As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[Soapsuds]

It's so sad we lost Lisa. I would've loved to hear Lisa talk about her time on GL and ATWT. Alan had a tentative time scheduled to chat with her and unfortunately it didn't happen. The stories she would've told about working with Marland would have been amazing.

[Mitch64]

I thought the first guy was hot...and then they go to kind of a typical soap villain, sleazy, mustache twirling. 

 

Original recipe Iva was different then Nola.. more edgy (Nola at her worst was just a girl who wanted more and knew how to manipulate to get it) more mature, and more jaded (Nola would never be jaded as she was a dreamer...which was why her return to GL failed, Nola would never be a lonesome looser depressed by Quint's affair..she would fight the good fight to get him back and if she lost she would tell him to go f*ck himself..that's why I would have just had Quint disappear presumed dead so Nola could move back to SF without him) Iva was a fighter but one more...tired then Nola would ever be. I never understood why they just made her a depressed bore. 

I see Liaison was a producer during this time...(again, didn't he learn something from working on Marland's ATWT) and I know he brought Brown to GL, so maybe Nola sad sack ways was something he wanted and Brown naturally went to after Iva. 

Edited November 8, 2023 by Mitch64

[Vee]

Larry Pine is definitely doing Trump as Tad No. Whatever. He is indeed hysterical in the role.

[DramatistDreamer]

Yes, when I rewatched those episodes as an adult about a decade ago, it was so very clear that Tad was Trump. From the real estate business that had been handed down to him to the nasty attitude and lascivious behavior to the sexual assault and predatory conduct, even the styling of Larry Pine’s version was full-on Trumpian.

My guess is, that made it much easier to kill off the character.

[DramatistDreamer]

From a writing perspective, I don’t think Marland wanted to risk viewers finding a way to fall for the character. He obviously wasn’t meant to be long term and soap fans had a unsavory habit of falling for characters who had committed heinous acts, especially if they were good looking, and sometimes in cases where the character wasn’t even conventionally good looking. 
Marland may have wanted to ensure that there were no letters, no phone calls, no requests for meetings with the executives at P&G, requesting that he write a way for the character to stick around. Also, they obviously had plans to bring back Anthony Hererra’s James Stenbeck back to the canvas at some point so, having two bad guys on the canvas would have been too much. And as attractive as the first Tad was, no writer, no matter how skilled is going to keep him on the canvas with Anthony Herrera available. I guess they could have “disappeared” Tad for awhile and brought him back but I think Marland must have decided that a murder mystery would have been more entertaining.

[China Jones]

This is the same man that played Peter Love #1 on Another World, right? Yes, he was attractive! I thought he was doing a fine job there, so I was surprised when he was replaced. Did he leave AW on his own or did he get fired?

[P.J.]

Thanks for posting! I doubt I ever saw that, given I was probably in school. I had read about Iva not getting a warm reception from Emma, but YIKES.

My guess would be Iva lost her spunk to be a direct contrast to Lucinda and thus Lily's "best mom/friend". 

Oh, I got lost down a youtube rabbit hole, and saw Kim give Seth true smoke for falling for Betsy. DAMN. Seth Snyder, the most empathetic,  zero attitude guy ever in Oakdale, got a "kiddo" speech from Kim, who slept with her sister's husband. I am flabbergasted.

[DramatistDreamer]

Honestly, I thought Kim giving Seth the business was more about lingering feelings for how he hurt Frannie and yes, with a bit of concern/confusion about how seemingly quickly he’d moved on from Frannie, then Sabrina and then Betsy. If anything, her situation was probably more comparable to when Seth slept with Sabrina while still engaged to Frannie. I thought those feelings were likely all bundled up together.

There is some cognitive dissonance on Kim’s part, of course but that was probably a very human realistic, far from perfect side of Kim.

Edited November 10, 2023 by DramatistDreamer

[P.J.]

In a strange coincidence, I also happened upon a Susan/Kim fight (which must have been early in Marie Masters' return) where Susan brings up Kim's acquiring daughters through marriage (Betsy and then Frannie) and then winding up with Bob's illegitimate child back in her life. 

I guess I had kind of forgotten how protective Kim could be of her kids. 

[DeliaIrisFan]

Thank you!

[Soaplovers]

I think Iva kept her drive and quirky/youthful fashion look until the pitchfork scene where she revealed to Lily that Rod/Josh was her dad and that she was raped.  After that happened, it seemed as though Lisa B and Marland both became intent on making Iva this sad put upon victim.

I also wonder if perhaps when Ellie was introduced in 1988 that Marland decided to difuse Iva's early personality and put that into the Ellie character.

[DeliaIrisFan]

Watching that episode when Iva came home (thank you again for the link, @MarlandFan) right after binging everything else I could find on YouTube from the Doug Cummings saga made me wonder - was Iva a red herring in Marie's murder/Kim's stalker mystery at some point?  When Emma asked Iva where she had been all those years, I caught that she listed a city in Colorado (Denver?), where Doug took Frannie and Kim hostage, as well as New Haven, where Marie claimed she was leaving town to go back.

Of course, Lucinda was also getting mysterious phone calls at the time.  I'm not sure how obvious it was that Iva was responsible, and/or if it might have seemed possible that the same person was calling Kim and Lucinda.  And in one of Meg's early scenes arguing with Emma, she asked obnoxiously, "After all these years, how do you even know she's really Iva?"

Again, I'd be fascinated to see how all those mysteries (and everything else at the time) played out alongside each other, day to day.

[P.J.]

I can't speak to whether Iva was a red herring in Marie's murder, but I distinctly recall we were led to believe it was Shannon calling Lucinda re: Lily.

[DeliaIrisFan]

Ah.  Which reminds me, at some point just before (or possibly during?) Kim's stalker story, she was attacked by some thug(s) who were after the jewels Shannon and Earl were smuggling?  Or at least Shannon blamed herself when she confessed her real identity, but maybe she was mistaken and Doug or Marsha was responsible for whatever happened to Kim that time as well?  Again, I'd be really curious to see how all those story threads gelled.

Edited November 11, 2023 by DeliaIrisFan

[DramatistDreamer]

From what I can recall, Lisa seemed to be very suspicious of John Dixon in the case of Kim’s stalker. There was a Christmas card that was sent to Kim that aroused suspicion and unease and appparently, John sent a similar card? I am think, either they all purchased their greeting cards from the same places or it was those holiday greeting cards that came in a pack that were somewhat generic and likely looked a lot alike.

In terms of the Marie Kovacs murder, there seemed to be a few would be suspects but the main suspect was Kevin Gibson, Frannie’s soon to be ex-boyfriend, who was so exasperated by the antics of Marie that he angrily declared in a room full of people, that he could just choke her.