Another World (TV series)


Another World is an American television soap opera that aired on NBC from May 4, 1964, to June 25, 1999. It was created by Irna Phillips along with William J. Bell, and was produced by Procter & Gamble Productions at NBC Studios, 1268 East 14th Street in Brooklyn.
Set in the fictional town of Bay City, the series originally opened with announcer Bill Wolff intoning its epigram, "We do not live in this world alone, but in a thousand other worlds," which Phillips said represented the difference between "the world of events we live in, and the world of feelings and dreams that we strive for." Another World focused less on the conventional drama of domestic life as seen in other soap operas, and more on exotic melodrama between families of different classes and philosophies.
In 1964, Another World was the first soap opera to talk about abortion when such subjects were taboo. It was the first soap opera to do a crossover, with the character of Mike Bauer from Guiding Light, which was also created by Irna Phillips, coming from Springfield to Bay City. It was also the first to expand to one hour, then to ninety minutes, and then back to an hour. It was the first soap to launch two spin-offs, Somerset and Texas, as well as an indirect one, Lovers and Friends, which would be renamed For Richer, For Poorer. Another World was also the second soap opera with a theme song to chart on the Billboard record charts, " Another World" by Crystal Gayle and Gary Morris, in 1987. On April 12, 1999, NBC announced it was canceling Another World with its final episode on the network airing on June 25, 1999. NBC replaced Another World with another soap opera, Passions, on July 5, 1999.

Development

In 1963, NBC approached PGP about Irna Phillips creating a new serial for them. She decided to base it on the concept of living not only in the real life, but simultaneously living in an alternate world of hopes and desires. Attorney Mitchell Dru, who had previously been a character on As the World Turns, became a character on Another World during the early years of the program. Two characters from another CBS soap, Guiding Light—attorney Mike Bauer and his daughter Hope—did cross over in 1966, remaining for a year before returning to GL. Expectations were so high that Another World had six weeks of commercial time sold in advance.
On November 22, 1963, a group of executives met at the Young & Rubicam ad agency in New York to discuss the show's opening story, the death of William Matthews, when they heard the news of another death in Dallas: the assassination of President Kennedy.
After opening with a death in the core Matthews family, Irna planned to follow up with an out-of-wedlock pregnancy, a septic abortion, a shooting, and murder trial. As Allen M. Potter explained, "Irna just didn't want to take a chance on waiting for the ratings. She felt that with this kind of showy story she could build an audience more quickly." Said Tom Donovan, "In construction, Irna was attempting to follow the structure of As the World Turns. Irna would never conceive of a story not based on a family."

History

1960s

The Beginning

The first episode was the aftermath of the funeral of wealthy William Matthews. His widow, Liz, did not like his working-class brother, Jim, or his family. The fights between upper-class Liz and her middle-class in-laws started the show. As the '60s went on, the lives and loves of Jim's children, Russ, Alice, and Pat, took center stage. Jim's wife, Mary, usually intervened when there was a crisis, which was most of the time.
There was considerable turnover in the cast during the first year of the series. Sarah Cunningham, John Beal and Fran Sharon were all quickly replaced within the first few weeks of the show. By June, Joey Trent and Vera Allen were written out. By November, Leon Janney was replaced by Shepperd Strudwick and Roni Dengel was written out.
In the first year, the show had a controversial storyline involving Pat having an illegal abortion after becoming pregnant. This was the first time that American television had covered the subject. In the story, the abortion made her sterile, and the shock from the news caused her to find her ex-boyfriend, Tom Baxter, and shoot him in cold blood. Pat was eventually brought to trial and acquitted. She then fell in love with and married her lawyer, John Randolph. Trustman left the role of Pat in 1967 and was replaced by Beverly Penberthy.
Another notable early storyline revolved around the star-crossed romance of Bill Matthews and Melissa Palmer. Liz did not consider Melissa good enough for her son and was constantly interfering in their relationship. After many trials and hardships, Bill and Melissa were finally married, but their happiness was short-lived when Bill drowned in a boating accident.
After a one-year run, NBC was expected to cancel the program. But instead, former soap opera actor James Lipton was hired to write the show. His ideas included bringing underused members of the Matthews family: Jim, Mary, and Alice into the forefront and introducing the Gregory family; however, the Gregory family came and went fairly quickly. Agnes Nixon, then-head writer of Guiding Light, was hired after Lipton's departure to write for the program.

Rachel Davis

In 1967, Nixon created the show's most iconic character: Rachel Davis. Rachel was raised by her single mother, Ada, who provided a good foil for Rachel. Down-to-earth Ada could sit in her kitchen in her house on Bowman Street and be perfectly content with her life. Rachel, on the other hand, was a schemer who was determined to escape her impoverished background, even if it meant she had to resort to underhanded means.
Rachel thought she had hit the jackpot when she married Russ Matthews, but then she met wealthy businessman Steve Frame. Steve had also grown up poor and he bonded with Rachel over their respective pasts, but it was Rachel's sister-in-law, Alice, who stole Steve's heart. Alice was sophisticated, shy, and demure -— everything Rachel was not. Steve and Alice courted and were to marry in 1969, but the marriage was called off when Rachel crashed their engagement party with the news that she was carrying Steve's child. She later gave birth to a son named James Matthews Jamie.

