Another World Discussion Thread

[vetsoapfan]

 

Along with a few mistakes in spelling and grammar, half of the "facts" presented in this piece are totally inaccurate.

Edited September 23, 2019 by vetsoapfan

[Contessa Donatella]

As a matter of fact, I was just clicking on Quote to go in & make some changes. You beat me to it.

Quote: The love triangle between Alice, Steve and Rachel was also a Lemay brainstorm.

I believe that was the idea of Agnes's.

 

A line I did not get to in this is as follows: Jim and Mary's son Russ left town as a high school dropout and returned much later as a full-fledged doctor. How this bit of magic was accomplished was never explained by the writers. ME: I don't think that happened at all!

 

This is a fascinating OLD soap mag.

 

vetsoapfan, please jump in with me. I'm not seeing spelling, except Proctor & Gamble. I'm not seeing grammar. But this thing is a mess.

[Contessa Donatella]

from INSIDE THE SOAPS by Paul Denis. Lively gossip about the stars and characters of all the soap operas. © 1985 Another World pg. 56-60. Again, this soap book spells Proctor & Gamble instead of with an e. By the early 70s Steve & Alice were the most popular romantic couple. But Reinholt was a fiery, temperamental, challenging actor and Lemay "killed" him off. A few months later Miss Courtney was also let go and she joined George over at OLTL. She came back for AW's 20th anniversary. Kim Morgan Greene (Nicole) fell on the family yacht & banged her head & had to have the Coast Guard rush her to the nearest hospital. A nurse asked her, "Are you really going to get together with Jamie?" She  moaned, "Not until I get my head sewn up!" (That was Nicole #1, wasn't it?) One day when the AW crew was unusually noisy and rude, Ada stopped the scene and shouted, "We ain't just callin' hogs up here!" The studio was quiet for the rest of the day.

[vetsoapfan]

Agnes Nixon did not "defect to ABC to create OLTL and AMC" in 1967. She had created AMC years before while on vacation in St. Croix, and then lost the suitcase with the original bible.

 

Harding Lemay was not the "new writer" in 1967. He came aboard years later in 1971.

 

The show's epigram ("We do not live in this world alone....") was long gone by the time Lemay took over the writing reigns, so his allegedly changing that opening statement, which was no longer even being used or referred to on the show, does not make sense.

 

The Alice/Steven/Rachel romance was Agnes Nixon's creation. She launched it and then Robert Cenedella took over when Nixon departed. So Lemay was the third scribe to handle that famous story. (A fourth, Corinne Jacker, tried and failed to reignite it in 1981.)

 

The article purports that Rachel was "no longer vicious and immoral" when Victoria Wyndham assumed the role, but that is simply not true. The character continued to behave in a vile manner for a long time afterwards, being particularly heinous in her treatment of Alice. Rachel only really mellowed in 1975.

 

The Carringtons' housekeeper was not named "Louise Gardner" but rather Louise Goddard.

 

As for Russ Matthews, he did become a doctor pretty quickly, but his parents had mentioned earlier that he was in medical school, so like instant SORASing, it was a familiar plot device soap fans just had to accept.

Edited September 22, 2019 by vetsoapfan

[Contessa Donatella]

from THE SOAP OPERA BOOK by Manuela Soares © 1978. "Another World" has more characters than most soaps. (This is something that was said about the show all along over the years, even until the days that NBC was trying to do away with it.) "Another World" is, most importantly, a show that pays attention to character and psychology. It does not hint darkly at psychiatric concepts as does "Days of Our Lives"; instead it deals with ordinary motivations in interpersonal relationships. Oedipal conflicts and all the rest come out in dialogue---not in bizarre and soapy situations. In the storyline, traditional soap devices are minimized. There is no hospital drama except incidentally, when someone gets sick and is admitted. There are no amnesia victims (the oldest son Tommy Jr. had amnesia.) No melodramatic murders or trials. There are also ---strange to say---no mysterious illegitimate babies. LeMay's idea of a good twist is to deliver a baby of middle-aged parents (Ada and Gil).

[Contessa Donatella]

from ALL MY AFTERNOONS by Annie Gilbert © 1976. In the early sixties there was a battle raging among the three television networks over who could capture and keep the lucrative daytime television audience. CBS always had a steady lead ... ABC had failed in a couple ... NBC did make an effort to compete, but being the "we try harder" soap makers, they were skittish and often took their shows off the air too soon, not allowing for the many years it can take to build up a  loyal soap audience. (This was, in fact, the reputation that NBC had.) ... Both Lemay and Reinholt had a private and personal vision of the character and motivation of Steve Frame. Unfortunately, they did not coincide. ... Writer Lemay explained to new Rachel that he didn't like his characters to be as black-and-white as was standard in the world of soaps. He wanted to make Rachel a character with more complexities.

