ATWT: December Discussion

[Actor87]

I can't stand GM's version of Dusty. So emotionless and thuggish. Give him a grill, a sideways trucker cap, and some jeans that fall to his knees and he'd actually look like they write him.

OKAY....Is anyone else going to agree with me that Monday's show started off funky? I said it before, and I'll say it again. It started off like it was the continuation of some epic cliffhanger Friday, but it wasn't. Is that not strange to anyone else??

Now...on to current events:

Peejy weejy, I'm surprised you aren't marching your happy little ass to Brooklyn to french kiss the writer who was in charge of the CarJack dialogue today!!! The bathtub memories? The sexy-as-freakin-hell countdown? *shiver* UBER-phenomenal!!! :D

Anyone else notice Alison's line flub at the beginning? She said Casey's great-great-grandfather gave Nancy the ring...but it was his great grandfather. (Or who knows...maybe it was a writing error.)

I wonder if Tom Pelphrey did any research into Anthony Herrera's past performances. (I know some actors like to plunge into long-established character roles without even looking at past portrayers' work, and make the role "their own" *ahem*Grayson*ahem*, but I'm hoping Tom P. had better sense.) I thought he did pretty good on the "I'm really James, just younger" persuasion today. His words sounded like something James would say, and he said it the way AH would say it. I'm not sure if it was Tom P.'s acting, or the writing, but whatever it was...it was convincing.

*sigh* Seems like just yesterday when we used to see actual NYE celebrations in Oakdale. Instead, this year...we get a blackout and a whole bunch of stories that are slowly sinking. Minus the steamy, uber-sexy CarJack countdown, of course.

It makes me REALLY sad to think that these are the last Christmas & New Years shows for ATWT. They did pretty good with the Christmas Eve show, but that was about it. We never saw Bob & Kim's house like promised, and we never saw Nancy (until a week later when she handed her heirloom ring down to her great grandson, who's marrying the daughter of the woman her son had an affair with). We never saw whole families (with both present and cameo-appearance past characters) celebrating the holiday together. For New Year's, all we got was Paul/Meg drama (go figure), Craig trying his best to ruin the moment for both CarJack AND their loyal fanbase, PornQueen Alison swearing off sex with horndogCasey until their wedding day, and WhatsHerFace and DustDiddy boinking in the dark. What a great way to remember the last December of ATWT! (NOT!)

[Saving ATWT]

I should make clear what I meant about the keeping of older vets on contract doing the show more harm than good. World Turns has a tiny budget; thus, they need to spend money on actors who TPTB plan to actually use and write for. I love Kim, Bob, Lisa and the gang but Goutman will never feature them. Maybe some of this money could have been used to put characters like Cady and Jen Landon on contract--younger actors are the future of any program.

How do you guys think a story like Nancy's second marriage and the alzheimer's go over in 2010? This worked in the 1980's, before the demos game, but would it be popular today? I loved the story but am not sure if it would work on any show today. The world has changed a lot since I was a kid.

[JellicleCat]

As far as I know Cady herself doesn't want a contract, and Jennifer Landon left of her own free will when her contract expired just like Jesse Lee Soffer did.

If they want to save money how about stop adding new characters that they don't use instead. Adam, Mason, Dani, Audrey, Ralph, Matt all come and went for no apparent reason.

[Mitch]

No for some reason, I never found Holmes Tom sexy in the least....but that could be coming off my love of tall hunk of lurve Gregg Marx...and I hate to admit it, but I used to find Deas sexy as Tom...and I have never felt Deas was anything but a freaky ass troll on GL! I did think that Marx brought sexiness to Tom, and he had a nice sense of humor. I have to say, Holmes always comes off as a boring stiff to me, and the "banter," that Marland used to write was the perfect combination of a writer with no sense of humor with an actor who can't deliver comedy. (I remember a scene where Holmes and HBS were on a plane and they were supposed to be cracking wise over airplane food but it came off so, not funny at all.) Actually, come to think of it, the only Tom who really was good at comedy WAS Deas (and this is coming from a die hard Buzz Cooper hater.)

