Another World Discussion Thread

[adrnyc]

 

Totally agree with you in regards to Anna Stuart - she makes every scene shine that she's in. I can't take my eyes off of her!!

 

I stopped watching the show long before they got rid of Iris, Bridget, etc. I wonder if I"ll last longer in my re-watch than I did on original viewing.....that's assuming of course that I can find the episodes on line. All of the SoapNet run is on YT, isn't it? I didn't watch it at the time - didn't have SoapNet - but didn't they show '87-'91?

 

Sometimes, generic can be good - just about any viewer can graft themselves onto a generic storyline. 

 

I would disagree with you though about it feeling generic. Iris and Felicia were anything but generic characters. I know that she didn't create them but she wrote for them for years. In fact, she fleshed out Felicia and gave her a family which made her infinitely more interesting. 

 

I thought the original split personality storyline for Sharlene/Sharly was one of the greatest storylines on a soap opera ever. Especially because it went on for years at the start. Taylor, the psychiatrist, was one of the best villains in soap opera history. I, and my friends and family, tuned in EVERY DAY to see what crazy thing she would do next. The episodes in the fairground had us screaming at the television - we were all so into it. 

 

It wasn't until they brought back the split personality thing AGAIN when Sharlene came back with the entirely new personality (which I believe is what the video from '94 was) that I thought "Okay, we've been there, done that with this storyline now. It's just retreading the past."

 

[amybrickwallace]

 

That's how she is in the reruns of The Doctors on Retro TV. The storyline she is in is a mess, but it doesn't take away from her acting. (Besides, we all know that she had her share of clunker stories as Donna.) Toni and Donna were two totally different characters, but Anna Stuart was great in both roles. I saw her first on AW when it was still on the air, but it wasn't until seeing her on TD that I really appreciated her versatility as an actress.

[Soaplovers]

I actually thought it would have been more interesting if the Kate character wasn't Sharlene in split personality mode not a long lost twin... just someone that happened to resemble Sharlene.  From what I recall, once Sharlene was fully intergrated.. she became kind of boring with soap magazines at the time saying that they missed both the Kate and Sharly personalities.

[adrnyc]

 

I think that would've been a great idea! It would've been different than the s/p storyline again.

 

I *do* remember thinking Sharly was more interesting to watch rather than Sharlene (I felt the same about Rose/Lily on ATWT - Rose was far more interesting!)  I was so enamored with John and Sharlene in high school/college though. I'd watch just about anything they were doing at that time, I think.

[soapfan770]

 

I saw this posted and just had to reply. A lot of times I had AW on as background noise or flipped to it whenever when GL was on commercial(and later on when I lived Albuquerque, B&B) but I did really enjoy the show during the Peggy Sloane era. It was the silly Cristy Carson caper with Patti D'Arbanville doing a fabulous job that sucked me in for more than just background noise and I enjoyed all the way through at least through early 1995. Plus the Ryan/Vicky/Grant drama, Felicia's alcoholism, and Joe/Paulina romance and escapades drove a lot of the show and made it at least entertaining. I think some of the Carolyn Culliton stuff i.e. Joe and Frankie did play well but it all unraveled the moment she was bumped off with JFP's arrival. 

 

But it was Iris' departure that really left me in the cold; the show invested a lot into Morgan and Brett and then dropped them; Marley didn't come back after the show survived JB contract drama in '94; Jake died! The less said about Spencer, Justine, and Justine's sisters that were on initially the better. 

[adrnyc]

From what I hear from this board, I'm so happy that I missed the Justine years. I have to admit though, I am now interested in seeing how much of a train wreck the story really is once I get there. (Assuming that a lot of the storyline exists on YT)

[j swift]

Justine gets my award for the worst ret-con of all time; on any soap.  No amount of exposition could ever solve all of the logical problems with the story; so they just never explained the loopholes.

 

Carl had an affair with Justine Harrison which produced Ryan.  Ryan was the same age as Vicky Love who was 18 was she and Carl were introduced in 1983/1984; which means she was born in 1965.  For 27 years nobody mentioned Rachel's similarity to Justine?  Rachel was famous in town from her murder trial to her huge weddings; wouldn't one person mention that her doppelgänger lived next door at the Harrison mansion?  Historically, long lost twins on soaps grew up in separate towns; not next door to each other.  Did Mac Cory, Reg Love, or Michael Hudson know Spencer and Justine when they lived next door?   Were they all invited to Lenore Moore's society wedding that Rachel was so desperate to attend when she was married to Russ?

