Another World is an American television soap opera that aired on NBC from May 4, 1964 to June 25, 1999.[1][2] It was created by Irna Phillips along with William J. Bell, and was produced by Procter & Gamble Productions at NBC Studios, 1268 East 14th Street in Brooklyn.
Set in the fictional town of Bay City, the series originally opened with announcer Bill Wolff intoning its epigram, "We do not live in this world alone, but in a thousand other worlds," which Phillips said represented the difference between "the world of events we live in, and the world of feelings and dreams that we strive for."[3] Another World focused less on the conventional drama of domestic life as seen in other soap operas, and more on exotic melodrama between families of different classes and philosophies.
In 1964, Another World was the first soap opera to talk about abortion when such subjects were taboo. It was the first soap opera to do a crossover, with the character of Mike Bauer from Guiding Light, which was also created by Irna Phillips, coming from Springfield to Bay City. It was also the first to expand to one hour, then to ninety minutes, and then back to an hour. It was the first soap opera to launch two spin-offs, Somerset and Texas, as well as an indirect one, Lovers and Friends, which would be renamed For Richer, For Poorer. Another World was also the second soap opera with a theme song to chart on the Billboard record charts, "(You Take Me Away To) Another World" by Crystal Gayle and Gary Morris, in 1987.
On April 12, 1999, NBC announced it was canceling Another World. Its final episode aired on June 25, 1999. It was replaced with another soap opera, Passions, on July 5, 1999.
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In 1963, NBC approached PGP about Irna Phillips creating a new serial for them. She decided to base it on the concept of living not only in real life, but simultaneously living in an alternate world of hopes and desires.[4] Attorney Mitchell Dru (played by Geoffrey Lumb), who had previously been a character on As the World Turns, became a character on Another World during the early years of the program (1964-1971).[5] Two characters from another CBS soap opera, The Guiding Light—attorney Mike Bauer and his daughter Hope—did cross over in 1966, remaining for a year before returning to The Guiding Light. Expectations were so high that Another World had six weeks of commercial time sold in advance.[6]
On November 22, 1963, a group of executives (including Executive producer Allen M. Potter and director Tom Donovan) met at the VMLY&R ad agency in New York to discuss the show's opening story, the death of William Matthews, when they heard the news of another death in Dallas: the assassination of President Kennedy.[7]
After opening with a death in the core Matthews family, Irna planned to follow up with an out-of-wedlock pregnancy, a septic abortion, a shooting, and a murder trial. As Allen M. Potter explained, "Irna just didn't want to take a chance on waiting for the ratings. She felt that with this kind of showy story she could build an audience more quickly."[8] Said Tom Donovan, "In construction, Irna was attempting to follow the structure of As the World Turns. Irna would never conceive of a story not based on a family."[9]
On April 12, 1999, as part of a shakeup of the network's daytime and early morning schedules (in which NBC also canceled NBC News at Sunrise (with newcomer Early Today replacing it as the network's early-morning newscast) and picked up the daytime talk show Later Today (a short-lived spinoff of Today) in exchange for the withdrawal of the talk show Leeza (which was renewed for the 1999–2000 season and subsequently sold into first-run syndication) from the network's schedule), NBC announced that it would not renew Another World, ending the series' run after 35 years once the show's previous renewal agreement ended that June.[2][10] Many reasons abounded for Another World's cancellation, with one of the more notable events occurring in the summer of 1998: the network's San Francisco affiliate at the time, KRON-TV (now a CW owned-and-operated station) – at the time one of NBC's highest-rated stations – stopped airing the show altogether to air the syndicated Howie Mandel Show in its timeslot, leaving Days of Our Lives and Sunset Beach as the only NBC soap operas that the station cleared on its schedule, and resulting in additional erosion of the program's already below-mediocre ratings. Independent station KICU-TV picked up the show and aired it for the rest of its run (with NBC logo bugs and end-credit vocal network promotions removed), but the series still experienced a steep ratings decline in the Bay Area market as KRON refused to guide viewers to the program's new home.[11]
The show spawned two spin-offs: Somerset (1970–1976) and Texas (1980–1982). (In 1970, the two shows were known as Another World: Bay City and Another World: Somerset before reverting to their unique names.) One primetime special aired in 1992: Another World: Summer Desire.
A "viewer-directed," text-based continuation of the series called Another World Today existed online, initially sanctioned by TeleNext Media, the production arm of Procter & Gamble.[12]
While individual NBC affiliates had the right to air any show whenever they wished, most of the affiliates (almost all of them, in the earlier days of television) aired the show when it would be transmitted to the network's direct affiliates.
In the mid-to-late 1990s, when Another World was in its final ratings slump, many affiliates swapped Another World's time slot with Days of Our Lives, which usually aired an hour earlier. Other affiliates transferred Another World to their morning schedule. One station, KXAS, aired Another World on a different local channel (KXTX) that had a programming and promotion agreement with KXAS, for a time in the late 1990s.
The network aired the show at the following times throughout its history:
A number of theme songs were used throughout the run of the series. The most sustained was "(You Take Me Away to) Another World," which was performed by Crystal Gayle and Gary Morris. The song was used from 1987 to 1996.
Morris's and Gayle's song was only the second daytime serial theme to become a chart hit; released as a country pop single in 1987, it rose to number 4 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. (The first was "Nadia's Theme" from The Young and the Restless, which had charted on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1976.)
Many well-known film and television actors and celebrities appeared on Another World early in their careers:
Others who were dayplayers or extras included: Dan Futterman, Zach Grenier, Melissa Joan Hart, Frankie Muniz,Donna Pescow, Reginald VelJohnson, and Ming-Na Wen.
The following helmed Another World during its 35-year run:[22]
Another World production left the studio to film exterior scenes several times. Some of these locations included:
