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Eight Years in Another World
An account of writing "Another World", a popular soap opera, during the 1970s which exposes problems and dissensions between writers and actors, producers, directors, sponsors and networks. And how that affected the writer’s personal life.
- GenresTvMemoirNonfiction
246 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1981
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 26, 2025
More 3.5 stars but rounding up since it's higher than a 3. As a lover of soap operas and behind-the-scenes showbiz gossip, I came to this book eager for new insights, and Harding Lemay certainly delivered — though not always as much as I’d hoped.
Eight Years in Another World is part memoir, part artistic reflection, and part industry diary. Lemay was clearly ahead of his time, both in how he approached character development and in his willingness to push boundaries. His early attempts to introduce a gay character in the 1970s were quietly radical and deeply admirable, especially considering the conservative landscape of television at the time.
His most lasting contribution — and the emotional heart of this book — was recentering Another World around the triangle of Rachel, Mac, and Iris. These weren’t stock characters; under Lemay, they became layered, contradictory, and deeply human. They had so much emotional and psychological depth that their storylines fueled the show for years to come.
What shocked me most, though, was how much interference came from sponsors — especially Procter & Gamble. Even in the 1970s, they were pushing aggressively for the youth market, to the point of questioning successful storylines simply because the characters might not be "young enough." It was disheartening to realize how much creative storytelling was at the mercy of marketing demographics, even when ratings were strong.
That said, the book is often a slow read. The narrative is meditative and, at times, frustratingly withholding — especially since Lemay so frequently avoids naming names. While I understand his desire for discretion or perhaps to elevate the discussion beyond gossip, it can be difficult for a reader trying to connect the dots. The result is a kind of emotional distance from material.
And then there’s Lemay himself. At times, his tone comes off as rather arrogant, which makes him hard to fully sympathize with — even when I agreed with his perspective. He clearly saw himself as an artist first, and that pride sometimes overshadows the storytelling.
Still, for anyone who cares about the craft of television writing — and especially the underappreciated artistry of daytime serials — this is a worthwhile read.
Eight Years in Another World is part memoir, part artistic reflection, and part industry diary. Lemay was clearly ahead of his time, both in how he approached character development and in his willingness to push boundaries. His early attempts to introduce a gay character in the 1970s were quietly radical and deeply admirable, especially considering the conservative landscape of television at the time.
His most lasting contribution — and the emotional heart of this book — was recentering Another World around the triangle of Rachel, Mac, and Iris. These weren’t stock characters; under Lemay, they became layered, contradictory, and deeply human. They had so much emotional and psychological depth that their storylines fueled the show for years to come.
What shocked me most, though, was how much interference came from sponsors — especially Procter & Gamble. Even in the 1970s, they were pushing aggressively for the youth market, to the point of questioning successful storylines simply because the characters might not be "young enough." It was disheartening to realize how much creative storytelling was at the mercy of marketing demographics, even when ratings were strong.
That said, the book is often a slow read. The narrative is meditative and, at times, frustratingly withholding — especially since Lemay so frequently avoids naming names. While I understand his desire for discretion or perhaps to elevate the discussion beyond gossip, it can be difficult for a reader trying to connect the dots. The result is a kind of emotional distance from material.
And then there’s Lemay himself. At times, his tone comes off as rather arrogant, which makes him hard to fully sympathize with — even when I agreed with his perspective. He clearly saw himself as an artist first, and that pride sometimes overshadows the storytelling.
Still, for anyone who cares about the craft of television writing — and especially the underappreciated artistry of daytime serials — this is a worthwhile read.
February 6, 2021
This book was pretty hard for me to read because while Harding is very blunt and honest he also has a kind of condescending POV about his time as a soap opera writer. So it’s kind of hard for me as someone who’s enjoyed the genre to read someone disparaging it the way that he does.
With that warning, it is a fascinating study of that window in Another World’s run and why he was able to be so incredibly good at it. As a writer he really speaks to the idea of personal history, class struggle, and ethnic issues in a way that most American writers don’t talk about. I’m glad I read it and I probably won’t think of him fondly but it is a very fascinating piece if you’re into understanding the world of the soap opera.
