ATWT: September 2010 Discussion Thread

[dragonflies]

Okay the first time I was like "what?" but now I realized they jumped a month ahead, Jack commented baby Lorzenzo was over a month old and Chris said "I'm sick of taking pills, it's been a month"

I was wondering how John & Lucinda got to Amsterdam and back overnight, when I originally watched it LOL

[Y&RWorldTurner]

My thoughts on the finale...

I'm sorry, but Bob's narration throughout the entire episode was entirely unnecessary and totally took me out of the episode emotionally. ATWT is not a show that's built on these cheap techniques, it's a show that revels on the ordinary and yes sometimes mundane features of life and storytelling. I cannot believe they tried this crap on the final ever episode of the show. It's just more proof of how Goutman and Passanante totally misunderstood this show and what it stood for.

I really do not understand why Lisa was given the dayplayer treatment in this finale. The two little scenes they gave her didn't even add up to a minute. I cannot believe this is the show's final episode and Lisa was such an afterthought in it. Who did Eileen Fulton piss off so badly?

I enjoyed seeing Lucinda and John end up together, and they were certainly a highlight. But watching Lisa with a sour face after they leave a room? No thanks.

Still, it was great they lured Larry Bryggman back for the end. It just wouldn't have made sense to not see him here for the end

It's really nice to see Carly and Jack being written so maturely. Too bad it took the show being canceled to get them this way.

I still cannot believe they were still trying to make that twit Janet happen in the last episode...

I get what they were going for in the final Holden and Lily scene, but really, I couldn't really be bothered with that relationship anymore.

I'm happy Barbara is getting a happy ending, but too bad it had to be with Henry. I really do not understand or want to understand this pairing.

I couldn't really be bothered with Katie and Chris either. I really don;t find it believable that Tom and Margo would trade their house for Katie's ugly as hell apartment, but whatever.

The greatest highlight for me were the scenes between Bob, Kim, and Susan. So much history and such great actors. The dynamics in those scenes were just right. It's really nice to see Kim and Susan being friendly, and supporting Bob on his last day at the hospital.

Even in the end, ATWT probably had the greatest veteran cast in daytime, and ultimately, they were the ones that saved this finale for me.

Yes it was a bit cheesy, but so what, ending with the spinning globe was just a nice touch.

Though the show died for me a while ago, I will always have a special fondness for it and my heart will always feel for it. I just loved how ATWT at its best had this earthy and real feeling to it, which I didn't find much on the other soaps. I will always appreciate what it brought to daytime, and daytime will not be the same without it.

[P.J.]

I thought the Parker/Faith scenes were sweet. I wish they'd gotten a little more airtime in the past few months, reminding us of their friendship. Instead of the Gabe/Parker fighting for the dicking rights to Libby.

I guess the GL vs. ATWT debate really depends on how connected you were to the show. I thought all the BS "community" feeling was just that---BS. I didn't GAS about anyone under thirty except Lizzie. To show everyone all lovey-dovey in a year? Puhleeze. Fletch and Holly got about a minute each, Rick and Mindy married with next to ZERO build up (which as a former Four Musketeer fan really pissed me off) and Reva and Josh climbed into an old truck and rode off into the sunset. Again, after no build up.

I thought ATWT stuck to it's fundamental core---family. The music flourishes may have been over the top, but I think they were Goutman's only concession to sentimentality. They evoked an earlier era and the gave a gravitas to the final scenes.

[Khan]

For me, today marked more than just the end of ATWT. As of today (well, yesterday), I really have no reason to remain invested in a daytime soap opera on even a casual level. AS THE WORLD TURNS and GUIDING LIGHT are no more; AMC and OLTL are a shadow of their former, glorious selves; and all the others (B&B, DAYS, GH and Y&R) were never my cup of tea anyway.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Another thought, I knew they were always going to have Susan Dansby write the last episode, but I wish it had gone to Penelope Koechl instead. I think she really would have made the material fly and would have done better by the veteran characters. I don't envy Dansby writing the finale to such an iconic institution, but Penelope Koechl just such a senior writer and has written so many wonderful episodes for the show in its heyday, I would have loved to have seen her dialogue for the finale.

I also knew Goutman would be directing, but I would have preferred Maria Wagner...

[Soapsuds]

Hmmm...i thought Susan was writing the second to the last episode and one of the male writers(forgot his name) was going to write the finale? Maria being there the longest should have gotten the last show of course Goutman had to whore in and direct it and ruin it with the voice over of Bob....he just had to have his own way even to the very end...BASTARD!

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Yes, it must have been one of the male writers, I guess I was confusing it with the day before's writer credits.

The dialogue left a lot to be desired in the finale, IMO.

[DRW50]

You're right about the GL weaknesses. They cut corners on what should have been emotional moments. I think the reason I was moved is because even the most token of efforts was enough for me. I never thought I would ever see Bridget or Fletcher or Holly again, so as annoyed as I was at Fletcher's whopping minute of airtime or getting almost no idea of Bridget's life or having Holly sit around and listen to the Otalia love story, I was able to take those tiny slivers and invent my own moments and imagine these people and most importantly get to say goodbye to them. And the "what the hell are we doing" format which made up GL's last years meant that someone like Lisa Brown could wander in and ad-lib extremely important (to me) moments which Wheeler might not have ever bothered with.

