4 hours ago, Tisy-Lish said:

Comparing Nixon's writing for Liz with her writing for Phoebe -- Phoebe was like Liz on steroids. Everything about Phoebe was bigger and more over the top than Liz. Often to the point of being unbelievable. Liz was more grounded in reality, but I do see many similarities and parallels. Even similar plots. Not to mention, Phoebe was an alcoholic (Liz was not), which added a clear difference between the two characters.

Amazing post

3 hours ago, Xanthe said:

I wonder if that had anything to do with timing -- would Liz also have become an alcoholic if Agnes Nixon had known a specific alcoholic when she was writing the storyline?

I found this (obviously more about OLTL and AMC):

“I did recognize a few things,” says Nixon’s daughter Mary Hiltbrand, today an artist in Gladwyne. “I got sober, and when I got sober, a lot of the characters started getting sober. Erica went to rehab after I did.” “My brother had an illness that she gave to one of her characters,” adds Cathy Chicos, Nixon’s eldest daughter, who also lives in Gladwyne. “I’m sure there were others.”

https://www.phillymag.com/news/2007/06/08/legends-the-original-desperate-housewife/

Amazing find!

A nice achievement to see the thread has reached 1,000 pages. I'm forever saddened that almost all of what was apparently AW's best is gone, never to be seen again, but I've been fascinated by AW ever since I started reading AWHP in the mid '90s, which has only deepened with seeing more episodes, reading fan commentaries, realizing how groundbreaking the show was from the Rachel/Steve/Alice days to the found family days of the '80s and '90s, and marveling at just how many times AW managed to survive periods that shouldn't have been survived. I'm so glad I've been able to spend the last 15 years on here reading so many precious fan memories of moments I'll likely never see for myself.

1 hour ago, DRW50 said:

A nice achievement to see the thread has reached 1,000 pages. I'm forever saddened that almost all of what was apparently AW's best is gone, never to be seen again, but I've been fascinated by AW ever since I started reading AWHP in the mid '90s, which has only deepened with seeing more episodes, reading fan commentaries, realizing how groundbreaking the show was from the Rachel/Steve/Alice days to the found family days of the '80s and '90s, and marveling at just how many times AW managed to survive periods that shouldn't have been survived. I'm so glad I've been able to spend the last 15 years on here reading so many precious fan memories of moments I'll likely never see for myself.

Fun fact: This thread was my first introduction to SON 😂

NYACK, N. Y., WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1969

Another recent cast change on “Another World" brought in Hugh Marlowe to take over the role of Jim Matthews. He succeeded Shepperd Strudwick, who withdrew to appear in the Arthur Miller drama, "The Price,” first on Broadway, then London and now on tour.

Always interesting to know the reason for a recast.

3 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

NYACK, N. Y., WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1969

Another recent cast change on “Another World" brought in Hugh Marlowe to take over the role of Jim Matthews. He succeeded Shepperd Strudwick, who withdrew to appear in the Arthur Miller drama, "The Price,” first on Broadway, then London and now on tour.

Always interesting to know the reason for a recast.

This sent me to the ibdb to look at Strudwick's Broadway credits. I had not realised that he played George in the matinee performances of the original production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf in 1962.

He also has a couple of other credits during his tenure on AW but obviously performing in NY while remaining on the soap is different from going on tour.

Sun May 11 1986

New team hopes to revive ‘Another World’ By Connie Passalacqua

United Features Syndicate

During the last few years, NBC’s “Another World," which was the No. 1 daytime soap throughout the 1970s, has gone into a serious ratings decline. A usually good cast has not been able to make up for story lines that have grown increasingly diffuse and worse, have grown tired and repetitive. To revive “AW,” NBC and Procter & Gamble recently hired two daytime television heavyweights, executive producer John Whitesell and head writer Margaret De Priest.

