Another World Discussion Thread

[vetsoapfan]

TPTB knew from way back in the mid-1980s that viewers were clamoring for the return of certain characters like Mike and Hope Bauer on TGL, or Pat Randolph and other core characters on AW. Sadly, they not only failed to bring such beloved characters back, but over the next few decades TPTB continued to eliminate other viable, popular, beloved characters as well. It boggles the mind how little P&G and the producers and writers they hired knew (or cared) about either the shows or their audience.

Edited April 3, 2016 by vetsoapfan

[watson71]

I agree that P&G and TPTB did not care about their shows or the audience.  This really became apparent after Ed Trach retired as Executive in Charge of Production for the shows.  I wonder if he truly retired or was asked to retire by P&G.  Kenneth Fitts did that executive producer shuffle of the P&G shows, and that left all three shows in terrible shape in 1995.  Then MADD arrived and the rest is history.

 

JFP did a lot of damage in her year as EP.  She let Ryan (Paul Michael Valley) die on-screen at the end of the Justine story.  If she was smart, JFP should have let Justine die on the train trestle, and Ryan fall off the trestle and have his body gone missing.  Clearly, PMV would have returned to the show because he was willing to come back as Ryan's ghost.  If PMV refused to return, the character of Ryan could have been recast.  This would have avoided the convoluted Bobby Reno/Shane Roberts story.  Ryan could have taken up with Lila after he fell off the train trestle, and he could have returned to town just as Vicky and Jake were about to marry.  That would have been so much better than what we got under JFP and Charlotte Savitz.

 

JFP also brought back Nancy Frangione as Cecile in 1995.  It appeared that Frangione was willing to stay with AW for the long term at this point.  TPTB did not give Frangione a contract and treated her as a glorified day player.  Then, TPTB created the storyline that Cass was really Maggie's father, rather than Sandy.  Cass wasn't even on the show when Maggie was born.  TPTB also did not include Cecile when they redid the opening credits in March 1996- stating that only people on contract were included in the opening- including all those forgettable teen characters.  Cecile could have driven years of story on AW- take the place of Iris as the villainess of the show since Iris was in jail; tested Rachel and Carl's marriage by having her plot and scheme with Carl; insert herself in Cass and Frankie's marriage; be a rival with Vicky since they were both ex-wives of Jamie Frame; or have a storyline where Sandy, Blaine, and their son, Alex, return to Bay City to help Maggie with her mother.  TPTB let Cecile leave Bay City will no fanfare and never to be seen onscreen again.

[Paul Raven]

Totally agree re Cecile.I wonder why they bothered bringing her back.

[NothinButAttitude]

OMG. You are bringing up all stuff that hurt my heart. I totally agree that Cecile could've filled that void that Iris left behind. They had Cecile doing things that were unthinkable. Instead of still being a social climber, I think it would've been more compelling had Cecile been a corporate raider or just tossed her back at Brava and had her create trouble from there. Retconning Maggie's birth along with her eventually having Tomas kidnap her for Maggie's trust was disgusting. It was obvious they didn't know what to do with her. 

 

I think that the Justine arc, which lead to the death of Ryan was catalyst to many things that would later harm the show. One being that they finally shoved Grant off the cliff of no return. He became straight slapstick after this arc and could never return. It was more enjoyable when he was the sleazy and sometimes corrupt politician, but making him a megalomaniac just did it in for him. I always felt post-Justine story that Grant should've been killed off too. He was too heinous for him not to have lasted long as he did. 

 

So odd that AW was semi-decent in the early 90s up until 95 where sh-t just went awry.

[watson71]

Shortly before MADD was named Executive in Charge of Production for the P&G shows, Charlotte Savitz was named the EP of AW.  Savitz, at the time, was working at NBC when she became the EP of AW.  No doubt, she was probably given orders by NBC to dismantle AW to the point where cancellation was the only option.  While Savitz successfully did this, I could never understand why she was allowed to hold on to the EP position for two years.  P&G gave her multiple head writers during her tenure as EP.  After MADD took over, she quickly replaced Michael Laibson at GL with Paul Rauch and John Valente at ATWT with Felicia Behr.  I wonder if MADD ever offered the EP job at AW to Laibson, Rauch, or Valente during her initial changes at GL and ATWT.  All held the EP job at AW previously- with Laibson and Rauch being able to produce AW with success. Were NBC and P&G hesitant to replace Savitz knowing that Laibson and/or Rauch produced AW would probably cause a bump in the ratings?  I also suspect that MADD knew that AW would be cancelled when she hired Chris Goutman as EP in November 1998, and that she promised him the EP job at ATWT from the get-go allowing him to get "practice" being an EP at AW in preparation for his job at ATWT.

[DRW50]

Spot the AW cast member.

 

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[DRW50]

Stephen Schnetzer voiceover.

