As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[anthonymolchan]

They were great together. Barbara was way too high maintenance for any man. You know Henry divorced her a$$ after about a year. 

And, here’s an example of what I was talking about…

[SheenaSoaper]

Speaking of Emily, I really wish that Marie Masters could do a Locher Room. I haven’t seen anything about her in years!

[prefab1]

Admittedly, I was a latecomer to ATWT (first becoming a regular viewer in 2000). But I really liked KMH's Emily. I thought she was a very specific kind of neurotic professional character, and I loved her prickly relationship with MM's Susan. I will say I don't think the show did her any favors after Hal died, stranding her in storylines with several of the show's dullest characters: nu-Paul, nu-Meg, and nu-Dusty.

I actually quite liked one of her last major storylines, when she discovered she had a grown-up biological son with Larry named Hunter. But then Hunter just sort of disappeared, and the story fizzled out, which was pretty typical of the late Goutman years. 

[adrnyc]

Put me in the LOVE KMH camp. As a poster alluded to above, her detractors seem to come from people who first experienced the 80s Emily actress. And that's often the case with soaps, myself included. I enjoy the original actor so much that I just never take to the recast.

However, KMH played Emily far longer than the original - for almost 20 years - and when she had great material, she was great. I get the sense she didn't like playing the whiny oh-woe-is-me Emily which was all the material she got from about 1996 until she took over the Intruder in late '99/early '00 and got to play a stronger kiss-ass woman who didn't care what anyone thought of her. (Some would call that a bitch but, if a man was in that role, he'd just be called a smart and savvy businessman.)

Her relationship with Hal was great. The transformation was done realistically and I thoroughly enjoyed those years the best out of all. Once the writers decided to break up those two, they went back to writing Emily half the time as whiny and pathetic. I preferred when the writers made her stronger.

[Michael]

I thought Emily/Hal was a really interesting pairing. And I think KMH played that version of Emily very well! It might not have been what people wanted from Emily, and the writing got pretty gross at the end, but I thought she embodied that character effectively.

[j swift]

Search YT for Edwyn Sanchez, he posted an AI enhanced episode of ATWT and it is beautiful.   

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[Paul Raven]

A full 1973 episode that looks fantastic in color.

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[DRW50]

Melanie Smith was very difficult to replace, but as KMH did last for a long time, she clearly managed to do so. I preferred Melanie, but the main issue with Kelley is I just think she was horribly written for most of the time. Initially the writing wasn't horrible, it's more she was not the right choice, but over time the writing genuinely became awful, and unplayable, with a few exceptions (I think her pairings with Chris and Hal worked and got to take her in some new directions).