ANOTHER LIFE

[DRW50]

I'm finally trying to get through more of the early episodes again. I've watched 70-79 so far. I am still annoyed at not having any material from the first 69 episodes to help understand the atmosphere of where 70 starts out. The most we get is a few flashbacks - the car crash, and then a few episodes later, a brief glimpse at Lori and Russ in the waves. Looking at my old comments I see that we eventually get some flashbacks of Becky and Lori as well.

The acting still isn't the best, but I appreciate that some of the bad actors are at least more over the top in entertaining ways, and the lack of mousy women who were cast in most of the younger female roles later on. Lori #1 has a very golly gosh delivery but that's balanced out by a certain screen presence. 

Susan Scannell is such a standout - very believable as an anti-heroine, especially those '40s-style glances of regret and sorrow. And she and Russ have such a natural connection. 

Episode 76 has a number of scenes that were likely filmed in an actual hospital, including an operating room. The realism made me more invested in the material than I would have been otherwise. 

It makes story sense to have Terry face a crisis of faith few could imagine, losing her mother and husband, but Scott isn't bad at all - he's a believable enough stalwart face for goodness and righteousness. I wonder if they decided he and Terry served the same purpose. 

Terry's mother remains bewildering to me. Nora often seems like a sitcom character or what you get in the old Archie comics where Ms. Grundy or Mr. Weatherbee would try to be hip to annoy the kids. She has lines like (about Peter): "A bit fresh, maybe - full of beans. I'd rather have that than a greasy grind." Her relationship with Peter is interesting in that I've rarely if ever seen a grandparent/grandchild relationship like it on a soap - she tries to be his pal yet also seems to struggle with empathy for him, laying into him over his daring to be upset and angry that his sister may die.

I notice the dialogue in general is snappier and self-aware than later on - characters cracking jokes to each other or making references to the real world. I was surprised when Becky and Russ joked about her paying for his meal was a part of the ERA. Nora saying that Vince Cardello sounds like "a name mystery writers used to give racketeers." 

There are other kinds of dialogue I never would have expected. Some of the talk between Nick Trench and his "secretary" Mandy was surprisingly blunt, between his pretty much saying he'd passed her around to other men and then her assuming that the money Russ had needed to help Lori was to pay for an abortion (and they even used the word). In another early episode, Miriam casually uses a racial slur as part of the story with her lover Norm, who apparently has the psycho Vietnam vet story that was so de rigeur. In order to show his decayed mental state, we get a lot of stock footage from Vietnam. I have read about the show over the years (mainly on here) and remembered a lot of stuff I'd completely forgotten, but I'm not sure I had ever heard of this story. I wonder how much was told in the first 69 episodes. Nothing against the taste of Bob Aaron, but I find this type of material more offensive than someone being cured of cancer via laser beam.

Lois Robbins is such a striking figure as Mandy. Awful to learn why she did not last long.

The story with Russ being blackmailed over Lori's treatment costs and the Davidsons finding out is moving much faster than I'd expected. I wonder if that was a response to the complaints of the earlier stories dragging out too much.

I did not fully realize there were so many flawed or outright wicked characters in these early episodes. The Davidsons, the Redlons, and the town doctor, and Jeff's wife Liz. In contrast, you have layers upon layers of characters who range from troubled but somewhat good (like Russ and Becky) and get darker and darker and darker, to the point where the whole town seems to be teeming with sickness. This tone is typical of some Christian media, but I suppose some elements are also hallmark of Roy Winsor. It gets very thick at some points. I would love to know what his plans would have been if he hadn't been fired.

The article @Paul Raven posted earlier where Winsor (or Aaron - I can't remember) did not want to have introductory scenes where Scott and Terry spoke about when they were saved is very interesting to me because I think that would have been a much better fit for the show than the efforts at weaving in religion that we got in some of the earliest available episodes (like Terry and Scott refusing to let Lori be operated on as soon as possible because of "waiting for a miracle"). 

