Having Beverlee McKinsey show at the end would have been great! They did that with Mark Pinter's Grant too (on Tanquir), which wasn't that shocking but still.

I don't usually like 'cliffhanger' endings like that BUT I would have liked Iris returning if they didn't do the same in the next scene with Grant.

Yeah, AW definitely had a rushed ending. In fact it didn't even seem like the show WAS ending until the very last scene with Rachel in the living room. Until then the last couple episodes were all about Cass and Lila's wedding...and the gorilla!

I never knew that about Pam. I think she was called Pammy. Wish we'd seen her on AW. I wonder if Rachel ever even met her.

I liked Felicia and Mitch, although I also kind of wish we'd seen more of him with Rachel.

SOD said around the time Jenna arrived that AW was going to recast Lisa. Clearly that never happened. Do you know anything about that?

I've also spent too much time wondering why SOD mentioned Jamie/Brittany and Cass/Amanda pairings (this was when Schentzer has first returned as Cass, in summer 87 - I assume that the story would have been Rex fleecing Amanda. I don't know).

Was the character Pammy ever present or just menioned? They should have bought her back. Pissed me off about Aw. they never kept up with families

what? ok

Thanks! I would describe Lorna's skin color as Belafonte.

I feel like I should know who that judge is. Lawyer Cramer, I do know, I forget her name but she was on that Showtime show were they fast-forwarded and rewound trough time.

honestly hated carl

There were quite a few clips uploaded today which mainly focus on Carl's last story. It's funny how what looked very cheap at the time now seems vibrant to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a95P0Is11YI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5pE11EFalc&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

I thought Keating was a big ham, although he had his moments.

I wonder if they asked Carmen Duncan if she would return as Iris.

I thought AW had some closure in the last weeks - not a complete ending, but by the last episode, everyone was settled and happy, aside from Matthew.

I only liked Carl in the early days when he was after Marley and took her hostage in the desert? (Was it Arizona?).

When he came back during Kathleen's return, I no longer liked him and to me the idea of him and Lorna as lovers never really sit with me.

Charles Keating was indeed a big ham, but I think it made him very watchable in low-key Bay City. Like Melroser, I much preferred him as a villain. I never really bought him and Rachel together, though both actors gave it their all. The show took great pains to establish that Rachel saved Carl from himself just as Mac had saved Rachel -- but Rachel's "crimes" were not unforgivable, Carl's were.

It is amazing how much better the show looks in retrospect. AW barely had a production budget in the '90s, yet YouTube clips from that era make it look positively luxurious compared to soaps today. I'm shocked by the number of extras running around every time there's a scene at the hospital!

Some recurring questions I have:

--Why did the show end up blowing Jacqueline Courtney's return so badly in 1984 even after gaining a good amount of viewers back?

--Why did so many pivotal characters end up dead(Julia, Sally, Frankie etc.)

--What was the Alice and Rachel interaction like during the Harney years? I remember reading Rachel played a small role in the Beatrice Gordon story trying to tarnish Alice as a person while Rachel was off with that art sculptor teacher who was supposedly a very boring character.

More of early 1988 AW - Donna loses her baby.

I hated this story, Donna's perpetual victim status, cartoonish Reginald, hammy Michael. Such wasted potential.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-mzpVqzw44&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oH7aX-U9E4U&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVfqgzelrSc&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19NaMI3Wfiw&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B2h9pjBd7A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQiSmwOojxs&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnI79bxzhsU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pjgt6yGsGUg&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLQazsHl-8A&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-AndpKhygY&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LFslcEIF6g&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyKwFmswXwc&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhbu-vQMf-g&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEClRRHm-es&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

That sure was a lot of info. that announcer had to relay. I still prefer that to shrink credits anyday.

I always loved the melancholy sax closing theme heard here.