ATWT was 'cancelled' in my mind when...

[edgeofnight]

As upsetting it is for ATWT to be cancelled...there was a moment for me, last Summer, that killed it for me. It's a terrible thing to say, because I have been a lifelong fan, and I am only three weeks younger than the show.

It occurred for me - early last July -- here are my thoughts at the time.

I sincerely hope that I was not the only viewer to be thoroughly disgusted, and sickened to my stomach, when I saw Jake's burning his father's military memorabilia, including the most revered symbol of our country -- The Purple Heart.

That scene should never have been written, it never should have approved by the network censors and producer, and certainly never should have been filmed. If I had been Jake Silbermann, I would have submitted my instant resignation. Please know, I am from a 'Blue State,' and, for the most part, do not consider to be a Conservative. I am an American, and I am highly insulted and hurt that a show that I have, literally, grown up with, and have loved wih all my heart, would do such a thing.

The show desecrated the Purple Heart and desecrated the memory of those men and women who, deservedly, earned this award. I am sure that the late Santos Ortega (Grandpa Hughes) and Don MacLaughlin (Chris Hughes) are turning in their graves at the sight of the scene. I grew up watching Grandpa Hughes fly our flag on the Hughes' flag pole, and I think each and every viewer deserves a profound apology.

[All My Shadows]

I watched that scene and wasn't offended by it. IMO, in a scripted dramatic series that is trying to be realistic, characters are gonna very often do things that are misguided or might be offensive to viewers. Murder, adultery, double-crossing, etc, are all parts of soap opera at one point or another, in some way or another. We may not agree with what the characters are doing, and sometimes we're not supposed to.

[YRBB]

Doesn't sound offensive to me.

[soapfan770]

I don't really remember that scene but I don't personally don't see that being a "straw that broke the camel's back" moment. It could be justified that the colonel was a war criminal and didn't deserve it. I mean wasn't he found guilty in court martial in 2008 or something? In any case, some actor firings and storylines and characters assassinations for the sake of bad plots that last a month on ATWT for the last decade have been by far far far more offensive than anything.

[Mr. Vixen]

I didn't watch then, but that doesn't sound too offensive to me. To me, it just sounds as if it would be one of those "Oh, that's kind of sad" moments..

It wouldn't make me stop watching the show, but I can't say too much since I didnt see it.

What was his reasoning for burning those things?

[P.J.]

I never got the big whoop over the burning either. Noah wasn't protesting the establishment, he didn't even do it in a fit of anger. Col. Meyer was not portrayed as some hero. He was a murdering, blackmarket girl selling BIGOT. He betrayed the honor that symbolized that medal long before Noah burned it.

[Saving ATWT]

EON:

Let me say that I'm a conservative, however, was in no way offended by the scene: it was all about an emotional kid acting out against a father who killed his mother.

Brave men and women fight every day for freedom and that same freedom includes the right of an artist to burn a Purple Heart. That is what makes the US great. In a lot of nations, a artist would be jailed/killed for a story such as this. We are so free that we can even burn our most cherished symbols.

For one moment, remove your emotional bias and think about how great this really is: The fact that writers can pen a story like this should make you as well as those who fight for the purple heart very proud.

[ClassicsSoapFan]

What turned me off of ATWT?

----The erratic pacing of the show. Someone would be in Oakdale one scene and NYC the next. Someone would walk out of Emma's farmhouse and down the corridor of the hospital in the blink of the eye. Some stories are featured 3 or 4 days a week. Some are lucky to get one day a week. Some characters are isolated and never interact with other characters.

I can take some rapid pacing but what irks me is that the PTB think that the typical ATWT viewer has the attention span of a gnat!

----The unexcusable treatmert of Eileen Fulton and most of the vets on this show. It is a crime.

-----Keeping one of the show's signature couples -Jack and Carly- apart.

---- Not working out a deal with Martha Byrne to keep her around and then replacing her with a mediocre actress. Would GL have replaced Kim Zimmer? Y and R replace Eric Braeden? AMC replace Susan Lucci? GH replace Anthony Geary?

[Saving ATWT]

Agreed, the Soap-on-Speed formula racing format was, indeed, what killed the show.I have no issue with a producer wanting to give a show a unique feel but Goutman got in way over his mishapened head. ATWT does have the unusual problem of having too many vets all in the same age bracket compounded with of problem of poor demos. I don't think the writers ever knew what to do, how to get around this, but this was mostly the result of a lack of vision. Cooper over at Y&R proves you can star an 80 year old and still come in number one in demos. Lucinda is the strongest vet but there was still room for Lisa. If I were the writer, she would have been married off to a much younger man an adopted a child. Lisa has always been a little dippy and a dippy story would have been fun. The Lisa situation had more to do with conflicting egos than anything else. The same may have been true of Byrne. Never cross Goutman or he will ruin you on the show!

[DRW50]

I believe Anthony Langford at Afterelton was also very upset about this scene.

For me ATWT was never the same after the firing spree of 1995. Shannon, Duncan, Julie, I was sad to see them go, but Andy? Unacceptable. And the show turned to crap.

There were other lowlights, like Allyson Rice Taylor's firing, and a lot of the last decade, but the 1995 cast cull was where it started.

[Saving ATWT]

AGREED! and, by the late 1990's, the show became to focused on Carly/Jack-Lilly/Holden and just retold the same story over and over again plus the yearly return of James Stenbeck. For me, the show really cracked when Lyla got fired.

[DRW50]

I lost interest when Iva and Lyla left, and when so much of the show started revolving around dull Mike/Rosanna. I kept on and I thought 1995 was improving, and then those mass firings started. It was just never the same. What made it worse is that every producer who came seemed to have no idea what Oakdale represented or what ATWT was supposed to be.

[Juliajms]

I don't think the scene should have been censored, but I could have lived without it, that's for sure.

[Ann_SS]

I knew for sure when Roger Howarth took over the role of Paul Ryan. It showed that ATWT was using casting tricks instead of improving the writing to fix its myriad of problems. At that point, I knew there was no hope.

[Mitch]

No truer words were spoken and says in a nutshell why ATWT is dead, dead,dead. The show became formula under MADD,and I blame her as GL was exactley the same way, Reva/Josh split up, make up, split up, make up, with weird plot twists thrown in. After Wheeler got there is was the perils of Gush/The Coopers being tormented by big bad Allan...lather, rinse, repeat, boredom.

Now the 1996 cast switch including Lyla gone, well, none of those people were my favorite characters..(oh how I couldnt stand Conner and her witch nose and her gayer then gay "straight," brother.) and the show could have marched...only the firings really happend all at once, and there were no replacements for them...so we were stuck with Lily/Holden/Carly/Jack boring,boring,boring.

I do have to say I can see why people would be bothered by the Purple Heart burning..I would have been too if I saw it. My dad was a vet, and many, many fine men and women risked their lives or gave them up for our country and that was a symbol of that. I think that the burning, far from being something ment to be offensive, was just another example of the P & G being sloppy with their soaps. Someone should have seen that it could be offensive and left that out. I really find it hard to beleive that anyone was erring for dramatic integrity...I think they just forgot about it.