As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[P.J.]

Y'know, I know people hate that blue opening, but I think it represented the show rather well. It's classy. I've been stuck watching OLTL, and while there's nothing "wrong" with that opening, it's dark and depressing looking. Don't get me started on the cheese-tastic mid-show bumpers which look as bad as they're "acted."

[DRW50]

I kind of liked the openings in the show's last years - for me the worst was the 93-99 one, which always depressed me (I know that it was a beautiful theme and had a nice set of pictures, I just associate that theme with the time "my" ATWT left), and the toilet flush one of 99-01 or whenever.

[Mitch]

I hated when the PG shows cut down their openings. It figured the only long one we would get would be Wheeler's wretched "Love will always change the world," or whatever that craptastic song was.

I actually loved the toliet flushing one, always thought it sounded so "regal," until someone here or elsewhere called it by that name, and now it cracks me up!

[DRW50]

My favorite part of that opening was Lisa with the hands-on-hips pose.

So what did you think of ATWT at the time of these clips? I remember SOD at the time trashing the Cabot story, and the Rosanna/Paul stuff.

[DRW50]

[soapfan770]

This was the summer that I really truly did stop watching ATWT for the first time, and I had thought about up to that point I had seen the worst of it all. The whole Doc Reese stuff, Cabot, Molly recast, Jack's dying and then being held by Julia but not that Julia, wasting Walker Daniels, and stuff with Lucy and the boxer made me tune out for a breather.

Yes there was some fun stuff like Barbara jumpng out the window, Alison/Chris wedding fiasco with his affair with Emily, and Will and Barbara in the asylum couldn't keep me tuning in for crap day in and day out.

I will admit I even liked Dusty and Lucy a little bit, it wasn't as bad as Paul and Lucy was. 2003 for me was a very good year for ATWT, 2004 was a gigantic mess it was time for Sheffer to go.

I liked the blue 2003-2007 opening, it wasn't too bad, just didn't have the globe in space. That gold colored opening used 2002-2003 didn't jive at all. I go could go either way on the 1999-2002 opening. I wanted to like the 2007-09 opening, but something was bad about it that I didn't embrace it fully.

Edited January 6, 2012 by soapfan770

[DRW50]

They did Paul/Lucy?

I never could get past how babyish this Allison was. And she reminds me of Leven Ramben.

[soapfan770]

They did, it was in the spring of '04 before Lucy's kidnapping. Lucy got a job working for Carly at BRO and fell head over heels for Paul who was grieving the losses of Rose and Rosanna(who had vanished at that moment thanks to Paul instigating Cabot being taken away). Anyways they got trapped in a cabin during some snowstorm and well it was disgusting enough to get a backlash. Still intent of pairing her with an older they gave her Dusty, which worked for better or for worse.

That actress playing Nikki should have really been cast as Molly. Christina Chambers was a horrible miscast who tortured for months. It was speculated that Sarah Brown was going to play Molly but she of course ended up as the dreadful Julia 2.0. It didn't help Brown was bad in the role.

I had forgotten that Sierra had remarried that summer. The guy ended up dead and well Craig conveniently framed him for Lucy's kidnapping. Does anyone remember if Craig had anything to do with his death?

I liked Jessica Dunphy back then, she reminded me more of Alison Sweeney than anything else.

[DRW50]

I think Craig made it look like he had been stalking Lucy, and then it got out of hand and he died. Craig was "punished" by Hunt Block doing more bad acting, this time in a monastery.

The show had that Sheffer stench everywhere by this time - random pairings and stories that made no sense. Sheffer's going on about how Jen would lose her virginity and become a slut, or whatever, makes me wonder just how desperate they were to get another teenage girl devirginized. They must have been kicking themselves that Craig was her biological father.

[P.J.]

They didn't really "do" anything with Paul and Lucy---she had a crush on him (they got stuck in that snowstorm with Carly---Carly and Paul were once again "secret" partners at BRO and Lucy finagled a ride to "check out colleges") after he saved her from being raped. Craig went ballistic because he was a controlling jerkwad, and they kind of suggested Paul was going to use Lucy to stick it to Craig. But I don't remember the story really going anywhere.

