30 minutes ago, chrisml said:

I'm not suggesting Buchanan be fired during or right after maternity leave. That would be appalling. I just would have fired her long before that when it was obvious she could not handle the roles. In essence, Judi Evans started playing Vicky and Buchanan was playing a combination of Paulina and Marley with a touch of Vicky. Or some weird combo as I've never gone back and watched Buchanan so I don't know what she was doing but it wasn't either character and her Vicky was not Vicky.

Nor did I describe firing her. Period. 

31 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

The time would have been when Buchanan left in 1994. 

Thank you for understanding what I was saying. 

4 hours ago, chrisml said:

They really didn't know how to write for Victoria Wyndham. Her big storylines were a bust save for her romance with Carl. The Red Swan went nowhere and the Justine storyline was just....don't know what to say. Like Dustin Hoffman and his Rainman character, Wyndham was never able to shake Justine for the rest of the AW run. 

Wyndham's best work was with believable and more or less realistic scenes and storylines.  Anytime she had to play something over the top or "soapy" (I hate that term, as it is an insult to the genre), her acting became mannered and affected.  So I've always thought Harding Lemay's writing fit VW's acting style best.  Every scene Lemay ever wrote for her, VW played it perfectly and believably.   It seemed later writers wanted to turn Rachel into the Victoria Llord Riley Buchanan of NBC, putting Rachel through the Perils of Pauline.  But Rachel was neither Vicki nor Pauline, nor was she Erika Slezak -- Rachel was a unique and inspired character, played by two of the very best actors ever on daytime. Franky, most soap writers were just not good enough to write to VW's strengths.  

Edited April 12Apr 12 by Tisy-Lish

43 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I believe Wyndham and Charles Keating were regularly doing productions of a play called Couplets in these years. I got the sense that Wyndham just ended up adopting her persona from that play into her work on AW, and by that point no one in charge cared enough to question her.

(why does this remind me of the Luvahs sketch on SNL)

Yes, VW hit upon the idea of doing COUPLETS which was Reader's Theatre as a thank you to the fans & they traveled that show on weekends for several years. I saw them in Atlanta. I also uploaded all of the audio files of a live performance that is on a CD to the Internet Archive. 

https://archive.org/details/track-11_20240609

 

Edited April 12Apr 12 by Contessa Donatella

15 hours ago, DRW50 said:

I believe Wyndham and Charles Keating were regularly doing productions of a play called Couplets in these years. I got the sense that Wyndham just ended up adopting her persona from that play into her work on AW, and by that point no one in charge cared enough to question her.

(why does this remind me of the Luvahs sketch on SNL)

And this is when I realised that I have been vaguely imagining A. R. Gurney's "Love Letters" every time I thought of the show Wyndham and Keating did. 

16 hours ago, Contessa Donatella said:

Given what RKK says & what the articles say (about his having a Pay or Play contract & NBC urging JFP to take him after DAYS fired him) I'm not sure that this refers to him. 

Just sounds to me like something planned that did not pan out.

Although the SB actor didn't pan out and RKK was hired, I thought it might be possible that the "heart-wrenching" story could have included Ryan's organ donation somehow. But it's equally possible that it didn't. 

23 minutes ago, Xanthe said:

And this is when I realised that I have been vaguely imagining A. R. Gurney's "Love Letters" every time I thought of the show Wyndham and Keating did. 

Although the SB actor didn't pan out and RKK was hired, I thought it might be possible that the "heart-wrenching" story could have included Ryan's organ donation somehow. But it's equally possible that it didn't. 

I'm sorry. I know this means I am no fun to play with but I absolutely hated the very idea of Ryan's corneas being implanted in Bobbareno's eyes! However, I am positive that you are correct & this was what the other article WAS TALKING ABOUT!!!

BTW, at some venues, on Sunday, after doing COUPLETS on Saturday, VW & Charles DID DO  LOVE LETTERS. Not in Atlanta so I didn't see it but lots of places other people did! 

 

Why do you think Victoria Wyndham lasted so long on the show? The last link to the glory days of the 70s? It's a bit ironic, as from her interviews it sounds like she disliked the history of the show and the show itself. 

8 minutes ago, Jdee43 said:

Why do you think Victoria Wyndham lasted so long on the show? The last link to the glory days of the 70s? It's a bit ironic, as from her interviews it sounds like she disliked the history of the show and the show itself. 

If I had to guess, I'd say VW lasted so long because the Mac/Rachel romance was very popular with the fans, and by 1987 the Corys had several adult (or near adult) children to continue their legacy.  Also, Connie Ford was extremely popular as Ada and TPTB certainly did not want to diminish Ford's role on the show.  So Ada needed Rachel (and/or Nancy) to remain vital.   

I'm not so sure VW disliked the show.  But she did grow bored and frustrated after so many years of bad writing, and it showed.   When she had good material to play, VW hit it out of the park every time.  But the final twenty-years of AW had only flashes of greatness, while I think VW wanted the show to be consistently great as it had been up to 1979.   

