show had to revise storylines because of Douglass Watson's death.

The character of Marley would show up in May 1984. I'm not sure if TPTB at the time planned for her to have a twin or if they had planned Donna's back story with Michael Hudson.

More of a class difference- go to the 17 minute mark in the video below- while Carl greets Perry and Thomasina with warmth, Donna is more reserved and says more with her body language than words:

Yes- they did test a Thomasina/Perry pairing with Donna being opposed to the pairing in Spring 1984.

I agree and enjoyed Allen Potter's AW in 1983 and 1984. The show had the same interesting, likeable, believable characters that his tenure on The Doctors and Guiding Light had. In 1982-83, when Potter took over from Paul Rauch, AW was in 10th place with a 4.8 rating. Potter' AW in 1983-84 was in 9th place with a 5.6 rating, and in 1984-85, AW was in 9th place with a 5.5 rating. Potter retired from AW with the last episode of 1984. I suspect that he would have stayed on longer had he been able to move AW higher up in the ratings. You have to give him major props for turning AW around quickly in 1983 after the disastrous 1982 the show had under Corrine Jacker's pen. Potter turned the show around keeping most of the cast intact without a mass exodus. My only fault with Potter's tenure at AW was his misuse of Jacqueline Courtney's Alice after her return in May 1984. Courtney would be gone from the show by April 1985, shortly after Potter's retirement. AW did the same thing ten years later with Felicia and Marshall Kramer. The viewers complained and execs got scared of the pairing. I also wonder why they never brought the character of Ben McKinnon back to the show in later years....

That is a rare 1984 video. Based on the storylines, this episode would be from early to mid-March 1984. This is after Mac was rescued from the plane crash, but before he had his stroke.

Christmas 1980 Christmas 1981 Christmas 1982 Christmas 1983- Carl Hutchins' first episodes Christmas 1984

Below is a 1965 promo for NBCs Daytime lineup, including Moment of Truth that starred Douglass Watson who would go on to play Mac Cory on AW:

I wonder if P&G ever considered transferring Douglas Marland to AW after he made ATWT a critical and ratings success in the 80s. He worked at AW in the 70s with Lemay so he had experience with the show. I also wonder if P&G ever considered hiring Paul Rauch back as EP in 1996 when he was hired at GL. Clearly Rauch was willing to work for P&G again. He also would have been better for AW than the sub-par Charlotte Savitz, who was EP for two years. In hindsight, P&G probably hired her to dismantle the show in order to make it easier to cancel. Goutman was probably getting "practice" as EP at AW knowing that if it was cancelled that he would be transferred to ATWT.

Carl probably would have been re-introduced as a villain, and he could have been redeemed by being paired with Felicia after Lucas' death or with Donna after Michael left Bay City. it would have been interesting to see what would have happened to the characters of Mac and Ada had Doug Watson and Constance Ford lived until the series end. JFP eliminated both Barbara Berjer (Bridget) and David Hedison (Spencer) from the cast in 1995-96. Would she have been bold enough to eliminate the characters of Mac and Ada too?

I suspect that the Red Swan mystery and Ken Jordan and Paulina would have never played out had Doug Watson lived. A connection to Lucas might have been made in the backstory via Cory Publishing that could have put Mac/Rachel in some kind of danger like what happened to Michael Hudson with Arianne and "The Club." Iris would have interfered in the situation putting herself back in Mac's good graces by saving either him or Rachel. Going forward, Iris and Rachel would continue to be at odds since Iris couldn't be trusted.

Thanksgiving 1988 was also a great episode. This was Mac's last Thanksgiving with his famous "I am grateful for the sheer munificence of life..." speech. This episode ends with a montage set to Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World." Almost the entire cast was shown in this episode as well. I agree that the absence of Mac left a void that was sorely missing in the last decade of the show. This was especially evident during those Christmas episodes when Douglass Watson would break the 4th wall and offer a toast to the audience each Christmas. No one on the show could do that the way that he did. I've often wondered how the writers planned to eventually reunite Mac and Iris had Mac lived. Clearly, the characters of Paulina and Ken Jordan probably would not have been introduced during the Red Swan story. Also, I wonder if the character of Carl would have returned to the show and been redeemed.

http://deadline.com/2017/11/nbc-buys-family-dance-school-drama-produced-sean-hayes-hazy-mills-thomas-ian-griffith-mary-page-keller-1202200524/ Mary Page Keller and Thomas Ian Griffith (Sally and Caitlin, AW) are going to produce a new family drama on NBC. A recent picture of them is in the article. They still look good 33 years later!

The Decades Channel is airing a two day Dark Shadows marathon this weekend to celebrate Halloween.

Was this Sandra Ferguson- that played Amanda on AW? This must have been right before she returned to AW if she was playing Brooke.

The timing of Carol Shelly replacing Beverlee McKinsey as Iris was not the best. In mid-February,, Beverlee fell while fixing a curtain rod in her NYC apartment and badly injured her left shoulder. So the build-up and aftermath of the Janice trying to kill Mac story was played by Shelly, who I thought was a bit over the top. These scenes would have been so much better with McKinsey in them.

Of all the P & G shows I would venture a guess that Guiding Light's theme was the biggest change going from the romantic light through the leaves opening to the fast paced disco opening theme.

In 1980-81, Procter and Gamble replaced / remixed the theme music for 6 of its soaps that were currently on the air- AW, TEXAS, SFT, ATWT, GL, and EON. This included new new title sequences and graphics as well. I believe that P&G thought that the change in themes would "modernize" their soaps to compete with the ABC soaps. Anyone have any background information regarding the change in the themes? Was a big deal made about it in the soap press?

On Friday, September 4, 1981, Another World would air the interlocking ring opening/closing theme for the last time. The closing credits would feature the entire theme song: On Monday, September 7, 1981, Another World would debut a new theme and opening/closing

Anyone know if the live episode saw a bump in the ratings? The week of August 1-5, 1983 was a busy week for NBC Daytime- SFT had the live episode, DAYS featured the beginning of Bo/Hope and the build-up to the murder of Renee DiMera, and AW featured the double weeding of Mac/Rachel and Sandy/Blaine. It would be curious to see if these events bumped the ratings...

On August 11, 1986, the character of Zane Lindquist, died in the hospital after being shot in the crossfire between the Bay City PD and hired hitman Herman Ludwig who has holding Cass, Kathleen, and Cecile hostage. Ludwig was working for Reginald Love who makes his first appearance at the end of this episode. After marrying Felicia Gallant, in February, 1986, Zane would be shot twice that year. Once in March, while trying to track down the thugs who had stolen an Egyptian treasure that was on display from a local art gallery and again in August. At the 12:00 minute mark, begins a great scene where Mac Cory leads a community prayer in the hospital waiting room. This type of scene would never appear on a soap today. On a side note, shooting Zane twice in one year, is a prime example of the problem AW had with constant switches in headwriters. Zane being shot by the thugs who had stolen the Egyptian treasure was fallout from probably one of AW's worst storylines ever- Carl Hutchins tricking Nancy McGowan into giving Mac and Rachel an amphora as a gift that contained poisonous dust from an Egyptian pyramid. Anyone who opened the amphora and breathed the dust would die. The amphora was passed around Bay City- only killing Grant Todd- but left both Mac and Rachel near death and in the hospital in early 1986, only to be saved by Dr. Chris Chaplin.