I know Jeff and Liz don't stay on very long after Jeff is born again, but I do hope we get some of those beats, because Jeff here is AWFUL, a deeply repulsive figure. They really lay it on thick, especially when he says he doesn't even care about Lori moments after learning that she had nearly died in a car accident. I wonder if he was always planned to be saved and that's why they were laying it on so thick, or if anything changed along the way. 

I see that years ago I mentioned in here that there may have been plans to give Jeff, Liz and their daughter a spinoff. I have no idea where I heard that (it may have been on the very nice, long defunct Youtube channel where I first saw many of these episodes), and if it was ever true. That could have been interesting, I guess - maybe traveling the road like that Touched by an Angel spinoff no one remembers. 

This was never posted in here, I don't think. Susan Scannell Locher Room interview. She talks here and there about Another Life, all positive memories. I'm glad to see a few AL fans in the comments, which I wouldn't have expected in 2022. Around 32 minutes in she shares her answer to where she thinks Becky would be today.

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Edited February 15 by DRW50

[Maxim]

I wouldn't have the time to check this show out sadly... but I'm enjoying reading your take on it. Fascinating.   

[DRW50]

@dc11786 is the best at giving fleshed out review/story speculation but I'm glad my thoughts were at least somewhat coherent. If I have time to go through more, I might keep adding my opinions.

[Khan]

Whenever I have the time to sit down and watch clips on YT, I'm always impressed at how professional the production appeared to be, even though the show was taped in VA and likely didn't have a large budget.

[Soaplovers]

I haven't watched it in awhile, but i was surprised at how many topics and out of the box stories were covered in this soap.

I loved one conversation Lori had with Terry about pre marital sex and how things were changing and how conflicted she was.  It was more realistic then what the other soaps were doing.

Lastly, if I recall, Miriam became such a naunced character...and some think her leaving in 1984 was a blow to the show.

One of the final stories that got cut short due to the show being canceled was role playing army games at the campus, and one of the students started taking it too seriously.  I was intrigued to see where the story would have gone.

[dc11786]

Thanks for the accolades, but don't sell yourself short. 

I watched a bit of this today, jumping ahead to Nancy's arrival because I find that character fascinating. I think Nancy's addition is such a smart move. It gives internal conflict to the family instead facing outside sources. I think some of the low level plotting in the story is different. Nancy is basically couch crashing with the Davidsons while the clash of beliefs between worldly Nancy and the devout Davidsons provides ongoing domestic issues. At one point, Nancy appears to be stealing and tehn she continually makes passes at Scott out of earshot of Terry. It's surprisingly layered. 

I don't think the plotting overall is always great. Personally, with Peter being on a rebellious arc, I would have had Peter fall under Nancy's spell. I was surprised how far they went with Peter nearly losing his virginity with his girlfriend Julie Sawyer taking him to a party where underage drinking and cable television (oh the horror!) would be present before suggesting he should have smoked some weed before they went out to the car to have sex. Obviously, Peter declines temptation, but the trappings are a bizarre mix of high faith and modern social issues. The mix sorta keeps the tone from going completely into camp. 

Nancy's backstory intrigues me because I had never heard that Nancy was actually Terry's half-sister until watching. The revelation comes out of nowhere, and I really love that revelation even though it could have been better developed (I would have had Terry stumble onto the revelation by accident through her work at the hospital by realizing that Nancy's blood type didn't match). I wish Terry had more grief about the realization that Nancy was the product of an affair and that this was kept from her. 

The Lindsay family backstory is remarkable twisted and sorta written off with a pat line from Nora stating the patriarch, Alf Lindsay, was a perfect man before later revealing another layer that Alf got drunk and revealled Nancy's maternity to her on her sixteenth birthday. I feel like the intention is that Nancy is evil because she was the result of sin rather than my interpretation that Nancy was a reminder of a painful point in Alf and Nora's marriage that led to a lack of love being given to Nancy. In that light, I find it fascinating, but I don't think that's what they intended. 

In addition, Nancy has two ex-husbands (the first I think was Rob and the second Brad) and I think she aborted Rob's baby because she thought it might have been imperfect (details weren't given). Nancy has such an interesting past that easily could have been explored later down the line. 

