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Scoops for March 8, 1999
Scoops Section #1:
Keeping the Home Fires...Smoldering
Poor Felicia. She hasn’t even heard about Gary’s "child"(/nephew)
yet, but she’s faced with a young man of her own -- after finding out he has no where to live, Sergei parks himself
on Felicia’s doorstep until she agrees to let him stay with her for awhile. After receiving Gary’s phone call,
Sharlene rushes to Bay City to be with her daughter, but Sharlene was always quicker on the take than Gary was
-- she quickly realises something’s wrong, and encourages Dozie to cry on her shoulder. Soon Sharlene finds herself
getting more truth than she bargained for.
Poor Dozie. The second they give her a little something for the pain,
BOOM! She starts spilling her guts. She finds out that Gary is about to give blood to the baby (apparently they
don't bother to check what blood type either of them are), and Dozie practically has a heart attack. "No!"
She starts tripping over her words as she tells Gary that nope, sorry, it's not his kid. He figures it's the drugs.
Dozie gave birth to the baby, so obviously HE'S the daddy. Finally thinking of her child instead of herself for
the first time in months, Dozie tells Gary the truth -- it's Spameron who's the daddy, and not him. Suddenly it's
like the light in Gary's attic goes on, and someone's finally there to see it! Gary can't stomach being in the
room with his wife a second longer, and hightails it out of there.
In the hallway, Gary runs smack-dab into the baby's father. Spameron
wants to know what the problem is, and Gary just wants to kill Spameron. So they compromise -- after exchanging
some harsh words, they start pounding on each other, with Gary winning. Amanda intervenes, and Gary starts telling
her what he just found out, but suddenly another light turns on, and he realises that she's known for quite some
time. He starts to think that he was the only one in town that didn't know. (He almost was.) He turns his back
on Spameron and Amanda, and walks out of the hospital.
Dozie is concerned when Gary doesn't come back, so she calls Felicia
and tells her that she's worried Gary is going to go out drinking. Felicia starts checking out the bars in town,
and finds Gary at one. He tells her he wishes the baby had never even been born. Felicia attempts to lecture Gary,
but he doesn't want to hear it. He tells Felicia that from now on, he won't be living at his old place -- he's
leaving Dozie. Dozie, of course, bawls and says, "Why me?", when he tells her. Felicia goes home to find
Sergei there when she needs him most. Later, the Sinclairs receive some horrible news.
Scoops Section #2:
All Quiet on the Harrison Front!
Vic refuses to give up her unhealthy obsession with Grant, and takes advantage
of Jake’s time in jail to chase after him. Vic is putting more than just her life at risk though -- Jake is about
ready to pull the plug on their marriage. Vic manages to find Grant, but she soon wishes she hadn’t -- he asks
her to run away with him and leave all their problems behind. She manages to stall Grant, and rushes to Jake to
apologize for what’s been happening between them. Still, though, she continues her vendetta against Grant (keeping
it all a secret from Jake), even going so far as to have daydreams about killing her ex-husband!
When Grant disappears, Vic panics, and goes to Donna looking for answers.
She manages to find her erstwhile ex, but almost ends up falling straight from the frying pan into the fire, and
would have gotten burned if Donna hadn’t shown up at just the right time. While Marley is doling out a few threats
to Grant and Cindy (I guess they finally figured out that she’s not going to keep quiet), other people in Bay City
begin to seriously consider doing away with Grant. Later, things heat up when Grant interferes in the relationships
of two of Bay City’s supercouples. (My guess? The only two semi-happily married couples on the show -- Jake and
Vic, and Joe and Paulina. What else is there now that Dozie and Gary are kaput, and Matt and Lila are already on
the rocks.)
Scoops Section #3:
Joan Osborne's Revenge
Spameron is totally freaking out about the baby, and assaults poor Sparky
when he sees him, almost causing Sparky to lose control of his emotions and let his mask slip. Since her mother
is so pre-occupied with her own problems, Alli could really use a friend right now -- and Sparky is more than happy
to be there for her. Seeing as how she likes "David" so much, and she knows her mother likes him too,
Alli figures now would be the perfect time to match the two of them up. Meanwhile, David is working on Amanda and
trying to get her into the garden. It takes awhile, but his hard work finally pays off!
