watson71

1 hour ago, Paul Raven said:

P&G proposed 'All My Children' which had previously made the rounds at NBC and CBS.

To think what might have been...

Once Agnes Nixon made Another World a ratings success, I'm surprised that NBC and P&G did not revisit the All My Children idea in the late 60s.  If P&G had owned both AW and AMC and airing on NBC, they could have utilized the spin-off idea by introducing the AMC characters on AW, like they did with Somerset.

11 hours ago, robbwolff said:

That's my recollection too -- in the summer of 1985, Nancy started taking Ecstasy after Perry's death and Chris Chapin helped her get off drugs. The synopses on the Another World Home Page discuss Nancy buying and taking drugs, but not selling them. Carter and Thomasina were dealing with the drama of her pregnancy at that time and I believe Carter was involving in unwittingly running drugs for a dealer. Hunter Bradshaw, who was involved with Ben and Marley, was long gone by that time.

 

 

But they did plan to bring back Rachel's sister Pammy Davis. It was sometime around 1988. There were reports in Soap Opera Digest at that time about the show casting the role. There were a lot of stories in Soap Opera Digest at that time about characters that never made it to air: for example, Pammy, Jason Frame's two daughters, a model named Bliss.

Your synopsis of Nancy in 1985 is 100% correct.  Nancy was buying drugs at a disco and taking them.  Larry Ewing even went undercover with the drug dealers in the Summer 1985 storyline which was clearly a Miami Vice ripoff.

They did talk about Pammy returning in 1988.  I wonder if Harding Lemay changed this to Iris when he was rehired as headwriter.  Jason Frame's two daughters were changed to Sharlene Frame and Josie Watts.  I am sure that Lemay did make this switch.

9 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

Every story given to Paulina 1991 to 1999 should have been Nancy's stories.  She had ties to Vicky, Jake, Marley, etc.

Judi Evans Luciano could have been a Nancy recast in 1991 rather than recasting her as Paulina.  You are correct, all the Paulina storylines could have been Nancy's stories.  I'm sure Nancy would not have liked Rachel marrying Carl.  Also, when Joe Carlino was introduced they made it a point to say he dated Nancy in high school, so it definitely could have worked by bringing Nancy back.

The character of Hunter Bradshaw appeared on AW in the Fall of 1984.   Donna Love thought he was an appropriate suitor for Marley because his family had money.  Donna did not approve of Marley dating Ben McKinnon.  Ben and Carter Todd were Hunter's rivals on the high school football team.  Hunter also had a drinking problem, driving drunk and crashing his car into Mac and Rachel's car.  By 1985, the character was off the show, and Jake McKinnon would appear in February 1985.

Jean Dadario Burke, Sherrell Hoffman, and Gigi Van Deckter were all directing Another World in 1988-89.  Susan Strickler and Linda Barker Laundra directed the show in the early 90s after being producers on the show.

2 hours ago, robbwolff said:

It was during a period when Rachel had amnesia and from what I read and remember was a plot device to add conflict between Rachel and Mac.

This was during the time that Alice was Rachel's doctor, and all their past history was brought up.  If TPTB were wise they would have had Alice start dating Mac again as a plot device.  Instead, TPTB clearly had no idea what they were doing and fired Jacqueline Courtney.

On Deadline.com I saw that ABC has renewed all its prime time game shows with the exception of the Disney-owned Millionaire and Fremantle's The Match Game.  I would not be shocked in the coming weeks if CBS  announces that The Talk will be replaced by a daytime version of The Match Game. Fremantle already produces Price is Right and Lets Make a Deal. They already have the set built for Match Game, but I'm not sure they could keep Alec Baldwin as host of a 5-day a week game show.  

2 hours ago, AbcNbc247 said:

Wasn't the Vietnamese girl who showed up in 1992 supposed to be John's daughter? But then there was a writer change and the story was dropped

The character was Lily Tran played by Bok Yun Chon in the Summer and Fall of 1992.  She came to Bay City looking for John Hudson who knew her father in Vietnam.  The change in writers from Donna Swajeski to Peggy Sloane caused the story to be dropped with Lily returning to Vietnam for an arranged marriage.  It was never clear if they intended for Lily to be a love interest for John or his long lost daughter from the war.

Definitely need to include Another World's Mac and Iris in this thread.    Douglass Watson and Beverlee McKinsey definitely had incredible chemistry, and years of story on the show was Iris seeking revenge and stirring up trouble for Mac's wife Rachel since she married Iris' beloved "Daddy."

There has been much talk on the board about AW's theme song (You Take Me Away to) Another World.  The composer of the song, Ralph Shuckett, passed away this week.  The song is mentioned in his Variety obituary.

https://variety.com/2021/music/news/ralph-schuckett-dead-keyboard-player-todd-rundgren-utopia-pokemon-1234945718/

On 4/3/2021 at 9:22 PM, Neil Johnson said:

Does anyone remember where Ada and Rachel lived, before Ada married Ernie Downs and moved into his house?

According to the Another World Homepage Ada appears on February 28, 1967.  She is introduced as Liz Matthews hairdresser.  Her brother Sam lives with her as well.  Rachel appears on March 8, 1967.   Were they living at their house on Bowman Street at this time?

