As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[Khan]

 

Let's just thank God for Will Munson's poisoned mouthwash.

 

Looking at the list of "actors" who played Chris, I struggle to name one whom I liked even a little bit.  That role was never cast properly, or written properly.

 

Holroyd was let go for two reasons: they wanted Roger Howarth, and they wanted to take Paul in a different, darker direction (which they didn't believe Holroyd could do convincingly).

 

And as for the ATWT/Y&R crossover, I'm convinced the network came up with that idea strictly as a way to cross-promote the two shows (a move borrowed from the Angela Shapiro era of ABC Daytime) and to shake up their stodgy, conservative images.  There's really no explanation for getting Alison and Amber involved in drugs, prostitution and online sex tapes.

[DramatistDreamer]

 

I don't understand any of the choices ATWT made the entire final decade they were on the air.  It seemed as if as soon as they hooked onto something that could work and be reasonably entertaining, they would ruin it just as quickly.

 

Although I eventually got used to Marnie Schulenberg as Alison, I disliked the pairing of Alison and Casey. I got used to the recasts of both Alison and Casey somewhat but neither were as charismatic as the previous actors in those roles.

Worse still, ATWT took a hacksaw to the stories and characterizations of their young adult set of characters.  It wasn't pretty.

 

The recasts of Craig and Paul and Adam were all pretty bad that decade.  There was no good reason to recast Scott Holroyd.  They also made Dusty, (a character who was once accepted to Harvard) into a low-rent gangster wannabe.  Don't get me started on some of the storyline choices!

 

The big mistake that ATWT and Y&R and many of the other daytime dramas made was that they didn't bother to look for fresh talent for their writing rooms (and with ATWT being in NYC where you had Columbia University and NYU, and that is unforgivable). 

The "cam girls" was likely some middle age dude's idea of a relevant storyline.  Perhaps had Alison and Amber been living in Eastern Europe in the late 1990s, then sure it could've been relevant.

 

I tried to binge-watch a bunch of episodes between 2005-2007 after having spent months watching episodes from the 1980s and early '90s and boy the contrast in quality of everything was depressing.

Edited August 9, 2018 by DramatistDreamer

[Scrapple]

The clips featuring Alan White were bad, but I'm so glad they were posted, because it made me watch other clips on the same show, namely the Trial Of Barbara Ryan, when Babs was tried for her spa kidnapping of Emily, Carly and Rose. There were some great scenes in that trial, especially when Hal was asked on the stand whether he thought Barbara should go to jail for the rest of her life - and he was forced to choose between Barbara and Emily. But the best scene is the last, when Carly confronts Barbara after she is set free on a technicality. Without histrionics, Maura sticks the knife in, but good.

[Paul Raven]

Just reading an old interview with P&G exec Mickey Dwyer Dobbin around 1997.

 

She was talking about ATWT and was asked if Julie might be returning.

 

Her response was "Who's that"?

 

These execs were so clueless. You'd think that if you were getting paid 6 figures to oversee 3 shows, you might spend some time brushing up on the history of said shows.

 

She also said that she didn't want flashbacks on the GL 60th shows because viewers would realize that it was an old show!!

 

So why celebrate 60 years at all??

[Vee]

Marnie Schulenberg was awful as Alison, came off middle-aged and frumpy. I didn't recognize the character. That said she was surprisingly great in her guest role on OLTL 2.0 as Jo Sullivan, a reality TV producer. Unrecognizable again from her ATWT work. (I also felt Howarth gave his last good performances on OLTL and GH in 2011-2013 but that's me. He was awful as Paul - I loved Holroyd.)

[DramatistDreamer]

 

It was a role where she got to create her own personality and you can see the energy and excitement she brought to it.  She was sort of in the mold of a Judith Clayton, but Judith Clayton on steroids!  

 

On ATWT, Schulenberg was shoved into trying to pick up where Dunphy had left off.  Whereas Dunphy had chemistry with both Agim Kaba and Jesse Lee Soffer, Schulenberg had chemistry with neither (of course the poor writing and direction likely contributed to this), which is why TPTB ended up shoving Alison and Casey together (tbh, I didn't see a whole lot of chemistry between Schulenberg and Billy Magnussen either but I guess it was the least terribly awkward of the three choices).   

Had Dunphy continued on with the role, I could've seen her becoming an interloper in the relationship between Will and Gwen.

 

And yes, Howarth was awful as Paul, that's not open for debate, LOL.  I was put off by the fact that ATWT got rid of Holroyd, especially for a notorious scene chewer.

Edited August 10, 2018 by DramatistDreamer

[juppiter]

 

Rose was refreshing at first, but she got super annoying super quickly. She was only ever intended to be temporary, so it all was so funny at first. But once her initial storyline was over, the joke stopped being funny almost immediately. OMG I was soooo happy when Will poisoned her. And just how drab they made Lily when Rose was on. Lily spent about 3 years dressed in all brown.

