Another World Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

It seems like Lemay changed a lot of the characters when he arrived. I guess some actors were probably happy with the changes, but I do wonder if those who objected had good reason.

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[Susan Hunter]

I don't think he changed characters immediately because Irna Phillips was consulting. He admits that there was much that he didn't understand about soaps, the structure and the never-ending story aspect of daytime and Ms.Phillips taught him how to do that. He played out Robert Cenedella's stories and jumped off from there. He admits that he hated 'plot' believing that the best drama comes from within characters, so the changes he made were just getting rid of soap cliches. It is a shame that Lemay and Dwyer couldn't meet each other half way. One of my favorite blurbs in his book is about Pat Randolph being poisoned by her housekeeper and she was having awful pains and wouldn't talk to her doctor brother and/or her nurse sister about it. He thought that was silly and got rid of stuff like that.

[DRW50]

I have only watched part of those June 1994 episodes, but I was struck seeing some of the stronger, passionate, bitch-on-ice Rachel, and knowing the Carl pairing (along with JFP) would kill those qualities in Rachel for good. I loved the scenes where both Carl and Iris were in disbelief that she could handle a gun. I loved her vulnerability with Loretta. Loretta was about as paper-thin a character as you can get, but I appreciated that those running AW at this time still realized that Rachel needed some sort of touchstone, not her children (whom she never seemed all that close to, really), and not Felicia. Seeing Rachel talk about how much she needed Ada really got to me. Rachel did not have this type of presence in AW's last years. Rachel often did not even seem like a human being to me - so affected, and empty.

I'm not a huge Jake/Paulina fan, mostly because I just felt Cali Timmins was the only true Paulina, and I don't think Jake worked that great in romantic relationships, but Judi and Tom had such fantastic, effortless chemistry. I'll never understand why it was tossed away.

Edited April 14, 2012 by CarlD2

[DRW50]

You're right. He was right to get rid of some of that basic stupidity (which plagues soaps even today). I was thinking more of stories like Pat's alcoholism, which he said some fans objected to.

[Khan]

My favorite blurb is about Walter Curtin pulling out the scarf and crying into it every time he was alone and away from Lenore.

[teplin]

I bow to no one in my love for Rachel and Vicky Wyndham through the years, but you're absolutely right. She got a little of her old spark back when Carl "died" and she was battling Jordan Stark, but that was short-lived. As much as I appreciate that the pairing with Carl kept her pretty prominent in those last years, it was just dreadful for her character. That breathy, faux-Elizabethan accent she adopted made me cringe.

I still love her for all she was from the 70s to the 90s, though.

[vetsoapfan]

While I had issue with some of his writing choices, there's no denying that Lemay worked very hard to create character-driven, naturalistic material. AW during his first few years was brilliant. Once the show went to an hour, there were certain problems, like stretched-out "filler" dialogue and repetitious situations, but as I've remarked before, even the "worst" Lemay was and is miles above a lot of the dreck soap opera fans have endured from other writers over the years.

His eliminating the most absurd soap cliches was like a breath of fresh air.

[vetsoapfan]

Yes, I agree that various actors had good reason to speak out against too-sudden character changes. Were Lemay's differing choices better, and did they improve the quality of the drama? Often yes, sometimes no. But a new writer coming into an established series should at least do his best to keep a consistent through-line where character behavior is concerned. The characters whom Lemay "got" and understood were written quite well. Those he didn't quite warm up to, like Mary Matthews, suffered. But we all know that Lemay ended up being a daytime legend, and for very good reason. I'd take him over Guza, Pratt, Reilly, and many others, any day!

[Susan Hunter]

I loved that also. I guess getting rid of Walter Curtin was one of Lemay's first controversial decisions. The character and actor were both very popular, but he didn't understand how the character could be redeemed. A daytime writer would never be able to get away with that now. You can't get rid of popular characters no matter how irredeemable they are. And he used Walter's death to reenergize Lenore, then years later used Walter's secret as a way to write out the Lenore character, how good is that?

