As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[Brolden]

I was actually waiting for this in the late 2000s. There was an episode in 2000, after David Stenbeck died, where he addressed the five women invited to his funeral - Denise, Emily, Julia, Lily and Molly - by pre-recorded video. In that video, he said that he'd organized that Hope would receive a letter once she turned 18, revealing that Denise had sold her to him as a baby. By the end of the show, Faith (who was obviously of the same age as Hope) was finally approaching the age of 18, so I always imagined Hope would be brought back, asking to live with her grandparents as she was upset with her mother. Obviously, even if the show had continued, it would have been a long shot for the writers at that time to even remember that.

It's a shame, because I think those long-term set-ups are one of the beautiful things about soaps, something that's really possible in no other medium, but if they are not followed up on they just go to waste.

[Contessa Donatella]

Talking about the Dobsons, do y'all think it was problematic because they did not want to be there? That was when P&G asked them to switch shows with Marland & they were happy at GL & they didn't want to go to ATWT but they felt they had no choice. Y'all may have already covered this. If so sorry to duplicate. 

[DramatistDreamer]

On this day in 1986, it was the apex of a veritable sweeps week with this episode.

 

[Soapsuds]

Wow!

37 years ago today.

Some great soapy soap.

[DramatistDreamer]

That was a humdinger of an episode, wasn’t it @Soapsuds?  I think I did set the VCR to record the episode but I also remember walking really fast after getting off the school bus, (which was a block away from my house) so that could catch whatever I could in real time of the episode (probably the last few minutes). Then, in the evening I could watch from the beginning. 

[Soapsuds]

I had to watch the tape. I didn't get out of school until after GL was over.  I recorded all the CBS soaps. First thing I did was drop the backpack and get a snack and start watching my tape. I'm glad to have this episode on DVD from the release back in 2012. How I wish more episodes had been released on DVD. I bought all the DVD releases that were released.

[DeliaIrisFan]

Thank you.  November 11 must be the one I was thinking of, but I can't find it on YouTube now.

[NothinButAttitude]

The more I bounce around '85/'86, the more I grow annoyed with Steve again. When I watch pre-'85, Steve isn't as annoying/brutish. But God he is unbearable anytime Betsy interacts with Craig. I get that Craig was a turd, but he needs to let go. 

And I need to find someone who has the Doug Cummings trial episodes in its entirety! It is killing me to have that missing gap that I cannot watch. 

[MarlandFan]

 

[Mitch64]

I remember watching it in the student union in between classes (the last half) back in the day where the three TV lounges were tuned to different networks...this was before spoilers and the room went into an uproar with James' now soap iconic line. This football player LOVED ATWT and GL and he was screaming "James f*cking Stenbeck..Barbara girl look out!!!" The show was so good then..still a little campy and fun. I love Margo browbeating Lisa but it doesn't seem to be a Lisa thing to just give in so easy. 

[MarlandFan]

Marland was so confident in his storytelling abilities during his first year.  All of 1986 felt like one long, fully-planned-out novel.  Oftentimes, soaps felt like they were being written "off the cuff" (which many of them were); reactive, inconsistent, with uneven pacing.  ATWT's 1986 excelled, in part, because Marland came prepared with a full year (or two) of story AND he was apparently given total (or near-total) control of the show's direction.  Marland's 1986 was (and is, thanks to those who were smart enough to videotape episodes and later share them on YouTube) a high watermark in all of soap history.

[DramatistDreamer]

That sounds like so much fun! By the time I got to college in the 90s, daytime soaps no longer inspired that type of enthusiasm. It was all about the sleazy talk shows by then.

This is pretty much how today’s soap operas are written.

Marland belonged to that school of writing that composed story projections that went out at least a year or more. From the accounts of actors who worked with him, he wrote out the story projections nearly two years out. From what I can glean, he left room for flexibility, so that he could make adjustments here and there, which is what one should do, you want to leave room to explore the unforeseen possibilities that crop up. When you put out something off the cuff, it’s hard to explain, let alone backtrack if it goes awry. I have been in screenwriting workshops where writers got trapped that way and had to scrap their entire idea. When you’re in the midst of writing a continuing story, good luck with that!

[MarlandFan]

Yes - Marland was definitely facile with his plotting, even in the very structured 1986.  For example, he certainly did not expect actor Don MacLaughlin to die and yet he was able to incorporate Chris's death seamlessly in the overall storytelling.  And the recast of Tad Channing leads me to believe that he quickly revamped the original story to create a Who-Done-It.  And there has always been the "rumor" that he originally intended to put Holden with Emily instead of Lily, and that when he realized the chemistry and story potential he had with a Holden/Lily pairing, he quickly resolved the incest issue by suddenly making Iva adopted.  

[Mitch64]

Iva's return...when she had some fire and edge and wasn't perpetually depressed and depressing. They even dressed her differently. I wonder why Marland chose that path for Iva..she was much more fun as a Snyder outsider with an edge. 

[DramatistDreamer]

Although I thought Larry Pine was hilariously venal, I did find the original actor intriguing, maybe because the contrast of this good looking, somewhat charismatic guy who was an otherwise awful human being. I was interested in what his arc would be and honestly, I could see how Iva and Denise could be attracted to a Tad Channing that looked like him. With Larry Pine’s Tad being so obviously evil, I had a hard time figuring out what on earth Iva (even with low-esteem issues) and Denise (hungry for opportunity) could ever have seen in Tad.

Maybe Lisa Brown wanted a clearer contrast to her GL character, Nola who had been known for being edgy. Brown was a known B’way performer and may have had other opportunities and honestly, I can see her being bored with portraying any character too similar to the last one she played the last time they worked together so, perhaps that character shift got her to stay on the show?