Another World Discussion Thread

[vetsoapfan]

It's a tape, actually, not any sort of kinescope, and the quality is fine. Better than I thought it would be.

[DRW50]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cAyVqhJ24g

[DRW50]

Anita Baker + Felicia =

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWGTiHFJNLw&feature=channel&list=UL

[ChitHappens]

Carl,

In case I've never said it, I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!

ANDREA

[SFK]

This is why we loved the stories in the '80s.

Gah, Felicia and that purple and gold penthouse, no future set ever lived up to her OTT nature like that one.

[DRW50]

The mid/late 80's were her peak as a character...I did love her scenes with Lorna (Alicia's Lorna) but the very very serious stories they gave Felicia are just so sad to watch, a little too sad. By the late 90's I think the character was sort of gone and we were just watching Linda.

[SFK]

I agree, and I think that was by Linda's design and the writers wrote more and more into her. Linda is a highly sensitive person and before her clinical diagnosis she was always good at going to a dark, depressing place. You're right, she's very good, too good, at "sad".

[FeliciasKid]

I couldn't agree more with the last two posts. Though I loved LD's chemistry w/ old pal John Aprea's "Lucas," I can't help but be reminded that once Felicia reconnected with "the love of her life," the outrageous side of her disappeared. I loved watching Felicia trip over herself trying to get Mitch's attention and there was none of that with Lucas & especially post-Lucas. I think Felicia even stopped believing in romance & stopped writing about it after a while. I had always hoped that Mitch would return to Bay City & snap her out of her funk but instead she embarked on that dreadful affair with John Hudson. Not to say that Linda Dano didn't continue to do amazing work, it was just that she didn't tickle my funny bone like she did in the late 80's.

[DRW50]

There's always a temptation to make funny characters serious, and while she weathered the transition better than some, I do think it became something of a drag. The decision to make Cass so serious didn't help. The real turn was Wallingford's death, although it may be for the best, as I imagine JFP having him trampled to death for shock value.

It's sort of like a screwball comedy queen of the '30s becoming a weeping tragedienne of the '40s. Linda Dano was expert at the tears and the pain but there was no balance. They sort of tried this again at the end with Sergei but what I think she needed was just a fun group to bounce off of, and a young, vibrant, funny female character. Every young woman in Felicia's life was so serious. I think the only one who was goofy was Remy, who worked for her very briefly.

John/Felicia never would have happened. It was so OOC for both, especially Felicia. That was just JFP using Felicia to live out her own personal fantasies.

[DRW50]

More Lorna/Felicia scenes. Get a look at that ridiculous toolbelt Felicia is wearing in the first clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI5mvlZrmSs

Please register in order to view this content

[FeliciasKid]

It's a wonder she didn't sink straight to the bottom between the belt & the earrings . I'm pretty sure that Felicia knew how to swim back in 1983 when Julia Shearer pushed her into the swimming pool at the double wedding of Mac & Rachel/Blaine & Sandy.

Please register in order to view this content

This was still back in the day when Felicia was still a "pushy, nasty twit" as Linda Dano referred to her in one of my favorite LD interviews from 1989:

Strictly Personal

By Linda Alexander

Published by Linda Janus-Napier (aka Alexander), Soap Opera Update, Vol.2 No. 3, 3/13/1989, pg. 54

She's beautiful. In a medium that relies on harsh lights, stage makeup, and--to the human eye--trickery of the camera, TV does not do the soft beauty of Linda Dano justice. She's lovely as the irrepressible, extravagant Felicia Gallant on ANOTHER WORLD; however, what is seen on-screen is but a partial image of the woman behind Felicia.

In some ways they are as similar as twins. Occupations overlap, the zest for living is the same. Yet this is not Linda being like Felicia, but Linda molding Felicia to her persona, bringing her full circle to what she is most comfortable portraying. It's fitting, then, that if Linda could star in any movie, she'd want to remake "It's A Wonderful Life" from a woman's point of view. Failure is not a word she's comfortable with.

When asked if Felicia was always so parallel, Linda responds, "At first, she was a pushy, nasty twit. As time went on--this is true of any actor who plays a part a long time--I made it happen, I planned it. I wanted her funnier. I'm funnier, I wanted her to be. I wanted her to have a heart, to care, be likeable. She was supposed to be a villain. I've toyed with it over the years but when I have a chance, I don't take it." She smiles, her eyes crinkle, she leans forward. "I like to be liked."

Felicia is imposing, bigger than life, a woman who seems very nice, yet not so easy for the "average" person to get to know. Linda Dano, on the other hand, is open, accessible, affectionate. Her relationship with her longtime husband, Frank Attardi, flows freely; there are no holds barred, even in front of a stranger.

