The Great Douglas Marland

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I miss him terribly too, John Dixon was one of the most complex and brilliantly acted characters to ever appear on daytime.

[Soapsuds]

Don't forget Valente got rid of Ellen Stewart(Patricia Bruder). That was just the beginning. The guy was a hack of an EP. Ugh Black and Stern were awful. So who do we get Jessica Klein....Ugh.....

It just astounded me how Goutman being a great director has sunk so low as an EP. He has lost all sense of what a good soap is.

[Khan]

Yep, right up there, IMO, with Roger Thorpe, another complex character who benefitted from Marland's touch.

[Paul Raven]

Marland actually wrote out Marisa Tomei's Marcy pretty soon after he arrived,along with Stewart,Maggie(Lyla's sister) and Frank(Steve's cousin)

One thing that bothered me is that in his 7 years on the show,he never brought back Dee Stewart as a regular character.As a member of a core family.ex wife to John and woman in her late 20's/early 30's I felt there was a lot of story possibilities.

Also,the Syders having so many siblings meant that there was never a time that the whole family was on the show.I know the purpose was to have characters in back up positions,if an actor left,or a character needed to be rested,but it always annoyed me,especially post Maraland when Ellie,Seth etc have fallen off the face of the earth.

The same thing happened with the Frame's(AW)Reardons(GL) and even the Hortons(DOOL)

Finally,he brought a lot of extraneous characters that moved the show away from the core.Linc Lafferty,Hutch,,Rosanna etc.

[Soapsuds]

If were lucky we will see him next year when ATWT is cancelled. But knowing Goutman we will get a monkey escaping from a zoo instead.

[DRW50]

I liked Caleb when Michael Morrison played him. I was never into the recast. What I liked about Julie was she was a vixen but still had a heart and a great sense of humor. They seemed to run out of material for her, although I liked the ransom money story, and when she worked with Carly at the Yacht Club. She essentially passed the vixen torch down to her (and didn't Carly sleep with Caleb...did Julie know about that?).

At the time the soap press praised Valente for having to make tough choices, but even when I agreed with some of the cuts, I thought they had horrible exits (Duncan and Shannon should have left together). And getting rid of Andy was a huge mistake.

I think Marland became known as the only one who could juggle a large cast. I don't think he was the only one, but he did make it look easy. He knew you didn't have to be a big star on the show to have an impact, he knew community was more important than show hogging.

[Khan]

Must we drag Ric Decker into every ATWT-centric conversation?

[DRW50]

I never have understood why we never see Dee. I also never understood why Maggie was written out, as they kept all her family. When I see the clips I thought Maggie and Frank were good characters (and I thought Frank was cute, but that's not relevant...). Did he not like the actress, or did she want to leave?

I know some were also unhappy with the way he wrote Steve Androplous out.

I still enjoyed ATWT up to the time Richard Culliton was writing. I didn't like Valente, and I also didn't like some of what FMB and Lorraine Broderick did, especially with David Allen and with turning Emily into Tom's stalker. Looking back that was preferable to what we got with Sheffer and Passante, but I still think the show got too far away from its core in that era. It's too bad about FMB and Broderick because they did have some good ideas, but the revolving wheel of Brad Snyders and the overextended Reid Hamilton story and writing Lucinda out hurt the show.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

The Dobsons seemingly recycled a lot of their Roger Thorpe plots on GL onto John Dixon at ATWT. Didn't they try a marital rape storyline between John and Kim too?

Also, not much is written about Marland's first stint at ATWT in 1979, before he was switched to GL, and the Dobsons were switched from GL to ATWT. Incestuous P&G...

Was anyone here alive and watching in 1979 to describe his first stint on ATWT?

[Soapsuds]

How could you not like Graham Winton?..lol

His version did not have that edge/bad boy image. He was too nice. I liked him as Caleb but the character was changed with him in the role.

[Soapsuds]

I don't remember how Dee was written out. I liked her. Didnt Steve go to jail?? And I totally agree with your post about Valente and FMB and Broderick.

I was alive and 9....LOL. I dont remember though....remember I was only 9...LOL The earliest I remember are the early 80's....around 81.

[MichaelGL]

I don't know about that. Marland had Roger don several disguises, kidnap Blake/Chrissy, and in the end fall off a cliff. I don't think he had the time to make Thorpe complex, as Curlee and Co. did. If anything, he continued what the Dobsomes would have eventually done.