Elsewhere on the Cory estate, Matt and Cass continue with their plans
to expose Jordan Stark. They finally figure out that Zak seems to have disappeared, and start a search for him,
while Rachel goes down to Lumina to search for a copy of "Beyond Imagination". Unfortunately, Sparky
catches her during her search, and it's going to take some fancy footwork for Rachel to get herself out of this
one! It seems that Sparky's plan is working when Cass' obsession with Anne O'Donnell start to interfere with his
relationship with Lila. When Cass walks out on Lila, Matt (who is rethinking his decision to let Lila go) is there
to pick up the pieces.
Scoops Section #3:
The Son She Never Had
Timo and Nick get into yet another nasty verbal fight, and Timo goes running
to Paulina with his tail between his legs, licking his wounds. Paulina cheers him up with good news -- his college
fund is now active. With most of his problems on their way to being solved, Timo concentrates on his other goal
-- driving Nick and Remy further and further apart.
Casting News
David Hedison,
who played Grant Harrison's father Spencer on AW for many years, will be making a brief appearance on the show
on March 23. Spencer won’t actually BE in town though -- he's a figment of Grant’s imagination.
The School of American Ballet will make it's own contribution to AW next
week. On March 11, Sergei will have twelve very talented fans for his works.
March 5 marked Steve
Richard Harris' last
day as conman/moralist Zak Wilder. Zak began his short stay in Bay City as Stark's main flunkie, but was reduced
to recurring status within a few months. Now Zak is surfing the cosmos somewhere, having been dispatched by Stark
after attempting to warn the Corys about Stark's plans for them. It's highly unlikely that the character will ever
return. Best of luck to Steve in future endeavors -- the young actor, born on December 3, has a much more impressive
list of credits to his name than any other newbie to AW in the last year. And he’s got added incentive -- he and
his wife Jennifer have a baby daughter Casey, born in mid-1998.
Fact or Fiction?
Grant’s departure is spawning a number of rumors, but the way it stands
now, it looks like Grant will be murdered -- shot. It will be similar to the DOOL storyline a few years back when
Curtis Reed was killed, and everyone was a suspect. No one will be exempt from this -- not Jake, Vicky, Cindy,
Marley, Donna, Joe, or even the Sinclairs. Pinter will be done shooting his scenes in a few days, but shooting
scenarios will keep the character on the air well into the May sweeps. Grant himself is said to be exiting Bay
City the week of March 22nd.
In more John Littlefield
news, the newest rumor about Gary’s departure is that Gary won’t
be able to handle the aftermath of Dozie’s deception. He will fall as far off the wagon as one can get, and end
up doing a few things he regrets before finally breaking down and heading off to rehab, leaving the role open for
recasting in the future. But yet another rumor says that the "devastating news" the Sinclairs will receive
in a couple weeks will be that Dozie’s baby has died, and Gary, in a drunken rage, will take his frustrations out
on Grant, believing him somehow responsible for everything that’s gone wrong in his life. (If AW goes that route,
it’s reminiscent of the Janet/Laurel/Jason shooting on AMC a few years back.)
More information is available on the Tucker Sinclair rumors. Last week
I reported that NBC execs were looking to cast the role of the long-lost teenage Sinclair brother, who was last
mentioned when Gibbs played Gary. After Cameron came to town and the writers established that there had been only
two Sinclair children, I assumed the other brother and sister had been forgotten about. But no, it appears that
Tucker will be a reincarnation of the teenage Maggie -- cunning but lovable in small doses.
Another casting rumor has cropped up lately. Apparently the show is looking
to add a young black character to the show's roster -- Etta Mae's never-heard-of-before daughter Kineisha, a college
student who will be thrust into a front-burner storyline with her family, as well as Chris and Tyrone. One wonders
how AW will do this, since it's already been established that Toni is the youngest of the six children that Etta
Mae and Harold Burrell had in their marriage. Will Kineisha ever learn that Etta Mae has a much, MUCH older daughter
who she gave up for adoption years ago? If the Kineisha rumor is true, she will be Etta Mae's eighth child.
Say it is so! Some of my sources tell me that one of Jake's long-lost
relations will soon be returning to town. The votes are split pretty evenly between cousins MJ and Ben, but I'm
leaning towards Ben. We have too many women in Bay City as it is. If we don't get some more men, we'll soon be
watching Donna and Rachel fight over Felicia.
