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.

Lana and Mr Angelino in the same clip. Too bad Mrs Roper isn’t in this footage.

7 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

Lemay could write characters having realistic conversations while the plot always seemed to organically happen like real life.  Conversations flowed naturally and realistically 

Contrast that with Marland, who could balance and juggle plots like no one else...but man the dialogue and conversations were stilted,unrealistic and way too wordy.

All writers have their strengths.  Didn't have Lemay also say he wasn't strong with writing mysteries?

Interesting, because most people forget Marland had script writers who penned the dialogue for him on ATWT.  Lemay at AW in the 1970s had a much smaller staff, and usually rewrote the dialogue his script writers had written.

I did love Marland for his wonderful plots.  They always had a beginning, middle, and end.  And they seemed organic to the characters, even though they were often extremely strong and traditional soap opera plots.   Marland obviously loved and embraced the soap opera genre. Conversely, Lemay rejected and disliked the genre he was writing for.   

I believe Lemay said he didn't like writing murder trials and medical stories.   He did write a few murders on AW, but none of them were traditional murder mysteries.  And only two had trials -- John Randolph (for killing Even Webster) and Pat Randolph (for killing Greg Barnard).  Bernice Robinson and Rocky Olsen were also murdered, and there may have been a couple of other murders I have forgotten.  But only two trials.

9 hours ago, Neil Johnson said:

I remember being completely hooked on AW for all of Lemay's run as head-writer.  But I often complained, "Nothing ever happens on this show!

I think early exposure to Lemay gave me the mindset to enjoy the types of movie and TV that a lot of people criticize for plotlessness. "Nothing happened!" Me: "What do you mean, character X had an epiphany!" Looking back, it's pretty incredible that AW was so popular in that format, especially when you consider where we are today, when soap viewers bash anything that doesn't advance the plot. 

Loved seeing that old clip. I just have very vague impressions of Sam and Lahoma, but I know I was thrilled to see Lana Wedgeworth show up on Three's Company because I had such good feelings about her.

8 hours ago, watson71 said:

Here is an early Christmas present I found on YouTube- 16 minutes of late 1960s Another World that is good quality.

 

 

 

Great scenes.  But this is rather confusing.  There are two different weddings in these segments.  During the apartment scenes, they are discussing Bill and Missy's wedding.  And the cut-in dancing segments take place in Jim and Mary Matthews' livingroom.  The later wedding in the large church is that of Lenore and Walter.  And the later dancing segments are from Walter and Lenore's wedding reception.   All of this was likely written by Agnes Nixon who created Ada, Rachel, Sam, and Lahoma and added the show's first working-class family to AW around 1967.   

Edited December 24, 20213 yr by Neil Johnson

13 hours ago, Khan said:

I think the only type of story that Harding Lemay wasn't capable of writing was a YOUNG love story.  Lemay himself once said that he found it difficult to write for younger actors, because they didn't have the life experience that their older colleagues had to draw on (although, he did cite Ray Liotta (ex-Joey) as a notable exception).

I would say that Lemay was also not  very adept at penning "business intrigue" stories or murder mysteries and trials.

6 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

I would say that Lemay was also not  very adept at penning "business intrigue" stories or murder mysteries and trials.

Yes, I believe the closest thing to business stories Lemay wrote at AW were when Tim McGowan embezzled most of Steve's money from Frame Enterprises while Steve was in prison; and later when Ray Gordon insisted Alice make him president of Frame Enterprises and then promptly bankrupted the company.   Those were believable plots, I suppose.  But not really what I would call business intrigue stories.   

Apparently, though, he WAS very good at writing that story about Iris bugging Eliot's hotel room -- the one that got written up in the NY Times or Washington Post as being so similar to the then-ongoing Watergate scandal.  So, it seems like Lemay COULD write good, suspenseful plots when he wanted to, but that's when he WANTED to.

2 hours ago, Khan said:

Apparently, though, he WAS very good at writing that story about Iris bugging Eliot's hotel room -- the one that got written up in the NY Times or Washington Post as being so similar to the then-ongoing Watergate scandal.  So, it seems like Lemay COULD write good, suspenseful plots when he wanted to, but that's when he WANTED to.

Lemay was actually very good at writing things he didn't want to write, and didn't actually like himself.  So he should have forced himself to write stronger plots more often.  The Sven storyline (probably Lemay's strongest plot on AW) brought AW to number one in the ratings, and had the audience mesmerized.  Yet, he disliked that storyline immensely and said he was embarrassed he had written it.   There were also several characters he disliked, yet wrote wonderful situations and dialogue for them.  I've always felt Lemay was stubborn and didn't want to write anything he "didn't want to write."  LOL.  But he should have had more self discipline and realized he had the talent to be a far more diversified writer.

