Another World

[Efulton]

I loved VW as Rachel but from most things I’ve read (including her own Interviews) she did not seem like the nicest person to be around. I am sure the constant behind the scenes turmoil did not help. I imagine watching the show be dismantled by one bad decision after another would make a person angry.  Didn’t she throw something at Tom Casiello?  And isn’t there a story about her being horrible to someone in an ice cream store in New York?  Ricky Paull Goldin said in last week’s SOD podcast that she didn’t speak to him the entire 3 years he was on the show.  He said it jokingly but I have no doubt there was some truth to it. 

[BetterForgotten]

Really weird, contrast that to Douglas Watson and Beverlee McKinsey - everyone always talked about how nurturing and polite they were. In McKinsey's case, she also had that reputation on GL with the younger cast. 

 

But whatever, not everyone is going to be a nice person to work with in any environment. It's just that in the entertainment business, that reputation will follow you and haunt you forever. 

Edited April 21, 2020 by BetterForgotten

[watson71]

I think Paul Rauch, while being a creative genius had been documented to have problems on every show that he produced, was more of a problem than VW.  Rauch was producing a #1 show that was both a critical and commercial success, by winning Emmys and having high ratings, that dropped in the ratings rather quickly due to three stupid moves that he orchestrated- make AW 90 minutes (more is not always better), then when that wasn't working spin-off one of AW's top stars Beverlee McKinsey (Iris) on Texas, and the third move which I believe caused major problems for AW was switching it's time slot twice in 18 months bumping it to 2:30 and then 2:00 PM.  This moved AW out of the 3:00 PM time slot where it aired for 16 years.  I do think that NBC and Rauch should have left AW in the 3:00 PM time slot when Texas premiered.  AW could have held its own better against GH and GL than Texas which was doomed from the start.

 

i imagine that VW could have been a diva, and that being the star of a show that went from #1 to the bottom of the ratings was not easy during 1981-82.  Rauch and P&G were trying every and anything to compete with the ABC shows to make AW competitive again with a lot of location shoots and action/adventure sequences- something AW had avoided in the past.  So I can see why Burton and Canary would say what they said.  There can be a lot of finger pointing when things go wrong as to who is to blame.  

 

I think VW stayed out of loyalty to the fans who stuck with the show for all those years.  When AW ended, she was at an age where there were not so many parts available.  I don't believe she was not hired because of how she acted backstage.  I think she retired because she was tired of the backstage politics and game playing that still continues on all the soap that are still airing.

Edited April 21, 2020 by watson71

[chrisml]

She doesn't seem like a very warm person, but she was also on a show that the network was trying to sabotage for two decades. They were also trying to get rid of her so I can understand why she would not be the nicest person. I found a very long interview she did, and it talks about her time on the show. It doesn't get into any storyline or cast specifics which was a bit disappointing: https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Victoria_Wyndham_on_Another_World_and_another_life

[KMan101]

 

Same for Constance Ford. She was nurturing and helpful, and well liked (I believe).

 

A little surprised Wyndham was so cold, considering the actors she was around. Has there been any recent interviews with her? Anyone ask Sandra Robinson about her? Linda Dano? Schnetzer? 

Edited April 21, 2020 by KMan101

[BetterForgotten]

Bev always said she didn't want to play Iris again or commute to Brooklyn where AW was taped, but I wonder if there were other issues she didn't speak to as to why she wouldn't return to AW (granted she was still in the P&G family at the time at GL). I've always wondered how she and VW got on in real life. 

[Mona Kane Croft]

 

I think VW also pulled out of DOOL because she realized the dialogue was going to be campy and make fun of the genre and even the fans.  

 

Back to David Canary's comments about AW -- he also said the atmosphere in the studio was toxic, and he was glad when he was released from his contract.  And he implied that VW was difficult as well as unhappy.  He basically said his experience at AW was a negative one, but that AMC was the opposite.   

[AbcNbc247]

What role was she supposed to play?

[Efulton]

My understanding is that both Matt Crane and Sandra Ferguson had great relationships with VW and maintained contact with her for at least a while after Another World ended. 

I read an interview with Beverlee where she said her female screen partner  on AW always had to have the last word in every scene with her. She made this woman sound petty, insecure and competitive. Beverlee did not name the actress.  

Edited April 21, 2020 by Efulton

[OzFrog]

Been watching some Cass/Frankie and Cass/Lila clips on Youtube, and it reminded me of a question I posed on the old RATSM newsgroup just before the show ended in 1999. I thought it would be a great opportunity to do it again:

 

If Lila, Frankie, *and* Kathleen happened to be in Bay City all at once, and Cass had to choose only one of them, who would he choose and why?

[teplin]

I was just going to pop in to write what Efulton did -- I recall Sandi Ferguson and Matt Crane speaking warmly of VW. Of course, that was some years after the disastrous early 80s, when the writing took a long and steep nosedive. I wouldn't be surprised if VW was unhappy then.

 

 

Dano, Schnetzer and others used to talk about how being filmed out in Brooklyn, away from other soaps and the NYC media, made the cast feel more of an ensemble. 

[BetterForgotten]

Oh, make no mistake, Linda Dano by all accounts brought a lot of morale to that set and was very much doing her best to keep spirits up there during some crazy times. 

[AbcNbc247]

Yeah. Kale Browne said something like that on the AW reunion. He said filming away from everything, in Brooklyn really allowed the cast to bond and become close with one another. It’s a shame if VW wasn’t apart of that.

Edited April 21, 2020 by AbcNbc247

[KMan101]

 

That's good to hear about Sandra and Matt keeping in touch with her (or that they did). 

 

Sounds like Beverlee was talking about Vicky Wyndham ... lol.

[Aback]

 

So was her big, revolutionizing idea to implement product placement? I get that this was in the late 90s but isn't that how soaps basically started? Also- to produce a 1 hour, uninterrupted show is more costly than producing a 40 minute show + commercial. Not to mention that writers are not trained for that kind of thing. Still interesting though.