I just cant put my finger on it but Van's lost all his luster he once had in this role.

Frankly, you'd lose your luster, too, if you had to work with such crap writing (not to mention, such a dull love interest). There comes a point when most young actors on soaps are visibly bored with the material. Van's past that point, I think.

As for Meg, I don't really think they have ruined her or made her too crazy. She's desperate, but Damian pushed her to desperation. By today's ATWT standards, it's a fairly well balanced storyline.

I don't know why, Carl, but that statement makes me cry.

Better, yes, but not by much.

Turning a character into a complete psycho smacks of two things: boredom, and laziness. If TPTB couldn't come up with anything else interesting for Meg (or didn't want to), then why not just send her out of town? As many characters as this regime has ditched over the years, it should be almost old-hat to them by now.

I agree that Meg should have either: Moved far, far away like all the way to Montega; died in the bomb scheme leaving Eliza with Paul; or maybe done something radical like taking a break from "love" and entering medical school--there is something about Marie Wilson that reminds me of Marie Masters. Susan, like Meg, has been a sort of spoiler over the years yet managed to learn from her mistakes.

However, as Marland reminded us in his rules, there has to be proper motivation for it. IMO, Meg's devolution has less to do with all the drama she's endured over the years, and more to do with either 1) again, sheer laziness and/or boredom on the part of the writers; and 2) a need to make Noelle Beck's Lily look much better to a reluctant audience.

I agree that Meg's devolution is all about Beck. They are fighting for the same man. I think Meg's lust for Lily's sloppy seconds was supposed to draw the audience to Beck. I'm grossed out by all parties involved.

I loved both! And really, even Marland could be Dobson-esque at times. (Example? James Stenbeck's initial return from the dead, back in '87.) That being said, even the Dobsons took time to give their characters proper motivation to go or not go crazy.

Agreed; and don't get me wrong, I love Marland. He turned Oakdale back into a community by cleverly weaving vets like Ellen, Nancy and Susan back into the tapestry. Someone once referred to World Turns as Marland's midwestern morality tale. It certainly was a kinder, gentler Oakdale back then. Also, he somehow made values such as honesty and love work in a genre not always accustomed to such arcane sentiments at front and center. I've never been a big Snyder fan. This may be why I missed the Dobsons. I loved the way Jerome and Bridget worked the ideas of Carl Jung into their stories. They also glammed the show up. ATWT was lucky to have two talented writing teams. I'm suprised that the ratings back then did not reflect the quality of their work. Any idea as to why the Dobsons stopped working after SB?

Edited December 28, 200915 yr by Saving ATWT

A spa with no phones & no email.

:lol:

Any idea as to why the Dobsons stopped working after SB?

My guess? After all the sturm-and-drang among the Dobsons, NBC and New World Television, other shows and networks were afraid to hire them for fear of getting involved in one nasty dispute or another down the road. IIRC, the Dobsons were supposed to work with Zalman King on a late-night series, "Savannah", but King effectively removed the two from the project.

My guess? After all the sturm-and-drang among the Dobsons, NBC and New World Television, other shows and networks were afraid to hire them for fear of getting involved in one nasty dispute or another down the road. IIRC, the Dobsons were supposed to work with Zalman King on a late-night series, "Savannah", but King effectively removed the two from the project.

Isn't that the late night soap CBS was pursuing that would have featured nudity?

Turning a character into a psycho with no past of the behaviour does reek of boredome but it's also a Passanante staple--she did it to at least three characters on AMC (Leslie Coulson and Laura being the obvious examples.)

My guess? After all the sturm-and-drang among the Dobsons, NBC and New World Television, other shows and networks were afraid to hire them for fear of getting involved in one nasty dispute or another down the road. IIRC, the Dobsons were supposed to work with Zalman King on a late-night series, "Savannah", but King effectively removed the two from the project.

Khan, thanx! I love how you know so much trivial info; even more than me. I remember all the drama with NBC and guess the entire scene left them with black eyes.