 

Also, doesn't the affair with Justine mean that Carl was in Bay City in the 1960's?  If Carl was around in 1965 why didn't recognize him was in 1983?  Weren't Justine and Donna pregnant at the same time?  Why did Carl wait 20 years to get revenge on Mac?  Why was Carl so focused on Mac if Spencer was really his rival? 

 

Which leads to one more bit of timeline exposition that never made sense.  Donna Love married to Carl in Europe from approximately 1979-1982 and was a loving stepmom to his son Perry.  During that period did Nicole, Peter and Marley Love live in the Love mansion by themselves?  If the twins were so important to Donna why did she leave when Marley was a teen?  Carl must have been very special to Donna but later writers seems to have forgotten that they were involved.

 

It's that weird thing that soap people have pictures of their families  but nobody seems to look at them until people return from the dead.  

Edited April 2, 2018 by j swift

[katie_9918]

I don’t think Spencer and Justine ever lived in Bay City. The Harrison men, all three of them, came to Bay City from Boston. I think it was first Ryan, then Grant, then Spencer.

 

But you’re right in that it makes no sense Spencer never had a reaction to Rachel’s resemblance to Justine, except that history didn’t exist until the Justine travesty actually started.

 

I think Carl had some comment around the time he found out Ryan was his son about how “like” Rachel was to Justine, but my mind might be making even that up.

[amybrickwallace]

I thought Justine had plastic surgery done on her face so she'd look just like Rachel, but I could be wrong.

[watson71]

The Harrisons were from Boston.  When the Justine story began, the show went to great length to show flashbacks with different "younger" actors playing Spencer, Justine, and Carl to explain the backstory of Ryan's birth.  

 

You can can see the flashbacks in the clip below at the 40 minute mark:

 

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Carl had made mention that Rachel resembled Justine when he was revealed to be Ryan's father.  After Grant shot himself to frame Vicky, the Harrison mansion that was purchased when they moved from Boston burned down in February 1995.  At the time, Justine was living in France and viewers only saw  her in shadows.  Viewers did not Victoria Wyndham as Justine until April.  Justine kidnapped Rachel and placed her in a hospital out of the country. Justine then assumed Rachel's identity.  Later in the Summer of 1995, Justine purchased another mansion where she kidnapped Vicky and bricked her up behind a wall in the basement.  Rachel and Justine did not come face to face until their altercation at the train trestle where Grant shot Ryan.  After he was shot, Ryan fell into Justine and pushed her off the trestle where she was hit by a train.  

 

The show should have left Justine dead at this point. However, Justine did not  die.  She popped up a few months later in December at the grand opening of  the Ryan Harrison wing at the hospital.  Justine planted a bomb in the hospital that Grant deactivated.  Justine broke into the Cory mansion was finally killed by Carl who faked a heart attack, then he stabbed Justine to death.

 

A convoluted story to say the least, but you could see that NBC was pressuring AW to be more like DAYS in its storytelling. 🤔

[amybrickwallace]

I wasn't watching the show yet, but it does sound awfully twisted. Who was writing at this point?

[watson71]

 

There was a producer and writer change in the story- that is part of the reason it was so convoluted.  When the story began John Valente was the executive producer and Carolyn Culliton was the headwriter. In June, Jill Farren Phelps became the executive producer and Tom King and Craig Carlson the headwriters.  King was the headwriter of AW right after Harding Lemay left the show who penned most of the Janice Frame story in 1979-80.

[amybrickwallace]

Thanks. A changing of the guard - with writers AND producers at the same time - explains a lot!! 😨

[Franko]

Interesting. I'm sure NBC preferred VW as Rachel and Justine (it matches the "OMG, the leading lady gets to be nuts" factor of Deidre and Marlena's possession), but now I wish Christine Jones had returned.

[victoria foxton]

Justine came back disfigured  with one eye and a hook dressed as a nun.  AW at it's worse. The whole show was very dark and overwrought. I do love the new hospital set. You would never see that many extra's on today's remaining soaps.

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Edited April 3, 2018 by victoria foxton