1 minute ago, Tisy-Lish said:

If I had to guess, I'd say VW lasted so long because the Mac/Rachel romance was very popular with the fans, and by 1987 the Corys had several adult (or near adult) children to continue their legacy.  Also, Connie Ford was extremely popular as Ada and TPTB certainly did not want to diminish Ford's role on the show.  So Ada needed Rachel (and/or Nancy) to remain vital.   

I'm not so sure VW disliked the show.  But she did grow bored and frustrated after so many years of bad writing, and it showed.   When she had good material to play, VW hit it out of the park every time.  But the final twenty-years of AW had only flashes of greatness, while I think VW wanted the show to be consistently great as it had been up to 1979.   

VW was savvy so of course she was frustrated but I don't think her devotion & loyalty to the show ever wavered, period. Besides doing COUPLETS & LOVE LETTERS for the fans she took over the annual fan luncheon & ran it with an eye to 100% participation by the entire cast & also to seeing that it, too, was FOR the fans. Fan club president Mindi Shulman just took her marching orders from VW instead of P&G. Plus, she never gave less than 100% any tape day. And, she & CK did, both, mentor young actors & also they did tweak their scripts plus she pitched stories & did some writing. There was never any serious consideration on P&G's part that VW was anything but the star of the show. Now, NBC both wanted to kill the show & wanted to get rid of VW but that's a totally different situation. 

 

53 minutes ago, Jdee43 said:

Why do you think Victoria Wyndham lasted so long on the show? The last link to the glory days of the 70s? It's a bit ironic, as from her interviews it sounds like she disliked the history of the show and the show itself. 

Actually knowing her at the end of the show I know she didn't dislike the show or certainly not its history & I've never read anything she said that made me think that. Now, that is not the same as her having objections to things like, just one example, that NBC was trying to push AW to be more like DAYS at one point, or that she was knowledgeable about the politics behind the scenes. Because of her acumen the AW cast & crew were the best informed, the most savvy but also the most politicized of any soap at that time. 

Is there anything specific she said that bothers you? I mean, so we could talk about it, etc. 

 

Edited April 14Apr 14 by DRW50

22 hours ago, Contessa Donatella said:

Why do you think Victoria Wyndham lasted so long on the show?

I think she remained quite popular with fans even as the show limped to its demise. Didn't Brian Frons once get upset because the Carl-Rachel romance garnered the most fan mail, beating out the hot young couples NBC wanted to position as the "stars"? She was certainly the main reason I kept watching until the bitter end. 

1 hour ago, teplin said:

I think she remained quite popular with fans even as the show limped to its demise. Didn't Brian Frons once get upset because the Carl-Rachel romance garnered the most fan mail, beating out the hot young couples NBC wanted to position as the "stars"? She was certainly the main reason I kept watching until the bitter end. 

YES! Me, too, I was there till the very last moment. 

Ironically, Rachel regained some of her spirit and former personality during the year that Carl was presumed dead.

The way she helped run Cory Publishing during a spell, quickly deduced that Jordan Stark was not to be trusted, and during the time he was holding her hostage, she was trying to figure out ways to escape to help save her daughter Amanda from him. 

Those actions reminded me of the Rachel of old instead of the Rachel that seemed in a trance once she/Carl got together in late 1993/early 1994.

The one smart thing the show did do on the final episode was have the final scene be Rachel looking at all of the photos in the Cory living room before she and Carl head upstairs to bed.

Sorry to bring up a sad topic but... 

If my calculations are correct, had Another World premiered on the date of it's final episode in 1999, Mac Cory would already be deceased. Am I the only one who feels OLD???

58 minutes ago, Tisy-Lish said:

Sorry to bring up a sad topic but... 

If my calculations are correct, had Another World premiered on the date of it's final episode in 1999, Mac Cory would already be deceased. Am I the only one who feels OLD???

Doug/Mac died May 1, 1989.

I mean, it is of note to me that Baby Jasmine who was born in an elevator in 1999 is now a 26 year old young woman. Why go to death?

2 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

Ironically, Rachel regained some of her spirit and former personality during the year that Carl was presumed dead.

The way she helped run Cory Publishing during a spell, quickly deduced that Jordan Stark was not to be trusted, and during the time he was holding her hostage, she was trying to figure out ways to escape to help save her daughter Amanda from him. 

Those actions reminded me of the Rachel of old instead of the Rachel that seemed in a trance once she/Carl got together in late 1993/early 1994.

The one smart thing the show did do on the final episode was have the final scene be Rachel looking at all of the photos in the Cory living room before she and Carl head upstairs to bed.

To me the one smart thing about that hated finale was everyone speaking into the video recorder because it was as if everyone said fond farewells to the fans.

Yes, the photos on the mantle was a fair stand in for a traditional photo retrospective.

Also when Beverlee was not allowed by her doctors to fly across the country Chris should have asked Carmen.