With that warning, it is a fascinating study of that window in Another World’s run and why he was able to be so incredibly good at it. As a writer he really speaks to the idea of personal history, class struggle, and ethnic issues in a way that most American writers don’t talk about. I’m glad I read it and I probably won’t think of him fondly but it is a very fascinating piece if you’re into understanding the world of the soap opera.
July 26, 2024
Still on my vintage soap opera kick.
Harding Lamay was the head writer of Another World in the 1970s, overseeing the soap’s transition from a half hour to an hour and later, disastrously, to ninety minutes. He was mostly paired with Paul Rauch as his producer, and this is memoir is the most illuminating source I've found so far about the splitting of duties/tension between the two roles in daytime drama (unlike nighttime TV, where the exec producer is almost always also the head writer, soaps - or at least soaps not named Ryan’s Hope during its first five years - split the two roles with resulting battles over creative control). Paul Rauch, of course, features prominently in Llanview in the Afternoon as he took over One Life to Live after leaving AW, and he’s the villain of Ellen Holly’s beautifully written memoir, One Life.
Lemay writes candidly (if a bit coyly by not naming actors’ names, but it’s not hard to figure out whose talent he is denigrating) about his time on the soap, where he was Art - writing truthfully about the human condition- battling the Commerce of Procter & Gamble who wanted to sell detergent and deodorant to the under 30 crowd. Lemay ushered in high ratings and awards for writing but preferred scripting for more seasoned characters (and their more seasoned actors) than the bland and less honed at their craft if pulchritudinous younger actors preferred by the network and sponsor. Rauch comes across as a Machiavellian manipulator focused solely on his own survival but he’s not yet the imperious Caesar figure who later reigns over Llanview. But Lemay is also not a Saint (his would be mentor who he rejected, Irna Phillips, who created AW and Guiding Light, divided her characters into Sinners and Saints). While we are all the heroes of our own story and Harding is perhaps best when discussing his hardscrabble upbringing as one of 13 children born to a rural, poor, half-indigenous family, Harding comes across as a workaholic who neglected his wife and children while holding his nose for the filthy lucre daytime soaps afforded him - although by the end he seemed genuinely fond and proud of the characters he created, especially the extended Frame family who he based on his own siblings.
An intriguing look at a bygone era of a rapidly disappearing storytelling format.
Harding Lamay was the head writer of Another World in the 1970s, overseeing the soap’s transition from a half hour to an hour and later, disastrously, to ninety minutes. He was mostly paired with Paul Rauch as his producer, and this is memoir is the most illuminating source I've found so far about the splitting of duties/tension between the two roles in daytime drama (unlike nighttime TV, where the exec producer is almost always also the head writer, soaps - or at least soaps not named Ryan’s Hope during its first five years - split the two roles with resulting battles over creative control). Paul Rauch, of course, features prominently in Llanview in the Afternoon as he took over One Life to Live after leaving AW, and he’s the villain of Ellen Holly’s beautifully written memoir, One Life.
Lemay writes candidly (if a bit coyly by not naming actors’ names, but it’s not hard to figure out whose talent he is denigrating) about his time on the soap, where he was Art - writing truthfully about the human condition- battling the Commerce of Procter & Gamble who wanted to sell detergent and deodorant to the under 30 crowd. Lemay ushered in high ratings and awards for writing but preferred scripting for more seasoned characters (and their more seasoned actors) than the bland and less honed at their craft if pulchritudinous younger actors preferred by the network and sponsor. Rauch comes across as a Machiavellian manipulator focused solely on his own survival but he’s not yet the imperious Caesar figure who later reigns over Llanview. But Lemay is also not a Saint (his would be mentor who he rejected, Irna Phillips, who created AW and Guiding Light, divided her characters into Sinners and Saints). While we are all the heroes of our own story and Harding is perhaps best when discussing his hardscrabble upbringing as one of 13 children born to a rural, poor, half-indigenous family, Harding comes across as a workaholic who neglected his wife and children while holding his nose for the filthy lucre daytime soaps afforded him - although by the end he seemed genuinely fond and proud of the characters he created, especially the extended Frame family who he based on his own siblings.