1970s

Steve, Alice, and Rachel

The love triangle revolving around Steve, Alice, and Rachel took Another World to the top of the ratings. In June 1970, Alice went to live in France after suffering a breakdown. In her absence, Steve and Rachel bonded yet again, this time over their son. Alice eventually returned and reunited with Steve. The star-crossed lovers finally married.
When Robert Cenedella stepped down as head writer in 1971, sponsor Procter & Gamble hired a newcomer, playwright Harding Lemay, to write the program. Lemay's screenplays took the form of tragic plays, as they were carried out in five dramatic acts. Many people consider Lemay's tenure the Golden Age of Another World.
Victoria Wyndham took over the role of Rachel from Robin Strasser in 1972 and remained until the end of the show's run. Rachel was thoroughly convinced her son would be instrumental in breaking up the Frame marriage and snagging her Steve once and for all. She enlisted the help of her drifter father, Gerald, who tricked Alice into finding Steve and Rachel in a compromising position. Alice filed for divorce and left town again. 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.
Steve tried to settle into his new life with Rachel and Jamie, but Alice was always on his mind. When Alice returned to Bay City, she exposed Rachel and Gerald's scheme. Steve divorced Rachel and reunited with Alice. Steve was charged with embezzlement and sentenced to prison. The day before he began his sentence, Steve and Alice married for the second time. Rachel continued to scheme, even trying to evict Alice from the house Steve had given her, causing Alice to have another mental breakdown. The triangle finally ended when Steve was supposedly killed in a helicopter crash in Australia.
As the show rose higher in the ratings, NBC brass wished to expand the show to an hour; the first regularly scheduled hour-long episode was telecast on January 6, 1975.

Mac, Rachel, and Iris

Rachel began a new chapter in her life and stopped being the conniving troublemaker she had been for years. Lemay and actress Victoria Wyndham wanted to explore a portrayal of Rachel with more facets to her character beyond a one-note villainess, the "black" to "white," good Alice.
Rachel's redemption came into focus when she met wealthy publisher, Mac Cory. Originally, Mac was intended to be a love interest for Liz Matthews, but Lemay noticed the chemistry between Watson and Wyndham and wrote a love story for them. Fearing backlash from viewers who may have found an older man-younger woman relationship tasteless, Lemay penned a number of chance encounters for the two characters, which allowed the characters to get to know each other through innocent yet intimate conversations.
Mac and Rachel were married on Valentine's Day 1975. Mac accepted Jamie as his own child, but the same could not be said for Mac's daughter, Iris Carrington. Iris was a glamorous socialite who had left her husband, Eliot, and their son, Dennis, to go jet-setting. She was insanely jealous and resented Rachel, who she saw as beneath her family. The drama produced by Iris interfering in Mac and Rachel's marriage was the catalyst for the show for the rest of the '70s. Iris pulled numerous schemes to drive Rachel and Mac apart, even contributing to the miscarriage of Rachel's first pregnancy with Mac, but most of Iris's dirty deeds often backfired. After the birth of Mac and Rachel's daughter, Amanda, it was revealed that Iris was adopted, which devastated her.
The presence of the Cory maid, Louise Goddard, provided comedic relief in otherwise dramatic storylines. Louise also served as a stern confidante and a sometime voice of reason for the Cory family.

The Matthewses, Randolphs, and Ewings

After Steve's death, Alice became a backburner character for the first time in eleven years, in tune with Lemay's wish that Jacqueline Courtney leave the show. She was replaced by actress Susan Harney. Alice became a registered nurse, and adopted an orphaned girl named Sally. For many years, John and Pat had been one of Bay City's most stable couples and loving parents to their twins, Michael and Marianne. However, they began experiencing marital problems and divorced. Russ had a disastrous marriage to Sharlene Frame.
Siblings Blaine and Larry Ewing arrived from Claxton, Wyoming. Blaine had had a summer romance with Jamie and wanted to continue their relationship. Jamie and Blaine later married, much to Rachel's disapproval. Larry became a police officer and married Clarice Hobson.
John went on to marry the maniacal Olive Gordon, who committed a reign of terror on the Matthews & Randolph clans. She cheated on John with Evan Webster, blackmailed Marianne to leave town, and ruined Michael's marriage to Molly Ordway, among other misdeeds. Believing Alice and John were romantically involved, Olive decided to murder Alice. The March 6, 1979, episode featured a building being set on fire by Olive with Alice trapped inside. John rescued Alice and was killed in the process.

The 90-minute experiment

The sensational, special effects-laden episode coincided with the move to 90-minute episodes each weekday. The details of the episode were meant to be kept secret from the press, but they were leaked a month before the scenes aired. Both Guiding Light and The Edge of Night decided to counteract with their own shocking episodes to air in the same time slot: the rape of Holly Thorpe by her husband Roger and the shocking murder storyline of Wade Meecham, respectively. The reason for the change was because the ratings for AW had gone to #1 in 1978 and, in order to keep the top spot, executive producer, Paul Rauch, pitched the idea to NBC to make the show longer. The change prompted Lemay to quit after eight years, citing overwork.
At first, the ratings got a slight boost, but most viewers did not like the change to longer episodes. The episode duration opened up space for many new characters to be introduced, but most of them did not catch on with the audience. The soap also started facing strong competition from ABC's General Hospital which enjoyed a significant resurgence in the ratings starting around mid-1978 under the direction of Gloria Monty with its more action and youth-oriented storylines.

1980s

Iris moves to ''Texas''

In the final months of the 90-minute experiment, many characters debuted on Another World in storylines that focused on Iris as she planned a move to Houston, Texas.
This fictional move was incorporated in the new spin-off serial, Texas, which debuted on August 4, 1980. The initial concept was for a show set in the Antebellum South entitled Reunion, but NBC wanted something more in line with the hugely successful primetime soap, Dallas. The show was renamed Texas and series producer, Paul Rauch, chose to have it revolve around Iris. Iris initially set out to visit her son, Dennis, who had relocated from Bay City to Houston. Within a matter of weeks, Iris became involved with her first love, Alex Wheeler.
A range of new characters, who had been introduced in the storyline connected to Iris's move, also moved to the new series. To accommodate Texas, Another World went back to 60 minutes, and was moved from 2:30PM to 2:00PM. Two million viewers defected from AW, partly due to McKinsey's departure, partly due to the time change, and partly due to the influx of new characters who then moved to Texas. Because of the audience erosion, the move to 90-minute installments is generally regarded as a failure.