I often wonder if we make too much of Lemay's memoir?  It was written after he quit his longest and most successful job, but before he had many other experiences both in and out of the soap field. 

I recently looked back at the emails I sent after the one and only time that I ever quit a job in my entire career, and I don't feel the same way now that I did then, and I am able to find humor in things that used to infuriate me.

In my memory he wrote some of the great mystery stories, because the repercussions were widely felt throughout various characters.  His work on Friends and Lovers was mostly centered on young love.  And, I've always appreciated the nuance he brought to characters.  For example, Mac could have been just an older gentleman oblivious to the motives of his wife and daughter, (like many older rich guys on soaps), but he was bit a playboy (who could forget the bracelets that he gave to more than one woman), with an ego, and was therefore more complex than most.  We saw how Iris became more "one note" when written by other head writers and I think it is a perfect example of Lemay's artistry.

For whatever reason, I get defensive of Lemay's work because it was such a highlight of my AW fandom, and I loved the book.  But, it obviously only tells one side of the tale, and the opinions offered may not have stuck with him in his later years.

Edited December 26, 20213 yr by j swift

1 minute ago, j swift said:

But, it obviously only tells one side of the tale, and the opinions offered may not have stuck with him in his later years.

I found myself violently nodding in agreement while reading your comment. You are absolutely right (and should be applied to many comments many people made over the years) but probably even more so when you also remember the guy was also a writer.
On top of your point about strong feelings that may have faded with time or perspective he may have gained later, most writers *write* everything. They are creators not just putting simple thoughts on paper; they are "writing", molding, shaping, influencing, tweaking to create a story, elicit feelings, be compelling.
Even an ostensibly non-fiction autobiography will have been shaped by the desire to create narratives, drama, feelings in the audience.
It may not have been intentional but even as he wrote it, it may not have been the full picture of his feelings or thoughts.

On 12/24/2021 at 6:45 AM, watson71 said:

Here is an early Christmas present I found on YouTube- 16 minutes of late 1960s Another World that is good quality.

 

 

Thank you very much! and Merry Christmas

On 12/23/2021 at 10:08 PM, Neil Johnson said:

Most of the time, Lemay didn't even try to write plots.  He wrote wonderful characters and put them in conflicts and situations, but seldom were there really identifiable plots/storylines -- at least not in the typical soap opera fashion.   I remember being completely hooked on AW for all of Lemay's run as head-writer.  But I often complained, "Nothing ever happens on this show!"  What I didn't realize at the time was, I had fallen in love with the characters. They were almost like real people, experiencing believable problems.  Lemay's Another World was so plotless, it could almost be considered an experimental soap opera.  The show during that era is hard for me to describe in a way someone who hasn't seen it would understand.   But seriously, characters just ran into one another and talked. Worked together and talked. Visited one another's homes and talked. Scene after scene after scene.  The plots were nearly all extremely weak and at times almost non-existant.  

I always said that.  When I think about my two favorite soaps.  AW & GH.  I watched GH for the intrigue, storylines and mystery.  I watched AW for the characters.  Not that GH didn't have some great characters but it was a very plot driven show where AW was just about characters and their emotions.  When you really think about it, AW was a yawn fest and it remained that way even after Lemay.  There were a few years where they did try the GH type writing and storylines but they were terrible & began to work better again in the late 80's when the show  focused on the families again.  Frames, Corys & Matthews.  Probably by this point most viewers were not that interested in on character intrigue but more about the storylines and AW never regained success again but it does make you wonder how it was so successful in the 70's when there were no real plot driven stories.. 

Thomas Ian Griffith (Catlin) will debut on Netflix's Cobra Kai this week when he reprises his role of villain Terry Silver.

 

https://ew.com/tv/cobra-kai-season-4-terry-silver-thomas-ian-griffith-interview/

On 12/24/2021 at 12:45 AM, watson71 said:

Here is an early Christmas present I found on YouTube- 16 minutes of late 1960s Another World that is good quality.

 

 

Thank you so much for this clip.  I would rush home from school and turn this on and discuss with classmates the next day (which was probably too intense for 5th grade)

 

Loved the Lee Randolph story.  Never will get the scene out of my mind when Lefty Burns made and gave Lee LSD

 

Barbara Rodell was a great actress.  She played mousey roles until she landed psychotic Joyce Coleman on As the World Turns

 

I saw in an interview once where Ann Wedgeworth did not have fond memories of her time on soaps

I know she still has her fans, but Ann Wedgeworth always struck me as being one-note.