Another World: The Book?
Another World will follow the latest trend in publishing and have coffee
table book commemorating the show's 35th. Written by Julie Poll, the book (entitled "ANOTHER WORLD: The 35th
Anniversary Celebration") is scheduled to be available as of April 28th. According to Barnes & Noble,
the book is available from them as of April 19th. The cover price is $30 for this 288 page hard-bound book, but
they say they’ll sell it for $21. (Try this URL for more specific info.
If it doesn’t work, click here to do a search.)
AW in the Ratings
For the week of February 22th to 26th, AW jumped up two ratings points --
it now sits at 2.7 instead of 2.5. The ratings have stayed pretty much the same for the last few weeks, sticking
mainly to 2.4 and 2.5, but hopefully this jump isn’t just a fluke, and ratings will continue to rise. If AW is
pulling down an average of 3.0 in March, the chances for renewal can only get better.
Life Outside of AW
Fans of Donny and Marie Osmond’s latest endeavor ("Donny & Marie")
will be tickled pink to see Linda Dano
(Felicia Gallant) show up on Thursday, March 11. Check your local
listings for the correct time.
Former AW alum Tim
Gibbs (the original Gary Sinclair) has recently separated from
his wife Lisa, whom he wed on July 18, 1998, after a whirlwind romance. Gibbs left AW in 1998 to go to OLTL, where
he plays the latest in a string of Kevin Buchanans.
Thomas Ian Griffith
(ex-Catlin Ewing) is still going strong! I caught him twice this week in the new John Carpenter movie, "Vampires".
The movie isn’t Oscar material, but it’s not bad either. Griffith played Valek, the "original" vampire.
While the character itself was a tad creepy, Griffith did an excellent job. Griffith has been in a number of films
since leaving AW, and last I heard, was still happily married to former AW co-star Mary
Page Keller.
Also this week I caught another former AW star -- Jodi Lyn
O’Keefe (fourth Maggie Cory) -- in the movies. A friend of mine
rented "Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later". The movie itself had problems, but O’Keefe did a good job
in her role as the girlfriend of the best friend of Laurie Strode’s 17-yr-old son. Jodi is the only one of the
Maggies at this time enjoying a successful film AND television career (she still shows up occasionally on "Nash
Bridges" as his daughter, Cassidy).
Talking With Goutman
Do you have a burning question for Chris Goutman? SOD will be doing a chat
with Goutman sometime in the near future, and they’re taking questions from AW fans on the Net. To submit your
own question for the EP, visit http://www.soapdigest.com/sod/qagoutman.htm.
Saving AW from the Chopping Block
NBC has put up a special soap poll at their site. You can access the poll
itself at http://anotherworld.nbc.com, but if that address gives you trouble, go to NBC's homepage at http://www.nbc.com.
Towards the bottom of the page, there's a link for the poll. Look carefully though -- it's so small, it's really
easy to miss.
AW EP Chris Goutman says that NBC will decide sometime in the coming
weeks whether or not AW will be cancelled to make room for "Passions". He suggests that fan support of
the show could be a big help to keeping it going.
There is a "Save AW" rally set for April 24, 1999, which coincides
with the AW Fan Club Luncheon (note: the rally is not being organized by the fan club). The rally will be held
in front of NBC’s "Today Show" studio window in Manhattan while the program is being taped. If you want
to participate, be in from of Rockefeller Center studio on Saturday, April 24, 1999, between 7:00 and 9:00 am.
Remember to bring your protest signs! It’s currently estimated that over a hundred online fans are expected to
show up. Neither NBC nor P&G had any comment
There are some places to go on the Net for information on saving AW.
There is an AW petition at http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/5102/savingaw.html, and Lucky121@webtv.net is helping
to organize an AW rally. Both are run by fans, and as far as I know, neither are official, nor are they affiliated
with the Another World Fan Club.
Quotable Quotes
There are three winners this week. The first is from Monday, with Sergei
and Felicia at the Lucky Lady. The exchange itself seems ordinary, but I can’t recall the last time I heard someone
say something truly normal on a soap. The second is from Wednesday, which was a gem just because it points out
the obvious (and BTW, when did Jake start coaching Little League?). The third...well, I may not be a huge Cameron
fan, but I loved the line he said to Amanda on Wednesday.
