Another World Discussion Thread

[vetsoapfan]

Vlada Gelman, who is the credited author of the poll/article is too young to have seen AW during the 1960s and 1970s. Even Michael Ausiello, TVLine's founder and editorial director, was born in 1972, so he's too young to know about AW's heyday either. He has written enthusiastically about Santa Barbara over the years, which he could have watched when he was a kid, but never about AW.

I think you are right: Gelman  probably just googled "popular TV triangles" and culled candidates from wiki articles. Or she had read about certain characters from history books. I appreciate the effort to include a selection of vintage choices, but I seriously doubt the majority of TVLine's staff or even readers know who George Reinholt and Jacqueline Courtney were.

Edited September 21, 2023 by vetsoapfan

[SFK]

This is too funny, I'm the one who sent Adam this interview!

[Contessa Donatella]

Out & about in the online universe I find AW fandom to be one of the most frequent & to have just large numbers of devotees. Of the so-called defunct soaps AW & EON seem to regularly lead the pack. 

And just for some examples of AW popularity, I run an all soaps forum on Facebook & we do polls often. 

The Favorite Soap poll is now closed. With 10% AW won. Coming in 2nd place was DAYS with 9%. Next GH 8%. Next OLTL, AMC & ATWT 7%. Next GL 6%. Next TX! & Y&R both 5%. 4% for PC. 3% for The City, EON & DS. 2% for B&B, LIAMST, RH, Secret Storm, Sunset Beach, SB, GEN & SOM. 1% for Capitol, Loving, SFT, The Young Marrieds, DOC, Paradise Bay & PSSN. 0% for Love of Life, Strange Paradise & Foreign Affairs.

Our Best of the Best Couples Poll is now closed. Mac & Rachel of AW win with 23% of the votes! Congratulations! Now for all of the rest of the final values: With zero are Ben & Meg Sunset Beach, Alex & Iris Texas! & Trey & Sloane Capitol. With 1% each Ethan & Teresa PSSN, Frank & Jill RH, Kevin & Lucy PC, Bruce & Van LOL, Trucker & Trish LOV, Sam & Kyle GEN, Jacob & Angie The City, Eric & Stephanie B&B. With 2% Nick & Althea DOC, Spence & Iris LIAMST, Snapper & Chris Y&R. With 4% Travis & Liza SFT. With 5% Holden & Lily ATWT. With 6% Sky & Raven EON. With 7% Tad & Dixie AMC, Clint & Viki & Cruz & Eden SB. With 8% Josh & Reva GL. With 13% Doug & Julie DAYS.

On a poll of Judi Evans characters AW Paulina won with 34% where DAYS Adrienne & GL Beth tied for second place & other characters were way below.

And FB has about a dozen AW Only forums where the two largest have around 2400 members. 

Just some examples of popularity among online soap fans. 

 

Edited September 22, 2023 by Donna L. Bridges

[j swift]

Is anyone is from the San Francisco Bay Area?  Because I was wondering about the following from KRON-TV wiki entry:

For most of its tenure with NBC, KRON was the network's second-largest affiliate (behind only KYW-TV in Philadelphia) and its largest on the West Coast. Despite this, KRON occasionally preempted NBC programming. One notable omission was Another World, which would eventually air on the station in the early 1990s; KRON's decision to drop the daytime soap opera in the summer of 1998 (leaving Days of Our Lives and the struggling Sunset Beach as the only network soaps on its schedule) is thought to have hastened NBC's decision to cancel it altogether a year later.

Does this mean that if you lived in San Francisco, Another World was only on TV from 1990-1998?

Edited September 24, 2023 by j swift

[Contessa Donatella]

A very good friend online was from the Bay area & I know she watched AW BITD. She's not online anymore so I can't ask her to explain how. 

[Paul Raven]

Just a guess but it may have aired on an independent station. This was not uncommon when an affiliate chose not to air a soap.

[Contessa Donatella]

That is what I was thinking. 

[Soaplovers]

I remember in 1990/1 a San Francisco station dropped AW...and KRON picked it up.

SOD had a section at year end showing which affiliates dropped a soap...and I recall AW, SB, and Loving were usually listed as having affiliates dropping the show.  

In fact, GL was in danger of having the affiliate in SF drop them hence the show sending Nick/Mindy to SF in late 1991 and having their scenes filmed there as an attempt to not be dropped by the SF station airing the show.

[Xanthe]

Dragging this offhand reference by @soapfan770 over from the Guiding Light thread:

I have seen this alluded to before and occasionally it is mentioned that the ice cream shop may have been in Rhode Island. I always wonder about that because I am pretty confident that I remember hearing about an event with at least Grayson McCouch appearing at an ice cream shop in RI around this time. I don't remember whether any other cast members were involved but it does make me wonder whether the Victoria Wyndham incident was supposed to be VW buying ice cream as a civilian or if it was actually related to a professional personal appearance that she did or didn't make.

Edited September 25, 2023 by Xanthe
Fixing atting

[Contessa Donatella]

Where can I read about it? I know nothing. As they say tell it to me like a 6 yr old. 

[Xanthe]

I have not seen a lot of detail, just second-hand references to posts on another board a long time ago, for example:

 

Sometimes it is mentioned that the owner of the ice cream parlour was the poster's mother and had been a fan of Another World who was so offended that she stopped watching the show. 

 

[soapfan770]

The origin of this came from the now defunct Jumptheshark.com site. Someone had voted this at the moment AW had jumped the shark and wrote this as the comment why:
 

• While I'm not really a fan of soap operas to start with, I watch them with my mother sometimes.  I stopped watching this show when Victoria Windom was such a rude, arrogant bitch to my mother in the ice cream shop in Rhode Island in 1994!

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AW was on its last legs at the time and that comment was shocking and puzzling for just about all of AW fandom. Was VW guilty of a little rudeness on her part and the poster exaggerated? Perhaps that’s the case. The comment of course sparked a lot of speculation of what VW was really like in real life at the time and for several years afterwards. I don’t think anyone ever asked VW about.

[Xanthe]

Thank you for the details. I can understand holding a grudge but it seems like a bit of lost perspective (or at least not grasping what jumping the shark is supposed to mean) to insert one's personal grudge against an actress into a discussion that should really be about the creativity of the show itself. 

Edited September 25, 2023 by Xanthe

[Contessa Donatella]

Thanks! I always wonder about these one-off stories because I think that if someone did this sort of thing they would do it often & the examples would be many but I have heard at least one awful story that I know to be true, not an AW actress. 

[Contessa Donatella]

Much thanks for more info!