As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

Anything with Hunt Block Craig I would say is downhill.

[P.J.]

If I had to pinpoint a moment the honeymoon was "over"---looking back, I think it's Jack's rape.

Culliton helped him cover some of his weak spots (most of his teens stunk), and it seems like Passanante was nothing but a lackey who wrote what she was told to write. It was the end of '02 that stories seemed to be noticably recycling themselves (Katie's Island Adventure 1&2, Avanya, 1&2,) but it was Jack's rape in March that signalled that the "black comedy" Sheffer seemed to favor could really cross that uncomfortable line that soaps (and especially ATWT) usually didn't.

It was one thing to have Barbara "blown up" and descend into madness. It was quite another to have a psycho rape your hero and your biggest !@#$%^&*] anti-hero buffoon walk in and taunt and sneer at him afterwards.

The explosion was in June '01 (I think Holden and Luke had been kidnapped to Malta around this time), Craig's trial was in August, Bryant died at the end of September (I think), Molly and Jake married/Dante tried to kidnap Luke in October, James returned and started conspiring with Barbara, and then the kidnap plot started rolling in December.

Edited October 28, 2011 by P.J.

[Soapsuds]

LOL...She was married to Crouch. Rumors were she and Pinter were fooling around. She got divorved and then got married to Pinter. Then she divorced Pinter and went back to Colleen Zenk.

[Goldensoaps]

Thanks CarlD2 for the article about ATWT in my country (Spain)...it is really interesting!!! And as I know, only two soaps have taped episodes in my country: Another world ( Mallorca) and As the world turns (Ronda)

[DRW50]

I didn't realize those were the only two soaps to film in Spain.

[Mitch]

That reminds me of some things I have read in the past that, because of the huge amounts of vets that ATWT (compared to other shows) that the cast really was like a family and that the long termers kind of acted out their roles on the show behind the scenes. I.E. Helen Wagner took Colleen to task for breaking up two families, and Zenk was mortified that HW was displeased, and an interview with the Katie actress when she explains how they keep the younger actors in line "Well first they send in Don, who will talk with you and joke and let you know that there is a problem, and if it doesnt end, then they send in Kathy, who will tell you exactley what the problem is and how you should fix it. But if you see Helen coming down the hall to your dressing room you know your in BIG trouble!"

[P.J.]

Apparently, Helen wasn't around the studio enough when Peck and Columbino were screwing around.

[Mitch]

Hell, by that time they could have been pulling a Moniz and Grillo and screwing in the dressing room right next door and HW wouldnt have heard anything!

Would love to see HW give Columbino a nice Nancy Hughes dressing down, "Now dear you seem to be involved with that, what do the kids call it today, "Himbo," While I am sure he has nice pecs dear, he doesnt seem to be, shall we say the brightest pupil in the class, and really, your just an actress who is working now, and he call himself an actor...do you think your home will be big enough to contain two massive self centered egos and how long can a marriage last between two amoral models turned actors. Now dear go home and repair your marriage and hope to the dear lord they dont cancel this show as you could be just another bad actress with blond hair, divorced and unemployed. You may pass the teacups now."

[P.J.]

^^^ snort!! ROTFLMAO.

[juppiter]

God, these are actually all clunkers from what I recall. Seems to me like it went south earlier than I had remembered.

I think replacing Carolyn Culliton with Jean Passanante was the jump the shark moment for Hogan's reign now that I think about it. Funny, too, because I loved Jean's first few months as solo headwriter, and her 2007 admittedly trash TV work was good to me as well.

Edited October 31, 2011 by juppiter

[P.J.]

I dunno....I wouldn't say they were all clunkers. I think Culliton really helped Sheffer execute the stories he wanted to tell better. Where Sheffer failed miserably is carrying through the fallout and then growing the characters. Sheffer and Pissanante were some kind of hellish duo who didn't seem capable of coming up with the "next story". It's bad enough when characters are in ruts...but with S & P, they were in the exact same story, usually with the same bleepin' characters. Thus you had endless rounds of Dusty/Meg/Paul/Em and Jack/Carly/Craig.

[juniorz1]

I actually liked MOST of Sheffer's stuff. I ESPECIALLY enjoyed some of the restored sense of community we got under him and the renewed Kim/Susan rivalry. Episodes like the radio "mystery" show, where different groups of Oakdalians played along and tried to solve the mystery together, were fun little breaks from the action.

I liked Hunt Block's Craig. Sue me, but it's true.

I LOVED the way they re-introduced Rosanna with Cady McClain in the role. Man, she rocked with Maura West those first couple years.

Of course, all of the tie-ups of Leah Laiman's storylines were AMAZING, ESPECIALLY the now-infamous "Katie's Comeuppance" episode where Katie gets her just desserts at the Endicott Awards (is THAT on the DVDs? Man, I hope so- I'd LOVE to re-watch that on Christmas morning).

I know "Phantom of the Barbara" was over the top but the previous writers didn't use CZP at all so I was just happy that Hogan saw what a gem he had in her. Same thing with Marie Masters' Susan, who admittedly was and is my favorite actress and character on the show. Hogan used her A LOT, which the writers before and after did not. He fixed Simon, who was kind of a mess under Laiman, made Katie into the town tart which I LOVED her (and him) for, gave some FABULOUS dialogue to Maura West and Hunt Block (I almost wanted her with Craig instead of Jack.......almost), got FIRE performances out of Martha Byrne, I could go on and on.

And yes, truth be told, the Hogan years are when I reallllly got hooked on ATWT. I watched off and on in the 90s, particularly Maura West's run which glued me. And I LOBSTER LOVED his last umbrella storyline that he started and Passanante finished, which was the Jenn/Gwen baby switch/Iris Dumbrowski vs Carly/Carly and Gwen are SISTERS! IMO, that was the last great umbrella story that any soap told, complete with the AMAZING Meg, who I completely, utterly, and totally fell in love with in that storyline. Gosh, when they wrote Meg properly, Marie Wilson was the perfect imperfect & flawed heroine. Sort of like a young Susan, but less of a mess.

Though I do agree that Sheffer was at his best with Carolyn Culliton, I still found his entire run mostly enjoyable and most certainly watchable. In fact, this is when ATWT took over top honors as my favorite soap over Y&R (really, B&B as I was glued for Brooke/Thorne and it had become my fave over Y&R) and it never relinquished. IMO, ATWT was the best soap of that decade- '00-'10.

[DRW50]

I thought he destroyed the sense of community.

The problem with the Kim/Susan rivalry he wrote was that it seemed petty. Kim wasn't a petty person. Under his pen, everyone was petty, otherwise they were losers and we were supposed to look down on them.

[P.J.]

I think the budget impacted a lot of that. Sheffer started out trying to intergrate characters and play family where it mattered. The Kim/Susan stuff was the only reason to watch the dreadful Chris/Alison romance.

But then he'd just drop it---Carly and Gwen building a relationship could have delivered drama for years. Instead Gwen got involved in a lot of poorly developed teen drama and Carly hardly ever saw her. Unless Gwen could show up and tell her how disappointed she was in her.

[DRW50]