As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[Bill Bauer]

Alan should just use his connections and get someone else to do the actual interviews. These reunions are a great idea but they’re mostly wasted with missed opportunities, annoying interruptions and dumb questions. I agree with someone who said that the interviewees actually ask better questions than the interviewer. 

[Soapsuds]

About half way though the hour. He mentioned working with Kelly and said it felt off with him cheating on Margo with Emily. He pretty much said he hated learning his lines towards the end because the storylines were so bad. He said he loved seeing everyone everyday but doing the actual show wasn't fun anymore. He said he was glad it got cancelled because it wasn't a good soap at the end but had it not been canceled he'd still would've stayed....paycheck for his old age he said..lol...medicare.....etc...lol

[Soaplovers]

 

And don't forget Ellen saying Margo was basically a bitch by the end of the show as well lol

[mango]

Emily's pregnancy coincided with Margo's involvement with Eddie and his dad (?). That was definitely a bunch of crap thrown at a wall to see if it would stick.

 

Things improved a bit with Margo's liver illness, but it seemed to be more a hurrah moment for Katie. At least it gave them some sisterly moments.

[gimmetoo]

This one was painful…PAINFUL.  

There was a lot of tripping over each other and Alan interrupt-us.  

 

Ellen clearly does not like discussing her soap days.  She comes across very sour about the experience, and almost unwilling to reflect.  Its like she’d rather discuss ANYTHING but her time on daytime.  Not sure why she even agreed to do these reunions 2x now…

Example:  When Locher asked Ellen what it was like to work w/ Anne Sward (who played her mother for years), Ellen’s responds “you know she was just 3 years older than me.”  After at least 10 years of working together this is all she had to say…

 

Scott was slightly more forthcoming and warmer…

had stories about Benjamin Hendrickson, warm memories of Don Hastings.  Said Eileen was WACKY.  

 

Locher was quick to wrap this one up thankfully...

[DramatistDreamer]

Well, God bless Scott Holmes for speaking those truths! The quality of the show was not good in those final years. Whenever I tried to say it, there would inevitably be one or two persons who would try to paint me as a hater and a negative force. Who better to testify than someone who was actually living the experience?!  Holmes came onto the show when the show was still fire, so he would know when exactly the standard dropped.

[KMan101]

 

I'm so glad he said those things! It's true! ATWT was NOT good those last years. But so many just loved Pissy's years. I don't get it. (I also don't think Kreizman had enough time to make any impact, not that I think he could have saved the day, of course)

Edited May 29, 2020 by KMan101

[DramatistDreamer]

 

If I were to hazard a guess, I would choc it up to desperation. A lot of people seemed to think that any criticism would result in automatic cancellation of the show, even though that was not how it worked. There were angry letters and far stronger criticism of stories and characterizations for decades and the show survived and thrived because the show was fundamentally still a really great show at its core. Criticism, phone calls and letters are not going to destroy a great show.

 

I think that many fans know, whether they would admit it or not, that the show was on a razor's edge of cancellation for those last several years and they were scared that the World would stop Turning. So any peep of discontent was squelched in favor of pretending that the content was good quality, hoping that would be enough to keep the show on air.  Scott Holmes said it best, as bad as it was, he would've kept doing the show had it remained because of the security the job gave him.  For many fans, the presence of the show provided them a measure of security by just being on air five days a week.

Edited May 29, 2020 by DramatistDreamer

[pdm1974]

The show seemed to struggle with direction in the end. The pace became extremely fast...so even if you liked a storyline, sometimes it would wrap up in 6 weeks! And, I remember there was one point where it felt like every single storyline had to do with wanting a baby or having a baby. Not to mention the non-use of characters like Lisa and Nancy who could have added so much with just semi-regular appearances.

[DramatistDreamer]

 

I suspect that this might have been because headwriters had abandoned the art of doing a detailed story projection and may have run into problems and either shortened/ended storylines earlier than anticipated.

Hillary Bailey Smith did a great solo interview on a podcast for one of those soap magazines (or is it the only soap magazine at this point?) and she mentioned that Doug Marland used to write these highly detailed story projections that would encompass at least a year or more.  I think that is why he was able to construct a story that went on for months and at times a year+ and keep it going. I suspect that all the old school head writers likely did detailed and expansive story projections.  The great thing with a story projection that is highly detailed is that you can present it to other writers and everyone can really scrutinize it and it allows others to 'dig in' and add even more detail.  Believe it or not, the more detail you put into it, the more freedom you have to make adjustments and 'tweaks' to each story when necessary. And a detailed story projection really helps when you have multiple stories occurring simultaneously.

ATWT, toward the last decade had really poor B and C stories--hell, they could barely keep an A story going!  That told me that the head writers in the last decade had likely ceased doing any type of detailed and expansive story projections, that is, if they were doing them at all. I actually think that none of the soap head writers do detailed story projections any more. Many look like they are making things up as they go along, flying by the seat of their pants.

[P.J.]

Figures Scott would say he'd stuck with the show for a paycheck. It showed.

[BetterForgotten]

I appreciate the honesty rather than some BS answer like, “I stayed for the fans” or worse, “the material was so amazing!”

[Soapsuds]

Well he said for the health insurance. But he also meant a paycheck is a paycheck.

I really hadn't heard Scott talk about ATWT or get interviewed. He is a straight shooter. He came off warm at times and cold at times during this interview. It's not what I expected. He and Ellen were asked how they felt replacing two fan favorites in HBS and Gregg Marx. Ellen didn't answer but Scott said what was he suppose to do...play the part his way because he couldn't control anything else. It's obvious he wasn't happy with what became of ATWT and its demise. I'm sure he would've said much more had Alan not changed the subject.

Edited May 30, 2020 by Soapsuds

[gimmetoo]

 

One of SEVERAL questions Ellen just flat outed chose not to respond to...

 

[BetterForgotten]

Maybe Ellen resented being stuck on soaps. She tried twice to have a go at it in Hollywood (when she left GL and after her first stint on ATWT) and neither attempt panned out that well for her...