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.

2 hours ago, Neil Johnson said:

The characters are: Vic Hastings, Lenore Curtain, Jim and Mary Matthews, Steve and Alice Frame, Rachel Clark, and Ada McGowan.  

I was watching at the time, but I have no idea why Rachel is laying on the floor and Ada appears to be praying for her. I don't recall Rachel being ill or anything during this period.  I also do not recognize what object Vic Hastings is holding.  It appears to be a TV remote or maybe a camera.   Vic was on AW for a couple of years.  He worked for Steve at Frame Enterprises.  And I believe he ran the company while Steve was in prison.  If my memory is correct, he dated Janice Frame and Lenore Curtain, and I believe he had a severe crush on Alice Frame.   

Maybe she is having a meltdown because she lost to Alice 

Found the same picture in another newspaper.  This one had an explanation about what was supposed to be represented.

27 minutes ago, jam6242 said:

Found the same picture in another newspaper.  This one had an explanation about what was supposed to be represented.

Gotta love media mistakes. Ted and Janice were both gone by the time AW expanded to an hour 😂🤣

4 hours ago, AbcNbc247 said:

Gotta love media mistakes. Ted and Janice were both gone by the time AW expanded to an hour 😂🤣

Ted I believe was gone but Janice was still on when AW went to one hour.  Didn't she leave around the fall of 1974?  AW went to one hour in May of 1974 for 10th anniversary or am I wrong?  

Just now, denzo30 said:

Ted I believe was gone but Janice was still on when AW went to one hour.  Didn't she leave around the fall of 1974?  AW went to one hour in May of 1974 for 10th anniversary or am I wrong?  

That was only for the 10th Anniversary episode, AW didn't go to one hour full time until January 1975

Was amused by Connie Ford coming off all Helen Hayes of soaps with her 'Most of us are used to working in the the-ar-ter...'

At that point when was the last time La Ford had been on stage?

Edited January 8, 20223 yr by Paul Raven

11 hours ago, jam6242 said:

He was played by John Considine.

He also played Reginald Love 1986

11 hours ago, jam6242 said:

Found the same picture in another newspaper.  This one had an explanation about what was supposed to be represented.

Thank you! With the suggestion I am now able to make out the flame of Vic's literal torch for Lenore. 

 

3 hours ago, TVFAN1144 said:

15 hours ago, jam6242 said:

He was played by John Considine.

He also played Reginald Love 1986

I don't remember Vic but we discussed John Considine's friendship with Nicolas Coster a bit last year so I am aware he existed. I hope the character's manner was entirely unlike Reginald's.

 

14 hours ago, Xanthe said:

Thank you! With the suggestion I am now able to make out the flame of Vic's literal torch for Lenore. 

 

I don't remember Vic but we discussed John Considine's friendship with Nicolas Coster a bit last year so I am aware he existed. I hope the character's manner was entirely unlike Reginald's.

Reginald was certainly a diabolical character. But I thought this was a good period with the introduction of the Loves McKinnons and I love Denise Alexander 

3 hours ago, TVFAN1144 said:

Reginald was certainly a diabolical character. But I thought this was a good period with the introduction of the Loves McKinnons and I love Denise Alexander 

I adore the introduction of the Loves and McKinnons before the Margaret DePriest era. MJ really resonated with me, and the introduction of Kathleen and her integration into the Cass/Felicia/Wally milieu layered on top of that fit so perfectly. On the Love side, Peter's introduction as an eligible bachelor with his snobbish sister Donna interfering in his love life was handled really brilliantly as well. Marley falling for Ben was serviceable (and secondary to the reveal that she was Donna's daughter) but replaced by the much stronger Victoria/Jake/Marley triangle. However although I liked Denise Alexander and Robert Hogan as Vince and Mary, I disliked the concept of bringing Reginald and Mary back from the dead and found that era just wasn't very good at complex characterization. I want Vic to seem different from Reginald not because Reginald was a bad man but because he was a simplistic moustache-twirling villain.

 

4 hours ago, Xanthe said:

I adore the introduction of the Loves and McKinnons before the Margaret DePriest era. MJ really resonated with me, and the introduction of Kathleen and her integration into the Cass/Felicia/Wally milieu layered on top of that fit so perfectly. On the Love side, Peter's introduction as an eligible bachelor with his snobbish sister Donna interfering in his love life was handled really brilliantly as well. Marley falling for Ben was serviceable (and secondary to the reveal that she was Donna's daughter) but replaced by the much stronger Victoria/Jake/Marley triangle. However although I liked Denise Alexander and Robert Hogan as Vince and Mary, I disliked the concept of bringing Reginald and Mary back from the dead and found that era just wasn't very good at complex characterization. I want Vic to seem different from Reginald not because Reginald was a bad man but because he was a simplistic moustache-twirling villain.

 

I also prefer the Loves during 1983-85 and McKinnons 1984 -85 than during the DePriest era.  I get angry when I think of how she gutted the show during 1986-87. I enjoyed AW up to 1995 but it was a very different show.

Edited January 9, 20223 yr by Efulton

I am always delighted in the history of soaps when you get a character like Donna Love, who was introduced as an antagonist for Sally, but surpassed her, and eventually became a heroine in her own right, due to the undeniable charisma of their portrayal.  Donna is so interesting to me because whatever Depriest's original intentions were for the character, she became a muse for so many future writers who fleshed her out in other directions.

I guess we could put Clarice and Felicia in the same category.  They were supporting characters who were introduced to be a spanner in a relationship, but grew to become leading ladies.  Unlike, Victoria, Blaine, or Rachel, who were reformed by love and became heroines in a typical soap development, one could never have predicted the longevity of characters like Donna or Felicia.

 

 

On 1/7/2022 at 5:58 PM, Paul Raven said:

Was amused by Connie Ford coming off all Helen Hayes of soaps with her 'Most of us are used to working in the the-ar-ter...'

At that point when was the last time La Ford had been on stage?

Did Lemay say that it was seeing Ford in a stage production which made him appreciate how talented she was and start writing for her more heavily, or am I just making that up?