Another World Discussion Thread

[teplin]

Some really incredible black actors were on the show during this brief period. Too bad the writing sucked. 

[j swift]

I was reading the 1984-1987 weekly summaries on the Another World Homepage and once again I am struck by how the ages of the Love and McKinnon children don't make sense.  I know there was a change in writers and actors, yadda yadda yadda, but wasn't someone responsible for maintaining logic?

 

First, in 1985, we have the stupefying scene of Donna telling Peter that she is Marley's mother.  Again, I get the dramatic purpose that Donna needed to admit her secret out loud so the audience knew her dilemma.   However, Peter was three years younger that Donna, wouldn't he have suspected that Marley needed to come from somewhere other than his mother who had already died when Marley was born?  I know Reg kept Donna in the cellar, (which was introduced much earlier in the plot than I remembered, I thought it was first mentioned around the time when Reg was trying to drive Donna crazy with the baby picture, but it was actually originally referenced during the Royal Dunning/David Thatcher murder mystery), but wouldn't Peter have been suspicious about the sudden appearance of a baby in the house when he was a teenager?

 

Then, we have Cheryl and Scott LaSalle's ages, Cheryl turns 18 in the summer of 1986.  Scott was older and he was either adopted by the LaSalles or, as originally intended, he was supposed to be the triplet brother to Marley and Victoria who were 20 in 1986.  Therefore, wouldn't Reg and Mary/Marissa already escaped Bay City to adopt Scott in South America before Cheryl was born?

 

Later, when the triplet photo was retconned, we find out that although Reg forced Michael to leave town before the twins were born, he allowed his brother John to be present for their birth, and now the birth happened in a secret room at Bay City Memorial Hospital rather than in the secret basement room by Royal Dunning in the Love Mansion.  When Donna was introduced she was the CEO/charitable board member/owner of the hospital because her budget cutbacks affected Marley's recovery when she needed her bone marrow transplant which lead to the reveal of Victoria.  So, she ran the hospital but had no idea that there was a secret room where she gave birth?

 

Don't even get me started on how Vince McKinnon afforded boarding school for Cheryl.  The unsolved mystery of what was happening at the Le Soliel spa and rejuvenation center ( a contrived plot involving Felicia, Kathleen, some guy from Felicia's past who got plastic surgery, an architect who fell in love with Kathleen and Sally, and Cass being charged with murder in a case that dropped because the DA, with no apparent motive, withheld evidence).  Or the sudden appearance of multiple nephews related to Mac that had never been referenced before.

 

Finally, an actual question that people can answer - when did they stop calling her Victoria and began referring to her as Vicky?  Throughout 1984-1986 she is always referenced as Victoria, even by Jake and Bridget, so who started calling her Vicky?

Edited March 13, 2021 by j swift

[AbcNbc247]

You're right lol there should have been someone maintaining the logic but you could tell that there wasn't judging by all the plot holes, rewrites, etc.

 

Scott's whereabouts for the first three years of his life were completely dropped once the storyline was rewritten. All he knew at first was that his biological parents were from Bay City. And I think it was revealed that the photo of John holding the twins was doctored because I remember Donna saying that both Michael and John had already gone to Vietnam when Vicky and Marley were born.

[Soaplovers]

I recall reading how Caitlin worked in the stables..and Donna showed interest in him.  So it did fit she would view michael with the same interest as a teen.

 

When Donna came on..was there any mention of Marley..or was she created later on 1984 (retcon)?

[j swift]

So Donna comes along in January 1983, mostly as an antagonist for Sally, and later Cecile, in stories involving Peter and Caitlin.

 

Then, Marley comes home from school in May 1984, a week after the 20th anniversary when Alice came back to Bay City and David Thatcher (Sally's secret baby daddy) was shot.  Donna was involved with Carl, they hooked up again after their divorce a few years earlier in Europe.  Donna was housing Carl and his son Perry in the Love Mansion (which leads to the eternal question of whether Perry was older than Ryan, Carl's other son).  

 

Donna was a suspect in the David Thatcher's murder because she wore a ring that Carl gave her which Sally remembered as being on the finger of the woman who shot David.  Given that (spoiler alert) David and Royal Dunning were involving in an illegal adoption ring, the ground was laid early that she was actually Marley's mother.  Donna also gasped whenever Marley kissed her boyfriend Ben and was overprotective in a different way than she had been with Peter or Nicole (her med school student/coke addicted model/reporter/lounge singer/murdering everchanging sister).

 

Vicky was first revealed the next year in April 1985 in an amazing cliffhanger. Jake came back to the boarding house, and opened the door to find a girl who looked like Marley, but styled as a Madonna wanna-be in a seductive black leather jacket, smoking, and with a sultry lower vocal tone.

 

The LaSalles (aka Reginald Love, Mary McKinnon, and Scott) came in August 1986, and Donna #1 left after seeing the fake photo of the triplets in November 1986 (which probably coincided with the expiration of Anna Stuart's original three year contract).

