2 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Was it perhaps a financial thing?

I know a lot of these location stories had financial backing from the local tourism authorities -at least the overseas ones did. In return for the exposure gained through national television.

Was there any disclaimer in the credits along the lines of 'assistance provided by Arizona Tourist Board' or some such?

You are probably correct about this.  And the production likely was assisted by the Arizona Tourism Board, although I don't personally remember.  

46 minutes ago, Mona Kane Croft said:

You are probably correct about this.  And the production likely was assisted by the Arizona Tourism Board, although I don't personally remember.  

For what it's worth, the credits to this episode mention only the hotel, no government assistance. 

 

 

15 hours ago, Mona Kane Croft said:

I never understood why they just didn't say they were in Egypt while they were shooting in Arizona.  They spent nearly the entire time in the Arizona desert, didn't they?  So they could have done all the location desert shots in Arizona and just played it like it was Egypt, then the specific interior Egypt stuff could have been shot in the studio.

I wonder if there were also political sensitivities at play.

Although prior scenes were set in Egypt.  At the time of the hijacking, Egyptian President Mubarak demanded an apology from President Reagan for intercepting a civilian airlines flight in order to capture the hijackers.  There was a subsequent travel ban to Egypt for Americans.  So, even in the fictional universe it would've questionable for citizens of Bay City to go to Egypt. 

And, I would hazard to guess that they didn't want audiences to associate Carl Hutchins with terrorism.  Which is not unreasonable.  Because even if they never planned for Carl to return, the stench of terrorism, versus a fictional plot to poison people with dust, would've been very distasteful.

Edited March 12, 20241 yr by j swift

16 hours ago, Mona Kane Croft said:

It's interesting they sent Jim to the same place they were planning to do location shooting.  Makes me wonder if Jim's character was to be connected to the location shooting in some way.  Either alive, or perhaps his death was to have had some small part in the larger storyline.  If I'm not mistaken, I believe Hugh Marlowe was already deceased when the character left for Finland. I could be wrong about that.    

I want to say that the reports of the planned Helsinki location shoot took place in early 1982 -- around February. From what I saw on the AW Home Page, Hugh Marlowe last aired as Jim on April 30. Marlowe died on May 2. And then Steve went to open an office in Finland the week of May 10. I suspect that the plan was for Rachel to join Steve in Finland and for them to become closer there.

AW and SfT really excelled at location shoots, unlike many of their peers.

The sound and lighting were great.  The settings were believable within the context of the characters.  It never seemed like a travelogue or a tourist video.  For example, I recall when Sally and Caitlin travelled to Europe with Cass, it looked great, and we could hear them amongst the background noise.  The costumes looked like wardrobe that the characters would wear in those places.  And the stories were exciting.

When EON and AMC went to the Alps, there was heavy use of green screen.  I recall barely being able to hear OLTL's Bo and Pat in Paris over the street noise.  And when DAYS went to New Orleans, Bo and Hope had inexplicably packed a full ensemble of huge hats and historical costumes. 

But, when Mac was in St. Croix it was totally believable that he would vacation on the island.  The dual wedding of Blaine & Sandy with Mac & Rachel gave amazing context for the scale of the mansions in Bay City. And they used those settings to make the show look like a million bucks.

Edited March 12, 20241 yr by j swift

13 hours ago, BetterForgotten said:

Michael and his wife, Susan Hufford, wrote scripts together briefly for AW in 1988, a year or so before he returned to GL as Roger Thorpe. I think they just wrote a few episodes.

In an interesting turn of events, Roger’s return reveal on GL (swinging from the church ceiling at Philip and Blake’s wedding) was taped at the AW studios in Brooklyn - the GL studios wasn’t big enough to accommodate the staging of that scene. 

Thank you for the information. I had no either about the writing or the filming of Roger's return. I assumed they had written a few scripts so I was intrigued that they were around the time of the snowflake ball. I wonder what Zaslow and Hufford would have been like if they had kept up writing. That poor family had so much tragedy. I had forgotten what happened to the family until I googled Zaslow last night.

I wonder a bit what the timeline was like. As early as May 9, Perry gave Nancy an Egyptian ring that was supposed to have belonged to his grandmother. That was also during the period when they had no head writer. Then in August after Sam Hall and Gillian Spencer became head writers suddenly Daphne and Carl were looking for Egyptian artifacts and Chris and Nancy and Donna all had some or ought to know where their fathers' artifacts were. Then in October Ada gave Nancy permission to go to Algeria with Daphne and Daphne just took her to Egypt instead. By October there was both an Egyptian character (Fayez) and a Native American (Hawk) involved in the search for the Egyptian artifacts. Chris, Hawk, Nancy, Daphne, Fayez and Carl all had scenes in "Egypt" and then somehow they realized that what they were searching for was on a reservation in Arizona. 

Carl and Daphne must have returned to Bay City because when he murdered Daphne he paralyzed Kathleen and Cass was arrested for Daphne's murder, and I don't think either of them had gone to Egypt or Arizona. Carl, Chris, Nancy, Marley, and Jake all went to Arizona in November chasing the Egyptian treasure or to follow someone who had gone to Arizona chasing the treasure.

