As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[Mitch]

Tom was in a storyline with a whore??? "Oh DEAR!" as Nancy Hughes would say!

The pace is very stiff and slow. I love it that the shows at that time thought they were "contemporizing things," with getting rid of the "old people," (i.e the people that generation of kids grew up with) but still stuck with the bad sets, slow pace and stiffness and bad lighing. This would go on through the Dobsons and Bunim. Annie and Babs apartment...I mean, pink? Because two girls live there???

I never liked that Annie or Dee. Tom seemed okay but everyone was stiff including Zenk there. I still think Deas would have worked better as a John Dixon type, anti establishment hippie lawyer who would have defended John in the rape trial and would be a thorn in the upright Hughes and Stewart clans. I guess I see him more as the character he played on SB, though I never watched that.

[DRW50]

His SB character was a villain/clown, somewhat.

I do wonder why P&G never tried to improve the look of the show. I guess they did go on location more starting with the Greece remote, then Mr. Big, but the sets, hair, and clothes are still awful up until the mid-80s.

Speaking of the Greece remote (the Kim/Nick one), I read that they made the actors fly business class. Geez.

[Khan]

I liked Justin Deas' Tom, if only because he shared great chemistry with Margaret Colin and Hillary B. Smith

I also rather enjoyed the pacing of those scenes. For one thing, a major character, beloved by many in Oakdale, as well as by the folks watching at home, had passed away, so the writers probably felt it wasn't appropriate for everything to be bright and peppy, no matter how much or how little each character was connected to Dan and Kim. For another, although several actors were wooden, yes, it was nice to see again actual scenes, with clear beginnings, middles and ends, and characters actually feeling and communicating, rather than just standing there, spouting clumsy exposition and bitchy, immature dialogue at each other.

And scoff if you must, Mitch, at the sets, lighting and so forth, but I STILL think the P&G soaps overall had the finest production values in daytime, lol. It's only when they openly copied the ABC soaps in those respects that I felt cheated.

Edited September 25, 2013 by Khan

[Paul Raven]

Annie looked so matronly.

I guess the slow pace is due to the live to tape process, where each scene was commercial to commercial.

GH was the first to start editing scenes. When did P&G follow suit?

[Soaplovers]

How many actresses played Annie? Which of the actresses was the best Annie... or rather the less horrid version?

I know there were a few Dee's, and it seemed like Jacqueline S. was the least annoying Dee. I did see the final Dee in one of the DVD's released, and she seemed kind of bland.

I wonder if Marland could have written Annie and Dee better then the Dobson's did. Was Annie the good girl and Dee the more troubled soul?

Edited September 26, 2013 by Soaplovers

[DRW50]

1991 episode. Some is on Youtube via Oakdalian but some looked new to me.

(best part is Bob's dream about Kim and Susan)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATCUkTPZwxY

Another 1979 clip.

Funny that Ralph Mitchell is in both these clips/episodes, uploaded the same day. Weird.

[saynotoursoap]

The Greece remote was as horrid as the Andropolous family. P&G decided to film the location scenes rather than record them on tape. Studio bound interiors with filmed exterior sequences were once the standard in British dramas, but I always thought it looked odd and incongruous -particularly for an American soap. Due to budget constraints, the production crew were unable to include audio engineers, so the scenes were shot without sound. The dialogue was later dubbed over in the studio. Unfortunately, the lip movements and sound were often out of synch, so the show looked like a cheesy Godzilla movie from the 60s. The less said about all of that, the better.

[DRW50]

I read that they also used a Greek crew.

It's a wonder P&G didn't write Kim out when Nick went, since they were phasing out so many vets. I'm glad they didn't.

[DRW50]

I don't know if there was any definitive Annie. I think this has been talked about before, but I don't know.

Dee seemed to be written as more insecure than Annie.

That 1979 clip has a terrific scene between Betsy and David. If you haven't watched it yet you should. It's beautiful.

And Ralph throwing John out of his office (and I mean throwing) for being an ass. That scene had a lot of energy not quite in most of these clips.

I don't mind the slow pacing of the mourning for Dan. I think it's more that the overall show at this time seemed sluggish. I think it depends on which actors can carry this type of structure off. Many of the younger actors couldn't.

I think she was just a troubled woman, apparently not a prostitute. I don't know. I might have been mixing her up with the prostitute in the story with Kevin and Sandy.

[Mitch]

God I HATED Nick and Steve! The synopsis of the Dobson's early years make them so unpleasant! I remember scenes with Betsy and Steve at their hey day when the producers and the Steve actor thought he was the star of the show, and he is YELLING at Kim, and she does not so much as give him a "LOOK here BUSTER!" I do love that Marland and company put the character, and the actor in his place.

I can't beleive after the Dobson's f'ed the show up in their first run that they brought them back for a second time (which was better but trashier and not ATWT.) Maybe because the interim writers were SO bad.

Those sets look so flimsy! I remember one scene during the Dobsons time when James (who never seemed to DO anything but scheme against Babs all day, under the Dobson's he was the dullest, mustach twriling villan around) starting hitting the walls of the supposed high end "penthouse," and they wobbled and shook as bad as anyting on Dark Shadows, and they left the scene in!

Edited September 26, 2013 by Mitch

[DRW50]

I guess they felt the show needed more strong men, I just tend to wonder how much this worked. James seemed to be popular with viewers immediately but I've never gotten the impression Nick was overly popular.

One of those soap magazines from 1980 had a letter from a fan talking about how they were tired of that "ass" Grant dealing with Joyce, and the editor basically said oh, don't worry, now the show has stronger men like Nick.

Brad Hollister seemed to be another attempt at a "strong man" which went haywire.

[Mitch]

Well James was popular as he was , well HOT and a villan..which the show needed at that time, (besides Johnny Dixon.) I think Nick and Kim were both popular..but their storylines were duds. First it was all about hating Steve then they brought back Andrea, which didnt work, and then they put them on the backburner after marrying them (I cant believe they married them.) I really think the Dobsons were tyring to make them the new "Nancy and Chris," of Oakdale but it didnt work. Their only big storyline together after marrying was all about Betsy and Steve.

I never got the Grant thing but werent the Dobsons basically copying retread stories for Lisa and he. Joyce was already a spoiler and then didnt another woman fake an illness to get Grant?

Why did the Dobsons think that strong men had to act like ass holes?

[DRW50]

I think the writers in 1978 or 1979 (was that still Soderbergs?) had a woman named Tina faking agoraphobia to get Grant.

[P.J.]

Well, some of it was no doubt a reaction to Luke propelling GH to number one. But with Nick especially I think it was just writing a stereotypical Greek male. He seemed to be modeled a bit on Ari Onassis.

And I think Nick was intentionally written "stronger" to differentiate him from the somewhat wussy Dan.

Edited September 26, 2013 by P.J.

[DRW50]

The attempt at levity with Chris and Bob teasing Dana is a little like a kids show, but it does amuse me.

Then Bob and Barbara teasing Tom. (I like Babrara's outfit there)

This ballet stuff seems kind of dull and grafted onto Oakdale. I liked this actress on AW (apparently fans did not) but her as Bob's love interest is jarring.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIkrqLTEpX8