40 minutes ago, Tisy-Lish said:

Did Wesley Addy ever play the role of Jim Matthews?  He seems to have played many roles on many soap operas. So his name is familiar to me.   

You might be thinking of Shepherd Strudwick who played Jim and does resemble Wesley  Addy.

16 hours ago, Tisy-Lish said:

Did Wesley Addy ever play the role of Jim Matthews?  He seems to have played many roles on many soap operas. So his name is familiar to me.   

On the six degrees of separation front, Wesley Addy was married to Celeste Holm whose character's husband in All About Eve was played by Hugh Marlowe who definitely played Jim Matthews.

On the name similarity front, Wesley Ann Pfenning did play Alice Matthews.

On 8/17/2025 at 7:07 AM, SheenaSoaper said:

I saw somebody say they used the AW fan bench as fire wood and I nearly spit out my coffee.

No VDR, please. (Vague Donna References)

Courier Express, 1 August 1971 Lumb, Dru Leave 'Another World'

WHEN GEOFFREY LUMB of NBC-TV's "Another World" retired from acting this season, his role of lawyer Mitchell Dru was also retired. Executive producer Lyle B. Hill felt that no other actor could take his place, so the part was eliminated from the daytime drama series. Lumb and his wife will reside in southern Spain. 

3 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Courier Express, 1 August 1971 Lumb, Dru Leave 'Another World'

WHEN GEOFFREY LUMB of NBC-TV's "Another World" retired from acting this season, his role of lawyer Mitchell Dru was also retired. Executive producer Lyle B. Hill felt that no other actor could take his place, so the part was eliminated from the daytime drama series. Lumb and his wife will reside in southern Spain. 

This is very interesting. Thank you for posting. The report above gives us at least the official reason for the departure of Geoffrey Lumb as Mitchell Dru.  But I've always wondered if the exits of both Dru and Liz Matthews so near the arrival of Harding Lemay as head-writer could have had anything to do with the new head-writer's plans.  Lemay's first credited episode of AW was August 31, 1971, while Dru's final episode was May 20, 1971 (according to the AWHP) and Liz's final episode was July 23, 1971.  Lemay would have submitted at least some form of storyline projections to TPTB sometime before he wrote his first episode.  So perhaps Lemay had expressed some distain for Dru and/or Liz, either verbally or in his storyline bible.  And perhaps Lyle Hill thought it would be more respectful to both actors (Lumb and Wickwire) to give them the opportunity to resign and allow Robert Cenedela to write them off before Lemay arrived.  This is all nothing more than speculation on my part -- in fact, I'm not actually speculating it is true, really just bringing up the possibility for discussion.  And by the way, Paul Rauch replaced Lyle Hill as executive producer in December, 1971.  

10 hours ago, Tisy-Lish said:

And perhaps Lyle Hill thought it would be more respectful to both actors (Lumb and Wickwire) to give them the opportunity to resign and allow Robert Cenedela to write them off before Lemay arrived.  This is all nothing more than speculation on my part -- in fact, I'm not actually speculating it is true, really just bringing up the possibility for discussion.  And by the way, Paul Rauch replaced Lyle Hill as executive producer in December, 1971.  

I guess anything's possible, but from what's been said about Lyle Hill, I don't know if he would have had that much respect for actors. 

Even Nicolas Coster referred to him as "the producer who shall not be named" 😂

3 hours ago, AbcNbc247 said:

I guess anything's possible, but from what's been said about Lyle Hill, I don't know if he would have had that much respect for actors. 

Even Nicolas Coster referred to him as "the producer who shall not be named" 😂

I don't recall Coster's comment about Hill.  But I'll assume it may have been accurate.  Still -- Paul Raven's post regarding Geoffrey Lumb paints Lyle Hill as a more compassionate person.  Who knows where the truth lies?? Probably somewhere in-between.    

 

As that meme says - just as I thought, trash.

20 hours ago, Tisy-Lish said:

I don't recall Coster's comment about Hill.  But I'll assume it may have been accurate.  Still -- Paul Raven's post regarding Geoffrey Lumb paints Lyle Hill as a more compassionate person.  Who knows where the truth lies?? Probably somewhere in-between.    

He said it when he was on The Locher Room

1 hour ago, AbcNbc247 said:

He said it when he was on The Locher Room

There's also this [same?] story from Coster's memoir.