[juniorz1]

God, I have to admit that I am IN LOVE with the fact that someone else not only shares my view on it, but articulates it so much like I would (EXCEPT, of course, the Evans/Eplin chemistry- I'll take the fireworks with Timmins over the labored spark with Evans any day). Going from Cali Timmins to Judi Evans was a HUGE MISTAKE, especially at the same time we were losing Anne Heche for Jensen Puke-hanan and Julie Osburn altogether. Thank GOD they still had Alicia Coppola at that time because without her Lorna, there wouldn't have been anyone in that age group to truly root for.

Love her as an actress or not, Cali Timmins & Paulina were one of those rare perfect matches of actress and character. Judi Evans was just so forced from start and though they claimed they wouldn't do it, they completely changed the character to fit her acting style. It just didn't work.

Sadly, I don't think TPTB ever truly realized what a gem they had in Timmins and how interesting she truly made the character. Can you imagine the Vicky/Grant/Paulina triangle with TIMMINS as PAULINA? Jensen may have actually found her footing as Vicky had she not been playing against such a milquetoast character played by an actress with more chops (albeit miscast ones).

SUCH a shame, and that's why Alicia Coppola was the last HUGE loss of that generation of characters. It's unfortunate that my first rendezvous with Robin Christopher was as Lorna because I do believe she's an above average actress now BUT.........it's almost hurtful to see what she had in her later on in her career and realize she brought NONE of that to the character of Lorna. It's almost insulting in a way.

And I must say, this thread has LONG been my favorite read on the board and it's just TO DIE FOR when I pop in and get to dive into 4 pages like you guys just posted in here. It just KILLS me that I'll probably never get to see the stories of late 60s-late 70s Another World that my mother raved to me about when I was a little boy. Please, all of you, keep up with the reminscing and BRAVO to all the in-depth analysis each and every one of you bring to your posts in this thread.

I've long thought of AW as a thinking man's soap, as, IMO, the best part about it was what each character had boiling underneath their surface and how the actors imbued that into the scenes.

IMO, Julie Osburn, Anne Heche, Cali Timmins, Alicia Coppola, and finally Lisa Peluso (who was brought on WAY too late, but JFP's best move as EP by FAR) were the last "newly" hired actresses to do that.

By the end, Vicky Wyndham had gone so far over the top with the haughty accent and Felicia was written as fan fic that pretty much only Lisa Peluso and the divine Ms. Anna Stuart still had the ability (and writing) to do so.

Edited April 14, 2012 by juniorz1

[DRW50]

I totally agree with you about the ladies on the show in the early 90's, and their loss. Even Alla Korot and Allison Hossack had a real presence, I felt. You don't know what you've got until it's gone. I never feel that with Robin Christopher, Amy Carlson, Jensen Buchanan, Alice Barrett, Robyn Griggs, etc.

I think Charlotte Savitz brought Lisa Peluso in.

I really love reading the thoughts of people who watched AW at the time. I see this thread as being like a permanent document - these are insights that you can't get in a magazine or from watching the few remaining episodes of that era. This was one of the most revolutionary eras of a soap and it sucks that we have so little of it.

AW had the most three-dimensional characters on daytime (I think GL, and some eras of OLTL, probably come next). You can really feel how complex everyone is when you watch the episodes.

Edited April 14, 2012 by CarlD2

[juniorz1]

It's SO true. Even Marley was complex, at least under Ellen Wheeler (both stints) and Anne Heche. Hell, Jensen even managed to make her interesting at times and clearly made a better Marley than Vicky. It's too bad Heche's film career was getting red hot at the time because I'd have rather Vicky suffered from the burns and had Heche then resume the role. The sendoff with Jake would have been SO. MUCH. BETTER!

[DRW50]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxEjkSDo_a4

[vetsoapfan]

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Ahh, the halcyon years of AW!

[vetsoapfan]

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1974 episode