World Turns for a buck!

[DRW50]

Chloe is nowhere near Jill. She's a huge mess of a character with no defining personality, besides "cute" quips and being pushed on the Chancellor family.

Billy is also a mess of a character, and doesn't make sense as the new Jack, even as they try to rewrite his personality to fit that.

It's just lazy writing when they try to shoehorn people into roles they don't fit. That seems to be one of the problems on a lot of soaps. They want to trumpet these big new hires without actually bothering to write a personality or a solid story.

[Mr. Vixen]

I still think that ATWT should move to ABC. Will it happen? Probably not...But if ABC aquired the rights to the NOON timeslot agaain, ATWT could be a nice fit there. And flip flopping AMC and OLTL could work too, because I think OLTL and ATWT share a similar fanbase, and could grow from each other. Wont happen, I know, but I think it could work.

[Saving ATWT]

Cloe is like Jill from the standpoint that she is from a 'poor' family, used a Chanceller baby to gain status and money, and is a total bitch. Early Jill really wanted to be someone; Cloe is that same type of character even down to changing her name. I do notice a shift in the Cloe character and fear that Sheffer is turning her and Chance into a ATWT Jack and Carly redux.

Also, I wonder how many fans really remember the original Bill? Will anyone remember the character of Noah Newman as he is now a few years from now? Also, will Noah still be a sweet boy who spends all of his time loving his mom and gf? I'd guess that his character will shift and develop. Soaps often write young male characters in a rather generic manner and wait for them to grow up before giving them real personalities.

[Saving ATWT]

I think ABC would be wise to pick up ATWT. They could repurpose the show on SoapNet and across their international channels. I actually think they should try bumping AMC to 12:30, right up against Y&R. I could see World Turns as a 30 minute show airing at 2:30-3pm

[Mitch]

I still think that Lifetime would be the best fit for ATWT..they are less concerned with the "young," demos (which arent watching soaps and definatley wont be anytime soon) and are more interested in the 25 to 50 demos the show does reasonably well with. A noon "original," run timeslot would be perfect for it (doesnt it feel like it was and is always "noon," in Oakdale???) I would hate to see Frons get his sticky fingers on it,if he thinks Davey K is a much wanted talent.

The show on Lifetime could go back to its roots, about families in a suburb trying to deal with life...hell, I wouldnt even continue with the mess that the convoluted mess this(and all of the shows) show has become and retro fit it,ala the Dark Shadows remake and go back to the very beginning, with a 30 something Chris and Nancy Hughes...(only this time Nancy would have a part time job that she needed to balance with her life) Or make them in their early 40s and 20 year old medical student "Rob," brings home a seemingly sweet girl named Lisa (to make it more topical perhaps Lisa has hispanic blood in her to upset the white bred Hughes applecart) The Lowells are back, a rich jaded family headed by the Judge (called so by his freinds who knows the man suffers no fools...) a man who has some secrets of his own... I would have the current cast come in for cameos supporting players...I think Fulton would be great as the owner of the gay bar in town, who was Lowell's mistress and knows where the bodies are buried. Hastings could play "Grandpa Hughes," and Hayes could play the Judges wife...

Okay, it would never happen but it would be fun to be able to reboot the show in a new venue and be able to be true to its history while actually junking it all and recreating it!

[DRW50]

Chloe didn't come from a poor family. She was well taken care of and had a good education. She may not have been happy being in boarding school but she had a decent life there. I can see where she would have hated it and felt that Esther chose the Chancellors over her, but the scenes where she confronted Esther were very shrill and poorly put together. Instead of being a young woman who was upset about a mother she'd never known, it came across as a headcase verbally abusing the kindly Chancellor maid. They have since dropped most of this bitterness, which only makes her character even more confusing. Also confusing is exactly why she wanted Cane as the father, since Billy is from the same family, and was the baby's father.

I think a lot of fans probably remember the original Billy. He was in major stories for two or three years. Noah is a recurring player and not very important.