Mac, Rachel, Janice, Mitch, (and again) Steve and Alice

and Rachel had their own marital troubles, mostly regarding Rachel's decision to work full-time as a sculptress. Mac became close with the editor of Brava magazine, Janice Frame, who was also Steve's sister. Rachel and Mac began fighting regularly, which eventually led to a divorce. Janice and Mac married, but she only wanted him for his money. Janice was having an affair with photographer and owner of a popular local discotheque, Mitch Blake, and the two plotted to kill Mac and acquire his estate.
The Mac/Rachel/Janice/Mitch storyline had carried on for a year when it culminated in scenes shot on location in St. Croix. To crack the scheme that Rachel suspected Janice was spearheading, Rachel slept with Mitch, who by then had backed out of Janice's plan. Rachel found Mac just as the poison Janice had given him was taking effect. After a scuffle involving a knife, the two women fell into a swimming pool and only Rachel came out alive, having killed Janice.
Weeks later, Rachel was mortified to find out that she was pregnant with Mitch's child, but she still remarried Mac. When Mitch was supposedly murdered by Rachel, she was put on trial. During the trial it came out that Mitch was the father of Rachel's baby, which devastated Mac. Rachel was found guilty and sentenced to eight years in prison. Shortly after, she gave birth to a son named Matthew. It turned out Mitch was still alive and was suffering from amnesia. Rachel was set free and the future seemed bright for the Cory family, but then Mitch and Rachel began an affair. Rachel decided to start a new life with Mitch and divorced Mac.
Further straining the Cory family was the arrival of Mac's illegitimate son, Sandy Alexander. Jamie and Sandy formed a brotherly relationship, but it was damaged when Jamie's scheming wife, Cecile, and Sandy had an affair. Cecile and Sandy married and had a daughter named Maggie. Sandy left Cecile when he realized what kind of woman she was and started a relationship with Blaine. Mac became engaged to Rachel's former rival Alice Frame, who had returned to Bay City and was serving as his private nurse following a near-fatal gunshot wound.
Steve Frame was "resurrected" in 1981, first masquerading as the mysterious, wealthy Edward Black. It was revealed he was suffering amnesia and had had plastic surgery. Alice broke off her engagement to Mac and reunited with Steve. Rachel ended her relationship with Mitch and returned to Bay City from San Francisco. Mitch kidnapped Matthew, but luckily he was caught and sent to prison. Rachel and Steve reconnected and, after his relationship with Alice went sour and she left town, they reunited. Sadly, on their wedding day, a car accident claimed Steve's life—this time for good. Rachel was blinded in the accident and Mac helped her recover. They fell in love again and were married in a double wedding in the summer of 1983, along with Sandy and Blaine. In 1984, Alice returned and tended to Rachel during her bout with amnesia after being kidnapped by Carl Hutchins.

A new ''Another World''

Between 1981 and 1982, almost the entire Matthews family left the canvas: Pat moved to New York City, Marianne left to resurrect her marriage to Rick Halloway, Russ departed for Seattle, Alice left to attend medical school, and patriarch Jim died. Only Liz, her granddaughter, Julia Shearer, and Sally remained in Bay City.
After the departure of the Matthews family, the wealthy Love family was introduced. They were made up of siblings Peter, Donna, Nicole, and Marley, who was actually Donna's daughter. Their tyrannical father, Reginald, came back from the dead to cause trouble for his children. He had spent the last twenty years living under the alias LaSalle and had a whole other family, a wife, Marissa, who was none other than Mary McKinnon suffering from amnesia, and an adopted son, Scott. Peter eventually left town in disgrace after a series of his own misdeeds mostly done to please his father. Nicole became a drug addict, but recovered, but then had another nervous breakdown after accidentally shooting and killing her father's enemy, Jason Frame. Jason, who was a brother of Steve and Janice, like his other siblings, harbored a grudge against Rachel for his sister Janice's death, had worked as a stable boy for the Love's, had an affair with Reginald's former wife, and Peter, Donna and Nicole's mother, and had witnessed her murder at Reginald's hands.
Donna had started off as a snobbish troublemaker, a la Iris, but mellowed somewhat when she married the love of her life, stable boy-turned-businessman Michael Hudson. Michael and Donna had identical twins, Vicky and Marley, when they were teenagers. Vicky was put up for adoption by Reginald and grew up poor in Lassiter, Pennsylvania. Vicky came to town with her nanny, Bridget Connell, and her best friend, Jake McKinnon and they planned to swindle the Love family, but then Jake fell in love with Marley. Vicky eventually bonded with her family and Jake married Marley.
Glamorous novelist, Felicia Gallant, was introduced and became a mainstay in Bay City until the end of the show's run.