An intriguing look at a bygone era of a rapidly disappearing storytelling format.
July 22, 2017
Harding Lemay's book is such great storytelling. I hope to be half as good as him one day. From the beginning of the book, the reader is drawn into his life much like the soap for which he wrote almost a decade. It reads more like fiction than a memoir. This book is not simply for fans nostalgic for classic daytime. It’s an excellent book for writers to learn about the joys and challenges of the craft.
December 6, 2020
Really enjoyed this book, in which Lemay discusses not only nuts-and-bolts soap opera writing but also details the reasons for choices made in writing the show - some logistical, some personal. Seems like it was a wildly stressful experience, so it’s funny to see that he returned to the show again in the late eighties for like a few months. I would love to know what happened there. Highly recommended reading for soap fans.
June 5, 2020
I’ve been a soap opera fanatic since my youth so I had to give this one a go. This book made me delve into “Another World” now. I cannot wait to meet and fall in love with such colorful characters from a different era and generation. Great book, I highly recommend for anybody interested in soaps.
May 3, 2024
Soap operas need to be respected
February 19, 2021
What a narcissist!!!!!
First of all, let me make it clear that I loathe the Lemay family. What hypocrites! They looked down on soap writing but sure didn’t have a prob with it when it came time for Harding Lemay to be paid (which I must say Lemay did admit to). In a cringeworthy manner he just kept writing (ad nauseum) about his family’s financial purchases, being paid an exorbitant ammount of $$$, their house on Fire Island (which was mentioned nearly 30 times!), his son reading Yeats, and his daughter painting and sculpting. Who cares? Yawn.... Hey, Lemay family - your dad’s plays are still unknown, but “AW” and the rest of those soaps you scorned will always be remembered. Yes, HL did revive “AW” - but at a cost. He wholly sacrificed the core Matthews family. Not good. He also focused the entire show to the new families, the Cory’s, Carrington’s, etc. He said that “AW” was boring and not progressive - um, I do believe that Pat “AW” had the very first abortion on daytime (it was NOT Erica from “All My Children”!) in 1964. The show had Pat's sterility reversed via "corrective surgery" and she had twins, Marianne and Michael, six years later in 1970 (which I disagree with) - yet Lemay didn’t seem to know how Pat could have twins when he joined the show. Didn’t he do his research history? Let’s not forget Bert Bauer being the first woman to have cervical cancer on “The Guiding Light” in 1962 (Charita Bauer said that after that storyline she received hundreds of fan letters saying that that storyline saved their lives because they got checked themselves when Bert was diagnosed). Also, Jeff and Penny are still talked about from “As the World Turns” in 1958. And can anyone forget the love story of Phil and Tara on “All My Children”? I couldn’t stand to be in the same room with this man, let alone read any non-AW material from him. I do, however, believe him about actress Jaqueline Courtney. One co-star from her “One Life to Live” days called her “the meanest actress I have ever dealt with.” Virginia Dwyer and George Reinholt seemed like @sses, too. Good behind-the-scenes look into this soap, though I just wished I liked the late author.....
