As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[P.J.]

Young Peter Simon with his Bee-Gee hair cracks me up.

The Stewart women as sluts seems to have started WAY before Emily---both Dee and Annie are/were involved with married men.

Tom, Annie and Dee seem so old. Right now, Tom looks 45, FCOL.

I watched the next episode, with a Babs/Melinda scene. It's weird seeing Babs have a sister to talk to. It's only a few years later that she hates Sabrina who's popped up as her half-sister, and then there's the whole Frannie/Darryl/Babs thing that soured their relationship.

[DRW50]

I guess that was partially because Sabrina was seen as a golden child, in some ways, whereas Barbara had become tainted.

I just wish Melinda had been there to see Barbara become a schemer.

I wonder if she was ever even mentioned again after her death.

[antmunoz]

Technically, Sabrina was Barbara's cousin, while she was both cousin and half-sister to Frannie, Barbara's half-sister.

I don't recall further mentions of Melinda, not even when Ghost Jennifer reappeared many years later.

[Limenade]

Jacqueline Schultz had such lush hair! Actually, so did Pat Bruder in these 1979 clips. I agree she looked matronly, but in one episode she was in a night gown and had her hair down--that was a revelation. When I began watching ATWT in mid-1980s Bruder was already in shorter hair and I was always truck by her receding hairline. But shorter hair did give her more energy.

Edited October 19, 2013 by Limenade

[P.J.]

*thumps head* The sister of my sister is not necessarily my sister. Now that I can't believe I typed that, of course I remember Babs was having issues with "the living proof" her mother was cheated on.

It is so hard keeping track of such twisted family trees.

What strikes me about the costumes is there's no sense of anyone having a personal style. Poor Betsy was wearing the same clothes her aunts were.

I kind of spaced that Kim was raising Betsy and Andy at the same time. And even though I know Kim was married to Dan---I never remember thinking of her as Ellen's daughter in law even when Ellen was still on the show.

[DRW50]

It took a while in these clips before I remembered that David was Annie and Dee's father, not grandfather. When Dee first returned I kept thinking Dan was her father.

Bruder got to wear it down for a little while in the early 80s, but apparently the show got letters from fans saying this was inappropriate behavior for Ellen. I guess she decided to screw it and just cut her hair.

Edited October 19, 2013 by DRW50

[P.J.]

I think it's the white hair. Henderson was about 63 then so, he's pretty age appropriate for four grown children. But nowadays, we don't see that gray hair anymore.

[DRW50]

True.

It feels like Forsythe didn't age all that much from the early 60s to the early 80s.

I feel like there was such untapped potential with Ellen and David. It's ironic that even as the Dobsons had little interest in much of ATWT's history (or P&G didn't), they did care about Ellen and David.

[P.J.]

Well, if you think about it, they were the only stable couple left at the time---Bob and Kim were off marrying newbies, Nancy and Chris went on hiatus in '81 or so...wow, it's kind of weird to think about it---a time before Bob and Kim were Oakdale's bastion couple.

[DRW50]

One of the things that interests me about ATWT is that for a show known as a conservative bastion, they had some spiky and very direct heroines in the 60s and 70s. I know Lisa wasn't a heroine until later into the 70s, and perhaps Kim was more passive earlier than these clips we're seeing, but Kim is such an unusual heroine compared to some shows at this point. There are less of the dramatic sighs and the angst of it all. She suffers, but she also seems tough, and realistic. Penny is the same way, in the limited material available of her run. The only "traditional" heroine of that era who seemed popular is Ellen.

I wish I could see more of women like Liz Talbot, to know how they acted.

I wonder if that's one of the reasons why a lot of viewers struggled when someone like Annie was put at center stage.

Edited October 19, 2013 by DRW50

[P.J.]

I'd never thought about it that way...but when you realize Lisa was the face of ATWT in the '60's, (along with Penny), it doesn't seem to fit the mold, does it? Kim, Susan and Joyce were all fan favorites, and they certainly weren't the girl next door mold.

I would love to be able to see Jennifer as a comparison to Kim.

[DRW50]

So would I. I can't imagine a Gillian Spencer character being a wilting flower, although she must have been a more traditional heroine than Kim. I guess that role was left to characters like Carol, who did seem very popular with fans. It's just a shame that when people talk about ATWT's past they often just classify it as stodgy until the Dobsons came in. There are so many complex female characters in those years.

[Soaplovers]

I think back in the 60s/70s, writers could write nice and good characters more 3-D without being so sickly sweet.

With that said, I wonder how Douglas Marland would have written for Lily had Lucy Deakins remained in the part? Based on the few episodes I saw with her version of Lily, she seemed more of a town boy then a spoiled princess.

[SoapDope]

The actress playing Betsy's friend is actress Diane Franklin. She was a popular 80's actress. She did a hilarious movie called Better Off Dead with John Cusack. She played a exchange student from France and was staying with a weird overweight boy and his mom. She was struck on John's character who lived across the street. There was a school dance scene where the overweight boy was slinging her around like a rag doll on the dance floor.....LOL

Edited October 19, 2013 by SoapDope

[DRW50]

Thanks for the info on the actress.

I don't know what Marland would have done with Deakins. I definitely can't see her with Holden.

Someone put up an April 1991 episode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP2pj4up_UQ