watson71

David Canary left AW in February, 1983, and would not appear on AMC until the fall. On AW, he was killed in a car crash during a snow storm. Rachel and Steve were leaving Bay City to get married. Rachel went blind in the accident, and Mac shaved his mustache and assumed the alias of John Caldwell so that he could befriend the blind Rachel. The accident occurred when Constance Ford was out on sick leave. It was weird watching Peg Murray's Ada play the action leading up to the car accident and the aftermath.

Allen Potter, who was AW's original producer in 1964, was the executive producer when Jacqueline Courtney returned in 1984. He , along with P&G executive Ed Trach, certainly knew her importance. During her year long return, she was never given her own storyline. She was a supporting player for her daughter, Sally who was involved in the David Thatcher murder. The only other Matthews on the show at that time were Aunt Liz and her granddaughter Julia (Faith Ford) who would be murdered looking for David Thatcher's killer. The writers needed to either have her involved with Mac/Rachel since she was engaged to Mac at one point, or have her get involved with Carl Hutchins to try and get information on his involvement with David Thatcher's murder to clear both Sally and Catlin.

Also, I think it was a big mistake to kill off Sally in 1986. They should have rested the character for awhile, then recasted. Having Sally and her son, Kevin, on the canvas could have meant storyline for Alice's return.

This is a synopsis of the Nicole/Jamie/Ted cocaine story:

When Nicole arrived in Bay City, her agent and drug pusher, Whit, pressured her to return to modeling. Immediately, Nicole began flirting with Jamie who just returned to Bay City. Jamie insisted he can't be interested in Nicole while she's on drugs. Meanwhile, Felicia was writing a new novel and a diet/fitness book for Cory Publishing. Jamie refused to help Felicia research cocaine use for her next novel. At Whit's request, Nicole agreed to model for Felicia's diet book. Ted Bancroft, who was released from the mental hospital, arrived to photograph Felicia's book. Perry Hutchins, Donna Love's stepson, caught Nicole using cocaine and urged her to get help. To protect Nicole, Jamie and Felicia kept quiet about her cocaine when Mac ordered them to rehire Ted to photograph the diet book. Perry was trying to set a trap for Ted. Ted panicked when Perry asked him to score cocaine for him. Jamie vowed to prove that Ted is supplying Nicole with coke; however, he later was mad that Amanda nearly got a hold of some cocaine that Ted left for Nicole. Realizing that he was being set up, Ted planted cocaine on Jamie, who was arrested when Ted tipped off the cops. Felicia and Jamie had Perry make another coke buy from Ted after failing to plant a stash of cocaine on Ted. Brian noticed that his son, Ted, was behaving strangely. Later, Larry burst in on Perry's meeting with Ted and his drug supplier, and Perry was shot. Ted was busted and shocked to learn that bartender Ollie is really an undercover cop. Ted cleared Jamie of the phony drug possession charges. Brian refused to post bail for Ted, who was arrested on drug charges. Brian was forced to testify against Ted, who was sent to a mental institution. This is the last time Ted would be seen in Bay City.

I can think of two instances where Victoria Wyndham was robbed of an Emmy nomination. In 1989-90, Rachel discovers Iris is "The Chief" who tried to take over Cory Publishing and the aftermath of Mac's death. She carried AW for most of 1989-90. Her conversation with Ada (Constance Ford) directly after Mac's funeral on the Cory terrace should have won Wyndham the lead actress and Ford the supporting actress Emmy.

In 1993-94, the beginning of her romance with Carl in NYC, and her part in Felicia's intervention should have also earned her an Emmy nomination. Her "I want the bottle gone, and I want my friend back" speech with Felicia could have won her the Emmy.

The fact that Constance Ford (Ada) was never even nominated for an Emmy is another story, and it speaks volumes about what a joke the Emmys are.

Had Lemay stayed on as headwriter in 1988, it would have been interesting to see what he would have written for the 25th anniversary and the sudden death of Douglass Watson (Mac Cory). I doubt that we would have seen George Reinholt on the 25th anniversary in Rachel's out of body experience. I also think he would not have penned the convoluted Red Swan story as a follow-up to Mac's death.

The actress that played Petronia Paley's daughter, Thomasina, on the show has her own website: http://www.pamelakaydavis.com

Pamela Kay was a news anchor for WJLA, Channel 7, in Washington DC and apparently held a similar position in San Diego.

Mary Page Keller is currently starring in the ABC Family drama Chasing Life. Having always liked MPK, I never cared for Taylor Miller's Sally. However, I think AW did a big disservice in killing off the character of Sally. There was plenty of story left for this character- she was Jamie's stepsister and Rachel's stepdaughter and would have had plenty to do with the return of Russ and the reveal that Josie and Olivia were his daughters. Killing Sally severely limited any reappearance of her mother, Alice. In fact we only saw Alice two more times- the 25th anniversary and Mac's funeral- before AW was cancelled. This also diminished Aunt Liz's screen time until Russ' return in 1989. Sally's son, Kevin Thatcher, could have been SORASed around the time that Matthew and Amanda were aged as well. Killing Sally ranks right up there with the killing of Ryan and Frankie.

