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P.J.

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Posts posted by P.J.

    As The World Turns Discussion Thread

    in DTS: Cancelled Soaps

    Posted

    45 minutes ago, Khan said:

    I chalk that up to the same forces that undermined most GL actors' performances in the show's last 5-10 years: poor writing, minimal direction and absolutely zero rehearsal time.

    Memory fails on how long he was on GL, but his lack of nuance started way before Peapack. (Ironically, being "yelly" is the same criticism I have about Scott Holmes' last 15 years on ATWT)

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    As The World Turns Discussion Thread

    in DTS: Cancelled Soaps

    Posted

    I will say, having watched him on GL and rewatching (but not exactly remembering) some of his work on ATWT, he got very "yelly" in his acting. He was a young breath of fresh air in his ATWT scenes. I've seen the Tom of the late '70's, who seems almost as old as Bob. Deas is just vibrating with energy. Maybe he needed stronger direction on GL. Maybe his ego after SB made him somewhat "untouchable".  But the last years on GL were not good.

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    ALL: Recasts who seemed like a different character.

    in Discuss The Soaps

    Posted

    Guiding Light--

    Jennifer Gati/Paige Turco/Wendy Moniz  as Dinah. Gati was tough and stubborn, Turco was soft to the point of squishiness, and Moniz seemed hard and selfish.

    Elizabeth Dennehy to Sherri Stringfield as Blake. GAWD, Dennehy was miscast in the role. Stringfield fit perfectly as Maureen Garrett's daughter. Blake went from being a cold fish to a scheming neurotic troublemaker.

     

    As the World Turns--

    Brad K/John LoPrieno/Austin Peck as Brad. #1 had a laid back zen vibe, #2 was evil and suddenly insanely possessive of Carly, and Peck came back as a bum/airhead.

    Honestly, just about every recast of the Goutman era. They all changed personalities with little to no explanation. Craig, Dusty and Paul are the most egregious, but even Mike and Meg didn't carry over much of the established personality of their characters. 

    Y&R

    Eileen Davidson/Brenda Epperson as Ashley. Sorry---Epperson's Ash was as dumb as a box of rocks. 

     

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    As The World Turns Discussion Thread

    in DTS: Cancelled Soaps

    Posted

    12 hours ago, Khan said:

     

    Meanwhile, Alexander Walters (Mark) was so much more good-looking than Shawn Christian (Mike).  I wonder whatever happened to him (or why ATWT never thought to have Mark work as a male stripper, lol).

    He could at least have played that with some conviction. 

    There was a lot of backstage turmoil after Marland's death. Everything seemed to bottom out in 95-96. They hung on to horrible actors (ugh...that friend of Sarah Kasnoff), they let popular actors go, there was a writer carousel that seemed to go in different directions the minute they took over. Other than Ben and Carly, I don't think any new characters lasted. 

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    Guiding Light discussion thread

    in DTS: Cancelled Soaps

    Posted

    Carl T Evans who played the first adult Alan Michael was. He was a good actor, but not the powerhouse that Hearst was. Michael Dietz--not so much. And the last one, whose name I can't remember, I'm not sure it's fair to judge him. The writers didn't really even know what to do with him. I can't recall a thing he did, other than workout to "Fortunate Son" on an Inside the Light.

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    Guiding Light discussion thread

    in DTS: Cancelled Soaps

    Posted

    6 hours ago, Mitch64 said:

    I wish they had brought Van's edge back after her dumb coming back from the dead storyline...I hated her kowtowing to Billy and sighing over Matt. Maeve could play a cold a** b*tch quite well. 

    Man, let me tell you. In the back of my head, I knew that Vanessa and Ross started out as schemers. But I missed a lot having to go to school. Vanessa is scheming for the likes of Ben McFarrin while Ross is setting his sights on Amanda is blowing my mind.

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    ALL: Legacy children who were undervalued or underdeveloped

    in Discuss The Soaps

    Posted · Edited by P.J.

