On 8/1/2025 at 1:16 PM, DRW50 said:

Is this Tom Urich? I can't figure out. He seems familiar.

 

Indeed he is. Unfortunately he passed away 3 years ago at 87. He was 13 years older than Mary Jean on the show.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/tom-urich-dead-robert-urich-brother-1235195057

 

1 hour ago, YTG said:

Indeed he is. Unfortunately he passed away 3 years ago at 87. He was 13 years older than Mary Jean on the show.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/tom-urich-dead-robert-urich-brother-1235195057

Thanks. Rest in peace to Tom.

I never even knew he was Robert Urich's brother.

Tom Urich did short little cooking segments on CBN back in the 80's. Here is one of them.

 

1 hour ago, SoapDope78 said:

Tom Urich did short little cooking segments on CBN back in the 80's. Here is one of them.

Thanks. Never saw that.

@YTG Thanks for posting that Mary Jean Felton interview. Also, am I correct to assume you upload all the episodes to YouTube? Thanks! It’s how I’ve been able to enjoy the show. 

Yes, it's me. I started recording episodes in 2009 from one source where it only aired once a week, but I started off right before Lori's notorious near rape episode. I never thought I could ever get access to all the episodes, but I did a lot of research and eventually found other outlets where the show only aired once a week as a program filler of sorts, but years later came the unexpected breakthrough where it started airing 7 days a week and that's how finally by October 2018 my job was completed. 

I had to distance myself from the show over the past couple of years since I felt this chapter in my life already exhausted itself, but I always kept following the whereabouts of the cast and kept in touch with someone who interviewed many of them. The transcript for those interviews and their respective links appear on the main page of my YouTube account where episode 70 is at the center of that page.

Up until a decade ago I was active on a private Facebook group which was created by Darrel Campbell (Peter Davidson) and his wife Pam. Back then many of the cast and crew were active and uploaded photos and behind the scenes stories. Unfortunately the group seems to be have been abandoned for a long time, but I suppose one can send a message to Darrel Campbell through his Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/46017930860/?ref=share&mibextid=NSMWBT

I should mention that I first tuned in to Another Life in 1983 a few episodes before Scott and Nora died in that Christmas Eve car crash. I was 13 at the time. I think I didn't fully understand what I saw and perhaps I shouldn't have watched because some scenes 'scarred' me for life. I understood it was a Christian soap very quickly although not at first. Over the years I did get to watch it properly and while I have a soft spot for it, I have very ambiguous feelings towards it, but that's for next time. I enjoy reading your summaries, I like your perspective.Looking forward to the next installments.

Thanks @YTG for all of your tireless work. 2009 or somewhere in there is where I first found the show through here and Youtube. I'm glad so much of the show is available, even if those first months of episodes are (no pun intended) a holy grail.

I've appreciated the interviews on your comments. I especially appreciated the interview with Dorothy Stinnette. 

I never knew of the private group but I'm glad for a show that only ran a few years, so many of the cast stayed close for as long as they did.

Thanks for the comment. I appreciate it!

I did approach CBN a while back about the missing 69 episodes and was told the tapes were in bad shape and that any prospect of digitization would be very costly and time consuming. I was basically told that I had to sign a binding contract with their legal department. That was out of the question for me plus you may have figured out by now that I don't live in the US because the recordings of Another Life between 2009-2018 were from Christian stations in Cyprus and The Netherlands as you can tell by the various subtitles.

After Another Life ended it's original run on October 5, 1984 - it was aired the following week with Tom Urich's 3 minute prologue which was added in 1984 to repackage the show for future reruns. There is even a local newspaper report which can probably be traced on an archived and scanned newspapers site informing viewers about Another Life returning on October 8, 1984 picking up from a more advanced storyline on an independent station in one of Florida's viewing markets. I saw it with my own eyes years back but I didn't keep it saved in a file.

@YTG Wow. This length of time you committed to this project is remarkable. I mean digitizing the episodes itself must have been super time consuming itself, but the pacing of acquiring the episodes is wild. 

Lori's assault is pretty powerful. I was actually speaking with a friend about the sequence on Saturday and the hints of racism that are embedded into the story of Monk and Fernandiz being accused of the attack due to their other crime. Jason Vinley's early work there is very remarkable considering the time period. The sequence of the chase between Blue and Lori is quite remarkable. A lot of the filmwork in that story is fairly strong. Blue watching Lori and Marianne play tennis through his dark shades is something out of a thriller. Hummel does a nice job capturing suspense in some of the episodes I've seen.

Other beautifully shot suspense scenes include Dennis Frazer outside the Davidson home with Terry frightened on the other side (early 1982) and Gene Redlon racing to and through the airport to prevent Carla from running off with their son, Jimmy (spring 1982). These all seemed much stronger than the opening car accident and even the raid of the drug cargo ship in the fall of 1981. 

I am glad you found your way to this board. I did try to join that group weeks (months?) ago and got no response to my request. It is fine. I am not losing any sleep over it. You have provided some very interesting details. I believe Travis (who did the interviews) posted on this board briefly years ago. Earlier, he posted on danfling's soap opera board as he (at the time) shared an interest in the more obscure cable soaps like myself; I remember speaking with him about the number of episodes of "A New Day in Eden." The work the two of you have done is remarkable. 

My favorite of the interviews I have read is with Jason Vinley. Such insight into the process of the show, especially its creation from Vinley's perspective is delightful. I have read it at least a half dozen times at this point.  

Thanks for sharing where you started watching. I am curious have you been able to determine with what episodes were first shown in your country through archived newspapers listings. Sometimes they help and sometimes they don't. I am curious if the show was sold in its entirely internationally before the repackaging in 1984. 

Scott and Nora's deaths stand out. Scott's death may be the episode I have watched the most over the years because it's just so stark seeing Mary Jean Feton sobbing while covered in what is suppose to be Scott's blood on her cheek and uniform. I can't see any show ever getting that messy (literally) with a death. 

CBN still having the tapes is intriguing. This is something that I think is getting lost; material from the 1980s is getting old and deteriorating. I'll be curious to see if anything pops up of the early episodes. To be honest, the early episodes from Roy Winsor and Bob Aaron were a bit of a chore to get through and I admire some of Winsor's writing elsewhere. 

I have seen articles about the show being cancelled stating they would immediately pick up with reruns, which is quite interesting. Its a shame they couldnt find ways to financially make it work but its an interesting alternative though I will be curious to see how I feel about 1983-1984. 

What have been some of your favorite characters and/or stories?

I think the fact that Another Life wasn't airing on a network is why they were able to explore/tackle issues and out of the box situations.  Who knew that a Christian station was less intrusive then a network and/or P & G.

On 6/2/2025 at 6:17 AM, SoapDope78 said:

Thanks for the info. Timm was a model for years, so one could speculate he may have done something like nudity etc... that violated CBN's moral clause. He was good in the role. He had an awesome mop of 80's blow dried hair that would rival Ted McGinley.....LOL

I can add that some influential CBN donors threatened to pull off funding unless Timm was fired because it was rumored he took part in malestripping parties. Somebody wrote that on a private Facebook group created by an Another Life cast member which I joined over a decade ago. It's no longer active but I provided the link on a previous post.

I don't know if you know this, but Jeannette Larson who played Lori #1 was on Playboy's cover in February 1973. If you google 'Jeannette Larson Playboy' you'll find many links to that photo in various sizes and quality. It's not in full nudity and in fact it's shot in pretty good taste. She was only 20 back then and you can imagine she became born again a few years later. In the late Seventies and early Eighties as the disco era was coming to an end there was this spiritual void that had to do of course with many other cultural and social changes. I don't know if her leaving the role had anything to do with her Playboy past because even at a time when we didn't have the internet, there were probably enough people who knew she was on the cover of that magazine when she got the part. Even Renee Crawford (Marianne) was on the West Coast a few years trying her luck in the movie industry. She even had a small role in "Cannonball" in 1981 which required her to basically show off her body in suggestive sporting gear. A year later she would head back east to Virginia Beach...

 

On 8/19/2025 at 12:30 AM, YTG said:

I can add that some influential CBN donors threatened to pull off funding unless Timm was fired because it was rumored he took part in malestripping parties. Somebody wrote that on a private Facebook group created by an Another Life cast member which I joined over a decade ago. It's no longer active but I provided the link on a previous post.