2 hours ago, AbcNbc247 said:

Since this whole thing was marketed as a mystery, I'm assuming that Liam isn't going to be the only killer.

Someone probably wounded Vinny (shot or stabbed) him and left him for dead before Liam hit him with the car.  This will be where the coroner character will come into play when she discovers Vinny died from multiple wounds.

Felicia was such a different character when she first arrived in Bay City in January 1983.  In the few episodes that exist around her arrival, it's almost as if the writers were trying to make her into a daytime version of Dynasty's Alexis.  They would continue to write her this way  right through the Alma Rudder murder mystery, then they made Felicia more likeable.  It is definitely fun to see the beginning of Felicia's relationship with frenemy/step-daughter Cecile.

On Another World, it was well established that Mac Cory owned a large international publishing company, but when Steve Frame was introduced in the clip below at the 53 minute mark, it was briefly stated that he worked in construction.  What caught Rachel's attention and impressed her was that he was the owner of Bay City Bengals, a minor league football team.  It seems that this plot was quickly dropped by subsequent writers, but it would have been interesting to focus on the football team, rather than Frame  Construction.  Has any soap ever featured a football team in a storyline?

2 hours ago, DRW50 said:

I can see where some might feel it didn't fit AW, but I still enjoy the song, and the credits. I can watch them over and over. I can't do that with the very dated late '90s credits that they took 80% of the cast out of...

I suspect that P&G was waiting to see if the show would be renewed before they updated the late 90s credits.   If it was renewed, then we probably would have gotten updated credits.

20 hours ago, victoria foxton said:

I love the series as well. The twist of the kids drifting apart. Made me sad. Curious to see how they end the series

Either they will give everyone a happy ending, or I could see them having something tragic happen like Spooky dies trying to save Cesar from the Santos gang.    The creator of the show has a long term Netflix deal, I could also see them doing a spinoff series focusing on characters in college or a Jasmine/Ruby spinoff.

Here is Elizabeth Franz as Belia Pirenko

3 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

 

Eesh. 

 

I remember somebody put up the clips of Rachel in that sculptor story. The only part I remember is his wife.

The part of Belia Pirenko, Nikolai's wife was played by Elizabeth Franz, who would show up again in 1982 as crazy Alma Rudder, the Cory maid who helped Cecile terrorize Blaine. 

6 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Thanks for finding those, @watson71 . Seeing all the shots of the Shea family reminds me of why so many viewers may have left the show in these years. What was the point of watching when so many characters who were introduced would just end up being killed off? Harry Shea's wife was killed, then some months later he was killed. Similar to Jerry Grove's mother, to Russ' wife Tracy, her manager, Bob Morgan, on and on. It adds such a gloomy vibe to this period. 

All of these characters and convoluted storylines on the show had to be confusing to those who watched the show daily.  In one month from March to April 1982, Tom and Mitch kidnap Matthew, and Rachel tracks them down to a sailboat in San Diego. This leads to the car chase through the streets of San Diego as Rachel tries to escape with Matthew.  Meanwhile, Steve and Alice postpone their wedding so he could help Rachel in San Diego. Tom is arrested once Steve and Mitch rescue Rachel and Matthew.  The Male Panthers implicate Mitch in Matthew's kidnapping and Mitch is sent to prison. The next week, Rachel is swept off her feet by sculptor Nikolai Pirenko. Nikolai gives Rachel the smuggled writings of a comrade.

1 hour ago, victoria foxton said:

I agree the Blaine/Sandy/Cecile stuff was good. Don't know what to make of the Shea's. With both Loretta and Harry being killed off 3 months apart.

The only other thing that Corinne Jacker did well was integrate Bay City with African American characters.  While she gave them typical soap opera storylines, all of the actors were good.   By 1987, all of those actors were off the show with Quinn Harding being the last one when she was killed by the Sin Stalker.

Another World April 12-13, 1982 Episodes

Here is the Another World closing credits from April 13, 1982.  This closing uses the rarely used variation of the theme song and clocks in at long 3 minutes and 34 seconds- with 57 actors listed in the cast.  Definitely a rare find...

7 hours ago, titan1978 said:

I could never get into AW (probably not helped by starting when JFP was there), but that was an excellent intervention scene.  One of the best ones I’ve seen on a soap.  I don’t even love Dano all that much but that was compelling.

While it was Linda Dano's storyline, Victoria Wyndham and Stephen Schnetzer made it all that much more better.  Wyndham really should have been nominated for a supporting actress Emmy that year she was that good.

To all those who mentioned Rachel and Felicia on AW, it doesn't get much better than this:

The Wicked Witch tone that Victoria Wyndham used when she played Justine was pretty bad.  Even more baffling was that Rachel adopted Justine's afflicted Wicked Witch tone after Justine was killed.  She continued to use the accent the last three years of the show.  A producer or director should have taken on the side and put it in check, but I guess at that point no one cared.

On today's episode, everyone was saying "I could get Vinny" "I could kill Vinny" "I want Vinny in jail"

Are they leading up to a Who Killed Vinny? murder mystery?