Pairing Nancy and Miriam Carpenter was genius and there lunch together was a highlight on a show. I think know Nancy later becomes Miriam's stepmother so I found it delightful Nancy outlining her plan to snag a wealthy older man to Miriam so early in the story. It's just fun. Nancy convincing Miriam that they shoudl go into business together (they met at the employment office because they are both jobless) and find buyers for the retail space in the Carpenters Hollister Mall project is such fun. 

The Carpenters seem to represent the evil of the story. Big business is bad, which is a wild take for the 1980s, but it works. Helen and Charles' marriage seems pretty lifeless, but not openly hostile. The lingering pain of the faux affair between Paul and Lori lingers as Charles fights to have Lori's soon to be husband, Dr. Ben Martin, evicted from his office space. The fight involving the eviction invovles so many side characters (lawyers Harold Webster, Doug Hughes, and Mitch Dunbar) and manages to rope in Samantha Marshall and Gene Redlon at the plannign office. It is all very dense. Much more dense than I anticipated. I enjoy it, but I'm not sure how I would feel in a day to day viewing. 

Was also pleasantly surprised by a mostly gratituous shirtless scene of Doug Hughes being examined by Ben for tennis elbow. 

The other big story is the intertwined relationships of Becky and Russ and Ben and Lori each are who are engaged under different circumstances. Lori and Ben's engagement is based on their deep love for each other. Jeanette Larson and Matt Williams have a nice rapport. They have an easy chemistry which keeps things from becoming too sappy. I even found Lori's praise to the Lord after Ben's proposal oddly poignant given all that Lori had faced earlier. 

I also adore the friendship between Lori and Becky. It is easy for Lori to let bygones be bygones because her faith has brought her a husband and there is an undercurrent of hate the sin not the sinner in several stories. Susan Scannell plays Becky's loneliness beautiful and infuses an undercurrent of regret into Beck that makes you feel sorry that she is painfully aware of the emotional hollowness of her relationship with Russ. Russ' reaction to learning Ben and Lori marrying is delightfully insane, and I think having Russ be the heel in all this is great especially as it sets up potential professional conflict (Russ the med student envious of the established medico Ben). 

In this set, Becky learns she is pregnant and in only in a soap world, Ben is covering for Dr. Greely one day and discovers Becky's situation. I think the interaction between the two couples (Ben/Lori and Russ/Becky) is great because there are things kept from each other. Ben is keeping Becky's pregnancy a secret from Lori, while Becky is keeping the pregnancy secret form Russ. I imagine it will also play into Russ' discovery of who his father is. It's all beautifully messy. Lori is keeping from both Becky and Ben that Russ came to see her at her dorm room in a last ditch attempt to restart something only to learn from comic relief Francis Miller, the lovelorn egghead who seems to want Becky, that Becky and Russ are engaged, a lie Becky concocted when Lori told her about Lori's engagement. I cannot see Lori and Becky's dynamic playing out on any other show, but it is really great. 

I know that Scott ends up dead soonish but I was surprised to see them find another station to work at and to invest in that situation. I wonder at what point it was decided he was going to go becasue in these November episodes I don't get the sense he is otu the door. I love the low stakes conflict in the Davidsons marriage: Scott struggling to adjust to Terry being breadwinner and then Terry's insistence that she continues her nursing role even though Scott has managed to land a station manager position. Also, the financial strain of Scott being out of work while Ben and Lori are planning to marry just gives good background for all the day to day domestic squabbles. 

The Jeff stuff doesn't really work for me though I like the actor well enough. I think it all is wound up too tight. I think pulling him back into the mob story is a bit silly, but I would love to see them have tried out Nancy and Miriam both sorta making plays for a casual situation with Jeff testing his newfound devoutness while Liz tries to start to rebuild her own life. I don't really care much for the mob stuff (it's been backburned anyway). Gvien the show's stance on buisness, I am curious about where Jeff ends up. They should have gone the right of making him a preacher or something. I think that might have provided him with such a different position and possible conflict with Liz thinking he has changed too mcuh and then she has to change too. 

I think I watched 116-128 so I think there is some decent stuff coming up, but I definitely always struggle keeping up with this. 

