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.

1 hour ago, amybrickwallace said:

Doug Watson, Constance Ford, Beverly Penberthy and Irene Dailey.

That totally makes sense, doesn't it? Thank you!

3 hours ago, TVFAN1144 said:

I probably have an unpopular opinion but I sometimes rooted for Rachel because of her upbringing.  Yes she was a bitch in the early days but the women on this show were so “uppity” like Alice Lenore Pat Liz.  They treated her like trash even after she reformed and was with Mac

Alice, Pat, and Aunt Liz all had valid reasons to hold a grudge against Rachel for the heinous actions she had committed against their family, although by the late-1970s, fences were generally mended among them. In a (frankly idiotic) scene, Alice even went over to Ada's house and had lunch with Rachel (who offered her soup) when Susan Harney was playing Alice. Once Pat started to work for Mac, she and Rachel were cordial. Aunt Liz and Rachel even become friends and would spend holidays together (I never accepted that as believable, either.) Lenore left the show in 1975 and really had minimal contact with Rachel after Rachel got together with Mac.

37 minutes ago, Nicholas Blair said:

That totally makes sense, doesn't it? Thank you!

Sure!

2 hours ago, j swift said:

I have vague recollection that David Oliver invested in the company that produced the first college guy calendar.  In the 1980s it became a huge trend, which obviously peaked with the Chippendale's calendar and the teen pop movie Campus Man; which was based on their story.  However, as I remember David Oliver was one of the original investors, and the campaign came out of the USC marketing and business department students.  I know McGinley is a few years older than David Oliver, but they were both Trojans, and USC has a long history of students who began successful businesses while matriculating, including everything from cookies to real estate.

Thanks for this. I had no idea. 

Thinking about Perry, I wonder how old he was when Donna married Carl and whether she had Marley with her the whole time. 

Edited October 11, 20214 yr by Xanthe

23 minutes ago, Xanthe said:

Thinking about Perry, I wonder how old he was when Donna married Carl and whether she had Marley with her the whole time. 

Then, of course, there's the whole question of how old Ryan was in relation to Perry, given that he and Vicky were contemporaries?

As for Marley, she arrived from boarding school (which was located in Soap-opera-boarding-school-land, with students like Nick Newman and Johnny Dimera , who never learned a foreign language or seemed very cultured), where she lived while Donna was with Carl, and she begged Donna to allow her to attend public school in Bay City, which is where she met Ben and that whole gang of teens.

Edited October 11, 20214 yr by j swift

4 hours ago, Nicholas Blair said:

Lemay more or less brags about how he disliked Courtney and Reinholt from the beginning, mentioning a Christmas party where he ignored the two of them while spending all his time with his new BFFs on the show. I don't have the book to check the exact names, but I believe this would have included Nicolas Coster, Susan Sullivan, Victoria Wyndham, and a few others.

The party was the 10th anniversary party and you have caught them all except Beverlee McKinsey. 

Right after this Lemay mentions the difficulty they had casting leading men. He liked John Considine (Vic at that time) but found he had no chemistry with any available leading lady. He then mentions an actor who had left over salary issues and then been hired at another soap where the sponsor had approved the salary demand they had denied on AW. Any idea which actor that might have been? Maybe James Douglas, who left the role of Eliot Carrington to play Grant Colman on ATWT? 

Edited October 11, 20214 yr by Xanthe
Guess

8 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

Believe me, as a viewer who had waited YEARS for Rachel to get her a$$ kicked, watching Alice finally lunge at her and throw copper pots at her as Rachel fled from the house was enormously, deliciously satisfying. To me, it was one of the most memorable episodes in the show's history.

Totally agree.  This was absolutely one of the most memorable scenes in AW's entire history.    One of a handful I was lucky enough to view during the original airing.    And yes, it was time for Alice to finally, finally, FINALLY kick Rachel's home-wrecking a$$. . .   And Jacquie Courtney handled it with aplomb.   

 

 

Edited October 11, 20214 yr by Neil Johnson

26 minutes ago, Xanthe said:

The party was the 10th anniversary party and you have caught them all except Beverlee McKinsey. 

Right after this Lemay mentions the difficulty they had casting leading men. He liked John Considine (Vic at that time) but found he had no chemistry with any available leading lady. He then mentions an actor who had left over salary issues and then been hired at another soap where the sponsor had approved the salary demand they had denied on AW. Any idea which actor that might have been? Maybe James Douglas, who left the role of Eliot Carrington to play Grant Colman on ATWT? 

James Douglas would make sense. I can't think of who else left around that time.

Ah yes, Lemay and his vaunted "chemistry." I remember when David Ackroyd as Dr. Dave Gilchrist had deadly dull dinner dates with, basically, every unmarried female on the show, to see if Dr. Lemay detected signs of chemistry. I'm not sure if poor Dr. Gilchrist ever got laid the entire time he was in Bay City. I thought Ackroyd had chemistry with Beverly Penberthy, but what do I know? On TSS Ackroyd had plenty of chemistry with actresses as different as Lynne Adams and Jada Rowland. Perhaps if Lemay had actually written storylines for the new characters introduced at this time, chemistry would have been detected in auditions or could have been developed as the story unfolded.