Craig had a lot to do with Allan's death. One of the lackeys he used to kidnap Lucy was blackmailing him, (I think he took Lily hostage or something) and Allan went to pay the ransom. Somehow Allan got shot, but he had overheard that said lackey had been on Craig's payroll. Allan made it to the hospital where the doctors said it was critical that he remain calm. Craig saw Allan's blood pressure spike when he saw him (and tried to tell them Craig was involved) once, so he deliberately let Allan see him again, causing him to relapse and die.

If that wasn't bad enough, he then ruined the man's name, framing him after his death. It was despicable. It was around this time Craig also shot and killed one of the kidnappers on a rooftop, after the man threatened to tell what he knew. It was definitely murder and no one (except for probably Dusty) ever put the pieces together, and Craig made himself into a "hero".

2004 was rough....there was a noticable uptick in the pacing of stories, and a noticable drop off in logic and common sense. Don't get me started on Jack's "death" and how he wound up across the Mississippi River in Missouri with the covienently named "Julia". And I hated the Keys to the Kingdom and the Rick Decker stories. In spite of my childhood crush on John James.

[DRW50]

That's pretty vile, even more than I had thought. It's classic Sheffer - I think he assumed viewers got off on this type of thing, as he did when he had Craig give that woman a suicide pill, and his using Bryant's death for a pity screw, and on and on.

Didn't Sierra find out and that led to the lame monastery thing?

This was around the time that the fans who just loved Hunt Block's Craig and said everything Craig did to hurt people proved he was the "real" Craig suddenly stopped.

[soapfan770]

Thanks for clearing that up for me PJ! I was in college at the time and whole show was unraveling pretty fast.

Craig sleeping with Jennifer was probably the worst but Block as Craig was already out the door by that point.

I hated that Ben's pill addiction went nowhere and I also later hated James terrorizing Rosanna and taking the fall for Emily being gaslight-ed. The whole thing was a mess.

[P.J.]

I do think Sheffer wanted that "cool edgy" rep, and it just backfired completely. It was the same with Julia raping Jack, and the end of the Spa Story which also had Hal being tortured by James and backhanded implications that both Carly and Em were tortured as well. You can't imply those kind of things to a daytime audience, and turn around and not deal with it in a meaningful way. Hal dealt with it off-screen, Carly had one nightmare and Em tumbled out of a trunk before helping Babs stab James. It just proved Sheffer didn't understand the audience's connection to the characters or how to use one story to organically move into another.

Yep, somehow Sierra put together what Craig had done and imprisoned him in that monestary. I didn't think it was a bad premise, just not carried through. Of course, just as Craig was on the verge of making some kind of acknowledgement of his actions, he was freed (by a crusading Lily I think) and blasted Sierra for her duplicity.

The turning point for Craig was when it was revealed he'd been the one behind Lucy's kidnapping. A lot of his supporters really had a hard time swallowing that one. Honestly, I admired Sheffer for not backing away from that. Even if I disagreed with his vision of Craig---it was behavior in keeping with how they wrote him at the time. To me, it was no different from the way he'd backstabbed Carly and Rosanna while proclaiming that he "loved" them.

On a side note---watching OLTL wind down, I see the wisdom behind ATWT's last days. Not that it was brilliant, but the way OLTL is throwing "fan favorites" out like beads at Mardi Gras just turns me off. As a new viewer they mean nothing to me. And you think Sheffer is a misogynist? OLTL right now is fascinated with threats of rape and gun violence against women. It's more than disturbing.

Edited January 6, 2012 by P.J.

[P.J.]

I also think TIIC knew Ferrin wanted to try out L.A. and Jen would be off the canvas for a while at some point. I really can't explain what they were thinking---it was one of the ickier moments---not that I ever wanted to see Block in any kind of love scene.

I really resented the slap-dash way they'd write McClain out. It was as if they a) had no idea how long her contract was for and thought giving her the same old craptastic storyline would keep her coming back. She should have had some "Cabot" clause written into her contract paying her a bonus every time she said his name.

[Mitch]

LOL..I never knew who the freak "Cabot," was but all I knew is that her Rossane was constantly talking about him! But that's how connected I was to ATWT after the Spa storyline, etc. Just checked in to see the old gang once in a while.