Sergei: Oh, Felicia,
how can I thank you? How can I thank you?
Felicia: Yeah, well,
you can let me breathe again, please.
Grant (to Arnie the
cop): Oh. Oh, he coaches little league, so it's all right
for him to publicly go around slamming people. Let me ask you something -- if I coach soccer, could I go rob the
bank next door?
Cameron (to Amanda): You know, you're right. The next time I think you and Gary are dead, I'm going
to pick up the phone and call Josie. I'm going to say, "Hey, what are you doing tonight?"
Dead Hamster Award of the Week
 This
week’s dead hamster award goes to...Zak Wilder! Not only does Zak stand up to Sparky, he tells him that he plans
to go to the Corys and tell them the truth! Would it not have been just a tad brighter to have NOT told Sparky
everything? So now Zak’s off surfing the cosmos somewhere, Ms. Allen is still on "occasional show-up",
and Sparky is the Luminoid we’ll be seeing the most of lately. Zak, I’ll miss you -- you were the sole voice of
morality in the Lumina bunch.
Rants & Raves
Rants: Who was doing
the wardrobe for AW this week, Dennis Rodman?
Between Vic’s fishnet furs and Sergei’s painted on leathers, I thought
I was watching "54" again. Where do they even BUY these clothes? And where, oh where, did Gary’s brain
go? He completely missed more than one reference to his wife’s true due date. And what was with the phone thing
on Tuesday? We can hear Cindy clearly on Dozie’s end, yet Gary can’t hear a thing? Cindy’s got a pretty loud voice
-- that usually carries. Jake, shut up before someone smacks you. No wonder Marley left town -- this guy can’t
survive unless he’s ordering some poor girl around. I’m beginning to move into the "reunite Jake and Paulina"
camp. At least when they were together, someone other than Jake was allowed to have an opinion. (Not often, but
occasionally.) Amanda, honey, if you take that lying sack of bull back, I swear, I will start a petition to have
you put in the mental ward right next to Marley. Cameron, if you don’t do something about your hair, I’m going
to start a petition to save you bald. Goutman, if you don’t get Rodrick out of scenes with actors that make him
look like Opie the Wonder Hamster, I’m going to start a petition against you. Cass, grow up and quit chasing other
men’s wives. Focus on the ones that show up in town and look just like your dead wife. And would someone please
tell Lila that the vow is "’til death do us part", not "’til I find something better"? Matt
may have been Luminized at the time, but Lila wasn’t. She made her bed -- let her lie in it. One last note to the
AW writing team -- try for an original storyline, ‘K? Not a single storyline on your show right now seems even
remotely original. Even Lumina has been done before in various ways on various shows. It’s like we’ve got "The
X Files" meets DOOL cast-offs.
Raves: I try not
to gush over actor’s appearances, but Jonathan Sharp
(Sergei) has got to have THE most beautiful hair in all of Bay City.
Naturally blond, silky soft, just the right length...yummy! Would it have killed Michael Rodrick to keep his hair? He used to have beautiful hair, but now...now he doesn’t have
any. Etta Mae and Felicia were great on Monday -- I wish they would use them more. While Lumina is really roasting
my toasties right now, I love this new Anne O’Donnell. But can we not tell that she’ll be Cass’ new secretary within
the month? I hope they give her a long-term contract. Not because the character is so fabulously interesting, but
because Alice
Barrett Mitchell is
good, and she’s breathing a little life back into Bay City. I can’t stand the Dozie pregnancy storyline, but at
least it’s mildly well done. This week was actually watchable (what I saw of it, thanks to my blasted VCR conking
out), and I thought very well done, despite a poorly played scene by Rodrick on Thursday. It was great to finally
see Zak again (sad that it was for the last time), and doubly great to see that he’s actually got a little morality
in his bones. Despite the fact that I hate the Lumina storyline, I have to admit that it’s mildly interesting.
They better hurry though -- it's fast getting to the point where I really don’t care about David’s relationship
with Amalie Kitteridge. I’m liking this glimpse of the trouble-making Vic again though. I’m disappointed that this
is all part of a plot device in killing off Grant, but it’s great to see Vic stop being Miss Respectability for
five minutes. Seeing her finally stand up to Jake is doubly fabulous.
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