I'd never seen these ads. Love the dancing stuff; cheesy, but who cares.

The way Laurence Lau prances around in that first clip, you'd think his Jamie would rather be w/ Jake. ;-)

What did you guys think of Gary and Josie? I liked the pairing and enjoyed the 2nd Gary and 2nd Josie although I felt the cliched affair with Cameron and the death of Gary Jr. were completely unnecessary. I'm er not sure why Amy Carlson left, she later temped as Harley on GL and Gibbs was allegedly "stolen" away by Jill Farren Phelps if I recall right(she made him a better offer at another soap).

AW was always background noise for me so I didn't mind Jake and Vicky too much but looking back now the pairing was a bit of a stretch. I remember they were AW's "supercouple" on for the Macy's Thanksgiving parade on NBC Daytime's supercouple float they had that year along with John&Marlena, Bo&Hope on Days and Ben and Meg on Sunset Beach.

I think the Laibson/Swajeski era on AW is viewed favourably because it was the only period post-Lemay/Rauch that AW had any stability in that department, although it did not translate into such success. AW was hurt by a dizzying turnover of writers and producers over 20 years but until JFP took over, the show kept its realistic depiction of social classes and character focus even through the regime changes. The quality level was sometimes great, at times less so, but it was never near the worst shows on air.

Oh I just love the bolded part so much that I had to quote it. SO true.

February 27, 1979 Digest.

I'm glad Michael M. Ryan liked the 90 minute format, since he lost his job over it.

I think Beverly Penberthy's reaction was the most honest. Everyone else was chirping about how exciting it would be, but she was more realistic, essentially saying, "This could be really good, or really bad." Which it was, apparently, lol.

I don't watch this show but I'd love to see the episodes that have Joanna Going (Lisa Grady) in them.

You can see some clips with her here, just type in Lisa in the search box on the channel.

http://www.youtube.com/user/veggieburgermeister

She's also in some of this set of clips, I think.

I wonder what would have happened if the 90-minute format had actually succeeded. Ninety minutes does sound like a long time but given how NBC was in dire straits with scatterbrained management in 1979 I guess that's why it was green-lighted. I've seen the first two 90-minute episodes featuring Olive burning down Alice's house and killing John in the process and they weren't bad, but in a way they felt more like 90-minute specials. I know the St. Croix story was critically acclaimed and got some ratings but I've heard the subsequent Mitch Blake "murder" and Rachel's trial was horribly written and so unwatchable it was one of the reasons so many tuned off AW in droves in 1980.

I'm surprised no soap ever tried a two-hour special like primetime.

IMO, in order for the 90-minute format to have worked, they would have needed to increase the number of characters, stories, and scenes - which would have made for a fuller, richer canvas, for sure, but it also might be too much for the average viewer to follow. (As it was, it seems like ANOTHER WORLD had a cast of thousands back then.)

Another alternative: break up the 90 minutes into three half-hour shows, all under the banner title ANOTHER WORLD. It would have been like the "Law & Order" franchises, w/ characters passing in and out of the three separate shows as stories dictate. With three separate shows, casts, writing and production staffs, etc., all supervised by one senior/supervising EP to ensure some continuity, no one show would have to bear the strain of producing 90 minutes of drama five days a week. OTOH, if one or two shows were "weaker" than the others, that might affect viewership if fans chose not to tune in for the entire 90 minutes.

Having three seperate staffs for the shows would have been too expensive as the reason for expanding to 60 min in the first place was that it was cheaper than two 30 min shows.

Interesting that most of the actors who spoke about the 90 min format were dropped during its run.

One of AW's major problems during that time was the cast turnaround.

Instead of keeping the Matthews front and center they were dropped and the majority of cast members were newbies in front burner stories,

I seem to remember reading that M/W/F were Rachel/Mac/Iris days for the most part and despite their "breaks", the three of them were being worked to death. I know Beverlee McKinsey said she was exhausted then let alone two more years on Texas then her GL run. You'll notice that there's more filler in the 90 min eps like a person tidying up a room or preparing a meal in the kitchen before the dialogue gets rolling. I haven't watched my classic AW stuff in a couple years but is that first 90 min. ep the one where Iris and Vivi have the late night chat? I love that scene. "I *detest* hot milk. Just the thought of it makes me nauseous."

Yes it is. That conversation is hilarious, especially as the padding becomes more and more apparent.

<ring>

Vivian: Yeah?

Man: Can I talk to...

Vivian: You are!

Man: May I speak to Mr. Bancroft.

Iris: Hello?

Man: Yes. I need to...

Iris: Who is this?

Man: May I...

Iris: What?

Man: I need to speak to Mr. Bancroft.

Iris: Why?

Man: John Randolph is dead.

Iris: Oh no! John Randolph is dead!

Man: Yes!

Iris: Why?

Man: He...

<click>

Iris: I lost the connection!

Brian: Was that the phone?

Iris: Someone called for you.

Brian: Why?

Iris: They said they had bad news, something about John Randolph is dead!

Brian: John Randolph is dead?

Vivian: Oh no!

Iris: How awful!

Brian: I have to find out why.

<phone rings>

Man: John Randolph is dead! I was trying to call you!

Brian: How? Why? Who? What? When? Where?

Yeah, more characters and stories would have prevented that, lol.

I would have brought back Missy (not sure what Carol Roux was doing by then but they could have recast), that character Doris Belack played (Madge?), Ada's brother Lucas, and other ties to the past, as it seems like AW moving so far away from that by the late 70's is probably what hurt the most. Or bring in some Somerset characters, like Ellen Grant and her daughter. Or India Delaney. Bring back Robert.

Rachel & Mac;s 1st wedding.Victoria Wyndham's father Ralph Camargo played the minister.

Rachel & SteveRachel and husband # 2 Ted Clark

Edited May 16, 201114 yr by Paul Raven