As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[adrnyc]

Ok, I’ll try to make this quick. Sorry for what will, most likely, be a TL:DR situation but I have nowhere else to share my thoughts on ATWT. I’ve finished 1987 for the first time (celebrated Christmas with everybody - they all sang around the piano this year) and have moved onto ’88. I just haven't had a moment to sit down and collect my 1987 thoughts.

 

 

1987 The Highlights:
John & Lucinda - Yes, please. I could watch them all day. What is there to say? They’re marvelous. I knew the pairing was coming and I just didn’t think it would work for me but it sure has!
Lily/Everyone - I haven’t seen all of soapdom. (I’ve seen a lot.) But I think, arguably, there’s never been a better reveal than “Let go of her. Let go of her she’s your BABY!!!” I just had to relive it in my head as I typed that - insane good TV. I don’t know how everyone else feels about the Summer Repertory Season with Mrs. Gilmore (Love me some Kelly Bishop) but I enjoyed it. Lily and Holden got away for a summer. We had a cute little Pollyanna type story. It worked for me. Lily had to grow up somehow and being on her own for a summer seemed to do it. She now wears lots of make up and has big hair. 
James Stenbeck - great storyline. I missed out on some of the intricacies of it - especially with what involved Duncan and anything at the castle but the murder set up was great. I honestly don’t know who shot him and can’t figure it out - it could be anyone. Of course, I know he’s not dead so some of the details, like he was shot in the back of the head - really? how do we explain this one? I mean, do they just retroactively (don’t tell me) make it Costello who got shot and James escaped? They’ve said the dental records of the dead body are James’……Anyway, my money is on Emily - there’s something in the actress’ performance that says she’s dangerous. I believe she’d kill someone Oh, but the TRIAL….why did they put reverb on the actors voices when they were giving testimony on opening/closing statements? Super weird. 1987

 

 

1987 The Low Points: 
The Sabrina Reveal & Frannie/Seth/Sabrina - Most of this is missing from YT (at least from what I could find) The episodes do exist where they save Sabrina in the church but I didn’t get to see all of the buildup. Also, the episodes I saw (I think there were 120 or so of the year) didn’t really have the Frannie/Seth/Sabrina triangle storyline. Once again though, they had the big moment of Seth sleeping with the wrong sister. I just didn’t get the build up to it. So I wasn’t emotionally involved in the story. Frannie seems to have moved to Boston and I frankly couldn’t care less.

 

 

The Inbetween:
Craig/Sierra/Tonio - I’ve been vocal in the past about the fact that I have no love for this version of Craig and Sierra BUT I warmed to them by the end. I actually feel as if Craig is still on the show because they talk about him all the time. 
Steve/Betsy - I can’t believe all the stuff that happened this year! Steve leaving - good riddance. I get what a part of the canvas he was, though. Betsy hasn’t has had a lot to do other than grieving Steve and grieving Craig. 
Meg/Tonio - another couple I’ve warmed to over the months. Neither of them really care for each other and they both know it. Although, that seems to be changing these days maybe?
Lily/Holden/Dusty/Emily - yeah, it’s a little contrived but only a little. For a soap, I’ll take it. Holden is lashing out - he’s frickin’ howling Lily’s name like a wolf (a tad too much) - watching him team up with Tonio and vowing revenge on Lucinda is genius. Bring on 1988! Love this Emily - I’m assuming she loses the child - unless there’s a forgotten baby that never got mentioned post 2000. (It could happen)  I feel like I’m cheating on Lily & Holden by saying this but I think I may prefer Lily & Dusty. 
Lyla/Casey - Don’t nobody take my Lyla & Casey away from me. I love these two. So happy to see them wed! 

 

 

I was super sad to see Earl go. My delightful Shannon O’Hara seems to be stuck in that castle. Now, there’s a ghost mystery story I’m sure many will remember. Oh, and Beatrice is having a baby which has Duncan concerned because of the curse. 

So many characters, I know I’m forgetting some. Kim’s talk show - super 80s. Andy drinking. Meh. I’ve never been a fan of Andy’s. I only saw his last year though so there’s just no attachment to him. That may change. Pam? Who the heck is this chick and why is she hanging around so long?

Ok…I’m off to 1988 land. Bob just stopped someone from being raped! I can't believe I can't come up with her name 'cause they've said it at least 5 times. Laura Simmons? Pam is making friends with the alleged rapist. 

 

Thanks for reading this far! I love As The World Turns!!!!

[amybrickwallace]

Liz Hubbard's characters sure had it bad for brilliant yet grouchy doctors (see also: The Doctors). 😉

[DramatistDreamer]

@adrnyc I actually do think that Meg cared for Tonio, I think she got sick of his oppressive nature that sprung from his unabashed machismo. 

 

Think about it: Meg left the farm, that she believed was oppressing her with arbitrary rules (getting up with the cows to milk them was never for Meg) that she felt were a part of always being regarded as the youngest and living on her family farm. 

