Another World Discussion Thread

[Xanthe]

There seem to have been a lot of trials in 1994, but the combination of child custody and Menudo suggests that this part must have been in relation to Tomas fighting to keep custody of Luisa. (But Diego Serrano was never in Menudo as far as I am aware, that seems to be a misapprehension.)

[slick jones]

Mike McGavin says the character's name is Viaga. I was guessing The Agar from the clip.

[Xanthe]

Still thinking about Michael and Iris. I don't know that we have ever really been sure when Michael and Iris were supposed to have known each other or whether their relative ages and stations in life make any sense at any point. I see that the AWHP places their offscreen affair in 1985, so not long before Michael showed up for the first time and definitely post-Texas.

Did Michael have any kind of relationship with Dennis and was that acknowledged when Dennis was with Marley? 

 

[Paul Raven]

TV GUIDE SEPTEMBER 17, 1966

Every afternoon, these actresses captivate the audience—and delight themselves—with the most harrowing neuroses

“I have a psychological problem,’ says Jacquie Courtney. “I love my boy friend. But if he comes near me, to kiss me or touch me or something, I freeze an -

“I wanted to commit suicide,” says Gaye Huston. “My father married a woman he had defended in a murder trial. I got upset and jealous. I caused an automobile accident. My father is crippled and it was my fault... .”

“I was schizophrenic,” says Carol Roux. “It took two years for me to get normal, then I fell in love. I was just going to get married when I discovered I was illegitimate. I went insane again... .”

“I had an abortion,’ says Susan Trustman. “I was filled with guilt. I heard babies screaming. Then I found out I was sterile. I shot the man dead. I didn’t remember it. I was tried for murder... .”

This torrent of neurotic confession comes from the lips of four young actresses—the younger generation of an NBC soap opera called Another World—whose assorted mental ailments are captivating the daytime audience these days. |

In real life, of course, the young ladies are not teetering on the edge of insanity. What’s more, they are not a bit typical of “The Younger Generation.” They are representatives of a very specialized breed: up-and coming young actresses who are enjoying the fruits of early success.

Despite personality differences— Carol is fragile and shy, Gaye calm and controlled, Jacquie wide-eyed and raucous, and Susan articulate and ironic—they have a _ remarkable amount in common.

They all chose their careers early in childhood. “I decided to be an actress at about 9,” says Carol Roux, who is now 20. “But I didn’t tell anyone, I was afraid they’d laugh.” Born in Los Angeles, orphaned, and adopted by a publisher and his wife, Carol enrolled in high school drama classes. “I did ‘Anne Frank’ and I knew for sure,” she says. She persuaded her parents to let her audition for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, was accepted, and moved to the East Coast. “A week after I got out of school I got this job,” she says.

Susan Trustman, 26, daughter of a New York high school teacher, reports: “As a little kid I was shy and retiring. My mother used to drag me to a little dramatic school to get over my shyness. Well, it never got me over my shyness, but it made me decide to be an actress.” She went to the New York School of Music and Art, then studied acting at Carnegie Tech, did summer stock and repertory work for several years, appeared briefly in a Broadway play and was hired by Another World.

Jacquie Courtney, 19, daughter of a Westinghouse research engineer from East Orange, N.J., launched her career at age 4. “I took dancing lessons. My teacher put me. on a TV show. singing and dancing. I had Shirley” Temple curls. I sang ‘The Good Ship Lollipop.” That started me in show business.” By 9 she was doing commercials and at about 13 she appeared on The U.S. Steel Hour with Patty Duke. “That’s when I really got popular. I did an unbelievable amount of commercials between 13 and 16, and I appeared on Armstrong Circle Theatre, Route 66, Edge of Night, The Doctors and Our Five Daughters. Then came this show.”

And Gaye Huston, 21, the Kentucky born child of a theatrical family (her father is a vice president of Video Pictures Inc., her mother is actress Marcella Martin, her brother is actor Martin Huston), started in show business at 6, when she appeared on Your Show of Shows with Imogene Coca and Sid Caesar. “It worked for me,” she says. “After that I did all sorts of live shows—Studio One, Armstrong, Kraft, Lux and several daytime serials.” She went to Northwestern University for two years but left school to return to work. She was signed up shortly thereafter for Another World.

Without exception all four young ladies enjoy their work on this series—at least that part of it which allows them to portray assorted forms of human agony. In fact, their devotion to psychological abnormality amounts to a collective passion.

‘I love to play neurotics,” says Jacquie Courtney, her eyes glittering excitedly. “It’s really dramatic, these psychological things. During my big crisis with my boy friend I cried hysterically. I loved it. I just love neurosis.”

So do Gaye Huston and Carol Roux. ‘I love playing this disagreeable character,” says Gaye. “I’ve never been a heavy before.”

“It’s wonderful,” says Carol. “By the time I’get through playing my part, I’ve gotten rid of all my aggressions and frustrations.”

And Susan Trustman speaks lyrically of the more lurid portions of her character’s life. “The most exciting time for me was the whole abortion period and the murder. I had these erying nightmares, this terrible guilt. And I loved the scene with the boy who wouldn’t marry me. I kept saying, ‘You love me, you love me’— and I heard the babies crying—and there was a gun—and I picked it up —I held out the gun—bang bang—I shot him—dead. That was great.”

When they’re not putting in time on the neurotic front, all four girls pursue assorted interests. Jacquie goes bowling and dancing. The three others are interested in art.

Men loom large in their horizon of interests. Gaye is married to actor Morgan Paull, who’s in “New Faces of 1966.” “I met him at an audition for a play. Neither of us got the part!” Carol Roux is being married to Avin Harum, a Norwegian dancer in the Harkness Ballet troupe. (“He was away on tour for four months. I thought I was going to die.”) Jacquie Courtney goes steady with a law student at the University of Pennsylvania. And Susan Trustman is looking. (“What I want is a man who isn’t boring. Not to be bored. that’s the thing; not to be bored.”) Tied with iron-clad contracts to the neurotic vicissitudes of Another World as far as additional daytime TV goes, they have not had any new acting opportunities. None has any specific plans, but each daydreams occasionally about the future. Jacquie Courtney’s daydream is by far the most explicit. Ever loyal to the soap opera ideal, she says, “I want a dramatic movie role. Something meaty something with a challenge—a neurotic.” And she laughs raucously.

New actress on the scene

Which brings to mind the latest development on Another World: A new actress was recently hired for the series. And to the fascinated astonishment of the four girls, it is Marcella Martin, Gaye Huston’s mother. Says Gaye, who seems torn betweer horror and tears, “I feel kind o funny. The part she’s playing is so unlike her. A tough-on-the-outside sweet-on-the-inside broad. I read one of the scripts. It just doesn’t sound like my mother. If she were somebody else’s mother, I wouldn’t react this way. But she’s my mother. And has been playing Carol Roux’s rival I don’t like it.”

The other young ladies shake their heads sympathetically. It’s a real problem and they all fully understand Gaye’s feelings. Neurosis is the fashionable thing, all right, there aré no two ways about it. But when i comes to a girl’s mother . . . well, gee whiz.

TV GUIDE SEPTEMBER 17, 196

[DRW50]

Thanks @Paul Raven . So little of that time is available but it's a credit to AW that they managed to replace most of these ladies as successfully as they did. 

@Soapsuds posted this in the AMC movie thread but I thought it was worth sharing here too, not just for the AW cast giving their thoughts on a movie, but also saying where they think their characters are now.

Another World Alums Weigh In On Rebooting The Show As A Movie (soaphub.com)

Edited October 8, 2024 by DRW50

[Mona Kane Croft]

Which character are they talking about here?  Missy's biggest rival was Liz Matthews, but she was being played quite successfully by Audra Lindley at that point.  The description of the character sounds like Ada Davis, but Connie Ford got that role.  Another possibility was Missy's bio-mother Katherine Corning, but she was played by movie star Ann Sheridan.  So, which character did Marcella Martin play?  

[Xanthe]

I just looked it up -- it was Flo Murray who I believe was Danny Fargo's other girlfriend. 

[Mona Kane Croft]

Thanks for the information.  I guess Flo turned out to be a relatively minor character, really just to play out Missy's murder trial.  

[Xanthe]

Thank you for this -- I love the comments about why they think a movie would [or mostly wouldn't] work and why, blended with the nostalgia of what they miss about the good old days. I am a sucker for actors being thoughtful about acting. 

Edited October 9, 2024 by Xanthe

[yrfan1983]

Eric Roberts recalls being fired from AW

https://www.tvinsider.com/1156036/dancing-with-the-stars-season-33-eric-roberts-reginald-veljohnson-eliminated/

“DWTS isn’t the first show that’s given Roberts the boot. He briefly played way back in 1977 the role of Ted Bancroft on Another World for a few months until he got his walking papers. “I try not to [remember that] because that might have been the worst acting in my career,” he recalls. “I sucked! I’m my biggest fan – don’t get me wrong.”

Roberts says the stint was so long ago, he doesn’t recall much about the experience – but he remembers what led to his departure. “The producer [Paul Rauch] called me into his office after I’d been there for a while, and he asked, ‘Are you a writer?’” Roberts recalls. “I said, ‘No.’ He asked, ‘Why are you re-writing your dialogue?’ I said that I don’t re-write my cues for other actors. I was 19. He said, ‘If you do that again, I’ll fire you.’ A few months later, I changed a few words. He fired me!” “I liked him,” Roberts hastens to add. “He fired me, but I liked him.”

[Mona Kane Croft]

Roberts' version of Ted left town with Marianne Randolph.So both actors must have been fired at the same time.  I think Ted took Marianne to Europe or someplace.  Marianne returned around 1978-79 played by another actress.  

[Xanthe]

From Eight Years in Another World:

Edited October 9, 2024 by Xanthe
Format quote

[AbcNbc247]

Arianne Muenker was inadequate? 

I think the clips that she posted prove otherwise. Btw, it’s too bad that she didn’t have any scenes of her and Eric Roberts to post. 

[Soaplovers]

Harding Lemay, as we've come to find out, seemed to have a lot of bias against some of the performers.  How he viewed and treated Jacqueline Courtney is evidence enough... he was too too focused on theater performers instead of people that were likable and had decent acting ability.  

[Maxim]

I'm dipping my toes in 1980 and I'm loving it so far.