As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

That's true. I guess you might say there was a certain mania not quite there in Marland's writing that could sometimes be fun, but he knew his strengths and he also knew how to get the best out of other writers, it seems, and the cast.

The only criticism I would have is that I think it was a mistake to continue to rely as much on the Snyder farm by the early 90's - stuff like Hutch and Rosanna. Rosanna in particular was a dull retread.

[Khan]

It didn't help to have dull Yvonne Perry and Judson Mills as Rosanna and Hutch either.

[Paul Raven]

The Tom in the wedding pic was Peter Galman. He and Carol seem to have that sweetyoung love thing going.That was June 72 ,by the way and taped on location in a real church,which would have been quite a big deal back then.

The next Tom,C David Colson definitely had a brawny stud thing happening and I'm guessing that worked with the Tom/Natalie affair. Is he not soap writer David Cherill?

Some Bob Hughes history

Lisa Miller was Bob Hughes' first love. They met when Bob was a college student. Lisa figured that a doctor's wife was what she wanted to be. Bob secretly married Lisa in 1960 in Gary, Indiana. Bob didn't want any financial assistance from his parents so he asked they keep the secret as he knew they wouldn't approve of it. When Lisa got pregnant with their son, Tom, they told his parents about the marriage. They weren't happy about it. Nancy and Chris let them live with them though, after Pa Hughes persuaded them. Nancy and Lisa became friends. Lisa quickly grew disenchanted with married life. Lisa fell in love and began an affair with Bruce Elliot in the early 1960s, she told Bob she no longer loved him and asked for a divorce. He agreed to the split. Bruce wasn't interested in a marriage to Lisa. Lisa soon realized she made a mistake in divorcing Bob and this began the many years of Lisa wanting to get Bob back.

Bob got involved with nurse Syliva Hill. She was battling lupus. They eventually became engaged. Lisa played a guilt trip on Syliva, saying she'd have her family back together if it weren't for her. It worked and Syliva broke off the engagement and eventually left town after marrying another man.

Bob married Sandy McGuire (in the late 60s). She deserted him when he was temporarily blinded, as she was unable to cope with it. Bob divorced her on grounds of abandonment. She became a successful model and Bob and Sandy planned on remarrying, as they were still attracted to each other. However, he knew he'd always take a backseat to her career, so they split up for good.

Bob's next wife was Jennifer Ryan. Chuck Ryan was a long-time friend of Bob Hughes. Chuck Ryan moved to Centreville, IL and after romances with sisters Kim and Jennifer Sullivan, he married Jennifer. Chuck and Jennifer had two children, Barbara and Rick. When Chuck got terminally ill, he took Bob up on his promise to take care of his family. Jennifer got a job at Memorial as a nurse, and she and Bob married. Rick did not like his step-father. Rick was a doctor and got a job at Memorial. He caused trouble for Bob whenever he could. Eventually Bob had to place him on probation, which was the last straw for Jennifer. She moved out. When Bob attended a medical convention in Florida he ran into Kim who had a singing gig at a lounge in Florida. Separated from Jennifer, Kim and Bob shared a night of passion. When Bob returned to Oakdale he found out that Jennifer was pregnant, and they reconciled for the sake of the baby. Kim learned she too was pregnant with Bob's child. Kim told John Dixon she was pregnant and didn't reveal the father's name. John persuaded Kim to marry him to give the baby a name, and they eloped in Las Vegas. John soon learned that Bob was the father of the baby. Jennifer gave birth to a baby girl, Frannie. Kim lost her baby. Jennifer learned she was dying of a rare disease of the central nervous system. The disease went into remission but soon thereafter Jennifer died in a fatal car accident.

Valerie Conway was one of the women that Bob dated. She eventually jilted him, as she had her eye on a few different men in Oakdale. Valerie was the sister of Kim's first husband, Jason Reynolds.

Already widowed by husband Jason Reynolds and divorced from John, in 1977 Kim married Dan Stewart. He died in 1979 of a brain tumor. Bob became engaged to Lyla Montgomery, but broke off the engagement when Bob wasn't sure he could trust her after her affair with John Dixon was revealed. Bob married Miranda Marlowe. They divorced when Miranda ran off with another man. Kim was swept off her feet by Nick Andropoulos. The marriage was a mistake though, because Nick didn't want a wife that worked. Nick ended up dying of a heart attack. Kim wanted to remain friends, and nothing more, with Bob. But when he professed his love, she knew he was the love of her life. They married at Easter time in 1985. They have a son, Christopher Hughes, and they eventually found out that Kim didn't lose their other baby. Their daughter is Sabrina.

