In honor of AW's 45th anniversary,I thought I'd start this thread and perhaps all future posts concerning this show could be in one place.at present there are several threads.

Here's a description from Irna Phillips at the time of debut.

"What I want to say is that none of us can face reality 24 hours a day. We must have private 'worlds', made up of our down dreams and pleasures and emotions, into which to retreat. Otherwise, it would be simply too much!"

The story follows the lives of the families of two brothers, William and James Matthews, in a suburban university town. It opens with the death of William, then shows how the sad events affects the widow and their children and the other brother and his family. Grandma Matthews gets into the action, to. The writer promises to relate to contemporary problems; two of them she mentioned are school dropouts and illegitimacy.

4 minutes ago, AbcNbc247 said:

I think the constant turnaround of EP's and writers post Paul Rauch also really played a part in why some characters, actors, storylines, etc. flopped.

Yup. It's a shame, too, given the wealth of talent they had.

3 minutes ago, AbcNbc247 said:

I think the constant turnaround of EP's and writers post Paul Rauch also really played a part in why some characters, actors, storylines, etc. flopped.

In spite of the high turnover. AW did manage to have some solid stable era's.

1 minute ago, victoria foxton said:

In spite of the high turnover. AW did manage to have some solid stable era's.

Would you say that the JFP era was the final straw, that the show was permanently doomed?

4 minutes ago, victoria foxton said:

In spite of the high turnover. AW did manage to have some solid stable era's.

True.

In terms of the writing, I have to say Donna Swajeski's and Peggy Sloane's tenures were pretty solid.

3 minutes ago, amybrickwallace said:

Would you say that the JFP era was the final straw, that the show was permanently doomed?

I think the problems started before she got there, but bringing her in didn't do AW any favors. From watching the episodes, it seems that in some cases Charlotte Savitz did a lot more damage.

That sounds about right. She was right before Goutman, if I'm not mistaken.

2 minutes ago, amybrickwallace said:

That sounds about right. She was right before Goutman, if I'm not mistaken.

Yeah

 

15 minutes ago, amybrickwallace said:

Would you say that the JFP era was the final straw, that the show was permanently doomed?

Most definitely. But the bad decisions continued. Long after JFP was long gone.

16 minutes ago, amybrickwallace said:

Would you say that the JFP era was the final straw, that the show was permanently doomed?

JFP and Savitz both made horrible decisions, likely pushed by NBC (especially in Savitz's case), but the show was never going to last much longer. It was nearly canceled in 1993, I believe. That the show survived for 20 years while mostly being in the back of the pack is amazing.

16 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

It was nearly canceled in 1993, I believe. 

I think it came between AW and SB that was going to get cancelled then, and of course it was SB that got axed.

posted this on the soap opera bible page. putting it here as well.

http://www.anotherworldhomepage.com/creation.htm

It's a great bible, and such fun to see what this original vision ended up so different on TV.

Does anyone know where I can find a pdf with the book '8 years in AW' ....I would love to read it this summer

misspalmer:

i got the kindle edition from amazon, but try this:

https://www.e-bookdownload.net/search/eight-years-in-another-world

Thank you very much 😍

I was surprised to see a credit for Patrick Tovatt as "Andrew Barris" in 1981 in this clip as well as one for Jean Smart as "Woman on Bus".

 

I finished reading Eight Years in Another World. It was interesting to see Lemay's opinions and biases. When he praised Ray Liotta it made me curious to know what he thought of Richard Bekins but based on the dates I don't think they overlapped much. 

Lemay did admit that they didn't have any success recasting Alice. It's too bad he couldn't have figured out how to be satisfied with Jacqueline Courtney in the role. But if forced to choose between Alice and Iris I would have to go with Iris myself. 

 

Edited July 15, 20214 yr by Xanthe
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