The Romance

Many popular love stories emerged in the 1980s. Felicia fell in love with ex-con, Mitch Blake, and the two had a storybook wedding. A down-to-earth love story came about between troubled Vietnam vet, John Hudson, and a newly returned Sharlene. Jamie and Lisa Grady were going to tie the knot, but Vicky broke them up when she became pregnant by Jamie. The pairing of journalist Kathleen McKinnon and playboy lawyer Cass Winthrop also proved extremely popular.
Sally fell for Blaine and Larry's long-lost brother, Catlin, and ran out on her wedding to David Thatcher to be with him. When David was murdered, Catlin took the fall thinking Sally had murdered him, but she hadn't. After going on the run, Catlin was cleared and the pair married. Their marriage was declared invalid when Catlin's presumed-dead wife, Brittany Peterson, arrived in town. Sally and Catlin legally married a year later, even though Catlin knew Brittany was pregnant with his child and was claiming Peter was the father. Sally was tragically killed in a car accident caused by Reginald mere days after her wedding to Catlin.
One aborted love story was the impending marriage between police officers M.J. McKinnon and Adam Cory. M.J. desperately tried to hide her past as a high class prostitute in Chicago, but then her former pimp and lover, Chad Rollo, arrived in town. A video surfaced of M.J. having sex with a client who just happened to be a mob boss and Adam dumped her. She decided to move to Minnesota to give herself a fresh start in life.
In 1987, the series broke new ground when they introduced Chad's sister, Dawn. Dawn fell in love with Scott, but then she learned she was HIV-positive. She had contracted the virus from a blood transfusion from her prostitute mother. Scott stuck by his girlfriend until Dawn tragically died in his arms. This was the first HIV/AIDS-related storyline to air on a daytime soap opera in the United States.

The Old and New Generation

The late 1980s saw the two core families of AW fill out the canvas: new generations of the Cory and Matthews families, as well as the return of older characters.
By 1986, all of the remaining members of the Matthews family had been written out, but the family began to reemerge in the late 1980s when Irene Dailey returned on a recurring basis, David Bailey started making guest appearances, and Allison Hossack came on as Russ's daughter, Olivia. Liz was, as usual, the town busybody, while Russ was stunned to learn he was the father of Sharlene's daughter, Josie Watts, and Olivia pursued a dancing career.
Mac and Rachel's two youngest children came back as teenagers, Amanda was now played by Sandra Ferguson and Matthew by Matt Crane. Amanda married budding artist, Sam Fowler, and they had a daughter, Alli, initially to Mac's dismay as Sam was Mitch Blake's younger brother. Matthew started a relationship with Josie, much to both of their families' disapproval due to the ugly history between the Corys and the Frames.
Iris Wheeler returned to Bay City in 1988. She revealed she was in fact Mac's biological daughter. With this knowledge, Iris was more determined than ever to win her beloved "Daddy" over once and for all. Iris claimed she was a changed woman, but it soon became apparent she was up to no good. She set up a dummy corporation called Bennett Publishing, which she ran under the code name "The Chief." Her plan was to use her company to take down Cory Publishing so she could rush in and save it, winning Mac over in the process. Rachel uncovered the truth and confronted her stepdaughter. Iris confessed all to Mac, who was devastated and left for Maine to ponder the implications.

Turning Point: Mac's death

The Cory family continued to be fan favorites, but the family's importance on the show was shaken when Mac Cory's portrayer, Douglass Watson, unexpectedly died of a heart attack while on vacation in Arizona in May 1989. At the time of Watson's death, Another World was about to celebrate its 25th anniversary, which writers had scripted in the form of a 25th anniversary celebration for Brava magazine. The Corys, minus an absent Mac, hosted a gala that featured the return of several veteran characters, including original characters Alice Frame and Pat Randolph. It also featured a mystical sequence with Rachel coaxed back from near-death by the ghost of her ex-husband Steve, thwarting Janice's attempt to lure Rachel "into the light".
Watson's death was written into the show with Mac dying of a heart attack off-screen while in Maine. Rachel, her family, and a few returning characters tearfully buried Mac on the June 16, 1989, episode. Without Watson, the show was left without a unifying center and it was up to Victoria Wyndham to fill that void. Much of the show's focus shifted to Anne Heche who played the dual roles of Vicky and Marley.
Vicky was the town schemer, very reminiscent of Rachel at her worst back in the 1960s and 70s, while Marley remained the "good" twin. Vicky married Jamie and gave birth to a son named Steven, while Marley reconciled with Jake after they nearly divorced. It soon came out that Jake had a one-night stand with Vicky and might be Steven's father. Jamie turned out to be the father, but both marriages were destroyed. After an intense custody battle, Jamie won full custody of Steven.
In Mac's will, Iris, Amanda, and Rachel had all been left equal shares of Cory Publishing. Rachel attempted to head the company and counter Iris's continued interference. When the vote for President of Cory Publishing came down, Rachel and Iris were tied. Vicky offered to use her shares to vote for Rachel if she was given custody of Steven, but Rachel turned her down. In an unforgettable moment, Vicky walked into the Cory Publishing boardroom and, to get back at Rachel for rejecting her blackmail, broke the tie by voting for Iris. However, at the suggestion of Cory Board member Ross Gordon, with Iris named president, Rachel was named CEO and Chairman of the Board.

