As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[Mitch]

I remember listening to my yell at the TV during that time (I was forced to have quiet time at 12:30 after my lunch so my mom could not miss a minute of the show and not miss seeing "What that damn Lisa is up to,") at Dr. Shea...so he must have been a corker. I wonder why they didn't bring him back from the dead, seemed a totally Marland thing to do. Lisa going to some South American country to try to find Scott, has an accident and is taken to some shack where doctors could treat her. As she wakes up out of her coma she sees a face,"Hello...Liiiisssaaaa!" fade to black for Friday cliffhanger

Interesting. That was the year after Wagner left the show and they bumped McClaughlin to recurring, and then just never mentioned him again. I always thought it was a jab at the powers that be and now I can see he had even more reason to do that.

[DRW50]

I think it was a mistake to just pretend Chuckie never existed, especially in the Scott storyline.

[Mitch]

Fulton said for years she asked if they would let her mention Chuckie...come across a shoe in a drawer and she would have a moment, which would have been great and given more depth to a character that lesser writers tried just made into a fluttering soul. I always thought that her relationship with her stepson Kirk would have been a good time for them to mention that she would have a son his age. I wish that Marland had brought the McColls back recast Kirk and Diana. There is a scene on You Tube of Lisa right after some goofy kidnapping she was saved from and Marcy and Kirk are in the kitchen telling Lisa that they love her and she makes the place a home. Nice for Lisa to have a family of her own.

Anyway, Marland's original idea was to have Chuckie really be alive, (would have been interesting, maybe Shae wasnt really dead and he faked Chuckies death to punish Lisa, so Chuckie could have been trained to hate Lisa all these years...hey thats a good story!!) But Fulton said that it was impossible as Nancy buried him, and anyone who was "buried by Nancy Hughes stayed dead!" LOL.

[DRW50]

I wonder why they never let her mention Chuckie.

Chuckie still being alive could have been a very good story, especially since that was around the same time nefarious things were happening at the hospital (Sabrina being taken).

I always hoped they might have Lisa go off to live with Marcy at the end, or have Cris LeBlanc return to take Lisa off. It's so ridiculous that he did a cameo on GL and yet nothing for ATWT. Sadly I would guess Goutman and P&G's issues with Eileen made them unwilling to do anything for her, beyond that anniversary episode.

[P.J.]

Rita Lloyd is so underrated. Lucille Wexler scared the hell out of me when I watched GL, and Edwina was the ultimate in reptilian mothers. LOVED her.

[Khan]

True, Nancy might have buried a child. But did she know for certain that child was Chuckie?

[Mitch]

And it was a car accident right? Could the driver in the other car have had a kid in the car and its really that kid who died? But how would Shae have gotten to him and spirited him away? Man, it must have been fun, despite the usual network b.s. to be a soap writer during the hey day of the 70s and 80s. Sitting around a room with other writers trying to make sense of something that couldnt possibly have happened in real life!

The Dobson's time would have actually been a good time to do this, the Lisa Grant thing had gotten stale by then (how many times could a nutty woman get in between those two, by the time the Dobson's had Joyce faking dying, Grant was a certified idiot...Lisa and Grant had to have been the Lily/Holden, Carly/Jack of their time, viewers going "Again with this [!@#$%^&*]???" ) and the show needed an infusion of young blood, and with GH riding high in the ratings every show wanted a moody anti hero heart throb (not that I could ever understand how Geary was ever a heart throb...) so an angry kid, manipulated by his evil father would have been great then. And any kid that was the product of Shea and Lisa would have had to been a handful.

I wonder why they killed him off back then? Seems a bit of a mean thing to do, have a kid die. Maybe to punish Lisa after all of those years of "kicking up her heels," ? She did seem to mellow after that.

[soapfan770]

What year did Chuckie Shea die?

I love Rita Lloyd as well and she is criminally underrated. I had no idea she also played Lucille Wexler on GL from the clips I've seen she's fabulous there as well. Edwina was a good antagonistic character in my book.

[soapfan770]

One more question; how much did Marland write of ATWT there in 1979? I've heard he was responsible for the Hadley Bennett story which when reading about I found it sounded a little too bizarre for ATWT.

