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edgeofnik

By edgeofnik
in DTS: Cancelled Soaps

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Fevuh Proficient

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I've always thought this as well.  There should have been someone to be friends with James, kind of like Maureen and Roger on GL.  James would have been a great character to redeem and I think didn't get the chance - he was always just the villain.  

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DramatistDreamer Grand Master

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He tried to kill a plane full of people, that's pretty hard to come back from, in terms of redemption.

 

The problem is that what made James such an intriguing figure was the fact that he was so singular, he thought he was smarter and better than anyone and that his way was the only way. 

Behind the power grabs, deep down, Roger wanted others' approval. James wanted power and he was convinced that those closest to him, Paul and Emily, would see that he was right, if only they would listen and see things his way. As brutish as Roger could be (rape etc.), I don't see him pinning a fake murder on Holly and letting her be imprisoned, the way James did with Barbara, or Roger torturing Holly the same way James did to Barbara. James claimed that he loved Paul but his love manifested itself as control and dominance. Also, I just cannot see James genuinely confiding in anyone-- the moment he starts pouring his heart out to someone, that intrigue is gone.

 

One thing that I appreciated about ATWT, until the wheels fell, that is-- they let villains go when it was their time to go. For the most part, when someone had done something truly heinous, like, kill maliciously someone--they had to go. James was somewhat of an exception, and I still think the mistake was bringing back the character after he was shot by Paul in 1989.

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DRW50 Grand Master

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Marland also chose to emphasize seedier aspects of James that didn't seem to be there before him (and weren't after, I believe), like his preying on underage girls. There's a steady journey of sickness and depravity James takes from 1986 to 1989, followed by Marland going out of his way to make it clear to viewers that James really was dead (his corpse shown on the floor for an extended period, an autopsy being done, etc.). 

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Roger could be funny also.  I remember one of the funniest scenes was Roger with Amanda sitting on the couch in the Spaulding mansion.  Annie had escaped from a mental facility or jail (don't remember which)....but they were sitting on the couch at the mansion eating a bowl of cashews.  Alan runs in frantic...have either of you seen Annie!?  Have you seen ANNIE!?  Amanda raised the bowl toward Alan and Roger and she said, "Nuts?" I remember my family watching and we died laughing...

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DramatistDreamer Grand Master

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Yeah, James, Doug Cummings and Tad Channing were meant to stay dead and gone. I think, in his way, Marland might have been pushing against the romanticization of the charismatic villain that had taken hold of soaps in the 80s. You can call it a somewhat Puritanical view, but this is probably why when characters schemed and engaged in wrongdoing on ATWT, they usually paid such a hefty price. This wasn't just an occurrence in Marland's ATWT, Craig's going to prison and becoming a parolee preceded Marland's tenure, so obviously, there was something in the show's DNA that saw the long-term villain that always got away with wreaking havoc on the rest of the town without ever really paying the price, as anathema to the storytelling. In addition to those villains who were killed off and meant to stay that way, Marsha Talbot and Denise Darcy were meant to be incarcerated. Denise was the only possible redemption story I could see happening out of that entire bunch--her, they should have brought back, after she served her murder sentence by the late 90s, especially seeing that the show really needed a boost at that time.

 

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Mitch Enthusiast

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Ha..ha..."Now dear..you only know me as a caring grandmother but I once was hard core and took no [!@#$%^&*]. Now, do me and the rest of the women in town a favor and arrange..an accident for a certain female doctor with incredibly low morals...a biscuit with your coffee?"

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