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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.