As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[Soapsuds]

The ending sucked. It's kind of late for Passanante to regret her decision. She and Goutman totally destroyed the show at the end.

[DRW50]

I hope the people at DC who tried to make sure we all knew how wonderful decisions like bury your gays and no returns were read that interview. Too little, too late. 

I wasn't even that into Luke/Reid (Reid was more interesting on his own) but the story was trite and hollow. I still remember James Rehborn being brought in as some kind of chess-playing homophobic dad for a day. What better way to show the fall in quality from Marland to then.

[Mitch64]

I thought Luke/Reid was way more interesting then Luke, and that other guy, who couldn't act, but agree that Reid was more interesting on his own..the weakness was Luke, who was as annoying in his "perfectness" as his mommy was, but also the actor was annoying on his own. MB was talented enough to make Lily sometimes sympathetic while being whiny and spoiled an having everyone worrying over her, this actor could not.

But how interesting it would have been if Reid was created earlier in the shows run, to have a gay character who was smart, professional, arrogant and shady...like John, not a villain, not an anti-hero (on soaps they all have to wear leather and drive a bike) and not a hero.

[Khan]

ICAM!!  

[Chris B]

I always had a problem with Reid because I felt he highlighted the shows lack of respect for it's history in those later years. You have Elena Goode showing up as a retcon daughter of Rose when she would've been perfectly cast as Denise and Andy's daughter Hope. Then with Reid, you basically bring him on with all these shades of John, but you make him a new character instead of making him MJ, John and Iva's child. 

I'm not saying everybody has to be connected to a core family but sometimes it just makes so much sense. And I do understand that Luke and MJ couldn't be paired but they could've still played a triangle with Noah in the middle.

[wonderwoman1951]

this was especially true in the final years of ‘world turns. 

can’t remember where i saw this, but it was a very funny, and sadly true, discussion of “15 years of faux family ties and squandered opportunities.” 

[P.J.]

Reid could have been John's nephew. I think he was a little too old to be MJ. 

Nearly all the problem with Luke was Van Hansis' lackluster acting. The plot point writing didn't help, but he couldn't have made Shakespeare work.

[Reverend Ruthledge]

I'm afraid I'd have to agree with this. I never liked Van Hansis nor his acting. His Luke was always a snot and very unlikable to me. 

[DRW50]

I don't think Van is a good actor, but I never thought he was the problem with most of his material. Most of it was just kind of ass. Even much better actors by the last years of the show were not able to do a lot with what they were given.

I get the idea of making Reid related to John, but I was fine with him being a brand new character with no ties to anyone else. The only reason John came back was just because Larry wanted to help send Liz Hubbard off, so they wouldn't have had much interaction anyway. And clearly Goutman had no interest in bringing Iva back in those last years.

[P.J.]

True Dat. Using her to sell the loudmouth Rose felt like more of an obligation than trying to give depth to the story. 

I actually liked Reid and didn't mind that he wasn't related to anyone (that we knew of, no doubt if the show had continued, we would've found out he was related to someone...most people were.)  

[Vee]

I think it's awful Lisa Brown didn't get much more to do at her soaps before the end, and before the end of her life (I would've killed to see her anywhere, but particularly on OLTL or AMC 2.0). I've always loved her work but watching her now regularly as I plow through the Marland years she is just so, so consistent and powerful. And frankly both things are equally important. There is never a moment without integrity.

[Mitch64]

I could not stand Hansis or Luke. But he was the token gay, the gay audience was so desperate for representation that they pushed "Nuke" as if they werent the dullest couple on the face of the earth (like with Otalia on GL...) I also think they kept him around as he was totally bland and sexless..I never saw any passion between him and the first guy (granted, he was an uncharismatic block of wood) and any sparks were totally generated by the Reid actor. Too bad they didnt make Casey bi, and if Reid was somehow related to John, reignite the Hughes/Dixon tension..(and of course they gay audience would go nuts over the Casey actor shirtless.) and I could totally see Scott Holmes  Tom as a homophobe Dad with Bob and Kim being supportive and especially Lisa getting involved (come on ,  you know Lisa had a gaggle of Queens around her from her restaraunt staff, etc.)

I can't believe GL kept Frankie D and other nonentities and not kept Brown's Nola around. She should have been running Company and getting her nose in everyone's biz and mothering the young characters as the eccentric landlady bar owner. Or ATWT didn't bring her back to constantly have it out with Lucinda.

[P.J.]

Every show has a handful of performers who literally left their mark on the show, so much so that they could easily slide back onto the canvas with a minimum of fuss. Lisa did it on two shows, which is even rarer. I have occasionally complained about Iva's endless "sad sack" story, but her performance was always on point and she never phoned one damn scene in.

[soapfan770]

OMG, what the…?

Reid’s death in the waning days of ATWT eliminated the possibility of Luke getting a happy ending in the romantic sense. In a 2017 interview with Soap Opera Digest, the show’s final head writer, Jean Passanante, admitted that she regretted how she chose to close out Luke’s on-screen life. Said Passanante, “On World Turns, at the very end, we had this great character, Dr. Reid Oliver, the boyfriend of Luke. I’m really sorry we killed him off. I took a lot of heat for that at the time and I said, ‘No, it’s a great story, he gives his heart to Chris Hughes!’ But now that I have it to reflect on, I should not have done that. He and Luke should have gone into the sunset happily ever after. That I’m sorry about, even though I defended myself at the time”

The way I recall it was both Goutman and Passanante were acting bitter and spiteful towards fans and what not that final year. 

What a lazy hack. Being haunted by her own bad writing choices at ATWT (hopefully along with what she did at her other shows like AW, AMC, and Y&R) is oddly a bit satisfying to know though. 

[DRW50]

So much of those last years with Goutman reeked of spite. That's why I don't really care how "good" the show may have looked at the end.