Another World

[Soaplovers]

Actually, Anne heche did play Marley for a few episodes in fall 1987 before coming on full time the next year.  She came after Vicky had an accident that resulted in her being in a coma.. and Marley came to visit and instantly was calling out Reginald/Michael.   She had a much handle on the role in those few days than she did when she came back as Marley full time the following year.

[Xanthe]

Thanks for the correction. I remember the accident and Lisa communicating with comatose Vicky but I had forgotten the Marley drop-in. But now that you remind me, I do recall the appearance. And my shallowest recollection of it was that they managed to style Anne Heche's long hair so that it looked like Marley had a shorter cut than Vicky. I'm not sure if they just pinned it up or if they actually hid some of it under her clothes. Marley's clothes were a bit bulky and covered her pretty thoroughly.

 

[DRW50]

I watched some of that again recently and had forgotten, as you both said, Anne was styled better as Marley and had a better grasp on the character than she did in the 88-89 period, which had an awful wig and too much baby rabies. 

Speaking of Anne, this was up before and has been reuploaded. It's a pilot she did in 2005.

 

[Contessa Donatella]

If I have posted this before sorry to duplicate but I am not finding it.

Set-up: Marley is on trial for shooting Jake, which she did not do, she has lied & said Jake did not rape her except to her attorney Cass. She was truthful to him, that Jake did rape her. Marley has fled. Vicky is impersonating Marley & finds out about the rape. As soon as there's a recess, Vicky who is furious, heads to the bathroom. 

 

[j swift]

I think it is amusing that both Anne Heche and Jensen Buchanan used a breathy voice that sort of mimicked Ellen Wheeler when they played Marley.  But, according to SOD in 1991, Ellen Wheeler wanted to return to AW, but they made her audition and then rejected her.  So, even though she created the iconography of the character, the production didn't actually want her.

It is giving Mary Astor - “There are five stages in the life of an actor: Who's Mary Astor? Get me Mary Astor. Get me a Mary Astor Type. Get me a young Mary Astor. Who's Mary Astor?”

This is prior to the screentest

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Edited November 24, 2023 by j swift

[Contessa Donatella]

It is a great frustration to me that both times that JB was out on maternity leave & did not want to come back, Ellen Wheeler was available & willing & at the studio. IMO they should have snapped her up. But instead they wheedled & cajoled & gave perks because someone thought they just had to have Jensen. To me it was one of the incredibly stupid decisions they made in the latter years. 

[j swift]

I had never considered if Tom Eplin either directly or indirectly blocked his ex-wife's return to the soap in 1991 until I re-read that article.

For example, did Tom Eplin ever say that he didn't want to work with his ex? Or, did the production feel that in deference to their lead actor, (after a protracted contract negotiation during Jake's coma), that they shouldn't hire her?  Because it is within reason that SOD wouldn't mention their relationship unless there was some issue, and it is too reductive to blame a single actor, producer, or executive. 

Of course, there's always a third option, which is that the production in 1991 no longer appreciated Ellen Wheeler's performance as Vicky.

Edited November 24, 2023 by j swift

[Xanthe]

Ugh, the baby rabies. Not that long ago I watched some of the episodes where it seemed like they were trying to set up a situation where Marley found her fertility doctor (Eric Jansen, played by David Carroll) more sympathetic than Jake. (Apparently Eric also went out with Stacey, presumably as a contrast to Derek.) That never really went anywhere but I remember a scene where Marley went off on Dr Jansen about how frustrating and difficult it was to have to plan and schedule sex rather than just take pleasure in it. And then more recently I have been seeing episodes from the end of AW, where Jake and Vicky start trying to conceive, and obviously the show never intended me to juxtapose Marley's rant from 1989 with domestic Jake and Vicky in 1999, but hearing Vicky grouse similarly about how annoying it is to bother about cycles and whatnot without any apparent recognition that Jake had been through this (only more stressfully) with Marley before was offputting.

