watson71

There were a few specific scenes that gave away Dr. Alan Glaser was the Sin Stalker. There were a few times in his psychiatric sessions with Donna that he would be rubbing his neck as she spoke to him. Remember the early May, 1987, episodes around AWs 23rd anniversary, where all of Bay City was at the Cory mansion celebrating Mac’s birthday in a thunderstorm. TPTB even got Ada in on the action trying to rescue Nancy as the Sin Stalker tried to kill her in an upstairs bedroom.

Alfred and his wife, Vivian, appeared briefly at the start of 1987, as Neal and Adam’s parents. Alfred was portrayed by Forrest Compton who was Mike Karr on Edge of Night. At the same time, Ann Flood, was on AW as a Cory publishing employee, Rose Livingstone, who was flirting with Mac. She played Mike Karr’s wife, Nancy, on Edge of Night. Were TPTB testing the waters to see the audience’s reaction to the characters to see if any Edge of Night fans would notice? By February, these characters were dropped and the Sin Stalker story was dominating AW.

I do wish that Lemay’s bible/outline from this time would show up online. Clearly his bible did not have Mac Cory dying. I’m curious how he planned to reunite Mac and Iris.

After doing some searching on YouTube, the same company that created the NBC Peacock “Brought to You in Living Color” logo was probably the same company that created Another World’s interlocking rings opening. https://youtu.be/HIxGyrQz_e8?si=esssgLI9XSvn-gVy

I almost wonder if they designed the 60 and 70s opening with a kaleidoscope toy and somehow filmed it to capture the interlocking rings and the title.

Always liked this theme and the one before it. Always liked that they kept the interlocking rings at the beginning of the opening credits as a nod and wink to the past. Also, for 1981, the credits were technologically advanced- I wonder if the company that created the credits for the Superman movie in 1978 worked on these credits? They are very similar.

Soaps started using exterior shots to establish a house or job location (hospitals, restaurants, etc.) before dissolving into the scene with the characters on the set. This was done a lot as transitions between scenes.

I suspect that was the time Rauch realized that his days at AW were over after almost 12 years as EP. Probably the last “big thing” that Rauch did at AW was to introduce the character of Felicia Gallant. P&G would move Gail Kobe to GL after TEXAS was canceled, and move Allan Potter to AW from GL in early 1983. Potter did clean up AW quickly given the mess Rauch left him with, and AW was again watchable for most of 1983 through the end of 1984 when Potter retired. The only real fault during Potter’s time at AW was not using Jacqueline Courtney’s Alice more effectively, given the fact that he was AW’s first producer in 1964. He was aware of Alice’s history on the show. Rather than give her a big storyline, he made her a supporting character in Sally’s story. If the show had waited to do the Steve Frame back from the dead story once Courtney came back, it probably would have worked.

This was from an interview he did in 1999 before the show was cancelled: Is "Frankie" the real Frankie or is she just someone Jordan Stark created, and what is she going to do to Cass and Lila's relationship? (don't do too much damage!!!) A.M. Pittsburgh, PA Chris Goutman: Let me answer this and hopefully we'll dramatize it because I think it's something we need to answer. Stark did not create her. This is a character who is her own person. Anne is her own person. Stark found out about her and that's about it. She came of her own free will and she has a history which hopefully the audience will find intriguing with what happened to Frankie.

If you look at the cast lists in those credits, only about 10 characters played by the same actor remain into mid-1983 (Rachel, Mac, Ada, Liz, Clarice, Larry, Brian, Blaine, Sandy, Cecile, Quinn). Characters like Jamie, Julia, Sally were recast with new actors. Everyone else was gone.

Here are newly posted AW closing credits from early 1982 from 4 episodes, including those from a location sequence featuring Diana Frame in a horse riding competition.

On AW, the Sven storyline was beginning to be front burner. He would kidnap Rachel. Iris was in on his schemes to break up Mac and Rachel.

At the time, CBS was counter programming AW with reruns of All in the Family (primetime’s #1 show) and Match Game, so that explains the dip in the ratings. They should pick back up again as AW tied ATWT for the top spot in the ratings for 1977-78.

You are absolutely right- on the 30th Anniversary episode @43:23 Charlie doesn’t even kiss Ada at the wedding, just a peck on the cheek 🤣

Rachel ran away from the funeral looking for Mitch who was suffering from amnesia. Mac and Jamie went looking for Mitch as well as soon as Rachel disappeared.

I agree that it was bad timing and the character was dropped from the show. Haines played Sidney “Sharky” Sugarman on AW from February to July 1989. In The Valentine to Singles episodes, younger actors playing Ada and Sharky were featured in a WWII sequence. In was mentioned in the story that Sharky had a wife named Sylvia who died, and an unseen son named Aaron.

Also, NBC and P&G tried to integrate Another World in the early 80s with black characters with no real jump in the ratings. You had Quinn, Thomasina, and Ed Harding. The Morgan family- Bob, Henrietta, RJ, and Mary Sue. Also, Roy Bingham and Lily Mason along with other minor black characters on the show. In 1982-83, there were 9 black characters involved in storylines out of approximately 30 contract players. If it didn’t work in 1982, I wonder how NBC thought it would work in 1989?

Had RH made it to the 2000s- how do you think the show would have incorporated the 9/11 attack into the storyline given the NYC locale of the show?

Cass needed a letter of recommendation for Dee to become a debutant so he tricked amnesiac Rachel Cory to write a letter for Dee in the storyline as well.

Dee was Tony the Tuna’s niece played by Katie Rich in 1985. She was a punk rocker who Cass tried to turn into a debutante. In 1982, Jamie Frame had a brief May December romance with Susan Matthews Shearer.

It does make you wonder if any of TPTB ever thought of bringing Gerald or Pammy Davis back to Bay City. It would have been a good plot twist to have Gerald be Justine’s father and have him plotting with Justine against Rachel. At least it would have explained the resemblance between Rachel and Justine.

Any time Doug Watson is mentioned by other actors it is always with great affection and respect. Linda Dano always speaks fondly of both Watson and Constance Ford.

Who is the AW actor that Amy Carlson mentioned in her podcast with Linda Dano at @17:20 who didn’t like the scripts and didn’t want to play scenes a certain way in rehearsal ? Linda cuts Amy off and says do not mention the person’s name, and Dano doesn’t mention the person’s name either. I’m guessing it was either Victoria Wyndham or Charles Keating…

Not even sure how Schenkel got hired at AMC. He took over AW in January 1985 and quickly dismantled all the good that Allen Potter did the previous 20 months to get AW back on track after a disastrous 1982. The only good thing Schenkel did at AW was introduce Jake McKinnon and Victoria as Marley’s twin.

In Beverlee McKinsey’s City Lights interview in 1982, she states that AW was making NBC $40+ million in profit from advertising revenue a year. I suspect that AW lasted as long as it did because it was still turning a profit for NBC- maybe not $40 million- but still a profit. The minute that Edge of Night and Search for Tomorrow stopped turning a profit for P&G they were cancelled. NBC wanted to keep SFT for another 13 week cycle, but P&G cancelled the show at the end of 1986, so they would not be in the red in 1987 losing money on the show.