Another World Discussion Thread

[j swift]

It's funny, because I share your opinion that CD's Iris is very different, yet, in that scene, wearing a fluffy pink dress, and referring to Mac as "Daddy", it is easy to see them as the same character.  It made me think that CD's Iris become more different from the original over time as writer's felt the need to make her a more contemporary figure.  I tend to focus on the obvious disparities, the accent, the height, and the age, but there are also some overlapping styles of acting and writing that make them seem more alike than I remembered.

I was also reflecting on how masterful it was to have the Jason Frame murder reach a denouement during the anniversary party.  There's am exciting momentum from Felicia's birthday to the anniversary.  Reading the synopsis reminded me that Nicole was wearing the earrings that Derek said he saw on the killer.  They were Vicky's earrings, which was a red herring, that Nicole had borrowed both for Felicia's party and later for the Cory Anniversary.  Others have remarked that there was also some foreshadowing of Nicole's guilt in the weeks leading up to the party.  But, I am always a fan of a writer who can interweave the plots so that there is hardly a moment to breath between events.

Edited January 9, 2023 by j swift

[Jdee43]

I remember watching these episodes back when they were being uploaded on the AOL soap classics channel.

Robert came to town looking to connect with his son, threatening to stir up trouble for Clarice and Larry. But none of that ever happened, and he just left town after a few episodes. It was a strange return. He was mentioned later as being married to Olivia, but he was never on screen at the same time she was; she came on after he left!

Late 1980 was a messy time for Another World. A lot of plots and characters were left up in the air, or made sharp 180s, or were just dropped with no resolution. I think this was a period where they were going through a head writer transition. The only story that was carried to a true resolution and had continuity was the main one with Rachel/Mac/Mitch.

 

Edited January 9, 2023 by Jdee43

[Paul Raven]

There was a strike going on in primetime so Nicolas Coster was available . How and why he was approached/agreed is unclear. AW at that point seemed intent on erasing pretty much anything that occurred even a few years earlier.

[Efulton]

I just started watching The Golden Girls from the beginning.  Brent Collins (Wallingford) guest stars in episode 13 as Rose's new boyfriend.  The episode is hilarious!  I had forgotten just how funny Brent was. 

Edited January 9, 2023 by Efulton

[watson71]

Season 1 Episode 21 of The Golden Girls entitled “The Flu” has a sequence where Dorothy, Blanche, and Rose catch the flu, and argue about what to watch on TV. Blanche wants to watch “the continuing story of Another World” while Dorothy doesn’t.  I wonder if they did that as a nod to when Rue McClanahan was on AW! Clearly someone at The Golden Girls was a fan of AW!

Please register in order to view this content

[denzo30]

No, not that I would think they would pair conversation with Olivia and Robert but why didn't they show conversations with Robert and the Matthews?  All the actors (they acted together with Robert) returned.  There is even a scene where Gwen Frame (Dorothy Lyman) approaches Rachel to talk to her and Russ Matthews is there and no interaction between Russ and Gwen.  They were engaged to be married for crying out loud.. Poor history knowledge or writers not really thinking it was even important???? Guessing the latter as it is limited time for scenes and the storylines, Jason Frames murder, Vicky and Jamie & and Evan and Rachel were more important than the reunion. I was glad to see Dorothy Lyman did play a big part in the anniversary episodes.. Showcasing the return of characters was just a prop to celebrate the anniversary for us viewers who remembered and knew the former 

[AbcNbc247]

True.

As much as I liked the Swajeski era, there were tons of continuity errors. The lack of research into the show's history was beyond obvious 

[denzo30]

Yes it would make no sense to bring Barcroft back if she had no interaction with Costner.  The idea was really to bring back Susan Sullivan as Lenore, as Nick had agreed to come back as Robert but she declined due to other obligations.  It would have been interesting to see how things would have gone had she did and the interaction between Iris and Robert but I suspect this was also prior to Doug Watson passing away.  I am also thinking maybe they possibly did intend on bringing Clarice back (makes sense since she was one of the longest running characters on the show and big part of the history) but they decided to use her in the coming weeks to come back for Macs funeral.  Gail Brown and Richard Porter (Larry and Clarice) came back to the show in June for the services.  Bev Penberthy did reprise her role in the anniversary but very little dialogue and not much interaction with the other characters.  I would have even thought since George Reinholt came back as Steve Frame they would have done some ghost like scene with Jacquline Courtney (Alice) but they made it all about Rachel.  Again, makes sense these characters are just guests and the shows focus was just on the current day to day actors.

[Paul Raven]

Wasn't Gwen given dialogue originally written for Willis? Gwen was nothing like the original character.

Not to reunite Alice and Steve in someway was ridiculous. Give Alice a fantasy sequence where she reunites with Steve.

And if you're going to bring back core characters like Pat then give them some meaningful scenes, otherwise don't bother.

[DRW50]

https://deadline.com/2023/01/ben-masters-dies-passions-julian-crane-1235218638/

This must be the fourth or fifth AW actor from 80-82 to pass away in the past year.

I can't say I have seen most of the Jamie movie story.

[j swift]

I've always had a problem with the troupe of long lost children of soap tycoons becoming suddenly wealthy, even though they weren't in their father's will, because legally just being someone's child doesn't give you the rights of inheritance if there is an estate plan, and only people named in a will can contest it while it is in probate.

However, I recently thought about another issue that is especially illogical.  Paulina learned that she was sired by Mac after his death.  Yet, somehow she began calling herself Paulina Cory.  Now, Mac could not have adopted Paulina, and I doubt Rachel would have supported a court ordered name change at the time that Paulina discovered her paternity.  So how could she have that surname?

Similarly, Dennis found out that Alex, not Elliott, was his father when he was in his 20s.  Now, it made sense that Iris would carry on the Wheeler name because she was Alex's widow.  And, I guess, from a writer's point of view they wanted to establish the connection between mother and son when Dennis returned in 1991.  However, Alex wouldn't have had time to adopt Dennis before he died and Dennis grew up with the last name of Carrington.  So, why would he suddenly be a Wheeler?

I am willing to accept that Marley and Vicky changed their names from Love to Hudson in order to honor Michael (even though Marley had already been married when she changed her name), but this Dennis and Paulina thing really annoys me (even though it is thirty years later).

Edited January 13, 2023 by j swift

[j swift]

It's one of those good/idea bad execution stories.

The idea of Jamie being an author because Mac owns a publishing company and Rachel was also in the creative field made sense.  The fact that the book was a roman a clef that embarrassed some of his relatives was interesting.  But, the contrivances of having the movie adaptation film in Bay City, and the similarities to the Mansion of the Damned story on Edge of Night, were ludicrous. 

Edited January 13, 2023 by j swift

[victoria foxton]

.

Edited January 13, 2023 by victoria foxton

[Xanthe]

If the will stipulates that the inheritance should be split among all of the children they don't need to be named. In some cases also I think the legitimate heirs simply decide to allocate something to the newly-discovered relative which they can do as they see fit. For example when Marley learned about Victoria she voluntarily offered to split her trust fund which had been set up by their grandfather. 

[AbcNbc247]

Too bad he was never asked about his time on AW.

I’d love to know what happened BTS, that prompted people to realize how lousy the show was at this time. And led to Ben’s and so many actors’ exits.