As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[NothinButAttitude]

Didn't they kill him off b/c they said they had nowhere else to go with the character? They got all they could out of him?

 

But what do you think they should've/could've done with the character had he stayed?

[Mitch]

I think they killed him off as that was the start of the Fred Bartholeme (producer) get rid of the "old" people thing. I do agree though, what to do with Kim and Dan next? Luckily back in those days they didnt keep breaking super couples up and putting them together like Carjack, Lily and Holden, Josh and Reva...etc.

[NothinButAttitude]

Back then, they seemed like they had no issue with killing someone off with the quickness, which is something the remaining four might need to redo.

[DRW50]

They should have just had Dan leave town with Susan.

 

I almost mentioned Colenback but I wasn't sure how popular he actually was.

[NothinButAttitude]

That's reasonable. 

 

And then you think he should've been brought back down the road?

[DRW50]

I think he would have given Susan and Emily some story when they returned to Oakdale. He could have just popped in and out, the way Russ Matthews did on AW before the show started pretending Russ never existed.

[NothinButAttitude]

True. 

 

Weren't Bob and Dan best friends? I would've loved to have seen Dan come back for a stint and try and win Kim away from Bob. It would've been interesting to see how Nancy, Ellen, John, etc. would've reacted to it.

[DRW50]

Yes. That would have been a good story when Kim and Bob were split up via the Susan affair.

[NothinButAttitude]

If only my Bob and Kim were eventually reunited!!

[Paul Raven]

John Colenback was popular in his first stint  as Dan,but it was John Reilly that established the Kim/Dan relationship and I don't think Colenback worked as well as Reilly with Kathryn Hays.

Still, killing off Dan was a mistake.Maybe he could have been ill and left Oakdale,not wanting to be a burden etc

The other root problem was sorasing Dan in the first place.When Colenback came on in 66,Dan should have been 8,but Irna made him early 20's and Colenback was older than the character. That led to problems down the road.

[zanereed]

Good question, and it ties in to what Paul stated above.  Paul is right - Colenback's Dan didn't really have the same chemistry with Hayes that Reilly did.  With that said, I would have started a Bob/Kim/Dan triangle immediately after Betsy found out that Dan was her dad instead of her uncle.  Bob could have been her doctor during that deafness Betsy had (I think it was deafness), and Betsy could have bonded with Bob in a fatherly way (since she would have trust issues with Dan). Bob and Kim are drawn to each other again, creating conflict between Bob and Dan.  Heck, I would have brought back Susan and Emily to make things even worse for Dan's situation.  If they needed to get rid of Dan, they could always have Dan leave town healthy, and perhaps bring him back later if necessary.  They always kept Kim and Bob apart during this time, and I hated Dana and Nick.

But, the SORAS-ing of Dan was always an issue back when Irna first did it in 1966.  Its shifted the structure of the canvas quite a bit. Dan was supposed to be more of a peer to Tom Hughes, but instead was now a peer to Bob (instead of David being Bob's peer), Ellen was now a peer to Nancy, etc.

[Limenade]

Colenback and Marie Masters:

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[Paul Raven]

Marie was gorgeous then and stayed beautiful in all the years that followed.

Like the idea of Kim/Dan/Bob in the late 70's with Susan and John involved also.

[Mitch]

Good point, the death of Dan really could have fixed that...as at that time Ellen and David had age appropriate daughters (sort of). At least they let Ellen out of her bun when David came back to town with amnesia but by that time Nancy was gone and Chris was sidelined, and they should have played heavily in that as parent figures to David and Ellen.

[SoapDope]

I agree that there should have been a Bob/Kim/Dan triangle. I also wish they had done a storyline where Lisa went after David and had catfights with Ellen.