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.

17 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

None of them WERE memorable, LOL.

Judging by those clips, that's an understatement. 😂

Soap Opera Magazine 1994 issue - readers were given 3 options about recasting Iris when Carmen Duncan announced her departure:

1. 50 percent would do anything to see Beverlee McKinsey return to the daytime role she created. Even though it's been nearly 15 years since Beverlee was last seen in Bay City, her portrayal of the complex Iris is one of the best in soap history. 

2. 10 percent think the show should advantage of the situation by hiring a younger actress to play Iris. This group believes Kate  Collins would be an excellent choice. 

3. 40 percent really don't want the show to recast this role. Even though it's a pivotal one, fans have been lucky enough to have both Beverlee and Carmen play the part - and topping both of them would be next to impossible. Instead, Iris should just leave Bay City in some dramatic way. 

10 hours ago, DRW50 said:

10 percent think the show should advantage of the situation by hiring a younger actress to play Iris. This group believes Kate  Collins would be an excellent choice. 

I keep turning this over and over in my mind trying to understand the point of younger Iris. Was it just a cluster of fans of Kate Collins? Did they want Iris to have sexier romantic adventures? Did they have any thoughts about her relationships to Rachel and/or Dennis? 

3 minutes ago, Xanthe said:

I keep turning this over and over in my mind trying to understand the point of younger Iris. Was it just a cluster of fans of Kate Collins? Did they want Iris to have sexier romantic adventures? Did they have any thoughts about her relationships to Rachel and/or Dennis? 

I have a feeling it was just Kate Collins fans. I also  wonder  if, due to Kate becoming more matronly in her appearance in her last year or so on AMC, some fans thought she was older than she really was. 

29 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I have a feeling it was just Kate Collins fans. I also  wonder  if, due to Kate becoming more matronly in her appearance in her last year or so on AMC, some fans thought she was older than she really was. 

I personally always thought Kate C. looked older than she was even she first started.
And on the other hand Carmen D. looked younger than she was. There was no way she looked just 7 years younger than BMcK.
So I don't know that I would have guessed based on appearance there was a 17-year gap between them.
I'd add the wrinkle that Beverley M. always looked older than she was to me as well and setting aside the quality of her performance she always looked to me like a younger sister rather than a daughter of Douglas W.
So honestly when I first read the poll KC's mention didn't shock me. Now that I hear the facts, yeah, she was too young but for what it is worth, I was into the idea for a minute there.

Never been a fan of replacing established characters with younger actors. Nicole on Edge of Night comes to mind

3 hours ago, TVFAN1144 said:

Never been a fan of replacing established characters with younger actors. Nicole on Edge of Night comes to mind

Robin Strasser said on her hotline that this is what she and JFP talked about doing with Alex on GL, they planned to youthen the role. Michael Zaslow championed Robin for the part, Robin took the meeting, and was pretty much set to take over after Beverlee McKinsey’s departure.

Edited October 28, 20214 yr by SFK

12 minutes ago, SFK said:

Robin Strasser said on her hotline that this is what she and JFP talked about doing with Alex on GL, they planned to youthen the role. Michael Zaslow championed Robin for the part, Robin took the meeting, and was pretty much set to take over after Beverlee McKinsey’s departure.

 

Interesting. I know I've heard this before but often forget these little things. I could see Robin in the role. Is that what started the JFP/Robin thing ... obviously JFP had no use for Robin and Dorian on OLTL. Obviously Robin went back to OLTL so .... JFP is a petty bitch.

 

It's funny. "At the time" you don't really get why some decisions are made (unless you were well informed) and then little pieces click in. Robin/Dorian always felt like someone JFP would WANT to have (kinda like Jane Elliot/Tracy on GH). You just knew who Phelps leaned towards and who she didn't.

