1998 Article on ATWT

[soapfan770]

This fascinating 12-year old article from the highlights a lot of ATWT problems that are still talked about today:

[Ann_SS]

This article is clearer and easier to read. ATWT has had only a few good moments since Marland passed.

[Franky]

It upsets me to no end that, for so long, people have been aware of the problems that plague daytime, but no one has decided to do anything about it. Can someone please hire a writer who can--and this is just off the top of my head--write? You can't convince me that there aren't young, capable writers out there dying to get a job.

[YRBB]

^Executives need tired, washed up "writers" who will not object, will not cause trouble and will just do what they are told. Puppets. Young talents will have the delusion that they can actually write and do something, you know, original and thus are dangerous and unwanted. Sad.

[LoyaltoAMC]

I wouldn't necessarily put the blame at Broderick's feet. According to Eileen Fulton at the time, P&G shot down just about all of Broderick's story ideas and what was approved was totally watered down.

[DRW50]

I don't disagree with any of this (although I don't think that Caleb was any loss, and the show had really done Duncan and Shannon no favors in their last few years in Oakdale), but only Rosanna and Samantha left in 1996. Iva left in 1994, the others in 1995.

[DRW50]

I do blame a lot of it on P&G but some of it did remind me of some of Broderick's poorer work at AMC and at OLTL. The psychos, the baby switches, the new, not very interesting characters...

I have to wonder how much was FMB. Perhaps MADD was more to blame, but FMB made some very questionable decisions during her tenure, right off the bat being the Allyson-Rice Taylor/Susan Batten fiasco. She seemed to have a tin ear for what to say to the press, between letting the way that was handled (with Batten basically saying she got a job because she wanted one and MADD and FMB were her friends), and then some of her hilarious comments trashing OLTL to TV Guide once she got the job as an ABC Daytime consultant.

And for whatever reason she seemed to push Liz Hubbard's buttons in a way no other producer did before or since. While one can debate the merits of Lucinda, as I know a lot of people have little time for Liz Hubbard's performances, the way she left the show in 1999 was one more punch the show did not need.

There were some decisions which were big, big mistakes, like the Reid Hamilton storyline, and I still wonder who was responsible.

[Ann_SS]

I never accept "the blame the meddling executives for the bad stories" argument. It is an excuse that is used when headwriters and producers suck. If they were talented ATWT and the other soaps wouldn't have so many of the same crappy stories over and over.

[P.J.]

I think the clock started ticking on ATWT the minute Doug Marland died. No writer since has loved the show as much, IMO. And his talent for keeping stories consistent is unparalleled.

[Franky]

Exactly. I can't imagine that the PGP executives were just waiting in their offices, biding their time until Marland died so they could at long last sink their claws into this show. Obviously, no one person or group of people can hold all of the blame, but the writers deserve their fair share.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

1994-1995 was an interesting time for the PGP soaps. Their longtime Executive In Charge of Production Ed Trach retired in '94, and suddenly all of the PGP soaps faltered and never got any better.

Trach was the last one who really fought hard for those shows and "got" them, I think. Ever since he left, those shows never really recovered and just threaded along.

[DRW50]

I honestly did feel like ATWT was looking up in fall 1995. I guess it was just short term but even the dumbest story at the time (the crazy Orlena gaslighting Lily) had some good moments, and the rest had some potential or was actually very good, like the John/Lisa trial, the Mike/Rosanna/Carly triangle, Kirk/Sam, even the sop to the "teens" with Dani/Jeremy/Nikki. Then the bottom fell out at the start of 1996, and it never did come back. The other times when ATWT was supposed to have improved I never really saw it myself -- FMB's good moments were very very short-lived, and then the supposed greatness of early Sheffer passed me by as I was so horrified by the way he destroyed one of my favorite characters, Craig.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I didn't think the show was all that bad following Marland's death when Richard Backus and Juliet Law Packer took over. It wasn't Marland good, but the show was still recognizable and consistent enough.

Truth be told, even Marland's last year or so probably wasn't all that great story-wise, but of course better than what followed.

[DRW50]

I don't think the show was ever really bad until 1996. I think that 1994 was a weak year, because I loathed Holden and I loathed Mike/Rosanna and I was disappointed at Shannon's poorly written return, but some of the other stuff was good, like Janice's reign of terror, and the buildup of Orlena. Looking back I would have found more to enjoy in 1994 if I had known what was to come,

I know some did say that Marland was already running out of steam creatively by the end, and 1992 had some weird stuff, like Tonio holding Bob and Susan hostage. I don't know, I haven't seen 1992 in quite a while.

[soapfan770]

When did Andy exactly leave in the mid-90s? It always seemed to me his stories were wildly all over the place in the late 90s, from alcoholism to sleeping with the barely legal Nikki Munson to being the father of Hope Maynard. I believe the call to fire DeFritas happened early on in Sheffer's term in 2000, and Sheffer wrote out Andy quickly with a fallen off the wagon and going to rehab episode.

Marland's final years? A lot that we saw from 1993-1995 came from his bible, like the Kasnoffs, only with drastic revisions. A few years ago the November 2nd, 1992 episode of ATWT surfaced on the old WOST site and boy was it a downer:

--Darryl Crawford went flying out of a three-story window while struggling with Gavin Kruger in front of Frannie

--Ellie had her abortion. After it was over, Kirk, who didn't know about it, called her at the very end of the episode.

--Holden came to the Snyder farm for the very first time following the accident which caused his "permanent memory loss" and pretty much alienated everyone with his extremely icy demeanor. Lily cried for most of the episode in Iva and Angel's arms. Holden seemed turned on by his doctor.

--Viki Harper had given George Jessop the orders to kill Carolyn Crawford.

--Scott and Lucinda sat around drinking watching 1992 election results as Tom(Margo had just been raped just months before) was in the running. Scott bemoaned being a black sheep in his family, while Lucinda felt blue due the fact she felt Iva had taken over as the mother figure in Lily's life, not mention Iva being involved with John at the time.

Marland seemed to have gotten to dark for his own good perhaps?