Another World Discussion Thread

[DeliaIrisFan]

Oh, Anne came into her own during that time, for sure, including in her scenes as Marley.  But I was rooting for Vicky, and at that point especially she was the twin I would have wanted any child starting out in this world to take after.

 

Fair.  Also, it is a cool name, whatever one may think of the character.  (Was the origin of Marley's name ever explained on character?  My best guess is Reginald wanted a boy who would be as evil as Jacob Marley from A Christmas Carol had allegedly been.)

Edited December 18, 2022 by DeliaIrisFan

[j swift]

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[DRW50]

The odd part is there's a little boy on Shortland Street now named Marley, so the name has more resonance than I realized today (that show is set in New Zealand, although I guess some writer could still be a huge AW fan...).

[Xanthe]

Not that I recall. I don't think it even came up whether Reginald or Donna had named the baby. I assume the Carsons named Victoria.

Bob Marley probably has more global cultural resonance.

[DRW50]

Robert Gentry is the third actor from AW's 79/80 period to pass away this year (Ray Liotta and Kevin Conroy being the others). It's going to be strange going back to rewatch any of that era. 

I wish I could see the material where he wooed and then dumped Cecile. A story that had massive ramifications for AW's next decade. 

[AbcNbc247]

Well, Richard Culliton created Marley, so he might remember why he chose that name

Me to. 

I'm sure some of the episodes still exist. So many clips from that time were edited to show only Mac and Rachel, so the full episodes must be out there somewhere.

[DRW50]

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[Melroser]

Really wishing I could watch a Cory family Christmas today with one of Mac's toasts at the end. 

Personally, I've never been big on Christmas, but I've do enjoy a happy soap episode with family. Helps break up the back from the deads, evil twins, improper affairs, etc which I absolutely love on any other day. haha. 

[AbcNbc247]

I think some of them are uploaded to YouTube 

[Melroser]

Yes, thank you. I really meant a new one. If only "Mac" was still around...

[Paul Raven]

Honolulu Star-Bulletin Honolulu, Hawaii 11 Mar 1970

Can an Oversexed Neurotic Find Happiness? The Most Hated Woman on Television By Norman Mark Chicago

Mrs. Rachel Matthews (nee Davis) is the most hated character on day-time television. Monday through Friday millions of women watch NBC's "Another World" just to hiss every time Rachel appears. The housewives absolutely loathe this cute little brunette. Ask any woman who has watched "Another World" over the last two and a half years and invariably she will turn purple at the mere mention of Rachel.

 

Intrigued by these demonstrations of passion, I called Robin Strasser, the actress who plays Rachel, to find out why her TV character is the object of such scorn. Her explanation was quite long and complex, befitting a soap-opera heroine. But as near as I can figure them out these are the sins of Rachel: About two and a half years ago she appeared as the first lower-class person to integrate an essentially middle-class soap opera. Her father had a prison record and her mother was a hair dresser. Rachel began as a tacky department store model who wooed and won nice young Dr. Russ Matthews, whose aunt is the richest woman in town. Rachel did not and perhaps still does not love the poor schlepp, who has been off at a medical convention for the last several months. (Actually the actor who portrays Rachel's husband is making a movie). Well, Sir, This little Jezebel, who probably fooled around plenty before she met Russ, wouldn't let this gentle, sweet intern touch her until after they were married (and sometimes not even then but more of that later). Russ, good husband that he is, set up housekeeping in his parents home and designed a frugal existence for his bride, who had dreams of living in a grand style. Rachel immediately plotted to take over Russ' sister's large bedroom, eventually forcing poor Alice, the sister, to move to a smaller room. When Rachel got pregnant for the first time, she went into hysterics because she didn't want the baby. ("Actually they kept playing the tape of me in a hysterical coma for 10 weeks," Miss Strasser says, "while my husband and I were on a Caribbean vacation.")

 

After her miscarriage, this little minx, this harlot, had a one-night affair with Stephen Frame, Alice's millionaire fiance. As luck would have it, Rachel got pregnant again and only then admitted husband Russ to her bedroom after months of sexual drought. But she told Alice that  Frame was really tne guy who had done her wrong, causing Alice to break her engagement with Frame. This ruined Alice, who has been staring morosely into the TV cameras for about a year now. (Actually, the script writers had to rush Rachel into pregnancy, quickly creating the one-night stand with Stephen Frame, because Miss Strasser herself had become pregnant and was running out of dress styles that could hide this fact.

 

Miss Strasser, you see, is married to Laurence Luckinbill, who once was Frank Carver on CBS' "Secret Storm." It seems that Rachel is really misunderstood. What is wrong with a lady recoiling from motherhood, hating her son, loathing her mother and father, despising her husband and all his relatives and detesting her role as a housewife. Can't an oversexed little flirt find happiness? (I haven't even told you about Lahoma, Rachel's young aunt by marriage who had a wild affair while she was married and once stripped in the living room of a man's apartment right there before the all-seeing network TV cameras. Her story is even wilder than Rachel's. But Lahoma seems happy now, although we're watching her carefully.)

Miss Strasser, who seems to be terribly bright and just plain nice over the telephone, reports regretfully that hatred for her character is slopping over into her personal life. People meet her in the street and simply can't believe that she won't steal their fiance or curse their relative, For  the record Miss Strasser . has been happily married for three years, loves her husband, his relatives and her child. She is a graduate of the New York High School of the Performing Arts, is a veteran of the American Conservatory Theater and, after five years of starving, has found regular pay days via "Another World." Miss Strasser is convinced that Rachel is a neurotic who alternates between hating and "coochy-cooing" her husband because of deeper, unrevealed mental problems. Unless you can convince me otherwise, I agree with Miss Strasser. Rachel Matthews is just a little misun derstood nut. Perhaps if all the fans of "Another World" would aim a big, concentrated love beam each day at Rachel, she may soften and change. For if we can learn to love Rachel hubby-hater, mommy-maligner, kiddie crusher that she is perhaps we will all be a little better for trying. Then again, perhaps we will not.

[victoria foxton]

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This episode felt generic, dry and bland to me. Still a serviceable watch. Before AW really went off the rails. Bittersweet to see the late Robyn Griggs as Maggie. (The best Maggie before AW character assassinated Maggie.)

Edited December 30, 2022 by victoria foxton

[antmunoz]

Well, I certainly need to hear more about Lahoma’s adulterous stripping!

[victoria foxton]

 

  

[j swift]

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Does anyone recall the context of this scene?

I know Robert returned for the Cory Anniversary party in 1989, but what did he do for Iris to cause this reaction?

Carmen Duncan is really captivating in this scene (even in that ridiculous dress).  And 34 years later Robert Delaney's still got "it" in that white dinner jacket.