    On 11/27/2023 at 8:34 PM, Soapsuds said:

    He reminds me a lot of Lily from ATWT who also refused to be Lucinda heir. Lily didn't grow until Heather took over and became the business women Lucinda wanted her to be. She stopped being this soft flower and her thornes came out.

    Chris was a goofball no matter who played him. Surprising because he was Bob and Kim son.

    I don't think all the Chris's were goofballs, but each recast went in wildly different directions. Korver was young and stupid, Chase was too old and horny for barely past teenage Alison, Bruce was mostly shirtless, Cosgrove didn't really have enough time to be much of anything. 

    And in hindsight, I don't think Chris being an issue for Bob and Kim was out of left field. Kim had always had a kind of blind spot when it came to her kids. There was a parallel between how Bob and Kim fought over Andy's issues (alcoholism and his faking paralysis) and Chris' irresponsibility. It just wasn't as well set up. 

    Undervalued legacy child: DANIEL HUGHES---while Parker was always a focal point in Carly's story, and by his teenage years was having sex and getting married, Daniel was rarely more than a sleeping lump on Emily's shoulder and got shipped off to boarding school, never to be heard from again. They even gave Em a surprise adult geek son and she was obsessed with giving Paul a child before or instead of Meg.

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    As The World Turns Discussion Thread

    in DTS: Cancelled Soaps

    Posted

    Eeeeeeh...yeah, I don't see it either. The only reason I was ok with Hal/Em was that Em was pretty much OOC for their time together.  I normally found KMH brittle and neurotic, and nearly completely unsympathetic. Boy, Caso must not have been around for her Em, because her Em slept with anything that wasn't nailed down.

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    As The World Turns Discussion Thread

    in DTS: Cancelled Soaps

    Posted

    14 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

    Pretty sure it was after.

    Nick's dying wish that Steve and Betsy not get involved -what was that about? Odd thing to think about when you're dying and even odder that it would be acted upon.

    What was the background to that?

    Nick and Steve had always been at odds. Nick had blamed Steve for his wife and daughter's deaths in a fire (the wife turned up alive later). Steve had had an affair with her. He had stolen a necklace so they could run away before she was presumed dead. Then Steve quickly got involved with Carol, but ended up in jail for smuggling drugs for James. After Steve got out, Nick refused to stake Steve in a trucking business. Steve and Betsy ended up growing close and she offered him her trust fund. Nick thought Steve was using Betsy. They couldn't stay away from each other, Nick followed them to a secret picnic. Nick confronted Steve, they had a terrible fight, and Nick had a heart attack. Nick then extracted the promise from Betsy to stay away from Steve before he died. Which is why Betsy got involved with Craig.

    *This seems like a lot of story for the two years that Nick was on screen. He had saved Melinda from a fire before she wound up dying in the lake. And between Carol and Betsy, Steve had an affair with Maggie. Which is weird, because I thought she was involved with Frank. 

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    As The World Turns Discussion Thread

    in DTS: Cancelled Soaps

    Posted

    3 hours ago, DeliaIrisFan said:

     

    I also can't keep track of the Andropolouses.  I found myself wondering if Steve's father (whom I always assumed was Kim's ex, but I guess that was Frank's father/Steve's uncle?) was still living in Greece when Steve got arrested.

    Nick (Kim's husband) and Steve were half-brothers. Frank was their cousin. Steve's father was Michael Christopher, who had been convicted of being a Russian spy (or something.) It's unclear from my brief persual of the book when Steve became aware that he had a different father, before or after Nick's death.

    6 hours ago, DeliaIrisFan said:

      How long were they together in the '80s before their wedding?  

    I'm not really sure---but Bob was having feelings for Kim around the time she got involved with Nick Andropolous. He died in '82. I have this vague recollection of Kim and Bob being a couple that was always teased between other romances. (Sort of like Carly/Jack but a lot less dysfunctional...lol) 

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    As The World Turns Discussion Thread

    in DTS: Cancelled Soaps

    Posted

    46 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

    The situation with Iva is sadly a realistic thing in families.. especially back in the 80s/90s where sometimes the survivor (Iva) had to deal with being in the same room with their abuser and/or the person that hurt them.