Whitesell, 33, got lots of publicity recently during his brief stint at the helm of “Search for Tomorrow” when he orchestrated the flood that was supposed to destroy Henderson and save the show. But it’s De Priest who has a longer and a more impressive record on various daytime shows. She first got involved in soaps in the early ’60s as an actress and later as a writer on “Edge of Night,” and later went on to write for “One Life to Live” and be the bead writer for “The Doctors.” Most important, she was on the headwriting team of “General Hospital” during the early 1980s when the Luke and Laura romance made the show a national cult. She also created another cult couple, Bo and Hope Brady of “Days of Our Lives,” • whose action-adventure-styled romance revived the show’s popularity.

De Priest says she has specific goals in improving “AW.” “I intend to bring a solid focus to the show,” she says. “The audience will be able to say in one sentence or see in one key scene what ‘AW’ is all about. And I intend to give each character a clear point of view. Out of these strong points of view come confrontation and conflict.” She also plans to sharpen the class conflicts between the show's three central families. “We’re going to do a classic drama in the vein of Sinclair Lewis — with all the wealthy Loves on one side of the spectrum, the blue-collar Mackinnons on the other and the wealthy but socially conscious Corys in between,” she says. De Priest also will introduce new characters including a Love family patriarch and younger brother and sister Mackinnons “The stories on *AW’ will have more surprising twists and turns,” De Priest promises.“We’ll do away with the Friday cliffhanger. I want to throw audiences off balance.”

During the next few months, De Priest will throw obstacles into the paths of three couples who are planning to wed or rewed — Sally and Catlin Ewing (Taylor Miller and Thomas Ian Griffith), Kathleen Mackinnon and Cass Winthrop (Stephen Schnetzer and Julie Osburn) and Marley Love and Jake Mackinnon (Ellen Wheeler and Tom Eplin)

Edited June 13Jun 13 by Paul Raven

2 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

Sun May 11 1996

New team hopes to revive ‘Another World’ By Connie Passalacqua

United Features Syndicate

During the last few years, NBC’s “Another World," which was the No. 1 daytime soap throughout the 1970s, has gone into a serious ratings decline. A usually good cast has not been able to make up for story lines that have grown increasingly diffuse and worse, have grown tired and repetitive. To revive “AW,” NBC and Procter & Gamble recently hired two daytime television heavyweights, executive producer John Whitesell and head writer Margaret De Priest.

Whitesell, 33, got lots of publicity recently during his brief stint at the helm of “Search for Tomorrow” when he orchestrated the flood that was supposed to destroy Henderson and save the show. But it’s De Priest who has a longer and a more impressive record on various daytime shows. She first got involved in soaps in the early ’60s as an actress and later as a writer on “Edge of Night,” and later went on to write for “One Life to Live” and be the bead writer for “The Doctors.” Most important, she was on the headwriting team of “General Hospital” during the early 1980s when the Luke and Laura romance made the show a national cult. She also created another cult couple, Bo and Hope Brady of “Days of Our Lives,” • whose action-adventure-styled romance revived the show’s popularity.

De Priest says she has specific goals in improving “AW.” “I intend to bring a solid focus to the show,” she says. “The audience will be able to say in one sentence or see in one key scene what ‘AW’ is all about. And I intend to give each character a clear point of view. Out of these strong points of view come confrontation and conflict.” She also plans to sharpen the class conflicts between the show's three central families. “We’re going to do a classic drama in the vein of Sinclair Lewis — with all the wealthy Loves on one side of the spectrum, the blue-collar Mackinnons on the other and the wealthy but socially conscious Corys in between,” she says. De Priest also will introduce new characters including a Love family patriarch and younger brother and sister Mackinnons “The stories on *AW’ will have more surprising twists and turns,” De Priest promises.“We’ll do away with the Friday cliffhanger. I want to throw audiences off balance.”

During the next few months, De Priest will throw obstacles into the paths of three couples who are planning to wed or rewed — Sally and Catlin Ewing (Taylor Miller and Thomas Ian Griffith), Kathleen Mackinnon and Cass Winthrop (Stephen Schnetzer and Julie Osburn) and Marley Love and Jake Mackinnon (Ellen Wheeler and Tom Eplin)

What DePriest actually did was gut the show to the point it never truly felt like Another World again.

