ATWT: September 2010 Discussion Thread

[Paul Raven]

Perhaps a voiceover of Helen Wagner reciting the As the World Turns poem would have been a great conclusion...

[DRW50]

That would have been great. I think they should have just started the show with some lines from her, in voiceover.

[Saving ATWT]

I, like soapsuds, also thought ATWT would out live me--it was one of the few constants in my life. I've lived in various cities, made new frieds, changed jobs but World Turns was always waiting for me at 2pm whenever I chose to tune in. I wasn't thrilled by the final week or the final episode: It felt rushed, everyone got the same Splenda-sweet happy ending--especially Lilly and Paul in terms of thier mothers. The finale was on speed, John and Lucinda went to Holland for five minutes; I'm guessing that it was all supposed to be one month later but the writers made no real effort to make it overly clear. Luke seemed to still be in September while his Grandmother was in October. I agree that the Nancy voice over poem would have been great. I hated the close. Bob's office looked like a room at the Lakeview. I know the show was out of money but they could have filmed in the hospital lobby. There was no reason to make the final moment of ATWT look so painfully cheap.

Also, Lisa having to deal with John and Lucinda was wrong! Goutman failed to give Oakdale's (and daytimes) most iconic character any sort of closure. Her ending was sad and she came off as John and Lucinda's waitress. Goutman is a show Killer. I've read stories about how he is supposed to be drama free and so professional: Bullsh*t!

[dragonflies]

Read that CBS Sunday Morning is going to have a tribute to ATWT. I don't think they've aired it yet, hopefully I didn't miss it

[Michael]

Oh, I bet he probably is drama-free and professional and all that -- in other words, just gets the work done without really caring about the product too much. It's probably how he kept this job for a damn decade. He cranked out the show and didn't rock the boat, because he wasn't especially concerned with anything like creative integrity.

[bellcurve]

To answer your question...I wasn't blown away by the finale, but then again, why should I be? I wasn't a huge fan of this show and, aside from the AW crossovers, really had no allegiance to Oakdale.

I thought the finale was cheesy, but appropriate. I talked to a friend of mine the other day who said they were bored with ATWT finale. What would you rather have them do? Yet another wedding with some last minute, lameass interloper? A serial killer mystery? Someone facing a firing squad as the credits scroll about their faces? A shot of Goutman stomping on a cigar?

At least the stories were wrapped up and most people got a happy ending. It would have been totally out-of-character and trashy for ATWT to go out with a "bang." It was a classy, fitting exit.

It could have been way worse.

[All My Shadows]

I don't think that it's necessarily a feeling of superiority that makes people say that returns weren't necessary. Personally, I think they were needed, but once it became clear that we weren't going to be getting any, it became about doing what they could with the characters they chose to do it with -- so having all of the absent family members back would have been essential, but not having them back wasn't going to be a deal breaker for me. I can't speak for DC, though, so far be it from me to pass up an opportunity to put them on blast.

I can respect your criticisms of the finale because you're at least outlining exactly why you didn't think it was truly great, and most of your reasons are things that they could have done or done more of. I've been seeing on blogs and boards and tweets just vicious comments about how offensive the finale was, and I don't get it, especially when it's just stuff like "Oh my God, Jean Passanante needs to be shot." No explanation of why the finale was so horrible to them and made them feel violated. I understand some didn't like the narration or the music (which, admittedly, I LOVED that grand, majestic music and it reminded me a lot of the old 70s theme, which would have been GREAT if they used it at the end), but was that really enough for people to react with such hostility? I don't know.

My big gripe is that they refused to use the extra time they got (in relation to GL) to build to an ending. They could have worked towards a goal of wrapping everything up while still incorporating the whole "the world will still turn" theme in the final episode.

[Mitch]

Is this true that they hate each other? One of her last interviews she says she "adores," him, but since this is in print I dont know if she put a "Lisa," sarcastic spin on the adore part. She says she begged him to either kill her off or have her marry a prince and leave town, and you think that if he really did hate her he would have killed her (though if she wanted off the show why did she keep signing her contract??)

I think that maybe they feel that Lisa got enough of a send off with her tribute episode, which really, I just watched it on You Tube and it was really two episodes with the set up. I do think that they gave Lisa her tribute there, with people saying she was an institution and Tom saying she owns half the town ..which just brought it in to perspective how they have shoved her aside...a character like that should have been involved. I would have been okay if they had shown her laughing at John and Lucinda, (she sure as hell doesnt want him back anyway) and saying she if fine on her own, doing it her way, with her business and her family, (as my friends Mom says about getting married again after her husband died "I'd rather wash walls,") but they never "let" her say it, they insisted on treating her like a sad lone figure clinging to the past.

[All My Shadows]

WORST. FINALE. EVER.

Honestly, EF speaks her mind and always has, and now that the show is over with, she really has no reason to censor herself. I don't think people really know as much about the behind the scenes drama as they think they do.

