Another World (AW) (sometimes called Another World: Bay City to distinguish it from its spinoffs in the 1970s and 1980s) was a Daytime Emmy-winning American soap opera which ran on the NBC television network (and, for a time on CTV in Canada) from May 4, 1964 to June 25, 1999. It was co-created by Irna Phillips and William J. Bell.
There were 8891 episodes of Another World produced. AW spawned two soap spin-offs: Somerset (1970-1976) and Texas (1980-1982). A one-time primetime special was also aired in 1992, entitled Summer Desire. AW was produced by Procter & Gamble Productions, which produced the majority of the American soap operas in the 1950s and 1960s. It was produced at the NBC studios in the Midwood area of Brooklyn for the entirety of its run (The Cosby Show was also produced there and it is currently the home of As the World Turns).
In the beginning, the show was pure coffee-table high melodrama revolving around two branches of the Matthews family in a midwestern town called Bay City, a goal that was attained by veteran soap writer and creator Irna Phillips. By comparison, Another World focused on more melodramatic situations than Phillips' most popular soap As the World Turns, which was more ordinary and even mundane.
When Phillips created the show, she saw it as a sister program to her other creation, As the World Turns, and that there would be crossover storylines and characters between the two programs; even the title of Another World suggested similarity to ATWT. However, none of the other soaps on CBS, on which ATWT aired, were in danger of cancellation, and AW was picked up by NBC. After that, Phillips saw no reason to link up the two programs (interestingly, during its last twenty years on the air, Another World and As the World Turns competed in the 2:00 daily timeslot).
In the first year, the show had a controversial storyline involving teenager Pat Matthews having an illegal abortion after falling pregnant to her boyfriend. This was the first time that a daytime soap opera had covered the subject, which is still considered taboo on American daytime television. In the story, the abortion made her sterile, and the shock from the news caused her to find her ex-boyfriend and shoot him in cold blood. Pat was eventually brought to trial and acquitted. She then fell in love and married her lawyer, John Randolph (Michael M. Ryan).
In 1967, the show's ratings became stagnant. Agnes Nixon was hired as head writer, and her first job was to either kill off "dead wood" in the cast, or have new actors replace key characters (most notably, Beverly Penberthy replaced Susan Trustman in the role of Pat Matthews Randolph). Nixon created the roles of Ada Lucas (Constance Ford) and her daughter Rachel Davis (Robin Strasser), which were immediate successes. Rachel was a schemer who grew up in a lower-class background, and fought for what she wanted, even if it meant she had to resort to underhanded means. Her mother Ada was much more honest and down-to-earth, and provided a good foil for Rachel, as Ada was the only person Rachel really loved, besides herself.
The next year, businessman Steve Frame (George Reinholt) was introduced. A shrewd businessman, he grew up in a poor background and earned everything he worked for. He and Rachel immediately bonded over their respective pasts, but he also became involved with Alice Matthews, who was more sophisticated, shy, and demure, something he really looked for in a wife. They courted and were to marry in 1969, but the marriage was called off when Rachel, with whom Steve was sexually involved, crashed the engagement party with the news that she was carrying Steve's child. She gave birth to a son, James (later referred to as Jamie), in November.
As 1970 began, Alice had a breakdown and went to live in France. Steve and Rachel bonded yet again, this time over their child, but Alice eventually returned and she married Steve the next year. It was around this time that sponsor Procter & Gamble hired a newcomer, playwright Harding Lemay, to write the program. Lemay used his training in Broadway to recruit Broadway actors to play roles on the series, and his screenplays took the form of tragic plays, as they were carried out in five dramatic acts. It is Lemay's tenure, which lasted the whole of the 1970s, that soap opera publications such as Soap Opera Digest call
Thoroughly convinced that her child would be instrumental in breaking up the new Frame marriage and snagging her Steve once and for all, she enlisted the help of her drifter father, who tricked Alice into finding Steve and Rachel in a compromising position. She filed for divorce and again left town. Fed up with Alice's wavering ways, and already feeling an attachment to Rachel and a duty to have more of a role in his son's life, Steve married Rachel (now played by Victoria Wyndham, who took over for Strasser). When Alice returned from Europe for a second time, she exposed Rachel and her father's scheme, which accidentally sent Steve to prison as an accomplice to embezzlement. When he was released, Steve reunited with Alice; although she had sent him away, he was too alienated against Rachel to rekindle any feeling.
