In honor of AW's 45th anniversary,I thought I'd start this thread and perhaps all future posts concerning this show could be in one place.at present there are several threads.

Here's a description from Irna Phillips at the time of debut.

"What I want to say is that none of us can face reality 24 hours a day. We must have private 'worlds', made up of our down dreams and pleasures and emotions, into which to retreat. Otherwise, it would be simply too much!"

The story follows the lives of the families of two brothers, William and James Matthews, in a suburban university town. It opens with the death of William, then shows how the sad events affects the widow and their children and the other brother and his family. Grandma Matthews gets into the action, to. The writer promises to relate to contemporary problems; two of them she mentioned are school dropouts and illegitimacy.

I have a question for viewers who watched Another World from the first episode- was AW pre-empted a lot during its early years? On May 4, 1999 AW celebrated its 35th Anniversary and ran for approximately 7 more weeks before its final episode which would equate to approximately 35 episodes.

Search for Tomorrow celebrated its 35th Anniversary on September 3, 1986 and ran for approximately approximately 16 more weeks before its final episode which would equate to approximately 80 episodes.

SFT ran for 9,130 episodes and AW aired 8,891 episodes. This is a difference of 239 episodes. Why is there such a big difference between two series that both ran for a little over 35 years?

I have a question for viewers who watched Another World from the first episode- was AW pre-empted a lot during its early years? On May 4, 1999 AW celebrated its 35th Anniversary and ran for approximately 7 more weeks before its final episode which would equate to approximately 35 episodes.

Search for Tomorrow celebrated its 35th Anniversary on September 3, 1986 and ran for approximately approximately 16 more weeks before its final episode which would equate to approximately 80 episodes.

SFT ran for 9,130 episodes and AW aired 8,891 episodes. This is a difference of 239 episodes. Why is there such a big difference between two series that both ran for a little over 35 years?

Do you think that it could be b/c of preemptions, Olympic games, the OJ trail, and other events? They may've been a factor in episode count.

Maybe Eddie, who runs the AWHP, would know?

Do you think that it could be b/c of preemptions, Olympic games, the OJ trail, and other events? They may've been a factor in episode count.

That is quite possible. The difference between AW and SFT is 239 episodes at 5 episodes a week- this would equate to almost 48 total weeks of preemptions for AW in 35 years. That just seems like a lot of preemptions...

That is quite possible. The difference between AW and SFT is 239 episodes at 5 episodes a week- this would equate to almost 48 total weeks of preemptions for AW in 35 years. That just seems like a lot of preemptions...

Could holidays play into it as well? Maybe soaps ran literally year round, no holidays off like soaps do now. Could be that.

But this is an interesting question you've asked.

Sometimes the number of an episode and the total number of actual episodes doesn't line up due to how they used to number scripts/episodes. It seems to have been a general practice back in the day that followed a 01/02/03/04/05 & 06/07/08/09/10 M/Tu/W/Th/F pattern so that the number of every Friday's episode would either end in a 0 or a 5. I believe Dark Shadows employed this system (often with multiple episodes ending up with the same number) and we've discovered that The Doctors seems to use this system as well. I believe I even heard about The Guiding Light doing the same. This would mean that if Episode #1233 aired on Wednesday & a preemption happened on Thursday, Episode #1234 would air on Friday (because it had already been written/taped), but new scripts/taped material would go back to the original pattern so that Episode #1255 would air on a Friday again, which might cause there to not even be an episode with a given number because that episode number was skipped to resume the pattern. This could help explain wonky episodes numbers & counts.

That makes sense.

Jason 47's page has DOOL pre-empted a total of 206 times up until 2000,so it would be safe to assume that a lot of those carried over to AW. Still doesn't account for all of them though.

Edited May 26, 201510 yr by Paul Raven

Jason 47's page has DOOL pre-empted a total of 206 times up until 2000,so it would be safe to assume that a lot of those carried over to AW. Still doesn't account for all of them though.

Thanks for the information. Many of those DOOL pre-emptions probably did carry over to AW. Looking over them, it is hard to believe that up until the mid 70s- baseball playoff games and the World Series were played in the middle of the afternoon. Also, the Summer of 73 must have been disruptive for soaps in general given the number of Watergate hearing pre-emotions.

I've often said I was addicted to this show since the womb because my mom was an avid viewer. I was born April '73. If this show was pre-empted a lot that summer no wonder I was such a cranky child!!! Now I know

Just your luck to be born during the Watergate hearings!!! LOL

Maybe that's why I have a real problem trusting people....those hearings are probably regressed in my memory while I was in the crib next to the tv! haha

That's as good an explanation as any!! LOL

Did Carmen Duncan ever have a role on the soaps again - other than filling in for Eileen Fulton on ATWT?

No, she left America shortly after her role on AW ended, and moved to Europe with a very rich boyfriend. She was later diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer and treated successfully, moved back to Sydney, Australia, and has done a lot of charity work while taking acting work on television, film and theatre.

I loved Duncan's Iris. She wasn't McKinsey's character at all, but I thought she was just fabulous.

Carmen today

Veteran stage performer Carmen Duncan pictured at home in Edgecliff. Picture: Jess Husband