Thanks for sharing that! From the synopses on the AWHP site, the day Rachel spoke with Iris, she and Matthew decided to go to Northwestern to see what they could learn. A week later, the synopses say Matt came back with Matt's records that showed he didn't graduate from Northwestern. 

5 hours ago, Mona Kane Croft said:

Donna Swajeski didn't seem to have much respect for what previous writers had brought to the show.  

Yeah.

As much I liked that era, the continuity mistakes and the rewrites of history were insane. 

Hadn't Swajeski been at NBC for years before she took over at AW? She had to have known some of the history. Swajeski's writing always felt made up on the spot as if she came up with a great scene or plot point and then wrote everything to lead up to that scene/plot point. There was rarely follow through. 

Does anyone here remember watching Judith Barcroft when she was playing Lenore Moore Curtain?  How did her portrayal of Lenore differ from Susan Sullivan's take on the role?  I watched for most of Sullivan's time on AW, but saw Barcroft playing Lenore in only a few scenes.   Can anyone compare or contrast the ways the two women portrayed the character?   Thank you.    

4 minutes ago, chrisml said:

Hadn't Swajeski been at NBC for years before she took over at AW? She had to have known some of the history. Swajeski's writing always felt made up on the spot as if she came up with a great scene or plot point and then wrote everything to lead up to that scene/plot point. There was rarely follow through. 

Before she became a writer she was the Director of the East Coast Daytime Programs for NBC. Is that what you mean? I don't have any idea how much she'd have known about the ins & outs of any specific show. If I were to guess I would think she'd have times when she knew quite a bit about something that was going on & other times, not a clue. 

Also many people believe she cherry-picked a Pete Lemay outline. FWIW. 

It is irritating when new headwriters come to a show and don't bother to research past characters/stories. 

They are always actors and backstage staff who have been around for years that could be consulted.

And if they do reference the past quite often things are changed and go against what has previously happened.

6 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

It is irritating when new headwriters come to a show and don't bother to research past characters/stories. 

They are always actors and backstage staff who have been around for years that could be consulted.

And if they do reference the past quite often things are changed and go against what has previously happened.

And what you describe has happened over & over on so many shows.  It's disheartening. And, every show has written history & character profiles, and family trees! 

7 hours ago, robbwolff said:

A week later, the synopses say Matt came back with Matt's records that showed he didn't graduate from Northwestern. 

I swear I remember a conversation where Iris mentioned that Mac had gone to Dartmouth!

16 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

It is irritating when new headwriters come to a show and don't bother to research past characters/stories. 

They are always actors and backstage staff who have been around for years that could be consulted.

And if they do reference the past quite often things are changed and go against what has previously happened.

When you think of the sheer amount of information that must have been generated about soap characters and settings production should be keeping records for reference. New writers shouldn't have to rely on actors and crew to fill in those gaps. If they ignore known history or don't bother to look it up I blame the writer but if the show didn't capture a specific piece of info that's on production. 

12 hours ago, China Jones said:

I swear I remember a conversation where Iris mentioned that Mac had gone to Dartmouth!

New Iris or old Iris?

Possibly defensible if we argue that Dartmouth was where he did his undergrad and Northwestern where he went for graduate school? 

Of course even though Adam attended Mac's funeral no one ever suggested asking his father and Mac's  brother Alfred for details of Mac's early life that I recall.

19 hours ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

Also many people believe she cherry-picked a Pete Lemay outline. FWIW. 

I do wish that Lemay’s bible/outline from this time would show up online.  Clearly his bible did not have Mac Cory dying.  I’m curious how he planned to reunite Mac and Iris.

3 minutes ago, watson71 said:

I do wish that Lemay’s bible/outline from this time would show up online.  Clearly his bible did not have Mac Cory dying.  I’m curious how he planned to reunite Mac and Iris.

Does anyone know where his papers are? 

18 minutes ago, Xanthe said:

Of course even though Adam attended Mac's funeral no one ever suggested asking his father and Mac's  brother Alfred for details of Mac's early life that I recall.

Alfred and his wife, Vivian, appeared briefly at the start of 1987, as Neal and Adam’s parents. Alfred was portrayed by Forrest Compton who was Mike Karr on Edge of Night.  At the same time, Ann Flood, was on AW as a Cory publishing employee, Rose Livingstone, who was flirting with Mac.  She played Mike Karr’s wife, Nancy, on Edge of Night. Were TPTB testing the waters to see the audience’s reaction to the characters to see if any Edge of Night fans would notice?  By February, these characters were dropped and the Sin Stalker story was dominating AW.

The Sin Stalker storyline was the best!!! That was back when you literally had to tune in every day to see what happened next. Killing off Maisie and Quinn meant that ANYONE could be killed. It was riveting to my teenage self. Every Friday when he attacked someone, I never knew if they were going to survive or not. And actually having Crystal Gayle on the show and being attacked. My little gay boy self watched those episodes over and over and over. 

I never enjoy serial killer storylines where they just kill inconsequential characters on the periphery. In order for the storyline to have any weight means you have to kill off at least one major character and a beloved supporting character. Otherwise, it's just a waste of time.

The Anniversary event, more actors have confirmed: 

Janis Young

Christopher Marcantel

Cali Timmons Pierson

Geoffrey Pierson

Marcia McCabe

Alicia Coppola

It’s interesting going back and reading articles from the time the show was canceled. 

This article has some interesting tidbits from Wyndham, Keating and Dano. But former head of NBC Daytime, Susan Lee, comes off as a real insensitive b!tch:

It’s the End of the ‘World’ As They Know It on NBC

“We wanted to bring in the next generation,” says Susan Lee, senior vice president of daytime programming at NBC. “The show was skewing old and if you don’t continue to build your young audience you will have no audience. When you are 25, you don’t relate to a 50-year-old’s love story. There’s a lot of stuff that went down in our research that I wouldn’t tell the people on ‘Another World’ because it would be too painful for them.”

Edited February 7, 20241 yr by BetterForgotten