1999 Article on Goutman's early work at ATWT

[soapfan770]

Another article by Margery Scott of the defunct Soap News, this time sharing her thoughts on Goutman's early work. Lethal Laiman was HW at this time, and the show was quite a mess until Sheffer's first year in my own personal opinion.

[P.J.]

Julia's reaction was bizarre. She is presently the least well-defined character on the show. Somehow she shrugged off her deep involvement with Reid and her total stupidity in believing him in one episode! She turned into a reporter overnight and has alternately been shown as a giddy ingenue or a shrieking shrew. All, of which, I read, is supposed to provide comic relief. If this is comedy then my sense of humor is sadly deficient. I have found nothing remotely amusing in her trading insults and screams with Jake. Or talking with her mouth full! Jack's reaction to her involvement with Reid was much more realistic in my opinion. He realized he did not know Julia (who could?) and dumped her. Carly may be a kook but she had Reid pegged from the start.

+ 1,000

Goutman spent a lot more time humiliating Carly than he did punishing Reid. It was all out of whack!

And remained so for the next 10+ years.

The next best thing that Goutman has done is to reunite Jack and Carly. The story is at times uneven and certainly repetitive (Carly again coming into a windfall of money!) but the sheer delight of these two on screen together makes up for a lot that is lacking in storytelling. Carly spent less than a week on the farm and thought it was tough! The writers obviously did not know that Carly grew up in a rural setting and had seen plenty of tough times. But all that aside, I love these two together. They are just plain fun!

+ infinity!

And no more Arabian Knights please!

ugh...I remember that.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Leah Laiman's time as HW was awful, Broderick had her problems, but she was no where near as bad as Laiman.

[DRW50]

I actually thought that the show did an OK/goodish job at this time with Carly. Keep in mind that viewers will forgive men for what they won't forgive women for, so the comparison to Reid (although he didn't stay around anyway) is moot. Carly basically spent over a year running around marrying one man after another because of the money Rosanna was going to give her child. There were some unpleasant moments I would rather not even recall, like her asking John to artificially inseminate her, and John unknowingly to her giving her his own sperm. Then she was blackmailed into marrying a very slimy, cartoonish version of Brad, and the show heavily hinted that we were supposed to see them as some kind of equals or so-bad-they're-good or whatever. It was all very uncomfortable and forced and at the time I could see why they thought they needed some kind of fallout. I didn't think it was as excessive as what Goutman did to her later on in the decade. The lie bet with Jack was fun and probably one of their sweeter times together, at least until her maternity leave and that horrible storyline about Winston Lowe.

Eddie was a lot more than that -- he devoured big chunks of the show when FMB/Broderick was around. He and Georgia were endlessly hyped and he was shoved at the vets to try to make people love him. I thought he was an annoying, sweaty, twitchy character, the acting was clumsy and full of the same tics that Tom Pelphrey, Jonathan Jackson, et al annoyed me with. And he said "man" after every other word.

I guess the person who wrote this didn't know that Marston was doing Super Punch Out with an ATM around the time of his firing.

As for Georgia, I thought she was OK, but her stories sucked. I am still annoyed about them bringing her in as Sam's daughter only to have Sam disappear a month or two later and never be mentioned again. Awful awful writing.