Another World

[Paul Raven]

Rhonda Lewin has been totally forgotten as Vicky. She was on for 4 months Sept - Dec 86.

By the end of 86,only Rachel.Ada,Nancy,Mac,Felicia,Wally and MJ survived from the year before.,Catlin,Brittany,Quinn,Peter,Maisie were all about to be dropped.The rest of the cast (mostly newbies) had come on in 86.Not really a formula for stability.

An article about Marley/Vicky.

An actress puts her reputation on the line when she signs on to play twins Vicky and Marley on ANOTHER WORLD. Not only does the dual role demand a high level of technical expertise and the ability to make swift emotional transitions, it also can make or break an actress's career. The first two actresses to play Vicky and Marley, Ellen Wheeler and Anne Heche, made their names playing the twins: They both won an Emmy for their popular and critically acclaimed performances. Both performers attest to the toll that playing Vicky and Marley took on their lives. In the seven years since the characters appeared together, Vicky/Marley has become the most concentrated dual role on daytime — and arguably the most difficult role to play.

Former AW writer Gary Tomlin, who created the role with Gillian Spencer, says Ellen Wheeler was already playing the more sympathetic Marley when the dual role was conceived in 1985. Tomlin says NBC was opposed to developing a twin story on the show. "There were so many twin stories at the time, it scared them off," Tomlin, who is now writing for SANTA BARBARA, notes. We defended the character, and they came around."

Ellen Wheeler reveals that the impetus for Vicky came from an observation Gillian Spencer made when she caught Wheeler unawares on the set. "She told me that something in the look of my eye made her think that they weren't tapping something inside of me," Wheeler says. Up until that time, Wheeler's colleagues at the studio generally regarded her as an innocent girl I'm Utah whose ears were too pure for ribald backstage banter. "I was really this nice sweet girl," Wheeler remembers. "People would apologize if they swore or told dirty jokes in front of me." That all changed the afternoon she made her entrance as Vicky — in a tank top, tight jeans and cowboy boots. "All of a sudden, it wasn't a big deal to swear in front of me. Men said things to me in the afternoon [when she taped Vicky's scenes] that they wouldn't have said in the morning [when she taped Marley's scenes]. It was a greatt study in human nature."

It was also the beginning of a two-year period when Wheeler would work harder than she ever had in her life, marry her leading man, Tom Epiin (Jake), and bring ANOTHER WORLD much notoriety. Wheeler's basic working schedule for one year consisted of sixteen to eighteen-hour days, four days a week. On weekends, Wheeler and Epiin made public appearances. While she loved the creative challenge of performing both roles (especially when Vicky pretended to be an ill Marley), Wheeler confesses that the media storm took her by surprise. "I didn't realize how much attention I was getting," she says. "Things like getting the Emmy never really crossed my mind. It took me a long time to realize that I was actually on TV."

The implications of fame did come crashing in when Wheeler won the Emmy for Outstanding Ingenue in 1986. Wheeler was unprepared for what she calls the "folderol" that came with it. "It took a few months for it to sink in that I won. I was a newlywed; it was all pretty overwhelming."

Eventually the role took its toll on the star, in more ways than one. Sixty pages out of a ninety-page script contained dialogue for Vicky or Marley, and Wheeler went to the writers to ask for a break. "I loved what I did so much that it didn't dawn on me that I would wear out," she says. "Had I been smarter, I would have said something. By the time I realized I was exhausted, I couldn't handle it and needed a rest." A three-week leave of absence didn't help; Wheeler and Epiin filmed a pilot. The couple was overbooked — they spent their first Christmas together doing interviews — and Wheeler finally left the role in 1986. Though she says on-the-job stress was not a factor, Wheeler's marriage to Epiin broke up soon after. She went into self-imposed exile and did not return to TV until she accepted another Emmy-winning role on ALL MY CHILDREN as AIDS-afflicted Cindy.

Aside from her professional accomplishments as Vicky and Marley, Wheeler established an important precedent for other actors playing dual roles on daytime: better pay. A union spokesperson reveals that, with the rise of dual roles on soaps in the 1980s, the American Federation of Television and Recording Artists had to enforce what they call a doubling provision that guarantees a performer another program fee when he or she appears as two characters in one episode.

Wheeler's mastery of the split-screen technique also enabled AW to push the characters into the forefront of the story. "We would tape one side of the scene and whatever space I had left for the lines I had to fill exactly, to the second," she says. "I loved doing them. It's great fun to overlap [the characters' dialogue].

Wheeler's successor in the role, Anne Heche, also excelled at her use of the split screen. And she shared an unusual, almost telepathic, relationship with her double, Debbon Ayer. "Our minds were so tuned into the way the other was thinking," says Heche. "We knew all the technical things so well." Ayer was Heche's double for a year and a half. "That was just a blessing," Heche says. "That was the key to doing it because you can't act by yourself."

