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Wyndham's best work was with believable and more or less realistic scenes and storylines.  Anytime she had to play something over the top or "soapy" (I hate that term, as it is an insult to the genre), her acting became mannered and affected.  So I've always thought Harding Lemay's writing fit VW's acting style best.  Every scene Lemay ever wrote for her, VW played it perfectly and believably.   It seemed later writers wanted to turn Rachel into the Victoria Llord Riley Buchanan of NBC, putting Rachel through the Perils of Pauline.  But Rachel was neither Vicki nor Pauline, nor was she Erika Slezak -- Rachel was a unique and inspired character, played by two of the very best actors ever on daytime. Franky, most soap writers were just not good enough to write to VW's strengths.  

Edited by Tisy-Lish
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Yes, VW hit upon the idea of doing COUPLETS which was Reader's Theatre as a thank you to the fans & they traveled that show on weekends for several years. I saw them in Atlanta. I also uploaded all of the audio files of a live performance that is on a CD to the Internet Archive. 

https://archive.org/details/track-11_20240609

 

Edited by Contessa Donatella
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And this is when I realised that I have been vaguely imagining A. R. Gurney's "Love Letters" every time I thought of the show Wyndham and Keating did. 

Although the SB actor didn't pan out and RKK was hired, I thought it might be possible that the "heart-wrenching" story could have included Ryan's organ donation somehow. But it's equally possible that it didn't. 

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I'm sorry. I know this means I am no fun to play with but I absolutely hated the very idea of Ryan's corneas being implanted in Bobbareno's eyes! However, I am positive that you are correct & this was what the other article WAS TALKING ABOUT!!!

BTW, at some venues, on Sunday, after doing COUPLETS on Saturday, VW & Charles DID DO  LOVE LETTERS. Not in Atlanta so I didn't see it but lots of places other people did! 

 

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If I had to guess, I'd say VW lasted so long because the Mac/Rachel romance was very popular with the fans, and by 1987 the Corys had several adult (or near adult) children to continue their legacy.  Also, Connie Ford was extremely popular as Ada and TPTB certainly did not want to diminish Ford's role on the show.  So Ada needed Rachel (and/or Nancy) to remain vital.   

I'm not so sure VW disliked the show.  But she did grow bored and frustrated after so many years of bad writing, and it showed.   When she had good material to play, VW hit it out of the park every time.  But the final twenty-years of AW had only flashes of greatness, while I think VW wanted the show to be consistently great as it had been up to 1979.   

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VW was savvy so of course she was frustrated but I don't think her devotion & loyalty to the show ever wavered, period. Besides doing COUPLETS & LOVE LETTERS for the fans she took over the annual fan luncheon & ran it with an eye to 100% participation by the entire cast & also to seeing that it, too, was FOR the fans. Fan club president Mindi Shulman just took her marching orders from VW instead of P&G. Plus, she never gave less than 100% any tape day. And, she & CK did, both, mentor young actors & also they did tweak their scripts plus she pitched stories & did some writing. There was never any serious consideration on P&G's part that VW was anything but the star of the show. Now, NBC both wanted to kill the show & wanted to get rid of VW but that's a totally different situation. 

 

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Actually knowing her at the end of the show I know she didn't dislike the show or certainly not its history & I've never read anything she said that made me think that. Now, that is not the same as her having objections to things like, just one example, that NBC was trying to push AW to be more like DAYS at one point, or that she was knowledgeable about the politics behind the scenes. Because of her acumen the AW cast & crew were the best informed, the most savvy but also the most politicized of any soap at that time. 

Is there anything specific she said that bothers you? I mean, so we could talk about it, etc. 

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I think she remained quite popular with fans even as the show limped to its demise. Didn't Brian Frons once get upset because the Carl-Rachel romance garnered the most fan mail, beating out the hot young couples NBC wanted to position as the "stars"? She was certainly the main reason I kept watching until the bitter end. 

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Ironically, Rachel regained some of her spirit and former personality during the year that Carl was presumed dead.

The way she helped run Cory Publishing during a spell, quickly deduced that Jordan Stark was not to be trusted, and during the time he was holding her hostage, she was trying to figure out ways to escape to help save her daughter Amanda from him. 

Those actions reminded me of the Rachel of old instead of the Rachel that seemed in a trance once she/Carl got together in late 1993/early 1994.

The one smart thing the show did do on the final episode was have the final scene be Rachel looking at all of the photos in the Cory living room before she and Carl head upstairs to bed.

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Doug/Mac died May 1, 1989.

I mean, it is of note to me that Baby Jasmine who was born in an elevator in 1999 is now a 26 year old young woman. Why go to death?

To me the one smart thing about that hated finale was everyone speaking into the video recorder because it was as if everyone said fond farewells to the fans.

Yes, the photos on the mantle was a fair stand in for a traditional photo retrospective.

Also when Beverlee was not allowed by her doctors to fly across the country Chris should have asked Carmen.

 

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