Another World Discussion Thread

[pdm1974]

Does anyone remember what ever became of that Red Swan story that dragged on? I can't even remember if it was resolved.

[DaytimeFan]

 

Carmen Duncan was absolutely wonderful. She should have won an Emmy for the reveal scene in the Chief storyline. She somehow brought 25 years of character history in that scene when she'd been on the show mere months. 

 

Although I thought Iris getting framed and sent to jail was an awful exit, Carmen made the absolute most of her scenes and I loved her last line: "Life is too short for regrets."

[RavenWhitney]

Many have reported that AW strike team of writers included: Donna Swajeski, Michael Zazlow (Roger from GL), his wife Susan Hufford, Nerissa Radell, Janet Iacubuzio, Mimi Leahey and Janet Stampfl.  I imagine that Swajeski and the Zazlows worked off some of Lemay's story ideas but that EP/Michael Laibson supervised the storylines.  Lemay was not a good fit for any show as a head writer by the late 1980s. His ten weeks after the strike ended were boring and uninspired.  I thought the strike period other than the ghost story was pretty watchable.  When Lemay's scripts starting airing I could barely get through an episode.  

[Mona Kane Croft]

 

Your list of scab writers may be accurate, but I question the inclusion of Zaslow, Hufford, and Radell.  First, because Zaslow was a member of two unions, the actors union and The Writer's Guild.  So I doubt he would have been so disloyal as to work  as a scab. Zaslow always seemed a man of integrity.   Additionally, Zaslow, Hufford, and Radell were all part of Harding Lemay's writing team, just after the strike. And I'm not sure it is legal to immediately hire writers who have worked as scabs for the writing team on the same show.  Frankly, I don't know how Swajeski was ever admitted to the Writer's Guild, since the entire world was aware she had been a scab writer.  Isn't there any penalty at all for crossing a picket line during a writers strike?  Who knows???

 

I'm surprised anyone would be able to compile an accurate list, considering the inflammatory nature of scab workers.  I'm sure the production company, as well as the scabs themselves would have nothing to gain (and a lot to lose), by allowing this information out of the shadows.  Although it probably does no harm for a list of scab writers to be released 32 years after a strike, had this information been released just after the strike, careers and reputations could have been damaged.   But then we have Swajeski, who was rewarded by being hired as head writer.  The world is crazy sometimes.   

[j swift]

As much as I abhor the use of scabs during a strike because it destroys the purpose of a worker's union, I enjoy reading about those periods of plotlines because they were so wild and often out of character.  It is like there is suddenly a substitute teacher in charge and everyone is acting nuts.

[Mona Kane Croft]

Here's a question: Does a soap opera head-writer always get fired after a strike, because he/she refused to cross the picket line?  We talk a lot about Lemay getting axed after the strike ended.  That made me wonder if it always happens, but maybe we are just unaware of it.   

[RavenWhitney]

If there had been Twitter in 1988 I think all of this would have been public very quickly. You just have to look at the credits in the few months following the conclusion of each strike to see all the former soap actors, production assistants and unfamiliar names who were hired onto the writing teams.  Everyone in the biz (I'm sure) knew that Swajeski had been writing the show during the strike.  I think Zazlow and Hufford along with Radell were added once Swajeski started or shortly before. Lemay's breakdown writing team was his son, Chris Whitesell and Barbara Hagstrom.  For instance:

Lois Kibbee: I met Ernie Townsend once in NYC; he played Cliff. I asked him who wrote Edge during the 1981 strike and he told me that Lois and Laurie Durbrow were the writers. He said Henry was so impressed he fired Steve Lehrman and hired Lois as his script writer.

 

 

 

 

[Soaplovers]

So Sheri Anderson (hired in Feb 1988) was only a short term hire until Lemay was available?  She wrote for a month or two before the strike.happened.

[Xanthe]

 

If I recall correctly, during Anne Howard's time, there was a photograph of Elizabeth Love that looked just like Nicole. I wasn't sure whether Jason's interest was supposed to be because Nicole looked just like Elizabeth or because they intended it to turn out that Nicole was his daughter.

[AbcNbc247]

I think in the base of the swan, there were locks of Mac's hair and Paulina's mother's hair and they were able to test it against Paulina's and prove she was really Mac's daughter. 

It may depend on the soap or the producer. Leah Laiman wasn't fired from DAYS immediately after the strike and Doug Marland stayed on ATWT for five more years after the strike, until he died.