First of all, let me make it clear that I loathe the Lemay family. What hypocrites! They looked down on soap writing but sure didn’t have a prob with it when it came time for Harding Lemay to be paid (which I must say Lemay did admit to). In a cringeworthy manner he just kept writing (ad nauseum) about his family’s financial purchases, being paid an exorbitant ammount of $$$, their house on Fire Island (which was mentioned nearly 30 times!), his son reading Yeats, and his daughter painting and sculpting. Who cares? Yawn.... Hey, Lemay family - your dad’s plays are still unknown, but “AW” and the rest of those soaps you scorned will always be remembered. Yes, HL did revive “AW” - but at a cost. He wholly sacrificed the core Matthews family. Not good. He also focused the entire show to the new families, the Cory’s, Carrington’s, etc. He said that “AW” was boring and not progressive - um, I do believe that Pat “AW” had the very first abortion on daytime (it was NOT Erica from “All My Children”!) in 1964. The show had Pat's sterility reversed via "corrective surgery" and she had twins, Marianne and Michael, six years later in 1970 (which I disagree with) - yet Lemay didn’t seem to know how Pat could have twins when he joined the show. Didn’t he do his research history? Let’s not forget Bert Bauer being the first woman to have cervical cancer on “The Guiding Light” in 1962 (Charita Bauer said that after that storyline she received hundreds of fan letters saying that that storyline saved their lives because they got checked themselves when Bert was diagnosed). Also, Jeff and Penny are still talked about from “As the World Turns” in 1958. And can anyone forget the love story of Phil and Tara on “All My Children”? I couldn’t stand to be in the same room with this man, let alone read any non-AW material from him. I do, however, believe him about actress Jaqueline Courtney. One co-star from her “One Life to Live” days called her “the meanest actress I have ever dealt with.” Virginia Dwyer and George Reinholt seemed like @sses, too. Good behind-the-scenes look into this soap, though I just wished I liked the late author.....
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 17, 2016
Contrary to what Mister Lament (sorry, Lemay) believes, it was not all about him. I think the show's subwriters, actors, producers, sponsors, and viewers, not to mention the author's estranged children and late wife, would wholeheartedly agree.
However, you won't see that kind of self-awareness in these pages, although there is some interesting back story about the "golden age" of a daytime TV classic. The author spends too much time expressing his "shame" for having written a successful soap opera in much the style that he wanted to (more character-driven than plot-driven). Meanwhile, the author spends too little time fathoming the irony of how he felt abandoned by "his friends" (the characters he created) when he left the show and saw how other writers changed them--something he did to characters and fan favorites when he originally took over as head writer.
With some self-awareness and appreciation for irony, this might have been an intriguing analysis of pop culture and the writer's life, of how we don't always get to do what we want in life but make the best of it, of the trials and tribulations of putting together a massive, long-term narrative that will please not only the writer, but the actors, the viewers, the network, and the sponsors. Instead, what we get is a fair amount of petulant remorse over not being the next Chekhov and an epilogue in which the author "makes peace" with the fact that he abandoned his parents and siblings for Art with a capital A, probably drove his first wife into alcoholism, and hissy-fitted his way through his tenure as head writer, roundly bashing or forcing out anyone who couldn't share his exclusive, rather precious vision.
While I was disappointed by the way Mario Vargas Llosa's Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter evolved, it was a far more entertaining look at a writer's desperate struggle to keep his real life and fictional characters in separate spheres while trying to please fans and sponsors. And no one in that book seemed to be the least bit ashamed of the fact that they wrote melodrama for a living.
However, you won't see that kind of self-awareness in these pages, although there is some interesting back story about the "golden age" of a daytime TV classic. The author spends too much time expressing his "shame" for having written a successful soap opera in much the style that he wanted to (more character-driven than plot-driven). Meanwhile, the author spends too little time fathoming the irony of how he felt abandoned by "his friends" (the characters he created) when he left the show and saw how other writers changed them--something he did to characters and fan favorites when he originally took over as head writer.
With some self-awareness and appreciation for irony, this might have been an intriguing analysis of pop culture and the writer's life, of how we don't always get to do what we want in life but make the best of it, of the trials and tribulations of putting together a massive, long-term narrative that will please not only the writer, but the actors, the viewers, the network, and the sponsors. Instead, what we get is a fair amount of petulant remorse over not being the next Chekhov and an epilogue in which the author "makes peace" with the fact that he abandoned his parents and siblings for Art with a capital A, probably drove his first wife into alcoholism, and hissy-fitted his way through his tenure as head writer, roundly bashing or forcing out anyone who couldn't share his exclusive, rather precious vision.