Heche played the twins longer than anybody else, 1987-1991, and reveals that, in the beginning, "It took a long time for everyone to get used to me — the cast and the audience. I never had a problem thinking people hated me; you're fed to an audience every day. Eventually they got used to me, but it took two years." The most intense period of her tenure as the twins began in 1989, when the writers sent Marley away for six months and she had time to work on the twins as two complete, separate characters, which allowed for the reintroduction of, Heche says, "a new Marley, not the buttoned-up-to-the-top woman. The new Marley was a complete person, not just the opposite of Vicky."

Heche's hard work paid off with a 1991 Emmy for Outstanding Juvenile Actress. Heche had already left the show and heard herself named the winner in a hotel room in Lincoln, Nebraska, while she was working on the TV movie version of Willa Gather's 0, Pioneers!"I was shocked. It was very nice," Heche says. "I was alone in my room, but then all the people from 0, Pioneers! came knocking on the door and had a party for me in a little hick bar."

The vacancy left by Heche was keenly felt by AW producers and Head Writer Donna Swajeski. "Anne Heche was the show, and that was dangerous," says Swajeski. "What taught us a lesson was when we were faced with losing her. We knew we were going to take a hit in the ratings." Recasting the roles proved controversial, as Ellen Wheeler auditioned for the part and did not get it. Wheeler's past with Epiin might have directly affected the decision not to recast. "Ellen is so identified with Tom Epiin, and we're building a romance with Jamie (Russell Todd)," Donna Swajeski said in the October 15, 1991, issue of SOD. Swajeski was grooming Jensen Buchanan (ex-Sarah, OLTL) to be her new Vicky/Marley. "The glamour [we had with Heche] also befits Jensen," says Swajeski. "We keep her visually exciting and made her a lot more volatile."

To avoid any more actor burn-out, the writer says that AW has cut back on the amount of air time the characters receive. "We can only write Jensen a few times a week, three days. We've reduced the amount of scenes Vicky and Marley have together. We're at a point in our budget where we've been told to pull back.

TWINS' PEAKS

The dual role is a patented path to the Daytime Emmy Award. The winners were:

•Erika Slezak, 1984, 1986 Best Actress, Viki/Niki.OLTL

•David Canary, 1986,1988,1989 Best Actor, Adam/Stuart, AMC

•Ellen Wheeler, 1986 Outstanding Ingenue, Vicky/Marley, AW

•Julianne Moore, 1988 Outstanding Supporting Actress, Frannie/Sabrina, ATWT

•Anne Heche, 1991 Outstanding Juvenile Female, Vicky/Marley, AW

•Nominated in 1987 as Outstanding Guest Performer was Celeste Holm for Clara/Lydia Woodhouse on LOVING

The recession may be a blessing in disguise for Jensen Buchanan. She attests to the difficulty of trying to live up to the legacy left by Wheeler and Heche. "The hardest thing was to follow someone [Heche] who was so loved and play this kind of ballsy smarty-pants," Buchanan says. "It's hard to come in to a new group and put on that persona. Part of the reason that I took the roles is that I saw them as a really challenging way of becoming a better actress."

When she arrived at AW's Brooklyn studio, Buchanan says everyone told her that "Vicky's the fun one, Marley's boring," and since then she's "struggled" to make Marley more colorful. Criticism for her interpretation of Vicky initially upset her. "Nobody thought I could do it. I had some really long nights dealing with that," she admits. "Now I feel pretty comfortable out here at the studio. It's not nearly as difficult." Swajeski agrees that Buchanan has gracefully "delineated" the two characters. "She was always the Marley type. Now we put a lot of the heart into Vicky."

Speaking from her dressing room on a day when she is playing both sisters, Buchanan reveals that her double is pregnant and unavailable. She's looking forward to a twelve to thirteen-hour day, the kind that makes her "sense of humor deteriorate to zero. I'm changing hair, clothes, makeup, lines, mentality and blocking." To combat the stress these roles generate, Buchanan has moved with her husband, Gray O'Brien, to Brooklyn, where AW tapes. Tomorrow she's going on vacation. Does she get more vacation time because she plays two roles? "No," Buchanan blurts out, "but that will be a big renegotiation point!"

The continuing appeal of this good twin/ bad twin combo is clear — for the audience and performer. "It has a lot to do with women seeing the good and bad sides of themselves," says Gary Tomlin. "It's a role an actress can hide behind and go to extremes," says Donna Swajeski. "They can put on masks and stretch themselves as performers."

Since Vicky and Marley are so arduous to play, has ANOTHER WORLD ever considered hiring two actresses to play each of the sisters? Swajeski said it would certainly make life easier with the scheduling of vacations, but she said the show would only contemplate such a plan if "it proves to be that hard on Jensen. Then we would consider it."

Ellen Wheeler doesn't think that would ever work. "I know it's very hard and costly," she says. "But the rewards far outweigh the costs. I think the audience really loves watching one person pull off the personalities. It might actually be harder to find two people than to have one who is performing two sides of one person. I'm not sure two people could have that connection." Unless, of course, they were twins.

[DRW50]

That's funny that Ellen didn't think two different actresses in the role would work.

