Another World Discussion Thread

[China Jones]

Absolutely!!

[China Jones]

This made me think of the brief time that Larry Haines appeared on Another World as a character pretty similar to Stu. Stu had been in the restaurant business on SFT, and on AW, Haines played an old boyfriend of Ada's who worked as a chef at Ada's new restaurant. The pair shared some comical moments and seemed to be rekindling their flame shortly before MacKenzie Cory died.

I suppose the writers decided, rightfully so, that Ada needed to focus on her daughter and grandchildren, as well as her own grief, rather than a new romance. Were it not for a major event like Mac's death, I think that Ada and Haines' character could have worked as a long-term, down to earth, blue-collar couple who could have served as "grandparents" to the show's younger characters.

[Contessa Donatella]

I loved that restaurant & I loved his character & the relationship that seemed budding.

Also I've been thinking about these errors, especially claims of "first" this or that. I am often critical of Wikipedia. But I was looking for a place name for something about Agnes Nixon & I happened to notice some phrasing that I appreciated. 

 

[China Jones]

Do you know if Haines left on his own, or was he let go for the reason I mentioned above? It seems like it was a case of bad timing. I mean, Ada starting a romance with comical undertones at the very time Mac died probably wouldn't have fit. 

[Contessa Donatella]

No, I don't know but it just seems like it was probably what happened. 

[Paul Raven]

Was Larry Haines even on contract?

[watson71]

I agree that it was bad timing and the character was dropped from the show.  Haines played Sidney “Sharky” Sugarman on AW from February to July 1989.  In The Valentine to Singles episodes, younger actors playing Ada and Sharky were featured in a WWII sequence.  In was mentioned in the story that Sharky had a wife named Sylvia who died, and an unseen son named Aaron.  

[Mona Kane Croft]

First of all -- this Wikipedia statement is WAY to general to likely be accurate.  Think about it; for this to be true, the storyline (which I believe was Bert Bauer's cancer in the early to mid-1960s) would have had to have occurred before The Doctors, General Hospital, or any of the earlier hospital/doctor based soaps premiered. Additionally, it is difficult to believe there had been no health-related plots on any of the other soaps earlier than Nixon's time as HW on GL, even if those soaps were not hospital/doctor based.  In other words, no character had ever been sick on any soap before Nixon got to Guiding Light.   Hmmm.  

Why didn't the Wikipedia poster give the year?  Identify the storyline specifically?  This makes the statement almost impossible to prove.  It's just a bizarre general statement, stated as truth.  

I do think there is historical value to Nixon's writing Bert Bauer's cancer storyline.  If I'm not mistaken, it was cervical cancer or uterine cancer.  And it was as much a "social issues" plot as it was a medical plot.  It was controversial at the time, and should be documented as important.  But the Wikipedia statement is simply worded too generally, which makes it blatantly incorrect.  My opinion only.

 

[China Jones]

The fact that they mentioned Sugarman's family makes me think the writers did have story ideas for the character, but real-life events derailed those plans.

[Contessa Donatella]

Okay, we are now horribly off-topic for AW. We can wrap it up or move it to the GL thread. Let's see if I can wrap it up. There are many of us here who are regularly annoyed by errors. One of the most egregious seems to be claims that "x" is the FIRST of "y". I quoted this line from Wikipedia because I thought it was good that they had not done that, instead speaking more generally of possibilities rather than specific claims. That was not cogent to you in your reply. I mention it now only to be done with it. 

It's a good thing I like research. Agnes Nixon was HW at GL approximately 1958-1966 when she left to go save AW. The Bert storyline in question was uterine cancer, with early detection, because of a Pap smear. The huge implication of the story was that so many women asked their doctors for Pap smears & indeed doctors began to offer them & urge their patients to have routine Pap smears. Generally it is considered her first or one of her first social issues storylines because its import was policy & routine practice. I don't know why they don't tend to put dates on storylines but in fact usually they do not. 

Now a quote from Schemering p.130 

Now, if we are done here, we can get back to Bay City. 

[denzo30]

As much as I loved the Lemay Error on AW, he really had an ego that was insulting.  I read the same article where Lemay states that those names were used after his characters.  He really liked flapping gums..

[Contessa Donatella]

Well, he's not trying to delude anyone. He clearly believes it to be true. He's just sloppy with his facts. There was no malice or anything. 

[denzo30]

I thought the rumor was when Lemay returned in 88, there was talks of bringing Beverly back?  In fact, the 25th annniversary promo showed Pat,John and Sharlene as if she was going to stir up trouble in their relationship.  Made no sense since Lemay had been gone many months before that and not one single bit of interaction with Pat and John and Sharlene during the anniversary episodes.  Such sloppy promos

[Mona Kane Croft]

Yes, it was months after Lemay had left AW, but Swajeski was still following some of Lemay's storyline projections.  So I assume there were plans for Pat to stir up some kind of trouble with John and Sharlene, but like so many plans at that moment, the change likely occurred because of Douglass Watson's death.  I believe the entire cast and crew just had to push through their shock and grief to get through the anniversary episodes, while acting (on camera) as if nothing had changed.  Swajeski also followed through on the reveal that Josie was Russ Matthews' daughter, and I'm almost positive that development came from Lemay's projections.  

[Contessa Donatella]

Well, we know that the 1988 WGA strike happened which prevented Pete from doing anything. But, it is widely believed that Swajeski had all of Pete's notes & that she did a kind of cherry picking where she used some of what he had planned & did not use other parts. I have tried to get an interview with her but she seems completely uninterested in anything about soap opera writing. She is an active poster on IG but none of it is about soaps or about writing. It's a real shame because she could tell us so much!