From *welovesoaps*, the beginning of this article from 1988 talks about the sudden and unexpected death of Brent Collins (Wallingford) and how it was both a personal and professional loss to the show (and especially LD & SS).
The remainder of the article includes the replacement of head writer DeBeast with Harding LeMay (who ended up leaving himself not long after the writer's strike that year but not before bringing Iris back to Bay City and giving Mitch & Felicia a grand wedding ~ which was postponed from the sweeps month of May to October because of the strike) and John Whitsell II leaving his post as EP in March 1988.
And check out WHO was head of NBC daytime programming in 1988. No wonder AW never caught a break.
Quote:
FLASHBACK: ANOTHER WORLD Shake-up 1988
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.
You mean that--as my brother Adam called him after he cancelled Port Charles (the first source of Adam's Kelly Monaco love)--that m*****f***in' b@stard idiot Brian Frons was the head of NBC Daytime back then?
No wonder AW never caught a break is right!
And then he screwed us over AGAIN by destroying SoapNOT.
I loved the article about Brent. He was so funny with SS and LD. I loved the three of them together.
I was so sad when he passed away. Brian Frons what a jerk!! No wonder AW never got a break!!
Thank you for posting the article about our Brent, Nettie. I think the love he felt about working with LD & SS showed up onscreen. _________________ WWWD? (What would Wallingford do?)
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