[Mitch]

I think people are really just voicing their frustration and anger over the show ending, and focusing it all on the last episode. I think that people really are taking this ending harder then GL and were expecting some miraculous ending that would leave us all "okay," with the show ending, but that was impossible. I think its the "morning after," depression sinking in..the show is gone, and it just still seemed too vital to be gone (as opposed to GL, which I was glad to see out of its misery.)

[Soapsuds]

Just saw Thursday's Sept 9 episode.......Another good gem of a show. Loved Lucinda and John again. Too bad it took the cancellation to bring these two powerhouses back together. I liked the Reid stuff. But geez Silbermann still can't act. His scenes with Luke were painful to watch. Van also wasnt as good. Jake brings out the worst in Van. The whole Reid was not a hero speech was nicely written( a nod to our own PJ;) ) but Van's delivery wasnt that good. The dialogue of finally Reid and I going swimming together was touching(better acting by Van once Noelle and Jon showed up in those scenes) and Luke saying part of Reid's ashes would be in the new wing at the hospital and the rest with him...was sad. The shot of the sky was a nice touch too.

One week left for me to still see. I want it to last a bit longer for me.

[DRW50]

My problem with the music was that it drowned out some of the later scenes and all I could focus on was this attempt to manipulate me instead of letting me feel. I just thought it was tacked on. I love Bob so the narration wasn't a huge sin but it got in the way and I thought it was very boilerplate. I felt like both of these were sort of attempts by Goutman to show how special he was, not what helped the show.

You don't have to bring people back, but the thing is ATWT did bring some people back. They brought back Will and Gwen. They had Iris back. They had Abigail come back for two or three days to wrap up Molly's role. So when they do that, I end up thinking, did they *try* to get Andy or Penny back, try to get Lyla back to share in the grief or joy of her kids and meet her grandkids, try to get Ellen back to mourn Nancy and be there when her great-granddaughter Allison moved away, and were rebuffed, or did they not even make the effort? If they did try, then I wish they'd said so, as it would at least make me happier.

I think they also could have brought back Seth again, or perhaps Caleb or Julie, or even Aaron, for Holden's aborted wedding to Molly, as a sort of mini-last hurrah for the Snyder family. I know people will say the Snyders had more than enough exposure over the years but the image of that farm not even having Emma...I think the last scenes I saw of the Snyder farm were Lily and Holden and one of their kids in the kitchen, and it just seemed odd to imagine princessy Noelle Beck there when most of the family was gone.

ATWT was never this big emotional show but they knew how make you feel like you were a part of a family. What they did so well for years was to honor their history and mix it with the knowledge that life goes on. To ignore most of that history, to the point where the last weeks no longer even mentioned past characters, let alone brought them back, I think took ATWT away from honoring its past and instead of ending as a very generic show where the only real history was in some of the work from the vets.

[Llantano Incorporated]

Well the orchestral music was from The Prince of Tides soundtrack. I found it embarrassingly over the top and goofy sticking a film's soundtrack over the shows final 15 minutes. Couldn't the show have went into its own musical library? It was downright weird.

[P.J.]

Well I think a lot of the people who really have a problem with the finale are Luke fans who take offense at him not riding blissfully off into the sunset with Noah, Reid or that Z twin. I'm 99.99995% sure if Reid hadn't died, those same peeps would have been fine with Lukey moving in with Reid or whatever his happy ending would have been.

The one criticism I understand is the lack of write up for Lisa. She should have at least had a goodbye with Bob or Tom. It doesn't bother me because frankly, I think EF is a bad actress. And Lisa hasn't had a significant purpose on the show for like 15 years. That two day Lisa lovefest was overkill for me.

I think Bob's narration was perfect. I think it would have been really hard to have the feel of "life is just continuing on" if you'd just attempted to make it a "let's throw Bob a retirement party" scenario. And I didn't want a lot of cheap sentiment--which is exactly what I felt when GL killed Alan off, and suddenly Phillip was crying his eyes out and every mourned the old SOB.

[Michael]

I had a little bit of a problem with the way they played the "the world will still keep turning" theme, because almost everything felt a little too neat to me.

(This is more a creative disagreement than a "Goutman ruined the show!!" thing -- at least they made a solid choice on this and went with it. I just didn't agree with it.)

Lucinda and Babs gave up their companies. Lily/Lucinda and Paul/Barbara/Emily put their problems to rest. CarJack and Janet/Dusty were sooooo happy. Allison/Casey left, Chris/Katie got engaged, etc. It was all just soooo neat that I keep thinking life in Oakdale is going to be really boring now. I actually liked the way they left Lily and Holden, because I felt like there's story left to tell with them. Not that I wanted everyone left hanging like that, but it felt a little off for everyone to suddenly be happy and settled and content. These people are all insane and haven't been able to get out of their own way ever!