ATWT: Question about 1985 transition

[Soapsuds]

From 1985 to 1993, the show was written by Douglas Marland, whose tenure is widely considered to be the second golden age of As the World Turns. After what had been several years of standoffs between Bunim's production office and the cast over long-term story direction, the program was finally returned to its roots under Marland and executive producers Robert Calhoun and later Laurence Caso. Marland wrote the matriarch and patriarch of the Hughes family back into the storyline, bringing back original cast members Helen Wagner and Don MacLaughlin, who had left after a spat with Bunim. Marland's back-to-emotional basics writing coupled with the successful integration of a new farm family, the Snyders (based on Marland's own large and close-knit family), brought enormous approval from fans and critics alike, and caused the show's ratings to approach the level they had once reached in the 1970s. Marland's storytelling placed the highest value on character development and realism, and he consistently drew fresh material from the show's rich history. Long-unseen characters like Penny Hughes (with Rosemary Prinz returning to the role after a seventeen-year absence) and Susan Stewart (Marie Masters, returning for the first time since 1979) were seen once again, and new storylines rippled from events far in the show's past. Daytime viewers, notoriously equipped with the memories of elephants, heartily approved of Marland's mining of new twists from storylines and characters they remembered from as far back as the 1960s and 1970s. One history-rich storyline shone a spotlight on Kim, who began receiving notes and flowers from a secret admirer. The attention became more and more threatening as Kim tried to decipher who the mystery person was. Meanwhile, Bob's daughter Frannie, played by this time by future movie star Julianne Moore, fell in love with mysterious restaurant owner and widower Douglas Cummings (John Wesley Shipp) and nearly married him. Cummings was revealed to be Kim's stalker and killed three characters who knew his secret, a young woman named Marie Kovac (Mady Kaplan), Cal Randolph and his psychiatrist Henry Strauss (who was run into in front of the Hughes home). Cummings also nearly choked to death Heather Dalton when she came upon his secret. Cummings then kidnapped both Frannie and Kim when they stumbled upon his secret shrine room to Kim. And then Cummings nearly killed Frannie, but Frannie's former boyfriend Kevin Gibson (played by later primetime star Steven Weber; Frannie and Kevin had broken up because Marie Kovac had falsely claimed she was pregnant by Kevin and had paid for an abortion for her) jumped in front of the bullet when the right hand woman of Cumming's, Marsha Talbot (Guilia Pagano) -- who ended up stabbing to death Cumming in her jealousy (Kim would go on trial for this murder, but it would be revealed at the trial that it was indeed Marsha, who went to prison, but escaped for a few days and held Frannie hostage in a cabin until two young men, Seth Snyder {the eldest child of the Snyder clan played by Steve Bassett} and Dr. Casey Peretti, played by Bill Shanks came to rescue her). Douglas Marland cited this as his favorite storyline. He then dipped into history yet again to have Kim and Bob track down the daughter they long believed was dead, Sabrina, played originally by Julianne Moore in a dual role and then solely by Claire Beckman from 1990-92.

Marland breathed new life into ever-distraught heroine Barbara Ryan. She dated boring Brian McColl (played by Mark Pinter, her real-life husband; Marland would write out both Diana and Kirk within the first year of his writing the show in 1985) but when he dumped her for another woman, Shannon O'Hara (real name Erin Casey, played by Margaret Reed), Marland decided to have Barbara abandon her goody-two shoe ways and become a vixen. She tried to break up Tom and Margo but then became involved with, arguably, the love of her life: police detective Hal Munson (Benjamin Hendrickson). Barbara also broke up Brian and Shannon by bringing Shannon's long thought dead husband, the Scottish Duncan McKechnie (Michael Swan) to Oakdale. Duncan and Shannon became a super couple on their own, and Brian would end up marrying Duncan's grown daughter from a previous affair, Beatrice McKechnie (Ashley Crow).

Barbara would get the scare of her life when James Stenbeck returned from the "dead" hiding in Duncan's castle that Duncan had transferred from Scotland to Oakdale. James would reveal himself to Barbara by saying, "Hello, Barbara...!", to the delight of many audience members.

Much later, after a one-night stand with Darryl Crawford (Rex Smith), Barbara was forced to admit that the baby that was conceived (Jennifer, named after her mother) was not Hal's, and he divorced her. In the 1990s, however, Barbara and Hal were to be married two more times, though their happiness was never long-lived. For the better part of three decades, Barbara's turbulent personal life has seldom strayed from center stage. If her aunt Kim can be said to be one of the great heroines of As the World Turns, Barbara is certainly one of its great anti-heroines: spoiled, selfish, at times cold and haughty, yet underneath it all a painfully wounded and vulnerable woman, and a deeply loyal and loving parent.

