1 hour ago, Efulton said:

I disagree. While new families (Loves, McKinnons, Harding / Todds) and characters Felicia, Cass & Wallingford were prominent before DePriest arrived, the Matthews, Ewings and Corys were still represented. DePriest wrote out the Ewings, Matthews and Harding / Todds completely. The McKinnons & Loves were mostly recasts and written differently or new characters were added to the families. Several popular characters were killed off - Sally, Zane, Quinn, Maisie. Violence and misogyny replaced humour and intelligence.

I agree with this but in fairness 1985 with the Plains Motel drug gang and Lesoleil had been weirdly distracting. The introduction of Victoria and, later, Michael were probably the best things that emerged from that period before Depriest came in, but Nancy was isolated after Perry's death and there didn't seem to be much for Mac and Rachel to do. Sandy and Jamie were gone. Brittany was probably poorly-conceived and definitely mishandled.

I get what they were trying to do by making Lesoleil have so many different unrelated connections to Bay City and in some respects I probably prefer that to Depriest's solution of Reginald as one international supervillain having an impact on at least half of the people in town.

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by Xanthe

1 hour ago, Xanthe said:

I agree with this but in fairness 1985 with the Plains Motel drug gang and Lesoleil had been weirdly distracting. The introduction of Victoria and, later, Michael were probably the best things that emerged from that period before Depriest came in, but Nancy was isolated after Perry's death and there didn't seem to be much for Mac and Rachel to do. Sandy and Jamie were gone. Brittany was probably poorly-conceived and definitely mishandled.

I get what they were trying to do by making Lesoleil have so many different unrelated connections to Bay City and in some respects I probably prefer that to Depriest's solution of Reginald as one international supervillain having an impact on at least half of the people in town.

December 1982 through mid 1985 was my second favourite era. But I agree that the last half of 1985 was a mess. The thing is that the elements were there to make it great again without discarding Larry, Clarice, Cory, Jeanne, Liz, Quinn, Thomasina, Carter, Grant Jr., Maisie, Nancy, Peter, MJ… Sally could have left town with Kevin after finding out that Catlin got Brittany pregnant. Killing her off was stupid. Quinn and Zack had great chemistry. There was plenty of story for their families. It took a decade before there were prominent black characters again.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Efulton

7 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

De Priest said the show would focus on the Loves, McKinnons and Corys.

McKinnons-Vince was recast, there was new MJ who was given a hooker past(totally out iof charcter and not suited to the actress) Kathleen left by the end of the year as did Jake, Cheryl came from nowhere played by an inexpperienced actress and Ben vanished.

Loves- Donna was poorly recast and changed character, Nicole came and went, Peter got a personality transplant, Marley depated and Vicky was poorly recast.

Corys- Mac and Rachel. Neal replaced by Adam, both of whom we'd never heard of. No Iris, no Dennis, no Sandy.Nancy left. Rumor of Pam returning but never happened.

The show was a mess.

I know Ben was already long gone by the time DePriest arrived, but it makes no sense to me he wasn't recast when they knew Jake was leaving. That's what has always confused me when I see this article. Did she really have no idea Tom Eplin and Julie Osburn were leaving? The McKinnons could not continue to exist as a family by 1987 - they just weren't strong enough.

Edited 50 minutes ago50 min by DRW50

I think bringing Ben back and putting him in a triangle with Nancy and Vicky could have been interesting. I would not have recast Ben though. I thought Richard Steen had a lot of charm and I would liked to have seen what he could do with an adult storyline. There was way too much unnecessary recasting on Another World.

Keeping Nancy around and having her jealous of an grown up Amanda would have been storyline gold. Nancy was use to her drama being the centre of Ada, Jamie, Mac and Rachel's worlds. Having their focus move to Amanda and forcing Nancy to grow up was the natural story progression.

Edited 1 minute ago1 min by Efulton