Another World Discussion Thread

[vetsoapfan]

 

Upon its debut in 1964, AW failed to blossom under Irna Phillips and William J. Bell,. (Surprising at that is, considering the pedigree of those scribes.) James Lipton, who replaced them, was tepid. It wasn't until Agnes Nixon assumed the reigns in 1966 that the soap truly  showed its potential and began to soar. In 1975, as the show went to an hour, I felt there was a marked deterioration in the writing, and terrible BTS decisions were made that badly damaged the core of the series.

 

 

Yep.

 

Agnes Nixon's almost-instant rejuvenating of AW was as impressive as Douglas Marland's miraculous cure for GH's woes when he took over that soap.

[Khan]

 

As a fan of Nixon's work, I wish more of her AW material was available online.  Those few, terribly grainy clips on YT simply aren't enough.

[vetsoapfan]

 

ITA, although I do realize that we are lucky to get anything at all from those years.

 

You should get your hands on all the audio only CD recordings of AW, which have a huge number of great scenes from the 1960s and early '70s. They are a treasure!

 

 

[Khan]

Frankly, I've tried listening to some of those audio-only recordings (not of AW, but of other soaps) and...I dunno...I hate not seeing the actors' faces and body language.  BITD, when directors actually had time to work with the actors, the facial and physical gestures seemed to be a key component to the storytelling.  More often than not, they told us what the characters were really thinking and not saying.

Edited June 7, 2019 by Khan

[vetsoapfan]

 

I grew up listening to radio dramas, so the audio-only component of listening to old soaps does not bother me. Besides, I had seen the episodes when they originally aired, so I could visualize the actors' faces, the sets, etc., anyway. It might very well be a vastly different experience for anyone else.

[Bill Bauer]

 

 

I agree about Lipton’s run. Thankfully, it was very short. I actually liked Irna’s writing in the first year, however. Even though the stories were a retread of stories she had already done on GL and ATWT. 

[BetterForgotten]

Perhaps Irna should have thought about another setting - how many towns supposedly based in Illinois can you write about without retreading somewhat? I guess she had intended for AW to be an even stronger companion show to ATWT, but when CBS couldn't find room on its daytime schedule for it, she had to tone those ties down a bit. I wonder how much that hindered her initial development of the show. 

 

Didn't Agnes juggle writing for GL and AW for about a year, and then she also juggled writing for AW when her own creation (OLTL) also debuted? Credit to her for juggling multiple shows at once and keeping the quality in-tact on all of them. 

[jam6242]

From 1969.

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From 1974.

 

[vetsoapfan]

 

Originally, Irna's soaps were set in a few different states, but TPTB just transferred them all to Illinois later on. TGL was originally set in Five Points, Illinois, but then moved to Selby Flats, California. When the show mysteriously began referring to its town as Springfield, it was only said to be in the mid-west. (So maybe Illinois again, maybe not.) On ATWT, the Hughes family originally lived in Ohio. Another World's Bay City and its spin-off Somerset were in Michigan. They mentioned this ON-AIR, so someone at P&G should have made a note of it, LOL.

 

I think as the years went on, producers and writers at  P&G and the networks were too lazy to research their own shows, and all sorts of continuity errors cropped up.

[NothinButAttitude]

 

But I do think it is funny though that there are truly a Bay City, IL, Springfield, IL, and Oakdale, IL. I do have to commend P&G for the continuity error too b/c it did somewhat tie all their shows together, and made it easier for crossovers. I only wish that they were all on the same network. It would've been interesting to see AW and ATWT truly be sister soaps like Agnes intended.

 

Didn't she also intend for the Hughes and Matthews to be old family friends? 

 

Speaking of other P&G soaps, were we to also believe that Monticello (EON) and Henderson (SFT) were based in Illinois too? 

[BetterForgotten]

Were Monticello and Henderson ever mentioned on GL, ATWT, or AW? I know The Brighter Day is the other soap that exists in that Irna Phillips universe. 

[danfling]

also:  Our Private World, For Richer/For Poorer; Lovers and Friends, and Texas.

 

 

 

Andre de Shields, who appeared on Another World as Marshall Lincoln Kramer, III #2  in 1995 through 1996, won a Tony award tonight for Leading Actor in a Musical.  He is in the cast of Hadestown.

Edited June 10, 2019 by danfling

[NothinButAttitude]

 

If I am NOT mistaken, I am pretty sure that Springfield was mentioned on EON. Wasn't it around the Draper was with amnesia? I am pretty sure I remember seeing it mentioned while watching that arc on YT.

[victoria foxton]

EON used to mention Oakdale a lot.

[NothinButAttitude]

 

It might've been Oakdale then. I just know another P&G city was mentioned on the show. 

 

I'd go as far as tying Y&R and B&B to this realm too seeing as YR and ATWT had the crossover before ATWT got cancelled.