As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[Khan]

Didn't Irna say she came up with the story from some obscure case in a medical journal (or something)? And didn't Lisa finally learn she had some sort of tumor on her uterus? Either way, Douglas Marland, who played Lisa's doctor for that story, supposedly became a writer for soaps because of that story in particular.

Edited May 12, 2014 by Khan

[amybrickwallace]

It's a scary thought, isn't it? LOL

[danfling]

Back to Dan and Susan, Dan and Susan married a number of years before he met Liz. The character of Susan had been recast a number of times. Among the actresses who played Susan were Diana Walker (Where the Heart Is) and Jada Rowland (The Secret Storm and The Doctors).

I guess that Susan and Dan met in medical school. They began dating. Both were interested in medicine, but Dan had a feeling for medicine in the humanitarian way and Susan had a feeling for medicine in the power and fame way. Both their fathers were doctors, but Dr. Stewart and Dr. Burke (played by James Karen) practiced at different hospitals (David at Memorial and Dr. Burke at City).

I don't think that Susan was expecting when she married Dan.

But, she soon learned that they were expecting. She did not want a child to interfere with her plans for a medical career. I am pretty sure that this was after Irna Phillips had written Another World in which Pat had an abortion. Susan decided to jump from a chair in order that she lose the baby.

This, of course, caused future storylines to portray Susan as a villainess.

Dan later met Liz. He fell in love with her, and she was quite innocent. They did succumb to temptation once, and Betsy learned that she was expecting Dan's child. Later, Susan also learned that she was expecting Dan's baby.

The daughter of Liz (Betsy) was born first. The daughter of Susan (Emily) was born later. Marie Master's own daughter played Emily.

Susan's pregnancy in real life (Marie Masters bore twins.) may have created the need for Susan's on-screen pregnancy (I don't know, but it is possible.)

Susan was anxious to have Emily. She no longer felt that a baby would interfere with her lifestyle, and she was also anxious to keep Dan.

Paul was the quiet younger brother of Dan. He was the biological child of David and Betty Stewart. He was a really nice character, but the show kept recasting the role. (I know that Marco St. John played the role, as did Michael Hawkins before he was cast on Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, How to Survive a Marriage, and Ryan's Hope).

Paul fell in love with Liz.

I am not sure if he know that Betsy was not his child, but I am thinking that he did not at the time of the marriage.

[DRW50]

[amybrickwallace]

Oh my gosh, Lisa's hair and clothes in that clip!! Was this the 80s or what? LOL

[DRW50]

astheworldstillturns is uploading episodes again, starting at the start of 1987. munecojim, oakdalian, and others have already uploaded a number of videos of that era, but there are some they hadn't, as far as I know. I'll just link to those.

[DramatistDreamer]

Hey DRW50,

Thanks for letting us know that astheworldstillturns is uploading again! I had stopped checking some time ago but I'm glad to know that there are new episodes.

[DRW50]

There's lots of good stuff in the two episodes I've watched so far - some early Casey/Lyla (as Craig and then John learn about the relationship), Gregg Marx's last days as Tom (some poignant scenes where Lisa tells him he has to mourn his lost child, and then Margo asks if he would be leaving town if she hadn't lost their child), tying up the Brian/Beatrice story (including a weird, psychosexual-esque scene where James threatens her), Meg transferring her money obsessions to Tonio, and paving the path for the reveal about Sabrina (Rick Ryan's return, John making secret payments).

And as a bonus, you get Iva's awful haircut.

[DramatistDreamer]

As much as I love Craig, he was acting like a selfish brat there for awhile (tears? Really, Craig?!) but he seemed to be coming around and he did reveal his concern that Casey would eventually dump Lyla for a younger woman, although I've got news for Craig, an older man could just as easily left Lyla for someone younger.

Speaking of which, I thought John was totally out of line, 'voicing his concerns' for Lyla's personal business. He should talk after last year ('86) when he was panting after Sierra. At least Lyla's feelings for Casey were returned, Sierra never felt the same way for John.

I guess we're leading up to when Johnny wed Lucy in the aftermath of Emma dumping John.

I don't have a name for Iva's haircut. I guess that was her hospital administrative assistant 'do(n't)?

You could make a case for calling Meg a twit at times, but you could never call her boring back then. Boy, the character was never the same after Jennifer Ashe left.

I'm more convinced than ever that Hunt Block should've reprised the role of Barbara's brother, down to the shaking her down for money. He was basically playing Rick Ryan by another name. And his dysfunctional relationship with Barbara and Paul...it would've been perfect! Although Jon Lindstrom would have made Rick a more nuanced version than Block.

