As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[DramatistDreamer]

 

I'm still hoping to find the Labor Day, September 2, 1986 episode where Casey helps delivers Kim's baby and Craig finds Sierra at Foxwood Lodge.  It's the episode before the ones posted above by @victoria foxton.  

 

Finn Carter had to be one of my all time favorites growing up.  Like @DRW50 mentioned, she made subtle transitions in the character trajectory which made it all the more realistic.  She sort of reminds me of Kathryn Hays as far as subtly and deftly delivering just really great performances, which unfortunately is not usually rewarded by soaps, that seem to reward bombast and performances that veer into the maudlin (there's room for that too, don't get me wrong).  Soaps are just not known for championing understated performances, however great they are.

[DRW50]

 

I think that channel uploader, under another handle, put it up before.

[DramatistDreamer]

In homage to Arthur Franklin, WLS posted this video from 1979. 

John is all over this, lol but the scene between he and David is sort of meditative but with that brewing antagonism simmering just beneath the surface.  Good stuff!  And the visual quality.

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Surely, there's a way we can try to agitate PGP/P&G to release more episodes!  An online petition on change.org or something?

 

 

[victoria foxton]

Gregg Marx debuts as the New Tom. 

 

Edited October 1, 2018 by victoria foxton

[DRW50]

It's good to see that one uploaded again.

 

The scenes of Dusty and John arguing, then Dusty smashing up John's lab in a rage and then John finding him near-catatonic are very powerful. It's too bad Marland needed to make Dusty so good and sweet to contrast Holden, as he could have believably had an edge. 

 

Considering that was his first or second episode, Marx had chemistry with HBS right off the bat and suited the role perfectly. 

 

The show was in a good place at this point character-wise - very few duds. 

 

I just love watching Diana. She sparkles in all her scenes. I love the bitchy back-and-forth with Lucinda. 

 

Anyway, here is a reupload of the 29th November.

 

 

That second one has the scenes I always remember about Craig knowing how to use a computer. And flirting with Bev, a black employee of Lucinda's I never remember seeing much after this. I'm surprised they had even such mild flirtation between Craig and Bev at this point in P&G's history. Maybe that's why she wasn't seen much after this...

Edited October 1, 2018 by DRW50

[Limenade]

 

As an alternative to her book, Rouverol was interviewed by Writers Guild in 2000, resulting in a long clip on Youtube - an hour and 40 minutes.  The focus was on her long career before, during and after the black-listing - discussions on soaps were sparse, though still quite fascinating.  What a colorful life she lived, and she described it with such colorful details and anecdotes - all told with vivid expressions.  A genuine person, and definitely a writer and performer.  About 15 minutes into the clip, she mentioned her 13-year stint as a cast member on the radio soap "One Man's Family."  Television soaps experience begins around an hour and 20 minutes into the clip, for about 10 minutes.  Essentially, she wrote for the Hurselys' "Bright Promise," which eventually led to working under their daughter and son-in-law the Dobsons.  She was basically describing the writing format for a lay audience.  I was a bit surprised to learn how she was let go from writing soaps, and disappointed that she wasn't asked how the genre evolved in the 90s, which would've been interesting.  I did read her book back in the late 80s - I believe she wrote it after she had stopped writing for soaps.  It definitely wasn't an industry gossip, but somewhat straightforward intro to the genre (thus my surprise by her verbal delivery in the clip).  This was a copy from the local library at the time so I no longer have access to it, but I do recall vividly a sample excerpt scene from Guiding Light with Katie and Floyd Parker, which she used to describe the importance of subtext - a concept she mentioned also in the clip.     

 

 

[DramatistDreamer]

Thanks @Limenade!  I'll try to watch this at some point later in the day.

[EricMontreal22]

I haven't read her book in ages, but I do remember enjoying it (she also had bits of a Ryan's Hope script I think?)  What a great interview--her enthusiasm is contagious.

[DramatistDreamer]

I really loved the section where Rouverol talks about the importance of subtext in writing dramas for daytime. 

Subtext is essentially the difference between screenwriting and playwriting and back then daytime dramas and those classic TV dramas of the golden age hewed closer to playwriting standards than screenwriting standards.  That has somewhat changed today but it's so interesting to hear her talk about why she initially struggled with the transition from screenwriting to writing daytime drama.

