Another World

[DRW50]

Her being ushered out of town also bothers me. I think part of it was just that the story didn't seem very popular and she was easy to write out, but it also seems like a cheap exit.

DePriest seemed to preside over a lot of hostility towards women in both of her stints as AW headwriter. Both times there are storylines about women being slaughtered. Her writing for Donna, both times, was horrid (and she and JFP would have killed Donna off in 1996 if viewers hadn't complained).

[KMan101]

Ive always wondered what the deal was with the writing out of Nicole, Maisie, Quinn, MJ, Kathleen (off screen), Vicky and Nancy. Were there just too many similar young women? Of course Nicole ad Vicky were recast and then Amanda was introduced. And Lisa was around.

[DRW50]

I think Maisie and Quinn died because they were "of a certain age," and the show seemed to feel they already had enough of that age group - they were also easy targets, as they weren't core characters. Julie Osburn left the show. I'm not sure what happened with Nicole (I assume they felt the actress that was there in late 1986 wasn't working out - or they decided to drop the Nicole/Michael story). Probably the same went for Vicky. I'm not sure what happened with MJ, other than Sally Spencer paying the price for a lousy story.

I also thought that Lisa was saddled with such an ugly backstory - raped as a young girl and stalked by said rapist, cursed with psychic powers that make her "die" each time someone was killed by her stalker. Not to mention the weak pairing with Jamie. It's too bad that Joanna Going never really had her chance to shine.

[Paul Raven]

The MJ story was completely out of left field.Maybe it would have worked for Nicole Love.

The DePriest/Whitsell revamp promised a lot but it all fell apart.

Killing off Maisie and Quinn,who because of the constant cast changes, were vets by this time.Have Maisie and Vince become a new tentpole working class couple.Bring back Ben.

The Nicole and Vicky recast and later the terrible Donna recast.I consider Jamie (Laurence Lau) a bad recast as was making him a doctor.

Reg had the potential to be an Alan Spaulding/Victor Newman type but was wasted.

Getting rid of Nancy,a legacy character with tons of story to tell. The proposed return of Pam that never happened.

Edited January 7, 2012 by Paul Raven

[DRW50]

Who was Pam?

I never understood why they got rid of Nancy. I think the actress was too sugary to be a relative to Ada or Rachel, but they could have recast after some time away.

Reginald should have brought drama but he was so hammy, Donna was so dumbed down, and Peter just became a sniveling lapdog. Why not have Peter as a strong, positive force against Reginald, vying for head of the family? Why make his children so weak? What was the point?

The biggest problem AW had in the mid 80's, IMO, was trying to cast "names" - with the exception of David Forsyth, they all failed. The only new hires who developed a following were newcomers, like RKK, Sandra Reindhart, Anne Heche.

[Paul Raven]

Pam was Rachel's half sister from the somerset days.SOD mentioned a possible return.

Having her return as a rival to Rachel would have been great.Perhaps jealous and trying to worm her way into the Cory family.so many possibilities.

Agree with your assessment of the Loves.That family had potential.

Originally DePriest said AW would be about the Corys,Loves and McKinnons and each family would have an identity.But all they did was write most of them off within 1 or 2 years.

BTW hated Felicia and Mitch.

Another character not used was Ada's niece Susannah.Have Cory Ewing come to town as a new teen.

I would have resurrected the Matthews earlier too,

[DRW50]

I never knew that about Pam. I think she was called Pammy. Wish we'd seen her on AW. I wonder if Rachel ever even met her.

I liked Felicia and Mitch, although I also kind of wish we'd seen more of him with Rachel.

SOD said around the time Jenna arrived that AW was going to recast Lisa. Clearly that never happened. Do you know anything about that?

I've also spent too much time wondering why SOD mentioned Jamie/Brittany and Cass/Amanda pairings (this was when Schentzer has first returned as Cass, in summer 87 - I assume that the story would have been Rex fleecing Amanda. I don't know).

[SFK]

Rachel crossed over to Someset to deal with Gerald, who I believe Pammy lived with. I wish I could remember who shared this to give them credit, but a WoSTer visited P&G's archives in Cincinatti and read Somerset's bible where Pammy was without subtlety described, if not sanctioned, to be a Rachel clone.

[Matt]

From what I've read, Pam was never actually ment to come back. It was just the code TPTB used when they were recasting Iris. All of the auditions for Pam were really for Iris.

[Paul Raven]

I read about Pam's return way before Iris arrived.

The mention of Rex brings another lame story to mind.DePriest recycled hokey Days stories.Instead of Cass coming back estranged from Kathleen (maybe he couldn't cope with her being more successful) and seeking solace from another woman,they go with the presumed death and doppelganger stories.

Then we had Nicole return completely different from previous incarnations.And the horrible Jason Frame character.

[soapoperanut96]

Hi

I liked the show from 1995-1998 my favorite couple was Gary and josie I have a lot of episodes from them but I am still looking for more episodes from 1995-1998 I hope someone on here can help me

[Melroser]

I remember really liking MJ and Adam as a couple and being upset when they 'suddenly' trashed MJ and it was ruined.

That Halloween clip above also makes me remember how much I liked Sharon Gabet and how badly she was used on AW! Brittany was great in the beginning with the triangle of her/Catlin/Sally (Mary Page Keller), then it went downhill involving her with Peter. WOW! Rhonda Lewin as Vicky. I never disliked her but she was definitely out of her league compared to the other three actresses.

AW always had so much....potential....but could never quite capitalize, whether it be jarring cast changes or stories that didn't make 'character sense'. It was always such an underdog, and then again, maybe that is why I just loved it so much!!

[DRW50]

Did the Brittany/Peter pairing ever make any sense?

Lewin seemed to have some screen presence but casting her in a major role was an odd choice. Then again, Vicky was more of a supporting role at this point, right? I wonder how she would have been as Marley.

AW had a lot of character and the most three-dimensional, "real," characters I've ever seen on a soap. Rachel, Cass, Felicia, these seemed like real people - good, bad, ugly. I think that's one of the reasons it hung on for so long, and why it still has something of a presence today.

[Paul Raven]

Lewin had big shoes to fill,but was she really given a chance?

Maybe Vicky needed to be supporting for a few months after all the Jake/Marley/Vicky stuff and give the actress and audience a chance to adapt. Same with Lauri Landry as Nicole.

Instead they were dropped.

I remember Whitsell saying that by the end of 86 only a half dozen or so actors remained from the start of that year.Hardly a testament to the writers and producers forward planning.

[sungrey]

I will still defend the first DePriest regime from 1986-88, for the most part. A lot of people have brought up legitimate points on here, but AW was boring as hell under Sam Hall's pen from 1985-86. (Amphora dust? Please.)

The show needed a shakeup badly and it got one. The one thing I will say is it seems like a lot of the plots were either cut short or re-thought (Donna having triplets instead of twins, for example). The Mitch/Rachel dynamic was good to watch again, but then they steered Mitch toward Felicia and, while they made a decent couple, it almost seemed like a dead end.

Aw, I loved Joanna Going. She's one of those actresses that I was glad to see move on and do other things in prime time and movies. I thought she and Larry Lau had decent chemistry but then they started to write Lisa/Jamie a little off kilter. In defense of AW, I'm sure Joanna told them she was leaving the show when her contract was up so they had no choice but to go in that direction.