Edited October 28, 20214 yr by KMan101

Yes, Robin believes this is the source of JFP’s beef with her. Robin said that a member of the soap press saw her leaving CBS after her meeting with Jill. She had promised OLTL first refusal so to speak if she ever decided to return to daytime. So she headed over to ABC and Linda Gottlieb took a meeting with her. Linda wasn’t familiar with Robin but she had big plans for the 25th anniversary. Linda’s decision to take Robin on was based on Robin’s strong history with the show and the reputation of her talent.

Robin  made the right choice.  Other than Justin Deas, who got 15 years of steady  employment and  a chance for Margaret Colin to get to not have to take anything going, most of  JFP's big hires at GL  did not have a happy ending. 

Robin and Beverlee are also so incredibly physically different. Of course they have that original recipe Rachel and Iris connection, AW’s two most famous devious women, but this would have been a quintessential example of “so-and-so is playing an altogether new character”.

5 hours ago, SFK said:

Linda’s decision to take Robin on was based on Robin’s strong history with the show and the reputation of her talent.

Yes, and a Lead Actress Emmy when they actually meant something.

On 10/27/2021 at 8:36 AM, DRW50 said:

Soap Opera Magazine 1994 issue - readers were given 3 options about recasting Iris when Carmen Duncan announced her departure:

1. 50 percent would do anything to see Beverlee McKinsey return to the daytime role she created. Even though it's been nearly 15 years since Beverlee was last seen in Bay City, her portrayal of the complex Iris is one of the best in soap history. 

2. 10 percent think the show should advantage of the situation by hiring a younger actress to play Iris. This group believes Kate  Collins would be an excellent choice. 

3. 40 percent really don't want the show to recast this role. Even though it's a pivotal one, fans have been lucky enough to have both Beverlee and Carmen play the part - and topping both of them would be next to impossible. Instead, Iris should just leave Bay City in some dramatic way. 

Wow...what was the date on that issue?  I'm stunned that SOM had enough lead time to run this poll via whatever technology was available at the time—presumably a 900 number—while her on-screen exit was seemingly so slapped together.  I always assumed negotiations fell apart midway through that storyline in which Iris shot Carl halfway across the country from where her ~ 2-day trial+sentencing ended up taking place.

My recollection is that SOM was not in the top tier of soap rags when it came to cutting-edge journalism, which wouldn't have said much to begin with, so a part of me wonders if these three options were basically dictated by someone in PR at NBC/P&G.  If so, the phrasing of the third option makes me think they were already seriously contemplating leaving Iris in jail indefinitely, and maybe provides a window into how TPTB thought the ending was an appropriate swan song for the character.  Although I can't imagine P&G at the time would have actively encouraged speculation about BM's return, post-GL, even if they might have secretly been open to the idea...

Regardless of who came up with the wording, how gross that hiring a younger actress, specifically, was one of the other prescribed options—and without even an alternative for an age-appropriate recast if BM wasn't interested.  Still, how awesome that only 10% voted for that, especially when you consider how few things poll at 90% these days.

Edited October 30, 20214 yr by DeliaIrisFan

39 minutes ago, DeliaIrisFan said:

Wow...what was the date on that issue? 

September 9, 1994. 

I haven't seen the wording of the original question, but they may have just asked for other suggestions, rather than giving specific names as choices. If I have it I'll see what the question was. 

Edited October 30, 20214 yr by DRW50

1 hour ago, DRW50 said:

September 9, 1994. 

I haven't seen the wording of the original question, but they may have just asked for other suggestions, rather than giving specific names as choices. If I have it I'll see what the question was. 

Ah, so ~ 1 week before CD's last episode aired.  I love how the question/possible responses were phrased as though the writers/casting director still had months to plan next steps.

But, that would have been my next question—which other actresses were they teasing?  Even if write-ins were an/the only option, Kate Collins at least looked/comported herself someone like Iris as portrayed by CD; and she had been on a popular soap just a few years before.  KC may have just won a plurality among the sliver of respondents who chose that (younger recast) option, which could have been due to name recognition more than anything else.  I'm not sure the majority of her fans at that time would have even read a soap mag poll about AW all the way through.

Edited October 30, 20214 yr by DeliaIrisFan