Quote

In Somerset, a spin-off of Another World, I had a confrontation with our Napoleonic producer after stopping him from bullying an extraordinary actress, Alice Hirson, my friend to this day. He was brutally abusing her verbally when I, in a rare (sure Nicolas!) show of physical might, told him to “lay the [!@#$%^&*] off, or I’ll put you through the wall!” Shortly thereafter, mysteriously, I went missing in the story line. However, this Daytime Cat-with-12-Lives (One Life To Live was to be another soap in my long career). was picked up as the same character, Robert Delaney, on the show, Another World, by the producer, Paul Rauch, certainly the most wildly creative producer at that time. He seemed amused at hearing of my heroic defense of damsel Alice and put me to work opposite the delightful Susan Sullivan.

Edited August 23, 2025Aug 23 by Xanthe

Was Helen Moore ever an important character on AW? I'd like to hear fans' perspectives on this character.  I've already looked her up on the AWHP, so I have read everything there.  No need to rehash any of that.   

I vaguely remember Helen from watching AW in the mid-1970s. At that point, Helen seemed little more than Lenore's mother.  But I understand, when first introduced by Agnes Nixon, Helen Moore was an uber-wealthy socialite.  Even more wealthy than Liz Matthews.  And possibly as wealthy as the (later introduced) Corys.   

And if my memory is correct, when Lenore left Bay City in 1975, Helen stayed around for a year or so.   So that suggests that she had some historical signifigance to the show, even without her daughter in town.   Just wondering what others might remember about Helen Moore.   

Edited August 27, 2025Aug 27 by Tisy-Lish

TV Guide July 20 1985

One of the most insidious new wrinkles on the American drug scene— the development of the so-called "designer drugs'"—is being incorporated into the storyline of Another World these days. Already, good guy Larry Ewing (played by Rick Porter) has gone undercover at Bay City's newest hot spot, the Plains Motel nightclub, to ferret out the dealers of these dangerous substances. The latest wrinkle in the plot involves Nancy McGowan, who— in her grief and loneliness—is becoming increasingly dependent on a designer drug known, ironically, as Ecstasy.

4 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

TV Guide July 20 1985

One of the most insidious new wrinkles on the American drug scene— the development of the so-called "designer drugs'"—is being incorporated into the storyline of Another World these days. Already, good guy Larry Ewing (played by Rick Porter) has gone undercover at Bay City's newest hot spot, the Plains Motel nightclub, to ferret out the dealers of these dangerous substances. The latest wrinkle in the plot involves Nancy McGowan, who— in her grief and loneliness—is becoming increasingly dependent on a designer drug known, ironically, as Ecstasy.

The story of the Plains Motel drug ring, Larry's investigation, and Nancy's drug addiction was somewhat lacking in execution. For one thing I am not sure they really told the story of Nancy's estrangement from her friend group, and I guess on the Love side they were too busy dealing with Marley's illness and the arrival of Victoria to spend time on grieving Perry very much.

Larry was emotionally invested in the drug investigation because of his kids' baby-sitter Dale, and because he was undercover he couldn't confide in Clarice and also started to feel protective of the main drug criminal's wife, which led to his separation from Clarice. It was never clear to me whether Larry had actually been unfaithful to Clarice -- during the undercover storyline I didn't detect any adultery, but in the aftermath both Larry and Clarice seemed to behave as though he had.

Catlin and Brittany also got involved in the investigation, partly because of the murder of her cousin Willa Grover but also because Catlin was concerned about Larry's behaviour. It was also never clear to me whether the "Plains Motel" name was something that was included in Willa's story and then when they decided to do the drug storyline they used the Plains Motel name for the disco to pull it all together, or if they had always intended to call the disco "Plains Motel" after misleading the audience into thinking it was an actual motel. A lot of this was during the period with no headwriter so in the absence of other evidence I am inclined to think that it might not have been that tightly-plotted.

 

9 hours ago, Xanthe said:

Larry was emotionally invested in the drug investigation because of his kids' baby-sitter Dale, and because he was undercover he couldn't confide in Clarice and also started to feel protective of the main drug criminal's wife, which led to his separation from Clarice. It was never clear to me whether Larry had actually been unfaithful to Clarice -- during the undercover storyline I didn't detect any adultery, but in the aftermath both Larry and Clarice seemed to behave as though he had.

AW was trying to copy the popularity of Miami Vice during this time with Larry going undercover.

3 hours ago, watson71 said:

AW was trying to copy the popularity of Miami Vice during this time with Larry going undercover.

Days also had an homage to Miami Vice, but theirs was in November 1985 and they went on location to Miami.

Two NBC soaps paid homage to NBC's cool and trendy primetime drama. I don't know if Search for Tomorrow or Santa Barbara had a Miami Vice homage though.

Edited September 6, 2025Sep 6 by kalbir