The bubble has burst
Hardip Johal News Services
This Friday, after 35 years and 8,891 episodes, Another World comes to an end -- though not without a thunderous outcry from indignant fans.
Why did NBC decide to pull the plug, thereby outraging thousands of loyal AW fans and offending the show's producer and owner, Proctor and Gamble, an advertiser that buys millions of dollars worth of air time from the network each year?
Was it simply because Another World languished near the bottom of the soap opera ratings?
"When you have an old building," says Charles Keating, who plays AW's roguish Carl Hutchins, "do you tear it down and put up some new structure? Or do you refurbish that old building -- especially if it's rather well made?"
Apparently, that depends on whether you have a vested interest in keeping the building intact.
If low ratings were the only factor in NBC's decision, then it would have made more sense for the network to axe the floundering Sunset Beach. But cancelling Sunset Beach -- which is produced by Aaron Spelling and co-owned by NBC -- would have meant the loss of potential revenue for the network, which stands to make millions by selling Sunset reruns to foreign markets.
Another World's cancellation has been hard to accept not only for the soap's diehard fans but for actors who've spent years -- and in some cases decades -- on the series.
Victoria Wyndham, who joined the soap in 1972 as Rachel, the low-born lass who became the matriarch of the elite Cory family, dreads saying goodbye to her alter ego.
"You do not look forward to taking off the character and putting her in the trunk," says Wyndham. "I've been going through night after night of dreaming about this: People divvying up the costumes and saying goodbye."
Wyndham offers some comforting words to viewers who are going to miss her indomitable character.
Rachel, she says, "is going on. She has her life. I know she's going to be vigorous and busy. And now that Carl's back, she'll be happy. That's a pretty good place to leave her."
Rachel's troubles may be over but for NBC the struggle continues. The network, which is counting on the slick and supposedly hip Passions, AW's replacement, to give its daytime ratings a boost, may find it's impossible to win over a viewer scorned.
Diehard AW fans on both sides of the border are vowing to boycott Passions. "I've seen the preview and it's not my kind of show," says Langley's Lillian Fuller, chairperson of the Canadian Committee to Save Another World.
"I was very disappointed when it was cancelled, especially when I saw the preview of Passions," says Delta's Sheila Fiedler, who's been watching AW for 30 years.
"I won't watch Passions just to make a statement," says Burnaby's Beth Whitehead.
Will Passions fizzle? Will AW fans ever forgive NBC? Will AW's demise prove to be a boon for As the World Turns, which signed four of AW's biggest stars?
What a cliffhanger!