[Paul Raven]

@dc11786 thanks as always.

A question. Could AL played on network daytime or were the production values/storylines etc an issue?

For a Christian soap the stories seem quite contemporary. Did they have a minister  or preacher as a regular at any time? Were services/sermons showed? I would think that would be an obvious choice as a means of incorporating the Christian values into the plots.

Edited February 23 by Paul Raven

[DRW50]

I don't remember them ever having a minister or preacher as a regular. There was often mention of faith but it was more in the personal lives of the characters. I think the core of the show could have played on a regular network - other than some of the heavy-handed moments the earlier episodes aren't as faith-centric. It is more intrinsic later on but not suffocatingly so.

@dc11786 So many great insights. I'm going to keep those in mind when I get to those episodes. They definitely should have done more with Peter and Nancy and with Peter feeling like the odd one out of his family. 

[dc11786]

If "Another Life" were to play anywhere on network in 1981, it would have to be late morning on CBS. I don't see it fitting anywhere else in the daytime schedule. Especially not on ABC where Luke and Laura were exploding and changing the genre or on NBC where they were slowly adapting to the phenomenon as well. I don't think it would have been super successful. It's very slow and maintains a blend of light humor and family drama. The romances aren't grand at this stage and it's not must see tv. It's something that is entertaining while doing chores (which is basically how I watched it yesterday). 

In terms of content, I think there would be censorship issues. CBN allowed conversation about things like pre-marital sex, abortion, weed, etc. It's not super integral to the plot so it could easily have been eliminated, but some of its charm is the bizarre blend of the real and surreal which I am not sure could be maintained on network. 

I've been trying to think of a mainstream writer who could handle the material. The canvas has the depth and density of something out of Marland, but tonally he could never handle it. Nixon's blend of community, family, and comedy would be close as well, but I can't see her handling the business/drug stories in these opening episodes which are the major sources of conflict for the characters. I think Labine and Mayer might have been able to handle some of humor and landscape, but I think some of the black and white nature of the world view would be too problematic for them. I would be curious to see how Jason Vinley, who is the headwriter at some point, would have handled network sanctioned material. He was Irving Vendig's script writer if I remember correctly. 

[Soaplovers]

I actually think Marland and Pam Long could have tackled this show.  She was a natural at writing strong/complex men and women, writing male and female friendships, and wasn't afraid to tackle tough topics while Marland was a master at pacing and juggling plots.  And he loved therapy so I could have seen him viewing the religious themes in a more psychological manner with Long providing the warmth/community/crazy stories.

[dc11786]

@Soaplovers I hadn't considered the therapy angle when it came to Marland as it would relate to "Another Life." I think that's a valid point. I could only imagine a series of hunky country boys doing repairs shirtless at the local church in Marland's "Another Life." Marland didn't seem to mind comical side characters so that broad scope of people (like Harold Webster, Francis Miller, and others in the early episodes) might have worked for him, but so much of this early dialogue is infused with light domestic humor (I think Winsor evoked references to "Ma Perkins" in one interview which tonally I think I get) that I cannot see fitting in Marland's tone. 

Long is not someone I have any fondness for, but I am aware that is a fairly unpopular stance. I do think she was more willing to have characters speak about religion on "Texas" from what I recall, but I am not overly fond of her work there or elsewhere. Not surprisingly, I find her work suffers form similar struggles that Addie Walsh's work does; it all seems like very surface level emotion rather than something deeper. I don't know if that makes any sense. 

My wild card pick for a network version of "Another Life" in the early 1980s would be Rick Edelstein, who was fairly done with daytime by then. The way his work was described on "How to Survive a Marriage" which took a very non-traditional (soap opera) stance, I would be curies to see what he could have done in that format. 

Though, I hope AI progresses far enough one day that I can type in "What stories would the Dobons tell if they head wrote the soap opera Another Life?" and get a deliciously insane read.

[dc11786]

Wow! In episodes 134-135, Vince Cardello and Russ Weaver reference Russ' half-brother, Tony Cardello. Russ and Tony grew up as childhood friends until Russ learned that Tony was gay. Tony's sexuality is delivered pretty bluntly with Vince talking about Tony picking up sailors and Russ said Tony has enough men in his life.  I guess Michael Ryan finally got to play the gay son story from "Another World."