    From what I recall, one of the factors that led to Kirk/Iva breaking up was when Iva's cousin (Lenore.. I think was her name) told her that Kirk was her ex husband that left her and the kids.  So Iva rightfully told off Kirk and tried to put distance between her and Kirk.. which is a healthy response.

    However, Ellie decided to go for Kirk herself at the expense of her sister Iva's feelings.. and Iva, still in people pleasing mode, tried to be the bigger person.

    When viewing Iva's character arc from late 1985 into the the 1990s, I viewed Iva as having intense guilt for running away and leaving the family without a word to anyone.  Those first episodes when Emma/Iva came face to face was very cold and intense.. and I sometimes wonder if Iva being 'the bigger person' was a way for her to make up for deserting the family.

    I don't know if Marland intentionally was showing that the survivor of abuse (Iva) was still being abused... but instead of it being physical/sexual.. it was more emotional abuse by the family.   

    I hadn't really thought about it in those terms, because it wasn't that her family didn't believe Iva. Seth, Caleb and Holden were never really comfortable with Josh hanging around (from what I recall). I do think part of the reason Iva always compromised was her lingering problems with self-esteem. It was like part of her was frozen at thirteen, and stuck at looking to Emma for approval. Not only did the relationship with John cause problems, but her keeping the Aaron secret. It was the only secret she kept in the decade she was on the show, and you'd have thought she'd murdered someone from Emma and Lily's reactions.

    No, I'm sure Marland wasn't thinking in terms of Iva still enduring the abuse. He was very into characters getting therapy and being "whole" again. Hopefully, had he continued with the show, he could have given Iva a better sense of self than she ended up getting. 

    BTW, it's around the second anniversary of Lisa Brown's passing. :(

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    As The World Turns Discussion Thread

    in DTS: Cancelled Soaps

    Posted

    Poor Iva, constantly being stuck making those around her comfortable with their lack of concern for her feelings. I'd forgotten she was Ellie's maid of honor. UGH. Is it just ATWT that had this obsession with exes proving there are no hurt feelings with weird proofs of "acceptance"? Attending weddings/naming of godparents/etc? It's twisted that Iva was forced to be in both her sister's weddings. And I keep thinking of Carly having to sit through Jack's wedding to Janet with this plastic smile on her face while Jack seemed to be more focused on her than his bride.

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    As The World Turns Discussion Thread

    in DTS: Cancelled Soaps

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Khan said:

    Hunt Block shouldn't have been hired at all.  He was completely wrong for Craig, but I tend to suspect he was hired only because GL must have let him go sooner than planned (after writing his character, Ben Warren, into a corner and having no choice but to kill him off) and P&G needed him to finish out his contract, lol.

    As for Alec Wallace - again, their casting choice (Michael Woods) torpedoed any chance of that character making a real impact on the show.  I mean, I like MW, but I don't think he has much of a range as an actor.

    You won't get any argument from me re: Block. I hated him on GL before I hated him on ATWT. I wouldn't be surprised if GL kept him on a little longer than they wanted. The fall of 99 was supposed to find a "Richard Branson" type character coming to town to get involved with Carly. It was in the previews, but then got derailed by Maura's pregnancy. 

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    As The World Turns Discussion Thread

    in DTS: Cancelled Soaps

    Posted

     Sheffer's obsession with Hunt Block was weird. Yes, arguably, ATWT needed a rich [!@#$%^&*]-stirrer to drive story. (Alec Wallace was an epic failure..) But Block didn't have the charisma to do the role justice. Block should've been fired about year three.

    After many years of contemplation, I've decided that Craig's obsession wasn't really Carly. It was any one who had the talent to make him a buck. After Rosanna, when he's inexplicably involved with Jen's design business, he spouts the same tired lines to her that he said to Carly. And then Meg (even though that's SB.)  ATWT got really lazy and couldn't develop story for Craig out of Carly's circle. 

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