As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[Soapsuds]

How dare you disrespect Connor. She was a great character. I liked Linc as well. I didn't care for Rosanna.

 

Marland created all of them but didn't write the Kasanoffs. He had already passed by then.

[VanessaReardon]

It’s ridiculous to post on here old ATWT episodes. We all have access to youtube. 

[Bill Bauer]

 

 

As much as I love the Hughes family, I thought they were always kind of boring and stuffy from the very beginning when compared to other soap families. I much preferred the Bauers and Hortons. 

[Mitch]

Lord, I hated boring, hook nosed Connor! Just what we need, another cold business woman who of course, is getting it on with the steroid muscle boy in tight jeans.  Okay Marland, you like young guys in tight jeans..geez!

 

What I hated was all of these influx of characters who were Lucinda's siblings, step siblings, whatever the hell they were. I love that Hubbard felt that Marland never wrote for her..actors egos are a bitch aint they?

Agreed, and I grew up on the Hughes family..(my quiet nap time was during "World Turns" so my mom could watch her show in peace, so Hastings, Fulton and Wagner's voices were always..comfort food for the ears...how many times had I heard..."Now Lisa dear...")

[Soapsuds]

ART(Connor) was very popular with the fans(fan favorite).

[All My Shadows]

I reread the original ATWT (or...ATET) bible last night, and I wonder if stuffy was what Irna was going for with the Hughes family in the beginning. The basic premise was to delve a little deeper into what seemed to be a cookie cutter 50s suburban family to see that there was less love there than what you'd imagine. The family really only loved each other in pairs - Chris and Nancy, Penny and Don, and Bob and Grandpa. Chris and Nancy had tension with their older children, and there was tension between Nancy and Edith, and over at the Lowells', there was tension between Jim and the Judge, between Jim and Claire, and between Ellen and both her parents. It's a wonder that ATWT somehow became known as a warm family soap when for so much of the beginning, it was the opposite.

I remember last year I wrote a post comparing the early Hughes family with the early Bauer family, and I said it was "The Hugheses against the world" and "The Bauers against each other," and I think I might have missed the mark there. The Bauers were more emotionally extreme. When the drama was on, the drama was ON, but when the love was there, it was THERE. The Hugheses were more subdued.

[Soaplovers]

The Hughes family seemed more repressed and steeped in high expectations..same as the Lowell family in the early years..and even in the 80s, the show seemed more muted even with the glam turned up.

 

I think it was @Khanwho said a Pam long/douglas Marland team up would have worked..and I kind of agree. 

 

And Marland's 1st year at ATWT was strong due to him carrying on the plots started by Bledsoe Horgan.  She had a more energetic pace to her writing and plotting than he did.  

 

And I do think I see why Hubbard didn't think Marland wrote for her.  He seemed to prop his Snyder family pets at the expense of Lucinda.  His writing tended to slant Lucinda as 'bad' and the Snyder's as 'good' in terms of Lily.  Pre Marland, Lucinda/Lily had a realistic mother and daughter relationship...fought but loved one another.  During the Marland era, Lily was written as barely tolerating Lucinda with her idealized version of the Snyder's as the perfect family.  Later writers did make Lily and Lucinda more realistic as mom/daughter..imho

[Khan]

 

Well, I know I wasn't the FIRST one to suggest this pairing, but I did agree that the two complimented each other; and I still think that to be the case.  (That is, if Douglas Marland was ever open to collaboration on that level, which I doubt, lol.)

 

I think it comes down to producers.  Marland's best work seemed to happen under EP's (Robert Calhoun, Gloria Monty, even Allen Potter) who saw the potential in, and amplified the rest of the production to match, the writing, thereby creating a sense of energy and vibrancy that other producers (Joe Stuart and ESPECIALLY Laurie Caso) couldn't.

 

Now, imagine, for the moment, Douglas Marland working with the likes of JFP. 

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[danfling]

My late mother watched As the World Turns from the beginning.   She hated Nancy during the early years.   She said that Nancy was downright mean to Penny.   (She blamed Penny someway for Susan's drowning.)   She loved it when Aunt Edie would periodically return to the show (I say "periodically," but I think that it may have only been once.)  She did like Pa and Judge Hughes.

 

I know that Helen Wagner was written off as Nancy during the first year.  I think that she played Nancy as a too mean character.   Then Irna Phillips wanted her back.  I guess that Ms. Wagner then toned down the character.

[Bill Bauer]

 

Very minor point but Susan Hughes didn't drown. She was struck by lightening while swimming which is what killed her. 

[Khan]

You know, I never understood that part of the Hugheses' backstory.  Susan Hughes was struck by lightning while swimming?  Was the lightning some freak occurrence?  What was she doing swimming during a storm anyway?

[Bill Bauer]

 

 

Yeah, it was a freak accident. Susan was a child so she probably didn't know how dangerous it was? 

[Khan]

Oooh, that would have been a GREAT opportunity to revisit ATWT history!  What if Susan (Hughes, not Stewart) had NOT died in that manner?  What if that had been a "cover story" to hide the truth -- like, she was killed by someone (a family member?  Maybe the long-forgotten uncle, John?) who attempted to molest her or something?

[All My Shadows]

The story bible says that Susan was 14 when she jumped into the high school pool and suffered a fatal concussion. I'm assuming that point must have changed by the time the show got on the air.

 

The Helen Wagner firing story always gets simplified as Irna just didn't like the way Helen poured coffee, but I wouldn't be surprised if Irna, in true fashion, had major issues with Helen's portrayal and saw the coffee pouring as the last straw.

[EricMontreal22]

Ha, if he ever was open to it, surely his time at Loving changed all that...  (As the pre-Marland bible makes clear, as well as Nixon's notes during the first year, Agnes Nixon was extremely involved in the overall plotting and somehow I doubt that even if it had been a monster hit in its first year, Marland would have happily stuck around

). 

Edited June 11, 2020 by EricMontreal22