The Weaver-Cardello backstory is interesting. The initial conflict is over Carrie's descent upon Kingsley to cluck over Russ and Becky's living arrangement. Carrie is a hypocrite complaining about the situation while being a kept woman. Mobster Vince Cardello is paying for her to live a life of comfort while calling Becky a social climber. It's all delightfully sleazy. Carrie vs. Becky is fun. Russ seems to be a precursor, to some extent, to Chris Ramsey on "Port Charles" lying about his background around school and admitting he is afraid of someone from the old neighborhood coming to Kingsely and blowing up his lies. 

Other details I was unaware of include the fact that Becky Hewett was adopted which makes her secret pregnancy also more complicated. Vince reveals his backstory working for mobster Harry LeBlanc before literally marrying the mob when he unites with LeBlanc's daughter. Vince and Nancy would have been a fun couple. 

 

[DRW50]

When I was skimming through a few episodes to see if they'd written out Scott and Nora at that point, I saw some of this. I was shocked, especially at the picking up sailors mention. I wonder if this may be the first mention of homosexuality, so blatantly, on a soap. Given some of the pre-release press about addressing homosexuality I wonder if they were planning to bring Tony in before the writing changes. 

[dc11786]

@DRW50 Not sure if there were plans to bring on Tony Cardello. I get the sense that Tony's existence was meant to explain why Vince was insisting now after twenty some off years that he reconnect with Russ. The Russ-Becky orbit of "Another Life" is fascinating because there is no one good and they are all driving the story. Becky is the closest and she seems like the character we should be hoping for redemption. Her pregnancy has been revealed to the major parties now including Russ, Carrie, and Vince while also starting Becky's involvement in the band Summerwind. Becky remains a strong antiheroine and someone worth watching. 

Nancy has become involved with the station owner, an older widower, and thinks she has found the man of pocketbook's dreams. Of course, this man is also Scott's new boss so this has the Davidsons at odds. It still feels like we are heading towards a Scott / Nancy situation at this point where Nancy claims that Scott came onto her, but I don't think this thread ever gets there (or maybe even existed anywhere other than my imagination). Nancy and Miriam's friendship is fun. Now, Miriam knows Nancy is a Davidson (by marriage) and throws a fit. Again, the Davidsons remain calm. It's a very refreshing approach compared to modern soap. 

Another story thread that was rather shocking was Jeff Cummings' redemption, which I wasn't really enjoying. Jeff keeps going round and round about miracles having been declined by multiple banks for loans to buy the bookstore because of his spotty work record and his past alcoholism. Liz advises him not to not ONLY put his faith in God. This felt super heavy handed as it also involved Liz going to Terry about how much faith one should have. Then, Jeff gets another miracle, the hospital gives him back money for treatment because he was healed by a miracle in order to avoid a law suit. Seeing this all as a sign, he refuses to read the documents for the sale. What is utterly shocking is when Jeff lands the bookstore finally Liz learns their is a repayment clause that they cannot meet and Jeff learns that the store has been selling pornographic films and material. The fact that the show is showing you cannot just have faith, but you need to think about the miracles that God is giving you and not just follow blindly seems very different view of religion than I expected. Jeff's miracles are about to be washed away by his failure to take the time to do what was right. 

Charles Carpenter maintains his status as resident villain. He has taken all his wife's money, much to her chagrin. He keeps putting the screws on the people living in Hollister Square so he can remove them to build the mall. Samantha Marshall and Gene Redlon's contrasting views on how much they should intercede fascinates me. 

In addition, Gene and Ione have started looking at houses in the pre-dominantly black part of town Chesterfield (I think) where the Redlons use to live. There is conversations about white flight and the renewal of the community in the past few years. Gene is presented as not being proud enough of being African American and Samantha's brother, Leon Marshall, is presented as a contrast. 

It's really a fun little show. I am curious to see how long I enjoy it. 

[Khan]

Conversations you'd never, ever hear on any other soap!