VW CK Article: CANOE

While meeting with reporters on the White House lawn, Lyndon Johnson playfully pulled the ears of one of his pet beagles. The puppy yelped. So did outraged animal lovers when the photo -- still among the most familiar images from Johnson's presidency -- appeared on every front page in the land.

The same day, Another World premiered. That was May 4, 1964.

This Friday, after seven presidents, 35 years and 8,891 visits to its mythical version of Bay City, Mich., Another World will vanish from sight. (Check local listings.)

It signs off as NBC's (and CTV's) oldest daytime drama and TV's fifth-oldest -- behind only The Guiding Light, the long-defunct Search for Tomorrow, As the World Turns and General Hospital.

Then, on July 5, NBC and CTV introduce another world, the not-so-harmonious Maine town of Harmony, in a new soap called Passions.

World at an end. Amen. Though not without a thunderous outcry, summed up by a trio of postings on one Internet Web site:

-- "Don't get me wrong, I DO have a life. But I have watched AW for over 25 years and feel like they are part of my family!"

-- "I doubt if I will ever get 'hooked' on another soap again."

-- "I HAVE WATCHED IT FOR THIRTY YEARS! ALL I HAVE TO SAY IS GOODBYE NBC!"

But why did NBC decide to pull the plug?

Was it simply because, among the 11 daytime dramas, Another World languished near the bottom in viewership? Because it was a series in which NBC had no financial interest -- unlike its replacement, which NBC will own?

Or do you really give a flip about the soap opera genre?

In any case, a moment's reflection is due at the passing of an enterprise, any enterprise, that has served so many millions, and for so long.

When Another World premiered on TV, most of them were black-and-white (as was Another World). Instant replay for sports events was just six months old. The Beatles had made their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show only three months earlier.

Another World was born with a legacy. It was created for Procter & Gamble Productions (which also owns The Guiding Light and As the World Turns) by Irna Phillips. Known as the Mother of Soap Operas, she, in 1932, had conceived Painted Dreams, a daily radio serial generally considered the first soap. Thus did Another World have breeding as well as seniority.

"When you have an old building," erupts Charles Keating with plummy English resonance, "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?"

The pony-tailed, London-born Another World star, who as roguish Carl Hutchins was thought killed last year in a mysterious plane crash, is startlingly back for the final few Another World hours.

Having finished a tender reunion scene with Carl's overjoyed wife Rachel (played by reigning Another World diva Victoria Wyndham), Keating tarries on his way out the door, to sound one final call-to-arms.

"Save the old, for God's sake!" he trumpets. "Save the old, and make it work!"

Then, his job done on this next-to-last taping day, he makes a splendid exit into the Brooklyn afternoon.

For its entire 35 years, Another World originated at NBC's Brooklyn Studios facility, which, even more so than the show, is steeped in history.

Somewhat out-of-place today in this working-class neighbourhood, the older of the two sound stages was built in 1915, in what then was a moviemaking mecca of the silent-film era.

Acquired by NBC in the '50s, Studio 1 soon was paired with a second studio. From those cavernous stages aired some classic TV shows: The Bell Telephone Hour, Hallmark Hall of Fame, Peter Pan starring Mary Martin, Perry Como and The Cosby Show, as well as Another World, which in recent years has occupied both studios.

NBC will soon be putting them up for sale.

Now Wyndham, sleek in Rachel's silk skirt and blouse, returns to her dressing room.

Since 1972, she has played Rachel, the lowborn lass who became the matriarch of Bay City's elite Cory family. Wyndham's entire adulthood has been charted along dual paths: her own and Rachel's. She has lived two lives. Until now.

"You do not look forward to taking off the character and putting her in the trunk," says Wyndham, most of whose belongings are already boxed. "I've been going through night after night of dreaming about this: People divvying up the costumes and saying good-bye."

But radiating soapdom's never-say-die attitude, where even cancellation need not mean defeat, Wyndham brims with hope for the world she is leaving behind -- and for the woman.

Rachel, she predicts, "is going on, you know? She has her life. I know she's going to be vigorous and busy. And now that Carlo's back, she'll be happy."

Wyndham's eyes are misting. "That's a pretty good place to leave her."