How should ATWT end and who should come back??

[soapfan770]

Does anyone know what the story is behind the feud of Colleen Zenk-Pinter and Jacqueline Schultz? I've heard that Arianne Menker/Arianna Chase left in 1980 because she was caught in the middle and disgusted by their feud and that Schultz was recasted '82 over another fit thought later Schultz and CZP made up and are now friends. This story was fascinating and I've always wanted to know what the truth is about it.

Regarding ATWT's ratings I think the last big ratings spike was there in late '96/early 97 with Holden's return. I seem to recall ATWT last getting over a 3.0 back in the summer of 2003 when the show sat comfortably at #3 in the ratings for quite some time until Days' own serial killer story took off.

[Khan]

I don't know what started the feud, either. More than likely, though, it might have had something to do with who was WT's "'It' Girl" of the moment. Remember, Dee and Barbara (who were supposed to be best friends, yet, whenever you would expect them to be together, like Dee being Barbara's maid-of-honor at her wedding, there always was some lame excuse why they weren't) were, in many respects, cut from the same cloth. Both were young, beautiful, hapless females, constantly mired in one crisis or another. Therefore, who was the more central heroine? Frankly, I think that was hard to say.

[DRW50]

Vee, I'm not sure if you're still reading the thread, but in regard to the Dobsons and some of their crazy work at ATWT, I was reading the soap encyclopedia book for the first time in a while and Schmering mentions that they were replaced by KC Collier and Tom King and the spy story they were working on fell apart. I wonder if that was the Miranda nonsense. Then after a while the Dobsons were brought back to "repair the damage."

[Khan]

I'm not Vee, of course, but...that was part of it.

[DRW50]

What was the other part?

[Vee]

Thanks for that. I'm curious too, Khan. Wasn't that also the period when Mary-Ellis "The Real World" Bunim came aboard determined to wipe everything out and reinvent daytime? And then she got tossed.

[soapfan770]

Didn't Bunim want to move ATWT to LA for no good reason other than it being Hollywood? I wonder how many of the vets would have moved if it had happened(Given AMC's current move, most of them??)

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I think Mary Stuart detested her at SEARCH too.

The Dobsons and Bunim were sent to ATWT to "contemporize" the show, which the Dobsons has successfully done at GL previously. I recall hearing ATWT was an aimless mess prior to the Dobsons' first stint, but they made many controversial decisions in order to stabilize the show and to make it seem more modern. I guess they succeeded in making ATWT more of a contemporary soap, while keeping its identity in tact, but a lot of their storytelling went again the grain of what ATWT was previously.

[bellcurve]

That's our Jill!

[DRW50]

Who are these people at the start of the episode? Is it Cricket and her husband? He's kind of cute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGmwmljEOoA

[SFK]

I don't know who the dude is, but yes, that is Cricket Montgomery (not to be confused with Cricket Blair). You may recognize her, she's Lisa Loring aka Wednesday Addams. Interesting seeing as how Carolyn Jones (who she really does resemble) was appearing on Capitol at the same time. Man did Lisa have a go of it, I remember seeing her on Geraldo in the late '80s/early '90s and she was battling a substance abuse problem and was in a strained marriage with porn star Jerry Butler.

[DRW50]

I'm sorry to hear about her problems. I wish they could bring Cricket back, or at least mention her. The last time they did was that awful Billy story.

The theme sounds a little different here, more sweetened up. I prefer the one in the later 80s.

So the Stewart house -- I don't remember that set at all. It's comforting to see David Stewart doing the decorations, as by the time I started watching he was gone most of the time.

Is that Fashions Barbara is working in? The early version? Or somewhere else? And there's Gunnar. I don't know who that guy is stalking Barbara, I wonder if he was a James acolyte or some other crazy.

Meg Ryan's Betsy. She is a bit simpering but she does have a lot of charisma and such strong chemistry with Steve/Frank Runyeon. There was a big change in chemistry with Lindsay Frost.

That Frannie's line readings are a bit...stilted. Was this the Frannie who had bulimia?

Wow, I didn't know Justin Deas was still on the show at this time! He manages to make a Christmas carol sound like a cry for help. Strange seeing him with HBS.

And Imogene Coca. I think she just described her ATWT run as playing a "bag lady" in the police station, or something. I guess she had a little more than that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XLBE2fJqz0&feature=related

[P.J.]

Yeah, that's Cricket and I assume Ernie. It's been a long time, but she seems to have reformed, and that was the story. It's so weird seeing Barbara so nice and with Gunnar, Justin Deas as Tom, and Meg Ryan's Betsy.

*sigh*

I believe that's Terri VandenBosch as Frannie. She died last year.

[DRW50]

I'm sorry to hear that, about her passing.

Thanks for answering my question.

I guess this is when they had started to tame Tom's edges a bit more but he still has great fun chemistry with Margo. The part about the ornament cracks me up. Justin must have been such a hard act to follow as Tom. I looked on Soapcentral and Hillary had only been around for two months at this time. You'd think she had been in the role for years, she seems so comfortable.

[SFK]

Yeah, you see the sign for Fashions in the second clip, when Barbara bashes the guy in the face with a mannequin and way OTT Gunnar throwns him outside.

ITA about Frannie, I didn't even realize that was supposed to be her at first but thought we must be talking about the same person ("I-tried-to-call-her-this-morning-but-there's-no-answer.")

I know a lot of people wouldn't want to see it, but I'd be curious to see JD and HBS work together again on OLTL, you know Bo and Nora can't be smooth sailing for TOO long.

I thought Imogene Coca wascharming here, looked like she was going up on her lines a bit in that hopspital scene, and that made her even cuter.

Okay, so they are both older than me, but seeing Danny Pintauro and Brian Bloom so young makes me feel so old!