I don't know if you know this, but Jeannette Larson who played Lori #1 was on Playboy's cover in February 1973. If you google 'Jeannette Larson Playboy' you'll find many links to that photo in various sizes and quality. It's not in full nudity and in fact it's shot in pretty good taste. She was only 20 back then and you can imagine she became born again a few years later. In the late Seventies and early Eighties as the disco era was coming to an end there was this spiritual void that had to do of course with many other cultural and social changes. I don't know if her leaving the role had anything to do with her Playboy past because even at a time when we didn't have the internet, there were probably enough people who knew she was on the cover of that magazine when she got the part. Even Renee Crawford (Marianne) was on the West Coast a few years trying her luck in the movie industry. She even had a small role in "Cannonball" in 1981 which required her to basically show off her body in suggestive sporting gear. A year later she would head back east to Virginia Beach...

Here's Jerry Timm in this 1984 Family Feud special

...and some of his Lucky Strike commercials until the mid Nineties. This Playlist begins with his 1986 introduction as one of the judges in the contest.

 

 ...and this is Renee's scene on The Cannonball Run with Sami Davis Jr. and Dean Martin. So no suggestive sporting gear there after all, it's mostly the girls next to her. She is actually dressed very conservatively from behind.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 22Aug 22 by YTG

Thanks @YTG

There are deep-pocketed lost media communities for adult entertainment, for old movies, sports. I wish it was around for soaps. Those tapes are historical artifacts for TV. I totally get why you weren't able to wrangle with them. I hope someone out there might be able to before it's too late, as it's going to take a lot of money and equipment. 

4 hours ago, YTG said:

I can add that some influential CBN donors threatened to pull off funding unless Timm was fired because it was rumored he took part in malestripping parties. Somebody wrote that on a private Facebook group created by an Another Life cast member which I joined over a decade ago. It's no longer active but I provided the link on a previous post.

I don't know if you know this, but Jeannette Larson who played Lori #1 was on Playboy's cover in February 1973. If you google 'Jeannette Larson Playboy' you'll find many links to that photo in various sizes and quality. It's not in full nudity and in fact it's shot in pretty good taste. She was only 20 back then and you can imagine she became born again a few years later. In the late Seventies and early Eighties as the disco era was coming to an end there was this spiritual void that had to do of course with many other cultural and social changes. I don't know if her leaving the role had anything to do with her Playboy past because even at a time when we didn't have the internet, there were probably enough people who knew she was on the cover of that magazine when she got the part. Even Renee Crawford (Marianne) was on the West Coast a few years trying her luck in the movie industry. She even had a small role in "Cannonball" in 1981 which required her to basically show off her body in suggestive sporting gear. A year later she would head back east to Virginia Beach...

 

Thanks for all the info. I was curious why Timm abruptly left the show mid storyline but remained in Virgina Beach till his death from a car accident. If he had wanted more acting opportunities he would have left the area and went back to L.A. or New York to find steady acting work.

Since Jeannette Larson did Playboy early in her career, I wonder if Timm did something similar like Playgirl etc... A lot of models, actors, struggling college students etc... did those magazines in the 70's and 80's for quick cash. They figured they would run their course and be quickly forgotten. They would use fake names to try and hide their identity. 

20 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

I think the fact that Another Life wasn't airing on a network is why they were able to explore/tackle issues and out of the box situations.  Who knew that a Christian station was less intrusive then a network and/or P & G.

The interesting thing is that the show was at its most provocative, in my opinion, in the era where there were also no traditional broadcasting people leading the show. In November-December, 1981, between Bob Aaron's departure and Darryl Hummel's arrival, the show really approaches a lot of hot button issues that seems to dull quite a bit when the Barnes' arrive in late 1981. 

With that said, I do think there are issues that soaps would have been more fearful to approach even in the other periods. It was just interesting to consider how a lot of TPTB came from traditional soaps (Winsor, Aaron, Vinley, Hummel) and how that may have shaped the way the show evolved. 

18 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Thanks @YTG

There are deep-pocketed lost media communities for adult entertainment, for old movies, sports. I wish it was around for soaps. Those tapes are historical artifacts for TV. I totally get why you weren't able to wrangle with them. I hope someone out there might be able to before it's too late, as it's going to take a lot of money and equipment. 

I think the issue is also the lack of knowledge of some of these 1980s off-network soaps is so limited that people are probably coming across them in some found VHS/Beta footage and not knowing what it is or what it is worth. Soap operas were significant early original scripted ontent on cable television and, as such, I think might hold a little more interest than possibly traditional network fare to TV historians. 