In 1988 Marland introduced the first gay male character, Hank Elliot (Brian Starcher), to daytime. Hank was a masculine man who was introduced to the town before revealing his homosexuality. The characters, particularly young slightly SORASed teenagers Paul Ryan (played at this time by Andy Kavovit) and his friend, Andy Dixon (played by Scott DeFreitas), then had to struggle with their feelings over being around him. Ultimately, when Hank was shot after saving Paul from his nefarious father James, Paul realized what a true friend Hank was. When Hank was written out of the show, Marland almost gave him AIDS, but felt that would send a stereotypical message. Instead he gave Hank's off-camera partner the virus.

Marland had a rule never to introduce new characters until he had been at a series for 6 months and knew the canvas, but many of the new characters that Marland introduced often became every bit as beloved as the old favorites. Many of the stories during this period revolved around Lucinda Walsh (Elizabeth Hubbard; she had been created shortly before Marland arrived at ATWT), a tough-as-nails businesswoman whose tremendous confidence, savvy and success in the boardroom masked a deep pain and vulnerability over her failings as a mother and romantic partner. Her adopted daughter Lily (Martha Byrne) became, in many respects, the emotional centerpiece of the program, as she entered into a series of star-crossed love affairs that took much precedence in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Although Lily was raised rich, she'd had quite a tough childhood, having seen at a young age Martin Guest, the man she'd believed to be her father, commit suicide. One day, Lily was told that her close friend and by then brother-in-law Craig Montgomery's airplane had gone down. Thinking him dead, Lily ran to a barn at the Snyder Farm and wept. Farm hand Rod Landry (William Fichtner) found her here and shook her, asking what was wrong. At this moment, Lily's biological mother Iva Snyder (Lisa Brown) happened to enter the room. She thought that Rod (whose real identity was Josh Snyder) was trying to rape Lily as he'd raped her, so she grabbed a pitchfork and blurted out that Lily was Rod/Josh's daughter. Emotionally charged scenes like these were characteristic of Marland's tenure.

One of the more puzzling aspects of the Snyder family involved near-incestuous relationships, the most confusing of which involved Lily and Holden (Jon Hensley). Lily was dating safe, kindhearted Dusty Donovan (then played by Brian Bloom) in 1985 when brooding stable boy Holden Snyder taught her how to ride horses. Sensing a palpable chemistry between Byrne and Hensley, Marland paired them up. The problem was that if Iva was Holden's sister and Lily was Iva's daughter, then Holden was Lily's biological uncle. To straighten out the mess, Marland had Iva learn she had been adopted by Emma (Kathleen Widdoes) and Henry Snyder at a time when they believed they could not conceive children. Another, more controversial story aspect was Meg Snyder (then played by Jennifer Ashe) falling in love with Josh Snyder in spite of knowing he had raped her sister. Marland revealed Josh had been brutally beaten by his father for years, but some fans still never warmed to the Meg/Josh relationship. Another Snyder story involved real incest, when Angel Lange (Alice Haining) arrived in Oakdale. She had been Holden Snyder's brother Caleb Snyder's wife while he lived in Chicago, and had aborted his child. On the rebound and angry about Caleb's shoddy treatment of Angel, Holden married Angel and they moved to Europe. When they returned a year or so later, Angel refused to give him a divorce even though everyone knew he was in love with Lily. What seemed to be selfishness was actually abject terror of what her father Henry Lange (James Rebhorn) would do to her if she were alone. Sure enough, one night Henry crawled into Angel's bed and forced himself on her, as he had been doing ever since she was a little girl. When Caleb learned the baby Angel had aborted was her own father's, he confronted Henry, who then killed himself out of shame. Caleb stood trial due to his unwillingness to expose Angel's secrets to the world, but finally Angel took the witness stand and confessed her father's brutality. A few years later, Angel married the eldest Snyder brother, Seth (Steve Bassett) and they moved to New York City in 1993.

Marland often delved into realistic portrayals of controversial, socially-relevant topics in his storylines. During his tenure, the citizens of Oakdale encountered AIDS, homosexuality, Native American land rights, incest, euthanasia, and menopause, in addition to the more typical soap opera tribulations. Marland always centered his stories around beloved characters and steered away from preaching. As a result, viewers accepted the heavy emphasis on social issues.

[DRW50]

I'm sorry to ask this after the thread already quieted down, but did Marland or anyone else ever say why John wasn't really involved in the Stenbeck stories of the late 80s when he was such a big part of them in the Dobson era?

[P.J.]

If John was a tad neglected in subsequent Stenbeck stories, I'm sure it was because most of those stories were centered on Barbara and Paul. Had Dusty still been in town, and threatened by James, I'm sure it would have played differently.

[DRW50]

That makes sense. I was just watching some of those old clips from when John faked his death and then returned, and James was literally quaking with shock and fear when John confronted him. It was a very surprising dynamic; I can't see the James of the late 80s behaving this way.