While I was disappointed by the way Mario Vargas Llosa's Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter evolved, it was a far more entertaining look at a writer's desperate struggle to keep his real life and fictional characters in separate spheres while trying to please fans and sponsors. And no one in that book seemed to be the least bit ashamed of the fact that they wrote melodrama for a living.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 20, 2012
I've been a soap fan since childhood and Another World was my favourite until it went off the air in 1999. Harding LeMay was the head writer of AW in the mid to late 70s and brought the soap up to the number 1 soap and was the author of it's "glory days".
The author was a playwright and had also written a book and admits he scorned the soap genre yet he, out of financial necessity, took on the job of head writer and immersed himself into it so totally that it took over his life for the 8 years he was doing the job. Both his family and his marraige suffered though they didn't divorce like i expected. He lived and dreamed the characters he invented and wrote for.
The book tells lots of stories from behind the scenes, gossip and stories about the actors and including his wars with the producers. He sometimes accuses the main producer, Paul Rauch, of being obsessed, highly arrogant and proprietary of "his" show yet there are strong symptoms of the pot calling the kettle black. I think the two men were very alike in many ways, more than they'd admit.
It was very interesting to read about the creation of all the characters and storylines I remember, how they cast and/or fired many of the actors, his attempts to get some stories produced and some that were not allowed. A great book about what it was like to head up a popular soap and if you were a fan of Another World, it will bring back lots of memories. It ends at the end of the 70s. I don't think Mr. LeMay really did let go of the scorn he had for soap operas in general.
This was written some years ago (and was very expensive at the time) but in the new electronic edition, there's a short update written a year or so ago with a summary of what happened with his life and his family and some of the more major actors and other people through the book.
The author was a playwright and had also written a book and admits he scorned the soap genre yet he, out of financial necessity, took on the job of head writer and immersed himself into it so totally that it took over his life for the 8 years he was doing the job. Both his family and his marraige suffered though they didn't divorce like i expected. He lived and dreamed the characters he invented and wrote for.
The book tells lots of stories from behind the scenes, gossip and stories about the actors and including his wars with the producers. He sometimes accuses the main producer, Paul Rauch, of being obsessed, highly arrogant and proprietary of "his" show yet there are strong symptoms of the pot calling the kettle black. I think the two men were very alike in many ways, more than they'd admit.
It was very interesting to read about the creation of all the characters and storylines I remember, how they cast and/or fired many of the actors, his attempts to get some stories produced and some that were not allowed. A great book about what it was like to head up a popular soap and if you were a fan of Another World, it will bring back lots of memories. It ends at the end of the 70s. I don't think Mr. LeMay really did let go of the scorn he had for soap operas in general.
This was written some years ago (and was very expensive at the time) but in the new electronic edition, there's a short update written a year or so ago with a summary of what happened with his life and his family and some of the more major actors and other people through the book.
December 27, 2015
Playwright Harding Lemay became the headwriter of popular (now defunct) NBC daytime television soap opera ANOTHER WORLD in 1971, and this book follows his journey as headwriter until his exit from the program in 1979.
This is a fascinating, absorbing account of Harding Lemay's headwriting stint on ANOTHER WORLD, whereby he lays bare everything about his life during this period. He examines in great detail his uncertain beginnings writing the show, his tutelage under Irna Phillips, queen of soap operas, success with the soap opera form, dealings with sponsors Procter and Gamble, and, the reasons why he eventually left the show. It is a true page turner, and a book that every soap opera lover, or those who would like to write soap operas, should read. An excellent book from beginning to end.
This is a fascinating, absorbing account of Harding Lemay's headwriting stint on ANOTHER WORLD, whereby he lays bare everything about his life during this period. He examines in great detail his uncertain beginnings writing the show, his tutelage under Irna Phillips, queen of soap operas, success with the soap opera form, dealings with sponsors Procter and Gamble, and, the reasons why he eventually left the show. It is a true page turner, and a book that every soap opera lover, or those who would like to write soap operas, should read. An excellent book from beginning to end.
January 15, 2012
I read this book YEARS ago and now 30 plus years later I am re-reading it... It is not currently in print except in KINDLE version.
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