Another World Discussion Thread

[sungrey]

I am certainly no defender of Tomlin's Days stints... hell, he drove me away from that show... but I will defend, for the most part, his 1984-85 stint writing AW. He was responsible for Catlin/Sally and some of the Carl Hutchins villainy. He also penned the Marley/Vicky twin story, or at least the beginning of it.

It was definitely entertaining most days. Then along came Sam Hall in late 1985/early 1986 and nearly ruined the show.

[amybrickwallace]

Was that Sam Hall's last soap gig?

[Melroser]

Was it Don Scardino's choice to leave the show as Chris Chapin?

I remember really enjoying Chris and Nancy. He was even nominated for an Emmy wasn't he? I found it odd that he seemed to leave so soon. I thought Chris had a lot of potential since he was tied to Nancy and his father's tie to Carl Hutchins. I think Chris/Nancy could have been a decent long-term couple if they had been allowed.

I'm surprised the show never tried Nancy again after Jane Cameron initially left. With shows recasting all the time in those days, one would think Rachel's half-sister would be too important to ignore. I suppose in a way Paulina came on and took over as one in that age group with Vicky/Marley.

[sungrey]

I can't say for sure what happened, but I know when Margaret DePriest took over from Sam Hall there were a TON of changes made right away. The show became instantly watchable again for me, which it wasn't under Sam Hall (but Another World was nowhere near as bad in that period as Days is now).

Don Scardino jumped into directing shortly after. He even directed some AW episodes as I recall.

I know it was Jane Cameron's choice to leave as Nancy, but I never understood why Nancy wasn't featured again down the road. They did bring her back when Constance Ford died, so at least they remembered the actress.

[watson71]

Sam Hall was the head writer during the whole Egyptian treasure storyline. I remember reading in one of the soap magazines that AW originally was going to shoot its November location sequence in Egypt; however, on October 7, 1985, four members of the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) took control of the Achille Lauro cruise ship off of Egypt as the ship was sailing from Alexandria to Port Said. Holding the passengers and crew hostage, the PLF directed the vessel to sail to Tartus, Syria, and demanded the release of 50 Palestinians then in Israeli prisons. The location was quickly switched because of the safety concerns of traveling to Egypt.

The Egyptian urn with the deadly dust ranks right up there with Lumina in terms of inane storylines.

[denzo30]

do you have the peg murray, episodes?

[tune_in_tomorrow]

I watched AW from '84-'87 and sporadically the rest of its run, and really enjoyed Jane Cameron's Nancy. I also was surprised the role was never recast because there were plenty of recasts of other characters --Donna, Peter, Marley/Victoria, Nicole, Sally, MJ, Jamie. Most of them weren't successful but as Melroser and sungrey mentioned, she was a key character. Even though I liked Cameron, I don't remember her being considered irreplaceable.

[amybrickwallace]

Don Scardino was nominated for the Younger Actor Emmy in 1986 for the role of AW's Chris but lost out to Michael E. Knight of AMC.

[SamanthaKitCat]

I just heard about Charles Keating's death today.

I started watching AW back in late 1990/early 1991 when I was a high school student and I immediately found Keating's Shakespearean acting fascinating to watch. As a high school student I loved the relationship of John and Lucinda on ATWT and the relationship between Alex and Fletcher on GL. I also didn't have much interest in teen stories. The exceptions being, the Pam Long-era GL teens, Dusty, Andy, and Paul on ATWT, and Sarah Michelle Geller's AMC character. Long (during her GL stint) was my favorite character creator/co-creator/developer/co-developer on soaps. So, for the most part, I found teen characters boring, when I was young.

Back around Christmas 2008, I decided to turn in to Y&R just to see a Christmas episode of a soap opera again. I had quit watching soaps for years. I was thrilled to see Jeanne Cooper in a major storyline. So, what was meant to be a one day thing, ended up being taping the show for months in order to see the denouement of the Katherine Chancellor storyline (her wedding, Jill finding out that Katherine really wasn't her mother, etc) because I had been a Katherine fan as a kid, as well.

Edited January 27, 2015 by SamanthaKitCat

[slick jones]

I really liked quirky Nancy played by Jane Cameron. I also never understood why she wasn't brought back. It was wonderful seeing her at Ada's memorial, along with Clarice...

[Paul Raven]

As well as Nancy,AW had potential story gold with Rachel's other half sister Pam Davis.

[watson71]

You can download the Peg Murray episodes from the Another World Homepage. She is featured in the 1983 DVD episodes.

[watson71]

She also returned in 1989 for the 25th anniversary episodes. When the character of Joe Carlino was introduced, didn't they make a point to state that he had once dated Nancy? I wonder if they were thinking about bringing her back at that point. This would have been around the time that the switch between John Valente and Jill Farren Phelps as EP. Carolyn Culliton was the headwriter at this time. She wrote AW during the 80s when Nancy was featured on the show, so Culliton knew Nancy's backstory.

[John]

Scandal's Bellamy Young who originated the role of Courtney Evans in 1995 (Courtney was quickly recast and later killed by Fax Newman in May 1996) talks fondly of AW here starting at 2: 39

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Edited January 28, 2015 by John

[DRW50]

JFP certainly had a knack for canning popular Shonda actors.