5 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Sun May 11 1996

New team hopes to revive ‘Another World’ By Connie Passalacqua

United Features Syndicate

During the last few years, NBC’s “Another World," which was the No. 1 daytime soap throughout the 1970s, has gone into a serious ratings decline. A usually good cast has not been able to make up for story lines that have grown increasingly diffuse and worse, have grown tired and repetitive. To revive “AW,” NBC and Procter & Gamble recently hired two daytime television heavyweights, executive producer John Whitesell and head writer Margaret De Priest.

Whitesell, 33, got lots of publicity recently during his brief stint at the helm of “Search for Tomorrow” when he orchestrated the flood that was supposed to destroy Henderson and save the show. But it’s De Priest who has a longer and a more impressive record on various daytime shows. She first got involved in soaps in the early ’60s as an actress and later as a writer on “Edge of Night,” and later went on to write for “One Life to Live” and be the bead writer for “The Doctors.” Most important, she was on the headwriting team of “General Hospital” during the early 1980s when the Luke and Laura romance made the show a national cult. She also created another cult couple, Bo and Hope Brady of “Days of Our Lives,” • whose action-adventure-styled romance revived the show’s popularity.

De Priest says she has specific goals in improving “AW.” “I intend to bring a solid focus to the show,” she says. “The audience will be able to say in one sentence or see in one key scene what ‘AW’ is all about. And I intend to give each character a clear point of view. Out of these strong points of view come confrontation and conflict.” She also plans to sharpen the class conflicts between the show's three central families. “We’re going to do a classic drama in the vein of Sinclair Lewis — with all the wealthy Loves on one side of the spectrum, the blue-collar Mackinnons on the other and the wealthy but socially conscious Corys in between,” she says. De Priest also will introduce new characters including a Love family patriarch and younger brother and sister Mackinnons “The stories on *AW’ will have more surprising twists and turns,” De Priest promises.“We’ll do away with the Friday cliffhanger. I want to throw audiences off balance.”

During the next few months, De Priest will throw obstacles into the paths of three couples who are planning to wed or rewed — Sally and Catlin Ewing (Taylor Miller and Thomas Ian Griffith), Kathleen Mackinnon and Cass Winthrop (Stephen Schnetzer and Julie Osburn) and Marley Love and Jake Mackinnon (Ellen Wheeler and Tom Eplin)

Based on the date I expected this to be from Depriest's second stint in 1996 but it must be a typo since the whole Cory/Love/McKinnon focus was from her first stint in 1986.

I listened to the Sheri Anderson interview posted in another thread. She doesn't really talk about AW where she was briefly HW after Depriest in 1988, but about 54 minutes in she does mention Brad Pitt and his brief role on AW in 1987. Apparently he had been renting Thom Racina's basement and delivering scripts for Days of Our Lives. She mentions Matt Crane's name which made me wonder whether she was saying Brad had auditioned to play Matthew but it wasn't clear to me.

1 minute ago, Xanthe said:

Based on the date I expected this to be from Depriest's second stint in 1996 but it must be a typo since the whole Cory/Love/McKinnon focus was from her first stint in 1986.

I amended that .Sorry for any confusion.

7 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

I amended that .Sorry for any confusion.

Thanks! I was thinking that Depriest was heavily promoted in 1986 but not so much in 1996. Upon reflection I suspect that might just be that they promoted Depriest as HW in 1986 but in 1996 the driver of change who was going to right the show was Jill Farren Phelps.

6 hours ago, Efulton said:

What DePriest actually did was gut the show to the point it never truly felt like Another World again.

When she got to AW in 1986, the show was pretty much gutted as it was so she had to rebuild it.. and some of her ideas that she started actually worked.

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.

2 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

When she got to AW in 1986, the show was pretty much gutted as it was so she had to rebuild it.. and some of her ideas that she started actually worked.

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.

1 hour 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.

100% factual!!