Another World Discussion Thread

[Soaplovers]

So the reruns of The Doctors just had the writer change from the Pollocks to R. Cenedella.... just curious as to how he fared on Another World (his stint on GL wasn't so good, from what I heart).  I know he came right after Agnes Nixon, right before Harding Lemay.. so I'm curious as to what his style of writing is like.

[Efulton]

I am curious as well.  He seems to have continued on with many of Agnes' sorties and characters.  However, I do think he did longterm damage to the show by killing off Lee Randolph and Bill Matthews.  Those roles could have been recast if the actors did not want to continue or return in the case of Joe Gallison.  Lee and Bill should have been driving story throughout the seventies and had the next generation of Randolph's and Matthews.

[amybrickwallace]

Wasn't he also the creator of Somerset?

[Efulton]

Yes he left Another World to create Somerset.

[watson71]

 

Someone at  NBC liked him- Cenedella wrote AW from 1969-71- created and wrote Somerset in 1970- wrote The Doctors in 1975- and returned to AW in 1982 as a writer under Corrine Jacker.

[amybrickwallace]

I think he was writing both shows at the same time. Then P&G told him to concentrate on the spinoff and he was replaced at AW by Harding Lemay. He was let go shortly thereafter at Somerset. Wasn't he replaced by Henry Slesar?

[watson71]

 

Somerset Headwriters:

 

: Robert Cenedella, March 1970 - December 1970.
Henry Slesar, January 1971 - March 1972.
Henry Slesar and Jane Lyon, April 1972 - May 1973.
Roy Winsor and Robert J. Shaw, May 1973 - April 1974.
Robert J. Shaw and Winifred Wolfe, April 1974 - March 1975.
Don Appell, Doris Frankel, and Frank Salisbury, March 1975 - December 1975.
A.J. Russell and Frank Salisbury, January 1976 - May 1976.
Russell Kubeck, June 1976 - December 1976.

[robbwolff]

According to the Another World Home Page, Cenedella wrote both AW and Somerset from March to December 1970. He continued at AW till he was replaced by Lemay in August 1971. Supposedly, there is a Somerset bible floating around. I would love to see it.

[amybrickwallace]

I can't even imagine writing two soaps at once. Yes, I know there were subwriters to help carry the load, but having to keep track of two different sets of characters and multiple storylines for each seems impossible! 😨

[DRW50]

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[adrnyc]

Thanks so much for sharing that!! Wow - that video takes me back! I couldn't watch it all as I'm currently watching 1989 and it was just too strange to skip ahead like that. If I remember correctly, at this point, the wonderful Sharlene/Sharly story had been used to death and this was just rehashing the same storyline in a very tired manner. I fast forwarded through the rest of it. It was so strange seeing Grayson as Cass' brother. I never liked him in that role although I floved him as Dusty on ATWT. The Matt/Donna pairing I never got - although seeing him in a towel is never a bad thing!  This was the point of AW where I started to fade away. College was over and Swajeski was gone. From my perspective, only having started watching the show in 1987, this was when AW started going downhill. (I know that, for many others, the downhill spiral had started LONG before I even started watching!)

[DeliaIrisFan]

 

I thought Matt and Donna were great together. (That was also just about the only time I had much use for Matt's character, incidentally.) Anna Stuart is a treasure and still imbued Donna with such vitality...she had been through so much and deserved a man who could keep up with her.

 

Watching the reruns on SoapNet many years later, it was clear that Swajeski could tell a story that had momentum and ultimately led somewhere, although Sharlene's personalities was one of many, especially as her tenure went on, that I found too cliche-ridden. The biggest problem with Swajeski, from my perspective, was that she could seemingly manage only one three-dimensional female lead organically growing and evolving as a character at a time (usually she was played by Anne Heche). Nearly everyone else acted solely to move the plot forward.

 

After Swajeski left, there was some lovely, character-driven material for Donna, Rachel, Felicia, etc., who had all foundered under Swajeski. Iris's relationship with Steve Fletcher's character was an attempt at this, and on paper it should have worked because both actors were so talented. However, the show was seemingly so desperate for an engaging narrative that by this point they were dusting off Swajeski's old stories, e.g., Sharly and Evan Bates. I will never understand why Lorraine Broderick, who had more experience than head writer Peggy Sloane, was playing second fiddle to her at this time. I am certain if it were an equal head writing partnership, Broderick would have at least developed some big umbrella story to complement the quieter material some actresses were finally getting to play.

Other than Matt in a towel, about the only good things in this episode were Iris's decanter and creamsicle suit. I remember that outfit...in hindsight, probably a knockoff Chanel, but still fabulous and totally apropos of its time. I hated how this story ended for Iris, and the OJ Simpson trial playing out in real life at the same time only underscored how poorly researched her (fictional) legal troubles were, but on the plus side we got to see more of Iris and her still decadent lifestyle that summer than we had in years.

 

Once Iris was gone that fall, the show started going darker and darker, and Carmen Duncan's Iris being discarded and never heard from again proved to be the canary in the coalmine. Characters/actors over 40 who had been there for any number of years were increasingly treated as disposable over the next five years.

[victoria foxton]

I found Matt & Donna to be a great couple. One of the few highlights from that era. Your right the quality goes downhill after Swajeski left. But sadly things get a lot worse for AW. Once Jill Faren Phelps became EP. I liked Morgan but AW never knew what to do with him. 

[DRW50]

 

I thought the abuse plot felt so grafted onto Sharlene and really made her more generic. A lot of Swajeski's AW felt generic.

[DeliaIrisFan]

 

I don't think the revelation that Sharlene had been abused was generic, per se — I don't know that too many other shows had gone there by that time and, if I'm not mistaken, Sharlene's story was probably the first time the issue of child trafficking was addressed on a soap. But generic is a perfect description of virtually everything that came afterward. Of course, Sharlene's abuse resulted in a split personality, and of course the psychiatrist she visited to treat that became obsessed with Sharlene's husband, and then she was presumed dead when the psychiatrist tried to killer her and the trauma from that resulted in a whole new personality...