Another World

[Xanthe]

Thanks! If it's that early in the year I guess I should have been looking for Tim Holcomb and not Richard Bekins and he must be the young man between Ada and Louise and not the partial figure in the back.

[RavenWhitney]

Donna Swajeksi was the strike writer but it's been said that Michael Zalow, Susan Hufford, Mimi Leahy, Nerissa Radell, and Janet Iacubuzio were all on the strike staff, and of course all were hired after Harding was fired. We don't know if Laibson and Swajeski controlled all story during the five month strike, used some Lemay material etc.. I would guess that Zazlow/Hufford contributed story as well.  I always thought the strike writers did a fairly decent job keeping the show going and Harding's stuff threw a boring money wrench into it.  Harding was passed his prime by 1988 and unable to sustain the pace of an hour show after Monty GH era of adventure and faced pace plots.  He was good as consultant.

Edited April 2, 2023 by RavenWhitney

[Mona Kane Croft]

As someone already mentioned, Sally was away at boarding school during this period.  Regarding Charlie and Clarice, I'm fairly sure Ada and Charlie were not married at the time the photo was taken, so I did not count them as Corys.  I did include Sylvie as a Cory, since she was Iris's mother.   Regarding the Frames, I didn't count them, but I'm sure there were fewer than eight.  Janice, Vince, Willis, and Jamie.  Any other Frames?  I do not think Willis and Gwen were married at the time of the photo. 

Pat and Liz began working for Cory Publishing around 1976, I believe.   And you are correct, by 1979, there was not much of a close connection between the Matthews and the Corys.  Russ and Iris ended their engagement in 1975, and that had been the closest connection between the two families.  Harding Lemay did make efforts to have the two families interact fairly often by having Rachel and Russ become close friends and confidants; John Randolph doing legal work for Iris; by having the Cory housekeeper, Beatrice revealed as Sally Frame's bio-grandmother; and by having Pat and Liz employed by Mac.  

[Xanthe]

According to the AWHP Willis and Gwen were married in August 1978. And Angie Perrini had married Vince in May 1978. But maybe they are no longer together since Vince apparently marries  Mimi Haines in June 1979.

[Jdee43]

Why didn't Harding Lemay get a longer stint back in 1988? Penny pinching from network execs? Swajeski came cheaper? Did Lemay want to stay?

[Efulton]

We Love Soaps: So when you were asked to come back to ANOTHER WORLD in 1988, was the plan to be a consultant or the head writer again?
Harding Lemay: I don’t know what they had in mind, really. I was the head writer for awhile. And then there was a strike. And during the strike they hired some NBC people to do the writing. Then they fired me and kept the ones they used during the strike, and the show got worse and worse and worse. But even by then, when I went back, it wasn’t going to work. I could see they weren’t interested. They weren’t excited enough by what I wanted to do, whereas before they had been very excited about the ideas I had. Procter & Gamble were very upset by my book [“Eight Years in Another World”]. I was very harsh on them. Nobody thought they would ever hire me again. But they were in deep trouble, so they hired me, and forgot all about it.

I was no longer that keen on doing it either. I didn’t need the money. And then I began to be a consultant. And it’s very interesting, the consultant’s fees were very high. You’d make $2,500 a day. I had a contract that said I had to be paid for three days a week whether they used me three days or not. I did that on four shows altogether. What you do is sit in with the other writers, make suggestions, and try to help them work out what they’re doing.

[Melroser]

Man, I want a consultant job. $10k/month to tell people their ideas suck. Not bad. 

Of course, if they even paid for consultants these days it would be a $1.50/wk. 

It still baffles me that they wouldn't have given Lemay a longer stint to try and right the ship. With his history, he deserved better. What would they have had to lose at that point?

 

[chrisml]

IS Harding Lemay a reliable narrator of what happened during his tenures at AW? I remember a few things he said being disputed by members of this board and the people involved (Jacqueline Courteney to name one). I also don't think AW was in bad shape in early 1988. It had so much potential, and there were storylines that should have been followed through on. I enjoyed Swajeski's tenure up to 1990 but I didn't like how there were also a lack of follow through. Her stories for the most part tended to just fizzle out. Aw had the problem that one character would drive story for months/a year or so and then be written out (Howard's Nicole comes to mind). The Red Swan is another example of a story that went nowhere.

[watson71]

I wonder what the writers had planned for the summer and fall of 1989 had Douglass Watson not passed away so suddenly.  Clearly there had to be some sort of storyline where Mac and Iris would eventually reconcile that we never saw.

[j swift]

I forget the details of the takeover.

Was Cory in some financial trouble that made it vulnerable to being acquired by Iris? Were those financial issues ever resolved, and could that have been part of the follow-up?

I would hope, given Harding Lemay's track record, that the follow-up would have explored the depths of Mac, Iris, Amanda, and Rachel's relationship because he never seemed inspired by business-based stories.  But, IIRC nobody was ever concerned about the economic health of the publishing company after Mac's death.

Edited April 4, 2023 by j swift

[Xanthe]

Since we were talking about Wallingford's personal life a while ago, just wanted to note for posterity that around the time Felicia met Zane, Wallingford confided in her that he had been engaged before but his fiancée's  family had interfered and prevented the marriage. 

[AbcNbc247]

Donna Swajeski's probably the only one that knows what the storyline would have been like.

Worse and worse?

Not necessarily. That first half of 1989 was brilliant. 

[chrisml]

Has Donna Swajeski ever spoken about her tenure on the show? Not during her tenure, but after she left.

[Melroser]

 While watching the entire run of Dark Shadows, I can't help but wonder how Humbert Allen Astredo would have done as Reginald Love instead of John Considine. I know the writing didn't do the character of Reginald any favors, but I think Humbert could have played the villain better. Doing so without the twirling mustache take at times that John had. 

Edited April 29, 2023 by Melroser

[watson71]

Not that I know of… Definitely would like to know what she had planned for 1989 had Douglass Watson not passed away. There definitely would not had been any Red Swan lol

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