19 hours ago, YTG said:

I can add that some influential CBN donors threatened to pull off funding unless Timm was fired because it was rumored he took part in malestripping parties. Somebody wrote that on a private Facebook group created by an Another Life cast member which I joined over a decade ago. It's no longer active but I provided the link on a previous post.

I don't know if you know this, but Jeannette Larson who played Lori #1 was on Playboy's cover in February 1973. If you google 'Jeannette Larson Playboy' you'll find many links to that photo in various sizes and quality. It's not in full nudity and in fact it's shot in pretty good taste. She was only 20 back then and you can imagine she became born again a few years later. In the late Seventies and early Eighties as the disco era was coming to an end there was this spiritual void that had to do of course with many other cultural and social changes. I don't know if her leaving the role had anything to do with her Playboy past because even at a time when we didn't have the internet, there were probably enough people who knew she was on the cover of that magazine when she got the part. Even Renee Crawford (Marianne) was on the West Coast a few years trying her luck in the movie industry. She even had a small role in "Cannonball" in 1981 which required her to basically show off her body in suggestive sporting gear. A year later she would head back east to Virginia Beach...

Jerry Timms is an attractive guy. His charm often overshadows his ability, which works for a character like Gil. His Gil appears more low key compared to J. Michael Hunter's Gil who seems more sitcom like in some of the material I have seen with him. The story sounds like something out of the show itself. I imagine if only Timms had Timms agreed to repent like some of the televanglists caught in scandals later in the decade. 

There's something very wholesome about Jeanette Larson. She plays everything so earnestly without overdoing it (at least some of the early stuff in her relationship with Matt Williams' Ben that easily could have been overdone given the quick pace of the material). Her Lori has a great rapport with Chris Roland's Russ as well even after the breakup and such nice ease with both Renee Crawford and Susan Scannell. I'll be curious to see where things go with Debbie McLeod, who definitely bares a nice resemblance to Mary Jean Feton. 

I made it a little past 400 before taking a break. Amber Phillips just showed up at the construction office to solicit Gil for use of the construction site for a photo shoot. Amber bares a resemblance to Deena Greely, but Peggy Smithhart seems more energetic than Donna Denton. In addition, Amber has more built in conflict with her newly returned father (who I haven't seen her with yet). The setup is done quickly, but you can already see where the story is heading. 

Terry had a very nice showdown of sorts with Charles, who has recovered nicely from his heart attack and has dropped his interest in Jesus. Charles implies that Terry is foolish to give her energy to her faith and Terry makes the point of her faith as an investment stating that the bigger risk for Charles is not to believe. I thought it was a valid point without being as heavy handed as it could have been. 

Miriam is trapped in the gardening shed with her cat, Gabriel, and managed a brief escape thanks to Blue's incompetence. People are slowly becoming more and more concerned about Miriam's disappearance and Harold is pressing John Brubaker to do more. I do appreciate that they acknowledge that it is crazy that no ransom demand has been made so they are dismissing the idea of kidnapping. 

There was also a nice little bit of story crossover when Ben and Lori are out of town having dinner close to where Lori is hospitalized and Babs, who is on the run, pops up. To remind us that Babs in the wig is a disguise, Ben initially thinks it is Miriam, but Babs quickly dismisses them. 

Nancy has attempted to make a play for Dave Phillips, which at least makes some sense to me as Nancy would be searching for a new husband. Dave seems very unfazed by Nancy. The clear endgame is Dave and Terry already, which makes sense. The setup for Nancy and Vicki's revenge against Gil is slowly forming, and if it is what I think it is, I will say it will be the biggest disappoint in Vinley's run so far. I wish that they had just had Vicki #2 be a new character at this point. 

In Russ' story, Marianne has become increasingly interested in what it is that Vince Cardello does for work, which is pertinent because of Russ' decision to join his father's operation. Vince has a nice standoff between Russ and Vince over whether or not this triangle can end with all three parties still getting along; Vince says there will be no happy ending for all of them. I appreciate that Vince is now the unintentional interloper in Marianne and Russ' relationship, but I really would have loved for Carrie Weaver's busybody self to show up and make Marianne prefer Vince's mob life to Carrie's Lady MacBeth / Jocasta cosplay. 

I probably will start with this again in a week or two. I just needed a break because I feel like as I enter this era there is so much backstory that I need to be more aware.