Another World

[Max]

VW looks absolutely stunning.

[denzo30]

Susan came and left so many times and never stayed more than a year. Lynn Milgrim is the most memorable Susan though

[juppiter]

Also Guiding Light kept the 1981 opening graphics when it switched its theme song in 1983. I think it didn't look that bizarre when GL did it -- the new theme song still fit the graphics. When AW did it, it didn't fit very well IMO.

[EricMontreal22]

Random question that probably has no answer, but...

We know that technically AW was created by Irna WITH Bill Bell (the way ATWT was created by Irna with Agnes Nixon--and then after a year Nixon became HW of GL and Bell became co-HW of ATWT with Irna). His interview in World's Without End goes on about how he co-wrote AW's first year with Irna while still co-writing ATWT with her. We also know, or always hear how Irna was out of her depth with AW--she couldn't do the type of melodrama she had created the soap to be.

But--wasn't it largely the kind of melodrama Bell WAS great at? I wonder why it took Agnes Nixon (who seems less key to that kind of storytelling than Bell) was the one who finally turned it around, and not Bell? Of course Bell became headwriter after it ran a year, of Days of our Lives (a soap Irna helped create, but never wrote for), and saved it in many ways, ratings and critical wise, the way Agnes saved AW--but it just always strikes me as odd that he didn't use that melodramatic sweep on AW if that's what was called for.

[Paul Raven]

Interesting point Eric.When Bell went to Days he re-invented it with heavy melodrama and psychologically based storytelling.As you say,the very things AW needed.

[DRW50]

I think a lot of the issue may have been down to Irna wanting heavy control over her shows. Betty Corday probably let Bill Bell do what he wanted, as she had a family, her husband had just died, etc.

Bill Bell also heavily relied on the stability of his cast, and Irna had huge problems with this early on at AW, seemingly firing some actors on a whim.

[EricMontreal22]

Great point (and thanks Paul! I've had trouble sleeping since the AMC last week drama--sad I know--and was reading soap books late in bed and just thought of that) And yes, i doubt bell had the freedom to really go where he would want to, fully, while working with irna. Certainly his nearly ten years writing ATWT with her didn't really show what he would bring to DAYS and then to his own shows

With Agnes at AW she also got to do something Bell (IMHO--I hope nobody complains) rarely was too good at, which was bring her over the top humour into the show, even if she only did it to a small degree.

[DRW50]

I wish more of Agnes' AW run was available, because it seems like a lot of the characters who started under her pen, like Lahoma and Lefty Burns, were very new to soaps. To have them be fairly regular (or in Lahoma's case, very popular and central) characters, instead of just there for one or two stories, was groundbreaking. And Agnes also seemed to be testing herself, as in her GL episodes, there's nothing of that sort.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

How did Agnes' writing for AW differ from what she had been doing at GL for nearly a decade?

Edited September 24, 2011 by Y&RWorldTurner

[DRW50]

Her GL writing seemed to follow more of the format of the strong (if neurotic) core family, the various heroines and up and coming heroines and their problems. AW seemed to have more of a mixture, like Rachel and Ada. In the GL episodes I've seen there were no characters like that - everyone was pretty much middle class.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

She was probably allowed to take more risks at AW too, as the show was still new and struggling.

What made AW's melodramatic structure so difficult for Irna? How did it differ from ATWT's and GL's?

[DRW50]

I guess if there was a difference it sounds like Irna chose big melodramatic plots from the start, instead of taking time to build characters.

[EricMontreal22]

I think AW set out to be more plot driven as well--which is usually seen as an insult but in this case I mean more so than ATWT which was so incredibly character driven back then, plot was VERY slow to happen.

SHe also spoke about how GL being 15 mins allowed her only one core family and the characters associated--30 min soaps allowed two core families and the characters between them.

[DRW50]

That's true.

So what made you think of AW again?

I've been watching some of the 1980 episodes, and what I guess was the start of the parade of the new families that came and went from AW in the early 80's. Three men are in love with dull Kit (Joey Perrini's runaway heiress wife), and she has a cadre of friends and rivals, and a father, and Judith McConnell in a role I get confused by (at first I thought she was Kit's mother [she's not] then I thought she was involved with Kit's father [she doesn't seem to be]), and boring filler scenes are devoted to these people at poolside talking about Kit and plotting against Kit. There was an amusing scene where one of the nice guys who is in love with Kit is standing around in a skintight Speedo that is the color of lettuce. As the scenes go on, he finally seems to realize just how much he's showing on national TV, and starts awkwardly putting his hands in front of his crotch.

There's also a lot of freaking out over the book that was written which Janice used to poison Mac, and this book is coming out, and Rachel has to do anything to stop Mac from learning he was sterile at the time the drug was given (which it says in the book), and the author appeared on a talk show and Rachel has to stop Mac from seeing the tape, and Rachel tries to get Russ and Ada to pump Mac or Jamie for info and stop Mac from learning the truth (Ada, hilariously, is bewildered and annoyed when Rachel expects her to tell Jamie she's suddenly interested in novels). The most interesting thing of this is seeing Russ heavily in Rachel's story, which he did not often seem to be. I wish they'd carried on with the idea of Russ and his wife adopting her baby (Matthew), as it had great potential drama.

The most interesting thing in these episodes is Cecile being a stealth bitch and Mac being too nice to get it. There was a great scene where Gwen/Dorothy Lyman (just about off the show by this time) immediately knew what a liar Cecile was but also quickly realized Mac would never believe her.

[DRW50]

There's a lot of talk about "The Arena" and a shady underworld figure, Jordan Scott (not to be confused with the melted-face time traveler of later years), and he pulled in semi-reformed bad girl Blaine, ruining her marriage to Jerry Grove, who is very young to be playing a cop turned lawyer (Kevin Conroy, who is good in the role, is now most famous for doing the Batman voice in a lot of cartoons). Blaine is constantly hounded by her ex, Buzz, who stays on the show for long periods of time for reasons I don't quite get. Jerry has one of those mothers from a 40's diner film, tough-talking, big hair, loud clothes, but good-hearted. I like her.