ATWT: Austin Peck

[Cheyenne]

I agree with you here. Peck is hilarious in person and it shows with his acting on ATWT sometimes.

About Austin on DAYS. His 2nd time around was way better then the 1st. He just seemed more calm and secure with himself when he came back.

[Drew]

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People talk about Gwen, but the Snyder's are taking over as well. Look at the opening: No globe, but tons of farm images. I could understand if there was a variety, but there isn't. It's As Gwen/The Snyder's World Turns.

There is a globe ...

[Chris B]

Drew, where is the globe? You mean that tiny thing when the title is shown? People complained about the last globe and it was featured much better then (especially in comparison). The current globe doesn't cut it when you consider that there are tons of farm images throughout. It's not just about the Snyders.

Not many characters get featured period, but I do think the Snyder's have become the central family of the show. Brad, Faith, Parker, JJ, Carly, Jack, Queen!Meg and usually Jade are featured. Holden, Lily, Luke and Emma may not have major frontburner stories, but they are more likely to get them than the Hughes.

Now lets look at this family, the original family of Oakdale...

Frontburner: Katie & Craig, but they are only Hughes by Margo's connection and usually are isolated from the family.

Featured as a supporting player: Margo

In eternal backburner hell: Lisa, Nancy and Kim: When did we last see them? Bob and Tom are rarely featured, but a step up from the three women.

The only Hughes who've had frontburner storylines in a few years are Casey and Adam, because both are teens. Two teen characters (one with Adam gone) does not a family make. When it comes to bringing back characters they rarely do it for the Hughes, it's the Snyders.

Instead of SORASing all of Lily and Carly's kids, why not bring back Daniel to give Tom something to do? What about Lien? Andy? Sabrina? Frannie? Chris? John? Lyla? Cricket? Cricket's son?

Any combination of those Hughes would be more interesting than boring Meg, worthless Brad and all of those kids that we really don't need. Happy to see Aaron back, but still, yet another Snyder. Aren't Luke, Jade, Faith, Parker, JJ and Sage enough young characters for that ONE family?

Then the Stewart's a total disaster, from the writing and the fact that only three remain. But I've given up on this family, I don't even know how they'd revive it to be completely honest. The Hughes however are easy to fix considering many are still around with lots of easy connections to sort through.

How do the Snyders need anymore additions? Maybe if they dumped Meg and Brad, but more people piled on would be ridiculous. However, I do think Ellie and Iva are both more interesting than Meg. It would especially be nice to see how Lily would react to having both mothers in town. Ellie and Iva also have better chemistry with Scott Bryce, although Betsy and Sierra should be top choices for him.

[All My Shadows]

The Stewarts would be so easy to rebuild. Considering the show as written by an excellent writer who would write for everyone, you could have Betsy and Dani back. Ellen would be ideal, but I'm not so sure Patricia Bruder would want to leave retirement for the show. Maybe recurring? And then there's Annie and Dee, who are both around the same age as Margo. One of them would be perfect. Not to mention the fact that Annie has four kids who, after SORAS, would be in their late 20s right now...

[jfung79]

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Frontburner: Katie & Craig,

I think you just made a case for the real "central family" of Passanante's ATWT as the Montgomerys.

[Cheyenne]

How did this thread turn into a thread about who's on the most, when the title says "Austin Peck" and the original poster is asking how he's doing on the show?

[ATWTCarOn4Ever]

Lol thats what I'm wondering. Its just another oppurtunity to voice displeasure with the show I guess for some people.

As for the main families on the show I like the Snyders. They're a full fledged big family that is diverse and has equally dynamic members from Luke, Aaron, Faith, etc.

The Hughes for me aren't as important as the Snyders IMO. Other than Casey I haven't really cared for any of them.

I'd rather have the Stenbecks/Ryans or even the Montgomery Clan emerge as a central family in Oakdale. I think that would be a lot more interesting to watch onscreen.

As for the Stewarts they're screwups. I just don't think they're worthy of being a member of the "Core Family Group". Don't get me wrong I like them. But they just have disaster written all over them 24/7 and I don't think thats a good look.

P.S. The whole "aging" and "change of character" or w/e thing that some people seem fixated on when it comes to Brad really is not that important in the grand scheme of things. So what Brad is younger now? Is that really causing you that much pain and suffering? I mean its just a number. People that were born 1 or 2 months ago on soaps turn 10 in a matter in of 2 to 3 years! Theres sorasing and desorasing occuring all over the place. I don't expect nor need the ages to be right for every single character on each soap I love to watch.

2nd I've read that he went to jail and that he was not a great person before that. And I've heard about how he treated Carly and how Brad isn't Brad supposedly. Well I didn't see that Brad admittedly but I do think that the current Brad is a good mix of bad and good which from what I hear the old Brad was as well. Plus this Brad is manipulative and a trickster. Plus he can be just as mean as anyone else from what we've see.

That being said I think Austin Peck is a great addition to the cast and I hope we have him for a long time.

[dragonflies]

Brad has grown on me, I like him better away from the shrew(Katie). Austin is doing alot better. Sure he's not great with dramatic, just keep him in the comedy aspect and he'll be fine

[All My Shadows]

How long have you been watching the show? And how much of its history do you know? I'm not trying to bitch or anything, but I'm just wondering. The Hughes family is *the* family on the show. Or at least they used to be. For the first 25 years of the show's run, almosst every character introduced was connected to a Hughes family member. And you might think that that wasn't a good idea, but keep in mind that throughout this period, ATWT was consistently the #1 soap on the air (for 20 years, longer than Y&R so far).

Barbara and her kids have almost always been considered part of the Hughes family.

Well, you have to understand that the way they're being written now isn't the way they should be written. Susan is a woman who has made mistake and mistake in her life. She, Emily, and Alison would be goldmines for great stories if the headwriter was up to doing things right.

SORAS has never been a terrible problem with me. Yes, I hate the fact that it exists, but it's been on our soaps ever since they got to TV (and probably on radio too), so I put up with it and accept it as a part of US soap opera. But, in the past, it's never been so bad that little brothers became big brothers. They want us to suspend belief, but sometimes it's just ridiculous. How can they use a character's history if they have totally retconned it?

And the thing that really annoys me is, why would they do that? There is absolutely no legitimate reason for them making Brad younger than Jack. They just wanted Austin Peck on their damn show, so they figured it was A-OK to [!@#$%^&*] up its history yet again to get him.

[P.J.]

Well, since ATWT is loathe to use it's own history, you may have a point. Jack is still the "good" son and Brad is still the "screwup". HOWEVER, it changes the entire dynamic between them. Jack used to look up to Brad, and lost respect for him when he thought Brad killed their father. Now their relationship has been reduced to supposedly fighting over the same girls. It does a disservice to both characters.

[SpiritualJunkie]

I would LOVE to see the Stewarts frontburner again a la 2003 during the big Dr. Rick story. I hate the way they are being written now.

[YRIsTheBest]

Brad is a jerk! I really dont like him! So, i guess AP is doing his job! However, besides being a jerk, he is nice too look at.