She eventually finds a measure of freedom at Lyla's.  At Memorial, she is one of the top students in the nursing program.  She has more confidence in herself than she ever had as the teenage girl who had once only been known as a farmer's daughter.

In Tonio, she saw what she wanted to see: a misunderstood, scorned revolutionary that was passionate about his country.  A man who was supposedly evolving.  Meg was convinced that Tonio's terrible marriage to Sierra was only because Sierra love Craig and Tonio held onto a childhood dream of a life with Sierra for too long. Also, Meg enjoyed the thrill of keeping a secret of seeing Tonio before his divorce was finalized.  She also saw Tonio as being 'on the come up', someone she could have the life of privilege with (the way she once daydreamed about with Dusty, 'The Harvard Grad' but with more passion and in a more experienced, mysterious man.  And all those "bad" habits (Tonio's obvious chauvinism)...she was willing to over look them, if she could get most of what she wanted. Besides, Tonio was still knew to the country and she would "love" him out of that way of thinking.

 

I do think Meg was determined that she would not be 'thrown away' by Tonio (she was aware of his womanizing) and wanted to ensure that Tonio wouldn't abandon her.  She was not going to get taken advantage of and sought to bind her and Tonio together the only way she knew how--by become a partner in every way.  Tonio frowned on this, viewing it as Meg being cold and businesslike but I don't think that is what Meg intended at all.  She believed that if Meg was tied to and part and parcel of everything (including the business) that it would forge an even stronger relationship between them.  Pretty naive, yes but I think she was sincere in wanting to be his equal partner in every aspect of their lives together and she knew how passionate he was about the business and she wanted to be a part of that.  Ironically, her involvement in the business eventually helped drive a solid wedge between them (that and, well, I don't want to spoil the rest for you

Please register in order to view this content

 

I do believe though, that in her way, Meg did love him and thought she could change him ("the love of a good woman" and all that...).

 

It's a shame that you missed so many key episodes and you don't have that memory to recall. There's actually quite a bit missing from You Tube. I wish I could see some of those episodes again but at least I have memory of rushing home from school to see certain storylines and also watching VHS tapes (before they got taped over, etc) of what had been recorded that day.

There's nothing like being there in the time period watching it all unfold.

 

I posted a 40th anniversary clip about a page back and watching it, I realized how many little snippets of scenes I hadn't seen since they first aired because they've never been posted on YT.  

 

Getting fond of certain characters/couples is all about the day to day and when you're missing so much, you can't really expect to get an attachment out of thin air.  It's too bad really. 

Edited January 18, 2018 by DramatistDreamer

[vetsoapfan]

 

Laura!!!!

 

AAAAAAAACK!!!!!

 

How I loathed that character. And not even in a fun, I love-to-hate-her way, either. I just loathed Laura and wanted her off the show.

 

Just wait, you'll see.

Edited January 19, 2018 by vetsoapfan

[adrnyc]

 

 

I'm not sure if a lot of what you've mentioned has happened yet. Meg is not a partner in Tonio's business that I'm aware of. It could have happened and I just missed the episodes though. He is on his way to Rome right now to do business with Visconti and he asked Meg to go with him - she broke the news to the family that the two of them will not travel to Chicago with the rest of the Snyders for Sabrina's art show.  Tonio is not talking to Meg as if she is a business partner, just like a wife who wants to take a free trip to Rome. 

 

I mentioned in my post, that it *looks* like Meg is maybe finally starting to care for Tonio and him in return. They're flirting with each other slightly and teasing each other. It's fun to see them start to take their relationship - which was based on a business agreement of Tonio staying in the country and Meg making him sign a pre-nump taking care of her own interests in life, namely having a lot of material goods - seriously

 

It will be interesting to watch these two continue. And yes, not being able to see every episode definitely hurts my ability to relate to couples. If I can't actually see the build up with the characters, it's difficult to become emotionally involved.    Lucinda/John    Shannon/Duncan   Lisa/Earl   Those are the couples to whom I had no original attachment from the '00s but I've been able to fall in love with due to their episodes being available.   If only I could see every single episode of ATWT.  Maybe someday......you never know. I never would've thought there be over 5,000 available to view so who knows!

 

HAHA!!  Yeah...I can already tell I'm not going to be a fan of hers. I'm hoping she won't be on too long, or that many of her episodes will be missing. The 40th anniversary book only has her listed as being on in 1988 so I'm hoping for a short story. I also know that I'm going into the dreaded 1988 writer's strike.......

[DramatistDreamer]

 

 

Yeah, it did happen, right after Meg and Tonio got married when her family didn't show up for her "reception" that she arranged at the Yacht Club.  You missed it.

