Another World

[j swift]

It's ironic that Catlin came to Bay City to connect with his half siblings Larry and Blaine, but they both left town soon after he arrived

[DRW50]

@vetsoapfan you likely already know this, but Eddie Drueding has kindly reuploaded (or I guess uploaded as it was his stuff in the first place, I believe) all the '70s content that was available, including the Jacqueline Courtney scenes you had mentioned wanting to see again. 

 

I should go back through those to watch Janice's slow breakdown again. I am so grateful that even what we have is available but I'd love to see the whole thing. Christine Jones is phenomenal there.

[vetsoapfan]

 

I had not known about Eddie's recent uploads. Thank you for letting me (all of us) know.

 

I lost interest in the show in 1975, but looking back on the soap in the rest of the 1970s, it was far superior to anything viewers have had to endure on daytime TV for decades now. I may watch all the 1970s' material on Eddie's channel.

 

Thanks again.

 

[DRW50]

 

If you ever watch the first 90 minute episode I'd be interested in your thoughts (actually I think it's the second, not the first) - my main memory of it is when poor Beverlee McKinsey has to drag a phone call out and out and out in order to fill up the runtime.

[AbcNbc247]

Lmaooo

 

How long did it take Marianne to break that $10?

How many suggestions did Vivian give Iris in order to help her sleep?

 

I guess they were still finding their footing when it came to filling up the runtime. I do think the padding got better though overtime. Those other two full 90 minute episodes that used to be posted didn't have that problem

 

[vetsoapfan]

 

It was such a ludicrous idea to expand AW (or any soap, really) to 90 minutes per day. The ratings were already sinking, and the show's writing was weak. Anyone with sense should have known it would not be sustainable.

[FrenchBug82]

In all fairness even the most brilliantly written show could not sustain 90 minutes a day.

[j swift]

I wonder if our reactions to the 90 minutes episodes are also biased by the lens of hindsight and the experience of watching streaming series today?

 

We have all gotten used to faster paced stories with shorter scenes and more plot development.   My understanding of the longer episodes was that it was supposed to allow the audience to languish in the relationships that we liked to watch.  We liked Iris and Vivian, so now rather than a single scene once a week, we saw them for 4-5 scenes per week.

 

For me, the problem was that Bay City became too large as the cast grew too much to include characters that were redundant.  We didn't need multiple ingenues and fine young men, one couple like that was enough, but suddenly there were multiple characters serving the same purpose. 

Edited June 3, 2021 by j swift

[Vee]

Lemay supposedly wrote or rewrote most of the 60 and 90 minute episodes himself. I don't see how you do that unless you're on amphetamines. It's insane.

[AbcNbc247]

Well, Lemay said that he was a perfectionist. And I think his ego played a large part in the decision to do most of the rewriting himself as well

[FrenchBug82]

 Lemay's theater style of lengthy scenes was lovely because often the dialogue was well-written and it did help establish relationships - I much prefer it to the too-quick plot-driven style of today - but it could drag even with just 60 minutes.
It needed more characters and more material and there is no way one man could pull it off consistently.
 

[robbwolff]

I tend to doubt that. The reactions today are similar to the reactions people had online well before streaming series were even a thing. Plus, the reactions today are very similar to the reactions I saw back in 1979-1980 in the soap magazines. Just from my own personal experience, my mom, my aunt, and their friends would get together every Friday night for coffee and Entemann's cakes, to gossip, and to talk about their soaps. They were unanimous about a few things: Rita Stapleton was a tramp, Roger Thorpe was scoundrel, and they all hated the 90-minute Another World because it was so slow. In fact, a number of them bailed on the show and moved over to One Life to Life. I wish I still had the book and don't recall the title, but I had a book that looked at television in 1979 and it addressed the 90-minute AW experiment and what a flop it was. Despite the experiment not being successful, at the time NBC was seriously toying with expanding Days of our Lives to 90 minutes as well. 

[j swift]

now that's a party

 

The expansion feels especially odd given the failure of Somerset.  It seems like history foretold that you couldn't bifurcate the plot in order to extend the time.  The 90 minute episodes feel like too much chocolate fudge, yummy at first but it quickly becomes too much of a good thing.

 

It is interesting from a programming perspective that NBC always struggled getting a third hour of soaps off the ground.  It feels almost prehistoric to consider how hard the networks worked to stop people form switching the dial.  However, someone recently mentioned that the 90 minute episodes coincided with Holly's rape on GL and Karen's admission of being a hooker on OLTL, so the competition was fierce.  The types of plots being shown in daytime were changing and these episodes still play as very "drawing room based" drama without much sex, passion, or action to fill the time.

Edited June 3, 2021 by j swift

[robbwolff]

 

Oh, man! Those Friday night get-togethers were so much fun! It was so entertaining listening to them talking about their soaps. It's what got me hooked on soaps. Only my Aunt Ida remains of that group and she's hitting 90 next month!

 

I wish I had kept that book. It was some kind of almanac about TV in 1979. I remember the chapter on soaps had photos of the Ryans from Ryan's Hope with John Blazo pictured as Pat Ryan. It went into detail about what a flop the 90-minute experiment had been, but that NBC was seriously toying with expanding Days. There were some really great soap-related books back then. I remember one about writing for soap operas (I want to say that the author was BK Perlman). I came across one amazing book from the 1960s in Alexander Library at Rutgers University back around 1984-1985. It had a detailed story outline for Love of Life from around 1968 where Vanessa's sister Meg was slated to be reintroduced.

[vetsoapfan]

 

Right; that's why I wrote, "...or any soap, really."

 

What made the decision to choose AW for expansion to 90 minutes is that it was not even well written anymore, and the ratings were really sinking at the time.

 

If TBTB had tried it with the top-rated General Hospital under Gloria Monty and Douglas Marland or Pat Falken Smith...maybe it would have been slightly more understandable (although still not a good idea, IMHO).