As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[vetsoapfan]

 

Yes, the show took a shot of the late Macdonald Carey and had the deceased Tom Horton's ghost chasing Marlena around the Horton living room.

 

UGH. It might have been the worst, most tasteless moment in the show's history...until Marlena rammed doughnuts down Alice's throat.

 

I'll take Lilith and the shrunken head over the garbage that we had had to endure on DAYS, any day!

Edited January 22, 2018 by vetsoapfan

[victoria foxton]

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[Mitch]

 

I wouldn't have minded the ghost stories on ATWT and GL if they would have been subtle.  Besides Susan Piper being over the top and Brandon being alive..GL's ghosts were subtle in that it was Annabelle seeing a "flashback" to what happened as she had some psychic abilities. Piper and her henchman took the ball and made it seem like there was an active haunting going on to scare the them out...(yes, Susan Piper would have made a good Scooby Doo villain.)  A gothic storyline with flavors of the supernatural are fine...just no jumping through paintings.

 

I think Reed is a bit of an apologist for Marland. I can't believe that the network came to him and said..."Do a shrunken head storyline" as Lilith was already killing people in bear traps, and shipping corpses to the good people of Oakdale. I think this was all Marland and I do have to say, it was kind of a relief from the oppressive sincerity and gloom of Oakdale...plus I HATED Shannon and thought it was hilarious that she was shrunken head and they used a skraggily wig on top of an old apple to be her!

 

The Tom Horton thing was even more tasteless as it was the actor's family who gave the okay to use it. In a tasteless part of the storyline..(Alice being chocked to death on donuts, and it was done for yucks!!!) Have Tom chase an evil Marlena and the ghosts protecting Alice could have been fun...if they actually saved her....but then Marlena just comes back five minutes after fleeing the house and goes on to kill Alice like nothing happened. I can take camp but it has to make sense in its own weird way and Days made not one iota of sense at this time. The most tasteless exploitative story line ever and one of the many reasons soaps are as good as dead.

Edited January 23, 2018 by Mitch

[vetsoapfan]

 

I can tolerate subtle tinges of the supernatural too, as long as they are presented as characters' perceptions and beliefs, rather than actual "facts" that the audience is supposed to accept as real. Someone believing she is sensing a spirit is a far cry from flying through paintings and back in time. UGH. 

 

 

I did not care for Shannon either, and was happy when she was off the show, but it would not surprise me if the network or P&G forced their stupidity onto Marland. They did it on most shows and writers throughout the decades, particularly when the ratings were not as high as they wanted. 

 

 

Offensive, brain-dead camp certainly dealt soaps a death blow; I've always said that. Unfortunately, the suits always beat a dead horse into the ground and never learned their lessons.

[BetterForgotten]

The cast/songwriters of Dear Evan Hansen won the Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album, so Michael Park is now a Grammy winner as well...

[vetsoapfan]

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[DRW50]

 

Marland had similar material on GL - I think that by the time he was at ATWT he was likely moving away from that style but still had some of it in his system. As much as I loved Shannon, she was a ridiculous character, her backstory was fragrant parody, and this was compounded when Duncan came in, as he was also a ridiculous character. He had his castle imported from Scotland brick-by-brick. I don't know if P&G may have asked Marland to have this type of stuff, but I tend to think it was just his own personal taste, especially as this was at the same time as other parts of the canvas had very heavy storylines (Iva, Josh, Margo's miscarriage, and I swear I can't remember if Craig ever laughed or smiled from 1985-1988...). 

 

The height of this wackiness was Lilith, as Sara Botsford was absolutely superb and played all of the material for every bit of campy goodness it was worth, yet also gave it some kind of depth...somehow. She was delicious. 

 

Marland seemed to put most of that away after Reed left, and other than the unintentional (?) hilarity of Hannah Lafferty, Liz Hubbard's ad-libs, the dry wit of Tom and Margo, and the more intentional (?) campery of Tess, who seemed to have come to life as a protest voice against 10+ years of icky pure Marland ingenues, the show was very serious. 1992 especially is one of the heaviest soap years I can remember - almost too much so. Still, it was a good time for the show. I'm sorry he never got to complete his plans and I'm sorry he never got to deal with the post-OJ era of soaps, as he may have been one of those who could have salvaged the genre...

[Mitch]

I did admire that Marland stuck to gothic while the other shows were doing sci-fi... I think it worked on GL with Nola and Quint and Thornway Road..but the writers who followed had no clue how to deal with Marland's gothic and the characters involved suffered. Long gave it a try with the cabin storyline but it just wasnt her thing. I think they had no idea what to do with Nola after that and the crazy Quolas' wouldn't let the split up...(Quint was the kind of character who had short shelf life and should have been killed off to let Nola move on to other things..)

 

But back to ATWT.. I think Marland's gothic worked for example the earlier Lisa storyline pre Dobsons..but his later stuff was just too BIG ..(yes, Duncan importing a castle brick by brick..and somehow they workers even created the "secret" tunnels that James slithered about in was just stupid and if wanst Marland that storyline would have been made fun of..(Still dont know why he didnt have Duncan move into an abandoned mansion that exisited in town...)

 

A big agree that Lilith was the sun that shown on Marland's dreary little Oakdale at the time! The actress and the character just seemed to enjoy themselves which was a change from usual dour Oakdalian...(beside Lucinda...I think even Lisa was down beat at that time...)

[DramatistDreamer]

I loved Tess!  That is all.

[DramatistDreamer]

With all these reboots of popular sitcoms happening and reunions and all this nostalgia for earlier shows, it feels sort of sad that so many milestones are occurring for soaps like ATWT with nary a peep, except for message boards and the occasional blog or random notice on social media.

Edited February 1, 2018 by DramatistDreamer

[amybrickwallace]

 

Stunning photos!! Thank you for sharing. 😊

[vetsoapfan]

 

 

I've found some ancient soap/movie magazines in a box, and flipping through them made me sooooo nostalgic. 

 

I know that our soaps are "only" TV shows, but they and their beloved characters come to mean something to us over time, and after knowing folks like Nancy, Bob, Kim, Lisa, Ellen, and others for DECADES, it's hard not to miss them when they are gone forever.

[DRW50]

 

I know what you mean.

 

What kind of magazines were they?

[vetsoapfan]

A lot of Rona Barrett stuff: Daytimers, Gossip, Hollywood, and other special soap-related collector editions. The Daytime TV Library Series, spotlighting SFT, AW, DAYS, etc. Movie mags like Modern Screen, Photoplay, etc.

 

I just want to curl up in bed under a blanket, with some hot chocolate and ice cream, and read until my eyes bleed.

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When I moved I thought I had lost many vintage soap tapes, but I found a bunch of those too; tons of TGL.

[DRW50]

 

Oh wow. Which GL period? 

 

I'm glad you found that stuff - I'm sure it's great. Rona Barrett publications had a somewhat bitchy tone to them but had a lot of interesting interviews and features you wouldn't find elsewhere, with lots of backstage gossip and color photos.