Another World Discussion Thread

[Tisy-Lish]

Well, knowing Lemay's style -- Jason may have been murdered, but it is unlikely there would have been a trial.  Lemay detested murder trials, although he never seemed to have a problem with murders.  LOL.   How many murders were there in Lemay's original run (1971-79)? Several.  How many murder trials? One -- which lasted less than a week, and the case was dismissed by the judge. So there was very little courtroom drama, and no verdict.  

No idea how Lemay would have handled AW's 25th anniversary. Although he loved mining the past, and bringing it to the present -- big celebrations and special episodes were not really Lemay's thing.  Perhaps he would have given the 25th to his son, Steve, to write.   

But I can assure everyone, Mac's death would have been handled in a completely different way, had Lemay still been head-writer. There likely would have been no storyline (Red Swan, or otherwise) surrounding Mac's passing.  He simply would have died in his sleep or something like that.  And the entire event would have been character-driven, not plot-driven.  We'd have seen Rachel, Liz, Ada, Iris, Jamie etc., reacting to Mac's death.  And believe me -- that would have been more than enough to satisfy the audience, under Lemay's pen.    

[jmgaw]

P&G/NBC killed Another World beginning with the 90 minute expansion in 1979. Harding Lemay quit the show a few months later. Realizing the 90 minute show wasn't clicking, the next costly decision was the Texas Spinoff.  Texas had no chance going up GH. Moving Another World to 2 pm was the next blow. The show never recovered.

 

[Contessa Donatella]

The 90 minute show was Fred Silverman's idea & since he was the Vice President in charge of  programming at NBC Daytime he had considerable pull. (Pete, WOST interview, 2006, Y/T.) Pete fought against it. Paul Rauch, EP, sided with NBC. Pete had already become disenchanted with the expansion to an hour so everything he knew told him 90 minutes would be a disaster. When he was right, he was right in a big way. (Why do I call him Pete? He hated Harding.) Afterward, NBC programmers were asked why they had decided to try the 90 minute show. They were quoted as saying they couldn't think of anything else to try. And, the bad part of this wasn't over yet. The NBC affiliates had long preferred AW as their pet but they HATED the 90 minute show & as far as they knew it had been AW's choice. So, they switched their affections to DAYS. 

 

[Paul Raven]

The only reason affiliates would have preferred AW was its ratings. The 3pm shows provided all important lead ins to local programming.

I'm sure most of them had never seen a minute of AW.

[jmgaw]

Keeping Another World at 3 pm was the best move after cutting back to 60 minutes. Possibly Another World doesn't lose its audience when it move to 2 pm.  Another World had problems to solve. Without the creation of Texas, Beverlee McKinsey was leaving. The Frame family was moving off the canvas. The Holloway Family wasn't working. 

Maybe bringing back the character of Sharlene Frame in 1980 had endless possibilities. At this point, Josie would be a little girl with the mystery surrounding who the father was. Russ Matthews is on the front burner and creates discourse with his new bride Tracey Dewitt.  Perhaps Sharlene has a connection to Jason Dunlap and ILSA FREDERICKS.  Just a thought...

[Contessa Donatella]

We know they didn't have enough video to do what they wanted & ended up relying on Eddie & the AWHP for that. I don't know whether he dealt with P&G or NBC. But my point is that it might not have fallen much on his shoulders because of either network or P&G involvement. 

Very likely that there still would have been a Cory anniversary story being planned so he'd have to deal with that but I don't know why that would have been a problem for him. When it came to Cory Publishing Mac was driven & ambitious. Heart attack waiting to happen. 

[Soaplovers]

I remember SOD had an opinion piece about AW during Swajeski's stint as headwriter and the main thing they thought hindered AW was episode breakdowns.  They gave an example about how two characters would just about be ready to kiss on a Friday while a third character was about to walk into the room.  Then Monday would roll around with no follow up on the cliffhanger.. but then on Tuesday's episode, it would pick up right around the time of the Friday cliffhanger with the before mentioned character about ready to enter the room as the two characters were just about to kiss.

 

[Contessa Donatella]

Whose opinion? Carolyn Hinsey?

[chrisml]

Sounds about right. I remember something dramatic would happen on Monday and then it wouldn't be talked about until Thursday of that week. Swajeski was not great at breaking the stories down for the week. Some critics (might even be in the article you're referencing) complaining about this very thing in relation to the Sam/Amanda/Evan storyline as the momentum in that was so bizarre.

[DRW50]

That's not a bad idea, although knowing AW of that era, Sharlene would have been dead within two years.

[SheenaSoaper]

This is misinformation. The AWHP was not even around for the show’s 25th anniversary. The show did consult the AWHP for Victoria Wyndham’s 25th anniversary as Rachel, which occurred nearly a decade later.

[Contessa Donatella]

I'm sorry I was speaking of VW anniversary. Obviously I misread. My error.

[Contessa Donatella]

Yes, as I posted elsewhere. This was an error on my part. I was speaking of VW anniversary. I misread. So sorry.

[DRW50]

@vetsoapfan Just a brief, silent clip, but a color glimpse of Jacqui, and a rare glimpse of (I think) Virginia Dwyer and Shepperd Strudwick.

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Edited April 28 by DRW50

[jmgaw]

Definitely, Virginia Dwyer as Mary Matthews but I think it’s Hugh Marlowe as Jim Matthew’s

Edited April 28 by jmgaw