6.4 /10 1 Votes
5.2/10 TV Created by Katherine Phillips Original language(s) English First episode date 30 March 1970 | 7.5/10 IMDb Country of origin United States No. of episodes 325 Final episode date 25 June 1971 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Starring Augusta DabneyWilliam PrinceSusan SarandonSusan SullivanDavid BirneyDorothy LymanClifton DavisTom Ligon Network American Broadcasting Company Cast | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A World Apart is an American daytime drama which ran from March 30, 1970, to June 25, 1971, on the ABC television network.
Contents
Overview
The initial stories were written by Katherine Phillips, adopted daughter of soap legend Irna Phillips, who created Guiding Light, As the World Turns and Another World. The story concerned a soap opera writer who adopted two children, a fictionalized version of Irna Phillips' life.
Soap opera writer Betty Kahlman (Elizabeth Lawrence, Augusta Dabney) raised her adopted children without a husband. Her sounding board and friend was fellow soap opera writer Meg Johns, played by actress Anna Minot. Betty married Russell Barry (William Prince) and the early focus was on generational conflicts between a newly married middle-aged couple and their confused children. People tried to understand each other, but were ultimately "a world apart", echoing the title. Eventually, the show-within-a-show element was scaled back, and writer Katherine Phillips was replaced by Richard Holland and Suzanne Holland. At that point, Betty and Russell settled into a tranquil marriage.
Other storylines centered on the Sims family, who were mired in less turmoil than the Kahlmans, but still had their problems, as Dr. Ed Sims (James Noble) and his extremely conservative wife Adrian (Kathleen Maguire) struggled with their rebellious daughter Becky (Erin Connor).
Many future film and television stars appeared during the brief run, including Susan Sarandon (Patrice Kahlman), Nicolas Surovy (Fred Turner), Susan Sullivan (Nancy Condon), Dorothy Lyman (Julie Stark), David Birney (Oliver Harrell), and James Noble (Dr. Ed Sims), who eventually went on to play the lovably goofy, but very capable Governor Eugene Gatling on the television comedy Benson alongside Robert Guillaume. Also becoming rather successful is Clifton Davis (Matt Hampton), who went on to star in the series That's My Mama, and much later, the series Amen, where he played Reverend Reuben Gregory. Clifton Davis and actress Jane White played son and mother on both A World Apart and Amen.
Broadcast history
The series ran Monday through Friday at 12:30 pm EST, opposite CBS' then-popular Search for Tomorrow and NBC's The Who, What, or Where Game. ABC canceled the show after a little over a year, wrapping up with a moving episode where Patrice Kahlman finally made peace with giving her newborn son up for adoption (among the few, if not only, episodes of this show known to survive).