If they were going to take the vets off contract they should spend the money on writers instead of getting people like Cady McClain on contract. Good writing brings in the viewers, not any one particular or set of actors. Take a look at GL and their gutting of their vets and their destruction of their families..the show was a mess and Wheeler had to take this weird group of characters and glomp them all together at the very end to make it look like there was still a family feel to the show. I think the main problem with the P & G soaps (which are the only ones I watched) is that they used to be writers shows for better or worse (I had problem with both the Dobsons and Marland but it definatley was THEIR show when they were there and much stronger because of it. Now they get the cheapest writers and stick to repeating the same stories over and over as they are afraid of trying anything new.

Nancy's love story they would never write now..though the demos were important back in the day (and funny enough,the demos were better back then when they just told friggen stories.) My own personal opinion is that they should have left her single .. Marland threw her into that romance way too fast after Chris' death and well, I thought the actor playing her love was kind of uh, not the type Nancy would go for. The alzheimers thing,well, maybe it could have worked if Marland lived though I dont think how it could have. It seemed to be one of those Marland stories where he decided to be "socially relevant," and write an "issue," story. Alzheimers is a painful, horrible disease that can take years to take someone. I really didnt need to see Nancy putting diapers on Mac...Which brings me to another point, soaps shouldnt bite off more then they can chew...they obviously cant write diseases realtisically as we dont want to see someone linger away with alzheimers or cancer. So since you cant actually show the reality of the story, just dont do it. If you have to sanitize the story, dont do it at all. Putting Mac out of his misery and by extension the audience was the only thing I can credit that particular creative team with.

[Soapsuds]

Mitch, you are totally right. Instead of bringing in all the stars..ABC groupies..they should have spent the money on better writers. Great stories bring in viewers not any particular actor or actress.

[P.J.]

Now that you mention it...I did have that feeling on Monday--like I'd missed a show, but knew I hadn't. We entered into the middle of a Damian/Paul and Mick/Babs convos.

If I'm not gushy enough about Carjack---well, lookey lookey who's along for the ride---Craigy-poo, Man of the White Wrinkled Ass. Craig=Buzzkill. Of course they were uber-sexy. But I think I'll hold off on the frenching until I get something more tangible than smokey looks in the near darkness. Thank God for Susan Dansby---she's the only one who could've scripted something as innocuous as a countdown and made it seem thrilling. As if at "one", they suddenly realized they'd been given another chance with each other.

Yeah...caught that Ali added an extra "great" in there. My guess was it's on Marnie, not the writing.

[Saving ATWT]

I know Cady personally and she wanted a contract. This is one of the few fringe benefits of working as a bartender in NYC. As for as Landon, she gave an interview hinting that Goutman no longer wanted her.

I agree that story trumps actor; however, both of these actors were important parts of the canvas and were also part of that effort to build Carly a family. Since Maura is a big part of the show, the idea of her having kin around is logical. Also, I think Cady played a great bitch and played well against Hunt Block. They were dating at the time so maybe this was why they had so much chem.

[DRW50]

I don't think viewers need to see the whole reality of the story. As long as there is some realism, that's probably enough for those watching. Many people at home probably know what these diseases are like and they are fine with a truncated version on a soap. If soaps only stayed with brutal realism than we'd still be in the days of the "mystery disease" where someone looks gorgeous yet passes away of some unknown ailment.

I think Marland did a relatively good job of showing illnesses and raising awareness of them without being too excessive. Like Casey's story.

I thought there was humor during Marland's run, just not a big blatant kind. It was more quiet.

I have to wonder how much of the Tom humor people consider the best is more from Deas himself. I never saw a lot of comedy with Marx in the role, and the Holmes Tom had more couple banter. A lot of the crazier stuff was also what Deas did as Buzz. There was a moment in the 83 Christmas episode where Tom was pretending to put ornaments on his ears as earrings -- that must have been something the actor did. They did have a funny moment where he gave an ornament of an angelic female cop.