Another World

[Khan]

Erika Slezak echoes your sentiment in her Archive of American Television interview, @Paul Raven.  IIRC, she tells the interviewer (and the viewers who download the interview) how upset it makes her to hear people denigrate acting on soaps, when - as she puts it - it isn't easy work to do, and that many from film/theater have tried to do it and couldn't.  (IIRC, too, even her own father said doing a three-day stint on OLTL as her godfather was his most terrifying experience as a performer, lol).

[Dion]

I found this interesting while perusing the 1975 synopses at AWHP. There were indeed plans for several new cities in Australia under the prime minister of the time, Gough Whitlam (if you know Australia, you'll know that most of the population is crammed into the 5 largest capital cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide and this was an ultimately failed attempt to change that).

For context, this was a week before Mary died and two months before Steve died was presumed dead.

Oh and on another Another World note, Gough Whitlam was the prime minister after Julian McMahon's dad (William McMahon), Whitlam having beaten McMahon in the 1972 election.

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Edited October 17, 2024 by Dion
Changed from Steve died to presumed dead

[Xanthe]

I know that Caroline Stafford and Ian Rain were Australian characters played by Australian actors while Carmen Duncan's Iris was obviously not Australian. Did Diana Frame, Steve's stepdaughter, have an Australian accent (and if not was there any explanation for it)? I know I have seen scenes with Diana and I don't remember her accent at all.

[Mona Kane Croft]

I've never understood why they didn't ask Carmen Duncan to use an American accent.  During the same era, Barbara Berjer (Bridget) used a Scottish accent.  Plus John Aniston used accents in two different long-term roles (Love of Life and Search for Tomorrow).  And how about Joe Mascolo (Stefano) on DOOL??  So asking an actor to use an accent in a long-term role was obviously not unusual on soaps.  

[Xanthe]

I'm sure they probably discussed it and maybe Duncan wasn't comfortable with having to do an accent or at least in a long-term major rôle at the pace of daytime. Her accent was not so broadly Australian that it seemed like a problem to me for Iris. Do we know if she used a different accent in any of her other rôles? Some actors are brilliant with accents and others just aren't. 

Bridget rarely talked about herself but did she ever mention Scotland or anything about her own past beyond Vicky's ? 

[Dion]

Well honestly I don't know the show that well, particularly this period, but I managed to dig this episode up from YT.

I have to say, I know the actress is really American but her Australian accent is fairly decent to my New Zealand ears, she almost sounds like she's doing a stint on Sons and Daughters (an Australian soap that would start the following year)

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[Xanthe]

Thank you. Did Another World air in Australia and/or New Zealand and if so do you know what time periods?

Your post about Steve's plans for Australia being very up-to-the-minute was interesting. I wonder how much the new cities were in the North American news at the time. 

Similarly there were plans for characters to visit Finland in 1982 I think it was. I wonder if there was anything in the Zeitgeist influencing that?

[Mona Kane Croft]

Ms Duncan replaced Eileen Fulton as Lisa on ATWT for a few episodes in the 2000s.  And she used an American accent with a strong Southern influence. She did a good job with the accent, but she sounded too Southern for Lisa.  That was the director's fault.  All the director needed to do was tell her to tone-down the "Southern" a bit.  Otherwise, Duncan would have sounded very much like Lisa.  

Edited October 17, 2024 by Mona Kane Croft

[Mona Kane Croft]

I've heard this morsel of information before a couple of times. I 'd love to know the details of the original plan.  Mostly because the only character who actually went to Finland was Jim Matthews, and that is where the character died (because actor, Hugh Marlowe had passed away).  Strange that such a big storyline plan, was whittled-down to the location where AW's original patriarch passed away.  Yet nothing else happened in Finland to influence the plot.

[Dion]

I don't know the exact details but it definitely aired in Australia during at least part of the period that Carmen Duncan was on it...I don't know if they also aired the episodes with Julian McMahon (who was known in Australia for being the son of a former prime minister and for being on Home and Away). Then in 1995, it ended up on Foxtel (Pay TV) and they played the remainder of the show.

In New Zealand the show aired around 1991/92 but I don't know how far we were behind

[chrisml]

I liked Carmen Duncan's accent, so I'm glad they didn't have her change it. I wish they would do that in general instead of insisting that the actor do some very general/flavorless American accent. We have/had to suspend disbelief for so many things on soaps, and an actor's actual accent is not going to bother me. 

[Maxim]

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I started watching 1989... without even wanting to... One episode leads to another. It's so... good. WOW.

[Aback]

 

Where do you recommend that we start, Jan 16?
Is the whole 1989 playlist complete?

[AbcNbc247]

Eddie Drueding is uploading January 1989 right now.

[Maxim]

I am going back to October 27, 1988 right now... to Iris's first episode back. 1989 is not complete, it's currently being uploaded by Eddie Drueding. 1988 and 1987 are pretty complete. You can start there. I just happened to open some of the January episodes and couldn't stop watching. Today I'm going to go back 2 months in time, so I don't miss any Iris and have more episodes to watch while 1989 is being uploaded. But know I'm not an expert... just a new AW-virgin viewer. 

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