[Contessa Donatella]

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[Contessa Donatella]

When I was one of many Another World fan activists, we were encouraged 4 distinct times because there was interest in the soap itself or in a merger with P&G. In the order I can recall them in: Paramount wanted AW and/or wanted a merger with P&G. It fell through. Next, Viacom wanted the soap itself or a merger with P&G. (Viacom & Paramount did merge with Viacom as the parent company. Then, Viacom merged with CBS.) ABC wanted AW. P&G wouldn't have any of it. So, ABC used Linda Dano on all 4 of their soaps as a non-Felicia character. FOX wanted, and had wanted for some time, a daytime lineup of their own. They specifically wanted AW & ATWT to be their "starter lineup." Again, P&G was having nothing to do with it. P&G was always the hang-up! As fans we were distraught because any of those means would have kept the show on the air.

[Contessa Donatella]

Recently some people put together a film noir style docu-drama to be called "Who Shot Your Soap?" I don't know if it was ever distributed or broadcast but there is a copy of it up on YouTube. And, as we all know, if there's a clip up on YouTube, then, you can see it. I realize that I'm in an AW topic & this applies to more than just AW. It also applies to ATWT, GL, AMC and OLTL.

 

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[Contessa Donatella]

https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Victoria_Wyndham_on_Another_World_and_another_life

 

Recently I read a wiki interview with Vicky Wyndham about AW, the fight to keep it on the air, and her life afterwards. It's dated Dec. 13, 2007. She speaks of the political infighting that was going on & having to be the leader & anchor for P&G & the cast & crew & fans.

 

Afterward she speaks of wandering for 7 years in the desert (California) until she found a new painter to be her mentor. That's right; now she paints instead of sculpting. I've met people who have been to her studio & have bought her paintings.

 

She talks about NBC wanting to buy or own or possess AW and P&G not having any of it. She said that an NBC Head Honcho Brandon Tartikoff said to her, "Oh my God, you're the only reason we keep that show on the air." My words, not hers, but she was verklempt!

 

She explained about writing for the show & pitching story & even about pitching product placement as a concept.

 

Good interview.

[Contessa Donatella]

Virginia Dwyer, AW's Mary Matthews, tells a hilarious but true anecdote about herself. This happened after she'd played the part for several years. She was poking around in her clothes closet. When suddenly she was completely in shock! Every item in there was Mary's ultraconservative look --- not hers! Not even one item was hers. She scooped them all up in her arms & threw them out. She had forgotten who she was! She had become Mary Matthews!

[Contessa Donatella]

Last week a group of us got to watch 2 YT clips of Felicia & Wally, in a truck, flying downhill, on the loose, thinking they were going to hit her top-floor penthouse posh restaurant T.O.P.S. Eyes were wild, feather boas were flying & I mean, let me tell you they were screaming!  It was thanks to one of my nearest & dearest friends, Chase4ever. Oh, yeah, one of the oldest, too! And the icing on the cake is that included in the bundle was a copy of Wallingford's Memorial Service. Rewind to the beginning on the first clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2piqg5CyVk&list=PL4VcbQ8kMdHI2rQKUB4owOFg_9whbHqbT&index=317&t=2066s&fbclid=IwAR0PKcVTN6tsyaa02tMn21D7HprWWA2fZJF8xc3QOAUVrvAo7GZ3tMB8RwA

 

Play the second one as is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l7TQqBgamY&list=PL4VcbQ8kMdHI2rQKUB4owOFg_9whbHqbT&index=84&t=5s
 

[Contessa Donatella]

Now, I don't know that he could've talked Bev into coming even if they had said yes. She was more introverted after her transplant. I don't know what her health was like. She just wanted to putter in her garden & play with her grandchild.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There's a good chance that she was somewhat self-concious about her health and maybe her looks, then.

 

Edited September 29, 2019 by Donna B
Cut back on content.

[Contessa Donatella]

I met Larry Lau at a fan event when he was back as Jamie & he had been through some kind or level of rehab & he was dressed all in black - black tight jeans & black tight tshirt & black sneakers - and he had lost considerable weight & so he looked fantastic. Great sparkle to his eyes & very shiny blonde hair. He had a girlfriend with him & they were back in the courtesy room having a bit to eat & drink & I visited with them while I saw to it that they found what they needed before they went out & he signed autographs for a long while. He was very personable & very approachable. You couldn't help but like him!

Then, of course, not that it really relates but I never liked Russell Todd. But, I did enjoy Richard Bekins. I'm old enough to have liked him.

It was in one of those fan event courtesy rooms when I discovered that Anna Stuart could have easily been a counselor instead of an actor!

[Contessa Donatella]

Oh, sorry, I repeated some of what you'd already said. I remembered that Carolyn's handler was Sam but forgot about her mate being Richard. That video (to the fans) was divine. Wonder whose idea that was. A stroke of genius. And, Rachel moving through the pictures in the Cory living room, too. Mac's toast! I know so many people who were touched by Grant & Cindy in Tanquir but it left me cold. Plus, that line. What was it? "All's well that ends." Thank you, Rachel. I'll share just one line from the Back Issue of that tape day, "Executive Producer Christopher Goutman escorted a visibly pale and shaking Wyndham, the show's longest-running performer, to the set." Imagine. Besides the set dressing & props, etc. there were about 100 fans with their noses pressed against the windows & just as many floral bouquets from fans.