Another World Discussion Thread

[vetsoapfan]

 

Because I am so totally hopeless with anything to do with technology, I have foolishly gone far too long without transferring all my ancient videotapes and audiotapes to modern formats. Fortunately, by my sending stuff to Eddie Drueding and @billbauer, those fine gentlemen have done the "heavy lifting" and been good enough to share many of my vintage soap episodes on-line with other fans. A huge chunk of the credit goes to them.

 

And yes: contrary to what a petulant Harding Lemay contended, Jacqueline Courtney was great on AW.

 

 

It's my pleasure, although the majority of the credit must go to Eddie Drueding, who agreed to digitize my tape and then share it on his excellent AW page! 

[Mona Kane Croft]

 

 

Yes, and Virginia Dwyer was also great as the show's matriarch, Mary Matthews.  Lemay minimized her role and tried to turn Mary into a meddling shrew, before finally killing her off.  Although Lemay was a good writer, he did not understand soap opera genre well enough to recognize the importance of the matriarch to a soap opera's core-family.   If Lemay wanted to fire an actor for bad acting, he should have fired Hugh Marlowe (Jim Matthews), and replaced him with a better actor.  Marlowe stuttered and stammered, huffed and puffed through his dialogue every time he was on screen.  He phoned-in every performance, and probably didn't look at the script until five-minutes before the camera rolled.   Neither Courtney nor Dwyer deserved to be fired.   

[amybrickwallace]

 

Awesome!! Thanks!!

[vetsoapfan]

 

I agree: Dwyer was the matriarch of the show and an original cast member; killing off Mary Matthews was a huge mistake and forever damaged the core and structure of the show. I have a feeling Hugh Marlowe was starting to have memory problems in the mid-1970s. He was fine when he first began on AW, but as time passed, he started flubbing his lines more and more, looking lost in the middle of scenes, and generally giving weak performances. He allegedly blamed Virginia Dwyer for his on-set problems (or so Lemay claims), but to viewers it was clear that something was going on with Marlowe himself.

 

 

[teplin]

 

Nurse Linda Metcalf! For some reason, I thought she was long gone by 1980. I loved her. 

[FrenchFan]

 

She left in September 1981. She was clearly a very secondary character much like her half-sister Peggy before. She was brought when Micki Grant left I think. They barely shared screen time. Has Linda even had any part in a storyline?

[Mona Kane Croft]

 

Harding Lemay began to create a family for Peggy, just shortly before Micki Grant left the show.  Peggy's mother. Gloria and sister, Linda, plus Linda's boyfriend Zach Richards joined the show.  Was Grant's exit unexpected? Seems strange to create a family for a character on the way out.  Soon after Grant left, Gloria stopped appearing.  Zach continued to appear for a few years, but Linda was by far the longest running member of the family.  Linda had only one minimal storyline of her own early in her time at the show, when she started dating Zach, who had been recently released from prison and her mother didn't approve.  After that, Linda appeared mostly as a nurse at the hospital and a close confident of Alice Frame.  Supposedly Linda was still appearing occasionally when Quinn Harding joined the cast, but the two had no scenes together.  I am not sure that bit of information is correct.  Perhaps there is a way to check the dates to confirm.  

[FrenchFan]

It sounds reliable according to AWHP. Quinn first appeared in July 1981 and Linda last appeared in November of that year.

[Mona Kane Croft]

 

It would be interesting to know if Linda had any scenes with the recently returned Alice Frame in 1981, since they had been so close in the 1970s.  But the writers were different, and seemed to know little about Alice and Steve's real history.  They made-up a lot of history that never really happened on the show, and they ignored a lot of history that did happen on screen.  No research and little continuity, even though only a few years had passed.   

[vetsoapfan]

 

That's why the revisited Steve and Alice story bombed. (To be fair, even though the writing was weak, David Canary was a fine actor, and had he been paired with Jacquie Courtney, there might have been some sparks there. But with bad writing, a "new" Steve, a tepid Alice, and careless misuse of history, it was all doomed to fail.)

[Mona Kane Croft]

 

Good points.  Everyone blames the failure on the casting of Steve and Alice.  But I firmly believe it was the writing that killed their returns.  And to a lesser degree, the directing.  No one will ever convince me that David Canary wasn't capable of playing Steve Frame.  But Canary obviously knew nothing about the character, his history, or his personality.  Canary played Steve as loud and jolly, when Steve had always been quiet and sullen,. And because he didn't understand Steve's history, Canary played the role with absolutely no subtext -- which had been George Reinholt's gift.  With a little direction, Canary could have played Steve much more believably.  I also believe Linda Borgeson was acceptable as Alice.  She was no Jacquie Courtney, but had the writing been better, and Canary's Steve been more convincing, Borgeson could have been successful.  At least she could cry convincingly, which Susan Harney could not do.    

Edited July 21, 2020 by Neil Johnson

[Vee]

I just think David Canary is a fundamentally different type than a George Reinholt. I don't get it. But I didn't see Canary's days in TV westerns; maybe he could do it. The only person who could've done it cold was David Selby, but he was still big in primetime in the 80s.

[Mona Kane Croft]

 

Yes, he is.  But he wasn't playing himself.  He was playing Steve, and I'm sure he could have played Steve well, had he known more about the character, and had some direction -- as I said.  Just my opinion.    

[AbcNbc247]

Corinne Jacker - Worst Head Writer AW ever had. I'd love to know what was going on BTS at this time. Was Paul Rauch fired after all those years or did he leave on his own?

[victoria foxton]

 

 

 

Edited July 22, 2020 by victoria foxton