1990s

A New Era

The absence of Mac continued to affect the show as it moved into the new decade. However, some of the show's most popular storylines came about in the 1990s.
After divorcing Mitch, Felicia was reunited with her old flame, Lucas Castigliano. Lucas hunted Felicia down in an attempt to find their daughter, who turned out to be none other than Felicia's enemy, Lorna Devon. Lorna had gone behind the scenes at Felicia's talk show and switched the live footage with a pornographic videotape that Lucas and Felicia's adoptive daughter, Jenna Norris, had unwittingly made. Felicia and Lucas ended up repairing their relationship with Lorna, but their time as a family was short-lived when Lucas was murdered. Meanwhile, Jenna found true love with rocker Dean Frame. Their happiness, and Dean's success as a rock star, was chronicled in the nighttime special, Summer Desire, which also focused on the relationships with Cass and Frankie, Ryan and Vicki, and Paulina and Jake.
Mac's death ushered in the appearance of his illegitimate daughter, Paulina Cantrell, who fought to prove her legitimacy as a Cory. Cass fell in love with eccentric private investigator Frankie Frame, who had psychic abilities, but they faced numerous obstacles to be together; the biggest hindrance was Cass's presumed-dead wife Kathleen returning to Bay City after being in the Witness Protection Program. Sharlene dealt with multiple personality disorder and was terrorized by her psychiatrist, Dr. Taylor Benson, who was obsessed with John. Sharlene was later presumed dead in a boat explosion engineered by Taylor.
The 1990 story Who shot Jake McKinnon? was one of the biggest storylines the show ever told. After his split from Marley, Jake threw caution to the wind and began scheming his way through Bay City. He blackmailed Iris after she bribed him to prove Paulina was not Mac's daughter, blackmailed Paulina with fake proof that Mac was not her father, and slept with his former mother-in-law, Donna. Marley and Jake reconciled once again, but then she found out that he was in the midst of an affair with Paulina. When Marley dumped Jake, he became enraged and raped her. He was later shot by a mystery assailant.
Jake survived and, considering his recent actions, the list of suspects included almost all of Bay City. Marley was ultimately charged with his attempted murder, though she was innocent. Luckily, Marley was not convicted, but the perpetrator remained a mystery. Jake awoke from his coma and remembered the night in question: it was none other than Paulina who had shot him! Instead of turning her in, Jake decided to use Paulina for his own nefarious purposes, including trying to break up Marley's relationship with Jamie. Jake eventually blackmailed Paulina into marriage to get his hands on the Cory fortune.
Vicky's romance with kindhearted police officer, Ryan Harrison, became one of the show's most popular love stories of the '90s. However, Vicky ruined her relationship with Ryan when she cheated on him with his brother, Grant. Vicky would come to regret the day she ever got involved with Grant as he continued to terrorize her for years. Amanda saw her marriage to Sam crash and burn when she had an affair with Janice's son, Evan Frame. Marley and Jamie's relationship fell apart due to her inability to become pregnant.
Between 1992 and 1993, there was another Matthews family exodus: Olivia left town because she was pregnant by Iris's son, Dennis, Liz departed, and Russ made his last appearance.

Renewal

Despite low ratings, the show was renewed in 1993. The lower rated Santa Barbara was given the axe instead. But Another Worlds ratings still were not performing well, becoming the second-lowest rated soap opera on U.S. television at the time after Santa Barbara's cancellation. The odds were not in the show's favor that it would be renewed again in 1999.
Rachel's beloved mother, Ada Hobson, died in Summer 1993. Rachel needed support more than ever, and she found it in the unlikeliest source, Mac's former enemy, reformed villain Carl Hutchins. The two fell in love and became engaged. Iris did not like this news one bit, and at Rachel and Carl's wedding, she planned to startle Carl by firing blanks at him. Evan placed real bullets into Iris's gun, causing Iris to gravely wound Carl. She was convicted of the crime and sent to prison.
Matthew Cory developed a May–December romance with his business partner, Donna Hudson. Vicky married Grant, but left him to reunite with Ryan. Vicky later gave birth to Grant's son, Kirkland, and the two fought tooth and nail over the child. Cass and Frankie were finally wed and they honeymooned on the Orient Express. Sharlene turned up alive and reunited with John. Jake and Paulina beat the odds and fell in love with each other, but continued to have a tumultuous relationship.
The show also covered many social issue storylines, including sexual assault, mental illness, and alcoholism. When Lorna was raped after a night of heavy drinking, viewers watched as she dealt with the aftermath of her brutal attack. She originally pointed the finger at Morgan Winthrop, but her rapist turned out to be Kyle Barkley. Cass and Frankie were devastated when their daughter, Charlie, became ill. Luckily, she recovered, but Cass had begun acting strangely. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which had been triggered by Charlie's illness. Again, viewers were informed: they learned both the symptoms of the illness and how to treat it by watching Cass see a counselor and start to take medication. Felicia had begun drinking heavily after Lucas's death, but she refused to call herself an alcoholic, and she was furious at her friends at an
intervention she learned they staged for her. After nearly losing her daughter Jenna during a miscarriage when Felicia was too drunk to help, she finally admitted she was an alcoholic and found help through Alcoholics Anonymous.

Decline

Early in 1995, news at the top signaled a change in executive producer. Jill Farren Phelps, who had won Emmys for her work on Santa Barbara, was given the job. Phelps made several changes to take the show in a more youthful direction. Both cast members over 55, Barbara Berjer and David Hedison, were fired. Even though Matthew and Donna were a popular couple, Phelps insisted the characters be paired with others their own age so they were broken up when Donna cheated with her ex-husband, Michael.
Many other romances began and ended. After years of putting up with Jake's cons, swindles, and lies, Paulina had enough and left him to tie the knot with police officer, Joe Carlino. John and Sharlene's marriage was ruined by John's affair with Felicia. Grant wrecked his marriage to Amanda by cheating on her with Lorna. Police trainee Josie fell for her instructor, Gary Sinclair.
One of the show's most maligned storylines of all-time involved show matriarch Rachel Cory Hutchins being kidnapped and then impersonated by an evil doppelgänger countess, Justine Duvalier. It was panned by the soap press as being worthy of a Mystery Science Theater 3000 level of ridicule. During the storyline, the show was dealt another major blow when fan favorite Paul Michael Valley was fired and his character, Ryan, was killed off. Fans were relieved when Justine's reign of terror was put to an end when Carl finished her off with a letter opener. Wyndham was quoted as liking the storyline at first, but after it played out, she stated that she wished she had never appeared in it.
Rachel gave birth to twins, even though she was in her early 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, but not as his former role, Sam Fowler. Instead, he came on as the mysterious Bobby Reno, a love interest for Vicky. Bobby's backstory became convoluted when his identity was rewritten as a fugitive named Shane Roberts and his former wife, Lila, came to town to reclaim him. Vicky began dating her lifelong friend Jake and they later married.

