As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

It did seem to continue post-Marland, although 1995 had some sparks to it (which were promptly undone by Valente and Black and Decker).

Edited Wednesday at 11:45 PM by DRW50

[DRW50]

Jim Muneco reuploaded this partial episode (not sure if it's still on Youtube in other forms or not).

This thumbnail is live footage of Ellen learning she will not have to share scenes with Miranda and Bilan.

I swear at some point during that scene you can almost see Don Hastings thinking, "What the hell am I doing here?"

(nothing against Elaine Princi, whom I enjoyed on OLTL)

I always end up being so drawn into the Colin/Deas scenes even when they get messy. Maybe that's even part of the reason.

 

Edited Thursday at 05:01 AM by DRW50

[Khan]

LOL!!

[vetsoapfan]

@DRW50, I always love seeing footage of Ellen and David Stewart, but this what not the best era of the show.

Miranda was a dud. Everything with Mr. Big was an insult.

Thank God ATWT was able to rebound from the mess Mary Ellis Bunim wrought.

[DRW50]

That was one of the fan names for them, IIRC.

[Mitch64]

I thought I was the only one who thought Tonio was both a bad villain and too boring to the ladies man they made him out to be...though maybe it was PB's diction (trying to sound latin) that just took forever for him to finish a threat or a come on.

LOL on the first sentence...I love writers bringing in these characters and they just disappear..they tried to make Miranda intersting by being snobby and having an issue with Frankie, but they dropped that and really, what was the purpose of "Bilan." ?

Colin and Deas are really on fire, though the material is not. As Tom and Margo they are this weird, flakey, eccentric but lovable couple. While I can't see their version of Tom and Margo in Kim's kitchen talking to Gram... I could see them eventually maturing into the couple Marx and Smith played, but they would NEVER have become Holmes and Dolan Tom and Margo. 

 

[Khan]

I agree - but as usual, I don't blame Marland for that.  I just think Dolan and Holmes weren't as capable of playing that kind of material as were Colin and Deas or Marx and Bailey Smith.

Mr. Big, the supervillain, who was a little person and had an outsized henchman named Bruno.  I'm sure someone at ATWT thought that was cute.

But, you know, as silly as that whole storyline was, there's still something that I love in the "Hart to Hart"-ness of Tom and Margo using clues from classic literature in order to survive his castle.

[DRW50]

The main reason Tonio doesn't work for me, beyond PB just not being that compelling (although he has his moments) is I feel like he reached a natural end after the relationship with Sierra ended. If you want to push, then yes, I can also see the purpose of the Meg/Tonio relationship - the naive schemer who gets everything she wants only to realize it is her worst nightmare. After that, he should have left. Instead, he stayed on for 2-3 years, getting ass and businesses (didn't he own WOAK at some point or am I just making that up?) before the whole wan Sabrina thing. Maybe if I watch those in closer detail, I will have a better impression, I don't know. They just kept him on because he'd already been there and to move the plot along.

Marx and Smith do feel like a natural continuation of Deas and Colin until after they break up and Margo loses the baby. If Marx had stayed then he and Smith might have gotten their old vibe back but it never feels the same. I did like Dolan and Holmes at the time I first started watching (89/90) as the couple who balanced family and friends and work, but by the mid '90s it's all just gone.

Edited yesterday at 03:19 AM by DRW50

[vetsoapfan]

I couldn't deal with it. The entire scenario was just so far removed from the ATWT that I had grown up with; such a drastic shift in style, tone and presentation made the show feel alien to me.

That era, to me, started the erosion of the show.

https://henryjenkins.org/2013/04/as-the-world-stopped-turning-lynn-liccardo-talks-about-soap-operas-part-one.html?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1scP4YRmhJe4AhP_pY4w2d4aajFpquIW3XwRAY0qAmL6EROeqKTHlbwZE_aem_rlFB18R38LxZzf2v22mrxA

 

 

 

[Mitch64]

But in the Dobson's defense, the storyline was started by other writers who brought in the drug ring and mentioned "Mr. Big,"  I liked it at the time, (I was in high school) and I do appreciate that it attempted to be a bit more intelligent then GH in that the clues were hidden in literature.  But yea, Deas and Colin's chemistry carried it. It was less successful when they went looking for "Bilan" in the summer. 

Agreed that the miscarriage was unnecessary and sent Tom and Margo into Marland's despressing storylines. I remember at the time Fulton said she was getting tons of hate mail as they blamed in on the "grandmother clause" but she said she had gotten rid of that years ago. 

[DramatistDreamer]

Despite her insistence that she dropped the clause, some fans seemed to continue to blame her, citing one interview where she seemed evasive when asked about it. Someone recently posted that discussion/interview, so I had a chance to see it. To me, she appeared evasive because she really wanted to focus on where the character of Lisa was, not where she had been and she wanted Lisa to remain vital in the way she had become when that late 1980s Donahue episode happened. So I do believe Fulton when she said the clause was a thing of the past. I also think the way that she played Lisa’s menopause storyline with such conviction and in genuine “Lisa” fashion convinced me that she was accepting of the character being moved to a different stage in life.

Tom and Margo have been having miscarriages since the early 1980s and although I realize that some couples do suffer multiple miscarriages, I don’t understand why every writing regime had to write one. I guess given their history, it seemed a logical way to provide an exit storyline for Gregg Marx but another miscarriage, that’s a tough one.