As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[Reverend Ruthledge]

No, I know it was during the Whit McColl mystery because I started watching right after he was killed and I clearly remember not knowing who Lisa was and why she was snooping but being intrigued by it. By the time Tad Channing came around, I had been watching regular for a long while. I'm sure she snooped in a closet more than once. LOL.

[Mitch64]

Your right, as I was typing that..it didn't seem very Marlandish to have Lisa snooping around for laughs like Lucy Ricardo but you never know.

 

 

[Reverend Ruthledge]

Yep. It was very cartoonish but I was young so it appealed to me at the time. 

[Mitch64]

No apologies..I LOVED that time right before Marland...the show was going in the right direction, putting Kim and Bob together as the tentpoles, bringing back Nancy and Chris...etc, but it still was fun, campy and more lighthearted and "messy" then Marland's work. That is most likely why I enjoyed Marland's first year the best, he was working tieing up old storylines and working with the "feel" of the show at the time. After that it became a bit of a depressing 'slog" (oh look, another "whos' the daddy story, oh..formerly fun and adventurous Margo gets raped, oh she mercy kills her step dad...and stay depressing! Oh here comes unpleasant version of Tom")

Edited November 13, 2024 by Mitch64

[P.J.]

I will never understand casting Scott Holmes as Tom. Never.

[DRW50]

I think he hits his stride when Ellen Dolan is brought in as Margo and they have a few good years (89-92 or so) as a married couple juggling work, kids and crises. He has no real chemistry with HBS though, which makes his first few years in the role awkward (not even getting into the relationship with Shannon which was just there to stall out time for both characters).

Marland did a lot for the show over a much longer period of time, but I do miss how much looser the show felt in the six months or so before his arrival, while still being strong in quality. And Margo and Tom are just never the same after he arrives.

[P.J.]

I just can't believe that from all the East Coast, that's the best Betty Rea could find. I really didn't feel he had romantic chemistry with anyone. Neither of Tom's parents were that boring either.

[Soapsuds]

Didn't HBS say in interviews that she helped pic SH as Tom?

[P.J.]

HBS tended to get on my nerves as Margo, so I can't recall ever reading any interview of hers. If that's the case, I wouldn't call casting her forte. 

[Mitch64]

He didn't have chemistry with ANYONE!  A major problem is if you can't conjure chemistry with Don Hastings..who had chemistry with the weird beaded curtains in the Mona Lisa, and he is your dad. The same with Fulton and Lisa , who he just seemed to nag and be annoyed with, (Deas would throw up his hands and laugh at her, Marx acted sweet and caring as he did with everyone but Holmes just glowered.) He had no chemistry with his kids, his brother..and really, you go from Marx, sex on a stick nice guy to short, glowering doom Tom?

The rumor was that Sheffer wanted to recast him as Tom (for once I agree with him) but MADD wouldn't let him. I always thought DAM from GL could have played a nice guy and made him fun and interesting, but then, I don't know how he would work with Doom Margo played by a sour Dolan.

Edited November 14, 2024 by Mitch64

[Reverend Ruthledge]

Tom was played by so many people who all played him differently that it was really hard to pinpoint the character. He was like 20 different characters. I thought Holmes played him too petulant. It was weird watching a man well into his middle age years throwing tantrums. I never warmed to his version of Tom even though he played the character the longest. 

[Mitch64]

Your right..there was uptight lawyer Tom, played by Tom Tammi (who I though would make an interesting Alan Spaulding) who then morphed into "hippie" Tom (who I thought was an interesting combo of Lisa and Bob) then you have warm, clean cut, but not uptight Greg Marx (my personal fave but then I thought he was hot) to glowering, angry, petulant Tom with Holmes.

Someone had a funny idea for Tom and Margo's annivesary episode to start with Deas and Colin, move to Marx and HBS and then end with Holmes and Dolan, with no explanation or comment from the characters, but I think it would really point out how terrible Holmes and Dolan were in their roles.

[DRW50]

GH did this with Carly at one point. I think it would have worked if they wrote Dolan and Holmes in a lighter way (as they did in the early '90s) rather than how loud and cold they became by the mid/late '90s.

[Reverend Ruthledge]

My personal favorite Tom was the rebellious, anti-establishment young adult Tom in the late 60s. He was a jerk but really was a great tool to shake up the conservative, stuffy Hughes family at the time. Maybe not the most likable Tom but, in my opinion, the most interesting. 

[P.J.]

The irony is---while I know I watched Deas and Marx, it's really Holmes I remember in the role. 

I liked Dolan more as Margo. But that's about her chemistry elsewhere on the canvas. I loved her friendship with Hal (and later Jack) and in cop mode.