Another World

[Mona Kane Croft]

Believe it or not, the Chromokey scenes were one of the few things AW got right about Steve's return.   Since the days when Agnes Nixon created Steve, he always had a house in St Croix.  And between 1968 and 1975, Steve went to St Croix several times with Alice, and at least one time when he was married to Rachel.  Each time, the beach beyond the terrace was shown with Chromakey.  And when Mary Matthews died on this same St Croix terrace in 1975, it was done with the Chromakey horizon.    Corrine Jacker got almost nothing accurate about Steve and Alice's history, but somebody in the studio (probably Paul Rauch) must have told her about Steve and Alice's romantic times at the old place in St Croix, and the Chromakey beach.  So I can't complain about that.   

[AbcNbc247]

 

Yep. They were trying to adjust to the format, but you can fast forward a lot of that episode and not miss a thing. Maybe there should've spent more time on Marianne's grief rather than breaking the $10 Luckily, it got better. The padding isn't as bad in the other full 90 minute episodes that are posted.

Edited October 16, 2021 by AbcNbc247

[DRW50]

Thanks for letting me know. I will, sadly, never be seeing any of this material, so when I read about the high production values Rauch insisted  on, I had assumed they did not have Chromakey. That isn't fair of me, as I know it was an industry standard at that time. I just associate it with, frankly, Julia Hoffman screaming to Barnabas that the parallel time room is changing. 

[j swift]

I recall an interesting detail from Eight Years in Another World was that Paul Rauch owned a vacation home in St. Croix, so the establishing shots used for the Chromo-key, and the later remote during Janice's story, were also a way to write off his vacation home as a business expense on his taxes.

Edited October 16, 2021 by j swift

[amybrickwallace]

Of course!!

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[TVFAN1144]

In many ways the hour expansions hindered many soaps.  Lemay’s objective was for longer scenes and dialogue which he did well. But eventually large casts and new families were added taking away from the original core families.  

[Mona Kane Croft]

Actually this episode is on Youtube.  I watched it a couple of years ago.  I don't know the original episode date, or how you would search for this particular episode, but it's there somewhere, if you're interested.   

[AbcNbc247]

Pretty sure it was October 15, 1981

[DRW50]

Sorry, I meant the Lemay episodes you mentioned. I haven't watched this period because 1980 put me to sleep and I haven't rushed to go back.

[amybrickwallace]

I think you could FF all but about 10 minutes!! Then you also have flashbacks!!!

[Chris 2]

LOL @ that Steve and Alice scene. I’ve never seen that Alice before and David Canary has an awful dye job.

It’s as if they brought Luke and Laura back, but now they were portrayed by Monte Markham (with a perm of course) and Karen Morris Gowdy. “Guess what, fans? Luke and Laura are back!”

[Xanthe]

Did they realise any improvement in the ratings with the audience checking out whether "Steve" and "Alice" were worthwhile? Was David Canary considered Bonanza-famous?

Did they intend to recreate the Steve and Alice romance, or was the plan all along for Rachel to get Steve back while Mac and Alice receded into the background? I have a hard time grasping what attracted Mac to Alice -- his other relationships that we saw onscreen seem to have tended toward difficult women. (But perhaps Janice was sweet to him to his face in order to entrap him and I am considering her secret murder plot against him to consider her difficult.) The love quadrangle seems very lopsided.

[vetsoapfan]

The ratings were anemic before the attempt to renew the Alice/Steve/Rachel triangle, and did not improve at all during its run.

It was reported at the time that the idea was to rebuild Steve and Alice as a pair, but Linda Borgenson had no chemistry with anyone, and David Canary was a better actor with potential, so TPTB switched courses and veered Steve towards Rachel. That idea was a failure too, because "old-time" Steve and Alice fans did not buy it, and Rachel fans only wanted her with Mac, so the show finally cut its losses and killed Steve off yet again.

[Mona Kane Croft]

Another World never improved in the ratings after 1979.  Never once got above number 9, whatever shenanigans they tried: Bringing back Steve and Alice; devoting a third of the cast to crime/mob stories; firing Beverly Penberthy; the comedy of Felicia and Wallingford; the return of Iris; beautiful huge sets courtesy of Jill Ferrin Phelps; Vicky Wydham as Justine, the Lumina plot; a gorilla in the final episode.  Nothing raised the ratings. 

I wonder if anyone ever considered returning to class-conflict with a middle-class family as the core?  Obviously not.   

[vetsoapfan]

Nobody in charge understood the show or the audience or what viewers wanted to see (a problem rampant on daytime TV for decades now).