The Achille Lauro hijacking was October 7-10 so they must have been very close to going on location when they had to rewrite and replan. 

 

22 hours ago, Mona Kane Croft said:

Changing the location in the scripts was obviously last minute and made the entire plot even more laughable than it was to begin with.    

Indeed.

On 3/11/2024 at 6:43 PM, Khan said:

Didn't Mac become possessed by the spirit of some old captain or something after he had accidentally inhaled the dust?

I know Mac became confused and had dementia-like symptoms (forgetting things from the recent past, thinking the present is the way it was when he was much younger) as well as paranoia, but I don't recall anything like being possessed by someone else. That kind of thing annoys me unless the universe has been built to permit it from day one so I would be surprised to have forgotten about it. 

On 3/11/2024 at 6:46 PM, AbcNbc247 said:

I know he fired Liz though. 

About 14 minutes in Liz flashes back to Mac firing her the previous day. Later in this episode he hires her back.

 

 

7 hours ago, Xanthe said:

I wonder a bit what the timeline was like. As early as May 9, Perry gave Nancy an Egyptian ring that was supposed to have belonged to his grandmother. That was also during the period when they had no head writer. Then in August after Sam Hall and Gillian Spencer became head writers suddenly Daphne and Carl were looking for Egyptian artifacts and Chris and Nancy and Donna all had some or ought to know where their fathers' artifacts were

I’m curious about that too, what happened on and offscreen. 

The writers strike only lasted for two weeks in March. I wonder why AW didn’t have have a head writer til August. Whose projections were they following? 

15 hours ago, chrisml said:

Thank you for the information. I had no either about the writing or the filming of Roger's return. I assumed they had written a few scripts so I was intrigued that they were around the time of the snowflake ball. I wonder what Zaslow and Hufford would have been like if they had kept up writing. That poor family had so much tragedy. I had forgotten what happened to the family until I googled Zaslow last night.

As event after event happened, in real time it was just excruciating to me! As a family they had the luck of Job. 

On 3/10/2024 at 2:45 PM, Mona Kane Croft said:

Jim was said to be on a cruise to Finland or someplace in northern Europe.  The character died there and was brought back to Bay City for burial.  There was no onscreen funeral.  If I am not mistaken, Alice was the only one of his three children to attend the offscreen funeral.  Liz was still in town are well.  I'm not sure if Marianne Randolph Halloway was still on the canvas.  But the Matthews family was extremely small at that point. And not one former character returned for his service.   Sad that Jim and Hugh Marlowe got no real send off.  

Thanks, Countessa.  It's nice to have an intelligent and civil conversation about an issue we don't agree on.  I appreciate that very much.  Sometimes I feel I have to walk on egg shells in order to avoid offending some of these posters,   But I do it, just to keep the peace.   I'm glad you do not require such tender treatment.   

 

What former character returned?  Both Pat and Alice and Liz where in BC when Jim died.  I think i saw a picture honoring Jim and Linda Borgoson was playing Alice at this time? I think 

14 hours ago, denzo30 said:

What former character returned?  Both Pat and Alice and Liz where in BC when Jim died.  I think i saw a picture honoring Jim and Linda Borgoson was playing Alice at this time? I think 

There were no returning characters.  Yes, Linda Borgeson was playing Alice at the time.  I'm fairly certain Pat had already left town by the time Jim died, but I could be wrong.   

On 3/13/2024 at 4:37 AM, AbcNbc247 said:

I’m curious about that too, what happened on and offscreen. 

The writers strike only lasted for two weeks in March. I wonder why AW didn’t have have a head writer til August. Whose projections were they following? 

I have always wondered about that strike! How in the world did it only last 2 weeks?!! 

I also wonder how things are so different now. 

For just one example, this past strike the scabs could do whatever they wanted with daily dialogue but to change a story element they had to have permission. Contrast that with Agnes Nixon sitting at home eating lunch & being shocked when they killed off Jesse! That couldn't & wouldn't happen now. Why did it then? 

A very fun Cecile and Donna scene in this. Carl and Donna too. Anna Stuart really was divine to watch when not weighed down by Michael and sanctimonious writing.

David Oliver was so lovely.

1983 through parts of 1984 was a good revival period for the show. I'm sorry it all went aground again.

 

Edited March 17, 20241 yr by DRW50

5 hours ago, DRW50 said:

A very fun Cecile and Donna scene in this. Carl and Donna too. Anna Stuart really was divine to watch when not weighed down by Michael and sanctimonious writing.

David Oliver was so lovely.

1983 through parts of 1984 was a good revival period for the show. I'm sorry it all went aground again.

 

This is the Cecile that I fell in ❤️ with.  I had started occasionally watching AW in late 1983, but it was Nancy Frangione that reeled me in. Thanks for posting @DRW50!!

Edited March 17, 20241 yr by slick jones