[lovely_m]

Chloe wanted Cane as the father because she felt he would have been a better father to her baby than Billy would have.

Before Billy Miller came on critics and fans have wanted for David Tom to come back to the role and don't remember(or chose to forget) Ryan Brown or Scott Seymore were in the role of Billy Abbott.

[DRW50]

Thanks. I gave up on her motivations a long time ago. I never remembered her reasons.

[Mr. Vixen]

I agree. I thought of that as well. ATWT might benefit frrom that. IF they did that it could go AMC 1230-130, OLTL 13-230, ATWT 230-3, GH 3-4. If they did this, it would directly knock out any competition between OLTL/ATWT. And fans of ATWT could migrate too OLTL and viceversa, and if that were to happen ATWT would have NO competition from another network, as well

[Saving ATWT]

I've often thought how cool it would be for a soap, or any other show, to simply reuse sripts from, say, 20 years ago with only slight changed in languageo or other facts that would make things feel dated. Imagine if, for example, they were to do a remake of the sitcom Alice using the same sripts from day one? With that said, World Turns could do some funky stuff using classic material. Also, it would be cheap seeing as there would be no one to pay.

I wouldn't just drop the show as is and risk loosing 2.5 million views. I would keep the core of todys ATWT and quickly make the needed ajustments. You could pull off the Chris and Nancy thing with a return of young Chris Hughes and just delete some of his bad history. He could return to Oakdale with a great Nancy-type wife. I don't mind total character re-writes if it is done for the correct reason. I know most people on Son disagree with me.

I actually like the Mick Dante/James sotry simply because it allows a writer to rewind and start fresh with a familiar character. I am not saying this should be done on a regular basis but, right now, it works for me. (I am way into the Ryan/Stenbeck family so am a bit biased. I think Lifetime would be great ecause they could repeat the show twice daily and in the process make extra money. I do not think any soap could hold on onto 2.5 million views daily. I would guess that a good chunk of those watchers do not have cable. As a result, Lifetime would need to cut the budget big time.

[Saving ATWT]

If ABC is really going to shift The View to afternoon, they would handle four hours of soaps starting at noon. I don't think Frons would ever do this; however, starting at noon would give any show an advantage over Y&R. Also, and a lot of people are going to hate me for saying this, ABC could end OLTL by folding the show into AMC. They are sister shows anyway. As it stands now, World Turns is stronger than OLTL. ABC has a lot of studio space in NYC.

[Saving ATWT]

Cloe did come from a poor family--she is Ester's daughter. Cloe talked about the shame of having a maid for a mama. Please, she even changed her name just to escape. Kay may have paid for he schooling; however, Cloe is still a servant's kid just the same as Jill. Both characters have the same motives: shame, envy, social climbing via the men they get knocked up by. Both women are total bitches. Both women have told huge lies to get what they want. Jill and Cloe both want to be more than their class status allows for.

[Mitch]

I remember when Days was doing the Salem Stalker crap, and they tried to pump the ratings well by having Marlena "kill," Alice (how cheap and desperate for ratings can you be???) The rumor at the time was that once Alice dies the show magically reboots back to the beginning, only with DH playing Alice and DH playing Tom...ACCK, what a nightmare that would be ..Alice Horton with botox?????

Anyho.. yea, they could cut it and go back to the basics, but I am just a bit concerned that there isnt a producer out there who would be brave enough or smart enough to do it. I think it was Caso who, after the Dobson's dismantled the Hughes, that he saw they needed to be back front and center as the core. Can you see a producer today doing that...saying, "Hey the people before me fucked this up...lets go back to the original vision and update it for today?" For some reason the writers and producers on soaps act like they are embarrassed about writing a soap and its history and try to be "creative," with their goofy wacked vision of what would be contemporary (Wheeler and Kreizman for example) be damned if no one wants to watch their [!@#$%^&*]. It would be so easy to "fix," world turns and refocus it but for some reason they refuse to do it.

