ANOTHER WORLD CAST, CREW PLAN TRIBUTE TO BRENT COLLINS
By Lynda Hirsch
Daily News of Los Angeles
January 31, 1988
The cast and crew of ANOTHER WORLD have literally had their personal and professional lives turned upside down in the past two weeks.
The sudden death of Brent Collins (Wallingford) on Jan. 6 was a great personal loss for Linda Dano (Felicia) and Steven Schnetzer (Cass). The duo had been involved with Collins' character since it was added to the show in 1984. Collins adored working with them. He once confided, "My day is made when I look at a script and see scenes with Linda or Stephen. If I get to work with them both in one day, I'm in heaven."
Collins, a dwarf who stood 4 feet 6 inches tall, was found dead in his New York apartment; his death was attributed to cardiac arrest. Although he did not have a large ego, he was aware that he was so identified as Wallingford that he would be difficult if not impossible to replace.
The show's producer, John Whitsell II, agrees. Collins once remarked, "I never lost a role because I was too short. I have lost several times because I was considered too tall."
The week of Feb. 8, news of Wallingford's death will spread through Bay City, and ANOTHER WORLD will broadcast a memorial service featuring many of Collins' scenes. At the end of the Feb. 10 show, Dano and Schnetzer will step out of character to offer their tribute to Brent Collins.
The shock of Collins' death was followed by news that AW's head writer, Maggie DePriest, would be replaced by Harding Lemay. Lemay, who will join the husband-and-wife writing team of Thom Racina and Sheri Anderson, is no stranger to ANOTHER WORLD. From 1971 to 1978, he was the show's head writer and virtually its only one. In 1975, he took the show from a ratings tumble to first place and also nabbed an Emmy for outstanding writing. It was Lemay who created the highly important Frame family, based on his own farm family.
Lemay also wrote a book based on his experience with the show. Titled "Eight Years in Another World," the book spared no one. Lemay gave his candid views of actors, producers and the Procter and Gamble officials who supervised the show. Nor did he spare himself. The book is still the best inside look at a soap opera ever written.
After leaving ANOTHER WORLD in 1978, Lemay wrote for other serials - all of them sponsored by Procter and Gamble. Which only proves that if you are talented enough, you can bite the hand that feeds you and still get plenty of hand-fed meals.
On the heels of this news came a report that John Whitsell II would be leaving his post as executive producer in March. No successor has been named. NBC, which broadcasts the show, will neither confirm nor deny the report. But informed insiders are expecting big changes.
When Lemay took over as head writer 15 years ago, he tossed out two major characters, Alice Matthews (Jacqueline Courtney) and her mother, Mary (Virginia Dwyer). Although Alice was, at the time, the sweetheart of daytime viewers, Lemay felt that she was not the kind of character he wanted on a show for which he was the head writer. Lemay wanted story lines dealing with dramatic conflict instead of the existing story lines, which he considered melodramatic and soapy. Even when writing for the adventure-based EDGE OF NIGHT, Lemay wanted the emphasis on character, not just on the mystery.
It is no secret that NBC's head of daytime programming, Brian Frons, has promised the network's affiliates better ratings in the daytime area. With GENERATIONS as a new hourlong soap on the NBC drawing board, Procter and Gamble may fear that cancellation is on the horizon for ANOTHER WORLD If that happens, P&G, which once had seven soaps running, would be down to two - AS THE WORLD TURNS and GUIDING LIGHT. This may explain the sudden burst of activity over at ANOTHER WORLD.
Hirsch's article is interesting but riddled with errors. And were Sheri Anderson and Thom Racina married? This article was written in 1988. From 1986 to 1987, Anderson was writing Guiding Light with her husband Joe Manetta.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Interesting article but filled with factual errors.
ReplyDeleteLemay was pushed out of AW in 1979, not 1978.
While AW did expand to one hour in 1975, it did not make it to Number One that year, nor was it exactly in a ratings tumble.
In the 71-72 ratings, AW finished in 6th place with a 9.1 rating.
In 72-73, AW finished in 3rd place with a 9.7.
In 73-74, it was tied for 1st place with ATWT and Days, all with a 9.7.
In 74-75, it finished in 2nd place (behind ATWT) with a 9.7.
In 75-76, it finished in 2nd place (again behind ATWT) with 8.9
In 76-77, it finished in 2nd place (behind ATWT) with a 9.0.
Lemay and AW did win Outstanding Writing Emmy in 1975.
Hirsch's claim that Lemay only wrote for Procter and Gamble soaps is also incorrect. For instance, he was head writer of The Doctors during its latter days and that wasn't a P&G soap. And I've never heard anything about Lemay writing for The Edge of Night.
ReplyDeleteYou guys are awesome. I thought quite a bit of this was off and figured if I posted, you historians would know exactly what was wrong. I knew the 1978 was wrong, and as much as I am a follower of soap history, I don't remember much about Lemay at other soaps. I'll have to research that more.
ReplyDeleteLemay did write for The Doctors in 80-81. His moving over to The Doctors was not publicized at the time. Read it many years later and was quite surprised. I believe he was the next to last writer before it was cancelled.
ReplyDeleteSomewhere I also read that he worked with Doug Marland on GL. Must have been right after his Doctors stint. Not sure if he was a writer of just a consultant.
Amd of course in 1998, he consulted with Pam Long on OLTL.
OK, as long as we're listing ALL the errors in this article:
ReplyDelete1. Lemay didn't exactly create the Frame family. Agnes Nixon created the character of Steve Frame in 1968. But Lemay expanded the Frame family when he took over.
2. While Lemay did kill off Mary Matthews, he did not "toss out" the character of Alice. She was a prominant character throughout his tenure. However, several other actresses played Alice after Jacqueline Courtney departed.
3. Lemay also opted to kill off Steve Frame rather than recast him when Paul Rauch fired George Reinholt, the show's biggest star at the time. That fact was completly left out of the article.
4. As Rob said, Lemay never wrote for Edge of Night to my knowledge. That was Henry Slesar's baby from 1968 to 1983.
5. The Doctors was not a P&G show. I believe Cogate owned it. So, Lemay clearly DID write for non P&G shows, as Robb also mentioned.
I have never been a fan of Lynda Hirsh because her stories generally contain many factual errors. She may have had a syndicated soap column, but she sure didn't/doesn't seem to respect the fans who read that column since she obviously doesn't fact check.
It seems like Lemay wrote for AW, had a short stint on GL and was a consultant for ATWT at one point. He also created the P&G soap that replaced Somerset when it was canceled. So I guess four P&G shows, plus a second run at AW, would make him a mostly P&G guy but The Doctors obviously wasn't P&G. Didn't Colgate-Palmolive sell The Doctors around 1980? So the show was owned by NBC when Lemay wrote for them?
ReplyDeleteI give Lemay a lot of credit for the good years of AW in the late 80s. He brought back or introduced Sharlene, Josie and Jason Frame, as well as Iris. His stories played out for a while even though he didn't stay with the show long after the writer's strike. I always wonder how AW might have been different/better had he stayed as headwriter for several years during that stint.