Edited May 11, 2011 by Paul Raven

[DRW50]

Thanks for all the writeups and the photos (I think I've seen many of these in various places so it's nice having them together).

Yes he was David Cherrill.

I'd still like to know whether or not Sandy and Bob had any interaction in the mid or late 70's.

It's a shame that Judith McConnell came on ATWT at the time she did, when there were already so many strong women that she mostly floated around. I wish they'd married her to Bob. Or at least brought her back after Santa Barbara was canceled.

[soapfan770]

This is an interesting 1999 interview with Greg Watkins, who played Evan Walsh on ATWT:

[DRW50]

I always loved Evan, and Greg was a good actor. It was a stupid decision to get rid of him, and typical of the short-sightedness of John Valente. Evan was the last character of this type that ATWT ever had (the rich guy who sometimes had a heart). After that it was always rich guys are psychos or sociopaths. Ugh.

[Paul Raven]

Valente inherited a bloated cast and a show that was trying to keep Marland's work going without the man himself. I can understand his decision to move on and not try to do Marland lite but the choices made were misguided at best. Bringing back Paul and Ryder (Teddy) were a good idea but casting and stories were all wrong.

By the time Rosanna,Mike,Linc and Woody were featured I think Marland was making the mistake of giving frontburner stories to characters that were not tied to the core.Good storytelling should always have a Hughes,Snyder or other more established character involved.

Don Hughes history.Because of the recasting and absences of the character,he tends to be forgotten,but he did carry a lot of story over the years.

Donald Hughes was the eldest son of Chris and Nancy. Climbing up the social ladder was important to Don. Don became a lawyer, like his father.

Donald Hughes married Janice Turner Whipple, who was a widow with two grown daughters, Alice and Debbie. Nancy never approved of Janice, so Donald and Janice moved to Texas. After Janice died, Donald moved back to Oakdale. Donald and Ellen had been on and off through the years and he proposed to her. She said yes, but later told him she couldn't marry him after all as David Stewart had proposed to and she wanted to marry him. Donald then became engaged to Sara Fuller, but she died before they married. Donald also dated Amanda Holmes, Sara's daughter, for awhile. However, Amanda left town knowing that Donald wasn't really committed to her.

Don moved to California but returned to Oakdale after his father suffered a heart attack. Nancy wanted Donald to get together with Jennifer Ryan, because all these years she'd been trying to get Bob and Lisa back together. However, Bob was too in love with Jennifer, so Donald started dating Lisa himself. Lisa seemed more interested in Dr. Wally Matthews and Don ended up moving back to California.

When Donald next moved back to Oakdale, joining the firm Lowell, Hughes & Colman, he found Lisa had married Grant Colman. Joyce Colman, Grant's ex-wife, was doing all she could to break up Lisa and Grant. Joyce and Don started seeing each other. Joyce had had a son by Grant, who she gave up for adoption. His name was Teddy Ellison. He later came back to Oakdale as a young man named Ryder Hughes.

Lisa tried to fix Don up with Mary Ellison, Joyce's son's adopted mother, but that didn't work. It was difficult to get Donald to make a committment, but finally he proposed to Joyce. They married.

When Donald went to Switzerland on business, Joyce had a one-night stand with Ralph Mitchell, one of Don's clients, and became pregnant. Ralph wasn't interested in marrying Joyce, so Joyce told Don they were having a baby. She ended up having a miscarriage, but never told Don it wasn't his child.

Mary had been Don's secretary for a long time. She loved Don, but it went to further. She started seeing Ralph Mitchell and they got engaged. Ralph and Don were good friends. Don was upset over the loss of the baby, so Ralph decided to tell Don that it wasn't his child. Ralph just couldn't handle seeing his friend so upset. Joyce couldn't have Ralph telling Don though, and decided to kill Ralph. Instead, she ended up shooting and paralyzing Don! Joyce made up a story about a prowler. The truth all came out when Don overhead it on an intercom system. Don forgave Ralph, but not Joyce.