The Controversial Death of Frankie Frame

Budget cuts caused Phelps to institute a serial killer storyline. Phelps decided to kill off one major character and it was originally decided that popular character Donna Hudson was to be offed, but massive fan protest caused Phelps to scrap that plan. Phelps then decided to kill off either Frankie Frame or Paulina Carlino. When a focus group responded lukewarm to Frankie but warmer to Paulina, Phelps gave the greenlight to axe Frankie. When word got out about Frankie's exit, another massive rampage of fan protests arose. Phelps quickly asked then-head writer Margaret DePriest to re-write Frankie's exit so that the character would at least still live. DePriest, eager to satisfy her wish to see Frankie's husband, Cass, return to his former rogue ways, vehemently refused. Frankie was murdered in what many people felt were overly brutal and gruesome scenes.
After the Justine story and the deaths of Ryan and Frankie, AW took a serious blow. Frankie was one of the show's most beloved characters, while Ryan and Vicky had been one of the show's most popular couples. The show continued to decline creatively, which eventually led to its demise.

Cancellation

On April 12, 1999, as part of a shakeup of the network's daytime and early morning schedules and picked up the daytime talk show Later Today in exchange for the withdrawal of the talk show Leeza, NBC announced that it would not renew Another World, ending the series' run after 35 years once the show's previous renewal agreement ended that June. Many reasons abounded for Another World cancellation, with one of the more notable events occurring in the summer of 1998: the network's San Francisco affiliate at the time, KRON-TV – at the time one of NBC's highest-rated stations – stopped airing the show altogether, leaving Days of Our Lives and Sunset Beach as the only NBC soaps that the station cleared on its schedule, resulting in additional erosion of the program's already below-mediocre ratings. Independent station KICU-TV picked up the show and aired it for the rest of its run, but the series still experienced a steep ratings decline in the Bay Area market as KRON refused to guide viewers to the program's new home.
Another reason behind the cancellation decision was that a new soap opera produced and owned by NBC, Passions, had entered into production and was slated to begin airing on the network in the summer of 1999. To add Passions to its daytime schedule, NBC opted to cancel one of its existing serials instead of reclaiming one hour of programming time allocated for syndicated or local programming from its stations, like what happened in January 1997 when the network placed Sunset Beach in the 12:00 p.m. timeslot. Rumors abounded that Days of Our Lives would be canceled, as renewal talks between NBC and Columbia Pictures Television were going poorly at the time. There were also rumors that the low-rated, younger-skewing soap Sunset Beach would be canceled.
Days of Our Lives was ultimately renewed for five more years in September 1998, leaving only the fates of Another World and Sunset Beach up in the air until the following April, when the cancellation of Another World was announced. Sunset Beach was picked up through the end of 1999 before being canceled itself, with its final episode airing on December 31 of that year.
The final episode of Another World aired on June 25, 1999. The episode revolved around the wedding of Cass and Lila. In the show's final scene, Rachel and Carl happily embraced in the Cory living room, she remarked "All's well that ends well," and, after looking at the pictures of all her loved ones, Rachel went upstairs with Carl. The final image was a still frame of Mac raising a champagne glass in a celebratory toast, before the episode faded to black.
Passions replaced Another World on NBC's daytime schedule beginning on July 5, 1999; NBC's daytime coverage of the 1999 Wimbledon Championships aired during the intervening week.

After the final episode

On January 3, 2000, the show's former NBC studio in Brooklyn became the home to As the World Turns, which had moved from CBS Broadcast Center.
Several Another World characters were moved to As the World Turns starting in the summer of 1999, almost immediately after Another World ended; this was made possible by the fact that both shows were produced and owned by Procter and Gamble. Lila, Cass, Vicky, Marley, Donna, and Jake all became involved in storylines on As the World Turns, or at the very least made guest appearances. By 2002, Vicky and Jake had been killed off violently in separate incidents, and the crossover experiment had, for the most part, ended. Schnetzer continued to make occasional appearances, as his character of Cass was used as a "visiting lawyer" in As the World Turns trials. The character of Cass also appeared in a few episodes of Guiding Light in 2002.
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. Another World 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 by getting Another World performers to sign their autographs in the book along with messages of appreciation or thanks for the fans' continued support in watching the program.
From July 2003 to April 2007, SOAPnet, an ABC channel, started rerunning old Another World episodes that originally aired from July 1, 1987, to May 10, 1991. SOAPnet stopped airing reruns of Another World to make room on its schedule for reruns of One Tree Hill and The O.C..
The Another World Reunion aired on SOAPnet 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 Another World clips. Before and after commercial breaks, Another World trivia questions were posed to the audience at home, and audience members told the viewers at home their favorite Another World moments, supplemented with clips from the actual episodes. For example, one viewer said her favorite Another World moment was from 1980, in which a pregnant Rachel, on trial for Mitch's murder, was forced to tell Mac that Matthew was Mitch's son and not his. Another viewer cited Ryan marrying Vicky while in Heaven. This special was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Special Class Special in 2004. The Another World Reunion was rerun in May 2004 to commemorate AWs 40th anniversary.
In 2006, Procter & Gamble began making several of its soap operas available, a few episodes at a time, through America Online's AOL Video service, downloadable free of charge. Reruns of older Another World episodes began from August 1, 1980. As of January 2009, Procter & Gamble announced that Another World and three other of its cancelled soap operas would no longer be streamed on AOL Video. The notice referred to exploring other options to make the shows available for viewing.
On July 29, 2008, episodes also became available on the video streaming website Hulu. The episodes begin with the May 10, 1991, episode – the last one that ran on SOAPnet. There were 24 episodes made available initially, with the promise of 3 more each week. As of December 2009, the same episodes seen through Hulu were also available through YouTube. Hulu stopped airing episodes of the soap on October 21, 2010. The last AW episode to air on the site was October 5, 1992.
TeleNext Media also introduced a new website in April 2009 that continued Another World. The site was called Another World Today and essentially picked up 10 years after AWs last episode in a blog/fan fiction format. Readers could submit story ideas to help form the story angles and pacing of the so-called 'sequel'. Each webisode came out weekly and the website also showed classic clips of Another World. By 2011, the site became no longer affiliated with TeleNext Media and was independently run until December 2014, when it stopped publishing new episodes.