Edited March 13, 2021 by j swift

[Xanthe]

 

Donna told Peter in 1984 during the Royal Dunning stuff because she needed help making sure her secret was not discovered in Dunning's files. The secret room in the basement was also a huge feature of 1984. At one point Donna hid a wounded and delirious Catlin in the room (presumably after hypnotized Sally shot him).

 

Mother and Donna were supposed to both be abroad together during Donna's pregnancy, but Donna was actually in the cellar room. Since Peter and Nicole were not with Mother they could have believed that she was pregnant. I don't believe there is any terminus post or ante quem in the story that requires Mother to be dead before Marley could have been born, however. She was still alive when Reginald was fooling around with Mary, wasn't she? And Mary didn't get mixed up with him until after Cheryl was born which had to be later than Marley was born.

[AbcNbc247]

So basically, that was a very busy few years for the Love, Hudson and McKinnon families.

 

In that short amount of time...

Michael got the job as stable boy at the Love Estate

Mary got the job as a maid

Mary gave birth to Ben

Donna met Michael and John

Donna slept with Michael and got pregnant (and was also raped by John)

Reginald ran Michael out of town and locked Donna up in the secret room, sent Elizabeth to Europe and told everyone Donna was with her

Michael and John went to Vietnam

John "died" in Vietnam

Michael changed his family name from Garrison to Hudson

Donna gave birth to Vicky and Marley.

Reginald gave Vicky away, and raised Marley as his daughter

Mary gave birth to Cheryl

Reginald starts sleeping with Mary

Elizabeth starts sleeping with Jason Frame

Elizabeth was murdered, which Mary supposedly witnessed

Mary breaks off the affair with Reginald, falls for his yacht and loses her memory

Reginald fakes his death with the poison dust and he and Mary go off to Paraguay and adopt Scott.

 

And while all of that was happening, at some point Reginald (whose name was originally Brandon) was in business with Carl and Chris Chapin's father over the Egyptian treasure that somehow got hidden in the Arizona desert.

 

All of this does kind of prove that you really do need a continuity person when there's so much turnaround behind the scenes. Feel free to add any plot points that I might've missed.

 

Edited March 13, 2021 by AbcNbc247

[amybrickwallace]

@AbcNbc247, YOU should have been a soap continuity person. That was incredible!!

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[victoria foxton]

@j swift @AbcNbc247 @Xanthe Looks like the various HW's retconned the Love's, Hudson's and McKinnon's. I have a question. Does anyone know if Cheryl was ever mentioned? Before she appeared in 1986?  I have a feeling. She might have been retconned in by DePriest.  Also Michael had another brother Eugene Garrison besides John.

Edited March 13, 2021 by victoria foxton

[j swift]

Bravo!!! and thank you, that was the timeline I wanted, needed, and desired!

 

I hadn't even considered Ben and the fact that he was the same age as the twins.  Reg and Mary's original affair must have been quite brief, but memorable (pardon the pun), given that she was still having kids with Vince throughout her employment at the mansion.

 

Now, do Carl, his marriages, love affairs, and children please.

 

 

Edited March 13, 2021 by j swift

[j swift]

Yes, I had no memory of this detail but one week's recaps during the period when Caitlin was investigating who/where was Marley's father he interviewed Michael's grandmother who thought he was dead and a women identified as his ex-sister-in-law (unclear if she was an ex because she divorced Eugene, or an ex because everyone thought Michael was dead), but she believed Michael was alive.

 

Then, there's no mention of them again, and when Michael comes back to Bay City, he makes no attempt to contact his local family.  To be fair, Britney thought he was at the Love Mansion to apply as a stable boy, so he was pretty busy mucking the stables and running an international conglomerate at the same time.

fair point

 

Cass, Kathleen, and Felicia were also caught in the secret room at some point

 

Secret rooms were big during that period because there was also the "treasure cave" where the stolen poisonous Egyptian artifacts were stored, and the secret room at the La Soleil spa where Felicia underwent a "visualization procedure."

Edited March 13, 2021 by j swift

[AbcNbc247]

Thank you 

I don't think so, but I'm not entirely sure

Carl was first married to a woman named Barbara and they had Perry. I guess around that time was when he slept with Justine and got her pregnant with Ryan. Judging from what I've read, I'd say Perry was older than Ryan, but that they were close in age. He then divorced Barbara and married Donna. They then divorced. When Carl first came to Bay City, he was dating Felicia. Idk why they broke up though. He and Donna then briefly reunited but I think it was all just a scheme so that Carl could embezzle the Love fortune. Carl then "died" in Arizona. Years later, he found about Ryan and tried to redeem himself. He then married Rachel and they had Cory and Elizabeth.

[Franko]

@j swift, I don't know if they were specifically planning for Marley/Vicky so early in the run, but ...

 

JANUARY 24-28, 1983
Donna was mortified when Peter got into a drunken stupor and blurted out that one of the four Love children is illegitimate

[victoria foxton]

 

  

[Xanthe]

 

I don't think this is quite true. Bridget and Donna tended to stick to Victoria, but in the below videos Jake and Marley and Neal Cory are all saying Vicky. I couldn't find an example but I also could have sworn that Jake called her "Vic" from time to time in 1985.

 

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https://youtu.be/XjedejLD2Yo