1987 was still a great year for ATWT with a lot of explosive secrets being revealed and a lot of threads being connected but what was unfortunate was the loss of some actors like Gregg Marx and later Scott Bryce temporarily left and although I felt that Marland did the best he could to paper over it, I just had the feeling that certain things that really worked well were coming to an end.

[TimWil]

Hi, everyone, after signing up to SON I've been over at the Foreign Soaps/EastEnders thread but finally found myself here. I've had a fantastic time reading posts going back to 2011. The info/articles/links/views/memories posted here have been pretty remarkable to see.

I've actually had a few personal brushes with ATWT over the years that I thought might be fun to share. OK, here's one:

When I was 11 back in the fall of 1972 I screen tested for the role of Charles "Chucky" Shea. The ATWT studio at that particular time was CBS on West 57th Street. The scene was Chucky in a hospital bed with strep throat. I was being considered for the role along with two other boys. One was a blond kid who looked like the Dutch Boy paint kid. His name was David Jay (Lord knows how I remember this but can't remember previous boyfriends!). The other was a towhead named Willie Rook. I'd seen him on a lot of commercials. Eileen Fulton actually did the screen tests with us. I have a vivid memory of her standing over me in the hospital bed, gently running her hand through my hair. She was very glamorous. I had to make my voice sound like I had...uhhh...strep throat. I felt that I did alright. I wasn't surprised when it turned out that Willie Rook got the part. My mom, ever the realist, said that I was the brown haired alternative for them and that although she was sure I did well they'd probably cast one of the blond kids.

Less than a year later Rook was replaced by another child actor I knew from seeing at auditions-David Perkins. He was a nice kid. And he had brown hair! His dad was also an actor. I didn't watch the show at the time (AMC and Dark Shadows were the ones I watched then) but I gather Chucky got killed in a car crash a year or so later. Apparently not a whole lot was done with poor little Chucky.

I remember David Susskind's Sunday late night talk show one time had a panel of soap stars-the ones I remember on it were Victoria Wyndham, Robin Strasser, Mary Stuart and Eileen Fulton. And Eileen Fulton mentioned that her character had a dead son named Chucky but he was known on the set as "Upchucky." I was rather amused by that!

I did end up on the show many years later but it was as a background actor in high school scenes in June 1983 with Kirk (Christian LeBlanc), Franny (Terry Vandenbosch) and Lorna (Barbara Garrick, although her last name at the time was Cook). The studio then was somewhere in the East 70s on the Upper East Side. I had already worked for two years as a background high school student on AMC. The environments couldn't be more different. LeBlanc seemed nice enough but I distinctly remember him saying more than a few times that he was his show's answer to Tad Martin. And I remember thinking "Uh uh, no, you're not." Franny didn't exactly bring to mind Jenny Gardner. And Lorna was quite obviously a Liza Colby rip-off. Garrick stood out for me, though, and I wasn't surprised she did well down the road on the Tales of the City miniseries as well as on OLTL.

In Aug/Sep/Oct 1983 I ended up working on a film which in production was called Sweet Ginger Brown. It was later retitled The Flamingo Kid. It starred Matt Dillon. I worked background in it as a cabana boy at a beach club in Queens. A very young actress named Marisa Tomei had a role in it. She had very few lines but she was there for around 30 days, as was I. I remember during the last week of production Bronson Pinchot, Fisher Stevens, Marisa Tomei and a few of us background people were having lunch and she mentioned that she'd been offered a two year contract on ATWT to play a "damaged and lonely" young girl named Marcy who was going to end up stalking someone named "Dr. Bob." By then I knew the show pretty well but held my tongue. She said she didn't really want to do it but she'd only been signed to her agents for a few months and they were insisting she do it. Interesting, huh? I made a point of watching her first shows and her talent was undeniable.

I never made it back to that set but I still have a few ATWT stories left which I hope to tell you soon.

Edited May 18, 2014 by TimWil

[cassadine1991]

Whoa that's so cool

[DRW50]

Great story. Thanks for sharing. I'm glad you have good memories of it.

You may remember David Jay because he did some other soap work, including a brief bit on Dark Shadows as the child version of Jeb Hawkes.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0419583/

I never did understand why they didn't do more with Chucky. I guess they didn't want to write Lisa as mother to a young boy, but that's what boarding schools are for.

Did you meet anyone else, or remember anything about the producer (or did you not meet any producers)?

[Khan]

I hope you will, too. I've enjoyed reading what you've shared thus far (and welcome to SON).

[Khan]

IIRC, someone BTS said that Douglas Marland briefly considered bringing Chuckie back from the dead before creating the character of Scott Eldridge instead. I guess he figured it'd be too hard to explain how Chuckie had been presumed dead for so long.

[DRW50]

They would have been better off in the long run just bringing Chucky back.