I don't care for the idea that they gave Vicky heart after Jensen took over the role. Vicky had plenty of heart before that, especially during Anne's last few years in the role.

I also don't believe that Jensen Buchanan was ever glamorous. She just seemed blah as Marley and like someone playing dress-up as Vicky. Jensen was more suited to later on when Vicky was given clothes that weren't exactly chic.

They really miscalculated with how they wrote Jensen as Vicky/Marley. For the talk of how they had to do this or that with Marley for her love story with Jamie, they dropped that within about six months. I think they just didn't care about Marley. They should have been honest and chosen to leave Marley behind. They didn't have anything with Marley, aside from a guest appearance, for Heche's first 6 months or more in the role.

[juppiter]

Well I definitely do think Jensen brought more sex appeal to the role than Anne Heche did. Anne Heche was pretty, but Jensen was more of a buxom blonde type. One of her first scenes as Marley she is in the pool with Jamie and HEY THERE'S her boobs.

And I think Jensen's Marley was pretty much on par with Anne Heche's take on Marley. I agree with the others that I didn't mind her Marley, it was her Vicky that was "off." And I'm not just faulting her for not playing Vicky the way Anne Heche played her, of course a new actress is gonna bring her own flair to the role. It's just that IMO she actually regresses a lot of the progress Vicky had made.

Also, I have to say it... I don't want to be libelous but does anyone else get a gay vibe from Russell Todd?

[juppiter]

Watched more clips on YouTube tonight, mainly of Marley finding out Jake and Vicky slept together and Nicole's descent into madness. Kale Browne is very handsome but I gotta say Michael is probably the biggest !@#$%^&*] that has ever been on a soap. Anna Stuart is absolutely incredible in these storylines.

[soapfan770]

I never cared for Michael at all, always thought he was a real sanctimonious jerk and hated him and Stacey. I always though Donna could do better (see Jake and Matt). I hated Michael in the 90s when he came back, breaking up Matt and Donna for no good reason and then getting involved in the Felicia/John/Sharlene fiasco. Actually to honest in spite of his veteran status when they killed off Michael in the car crash that killed Bobby too I felt a bit smug the show had managed to kill off two birds with one stone. Unfortunately by that point the show had quit using Donna entirely except to run people over.

[DRW50]

I didn't have much of an opinion on Michael until that storyline where he was a secret spy (please), broke Donna's heart, and then was outraged to learn of her affair with Jake. It was an ugly story, having Stacey take their child away and then having Michael hook up with her. It made Michael look horrible and Stacey even worse.

[Paul Raven]

Interesting story on the writing process circa 81

Edited September 28, 2011 by Paul Raven

[DRW50]

Thanks. I get what they're saying, from a writing point of view, but from a viewer's point of view, I would think having some scenes where Rachel and Mitch don't interact would be a good thing. Those characters, especially Rachel, seemed to become very isolated around these years.

[Paul Raven]

James Douglas as Eliot. After AW he went to ATWT .I wonder if he was approached at anytime to recreate Steven on RTTPP?

[DRW50]

Jacquie and Grant look like vampires.

[Paul Raven]

The original Matthews girls- Alice,Aunt Janet and Pat.Janet featured heavily in the story for the first two years and then Agnes dropped her.

[ZoeTate]

LOL Carl about Jacquie/Jim. I thought they were an attractive couple and it was quite a boon for AW to snag Douglas. I'm sure he was approached to play Steven for RTPP but I recall (he was VERY press shy) he didn't want his family on the West Coast and had moved them East for a normal schooling/life etc. I thought Joe Gallison was excellent as Steven on RTPP, in fact Gallison along with Joel Crothers was probably one actor who never failed to be great in any soap role. I think too that Alice and Eliot started to get some buzz as a couple. Remember the short wig Jacquie originally wore as Alice in NYC? I don't think I've ever seen pictures of her that way and she used a different last name. I remember getting an instant lesbian vibe between Iris and Louise when they showed up too. For some reason, McKinsey to me seemed to be non sexual in both her Iris and Alexandra soap roles.

[DRW50]

I never knew about the short wig. I wanted to ask, what was it like during the year that Jacquie was away from the show? Did you notice her absence? What was Steve doing? I know that she came in and taped a few scenes at one point.

I'd like to see more of Douglas as Elliot. It's strange that we went from that to Daniel Davis going hog wild.

I think Beverlee was asexual as Iris, but as Alex she had some sexuality at times, like with Roger.

So what stories did Janet have? Odd that she just vanished.

[Paul Raven]

Janet was having an affair with Ken Baxter,the father of Tom,who impregnated Pat,arranged her abortion and was killed by her.

She then got involved with Ernest Gregory,part of the Gregory family that James Lipton introduced.Agnes kept her on as asupporting character till he was ritten out in June 66.

[DRW50]

That's interesting. Too bad they didn't ever bring her back - she wasn't able to have children so she could have competed with Liz for the affections of the various offspring.

It's a little offputting that Janet, Pat, and Alice all had stories about how they were unable to have children.