How is their relationship affected by her onscreen marriage? In a low chair in her showcase, 30th floor apartment, Linda tucks her legs under her and laces her fingers together. Her eyes light mischieviously, then widen. "I don't know I'd be so generous if Frank were an actor and kissed and had bed scenes. But he is wonderful. If we're at an ANOTHER WORLD party and Frank and Bill [Espy, her AW co-star, Mitch Blake] are together, Frank says, 'We're Linda's husbands.' It's like we're all a family in a strange way. It doesn't seem a problem.

"With the effervescence both Felicia and Linda exhibit, how is it working with Bill Espy? Is he as quiet with her as he seems on screen? "Once Bill trusts and likes, he's not withdrawn; he's generous in spirit, very helpful, caring. He laughs easily. I don't know that he lets everyone see it all, but he is all those things. We've been together long enough that we worry, 'They won't break us up, will they?'" She laughs and adds, sounding as if she's surprised herself, "We are sort of like a couple and very comfortable with that.

"Now that Felicia and Mitch are comfortably married, what's in store for them with the revelations about her past and long-ago pregnancy? "I don't know. When the writers have ideas I say, 'don't tell me' because it sometimes changes down the road and is never quite how they said. I feel cheated in some way."

She rearranges herself, touches her husband's arm as he passes and speaks with an employee who's moving through the room. "I assume none of it'll affect us, that we'll stay together awhile. The audiences seem to like us together.

"What about the baby? Linda laughs without reservation. "I can tell you the baby's not dead. I don't know how Felicia finds out." Her eyes twinkle and she leans forward on her knees. "Da, da, da, da . . . the old baby trick!" She giggles. "I assume at some point the OLD BABY TRICK will waltz in."

Here we have a newly married woman, happy in career and marriage. Of course, being daytime TV, strife must arise so a shady past and mysterious pregnancy mar the scene. Wtih all this on her plate, has Felicia spread herself too thin? "She tries," Linda answers. "We share this. She can't not have a career and she can't not be married. Somehow, some way, we both balance."

It's a balance that seems to work. Not only is happliy married Linda an actress, owner of her own fashion company STRICTLY PERSONAL, a talk show host on cable TV [show], ATTITUDES, soon to be a columnist, and a romance novelist, she paints, collects antiques, and travels with her husband to such places like Africa.

In this aspect of her life--her travels and specifically her African trip--one sees through the glamour and finds the depth. It's the almost unbelievable reality of Linda asleep in a tent in the African bush as wild animals roam nearby. It's an image of her tears as she sees naked African babies covered with insects. It's the thought of personal reaction when standing amidst a herd of wild animals, afraid to move or speak for fear of stampede.

Felicia is part of Linda Dano, yet don't allow that to fool you. Her strengths are Linda's, not the other way around. There's little room here for active fear. Linda's advice for any woman who wants to continue achieving? "Do it, stop making excuses. You won't fail unless you let yourself."

Yes, it's a wonderful life.

Edited June 19, 2012 by FeliciasKid

[DRW50]

Thanks. I'd never read that. That must have been fairly early on for SOU. You can definitely see how much influence Linda had on Felicia, and yet she shows here that she also tried to put up something of a wall if the writers made a lot of chances.

I had a feeling she'd been able to swim. I'd forgotten about that clip.

I really did love the Felicia/Lorna scene, cheesy "I can't swim/Neither can I!" bit aside. Felicia working so hard to get Lorna to love her is that strong Felicia which was not there at times later on, when she seemed a little passive. The slow, awkward way Lorna bonds with her - one step forward, two steps back - and how Felicia tries to connect with her over anything. There's such old school melodrama movie acting in those scenes when Felicia reacts to Lorna saying she doesn't care if Felicia dies tomorrow, and Lorna's own tears and not wanting to be hurt. I especially love the last scene, contrasting Felicia standing on the dock or whatever to a closeup of Felicia's determined/crestfallen face.

[teplin]

I have to say I loved every incarnation of Felicia, from "pushy, nasty twit" to comic relief to romantic lead to tragic heroine. She rivaled Susan Seaforth Hayes for the way she suffered on screen. She was terrific at everything, turning in great performances even in the preposterous John Hudson romance. I also hated that Sergei storyline at the end -- it was so beneath her.

Thanks for the Felicia-Lorna clips, those actress were really magical together. Too bad Robin Christopher was such a horrible recast.

[DRW50]

Just wanted to say John Aprea is starting a recurring role on DAYS, as the Dimera family lawyer. He started today.

[DRW50]

From a January 1997 Digest