As Steve and Alice were finally allowed to be together (they were married for the second time on the tenth-anniversary telecast), Rachel found love with an older, wise magazine editor, Mackenzie "Mac" Cory (Douglass Watson). This was in tune with Wyndham's wish that Rachel be played with more facets to her character — for many years, her character was totally "black" in personality, compared to "white", good Alice. Both Lemay and Wyndham, who were at the time new to the series, wanted to change the character of Rachel as she was so blindly hated by many fans, who wrote to the NBC studios wishing that she be killed off.
Originally, Mac and Rachel were not planned to have a romantic coupling. Writer Harding Lemay noticed the chemistry between actors Douglass Watson and Victoria Wyndham, and wrote a slow-developing love story for them. Fearing backlash from viewers who may have found an older man-younger woman relationship tasteless, Lemay penned chance encounters for the two characters, which led to innocent yet intimate conversations. By the time the characters had their first kiss, the story had gone on for six months. Continuing on the slow path, Mac and Rachel's relationship blossomed until they were wed.
Mac and Rachel were married by a justice of the peace in the Cory mansion on Valentine's Day 1975. The drama produced by Mac and Rachel's marriage and Mac's daughter's insane jealousy (Mac's daughter, Iris, was portrayed at this time by Beverlee McKinsey) fueled the storylines for most of the late 1970s. Iris, who was sheltered and wanted to be the only woman in her father's life, resented Rachel, who was her same age. Iris's schemes to drive Rachel away from Mac often backfired, and drove a wedge between father and daughter, instead of bringing them together. The presence of the Cory maid, Louise (Anne Meacham), proved for sometimes comedic relief in an otherwise dramatic storyline. Other times, Louise served as a stern confidante and a sometime voice of reason for Mac during fights with either Rachel or Iris.
While Alice became a character with little story (her husband, Steve, was presumed dead after his helicopter crashed in Australia), her siblings' stories expanded. Her sister Pat Randolph experienced marital problems with her husband John. He ended up divorcing Pat and marrying the maniacal Olive (Jennifer Leak).
The ratings for Another World had declined since its final peak at #1 in 1978. To keep the spot, executive producer Paul Rauch pitched the idea to NBC to make the show longer. Although not at its peak, the show was still the most successful soap in NBC's lineup, so they agreed. Lemay (with the help of Tom King), penned a special effects-laden storyline involving the fiery death of Michael M. Ryan's character John Randolph, who had appeared on the show since 1964. The storyline was kept secret from the press.
John's death on March 6, 1979, as he was saving his former sister-in law Alice from a burning building, coincided with the move to 90-minute episodes each weekday. It was at that time that Lemay, who had written since 1971, decided to hand over his duties to Tom King, citing overwork. While the ratings got a slight boost, most viewers did not like the change to longer episodes; the new time format allowed the writers to introduce many new characters, most of whom did not catch on with the audience. Beverlee McKinsey got her own spinoff series, Texas, in 1980, and to accommodate her new series, Another World went back to 60 minutes, and was moved from the three o'clock hour to two o'clock. Another two million viewers defected, partly due to McKinsey's departure and partly due to the new time change. Because of the audience erosion, the move to 90-minute installments is generally regarded as a failure.
Mac and Rachel had their own marital troubles, mostly regarding Rachel's decision to work full-time as a sculptress. Rachel did not want to pursue a career at first, thinking she could simply live off Mac's earnings as a publisher, but Mac encouraged her to find work in a field that interested her. When she found that she was very good at sculpting, it took up more and more of her time, even after giving birth to their daughter, Amanda, in 1978. After Rachel falsely accused Mac of infidelity (Mac was unfaithful years before, but this time he wasn't), Mac became involved with his secretary, Janice Frame (Christine Jones), and in 1979, Rachel asked for a divorce. To crack a scheme that Rachel suspected Janice was spearheading, Rachel slept with photographer Mitch Blake (William Gray Espy). The long-running Mac/Rachel/Janice/Mitch storyline carried on for a year until it culminated in a fight scene taped on location in St. Croix, in which Janice Frame's plan to kill Mac and acquire his estate was found out by Rachel. After a scuffle involving a knife, the two women fell into a swimming pool, and Rachel came out alive, having killed Janice.
Mac and Rachel were married again, but Rachel was saddened to find that she was pregnant — with Mitch's child. She was prepared to keep the secret until Mitch was "murdered." Rachel was forced to admit on the stand that the child (Matthew) in question was Mitch's. She was then sentenced to eight years in prison for Mitch's murder, and Mac started divorce proceedings, all the while believing that something wasn't right. Following his intuition, he tracked down Mitch, who was alive and didn't remember any events surrounding his supposed death.
In the end, Mac freed Rachel from prison and even dropped the divorce, but he was always jealous of Mitch; by this time he had returned to Bay City to be closer to his son. In the end, it could not be worked out and Mac and Rachel divorced a second time. Steve Frame came back from Australia, complete with daughter Diana (played by Anne Rose Brooks) in 1981 (it was revealed that he did not die in 1975; he also received a new look, thanks to David Canary taking over the role). Steve and Rachel reminisced about their old love affair and even planned a wedding, after Rachel nearly lost Steve after a column pinned him to the ground inside a building slated for demolition. On their wedding day in February 1983, a car accident claimed Steve's life — for good. Rachel survived, and Mac told Rachel how much he loved her. A double wedding was planned in the summer of 1983, with Mac's son Sandy (Christopher Rich) and his fiancĂ©e Blaine Ewing (Laura Malone).
As the show went through the 1980s, the Love family became more prominent, at the expense of the core Matthews family. In 1982, Beverly Penberthy was written out of the show, effectively severing the few ties to the original family that were left on the program.
The Love family was headed by tyrannical patriarch Reginald (John Considine), he had either allied with or alienated all of his children. His daughter Donna (Anna Stuart) ended up marrying the love of her life in stable boy-turned-businessman Michael Hudson (Kale Browne). However, the fact that she had a fling years ago with Michael's brother John (David Forsyth) complicated matters for years. Donna had twins, Marley and Victoria (first played by Ellen Wheeler and later by Anne Heche), who ended up reunited after many years apart. Victoria's adoptive mother, Bridget Connell (Barbara Berjer) ended up moving in with the Hudsons and took care of the family until her character died.
One aborted love story was the impending marriage between M.J. McKinnon (Sally Spencer) and Adam Cory (Ed Fry). After a videotaped surfaced, showing M.J. in her prostitute days, having sex with a client, Adam dumped her, and she left town. M.J.'s old flame, and her former pimp, Chad Rollo (Richard Burgi) sent the tape to Adam in the hopes of a renewed romance with M.J.; it did not work.
Mac's daughter Iris was devastated when she heard the news. She had returned to town late in 1988 (Australian Carmen Duncan had taken over the role) and hadn't formally reconciled with her father before his passing. During this shaky time, Rachel found that she needed to rely on her mother Ada more than ever.
Felicia and the woman in question, Lorna Devon (Alicia Coppola) had become enemies fast, especially after Lorna went behind the scenes at Felicia's talk show and switched live footage with a videotape of a pornographic video Felicia's adoptive daughter Jenna Norris (Alla Korot) had unwittingly made. Felicia and Lorna ended up repairing their relationship, especially after Lucas's untimely passing.
Jenna found true love with rocker Dean Frame (Ricky Paull Goldin); their happiness, and Dean's success as a rock star, was chronicled in the nighttime special Summer Desire. After Kathleen was pronounced dead in a plane crash, Cass grew close to Reginald Love's daughter Nicole (by now, she was played by Anne Howard). When Nicole Love was institutionalized for the murder of Jason Frame ( Chris Robinson), Cass slowly became attracted to Frankie Frame (Alice Barrett), who came to town to investigate her uncle's murder. After many hindrances (including Kathleen arriving in town; she was really whisked off because she was in the Witness Protection Program), Cass and Frankie were finally wed. They honeymooned on the Orient Express, which was the backdrop of a 1920s-themed special episode, in which Cass was trapped on the legendary train with all the women he had ever loved.
Jake McKinnon (Tom Eplin) came back to town for good in 1988, with his wife Marley Hudson. Their marriage broke down and the two were forced to get a divorce. After a reconciliation two years later, Jake asked Marley to marry him again. However, she had found out that he was in the midst of an affair with Paulina Cory (Cali Timmins, but by 1991, the role had gone to Judi Evans Luciano). Marley turned down his proposal, and Jake raped her. Then, Jake was shot and near death, and Marley was forced to go on trial for his attempted murder. In the end, it was proven that Paulina shot him. Jake and Marley were officially over, but it was just beginning for Jake and Paulina. Over the next five years, Jake and Paulina were married and divorced twice. While they still had a good partnership, Paulina was fed up with Jake's cons, swindles, and lies, and tied the knot with Joe Carlino (Joseph Barbara).
Amanda saw two marriages crash and burn. The first, to Sam, didn't work out due to Amanda's affair with Evan Frame; the second, to Grant Harrison (Mark Pinter) due to Grant's infidelity with Lorna Devon (by this time Lorna was played by Robin Christopher and Amanda was played by Christine Tucci). Matthew had developed a May-December romance with Donna Love, who had been very grateful that Matt helped get her savings back. Matt and Donna became a very popular couple and were broken up due to then-executive producer Jill Farren Phelps's insistence that Matt be paired up with someone his own age, and Donna likewise.
Rachel found love (and a new marriage) with reformed villain Carl Hutchins (Charles Keating). Rachel's mother, Ada, died in the summer of 1993 and she needed support more than ever; she found it in the unlikeliest source. Mac's daughter Iris didn't like this news one bit, and was prepared to startle the wedding crowd by firing blanks at Carl. Evan Frame (who had returned to town after a four-year absence) placed bullets into Iris's gun, causing Iris to gravely wound Carl. She was convicted of the crime and sentenced to prison time, and she was never heard from again.
Budget cuts caused Phelps to institute a serial killer storyline, culminating in the gruesome murder of another fan favorite, Frankie (Alice Barrett). She had tested low with focus groups, and was the perfect target to be killed. In fact, the story had actually called for Donna (Anna Stuart) to be offed, but massive fan protest caused Phelps to rewrite the episodes.
Rachel gave birth to twins, even though she was well into her fifties. Although the believability of this story was debated by fans, it was a nod back to when her mother, Ada, gave birth to Rachel's sister Nancy late in life. Robert Kelker-Kelly was lured back to the show in a different role from Sam Fowler, in which Vicky falls for the man who was given Ryan's corneas in a transplant. The storyline became convoluted as the man's mystery identity was rewritten and his former wife came to town to reclaim him. Lila Roberts (Lisa Peluso) ended up bedding Matthew Cory and having his baby before falling in love with Cass. Cass and Lila were engaged, and got married in the final episode of the show; they were the last couple to wed in Bay City.
After a series of 35th anniversary episodes, Rachel reminisced with Carl, remarked, "All's well that ends well," and the show ended with a shot of Mac Cory's picture.
Ironically, Irna Phillips' original plan of crossovers with As The World Turns was finally realized -- after Another World was cancelled. AW characters Lila (Lisa Peluso), Cass (Stephen Schnetzer), Vicky (Jensen Buchanan), Donna (Anna Stuart), and Jake (Tom Eplin) all moved into ATWT storylines. By 2002, Vicky and Jake had been killed off violently, and the crossover experiment had, for the most part, ended. Schnetzer continues to make occasional appearances, as his character of Cass is used as a "visiting lawyer" in ATWT trials.
The show was commemorated in print twice in 1999. Another World, the 35th Anniversary Celebration, by Julie Poll, was a coffee-table style book chronicling the show's history on- and off-screen. AW was the last of all the long-running soap opera programs of the time to be preserved in this way. The other book was decidedly different; The Ultimate Another World Trivia Book, by Gerard J. Waggett, listed several juicy tidbits about the show's stars and what happened behind-the-scenes. Many fans have treated Poll's book as they would a high school yearbook, getting AW actors to sign their autographs in the book along with messages of appreciation or thanks for the fans' continued support in watching the program.
In July 2003, SOAPnet, an American satellite channel, started rerunning old AW episodes from July 1987. The Another World Reunion aired on the channel on October 24, 2003. Hosted by Linda Dano, the special program reunited fan favorites such as Stephen Schnetzer, Sandra Ferguson, John Aprea, Alicia Coppola, Kale Browne, and Ellen Wheeler. On the special, Dano interviewed the members of the assembled cast, one by one, interspersed with classic AW clips. Before and after commercial breaks, Another World quiz questions were posed to the audience at home, and audience members told the viewers at home their favorite AW moments, supplemented with clips from the actual episodes (for example, one viewer said her favorite AW moment was from 1980, in which Rachel, on the stand for Mitch's murder, was forced to tell Mac that Matthew was not his child. Another viewer cited Ryan marrying Vicky while in Heaven). This special was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Special Class Special in 2004.
Currently, SOAPnet is airing AW episodes from early 1990.
While AW touched on important topics like the ones described in the article linked below, the show, for the most part, was never plot-driven. Unlike other popular soaps of the day, like Days of Our Lives and General Hospital, AW was written with characters as the primary focus, and not situations. This formula was maintained until the final years of the show when a switch to plot-driven stories, dictated by then-executive producer Jill Farren Phelps, failed.
AW was the first in many aspects as well: it was the first soap opera to talk about abortion in 1964 when such subjects were taboo. It was the first soap opera to do a crossover with the character of Mike Bauer ("Guiding Light") coming from Springfield to Bay City. It was the first to go to one hour and then to 90 minutes and then back to an hour. It was the first soap to launch two spinoffs ("Somerset" and "Texas") as well as an indirect one ("Lovers and Friends", which would be re-named "For Richer For Poorer").
AW was also the first soap opera with a theme song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 ("(You Take Me Away To) Another World" by Crystal Gayle and Gary Morris, in 1987).
However, starting in 1978, Another World began to experience an erosion in ratings caused partially by the surge in popularity of General Hospital. Another World fell from equal 1st place in 1978 to 8th in 1979 (a drop from 8.6 to 7.5), but remained NBC's highest-rating soap. Despite the fall in ratings, Another World became the first and only soap to expand to 90 minutes, a move that proved unsuccessful- it remained in 8th place in 1979-80.
After five years of sharply declining ratings, Another World experienced a mini-revival and for the 1983-84 season the show jumped to 9th place and 5.6 (compared with 10th place and 4.8 in 1982-83). It remained in 9th place through the decade, pulling in generally stable numbers.
Soap operas | Another World | NBC network shows | 1960s TV shows in the United States | 1970s TV shows in the United States | 1980s TV shows in the United States | 1990s TV shows in the United States
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