Another World

[amybrickwallace]

Not to mention The Doctors gave Dr. Mike Powers two addiction stories - an addiction to an experimental drug (Compound D!) in 1971, and an addiction to pills after losing his first patient in 1972.

[vetsoapfan]

Yes, the storyline had been a huge, extremely popular ratings' booster for the show, and upon Jacqueline Courtney's return, P&G wanted the Alice/Steve/Rachel saga to continue. Harding Lemay originally said that he thought it was already "played out," but AW got another four years of mileage out of the plot.

Yes, Lemay wrote Alice's and Steve's first wedding in September of 1971 and later their May of 1974 remarriage. 

[amybrickwallace]

Those had to have been awesome episodes. Too bad they most likely no longer exist anywhere.

[Dion]

I believe it was. Lee was drugged with the LSD in January 1968;  the ramifications played out for the rest of the year, then carried well into the following year even after Nixon left. And then as has been mentioned Lee was killed off in May 1969.

Oh I loved reading about the Danny Fargo saga.

Edited October 8, 2021 by Dion

[AbcNbc247]

It all sounds so intriguing. The flow and transition from storyline to storyline sounds almost flawless in those first five years of AW. 

[Nicholas Blair]

The sense of flow was unusually good. For instance, after Walter Curtin prosecutes Missy for Danny Fargo's murder, then he begins to court Lenore. The episode of Lenore and Walter's wedding, though the sound and video quality are poor, shows how several of the stories connect. Alice meets Steven Frame; Lee feels that she can't marry Sam because of the LSD and lets Lahoma catch the bouquet; and the opulence of the wedding makes Rachel more unhappy about the contrast with her own wedding and her life with Russ. Marrying a rich woman makes Walter feel the need to make more money than he gets on his salary as D.A., so he falls into Wayne Addison's trap, setting up the next major storyline.

Even the simple motif that "Rachel wants to be Lenore" played big dividends. Russ's salary as an intern can't satisfy Rachel's need for luxury. Rachel pushes herself into Lenore's company, and Lenore is too polite and well-bred to turn away Rachel completely. Rachel brags about being Lenore's best friend, although Lenore is closer to Pat and Alice and probably numerous others as well. When Lenore is on trial for the murder of Wayne Addison, Walter tries to create reasonable doubt by showing that other people had motive, including Steven Frame.

Rachel is called as a witness to demonstrate Steven's motives for murder, but under cross-examination, feeling a need to protect Steven, Rachel ends up loudly denying that Steven could possibly have any reason to kill Addison, and she makes the situation much worse for Lenore. I still remember the look on Judith Barcroft's face as she said, "And she calls herself my best friend."

[AbcNbc247]

I'm so glad those episodes of Walter and Lenore's wedding managed to survive being wiped. 

[Bill Bauer]

Yes! Especially since AW seems to be one of the least preserved shows. There is basically nothing, even in the museums, pre-1979. I consider the first ten years of AW to be one of the best stretches of soap opera (if not the best) in the history of soap opera and it's all just gone with the wind.  

[AbcNbc247]

Wiping was the worst mistake anyone ever made when it came to TV shows. 

[amybrickwallace]

That was an awesome summary. Thank you.

[j swift]

I'm trying hard to discern if John Randolph was one of the luckiest guys in Bay City, or one of the most cursed. 

On the one hand, he went from Lee to Pat, (the best Matthews sister in my book), and was then pursued by Olive.   He got rid of that boring kid Cathy and gained a set of very hip twins.  He faced some professional setbacks but he was still trusted for his legal advice by Alice and Steve.

On the other hand, he died in a fire, which seems like an awful way to go.  He was also injured in a car accident, struggled with alcoholism, and he had Meniere's syndrome (according to AWHP).  Olive didn't love him, he low key lusted for Alice, and Jim seemed to loose respect for him over his divorce from Pat. 

So was he a mench or a schlemazel?

Also, doncha miss characters like Lenore?  Waspy neurotics, whose main source of conflict was that they were too polite to speak their mind.  Usually paired with an earthy romantic partner to help them learn to express their needs, the Lenore's, Ann Tyler's, and Ann Forbes' of the soap world are a dying breed.  They were so tightly wound that one assumes that their heads must have exploded the first time that they reached an orgasm.

Edited October 8, 2021 by j swift

[amybrickwallace]

I'd say both!!

[Nicholas Blair]

Bill, I couldn't agree more.

[vetsoapfan]

As noted, the 1974 wedding  telecast is available on audio over at the excellent Another World Homepage website. Fans can at least listen to it, as if it were a radio play. Allegedly, according to rumor, the color video version of that episode is also floating around out there among private collectors, who refuse to share it publicly. I have never been able to verify this as a fact, although a few folks have claimed to have seen bits of it. I'm glad I was "there" to see both weddings when originally broadcast. The only good thing about being ancient, LOL, is that was around to witness so many memorable historical moments!

[amybrickwallace]

Not to mention telling us about them!!!