With Goutman, I think he was so focused on his vision, or Jean P's vision, moreso than ATWT's. Janet, and knowing Janet would be happy, and the narration, and the loud music. Things like Margo's freakout, which, I get that this is about a cycle of life and a mother losing her son to the big world, and that's a very dramatic moment, but how about having the phone ring and Tom says, "It's Adam." How about having Margo on the phone with Lyla and Margo saying, "Yes, Mama, now I know what you went through"? ATWT for some reason increasingly existed in a bubble where there was no past, which confuses me, because it was only this April that we heard about Sabrina and Andy and we saw Frannie. Now they didn't even remember to mention Emma, they didn't mention anyone who wasn't at Nancy's memorial, etc. ATWT had almost become like that Star Trek Next Generation episode where everyone would keep vanishing and only Beverly Crusher, AKA the viewer, would remember them.

I preferred scenes like the one with Kim and Bob and Susan, which was low-key and where the actors, and the viewers, could fill in the history.

I realize how ungrateful I sound and how tacky it is to say this on ATWT's last day. I am happy with a lot of what we were given. I hate to turn this into any type of GL vs. ATWT thing because both shows were screwed over and still could be on the air with better care. I just wish that when I was watching the finale I felt like this was my show. As awful as GL had become and as repulsed as I'd been by their last years, when I watched the last week, I had my GL again, one last time.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I think the fact that this was the finale was special enough. I didn't need the narration or loud music to tell me that. Soaps have forgotten how to show us why these episodes are special and prefer to tell us that they are.

Not to take away from the finale, there were some very good moments, but I think something got lost in the execution and I didn't agree with some of Goutman's moves (not surprising)...

[quartermainefan]

I am not a watcher of ATWT but I thought it was a beautiful episode, chronicling the marriages and different stages of life (and in one case death) all the characters were going through. I think the best moment was Luke listening to the other guy's heart to hear it beat. It reminded me of GH but it was intimate in a way because these were both adults now sharing Reid together. I would have liked a little montage (or even ending credits ) maybe showing the first Hughes way back when all the way to the newest and youngest, since that was the family.

Anyway, a sad day in soapland, but one I did not want to miss.

[DRW50]

Can anyone tell me who wrote the August ATWT episode when Barbara and Emily were freed and then Barbara didn't want to get back together with Henry, because of her fears, and Emily was remorseful about her relationship with Barbara, and Gwen trapped Iris into confessing? It was one of the best soap episodes I've seen in a few years, people actually talking like adults and showing a wide variety of emotions and the episode went through a lot of beats.

[Sapounopera]

What I liked: (aka Where I cried A LOT)

* the idea of Bob's narration and I was surprised that they allowed him to do it. He really deserved it. So touching

* Luke hearing Reid's heart (not too mention that there was no Noah in the final episode)

* Holden and Lily's last scene. JH was wonderful.

Wow, the women of Oakdale have all aged so beautifuly.. Kim, Susan, Lisa, Lucinda, BARBARA among others.. Maura and Noelle were stunning by the way.

I also enjoyed Barbara's disco dance. That scene reminded me a lot of late seventies-early eighties ATWT

Paul and Emily, Dusty and Janet. Casey and Ali, Chris and (gorgeous) Katie scenes did nothing for me. Typical last episode scenes where every couple is together and happy.

I also liked the music, I considered it a tribute to classic soap operas (which it propably wasn't, but I don't care)

One thing I am really happy about is that Douglas Marland will be writing new ATWT episodes in heaven now

[dragonflies]

I have that episode saved, if you can give me till a little bit later I'll post the writers for it

[EastMA2]

Goutman gave us one final F you. 9 months notice and this was all they could come up with to end the show?

[Llantano Incorporated]

I have not seen more than 5 episodes of ATWT in my life, but I taped this entire weeks of episodes.

I have no frame of reference of what a fitting finale would be for this show but I must say that Noelle Beck is a stunning woman, Jon Hensley is one stunning man (that smelling the leaves burning part got ME teary.) I found the penultimate episode better than the finale (which I have always found to be the case with the season and series finales of shows like Six Feet Under and The Sopranos as well)

Maura West's face is VERY shiny and pink. She must get oodles of Botox and a lot of facials.

I found the "Prince of Tides" soundtrack playing in the final episode cheesy, out of place, and distracting. (I have not seen a soap use a movie's soundtrack since General Hospital in the 80's. GH used the soundtrack from Risky Business and Flowers In The Attic very often in the late 80's...

The final scene with Kim and Bob was wonderful and classy. Eileen Fulton's line readings seemed awkward..

Hated that globe turning at the end because it looked rickety and cheap. they should have had a bigger globe or something...it would have been wonderful.

ATWT had a very warm look with really nice, but small, sets

I hope all the fans of this show were happy with the finale, and I truly mean that. The show seemed so low key and a little lonely to me Sad.