The Rachel/Steve/Alice story never worked in the early 80s because two of the three characters were recasts. Paul Rauch and P&G knew in late 81-1982 that they were in ratings trouble. They should have taken a second chance on George Reinholt as Steve at the time. By early 1983, Rauch would be gone, and Jacqueline Courtney would be back as Alice in 1984. If they had waited until 1983 or 84, I believe it would have been more successful storyline.

Check out the updates to the Another World Home Page. On the video library page, Eddie is making many of the videos available free for download. This is great news for all AW fans!

Wasn't August 1983 the time when Bo and Hope were gaining popularity on DAYS while AW was in the middle of the "Who Killed Alma Rudder?" mystery along with the double wedding of Mac & Rachel and Sandy & Blaine? Makes sense that NBC would see a spike in the ratings.

Happy 50th Anniversary Another World. On May 4, 1964, Another World premiered on NBC. Another World was created by Irna Phillips and Bill Bell and broadcast from 3:00-3:30 On NBC. Original cast members were, from the Matthews family: Liz, Bill, Susan, Jim, Mary, Pat, Alice, Russ, Janet, Granny; Missy Palmer, and Ken and Tom Baxter. In the early years of the show, announcer Bill Wolff would begin each episode with the following epigram- "We do not live in this world alone, but in a thousand other worlds. And now the continuing story of Another World."

All this month, let's celebrate by posting our most memorable moments of Another World!

Scenes of Rachel with amnesia:

In 1984-85, AW did see a spike in the ratings. While it wasn't enough of a spike to pull it out of 8th place in the ratings, it was enough to make it more competitive with its competition. In 1985, Rachel was shot by Carl Hutchins and had amnesia. Jacqueline Courtney's Alice was Rachel's doctor in the hospital, and their past history was brought up. However, the writers did not do enough with it. This could have given VW and JC a great storyline. Rachel even "rejected" being Mac's wife and refused to sleep in the same bed and even moved out of the Cory mansion. Mac could have easily started a relationship with Alice again while Rachel had amnesia. In addition, amnesiac Rachel could have befriended Brittney when she came to town to find Catlin and set up a Rachel/Brittney and Alice/Sally rivalry. It makes you really wonder why the writers made so many blunders....

Today would have been the 49th anniversary of Another World which premiered on May 4, 1963.

Looking at the credits for the show- the senior producer was Joe Rothenberger who was a producer of Another World in its heyday of the 70s, then was promoted by P&G to be executive producer of As the World Turns. There is a big gap between his tenure at ATWT and The Catlins. I wonder why P&G never hired him at another show during the gap?

Also, I wonder if The Catlins theme song was in the running to be a theme for another P&G soap as they had all received new themes within a year to 18 months of The Catlins debut. Did the other soaps go with another song, and P&G decided to use this theme for The Catlins? The theme is similar to the themes that AW and Texas were using at that time.

Anyone have any idea what storyline would have taken AW to Finland as mentioned in the Chris Rich article above?

Happy 48th Anniversary Another World. On May 4, 1964 Another World premiered on NBC.

Another World's collapse in the ratings happened in March 1979 when it expanded to 90 minutes. The show moved from its 3:00 PM start time to 2:30 PM. Was this the first time that P&G violated its "non-competition" rule by having AW (NBC) and GL (CBS) airing at the same time? They killed off long running character John Randolph (Michael Ryan) at the start of the 90 minute episodes. During this time Harding Lemay left as headwriter, leaving Tom King to pen the Rachel/Mac/Janice/Mitch story that was very popular. However, this was the only storyline that garnered viewer interest at that time. Beverlee McKinsey was on an extended medical leave, and they temporarily recast Iris with Carole Shelley. When McKinsey returned, the decision was made to spinoff Texas. AW then had an influx of characters that would "move" with Iris to Houston. In August 1980, Iris and the new characters left AW for Texas. Thus, AW was without one of its most popular characters and main villainess. Also, in hindsight, AW should have been trimmed back from 90 minutes to take over the 3:00 PM timeslot to compete with GL and GH. NBC should have sandwiched TEXAS between DAYS and AW at 2:00 PM. AW was the known entity and could have competed better with GL and GH. Instead, NBC changed AW's time slot for the second time in 18 months putting it on at 2:00 PM, and placed TEXAS on at 3:00 PM against GL and GH. They would again repeat this same mistake in 1984 with SANTA BARBARA. Also, for the first few months, Paul Rauch served as executive producer of both AW and TEXAS. He neglected the mother show while trying to make something out of TEXAS. Beverlee McKinsey left TEXAS at the end of 1981. At the time, P&G should have moved heaven and earth to get her to return to AW which never regained its footing in the ratings. Also, I never understood why P&G would allow her to go to GL without first trying to get her to return to AW.