The Mick stuff, not so much for me. Mainly because its stupid and I cant get over that (there were some parts of the Clone story which were interesting, but if you cant accept a premise, you cant accept a premise.) I think TP is a good actor (not great like his freaky fans think) and is hot, but he is no James Steinbeck. I think TP would be a great Roger Thorpe/John Dixon type villian..but they keep trying to make him the antihero or now, uh, James. His first few weeks on GL as an amoral schemer were great and then they went and pussed out and made him fall in LURVE. I would buy it much better if Babs was getting her freak on with Mick and embarrased by it. They dont have to fall in love (please no Mattessas) but they like each other, get off on each other and can scheme and manipulate both together and against each other. They dont need this silly "contraption," type plots they try to come up with. The Ryan family is okay, I just see them as being an arm of the Hughes family...or they should be. Babs is Kim's niece, Bob's stepdaughter and Paul "grew up," in Bob and Kim's house. The interesting dynamic Marland brought to Babs is that she is part of the family, but because of her moral ambiguous nature, seperate from that. She WANTS to be part of the family yet she rebells against it..(which really, isnt that part of all of our stories.) James I think has become tired (and I LOVE AH) even in Marland's day in was a cartoon and he is really one now, a plot device they go to when they can't think of anything else to disrupt the canvas. I would love it if he actually did change, and after all these years his ultimate punishment is that no one believes him or cares anymore.

[Saving ATWT]

Firstly, sorry for all of the typos. I am currently getting over food poisoning and just not at 100%.

Funny, I was just thinking about the Dobson's writing and wondering if all of the changes were influenced by Bill Bell's changes regarding the Brooks family on Y&R. Bell demonstrated that a writer could essencially flip (fairly new) show and up ratings. Do I think it is to late for World Turns? No, but I do think it is to late for monst of the Hughes family in current form. Bob, Kim, Nancy, Tom, Margo, and Lisa have been misused for so many years and I wonder if there is viewer investment. Viewers under 30, for the most part, have no attachment to Kim or Lisa. The Ryan family is an arm of the Hughes family and should be the vehicle via which someone like Frannie or Chris gets onto canvas. I'm not saying Bob and Kim along with Nancy should not have a role; however, due to budget, the great story could be found in all the friction between the 'good' and 'bad' factions of this family. Chris clashing with Paul; Frannie having problems with Babs: this could be amazing writing and mimic the Lowelle/Hughes dynamic. You and I both seem to see the Snyder clan in the same light. Only a quad of Lilly/Holden and Carly/jack are worth saving. The remaining three Stewart women should just be folded into the Two arms of the Hughes family with Emily siding with the Ryan side and a re-casted Allison being paired with either Casey or a new Chris.

Soap show runners are the vets/dentists of their vocation: They are self-loathing and disrespectful to the genre. These people are nothing like Bill Bell, Irma, or Dixson. They refused to comment on mistakes. The never correct mistakes. These TPTB are in it for the paycheck.

As for the Mich Dante story, it is silly but fun. I agree that Mich might have been better set up minus the James back story. He could have come to town as a gold digger thus making a Babs/Mich pairing reasonable. The actors interact so well together. There is a strong sexual chem in their scenes. I like TP but he is no AH. As for AH, Marland went to far with the character and ruined James. He could be the 'Victor Newman' of the show and would serve as a far better anti-hero than Craig. If I were writing, I'd almost be tempted to try this: find a way to negate his past and make James a full time element of the canvas.

To sum matters up, this show might be best if it centered around the two warring/loving arms of the Hughes family.

[Saving ATWT]

After a cancellation, most shows drop in ratings; however, World Turns keeps slowly moving up. If the show were to hit a 2.1 or even a 2.2 by, say, March, does anyone thing CBS might decide to keep the show for another year? It would be pretty hard explaining the axing of a 4th place show. I think AMc will fall some once this 40th stuff is over leaving room for World Turns to come in about 300,000 viewers short of Days. I am curious to see what CBS would do? Any ideas?