As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[Soapsuds]

Considering he was the only other gay guy who would you have chosen?….It had to be someone in the canvas….but I could see Reid as single for the rest of his life and just dating on occasion. 

LOLOLOLOL….PJ…..just LOL ….and then they rehire Scott Bryce and give him the same awful material and fans love Craig…and Goutman was so upset that he fired him.

Luke was fine during his coming out and after his time with Noah. He and Noah were a disaster. Luke Snyder became Will Horton at that time….the version where he was more in love with himself than his bf…..LOL. And as the new recast did with Will so did Van…..his acting got worse/bad. When Reid appeared Luke became less annoying and Hansis didn't ham it up as much…..LOL.  Didn't Van say he was happy to work with an actor was actually into his material…LOL….throwing shade at the actor who played Noah?

I hated the whole Olivia/Natalia story because it came out of nowhere and CC was just horrendous during that story….she was just horrible. 

[Soapsuds]

Who is Greg Nelson? Was that the actor who was playing Lucinda's love interest and had the hots for Luke?  If I had been writing ATWT at the time I would have paired Luke with Kevin. He was first crush and only love that he couldn't tell him he was gay. Luke and Noah were so darn boring together. Later on they could have brought in Reid where Luke got the wondering eye and felt neglected by Kevin and he cheated on him. I am sure Kevin wouldn't have put up with it.  Instead we got stuck with Luke and Noah jumping up and down in a bed…..Noah's wacko dad…..Noah and that awful marriage crap….ugh...

Ha…..and he ended up alone in the finale. Reid was the best thing ATWT had going at the end. The show was just horrendous. Still after all the mess Jean P. still works…how sad…at least Goutman isn't anywhere near a soap. 

[Soapsuds]

 Yeah I wanted either Kevin or Reid too. I don't think JS cared for the role. I read not sure if true but he didn't like playing Noah. 

 

[All My Shadows]

Luke's storyline was perfectly fine for the first year, IMO. Everything beginning with "the backrub" (LOLing at how excited we were over a goddamn backrub!) all the way through to Luke saving Kevin's life at Raven Lake was well-done (and I generally enjoyed the show as a whole, especially the younger set, during this time). Kevin's negative reaction was OK with me because it was contrasted by the other people in Luke's friendgroup being nothing but positive and supportive. I wanted them to do more with the family dynamic, but that was a problem running through the entire show at the time.

Everything turned to sh!t when they backburnered the character for nearly a year and then decided the best remedy for that situation would be to spend approximately thirty-two seconds creating the Noah character and then squeezing the two into a coupling at WARP speed. I always maintained that they did it so quickly to placate the people who'd been upset about Luke's lack of storylines, which, OK! I was one of those people! But too many of the Nuke diehards were just so ready for Luke to have the teenage relationship they'd never had themselves that they were perfectly willing to fill in all of the blanks themselves in regards to the story.

I used to write posts that were paragraph after paragraph trying to figure out WTF drew Luke and Noah together. Recall, Luke was not at all here for Noah when he first appeared at WOAK. He was annoyed because Maddie and Noah were being all flirty and cutesy with each other instead of working, then Luke dropped a box of VCR tapes, and Noah helped him pick them up. And THAT'S how Nuke began. WTF!!!

But too many were desperate for anything at all, so they accepted it and rolled with it. For a while, I was cool with it, too, but once they started laying it on so thick with the two of them, I was over it. The crazy fans were saying that Luke and Noah were destined to be "the new Bob and Kim." FOH with that!!

On a more positive note, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our dearly departed pot-boiler. 60 years ago, that black and white globe spun for the first time, and daytime drama would never be the same. Cheers to you, World Turns!

Edited April 2, 2016 by All My Shadows

[Soapsuds]

If you read most of the things about him…it looks like he didn't……I would have gone for a Noah and Maddie pairing. It would have sent Luke fuming. And they could have made Noah bi. At times I thought they were leaning that way but they never really did. 

Again they were headed that way but the story needed more time for that to happen. By then wasn't ATWT already cancelled or the news of its cancellation close to being announced? Too bad Babs didn't have another offspring that was male. Having him fall for Luke would have brought fireworks between Babs and Lucinda……I missed the rivalry between the two ladies.  

[All My Shadows]

Jake Silbermann was awfully wooden the entire time he was on the show. He was SO not into it, and not to excuse VH, but sometimes it showed, to me at least, that VH was tired of doing the heavy lifting required to sell the couple. Don't get me wrong, I thought VH was downright dreadful by the last two years of the show's run, but I feel like he understood who the audience for this story was (not hip young kids but older gay men who were thrilled to see a young gay couple on the soap they'd been watching for decades) and he played to that. JS just followed his lead 95% of the time and never felt comfortable in the role. Once again, that's all just my opinion.