Joyce overheard Ralph telling Don that Joyce should be committed, and Joyce flew into a rage. She kidnapped Teddy, said goodbye to him, returned him to Mary, then left town. On her way out of town her car went off a bridge. Her body wasn't found.

Don fell in love with Mary, but Mary planned on marrying Ralph. He told Mary he was going to move back to California as he couldn't take it, seeing her married to Ralph. Ralph felt Mary was in love with Don and he decided to break off the engagement.

This cleared the way for Don and Mary to get engaged. Joyce, who everyone assumed was dead, came back to town very much alive. She decided to divorce Don so he could marry Mary. She had ulterior motives though, and she did all she could to get close to her son, Teddy. Joyce was successful in breaking up Mary and Don. Mary moved back to Laramie but got into a bad car accident and Grant ended up with Teddy. This pleased Joyce, as her and Grant were getting closer again (by this time Lisa had divorced Grant to try and win Bob back).

Joyce and Grant became engaged (again), but Grant left her and Oakdale after one too many lies. Don also left Oakdale. He moved to Laramie, won Mary back, and they married.

[DRW50]

Who was this Wally?

[Mitch]

I love that picture of Bob and Lisa, in what had to be Nancy's kitchen (I remember the ever present cake tins in the back..though not the groovy green paneling.) They actually look like real people from the 70's. Its too bad that soaps including World Turns had to make everyone glam and rich and impossibly good looking. I can kind of see where Wheeler was going with her GL, making it more like the old time soaps, and maybe that would have worked with "real,"but simple sets where everyone had a living room and a kitchen and didnt live in a crappy hotel, etc.

[DRW50]

Wanted to link to this ATWT article posted in the JTS thread.

[Paul Raven]

Re Bob & Sandy. A June 76 synopsis mentions Nancy hoping Bob & Sandy might reconnect but at this stage he's interested In Valerie.In the following months,After dating Bob,Valerie turns to Dan.and they make plans to marry.Meanwhile Joyce is interested In Bob,which annoys Lisa who is married to Grant.Sandy is attracted to Kevin,who is still involved with Susan. Jim carries a torch for Kim. Don returns and Joyce sets her sights on him,although he tells Nancy he is still attractted to Lisa and so on...

It seemed to be musical chairs with all of these characters.

Wally was played by Charles Siebert,who later was on Trapper John MD. He was a minister/doctor who was revealed to be the father of Tom and Carol's friend Peter.

Edited May 13, 2011 by Paul Raven

[Paul Raven]

Nancy's 80th Birthday party in 1998. Penny and Ellen returned and flashbacks were shown.

[DRW50]

Thanks - I'm glad the show hadn't completely forgotten about Sandy/Bob by then.

I was watching the 1978 ATWT episode with someone and they kept saying they recognized the women who played Sandy and Mary, yet they didn't really know any of the credits for Kelly Wood or Barbara Rucker on IMDB. Were either of these ladies in anything else big that isn't credited on IMDB?

Watching that again I'm kind of reminded at how Mary seems slightly more glamorous than the role...later on she seemed kind of dowdy.

I enjoyed some of Nancy's birthday episode. I tuned back in to see it and was annoyed at how much time was spent on the ultimately pointless and annoying yacht sinking. I loved when Penny said, "Who ARE these people?" I always wonder if that was ad-libbed.

This was also the last regime that cared about bringing back Pat Bruder. Goutman took Valente's path of just pretending she never existed. Ellen being there, even for a few appearances a year, would have given so much weight to the plot-driven and annoying rewrites with Allison and Susan. Ellen trying to help her great-granddaughter and being in conflict with Susan, yet also seeing Susan's point of view, and listening to Emily's fears, etc. Instead it was just shrieky Dunphy all the way.

Helen Wagner gave an interview around the time of the birthday episode complaining about what had become of ATWT. Still, I think that she was probably grateful, and it's some kind of a miracle that P&G/CBS never tried to write her out again after the first time.

[Paul Raven]

i didn't know Barbara Rucker had been married to Robert Urich. They would have been a glamouous couple. As for Wood and Rucker they seem to have disappeared after their soap stints. It would be great to track them down and find out where their lives took them.

Carl,thanks for your responses to my posts-I really appreciate your comments.

[Paul Raven]

Kathryn Hays 25th Anniversary. Jennifer visits Kim

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