Everything posted by watson71
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Corinne Jacker's Another World was all over the place. All of the following took place while she was headwriter: The Rachel/Steve/Alice triangle was revived until Alice left town in Fall 1982; Pat Randolph leaves Bay City to run Cory Publishing's New York office; Jamie write a Peyton Place-style book about the citizens of Bay City which was optioned into a movie. The movie is later sabotaged; Clarice has a mid-life pregnancy; Ada sells The Hair Affair and takes a job at the police station working with children involved in crime; the short-lived Shea family arrives- mother Loretta killed by a car bomb and dad Harry is killed trying to rescue Rachel and Steve in a construction cave-in- son Pete becomes involved with Steve Frame's daughter Diana; Bob and Henrietta Morgan have marital problems; their son RJ gets involved with hoodlums; Quinn Harding's brother Ed comes to town; Quinn takes in Thomasina; The Male Panthers kidnap Matthew and Rachel has to rescue Matthew in San Diego. The Male Panthers implicate Mitch in the kidnapping and he is sent to jail; Mac decides to run for mayor of Bay City, and Mayor Stein uses Sandy and Blaine's relationship to discredit Mac until Mac drops out of the race. Mayor Stein then tries to discredit Brian Bancroft regarding his mental case son, Ted. Sandy photographs Mayor Stein paying bribes. Stein is caught in an FBI sting and Brian wins the election; Rachel gets involved with Russian sculptor Nikolai Pirenko; Jim Matthews dies of a heart attack in Finland; Alma Rudder and Cecile plot to drive Blaine crazy using her old diary; Cecile gives birth to Maggie Cory; Cass Winthrop arrives in Bay City; Louis St. George, a crooked art dealer, who is Cecile's father and Felicia Gallant's ex-husband, arrives in Bay City; after the movie fiasco Jamie becomes a university professor; Rachel is duped into selling Louis' stolen art at her gallery; Blaine's ex and Alma's brother, Buzz, causes trouble for Sandy and Blaine; Steve and Quinn hire architect Roy Bingham to work for the construction company. Overall, AW switched gears every couple of months during her head-writing tenure in an attempt to restore the ratings.
I would think that P & G would try to keep Reinholt and Courtney in the P & G family given their popularity. If Somerset was not an option, there was Search for Tomorrow, As the World Turns, Guiding Light, and Edge of Night. Putting them on Edge would have brought publicity to the show as it was getting ready to move to ABC.
Was there any talk of moving Reinholt and Courtney to Somerset at all? Somerset could have certainly benefitted from their star power, and Somerset producer Lyle Hill was their EP at Another World at one time. It just makes sense all around, I wonder if P & G and NBC ever considered it? Or was it nixed because Somerset filmed in the same studio as AW?
Looking back at MPK's acting credits, she was in a string of series between 1987-1993. These included Duet/Open House from 1987-1990, Life Goes On from 1990-91, Baby Talk from 1991-92, and Camp Wilder from 1992-93. Had AW not killed the character of Sally, TPTB probably could have lured MPK back to AW at some point. Having a character like Sally on the canvas also could have probably helped AW from turning into the "Vicky Hudson Show" in the early 90s. MPK currently airs in ABC Family's Chasing Life.
I think the decision to kill Sally off was a huge mistake- right up there with killing Ryan and Frankie. Sally could have been used in the late 80s and 90s. She was Jamie's adopted sister, Rachel's step-daughter, her son Kevin could have been SORASed at some point, etc. Sally also could have keep Aunt Liz on the canvas, and perhaps eventually seen the return of her mother, Alice Frame to AW on a regular basis. Sally could have also been used in storyline with her aunt, Sharlene Frame, and her cousins, Josie Watts and Olivia Matthews. There was much for Sally to do without killing the character.
MeTV is currently airing a 1963 episode of Twilight Zone entitled "Uncle Simon." This episodes stars Constance Ford (Ada). Here is a description of the episode. Resentful over having to wait on her invalid Uncle Simon (Cedric Hardwicke) hand and foot, Barbara Polk (Constance Ford) perserveres only because she expects to inherit the old man's fortune. But Simon, a famed inventor, has a surprise in store for Barbara after he shuffles off his mortal coil. In order to claim Simon's legacy, Barbara must now service a talking robot -- who sounds and acts just like Uncle Simon. Here is a link to clips from the episode on YouTube.
19 years ago today- March 1, 1996- Another World aired the (You Take Me Away to) Another World theme for the last time. On Monday, March 4th, AW would debut its last theme. While the (You Take Me Away to) Another World theme was innovative when it debuted in 1987, by 1996, it was dated looking and in need of an update. Not sure the ER ripoff that JFP gave us in March 4th was what the show needed. As the show started to fire cast members, this opening got shorter and shorter as cast members were edited out of the opening sequence.
In the two months that Lemay was credited as headwriter, he really accomplished a lot in a short period of time. Swajeski did do a good job, but Internet lore says that she used the bible that Lemay had written for AW. I wonder why NBC and P&G never kept both of them- Lemay as the headwriter and Swajeski as a co-headwriter. At least that way Lemay could have trained her until he was ready to turn the show over to her.
One of the best things during Lemay's 1988 return was when Matthew asked Aunt Liz to tell him about the Frames, and she let slip that Matthew was born after Mitch forced Rachel to sleep with him to save Mac from being killed by Janice Frame, Mac's wife and Mitch's mistress when Rachel killed her.
The crazy thing about Zane was that he was shot in March, 1986, shortly after he married Felicia. He was shot by a recurring character named Fayez when Zane was caught snooping around outside the treasure cave during the Egyptian treasure storyline. Zane had a sister named Annie who donated blood to save Zane's life. Then he is shot again in August, 1986, trying to help rescue Cass, Kathleen, and Cecile from Reginald Love's henchman, Ludwig. This is when he died. Whitsell and DePriest must have wanted to get rid of the character. Patrick Tovatt and Linda Dano made a great couple. In addition, their lavish wedding during Valentine's week, scored a 6.0 in the ratings according to the Another World Homepage. This was the last time, with the exception of one week in July 86, that AW ever scored a 6.0 in the ratings.
She also returned in 1989 for the 25th anniversary episodes. When the character of Joe Carlino was introduced, didn't they make a point to state that he had once dated Nancy? I wonder if they were thinking about bringing her back at that point. This would have been around the time that the switch between John Valente and Jill Farren Phelps as EP. Carolyn Culliton was the headwriter at this time. She wrote AW during the 80s when Nancy was featured on the show, so Culliton knew Nancy's backstory.
Sam Hall was the head writer during the whole Egyptian treasure storyline. I remember reading in one of the soap magazines that AW originally was going to shoot its November location sequence in Egypt; however, on October 7, 1985, four members of the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) took control of the Achille Lauro cruise ship off of Egypt as the ship was sailing from Alexandria to Port Said. Holding the passengers and crew hostage, the PLF directed the vessel to sail to Tartus, Syria, and demanded the release of 50 Palestinians then in Israeli prisons. The location was quickly switched because of the safety concerns of traveling to Egypt. The Egyptian urn with the deadly dust ranks right up there with Lumina in terms of inane storylines.
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.
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