Another World

[wonderwoman1951]

except lemay did not write her obituary, and did not say he did in ‘eight years…’ here’s what he did write:

"Bob Short phoned me the Sunday before Christmas to tell me Irna Phillips had died unexpectedly in her sleep. The news surprised and saddened me for she had seemed indestructible after forty years of creating concurrent worlds of love, divorce, disease, desertion, and illegitimate babies.

I glanced through the New York Times for her obituary for several days but none appeared. Dorothy [Lemay's wife] called the newspaper and informed them that the grand old lady of soap opera had died, a fact that some of their readers might find of interest. A week after her death, a brief obituary appeared but it did scant justice to the woman who almost single-handedly evolved the storytelling form that dominates daytime television screens. I did not get along very well with Irna Phillips, but my admiration of her had grown immeasurably as I fought to win acceptance for my ideas. . . ."

the obituary he referenced was written by the associated press, and indeed, ‘did scant justice…’ 

[Efulton]

I did not say he said it Eight Years in Another World. I did read somewhere that he did write it and paid to have it put in the New York Times.  I am not sure where I read that so it may be incorrect.  

[wonderwoman1951]

i did wonder if he had might have bought a paid obituary in the times. one afternoon i was in copley square with some time to kill, so i stopped at the boston public library and  looked through the january 1974 ny times on microfiche — found nothing. i suspect someone misread what he had written and it took on a life of its own — one more urban legend. 

[amybrickwallace]

I wonder if this experience soured Virginia Dwyer on acting for good. I've never seen any post-AW credits for her. There were still plenty of NYC-based soaps going on then - I wonder if any of them offered her a job. I guess we'll never know.

[Paul Raven]

The death of Mary Matthews probably didn't meet with a lot of resistance from P&G due to the fact that Lemay/Rauch were bringing in the ratings-revenue and that was always their bottom line.

Although Mary was an original and much loved character, she wasn't driving story and scoring in the fan polls.

Also, this was at a time where P&G were dropping older characters.

Patricia Bruder on ATWT, Teri Keane on EON, Ellen Demming on TGL (mmm...all women coincidentally) so it wasn't as though this was a one off for them. Dwyer was probably earning quite a lot as an original cast member so money would be saved dropping her.

They were spending quite a bit extra with the expansion to 60 min.

[Xanthe]

Richard and Carolyn Culliton will be on the Locher Room on Thursday August 19th. Interested in anything they have to say about AW.

[watson71]

Carolyn Culliton was a writer on AW during the return of Harding Lemay and the transition to Donna Swajeski.  I would definitely like to know her perspective on that situation.

 

[vetsoapfan]

I agree. His material was excellent and memorable (from 1971 to 1974, I'd say), but blatant evidence of his arrogance, mean-spiritedness and ego are hard to dismiss, particularly considering how Lemay and Rauch ended up crippling AW before they were through with it.

Yep. The potential romance slated for Alice and Willis, proposed to Jacqueline Courtney by Paul Rauch, supports this idea. Of course Courtney objected to it; a romance between them was idiotic and out of character for Alice.

[vetsoapfan]

Wesley Ann Pfenning. UGH. So many painful, failed recasts in the role of Alice. It's a relief that the show eventually gave up trying to replace Jacqueline Courtney.

 

Add the notoriously toxic Paul Rauch to the mix...what a nightmare.

I agree. New writers who come aboard and cannot/will write for a show while retaining its heart, soul, and DNA, should not be allowed to decimate it to fit their own personal likes and dislikes. You cannot take over the reigns of the original Star Trek, and decide that Kirk, Spock and Bones are not good actors, and then be allowed to dismiss them, regardless of how much eliminating the series' core would hurt the show and infuriate the fans. You cannot turn the Starship Enterprise into an interplanetary disco, where celebrities from various planets "trek" to party amongst each other. Forget about exploring the universe! Soaps are a unique medium unto themselves which thrive on continuity, history, and viewer loyalty. Destroy those concepts, destroy the genre.

I would say definitely not. To me, the writing started to show signs of weakness with the expansion to an hour, but familiar faces gave the audience a solid incentive to stick around. (It also helped that 1975 was a weak year for AW's principle competition TGL and GH. Viewers getting bored or frustrated with AW would be unlikely to abandon a familiar show, even with it going through a rough patch, for other soaps which were just as bad--or worse--at the time. Plus, the 60-minute format was an intriguing novelty.) With the loss of Courtney, Reinholt, Dwyer and Susan Sullivan, the show's golden days faded. As soon as the competition started to pick up and soar, AW's steady and significant rating decline began.

It was engrossing.

[Liberty City]

Based on what I've seen via YouTube, Wesley Ann Pfenning was not the worst Alice recast. I actually enjoyed her interpretation of the role. But it does seem as if TPTB didn't seem tightly invested in the role of Alice.

[AbcNbc247]

Which never came about because Susan Harney allegedly had no chemistry with John Fitzpatrick or Leon Russom. It always seemed a little suspicious to me 

[vetsoapfan]

Now I am curious: if you have seen most or all of the Alices on youtube, whom did you think was worse than Pfenning?

I thought all of the recasts were wrong for the role, for different reasons. 

 

I don't think Harney had chemistry with anyone at all, to be honest.

[robbwolff]

My vote would be for Linda Borgeson. Her acting was painful to watch. I never saw Courtney during her original run, so Susan Harney was my first introduction to the character of Alice. I don't recall seeing Pfenning in the role except for a brief clip online. I enjoyed Vana Tribbey in the role and never understood why she was replaced by Borgeson. It's a shame that they so underutilized Jacquie Courtney in her 1984-85 stint as she really shined in the role.

[vetsoapfan]

If I were forced to choose one worst-Alice actress, it would probably be Borgenson. So bland, so lifeless, so lacking in emotion. She was a non-entity. I thought Tribbey was a better actress than Borgenson, but after watching Courtney for a decade, Tribbey's cooler, sarcastic Alice just did not feel right to me. I would have preferred her as another character. In any case, I'll bet that Borgenson would "win" the title of the worst Alice in a poll, LOL.

[robbwolff]

I just read that Vana now goes by the name Vaughn Taylor. And she's married to Paul Tinder who played the role of Jerry Grove on Another World and Larry Watts on The Edge of Night.