Edited September 12, 2020 by AbcNbc247

[Xanthe]

 

I don't remember the early interactions between Rachel and Donna -- I do remember when Michael was introduced they indicated that Rachel had known him when they were younger, but not as Donna's boyfriend. But I did not exactly picture Iris and Donna as anything as vulgar as neighbours -- as the elite of Bay City I thought they might have met at society functions. And they did both know Brian, although being married to him and using him as an occasional proper escort are of course completely different things.

 

When Marley was introduced she was 17 and Jamie was at least 5 years older, possibly more. I don't remember how close they were supposed to be as contemporaries during the Jensen/Russell Todd/Chris Bruno stages of life, but for people closer to 30 a 5-year age difference is obviously much less significant. Marley and Jamie's much younger aunt Nancy were considered contemporaries during the Ellen Wheeler years as high school seniors.

[j swift]

So, here's my recollection of Donna Love and her reintroduction to Bay City.  Peter Love had already been on the scene as an attorney at Cory Publishing.  He has a introductory scene when he was smitten with Sally, and Mac notes that he knew his father (who was not named Reginald at that time).  In early 1983, Donna flits into town, a few years after her divorce from Carl Hutchins.  Someone had been siphoning funds from her trust account and she was low on money (it was later revealed that Carl was stealing from her).  She took a job decorating one of the many refurbishments of the Cory Compound.  She flirts with Mac, Rachel warns her to back off as she is recently engaged to Mac, and reminding her of their shared history as neighbors (this was a few months before the double wedding with Sandy & Blaine).  The loss of funds is what motivates Marley's return to Bay City from boarding school, because Donna was having a hard time paying the tuition, and so Marley starts to attend public school where she meets Ben McKinnon and all of his friends.  

 

I mention all of this because Iris came to Bay City in 1972 and left in 1980 to move to Houston.  So, it is possible that Donna was living in Europe with Carl during most of Iris's stay in Another World.  We know Donna left Bay City soon after the birth of the twins to escape the gossip of her teenage pregnancy and raise Marley as her sister (given that her mother Elizabeth had disappeared years earlier it would have been suspicious that Donna suddenly had another sister - side note: I only have a vague recollection that Nicole and Peter knew that Marley was their niece not their sister).  Neither Carl nor Donna referred to the marriage too often while in Bay City, (perhaps the loss of Perry made their time together too difficult to mention, or more likely, later writers forgot that they were ever wed).  So, it is hard to say how long they were married because at some point after Carl's marriage to Barbara, (Perry's mother), but before his marriage to Donna, he had romantic entanglements with Justine Duvalier, (Ryan's mother), and Maria DeSilva, (Paulina's mother).  Carl's affair with Felicia was a contributing factor to the end of his marriage to Donna.  Perry was very close to Donna and it seems as if she had raised him as a son since he was a teenager.  So, we can assume that they were together for much of the disco 1970's, as a result Donna would not have had the opportunity to attend society functions with Iris. 

 

Of course the irony of all of this was that Iris was so mortified by Rachel and Carl's romance that she shot him.  However, Iris was never around to witness the animus between Carl and her father.  So, her motivation to totally loose it over his romance with her step-mother that she never liked seems even more absurd in retrospect.  She was never that mean toward Mitch Blake and he tried to kill Mac.

Edited September 13, 2020 by j swift

[cnathanielrichardson]

https://awfanfic.blogspot.com/2020/09/another-world-312-donna-shares-painful.html

 

In this episode, as Kirkland announces he's going to be a father, Donna once touches upon the child she still doesn't know about (Marley and Vicky's triplet)

Jasmine Cory arrives in Bay City

 

I've had so much fun writing this Another World Fanfic, and wanted some AW fans to check it out.

 

All the history of ANOTHER WORLD, with a modern, contemporary flair

 

EPISODES 1-228 are on SON Blogs

EPISODES 175-312 are on https://awfanfic.blogspot.com

 

 

[AbcNbc247]

According to Texas, Dennis was 25 in 1980, so I figure that Jamie was supposed to be like the same age.  I assume that Dennis was de-aged a little bit when Chris Bruno was cast. But if you follow the original timeline, Jamie and Dennis were probably supposed to be like 10 years older than Vicky and Marley. 

 

Michael and Rachel's previous friendship was just another mistake by a writer who didn't do their homework. That happened a lot on AW lol. When Michael was first introduced, he and Rachel were supposed to be old high school friends, which I don't see how since Michael and Donna were 17 when Donna had Vicky and Marley, meaning that Michael and Donna were in their mid 30s when Michael first came on the show, and Rachel was supposed to be older than that. 

Edited September 13, 2020 by AbcNbc247

[DRW50]

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