After a few years of watching their stories unfold, I think I came to the conclusion that they should've just chalked the relationship up to Noah wanting to experiment but eventually going back to Maddie. They didn't play it was a triangle nearly as long as they should have, and in the end, Noah made more sense with Maddie (and JS was way more comfortable playing that). Luke would have been scorned, which would have been FINE because this is a soap, for Christ's sake, and he would have moved on with his life. If they'd had any sense, they would have taken their time to create a more complex character. Didn't we spend LOTS of time in the weekly threads crafting the perfect love interest for him? I think we wanted David Lago as sort of an eccentric rich kid with his head in the clouds.

ITA!! I was always hoping/waiting for the news that a new Christina Hughes would show up. They missed a golden opportunity to have a Hughes who wasn't put-together as Bob's kids/grandkids, who really rocked the boat and played against everything the rest of the family wanted. Mary was pregnant with Christina for the big anniversary in 1986, so with her age adjusted for SORASing, she would have been around the same age as Chris and Katie. I'm one of the few people who really appreciated the Katie/Nancy dynamic, but Nancy would have been better served in her final years straightening out a granddaughter who wanted everything but to be a "damn Hughes."

Shame on them for never bringing Christina on or at least ONE of the Ward quads. Like damn! I know they were really over the Stewarts after having them be so frontburner during the late 70s and early 80s, but when they were trying to rebuild the family in the 2000s, instead of giving us that unfortunate Dani Andropoulos recast or the random son of Emily and Larry McDermott, it would have been nice to have one or two of the quads show up. Their SORASing would have put them a little older than Chris, but hell, one of them could have been for Luke. One of them could have been for Katie so that they might have stopped putting her in the toxic orbit of Jack and The Angry Blonde One.

Laurence Lau is the actor. He is most famous for playing Greg Nelson on AMC in the early 80s (of Greg & Jenny fame).

[DRW50]

Barring a recast I just don't think Luke would have been believable with anyone. Even his best love interest - Reid - had more chemistry with Don Hastings. 

[All My Shadows]

I think by then, VH realized he wasn't going to get the type of material he might have wanted and was just going through the motions. That's my conjecture. He was excited in the beginning, and it showed, but after sticking around with nothing to do and then getting saddled with a very hollow love story and having to sell, sell, sell, it was pretty obvious that he was just over it. ESS was awesome, Reid was a great character (relatively speaking, at least - as great as he could have been on this particular show at that particular time). If that had been the story in 2007, then maybe things would have turned out a lot differently with Luke.

[Soapsuds]

Since Luke=Lily…his love life should have been the same. That's why I wanted his character in a relationship with a guy Lucinda did not approve of that's why I suggested someone related to Babs.  Someone that the family didn't approve of.

[slick jones]

After the looooooonnnnnng Nuke nonsense, I would have let Luke be a young man that happened to be gay. As young as he was, he should have been meeting different guys, dated some (chemistry testing) and let one of his dates be a member of one of the ATWT families. Kevin could definitely have worked as well, but the biggest problem on soaps, and has been for years, is that young characters are rushed into long term relationships, rather than out playing the field. That goes for straight and gay characters. Early twenty somethings are married and wanting ten kids by 25. Luke could have battled with Reid while dating/hooking up with other guys and then he would have lived his life a little, rather than pushing for a wedding and happily never after.

 

Edited April 2, 2016 by slick jones

[DRW50]

I could see that, but I also think some actors just don't have heat. It was the same way with Martha Byrne, although she and Paolo had their moments. The Larry Lau/Luke story is one that would have worked for me because it would have been such a trainwreck, but otherwise...I don't know. Then again I may have said something totally different years ago. I haven't seen these episodes in such a long time. It's easy for me to be glib now.

 

I do wish they'd brought in more gay characters for more stories.

[Soapsuds]

I can just hear her now telling you….Look Kiddo….Look Pal…..LOL

 

 

Wasn't Reid essentially Holden at the beginning when he met Luke? Holden thought Lily was this rich girl full of herself and isn't that how Reid felt about Luke….LOL. It kind of was Lily and Holden all over again except it was Luke and Reid minus Lucinda interfering ….

Edited April 3, 2016 by Soapsuds

[All My Shadows]

This is true. A recast might have helped give a little zest to the character, but IDK. They always treated Luke with kid gloves because he was The Gay Character, and that goes back to the writing. Maybe a more dynamic actor would have inspired them to go there a bit more with the character.

[NothinButAttitude]

OMG. I guess I am alone as I loved Luke and Noah.  I didn't mind Reid or Kevin either but Noah was IT for Luke IMO.

[Soapsuds]

Was it his puppy eyes that got to you?…LOL   I was a big fan of theirs but the stories they had just made them poison together. I really wish Kevin was denying his feelings for Luke. It would have been interesting had he realized that after Luke met Reid.