I don't think John wasn't that super villainous under the Dobsomes, compared to James. He did seem to mellow out under Marland, but that's more evolving as a character.

I've only read summaries and synopsises of this story, much of them don't do the story any justice, but how was John during the whole Iva/Aaron storyline, most notably after the truth came out. The story itself was enormous and had been set up years in advance with Julie/Holden/Lily.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

It's too bad Marland never had a protege to succeed him. Partick Mulcahey said Marland, though brilliant of course, was a horrible teacher that wrote so much of his shows by himself that it was hard to pick anything up from him.

Though Juliet Law Packer, Richard Backus, and Garin Wolf worked under Marland for years, Marland's loss was immediately felt on this show. Even though I was just a kid, I remember the significant shift in tone and execution the show seemed to take when Marland's name was gone from the credits. His style was so distinctive that anyone who followed him was bound to fail.

[DRW50]

The sad part is this roulette did horrible damage to the P&G soaps in 1995.

I think the Dobsons did the John/Dee marital rape story, although in this story, John didn't rape Dee, he thought she wanted him when actually she thought he was another man.

I can't remember who was writing when John and Kim were together. Soderberg? I've always wanted to know more about the 70s on ATWT. I know the show went back up in the ratings after Irna Phillips was fired, but the stories of the mid/late 70s seemed to drive ratings down for good (part of it was probably just a natural changing of the guard in what type of soap was most appealing to the public), and most of the characters who frequented those stories were gone by the end of the decade, rarely to be mentioned again.

Do you think ATWT was in a bad state of disrepair when Marland arrived, or was it in OK shape?

[Paul Raven]

From 1980,when the Dobsons arrived till 85 and Marland's arrival,the show went through a series of writers who collectively made more changes to the show than in it's first 24 years on the show.

It was in 78/79 when the show fell from #1 after 20 years.I think Ralph Ellis and Eugenie Hunt were writing.They killed off Dan Stewart and brought in characters like Doug and Marcia Campbel,Ian and Dana McFarland.The show was wandering off course.

I don't know much about Marland's first stint Was it only 3 months(more of a caretaker thing) before he went to GL and the Dobsons switched to ATWT?

I think he was responsible for the Lisa/Bennett Hadley gothic story.

So by 85,things were muddled.

As for 70's ATWT here is a summary of events from 72.I think Irna had returned by this time and made changes that were not well recieved.

Bob and Jennifer

Dr. Chuck Ryan was one of Bob's closest friends in medical school and during their early years as interns. Chuck had left Oakdale for Centerville, where he met and married a young nurse named Jennifer Sullivan. Chuck and Jennifer had two children, Rick and Barbara.

Sometime in 1971 or 1972, Dr. Chuck Ryan becomes terminally ill. On his deathbed, Chuck has Bob promise to take care of his family after he's gone. Bob starts to see quite a bit of the newly widowed Jennifer Sullivan Ryan, and a romance soon develops. Jennifer's son Rick resents Bob's presence, in part because he feels Bob wasn't entirely forthright in explaining Chuck's fatal illness, but also because he worshipped his father and doesn't want Bob to take his place. Thus when Rick finds out that Bob's ex-wife, Lisa, is pregnant, he tries to stop the wedding by telling Jennifer that Bob is the father. But Rick's scheme doesn’t work.

Rick refuses to attend Jennifer and Bob's wedding, which takes place shortly after Bob's son, Tom, marries Carol Deming on July 26, 1972. Jennifer's recently widowed sister, Kim Reynolds, comes to Oakdale in time for the wedding. Even though Kim dates John Dixon for awhile, she is clearly more attracted to Bob.

Tom and Carol

When spoiled rich girl Meredith Halliday left Oakdale with legal guardian turned lover Simon Gilbey, the path was finally cleared for true love to blossom between Tom Hughes and Carol Deming. Carol had always had an unrequited crush on Tom, but now Tom is finally paying attention to her. The two marry each other on Wednesday, July 26, 1972 in a ceremony taped inside a church in New York City.

Dan and Susan and Paul and Elizabeth

One day, while still in the care of Dan and Susan, Betsy falls from the playground monkey bars and is seriously injured. She needs a lifesaving blood transfusion and gets it via a donation from Dan.