Cast

Another World started off with the Matthews family as the core family. The Cory family later became the main focus. Other families included the Randolphs, Frames, Hudsons, Loves, Ewings, and Harrisons.

Broadcast history

For most of a 15-year period between 1965 and 1980, Another World was NBC's highest-rated soap opera. During that time, NBC ran a 90-minute drama block consisting of Days of Our Lives, The Doctors and Another World, all of which enjoyed great ratings and critical success before declining at the end of the 1970s.

The 1960s

Another World did not take long to establish itself as NBC's highest-rated daytime drama, although it was still behind the then-dominant CBS lineup which would usually occupy the first six places on the ratings chart. Making its debut at 3 p.m. Eastern/2 Central, Another World slowly chipped away at ABC's General Hospital and CBS' daytime version of To Tell the Truth. Its efforts resulted in a swift rise to second place in 1967–1968; the show would remain in the upper end of the ratings chart until 1978. CBS later tried The Secret Storm, a soap opera that reputedly served as the model for Another World, against it, but to no avail.

The 1970s

On March 30, 1970, AW became the first daytime soap to produce a spinoff series, Somerset, which ran until 1976. For Somerset's first year, the two shows shared the same branding, with the mother show titled Another World in Bay City and the daughter show Another World in Somerset. NBC and Procter and Gamble discontinued this after a year; Somerset eventually veered away from Another World's romantic and domestic storylines, developing into more of a crime drama. Title references to one-another were dropped, as were crossover stories.
With the arrival of Harding Lemay, Another World would consolidate its place as not only the most popular and critically acclaimed soap opera on NBC, but one of the highest-rated soap opera of the decade. Between 1973 and 1978, it consistently attained second place in the ratings chart and tied with As the World Turns for first place twice—in the 1973–1974 and 1977–1978 television seasons. The earlier triumph was no mean feat when one considers that CBS put up its star game show The Price Is Right against it for two years.
When the one-hour 10th anniversary special in spring 1974 proved a massive ratings success, NBC and Procter and Gamble made the decision to expand to 60 minutes permanently on January 6, 1975, replacing the original version of the game show Jeopardy!, in a scheduling shuffle with the in-house-produced How to Survive a Marriage. Another World became the first serial to broadcast one hour daily, only some six years after the last two 15-minute soaps finally doubled their daily lengths.
The show took over the entire 3–4 pm/2-3 Central period, the latter part of which witnessed it beating back, to some degree, CBS' huge Match Game, then daytime's most popular program. However, starting in 1978, Another World began to experience an erosion in ratings caused mainly by the surge in popularity of General Hospital. Another World fell from a first-place tie in 1978 to eighth in 1979, but remained NBC's highest-rated daytime drama. Despite the fall in ratings, Another World became the first, and thus far only, soap opera to expand to 90 minutes, a move that proved unsuccessful—it remained in eighth place in the 1979–1980 television season.

Expansion to 90 minutes and its impact on ratings

Although it is widely thought that Another World expansion to 90 minutes was a cause of ratings erosion, the decision to expand the show was made at a time when its ratings were already in steady decline. During the period when Another World ran daily for 90 minutes it remained NBC's highest-rated soap opera, as it had been for a decade. In the second half of 1980, after the show returned to 60 minutes, Another World and fellow NBC serials Days of our Lives and, most dramatically, The Doctors, experienced a collapse in ratings from which NBC's daytime lineup never fully recovered. It would not be until 1983 that both Days of Our Lives and Another World would recover some of their lost ground.

The 1980s

It is possible that the 90-minute format was intended to be temporary, with the added time used to prepare a storyline for a spinoff, Texas in 1980. Upon its debut, the mother show contracted to 60 minutes again, this time moving to 2/1 Central, where it stayed for the remaining 19 years of its run. Texas, starring the hugely popular Beverlee McKinsey and attempting to cash in on the Dallas craze, while itself not a success, may have caused further erosion of Another World viewership, to the point that it was no longer NBC's highest-rated serial, losing that position to Days of our Lives. Another World fell from eighth to as low as 11th in the ratings chart, and by the 1981–1982 television season it sank so low in the Nielsens to 4.7. Much like General Hospital winning the 3/2 slot for ABC, One Life to Live came in strong at 2/1, with CBS attempting to get its new Capitol off the ground during that period.
After five years of sharply declining ratings, Another World experienced something of a mini-revival, and for the 1983–1984 television season, the show jumped to ninth place and 5.6. The ratings increase was attributed to the emergence of supercouple Sally Frame and Catlin Ewing, the addition of Linda Dano as chic romance novelist Felicia Gallant who was brought on to bring an element of glamour to the show, and the return of actress Jacqueline Courtney as Dr. Alice Frame, who had been fired from the show nine years earlier despite being immensely popular with viewers.
The show remained in ninth place through the decade, pulling in generally stable numbers against One Life to Live and its Procter and Gamble sister soap As the World Turns. The show received some of its strongest critical acclaim during the 1980s as well. Many soap critics praised the show for keeping its focus on relationships and family crisis. However, like many soaps at the time, the show did dive into occasional action/crime storylines such as the Sin Stalker murders in 1987 as a response to the popularity of the action/adventure oriented soap General Hospital during the decade.