Hot take: I am also more offended by the Lumina storyline than I am by the gorilla interfering in Cass and Lila's wedding. At least the gorilla was supposed to evoke memories from the period when Felicia and Cass and Wallingford were together and pay homage to some of the writers who wrote for them. Lumina was a weird supernatural Phantom of the Opera knockoff in the middle of a normally naturalistic show that put too much weight on the not very interesting romance of Amanda and Cameron. 

[Contessa Donatella]

Generally speaking I wonder if it was that different people were in control. So perhaps the people who were so intent on having Jensen really had no experience of Ellen. Or possibly of Anne either. Only of Jensen. 

But, that might not be it. We have no way of knowing. 

Ellen has always spoken so highly of Tom. I never thought about him blackballing her. 

I simply cannot say enough bad about Lumina. Victoria told me that they had told her that they were getting writers for the show who would bring romance. She was cautiously optimistic, but she clearly wanted it to be true. What they brought was Lumina. When I talked to Jean Passanante as I'm sure I already posted, all she said was that she & Leah had written it together & that it was strange. I'll say, strange is a great word for it. 

And I wish Goutman had done better than Carolyn the gorilla but at least it was an homage to a particular time on the show. IOW, what you said? Ditto to the whole thing! 

[Xanthe]

The main problem with Mandy Ashton was that Amanda didn't seem to have any goals or thoughts that weren't about attracting Sam Fowler. If the writing or the performance had been more nuanced maybe it could have been more satisfying, but it didn't feel as much like there was a character there as a plot. But they didn't really do enough to give depth to Amanda's relationships with her family and her background and then also kind of substituted Sam being related to Mitch for real stakes.

[DRW50]

I did wonder if they had more plans for Jansen. I think Carroll passed away a few years later. 

I'm one of the few who didn't mind the ending with the gorilla or find it a betrayal of the show. I'm more annoyed by choices like bringing back Sam Groom but not as Russ Matthews.

[j swift]

Generally, I appreciate when a soap takes a big swing like “Lumina", “Justine”, or whatever that Egyptian Death Powder was that Carl desperately wanted.  As an avid SOW reader during the early 1990s, if a soap that I stopped watching tried a stunt, I usually tuned back in to see how it was going.

To @Xanthe's point, I can certainly understand why a long time viewer who watched during the Harding Lemay period would feel alienated during these plots.  However, I would argue that unlike pure science fiction, soaps usually play these plots against a story of romance.  Such as the Cass/Matt/Lila triangle during the Lumina story, or Nancy/Chris during the Arizonan/Egyptian artifact plot.  If anything, I get annoyed when a big plot has no repercussions on the romantic lives of the characters, or does not involve the cannon of the show.

However, the production issues during Lumina were so evident that it distracted from the plot.  The recasting of main characters, the cheap effects and costumes did not help.  And then, on screen, we never got clear exposition about what was happening.  For example, was Matt being hypnotized or drugged? And finally, the ending had nothing to do with the established history of the show.  So the fact that it occurred after the cancellation had been announced, and I was feeling more nostalgic for old Bay City was annoying.

As for the gorilla, I can see your hot take mostly because it was only around for a couple of episodes, whereas Lumina dragged on for months.

Edited November 25, 2023 by j swift

[Mona Kane Croft]

Dr Eric Jansen seemed like a Harding Lemay character to me.  And his situation with Marley (including her fertility issues) also seemed like a Harding Lemay interaction, heading toward a romance (it was dry, talky, and percolating slowly).  So I've always believed the Marley/Jansen thing was something Swakeski pulled from Lemay's storyline projection.  And then when she realized it wasn't flashy and exciting (the superficial stuff Swakeski seemed to prefer), she decided to dump the whole thing, along with the Eric Jansen character.   

[Contessa Donatella]

Now the costumes for the costume ball & the ball itself, that was the only thing I liked about Lumina. And the costumes didn't look cheap if you ask me & I'm sure that they were not cheap. 

As far as the F/X go, geeze I hope they weren't expensive! Because they were lame. 

And, yes, Carolyn the gorilla, blessedly, was only 2 days!  Heck, if Lumina had been only 2 days I might find something nice to say about it!

What recasting happened? 

Edited November 25, 2023 by Donna L. Bridges
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[DRW50]

That makes sense. I'm sorry for whatever reason that the story was abandoned.