In the meantime, Liz recovers from her nervous breakdown and returns home to Paul, but she is distressed when Betsy becomes very attached to Dan and Susan. Liz finally decides to leave Paul, and they soon divorce. Paul dies in November 1972 without ever finding out that Dan is the father of Betsy.

Dan is also the father of Susan's newborn baby, who is named Emily (a.k.a. Emmy).

Susan Jacoby in a 1972 Washington Post article commented on the lack of career women on ATWT and other soaps at the time and made reference to Dr. Susan Stewart as "the only women on As the World Turns who even displays any real interest in a career." Susan and Dan's baby, Emily (a.k.a. Emmy), had recently been born as of mid-June 1972, and in one Spring 1972 ATWT episode, viewers saw this scenario:

In one scene, [susan] wonders aloud whether her daughter will be a doctor like her father or a lawyer like her grandfather.

"Maybe she'll want to be a housewife," her husband [Dan] says.

"Yes, maybe she will," replies the mother [susan]. A vicious look crosses her face as the music fades into a commercial.

(Jacoby, Susan. "Telling It Like It Isn't" Washington Post. June 12, 1972: B3.)

It doesn't take long for Susan to return to work as a research doctor after Emily's birth. Conflicts between Dan and Susan over how much time she should spend with baby Emily, coupled with Dan's continued feelings for newly single Liz, would cause the couple to finally divorce by November 1972. But Dan doesn't have much time to celebrate his freedom from Susan as he's called on to perform two emergency gall bladder surgeries on the same day: one on newcomer Kim Reynolds, and another on a young housewife named Maria Marino. Kim comes out of the surgery with no problems, but Maria isn’t as fortunate. . .

Lisa Becomes Involved With Don

Following the end of Bob's marriage to Sandy, Nancy has been trying to get Bob to take Lisa back. Yet Nancy's efforts are for naught as Bob falls in love with and marries Jennifer. Lisa soon takes up with Don, who once despised her for the way she treated Bob when she was married to him. Lisa becomes even fonder of Don after he becomes buddies with her son Chuck. Don is, however, a bit reluctant to make a full commitment to Lisa.

One day, Lisa starts experiencing pregnancy symptoms. Since she doesn't want Don to think she's trying to trap him into marriage, Lisa goes to Memorial Hospital for an abortion. Dr. Eric Lonsberry performs surgery on Lisa and finds out that she really isn't pregnant after all. She was suffering from an ovarian cyst that had caused the pregnancy symptoms. Rick Ryan, now a young intern, happens to be on duty during Lisa's ordeal and he concocts a lie to try to stop his mother's planned wedding to Bob. Rick tells Jennifer that Lisa thinks Bob was the father of her lost baby. Jennifer refuses to fall for the ploy and goes ahead with her scheduled marriage to Bob.

December 1972

Maria Marino dies during gall bladder surgery of an embolism. Her distraught brother, policeman Joe Fernando, shoots Dan, who breaks his surgical arm in the fall. Surgery is performed on Dan's arm, but it's uncertain whether or not he'll be able to perform surgeries again. Dan feels guilty about the abrupt way in which he told Joe that Maria died and decides not to press charges against him.

Susan, now newly married to Dr. Bruce Baxter, tries to convince him to let her bring Emmy home during Dan's recovery, but Bruce refuses. Donald and Tom look into Bruce Baxter's background in preparation for a custody hearing.

Paul, who has just died, has left the bulk of his money to Betsy and Emmy.

Nancy and Chris get a Christmas greeting telegram from Penny, who's staying in Switzerland during a tough time in her marriage to Anton.

Don proposes to Lisa, but she's reluctant to marry him. She has started seeing ordained-minister-turned-doctor Wally Matthews. Wally is a doctor who offers spiritual advice as well as medical advice and people have come to like him. However, Wally has a secret: he's trying to find the long lost son he gave up for adoption soon after his wife died in childbirth some twenty years ago.

In the meantime, Tom and Carol's new friend, Peter Burton, has just found out that he has been adopted and is trying to find his birth parents. When Tom and Carol introduce Peter to Wally Matthews, the two don't hit it off too well at the beginning.

This is when ABC reigned surpreme and P&G were trying to compete by 'modernising'their shows.Along the way,SFT and AW in particular were destroyed.

They seemed to confuse change with improvement.