[Mitch]

I think he just finished it up. It was started by other writers. I think he was only there until Dec of 78 or 79 and then the Dobsons took over in Jan? Someone had a synopsis of what happened month to month of that year, and its interesting to see the transition.

[Max]

Soapfan770, I appreciate your kind words.

[P.J.]

My understanding is that Tom was driving when the accident (that killed Chuckie) occurred. Michael Shea was already dead by that time. Oddly, Chuckie's death isn't mentioned at all in ATWT's history book, the only time frame I can put on it is early '70's , with the last actor to play the part (probably) was David Perkins.

The last mention of Chuckie is about Don becoming buddies with the boy during his dalliance with Lisa.

[saynotoursoap]

Chuckie died in the exciting month of July 1977. Tom and Chuckie's car crashed. Chuckie was killed instantly, and Tom rushed into surgery. This was the same week that Dan Stewart went on trial for the attempted murder of John Dixon. The next week, John's wife Pat stood up in open court and confessed that John had accidentally shot himself. Pat ran from the courtroom, tripped, and fell to her death down the courthouse stairs. As I wrote previously, the world turned slowly, with the conclusion to stories coming swiftly and violently, to catch the audience off guard.

[DRW50]

I didn't realize he died so late into the decade. I had assumed it was around 73-74. How old was he? Did this cause any story for Lisa?

[Paul Raven]

From what I have read,the whole story didn't amount to much.Eileen Fulton commented along those lines.

Imagine if he had lived,by the early 80's he probably would have been aged and provided story for Lisa.

Here is asummary of that month

John asked Pat to marry him so that he won't be able to testify against him. Kevin found a missing Susan in an out-of-town jail on a drunken and disorderly charge. Natalie made a deal with Jay and Carol for Natalie's unborn child.

Dan's trial began. Marian failed to convince Pat not to marry John. Chris drew up papers for Jay and Carol to raise Natalie's baby. Natalie offered Ralph a real estate job. Susan rotted in jail, refused to see Kevin, and reluctantly turned to Jim for help.

Lisa's younger son Chuckie and Tom were involved in a car accident. Chuckie died. Natalie spilled the beans to Nancy that Joyce tricked Don into marrying her. Joyce frantically called Don and urged him to stop Natalie's bad lies.

Pat cracked in court and confessed John shot himself accidentally. She died after tumbling down a courthouse staircase. In the confusion, no one could find John. Beau proposed to Annie. Susan reconciled with Kevin and convinced him not to attend Alenon meetings. Tom was successfully operated on after the accident that killed Chuckie. Natalie threatened to back out of her baby deal with Jay and Carol unless Jay pays the bills for her real estate operation.

Bob performed a successful second operation for internal injuries on Tom, while Grant fretted that the crisis brought Lisa closer to Bob. David and Ellen fretted when Annie accepted Beau's proposal. Don returned briefly to warn Natalie to lay off Joyce and that it didn't matter now if Joyce had tricked him into marriage. Dick agreed to close Dan's case after John skipped town. Ralph got chummy with Mary. Beau joined Grant's law firm. Susan realized her finances are in a rut.

And into August

Bob rushed to aid Lisa who appeared to have a mild breakdown. Valerie and Grant were annoyed that Lisa is stealing all of Bob's spare time. Natalie signed the baby papers.

Bob and Valerie decided to rekindle their romance. Lisa admitted to Grant she relies on Bob. Natalie seemed jealous of Ralph's attentions to Mary. A mysterious young girl, Melinda Gray, arrived in town. David worried about Beau and Annie's plans to wed in a few weeks. Susan debated whether she is "bad news" for Kevin.

After accepting Kevin's marriage proposal Susan wrote him a Dear John letter and left town temporarily. Mary worried that she's not in Ralph's league and cooled their relationship. Jane Spencer decided to come to town after learning of her son Beau's impending marriage to Annie.

Melinda told Kim and Dan that she is the illegitimate daughter of Kim's deceased sister Jennifer and that her adopted parents had died. Lisa returned to town without Grant on the pretext of worrying about Tom, but instead went straight to Bob. Carol agreed with Jay not to give Natalie more money.

It seemed that Chuckie's death was used to draw Lisa to Bob and create problems for her and Grant.