 

I think the Allison after JD was Marnie Schulenburg? She grew on me eventually, but I looooved Jessica Dunphy. She just reminded me of the kind of girl who would have befriended the gay kid and skipped class to smoke with him in high school.

[P.J.]

Ugh.. Rose. Aside from the fact it gave MB license to be loud and obnoxious (where Lily was pious and obnoxious), and seemed to be a previee of Janet Ciccone, ATWT made a huge mistake rewriting and whitewashing her. She went from guttersnipe to Saint, and lost anything that made her notjustLilyinawig. 

 

I always felt bad for Holroyd, who got stuck with her from minute one. 

[juppiter]

 

Who else could they have put him with? Maybe Molly? But Jake wasn't dead yet.

[P.J.]

 

Well...Bonnie? They could've at least shopped him around a little. 

 

And ditto to the idea he shafted to grab Howarth. 

Edited August 12, 2018 by P.J.

[Brolden]

I was wondering what you all have always perceived to be the order of the Snyder kids? It's always gotten me confused. The only thing I'm quite certain of is that Meg is supposed to be the youngest. 

 

I know Iva is the eldest Snyder daughter and Seth the eldest Snyder son. The way I always understood it, Harvey and Emma adopted Iva at a time when they thought they couldn't have children (ha!), so that would make Iva the eldest child, right? For some reason, I feel like in some episodes I've seen there seems to be some implication that Seth is the eldest child though.

And what about Holden, Caleb and Ellie? For some reason, Caleb always came across as younger than Holden to me, but since Caleb and Ellie were both living on their own in Chicago, I'm wondering if they're actually supposed to be older? 

 

My best guess would then be: Iva - Seth - Ellie - Caleb - Holden - Meg?

Edited August 12, 2018 by Brolden

[P.J.]

 

Seth-Iva-Caleb-Ellie-Holden-Meg

 

I've always understood it to be that after Seth was born, Emma was told she couldn't have more kids. That's why they decided to adopt Iva. 

 

There may have been some confusion due to Iva appearing before Seth, or the writers might have shifted it once Seth was cast.

 

I can't be sure why I think Caleb is older, but I always have.

[Soaplovers]

I always figured Holden/Meg were the youngest since the two were closest.. and that Holden was Emma's favorite because he was her youngest son... and that Caleb/Ellie were the middle children and the ones least accustomed to farm living.  I know that Iva took off when either Meg was very young, or before Meg was born.. because when Meg came on in January 1986.. Iva was happy to see Meg while Meg remarked that she didn't know her but had heard a lot about her.

[Brolden]

 

I guess I always figured Caleb was younger because, when they arrived, he fell in with the "teen crowd", dating Lily, Pam and eventually Julie, whereas Ellie fell in with the "adults", dating Craig and then Kirk.

[danfling]

Actress and director Patricia Benoit (Betty Stewart on As the World Turns) has passed away.  She was also the star of Today is Ours.

 

Patricia Benoit, Wally Cox's Sweetheart on 'Mister Peepers,' Dies at 91

 

Her TV wedding was a ratings smash in 1954. She earlier starred opposite Melvyn Douglas on Broadway.

Patricia Benoit, who played Nancy Remington, the sweetheart and eventual wife of Wally Cox's character on the 1950s NBC sitcom Mister Peepers, has died. She was 91.

Benoit died Monday at her home in Port Chester, New York, her family announced.

NBC's Mister Peepers, broadcast live from a New York theater for three seasons from July 1952 to June 1955, starred Cox (later the voice of the superhero Underdog and a Hollywood Squares regular) as the mild-mannered Robinson Peepers, a science teacher at Jefferson City Junior High. Benoit's Nancy was a nurse and the object of Peepers' awkward affection.

In a highly anticipated television moment, the two were married near the end of the second season, with the new husband and wife on the cover of TV Guide in May 1954.

 

Born on Feb. 21, 1927, in Fort Worth, Texas, Benoit attended Texas State College before moving to New York City when she was 19. She studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, appeared on a 1950 episode of Believe It or Not and had a career breakthrough when she starred as Melvyn Douglas' long-lost daughter in the 1951-52 Broadway comedy Glad Tidings.

Benoit also appeared on Broadway in 1956 in Time Limit opposite Arthur Kennedy and in Middle of the Night with Edward G. Robinson.

She starred as a divorcee on the short-lived 1958 NBC soap opera Today Is Ours and later worked on CBS' As the World Turns as well.

Benoit moved to Croton-on-Hudson, New York, in 1961 and left acting a few years later to raise her children, her family noted. Survivors include her sons Jeremy and Nicholas; grandchildren Nicholas, Michael and Melissa; great-granddaughter Ella; and sister Doris.