As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[Dr Neil Curtis]

I started watching ATWT around 1998 so I miss the glory years and all the good stories. I always liked Lisa relationship with Bob & Kim after learning she was his wife at one point. Speaking of the fabulous Lisa, whatever happened to her other son, Scott? Did that character not take off? And believe I read somewhere Barbara had a brother too. 

Edited June 2, 2018 by Dr Neil Curtis

[P.J.]

The character of Scott went sideways when it was discovered his portrayer, Joe Breen, was HIV positive. Breen left the role (or was fired) and never really thrived with the recasts, one of whom was Doug Wert. By then, Scott had drifted into the Rosanna/Mike/Carly triangle, was trying to leech off Rosanna, and blackmail Carly (he knew Mike had gotten her pregnant). Carly outsmarted him, but after that Carly lost the baby, Maura left the show to have her first baby ( who just graduated college, BTW) and they fired Yvonne Perry. Scott left town with her, and I believe the last we heard, Ro said Scott had helped her gamble a significant amount if her fortune away. 

 

I don't really remember Rick Ryan, but they brought the character back briefly in the mid80's and pinned him with selling baby Sabrina.

[DramatistDreamer]

After all the depressing news out there this week, boy would I love there to be a never-before uploaded episode from the 80s appear on You Tube!  That would be such a gift.

[Dax7000]

Amen. It's annoying how there seems to be a ton of All My Children popping up on my subscriptions, but not any new ATWT. 

[adrnyc]

I do hope that something new can surface soon for everyone. I know how lucky I am that I have all these eps to watch that I've never seen. 

 

June 1988 now - Betsy just broke Rod's heart. (Of course, he's slept with Meg at this point.) Caleb just arrived at the farm. (A character I've heard about but never seen.) And Dusty left. Sad to see him go; wish there was even more of his early years on the show to see. Nothing else is really happening, which I've learned from this board is what I should expect until the writers strike is over and Marland comes back in October?

 

Still, I'm happy to have Craig back - he's with Barbara against Lucinda. I like newcomer Kirk Anderson - something seems to be nefarious with him - working for James?  I say that because he seems all too happy to destroy Babs - stole a gown for Lucinda in order to copy it and debut it before Babs can. Hank Elliot is another newcomer but he doesn't do much except stand around as a sounding board for Babs. 

[P.J.]

I love Kirk!! Tom Wiggin and Liz H had such great chemistry. 

[SoapDope]

I wish UCLA would get off their butts and make available the episodes they have of the show from the 50's, 60' and 70's. According to their catalog, they have a weeks worth of shows from 1971 and 1973. I would love to see those. That was during the Dan/Susan/Paul/Liz & the Bob/Kim/Jennifer/John eras.

Edited June 9, 2018 by SoapDope

[vetsoapfan]

 

Tom Wiggin even brought a slight spark of life to that drippy Iva.

[P.J.]

 

Hey, I loved Kirk and Iva!! I still remember their first kiss. 

[vetsoapfan]

 

Yes, he brought some life to her. They were good together. I still chuckle when he had to had to correct her garbled way of pronouncing "vulnerable," LOL. Didn't she pronounce it "VUN-ER-LABEL" or something?  Hilarious. It was funny too, when he blew Iva and Lisa air kisses and Lisa made desperate sweeping motions with her hands to block them.

Edited June 9, 2018 by vetsoapfan

[DramatistDreamer]

 

IMO Kirk was Iva's best pairing.  In the very beginning they had that witty, sharp dialogue that I used to love to hear from HBS and GM's Tom and Margo (what we writers would call 'The Billy Wilder Effect').  They even had a bit of that combative repartée, the way John and Lucinda sometimes had. They were dynamic and in the beginning, Iva didn't have to play the put-upon 'heavy' as she had in other other relationships.  It was a big mistake to pull them apart without them finding their way back to each other. 

 

If Kirk and Iva were going to be involved in a triangle (of sorts), I would've rather Marland wait for Sam, Lucinda's sister.  Given Lucinda and Iva's acrimonious history, Sam becoming the interloper to Kirk and Iva's fraying relationship would've added extra interest.

 

 

That pairing of Iva and Kirk put Iva in a light I had not been used to see her before--they sizzled.  IMO none of Iva's other pairings had that kind of sizzle.  I didn't even know the Iva character was capable of producing those kind of sparks!

 

 

Wow, is there video online?  I'd love to see that, LOL.

Edited June 9, 2018 by DramatistDreamer

[vetsoapfan]

 

Yes, so often, Iva was a downer, a heavy drudge who always seemed lethargic. After watching Brown play Iva on TGL, this was a major letdown. I loved to hate Nola. Iva just made me want to turn the channel most of the time, except when she was with TW. I would have rather seen Iva Snyder written out than Kirk. The way he and Sam just disappeared and were forgotten about was stupid, BTW.

 

I saw the "vulnerable" scene live, so I do not know if it's on youtube, alas. Maybe someone else has seen it  online and can point us to it..

[Soaplovers]

Given the kind of life Iva had.. I could understand her being a downer... and her all too brief pairing with Kirk made her come alive.  The only other time Iva came alive was when she won the cruise and got a make over and had the time of her life.  Considering that she was raped by whom she thought was her cousin, had a baby at 13/14, gave the baby up, and basically ran away from home.. I'm surprised she was only lethargic.  While I didn't like who she ended up with, he seemed like a nice and steady guy... and that was what was needed in her life..imho.

 

When people mention Sam, I'm hoping everyone meant the first Sam... the tall, sarcastic Sam and not the sappy recast.. right?

[DRW50]

I really loved Iva - maybe it's because I'm not a very happy person myself, so I could relate to her. When I went back and watched the episodes again, many years later, I could understand why many did not care for her and felt she was a downer and a bore, but I still feel that bond with her in a way I don't with some I was a big fan of at the time (like Shannon). I also think Lisa's acting was just so good - so so good, and so intelligent and full of depth. I think that they just got the balance wrong with Iva in her last years. I also think pairing her with John was a very stupid decision that was just too incestuous storywise, given his history with Lucinda and Emma. Iva needed a fresh partner. 

 

It's just unfortunate that so much of that performance carried over into Nola when she went back to GL. I don't think it was good for Lisa Brown to play such a heavy character for 8 years. 

Edited June 9, 2018 by DRW50

[DramatistDreamer]

 

Oh, of course I realize why Iva was 'put-upon', given the kind of backstory the character had, it would be strange if she had never seen her that way.

What I take issue was the constant drumbeat of misery, especially when it seemed that the character had taken a different path.

It just seemed like dumping her into an abyss of misery repeatedly was a way of creating something to do with the character at a time when story may have been 'thin' for her.

 

Iva was never going to be a giddy character, even when she was with Kirk, she could be dour and tough and always pragmatic and she didn't need to be suffocated under a blanket of misery to achieve that.  In fact, she had more of an edge in her early days interacting with the Kirk character than I'd ever seen her before or since on the show.

 

EDT:

By the way, I come from a long line of women who endured very hard lives (at least one is a rape survivor herself).  Maybe because their lives were so tough, they made time and space to experience joy.  

 

Now, had Iva been bi-polar or diagnosed with clinical depression, that would have been a good aspect to explore and would have made perfect sense for going back and forth but it was never explored so I'm only left to assume that someone (maybe at P&G) wanted Iva in a near constant state of dour misery.

Personally, I don't enjoy watching women constantly being tortured by life. Personally, life is hard enough as a woman in this world and as a Black woman?  Whew!  

Edited June 9, 2018 by DramatistDreamer