The first time Another World tied with its sister P&G soap, As The World Turns, for #1 in the ratings was 1974. The achievement prompted NBC to expand their top daytime drama into an hour, making it the inaugural sixty-minute long afternoon serial on television.
Much of the show's popularity was attributed to their wildly addictive love triangle of Alice/Steve/Rachel.
Rachel Davis (first played by a pre-OLTL Robin Strasser; more on her stint, here) was from the wrong side of the tracks. But she didn't intend to stay there for long. Her path to respectability included marrying Dr. Russ Matthews. Alas, Rachel couldn't fight her attraction to fellow striver Steve (George Reinholt). Steve and Rachel seemed to have a lot in common. Both were born poor but determined to make something of themselves. Both were outsiders in middle-class, respectable Bay City. And both were unnaturally good looking. They should have been the perfect match. Except for that whole, Rachel being married to Russ thing... and Steve being in love with Russ' golden haired sister, Alice (Jacquie Courtney).
This being a soap, Rachel didn't let either of those little details stop her from seducing Steve. (To be fair, he did willingly participate). Or, later, from crashing Steve and Alice's engagement party to announce that she was carrying Steve's child.
The Rachel/Steve/Alice triangle went on until 1975 (after Steve had taken turns marrying both women, finally ending up with Alice in 1974). (Read more about AW's classic triangle, here.)
Steve "died" in 1975, returned from the dead in 1981 (now played by a pre-AMC David Canary) to vacillate some more between Alice and Rachel, only to die again - for good, this time - in 1983.Though Alice and Rachel managed to behave civily towards each other in subsequent years (a feat made easier by the fact that Alice wasn't seen much post-1985; She made a few appearances in 1989, lastly at the funeral of Mac Cory, another fellow she and Rachel once shared. As Alice told Rachel, "You and I always shared similar taste in men. If not similar tactics."), the tension between them was always simmering under the surface. (In fact, Courtney told the press that she worked to keep it there, even when the script didn't call for it explicitly.)
In the current episode of Another World Today, that tension explodes into the mother of all battles as Rachel confronts Alice over Jamie's suicide attempt - and Alice's keeping it a secret from Rachel.
Plus, Allie comes clean to Amanda, Cass refuses to see things Frankie's way, Matt blabs a family secret destined to impact one couple, and you get to decide Grant's next move!
Check it all out, only at: http://www.anotherworldtoday.com/aw_today.html!
1 comment:
This is wonderful. Thank you so much for continuing Another World's rich history. Please consider adding the early 80s episodes to your You Tube and Hulu channels. We were just starting to see the Mac and Alice courtship and the wrench that was about to be thrown into it due to Steve Frame's return from the dead. It would also be great to see Jacquie Courtney's return as Alice in 1984.
With nine months remaining of daily episodes on CBS, please start to include some of your equally rich As The World Turns historical vignettes. I only know the show through the Luke and Noah storyline and still have a hard time making connections with everyone else not connected to these two.
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