The 1990s

In common with other daytime soaps, Another World experienced a gradual erosion of viewership but, amazingly enough given its turbulent history, held on to ninth place on the ratings chart from the mid 1980s until the end of its run. While it never showed signs of moving up through this period, it was for the most part never in danger of falling to last place.
In early 1995, Another World was the first daytime soap to eliminate the full-screen closing credits crawl in favor of the one-third screen credits/promo combination. This was implemented by NBC to allow network news and local news outlets to break in with hourly updates on the O.J. Simpson trial alongside the closing credits. In instances where news updates did not break in, scenes from that day's episode would appear on the left two-thirds of the screen, with the regular closing theme music accompanying it. The "squeeze credits" trend remained in place on most NBC programs after the Simpson trial concluded; through the end of its run, Another World continued the one-third credits format while its daytime stablemate, Days of Our Lives, barred the network from running its credits in this fashion until 2001.
Between 1974 and 1999, Another World won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series only once, a stark contrast to five wins for The Young and the Restless and six for General Hospital within that time frame.

List of firsts

Another World was the first soap opera:
The show spawned two spin-offs: Somerset and Texas. One primetime special aired in 1992: .
A "viewer-directed," text-based continuation of the series called Another World Today existed online, initially sanctioned by TeleNext Media, the production arm of Procter & Gamble.

Airtimes

While individual NBC affiliates had the right to air any show whenever they wished, most of the affiliates aired the show when it would be transmitted to the network's direct affiliates.
In the mid-to-late 1990s, when AW was in its final ratings slump, many affiliates swapped AW's time slot with Days of Our Lives, which usually aired an hour earlier. Other affiliates transferred AW to their morning schedule. One station, KXAS, aired AW on a different local channel that had a programming and promotion agreement with KXAS, for a time in the late 1990s.
The network aired the show at the following times throughout its history:
A number of theme songs were used throughout the run of the series. The most sustained was " Another World," which was performed by Crystal Gayle and Gary Morris. The song was used from 1987 to 1996.
Morris's and Gayle's song was only the second soap opera theme to become a chart hit; released as a country pop single in 1987, it rose to number 4 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart.

Notable alumni

Many well-known film and television actors and celebrities appeared on Another World early in their careers:
Others who were dayplayers or extras included: Dan Futterman, Zach Grenier, Melissa Joan Hart, Frankie Muniz,
Donna Pescow, Reginald VelJohnson, and Ming-Na Wen.

Daytime Emmy Awards

Drama series and performer categories

Other categories

The following helmed Another World during its 35-year run:
YearsExecutive ProducerHead writer
May 1964 – March 1965Allen M. PotterIrna Phillips with William J. Bell
March – October 1965Doris QuinlanJames Lipton
November 1965 – January 1969Paul Robert 1965–1966; Mary Harris 1966–1969Agnes Nixon
February 1969 – August 1971Mary Harris; Lyle B. HillRobert Cenedella
August 1971 – May 11, 1979Paul RauchHarding Lemay
May 14, 1979 – November 1979Paul RauchTom King
November 1979 – December 1980Paul RauchTom King, Robert Soderberg
December 1980 - November 1981Paul RauchL. Virginia Browne
November 1981 – November 1982Paul RauchCorinne Jacker
November 1982Paul RauchRobert Soderberg
November 1982 – December 1983Paul Rauch; Allen M. PotterRobert Soderberg, Dorothy Ann Purser
December 1983 – February 1984Allen M. PotterDorothy Ann Purser
March – June 1984Allen M. PotterRichard Culliton
July 1984 – January 1985Allen M. PotterRichard Culliton, Gary Tomlin
January – July 1985Stephen SchenkelGary Tomlin
August 1985 – March 1986Stephen Schenkel, John WhitesellSam Hall, Gillian Spencer
March 1986 – January 1988John WhitesellMargaret DePriest
February – April 1988John Whitesell; Michael LaibsonSheri Anderson
April – September 1988Michael LaibsonDonna Swajeski
September 12, 1988 – November 10, 1988Michael LaibsonHarding Lemay
November 1988 – November 1992Michael LaibsonDonna Swajeski
November 1992 – November 1994Michael Laibson; Terri Guarnieri; John ValentePeggy Sloane, Samuel D. Ratcliffe
November 1994 – August 1995John Valente; Jill Farren PhelpsCarolyn Culliton
August 1995 – May 1996Jill Farren PhelpsTom King, Craig Carlson
May 1996 – January 1997Jill Farren Phelps; Charlotte SavitzMargaret DePriest
January – March 1997Charlotte SavitzElizabeth Page,
Tom King, Craig Carlson
March – April 1997Charlotte SavitzTom King, Craig Carlson
April – December 1997Charlotte SavitzMichael Malone
December 1997 – May 1998Charlotte SavitzRichard Culliton
May – July 1998Charlotte SavitzRichard Culliton, Jean Passanante
July 1998Charlotte SavitzJean Passanante
July 1998 – June 1999Charlotte Savitz; Christopher GoutmanLeah Laiman, Jean Passanante

On location filming

Another World production left the studio to film exterior scenes several times. Some of these locations included: