I thought I'd open since it's been a week. It still doesn't seem real.

On 9/21/2023 at 10:11 AM, MarlandFan said:

It's no surprise why the show hit #2 in the ratings; ATWT was running on all cylinders during the spring/summer/fall of 1990. Andy's alcoholism reached it's climax with him going to jail for hitting Lien while driving drunk. That story (in part) caused Bob's dissatisfaction with his marriage and he slept with Susan which blew-up his marriage to Kim. The Margo/Casey right-to-die story was gripping and emotional.  These and other stories (Julie marries Caleb then sleeps with Holden, Shannon's "death", Duke's paternity and Lucinda's machinations), helped ATWT win it's 2nd Emmy for Best Show that year.  Plus - Jimmy Wlcek was super hot (still is!) and seemed to be shirtless throughout most of that 1990 summer (thank you ATWT producers). 

Yea..it's funny, that is when I started tuning out...morose characters in morose storylines...all the fun of the first year of Marland died on the vine. ATWT for the rest of Marland's run was a slog to get through.  I don't mind a heavy storyline but it has to be balanced....and poor Woleck was just Holden 2.0 thought looking waaayy gayer..now he and would definitely have helped Hank get over "Charles" and THAT I would have tuned into see.."Andy, I don't really care about your whining, I got to go meet my dyed blonde muscle boy for some fun!" 

Meanwhile GL had a balance of fun and heavy stories, family, etc and it had way lower ratings...go to show, you never can tell. 

💘

33 years ago:

 

 

There's one I've never seen. Who's the blond?

4 hours ago, Vee said:

There's one I've never seen. Who's the blond?

James Wlcek. He played a character by the name of Linc Lafferty. There’s a connection to this character and a character that was portrayed by Sharon Case, named Debbie Simon.

5 hours ago, Vee said:

There's one I've never seen. Who's the blond?

Judi Evans.

On 10/4/2023 at 11:52 PM, soapfan770 said:

33 years ago:

 

 

First mistake Marland made was trying to keep Lily/Holden a thing when Heather R and Jon H did not have chemistry at all.  

Well, tbh, Rattray didn't have romantic chem with anyone. I think he had to at least try to manufacture Lily/Holden chem, given the years of investment the show had in them. Granted, it was his fault ATWT was so heavily invested in Holden and Lily as a young lead couple, but still. It's not like Rosanna and Hutch were burning down the house.

1 hour ago, P.J. said:

Well, tbh, Rattray didn't have romantic chem with anyone. I think he had to at least try to manufacture Lily/Holden chem, given the years of investment the show had in them. Granted, it was his fault ATWT was so heavily invested in Holden and Lily as a young lead couple, but still. It's not like Rosanna and Hutch were burning down the house.

I think that period of time had some of the strongest Lily/Holden stories in terms of writing (Angel's struggles, the Walsh takeover, Lily's miscarriage, The Truth About Aaron). Martha and Jon had more chemistry, but I never thought most of their stories together were that interesting, even with Marland there. 

(I'm one of the few who never understood why Lily would choose Holden over Dusty)

7 hours ago, DRW50 said:

I think that period of time had some of the strongest Lily/Holden stories in terms of writing (Angel's struggles, the Walsh takeover, Lily's miscarriage, The Truth About Aaron). Martha and Jon had more chemistry, but I never thought most of their stories together were that interesting, even with Marland there. 

(I'm one of the few who never understood why Lily would choose Holden over Dusty)

You are definitely not alone in that regard, my friend. I am right there with you.

From a dramatic perspective, it looked like the primary soap trope of the “poor little rich girl” finds an irresistible attraction to the lower-income older, good looking guy from the margins of farm country (Luther’s Corner). Although, the writing chose to promptly forget that Dusty wasn’t exactly embedded in elite circles either. In fact, Dusty spent most of his formative years in deep instability, not even really having a stable home until John Dixon became his guardian. I wished that the writing had kept some of that fiery temperament that Dusty had  when he and Lily had first met but somehow, by the time that Lucinda’s biological daughter Sierra entered the landscape, Dusty had been made a stabilizing presence in Lily’s life to counteract the upheaval of Lily’s personal life. Then when Holden entered the canvas, the writing seemed to imbue his personality with many of the personality traits that once belonged to Dusty (restlessness, longing for something intangible, etc.), even though Holden was older and presumably more mature than Dusty.

 I do think though that had Brian Bloom remained on the show (although one cannot blame Bloom for doing what other popular soap actors did at the same time-exercise their rights to pursue other opportunities), there probably would have been many more romantic turns with Lily and Dusty, for the simple fact that Lily never could make up her mind where a romantic relationship between her and Dusty or her and Holden were concerned.

1 hour ago, DramatistDreamer said:

I do think though that had Brian Bloom remained on the show (although one cannot blame Bloom for doing what other popular soap actors did at the same time-exercise their rights to pursue other opportunities), there probably would have been many more romantic turns with Lily and Dusty, for the simple fact that Lily never could make up her mind where a romantic relationship between her and Dusty or her and Holden were concerned.

agreed! that would have been something to see,

1 hour ago, DramatistDreamer said:

You are definitely not alone in that regard, my friend. I am right there with you.