John Considine had so much sex appeal as the "bearded bear" Dr. Brian Walsh on Bright Promise that it's agonizing how he was completely wasted on AW. Here's a thought: audition for an actress who has chemistry with John Considine and eliminate one or more of the minor characters who don't.

And here's another thought: according to Lemay, Considine and Ackroyd didn't have enough chemistry with any of the women, yet Lemay created the couple with the least chemistry I have ever seen in my entire history of soap opera viewing: Jim Poyner as Dennis Carrington and Christina Pickles as Countess Elena de Poulignac. This warmed-over version of TEA AND SYMPATHY was what Lemay considered European sophistication, and defended by Mac in more or less those very terms. Iris was livid about this, and for one of the few times in her life, Iris was absolutely right.

Christina Pickles, though an enjoyable character actress, was barely credible as an older woman Russ Matthews would date. Guys who look like David Bailey rarely date women who look like Christina Pickles. Even a desperately horny teenager boy like Dennis might reconsider if his only option were Countess Elena.

So I am not overly impressed by Lemay's views of who did or did not have chemistry. He struck gold with Mac and Rachel, and the success went to his head.

1 hour ago, Xanthe said:

He then mentions an actor who had left over salary issues and then been hired at another soap where the sponsor had approved the salary demand they had denied on AW. Any idea which actor that might have been? Maybe James Douglas, who left the role of Eliot Carrington to play Grant Colman on ATWT? 

James Douglas was reported to have left AW over stalled contract/salary negotiations at that time, so I'm pretty sure it was him.

 

12 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

Alice, Pat, and Aunt Liz all had valid reasons to hold a grudge against Rachel for the heinous actions she had committed against their family, although by the late-1970s, fences were generally mended among them. In a (frankly idiotic) scene, Alice even went over to Ada's house and had lunch with Rachel (who offered her soup) when Susan Harney was playing Alice. Once Pat started to work for Mac, she and Rachel were cordial. Aunt Liz and Rachel even become friends and would spend holidays together (I never accepted that as believable, either.) Lenore left the show in 1975 and really had minimal contact with Rachel after Rachel got together with Mac.

When Jacqueline Courtney returned as Alice in the 1980s, didn’t they have a story where Alice was now Rachel’s doctor? RIDICULOUS. The writers clearly didn’t care about history. Given what those two characters went through, there is no way that would happen. Rachel extends a Christmas invitation to Alice in another scene from the 80s. Also crazy. They should have been stiffly cordial at best, which is how they played it during the 25 anniversary episodes.

12 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

Alice, Pat, and Aunt Liz all had valid reasons to hold a grudge against Rachel for the heinous actions she had committed against their family, although by the late-1970s, fences were generally mended among them. In a (frankly idiotic) scene, Alice even went over to Ada's house and had lunch with Rachel (who offered her soup) when Susan Harney was playing Alice. Once Pat started to work for Mac, she and Rachel were cordial. Aunt Liz and Rachel even become friends and would spend holidays together (I never accepted that as believable, either.) Lenore left the show in 1975 and really had minimal contact with Rachel after Rachel got together with Mac.

Lemay seemed to want to reset some of this when he returned to the show, as there was a scorching scene of Rachel berating Liz and casting her out  (with Liz sobbing in Mac's arms, I believe) after Liz's hatred for the Frames led her to  accidentally tell Matthew about his conception. 

29 minutes ago, Chris 2 said:

They should have been stiffly cordial at best, which is how they played it during the 25 anniversary episodes.

They did that brilliantly in the 25th anniversary scenes. I wish Alice had stuck around afterwards.

I forget.  Was there any special event or storyline done on the first hour long episode in 1975?

Did anyone ever hold Rachel accountable for her past indiscretions after her transformation post-Mac? Was there actually anyone cheering Iris on? lol

7 minutes ago, TVFAN1144 said:

I forget.  Was there any special event or storyline done on the first hour long episode in 1975?

Per the Another World Homepage:

JANUARY 6, 1975 (EP. #2649) (First ongoing 60-minute episode)
Dave agreed to transfer Alice to the children's ward. Liz told Alice it was all over between her and Mac thanks to Rachel. Lenore was pleased when Robert told her Carol wouldn't accompany him to New York. Neil aggravated Carol by bringing up her repeated efforts to accompany Robert. Dennis asked Mac to talk to Rachel about Jamie's visits with Steve. Iris promised Mac to do everything she could to make Rachel feel comfortable. Rachel dropped Jamie off, told Mac she'd miss him when he was in NY, then exchanged "pleasantries" with Iris. Iris and Russ worried about an unhappy Liz. Louise agreed to help Iris only after Iris assured her the plan, unlike the last one, wasn't illegal. Iris wanted to contact Cynthia Whitefield to inquire how she broke up her son Reggie's engagement. Alice, Mary, and Jim tried to console Liz. Rachel agreed to let Mac handle Jamie's visits with Steve. Robert and Lenore spied on them from across the restaurant as Mac told Rachel that after many lonely years he had found in her something to look forward to.