Another World Discussion Thread

[amybrickwallace]

Of course, it would have made more sense for the kid's last name to be Anderson - or for his father to be Ben McKinnon, Jake's cousin.

[AbcNbc247]

I’m guessing somebody didn’t do their homework. That seemed to happen a lot on AW lol 

[John]

yeah or have James Goodwin guest as Kevin. Maybe that would have happened if AW was not canned.

[amybrickwallace]

Or soaps in general, but hey...

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[danfling]

I am so thankful that the theory of Michael Malone's usuage of the 13 Bourbon Street storylines on another show.    I had never heard that before.

I have had the feeling that is what Lee Sheldon did on The Edge of Night.  He had previously produced and written the CBS show Tucker's Witch, and that show was cancelled at midseason.  I beleve that when he was hired to replace Henry Slesar on Edge of Night that he used the plots that had been planned on Tucker's Witch.   The husband played by Tim Mathison  was assumed by Schyler Whitney (the late Larkin Malloy), the witch's/wife's role (played by Catherine Hicks) was assumed by Raven ... (played by Sharon Gabet), the mother-in-law's role (played by BArbara Barrie) was assumed by Geraldine Whitney Saxon (played by the late Lois Kibbee).  There was even a parrot on Tucker's Witch, and Raven and Schyler suddenly had a pet, also.

Back to Michael Malone, his second headwriting tenure on One Life to Live was just awful, and I hated to even watch the show when he was writing it the second time.

I also recall that his inital scenes on One Life to Live were terrible, also.   However, the network hired another writer as co-headwriter, and the storylines were simply wonderful.   Linda Gottlieb was one of the best executive producers in television history.

 

[amybrickwallace]

When was his second stint as HW? The first time, he had not one but two EPs who were in tandem with his ideas - Linda Gottlieb and Susan Bedsow Horgan. Not to mention that all soaps were being hamstrung by now with more network interference.

[Nicholas Blair]

Although I did see some of the post-1980 AW, I saw much more of the show in the late 60s and 70s. I was not a big fan of Harding Lemay, for reasons I can explain at length, although there were some things he did well. AW was the most popular soap where I lived in the 60s. I saw some, though not enough, of the Missy Fargo story which was extremely popular. One of my first soap memories is of one woman asking another what was happening on her story. "Oh, Miz Mac, they've put poor little Missy in jail!"

Carol Roux as the innocent Missy and Audra Lindley as the sociopathic Liz Matthews played Soap Opera Hall of Fame archetypes. Lemay reduced Liz to a harmless busybody; too bad that Irene Dailey didn't get to play the all-out almost-evil almost-crazy Liz Matthews that Audra Lindley and Nancy Wickwire played, and played brilliantly.

Joseph Gallison as Bill Matthews managed to be not only handsome, but not weak and not dumb, as he could easily have seemed, given the manipulations of his mother, who drove orphan Missy away by revealing that Missy was illegitimate. Liz wanted her son to marry the rich Lenore Moore. I don't much recall Judith Barcroft from this era, though I will have more to say about her fine work once she got her own starring role as accused murderer in the Wayne Addison story.

Sam Groom seemed like the ideal older brother. David Bailey would be more male-model handsome as Russ Matthews, but Groom was a much better actor. Viewers would see the young Jacquie Courtney grow up into the biggest romantic heroine on daytime. I think that Shepperd Strudwick may have been playing Jim Matthews then (not sure), and Virginia Dwyer as Mary Matthews looked a good bit like my mother.

The supporting cast had Constance Ford as Ada, Jordan Charney as Sam Lucas, Harry Bellaver as Ernie Downs, Antony Ponzini, a great villain, as Danny Fargo, and Doris Belack as Madge Murray. The stories ran slow by our standards, but this was a strong cast, probably as good as AW ever had. I don't know if this era was mostly written by Irna or Agnes.

[amybrickwallace]

Thanks for that analysis of AW's earliest years. I would have loved to see Carol Roux as Missy. As it is, the only thing I've actually ever seen her in was an episode of Bonanza.

[Nicholas Blair]

Those ingenue roles are much harder to cast than you'd think, given that there are always a lot of young, pretty, aspiring actresses. Carol Roux had that waif-like appearance, sort of like Leslie Caron in LILI. She believably brought out the protective instinct in men like Bill Matthews, and also believably would do the wrong thing for the noble reason. Find out you're illegitimate? Of course you have to flee to another town without telling anyone and fall into the clutches of a no-goodnik like Danny Fargo. Perhaps Missy would seem terribly old-fashioned now, but she was very believable at the time.

The only other really outstanding soap ingenues who come to mind are Alexandra Moltke on DS and Kristen Vigard on GL, though there are probably others.

I think a lot of girls were named Melissa or Missy after Carol Roux's character, including a cousin of mine.

[amybrickwallace]

Set for next week:

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[FrenchBug82]

As a completely unimportant side note, how many facelifts did Linda Dano get?

Someone mentioned earlier that the skylight-fall was intended to "excuse" her being in bandages in 1997 but watching the late 1995 episodes that are being posted on YouTube and those massive unflattering bangs she was wearing then look like they are intended to cover something.

[amybrickwallace]

I don't know how many she's had or if she had one in 1995, but I do remember reading about the 1997 facelift in SOD. It was an article that was taking about the filming of the fall through the skylight.

[Marissa Gallant]

I'm rewatching the entire Mary McKinnon storyline. And I love it so much. I got to her memories returning today. Part of me wishes that Mary and Vince had stayed on the canvas longer. But the other part is happy that they were allowed to go off and live happily ever after.

[j swift]

I always think about the missed opportunities of these plot driven stories that did not take the time to explore the motives of the characters.  Mary was around long enough that we could have gotten one or two scenes about what was broken in the McKinnon's relationship and what attracted her to Reginald.  The portrayal of Reg is just short of Snidley Whiplash, so there is no viable triangle.  Mary never has regrets giving up her way of life in South America, filled with philanthropy, nice clothes, and a full household staff to go live behind a restaurant.  Her refusal to take any money from Reginald is supposed to convey some moral high ground, when in fact not only was she owed half of his fortune, but also payment for the pain and suffering of her family who thought she was dead for years.  At the very least he could have paid for her education. So, while I thought it was fun at the time, in retrospect, I only remember all of the plotholes and missed story beats.

Edited September 17, 2021 by j swift

[amybrickwallace]

Wasn't it Denise Alexander's choice to leave AW? I think I read that she had tired of the bicoastal life.