For me, personally, it was the reverse where it took me longer to be able to write a TV sitcom script because I am far more at ease writing scripts for the stage.  TV scripts, subtext can be deadly, simply because there's not enough time to reveal beyond words. 

A thirty minute situation comedy script, you have to be more blunt, unless you are carrying out a story over a series of episodes, you don't have time to deal with 'what is not being said'. On classic soap, what's not said was almost everything.

 

I love to hear from writers on these specific aspects of writing for their respective genres.

Edited October 3, 2018 by DramatistDreamer

[Paul Raven]

Dramatist,

I know you mentioned not having read Rouverol's book.

You can borrow it online at Open Library.

I think you'll enjoy it!

[JarrodMFiresofLove]

I'm glad the topic has turned to Jean Rouverol. In another thread, the one on soap writing, I spoke about Robert J. Shaw and how one of my professors was a former actress who was partially mentored by Shaw in the daytime format. The professor I was referring to was Jean. I didn't mention her by name because I wasn't sure if people on here knew about her.

 

There are a lot of things I can say about her as a teacher, friend and as a person who knew soap writing inside-out. I took her class twice. The first time was the spring of my freshman year (for credit). And the second time was the spring of my senior year. The second class would have been cancelled because not enough people signed up for it (can you imagine that?!)...I didn't want to see her class get dropped so I asked if I could sit in again, auditing the course without credit, and I was allowed to do that...so she now had enough students that semester and the class wasn't dropped.

 

Though she covered a lot of the same material both times, I had matured a lot during those three years in between and gained more from the second experience. Plus she had different guest speakers. She was well connected after all those years in Hollywood, and she brought a diverse group of fellow soap writers in to talk to the class. It was a 16-week course. Her lessons were always designed towards specific exercises each week, so I was able to refine certain skills in the second course, things I had struggled with in my writing as a freshman.

 

As I said there is so much I could share about what she taught us and what the guest speakers told us. She was so efficient and ultra-organized. When a guest speaker came in we all took notes. And then the following week she gave us a copy of her notes (on what the guest speakers said) to ensure that we had gotten everything the speakers told us. She was very detail-oriented and trained us to be that way too.

 

I had to laugh when I read a comment in another thread where someone said a writer on "Loving" complained about Agnes Nixon marking up his scripts like a stern schoolmarm. Jean did that that, too...I still have pages of things I submitted to her that were handed back to me with the markings and suggestions in the margin. She was very direct with her feedback, but we had to know what was working and not working in our writing...and we valued the schoolmarm approach. She was so lovely and nice that even when she took us to task for mistakes we kept making, it was easy to take the criticism, because we knew how much she cared and how it was her goal to make us become more professional and skilled.

 

I should add that while it was a soap-writing course, she didn't always focus on soaps. Ninety percent of the course was about that. But the other ten percent of the time she would tell us about other forms of writing she did, and other aspects of her long and storied career, including her days as an actress. She was definitely a renaissance woman, there's no other way to describe her but she was very down to earth too, and easy to relate to on so many levels. A very remarkable person.

Edited October 4, 2018 by JarrodMFiresofLove

[DramatistDreamer]

 

Thanks for that tip, I put myself on the Waiting List (yes, there is one).

[DramatistDreamer]

Okay, quite awhile ago, I mentioned the possibility of posting clips of some of my favorite pieces of BGM from ATWT. 

The online editing software that you don't have to download to use leaves a lot to be desired, nevertheless, I am posting my favorite piece of BGM. 

This one is my favorite and probably the most memorable one because ever since I heard it as a child, I've never forgotten it.  So when I heard it again a few years ago, for the first time in decades, I wasn't surprised at how I clearly I could recall it.  The only surprise was that there was a longer version than the one I remembered.

Again, the software is pretty limited, so apologies.

 

 

via ytCropper

Edited October 10, 2018 by DramatistDreamer

[DramatistDreamer]

Here's the piece of BGM again with a different scene.  It was pretty popular from '86-87.

 

via ytCropper

[DramatistDreamer]

Came across this on Twitter.