As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[Reverend Ruthledge]

Didn't they eventually make Bob and Kim's kitchen into part of the WOAK set or was that a nightmare I had? 

[Mona Kane Croft]

Yes, they used the kitchen as the set for Katie's silly talk-show.  

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[SoapDope]

I just went back and revisited Bob's affair with Susan and Kim's reaction. I remember watching it way back then at age 12 and it's still one of my favorite Bob/Kim storylines. Bob was seen as unflawed for many years till all that hit the fan.

Marland used the shows rich history by bringing up Susan & Kim's rivalry over Dan Stewart (Kim feeling Susan had finally gotten even) and elements of Kim's past as the other woman during Bob's marriage to her sister Jennifer. Kathryn Hays should have won an Emmy for that. I don't think she was ever nominated. 

Kim was one of my favorite ATWT characters. I wish her pre-1979 material was available to view. My earliest ATWT memories start around 1981 when I was a pre-school aged kid. She was married to Nick then.

 

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[Mitch64]

I think it went back to Gautman not getting the "midwestern" vibe of the show (which he admitted in an interview.) I guess the Snyders kitchen was enough for one show but it seems odd that the core couple did not have a house..and people were going to talk to Nancy at that stupid diner (that and the Cooper diner were the ugliest sets on earth.) I don't old Gautey relized that outside of NYC, people spend a great deal of their lives in their kitchens. But it did burn me that they even had the set and wouldn't use it correctly!!!!

[Mona Kane Croft]

Goutman had some nutty ideas at both AW and ATWT.  It seemed every decision he made was an affront to the long-term fans.  Was that intentional, you think?

Remember during the last eight or nine years of ATWT, they got rid of all the staircases on the sets?  Every staircase was gone, except the stairs in the Snyder kitchen, which were behind a closed door most of the time.  First, Bob and Kim's house set stopped appearing, and that set had featured a prominent stairway in the foyer. The Kasnoff house had a staircase which just disappeared, even though they continued to use the set. Then they stopped using Lucinda's house set, and it had a staircase too.  They stopped using Lily's living room set, which had stairs. Later Tom and Margo got a new house set with a stairway, but within a few months the stairs had disappeared. Am I leaving any out??? LOL. What was the purpose of the no staircase rule on ATWT?  Are sets with stairs harder to maintain?  Harder to set up?  More expensive?  

Edited July 31, 2024 by Mona Kane Croft

[NothinButAttitude]

Staircases can take up more area (I did a year in film school), which is why assume he scrapped them. However, as you pointed out, all those sets were too prominent to get rid of the stairs. Especially, the Hughes home. If he didn't want to showcase the stairs area, he could've always used their other living room with the fireplace that Marland started around the time Sabrina popped up on the canvas. With Tom and Margo, he could've simply said they downsized and devised a new set with the old pieces of their house. And they could've did away with Al's Diner if it meant a set for one of the core families. No one of importance worked there. It was basically used for Henry & Vienna and their stupid antics with Katie. And I am sorry, but I never believed that women as elegant as Lisa, Barbara, and Lucinda would eat in a diner. They could've done away with Java too. The central restuarant set should've been the Lakeview set as at least it would've given us opportunites to pull Lisa out the mothballs and allow her to meddle. 

[adrnyc]

Tonight, in my continued journey through ATWT, I got to this episode from 2000. So much great material here. Bryant was driving a car and got into a wreck with Jennifer in the car holding Parker on her lap. None of this should've happen because Hal forbade Jennifer to see Bryant again. However, Barbara, moved by her daughter's plea, left them alone for 15 minutes in her kitchen.

This episode shows Parker hanging on for dear life. Hal striking out at pretty much everyone - Barbara, Jennifer, and then, once he finds out Bryant is awake...well, Liz Hubbard does some excellent work both consoling her grandson as well as knowing to go gently in protecting him against Hal. She hits all the emotional beats perfectly, imo.

Holden is finally starting to realize something is up with "Lily" just as Rose thinks she's gotten away with everything and is going to have the life of her dreams. (Well deserved, she thinks she thinks Lily ran off with Simon and her diamond.)

The new we-haven't-seen-him-for-six-years Craig played by the incredible and incredibly sexy Hunt Block continues to threaten Winston while Carly begs him to help her get back to Oakdale. And Lisa continues to advise Julia that someone has to tell Carly her son has been in an accident. 

As I've always said, I'm not the biggest fan of Leah Laiman but with no island scenes or Andy pretending to be paralyzed, this was one of the best episodes in weeks.

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[SoapDope]

During the 80's and 90's Bob & Kim's house was one of my favorite sets. It was beautiful colonial tastefully decorated and would get subtle updates every so often. It was the main gathering place for holidays/events and comforting for viewers to see. Andy & Courtney had their wedding in the living room. Getting rid of it was beyond stupid. 

[Mona Kane Croft]

I thought it was a strange decision.  Because on one hand, TPTB put at least some effort into keeping the Hughes as the show's core family.  But at the same time, TPTB thought the matriarch and patriarch of that family didn't need an on-camera home.  That silly decision just made it more difficult to keep the Hughes family in the center of things.  Especially during holidays, because the extended Hughes clan could no longer gather at Bob and Kim's place. And a soap opera's core family is always at its best during the holidays.  

Edited August 1, 2024 by Mona Kane Croft

[SoapDope]

I agree. It's like they decided to do a low budget/bargain basement version of the show during those final years. 

[Reverend Ruthledge]

You're right. And it meant they would have to celebrate the holidays in strange places like the hospital or the TV studio. 

[adrnyc]

Having just made it through the 90s, the Bob/Kim house was in desperate need of a new set - it looked extremely 1980s. I can see why the writers/producers at the time would cut back to just a kitchen. The only Hughes' were Bob/Kim/Nancy/Dan.

Tom had his own house with Margo - which was still a large set. I remember several holidays spent there. Chris was in that awkward stage where we never saw him and he was never mentioned. (He got SORAS'd a couple of years later.) Andy had left the show. Frannie and Sabrina hadn't been seen for years. 

If budget cuts were already becoming a problem, the Hughes set makes sense to let go. Especially if they wanted to go all in on WOAK. That new set allowed it to be an actual network rather than just the set of Kim's talk show.

Well, to be fair, their budget was slashed beyond recognition. Like Guiding Light, they were doing what they could with what they had while a parent company was essentially trying to force them out of business.

[SheenaSoaper]

Getting rid of kitchen sets (Hughes, also Munson) was rumored to be a CBS network mandate in the mid-2000s. It was about the perception of seeming old-fashioned, but also as a way to save studio space. The Snyder farm kitchen stayed because it was deemed definitive for that family and a place where multiple characters would logically come and go. But it also shrank quite a bit around the end of 2007, along with every other major set. Jack and Carly’s house had a small side kitchen, but it was supposedly hard to shoot in.