 

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[kylefish76]

I thought I read in an interview in 1995-96 that Nancy was under contract as Cecile? hmmm

[watson71]

TPTB would not put Nancy Frangione under contract for some reason?!?  They did not put her in the new opening credits in March 1996 because TPTB stated at the time that the credits only featured contract players.  Also, when the show aired the cast in the closing credits, Frangione was featured with the day players at the end of the cast credits.   

 

At at some point after she left in 1996, TPTB should have made an effort to bring Frangione back to the show.  A Cass/ Cecile wedding would have been a good way to end the show.  It made more sense than the Cass/ Lila wedding.

[cnathanielrichardson]

[watson71]

17 years ago today, NBC announced the cancellation of Another World.  Hard to believe that it has been 15+ years since AW left the airwaves.

[vetsoapfan]

Has this been posted before? It's a list compiled by Jon/Saynotoyoursoap, about the vintage AW episodes known to survive.

 

These are episodes verified to exist in museums or with private collectors:


November 9, 1964- Pat is found standing over Tom's body (kinescope)
November 10, 1964- Sgt. Adams arrives at the Matthews home to question Pat (kinescope)
November 12, 1964- Mitch Dru is summoned to represent Pat in Tom's murder (kinescope)
July 1, 1968 Walter and Lenore marry (b/w video)
July 2, 1968- Rachel and Alice meet Steve Frame at the wedding reception (b/w video)
July 3, 1968- Rachel and Steve dance at the reception (b/w video)
March 8, 1971 (1/2 inch reel)
March 16, 1971- Lenore goes into labor (1/2 inch reel)
March 24, 1971 (1/2 inch reel)
April 1, 1971 (1/2 inch reel)
April 9, 1971 (1/2 inch reel)
January 24, 1972- Walter confesses to Lenore that he murdered Wayne Addison (16mm color)
February 7, 1972- Lenore is told of Walter's death (16mm color)
March 12, 1973- Ada informs Mary that Rachel plans to marry Steve as soon as Ted divorces her. (1/2 inch reel)
March 20, 1973 -Rachel tells Gerald that she and Steve will make a family for him (1/2 inch reel)
March 28, 1973 (1/2 inch reel)
April 5, 1973 (1/2 inch reel)
April 13, 1973- Rachel and Steve are married (1/2 inch reel)
October 8, 1973- Steve tells Alice he'll get rid if there's a chance they can reconcile (16mm color)
May 3, 1974 -A drunken John disrupts Steve and Alice's wedding. (16mm color)
September 10, 1974 -John refuses to work for Steve again. (kinescope)
July 22, 1975 -Mac begs Rachel to take him back
August 15, 1975 -Mac and Rachel host a garden party
November 19, 1975- Marianne is pregnant by Chris
January 16, 1976 -Pat and John's marriage disintegrates over Marianne's abortion
May 31, 1976- Enraged, Robert destroys the sculpture of Mac
June 25, 1976- Rachel isn't happy to learn Pat is going to stay in Mac's NY townhouse
June 28, 1976- John reassures Marianne that she isn't the cause of her parents splitting up
June 29, 1976 - Dennis receives a surprise party
June 30, 1976 -Willis moves Olive into her hotel suite
November 26, 1976- Mac prepares to confess his affair with Gwen to Rachel
February 11, 1977- Jim consoles Ada over Gil's death; Pat agrees to divorce John
March 15, 1978 - Liz feels that her family is shunning her because of her meddling

[Goldensoaps]

Thank you for the list!!!!! And does anyone know about the vintage OLTL episodes known to survive?? Thank you!! 

[vetsoapfan]

I do not, but I wish someone with access to such information would compose definitive lists for all the soaps, about what vintage episodes from 1979 and earlier still exist.

 

We know that DAYS, Y&R, THE DOCTORS, RYAN'S HOPE and DARK SHADOWS preserved most, if not all, of their episodes. B&B too, although that started in 1987 when VCRs were already in existence, so anyone who wanted to record that series was able to do so.

 

We are lucky that so much early material from TGL, LOL, SFT, etc., is available on youtube, but it's rare to find eps from the golden age of Y&R, AW, OLTL, and other great series.

[watson71]

Most of the P & G shows have episodes intact dating back to the late 70s and early 80s.   Episodes of AW, Texas, EON, and SFT were available on the AOL website.   Also, P & G made episodes of AW, GL, and ATWT available on Hulu for a brief period.  Then, they sold the GL and ATWT DVDs.  Then, suddenly nothing.   It's as if P & G wanted nothing more to do with the soap opera genre that they helped create.   Anyone know what happened to the surviving existing episodes of the P & G soaps?  I would hope that P & G would not have destroyed the surviving episodes.  There would definitely be an audience for their soaps to be rebroadcast on a station like MeTV or Antenna TV- the initial group of viewers who made their shows popular from the 1950s-70s- are now of retirement age and a audience familiarity of these programs would exist and attract viewers.   I believe a P & G soap block on MeTV or Antenna TV could be successful if promoted correctly and aired in the afternoon- 12:30 PM SFT, 1:00 ATWT, 2:00 AW, 3:00 GL, 4:00 EON.