Tonio was disappointed and sort of berated Meg, saying something to the effect that she had  now made their marriage into something of a business "transaction".  To that, Meg said something like "I thought you'd be happy..."   That moment told me that Meg thought she and Tonio would be genuine partners in every way.

 

It was later on when Meg finally got the message that Tonio was exactly who he's always been, that her stance hardened and she became more determined to get the other things (e.g. material wealth) that she could still extract out of the marriage.  Later with Josh, she'd want to be completely out of the marriage but in the beginning, it appeared to me that she loved him and believed she could change him.

How Tonio felt about Meg is a whole other chapter...

[adrnyc]

@DramatistDreamer

Ah yes, I didn't see any of the non-engagement party. I just heard about it. 

[Mitch]

LOL..I loved creepy ass Laura! She came on as the usual Marland type as goody goody sweet and then..well... Her reveal came on the same day here in Chicago that Lauri Dann was going on her rampage..kind of weird.

 

Hated the freakin' ghost mystery. GL's cabin mystery was better as at least it had Susan Piper's cartoon evil. The castle was dumb to begin with, who would have the money, or even want to, take down an historic castle piece by piece and move it to a midwestern burb??? Not only that, but the ghost somehow moved with it??? Sorry Marland that was dumb..it should have been Duncan moves into an old gothic house already in Oakdale..(and that Castle set was the ugliest set on earth.)

[vetsoapfan]

 

Any amount of time with Laura on canvas was too much. She was played by Carolyn Ann Clarke who had been so abrasive and icky on TGL. There are very few performers whom I simply cannot stomach watching, and she is one of them. (Mo Bernard and Steve Burton are two more, from daytime TV's current canvas.)

Edited January 22, 2018 by vetsoapfan

[vetsoapfan]

 

On soaps, I loathe all things sci-fi and supernatural. Those stories cripple and ultimately kill the shows. They destroy the |reality bubble" between the soaps and the audience, which allows viewers to feel as if they are watching the daily lives of characters who could be their family and friends. The low-brow, campy dreck may titillate viewers momentarily, or make them laugh  ("Wow, I can't believe they are doing anything so stupid, hahahahaha!"), but people who watch the shows for that sort of material always want more and more of the same, and daytime TV cannot sustain it. The shows alienate longtime viewers and cannot hold onto the newer, camp-loving audience members, so it's a lose-lose situation.

 

Margaret Reed (Shannon) gave an interview once, in which she discussed the brain-dead "castle stories on ATWT (The haunted painting! Lilith and the Shrunken Head!). She said everyone hated that stuff. The actors did not want to play it and the writers did not want to write it, but they had no choice. It sounds like that awful material was foisted onto the show by the typically idiotic PTB.

[NothinButAttitude]

@vetsoapfan, but do you think there can be exceptions to supernatural stories? For instance, Greta on The Doctors calling out to the other side for Mike, or some of the dark, gothic things EON did throughout their run. I think if soaps skirt the supernatural and it is written well, it can still be realistic seeing as many people do believe in the supernatural. 

 

Some episodes of ATWT from 94:

 

 

[vetsoapfan]

 

It takes careful writing to pull off stories that touch on supernatural themes. The writers have to reign events in so they do not get absurd. Most soaps have been unable to do this.

 

Characters believing in the afterlife, or being convinced that they can feel the presence or spirit of a dead loved one, is fine.  I daresay that happens to most of us one time or another. Characters like April Cavanaugh on TEON experiencing extrasensory flashes is still within the realm of reality, because even police departments have been known to use psychics. But the shows should not (IMHO) get into ludicrous material that simply do not happen: mad scientists freezing the world, heroines jumping into paintings and travelling through time, anyone flying to heaven on a space ship or discovering secret underground cities, people getting cloned, possessed by Satan and "murdering" (but not really) half the town, etc.

 

To me, there's a big difference between a show presenting us with a character who believes in the supernatural, and the show PRESENTING THE SUPERNATURAL AS FACT that we are all supposed to accept.

[NothinButAttitude]

 

You brought up Marlena being possessed by the Devil as an example, if it were done in a more realistic manner (minus the bed floating, shape shifting, etc.) would you have found it to be acceptable. If it did stay in the realm of realism with Marlena have a mood shift and becoming gravely ill--something borderline Exorcist like? 

[vetsoapfan]

 

If the show had given the audience a plausible, or at least POSSIBLE, reason for Marlena's demented behavior, perhaps. Was she being drugged with mind-altering chemicals? Did she have a brain tumor? Had she become schizophrenic? But as the story played out on-screen, it just became dumber and dumber (again, IMO) and impossible. I found the scenes of Tom Horton's head floating around to be offensive to boot.

 

I've never been able to take Marlena seriously as a character again.

[NothinButAttitude]

 

 

Wait?! They had Tom Horton's head floating around Marlena during this arc? OK. I need to go review this arc again b/c I might've missed that. Wasn't he deceased by then? Just tasteless.