From a dramatic perspective, it looked like the primary soap trope of the “poor little rich girl” finds an irresistible attraction to the lower-income older, good looking guy from the margins of farm country (Luther’s Corner). Although, the writing chose to promptly forget that Dusty wasn’t exactly embedded in elite circles either. In fact, Dusty spent most of his formative years in deep instability, not even really having a stable home until John Dixon became his guardian. I wished that the writing had kept some of that fiery temperament that Dusty had  when he and Lily had first met but somehow, by the time that Lucinda’s biological daughter Sierra entered the landscape, Dusty had been made a stabilizing presence in Lily’s life to counteract the upheaval of Lily’s personal life. Then when Holden entered the canvas, the writing seemed to imbue his personality with many of the personality traits that once belonged to Dusty (restlessness, longing for something intangible, etc.), even though Holden was older and presumably more mature than Dusty.

 I do think though that had Brian Bloom remained on the show (although one cannot blame Bloom for doing what other popular soap actors did at the same time-exercise their rights to pursue other opportunities), there probably would have been many more romantic turns with Lily and Dusty, for the simple fact that Lily never could make up her mind where a romantic relationship between her and Dusty or her and Holden were concerned.

There were some episodes of 1985 before Marland took over... where Lily/Dusty had that Romeo/Juliet type of situation with Lucinda not approving of him and Shannon/Sierra being the voice of reason for both Lily and Dusty.    It was a good story already and would have been an interesting way to start pairing Lucinda and John as a couple down the road.

I much preferred Heather R's Lily over Martha's Lily... though the period between 1993 and 1997 were good years for Martha playing Lily.

13 hours ago, DRW50 said:

I think that period of time had some of the strongest Lily/Holden stories in terms of writing (Angel's struggles, the Walsh takeover, Lily's miscarriage, The Truth About Aaron). Martha and Jon had more chemistry, but I never thought most of their stories together were that interesting, even with Marland there. 

(I'm one of the few who never understood why Lily would choose Holden over Dusty)

I agree, it was stronger writing, and I'd actually argue the writing shone more because it wasn't Byrne in the role. I think DM had a huge blind spot where MB was concerned, and stories usually tilted to "fix" things to make Lily's life easier. I mean, the Snyders had to "accept" Josh so Lily could get to know her father. 

Rattray at least tried to be more mature in the role. Byrne would inevitably end up stomping and yell-crying through emotional scenes.

On 10/6/2023 at 10:01 AM, DramatistDreamer said:

James Wlcek. He played a character by the name of Linc Lafferty. There’s a connection to this character and a character that was portrayed by Sharon Case, named Debbie Simon.

Linc was such a convoluted character it’s hard to remember his full history as he was all over the place for years. He tangled with Lily, had a very messy history with Julie, and later had affairs with Connor and Debbie. Lonnie McCullough was playing Linc when Linc was involved with Sharon Case’s Debbie and subsequently murdered by her father Ned.

3 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

I much preferred Heather R's Lily over Martha's Lily... though the period between 1993 and 1997 were good years for Martha playing Lily.

Agreed. My opinion on Heather has changed over the years. Back then I couldn’t stand her but to see the material again I’ve softened a lot on Heather’s portrayal. Unfortunately the breaking point for me is how much whining Lily did by the fall of 1992 into very early 1993. MB could’ve gotten away with it but not HR. Major yikes. 

I enjoyed those Lily years as well, mainly because I preferred Lily and Damian together but the triangle with Holden was well played, with Holden’s return being the best thing for Lily at a chaotic time for her. 

4 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

There were some episodes of 1985 before Marland took over... where Lily/Dusty had that Romeo/Juliet type of situation with Lucinda not approving of him and Shannon/Sierra being the voice of reason for both Lily and Dusty.    It was a good story already and would have been an interesting way to start pairing Lucinda and John as a couple down the road.

I much preferred Heather R's Lily over Martha's Lily... though the period between 1993 and 1997 were good years for Martha playing Lily.

Yeah, but Dusty had already begun the maturation process even before Marland took over.  Do you remember the scenes in 1983 where Dusty raged and basically destroyed John’s lab? Even by the next year, he had considerably calmed down from that volatile stage and started to mature. 
Lucinda didn’t approve of Dusty and Lily back then primarily because she thought Lily was too young to be so close to a boy she was obviously attracted to and feared for the worst if Lily and Dusty got too close. Once Lily became attracted to Holden, Dusty the minor became the safer alternative in comparison to an adult man in Holden. John Dixon, on the other hand, worried that Lily’s instability would lure Dusty into a sexual situation that they couldn’t easily extricate themselves from. He and Lucinda argued about it. Once Dusty and Lily were living together, Lucinda admitted that she didn’t approve, although she liked Dusty.

Edited October 7, 20232 yr by DramatistDreamer