As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[antmunoz]

Ellen dated and--GASP!--slept with Dr. Russ Matthews...I mean, Ben Forrest (David Bailey). She had a sassy next door neighbor, Suz (Betsy Palmer) and a circle of GOLDEN GIRLS precursors. It didn't last. I think the whole storyline lasted a year, tops. I bet Forsythe and Bruder were PISSED. They went back to "moral, upstanding (BORING) couple" when they coulda had a shot at some action. David and Lyla? Susan? Ellen and John? Wouldn't that have just energized Oakdale? Many marriages end after the kids are grown and gone. David's eventual offscreen death did nothing for Ellen or the show.

[Limenade]

During the Tad Channing mystery, Marland gave David and Ellen a beautiful and long scene, where Ellen revealed that she felt her marriage disintegrating because of David's continual absence and focus on medical research. The scene made a strong impression on me because it was so unexpectedly long and probing in the midst of short, staccato interchanges among key players in the mystery, and also by then the couple was playing guardians of the young and did not have stories of their own. (I think it happened the night Betsy and Craig left Oakdale to find Steve, who skipped town after running into Channing at the construction site the stormy night of the murder. I believe David and Ellen stayed behind at the cabin to look after Dannie. David remarked how a good marriage like Betsy and Steve could just explode, whereupon Ellen mused, "some marriages explode, some simply disintegrate," then went on to say how she could not be like Nancy and Chris, who had no regrets in their marriage, because she had regrets.)

Sadly, Marland didn't do too much with it, and soon David left for Africa for AIDS research. But I got the feeling it was also a case where Forsythe probably had theater projects lining up and simply could not appear on ATWT regularly, so Marland obliged.

[P.J.]

Yeah, I think Forsythe lost a lot of interest in ATWT after his run in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

[Soapsuds]

Reunited

[DRW50]

That's sweet.

I really wish Liz was on my TV somewhere.

[Mitch]

I think over that summer of 80, or 81 HF was off doing the road tour of "Whorehouse," so they had David disappear right after John was run over, and of course, they had him as a major suspect in the piss poor "mystery," that became of it. They would bring in Chris for a scene every month or so where Ellen would worry about David's whereabouts. It was stupid that they had Jame run him over as A) James would hire someone and if he did want to run over someone he would not miss, and B, it made his character a cartoon (all I remember him during the Dobson's is rubbing his hands together for some dumb master plan of his.) Jame should have been much closer to Alan Spaulding, a conflicted villain. So they brought him back right before the Dobson's came back. And yes, Ellen moved into some swinging Oldster complex, which was weird, as they had her lonely and loosing touch with her old friends instead of how Marland would write it, as everyone supporting her (the Dobsons really took the idea of Oakdale being a community and threw it in the toilet.) Even weirder was boring Ellen screwing the hot doctor. Ellen's sex life, nawww, I don't need to know anything about it.

I thought at the time it would have been interesting to have Lisa go after David...reigniting the Ellen and Lisa fued. Imagine what Nancy would say (though Wagner was off the show then) about her "daughter," going after her family friend's husband? It would also bring back Bitch Lisa (Fulton would have loved it) and made her town pariah again. I woulda brought back a recast Don and had him screwing Ellen just to REALLY get Nancy clutching her pearls and the town in an uproar!

I

Larry and Frannie were together? What was it about her that attracted nuts or turned nomal guys onto older women? Larry was hilarious as he never appeared "straight, " for a minute so I would have thought they would have him run off with a guy not a woman.

Edited October 22, 2013 by Mitch

[DRW50]

That story for Ellen and Lisa would have been great (and if Don got involved, they could have brought Penny back to have a reaction).

Larry was the guy Frannie had been involved with during her time in Boston (the two years Frannie was away as they recast Julianne Moore). He'd cheated on her or something. When she came back to Oakdale, she was gunshy of a relationship, which led to some baggage with Sean Baxter. Then Larry came to Oakdale and wanted to win her back, but lost out to Daryll.

[DRW50]

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[Mitch]

That woulda been fun to see Lisa being a real bitch again (instead of just saying bitchy things to John,etc.) and to see her spice up David...(I wonder if she and HF would have had chemistry...he seemed so laid back all the time, I wonder if it would work.) Also fun to see the wimpy Annie and Dull Dee freak out over their dad screwing the middle aged town slut!

[DRW50]

They also could have had Lisa fighting with that daughter of David's other wife...Karen. I wonder if Eileen would have stayed on the show if she'd had something fun to play.

What did you think of Craig back at this time? Most of what I've seen he's mostly blowing up in a neurotic fashion. I think you said you didn't like Cricket or Lyla (not sure what you said about MC's Margo).

Edited October 22, 2013 by DRW50

[SoapDope]

Your not going to believe this, but I was going to post the exact same thing about Lisa going after David. That would have been an awesome storyline. Don screwing Ellen is too funny. Who did you have in mind as the recast ? Conard Fowkes was good as Don.

Ed Fry who played Larry did a series of commercials with Mary Ellen Stuart (Frannie) for Rooms To Go for close to 15 years.

I really liked Mary Ellen as Frannie. I didn't care for Julianne Moore at all. I still don't like her all that much as an actress and never thought she was attractive.

[Vee]

Jesus, some of these sets from the late '70s look like they haven't been renovated since Day 1. It's like Dark Shadows infrastructure and tone - when everything about the "present-day" storylines and vibe seemed off and weird in some way.

[Soaplovers]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who liked Mary Ellen Stuart as Frannie! She was nice, but also had a backbone and was intelligent for the most part. If she hadn't opted to leave the show right before Marland died, do you think the character of Frannie would have survived well into the 90s?

[DRW50]

I don't know, as the show was so focused on phasing out the Hughes family in favor of new characters. MES was great as Frannie and a very good youngish heroine (which the show didn't have a lot of at that point), so she might have gotten some of the stories they later tried giving to characters like Connor.

[saynotoursoap]

I liked Teri Vandenbosch's Frannie and found Julianne Moore an adjustment, but I felt she really grew as an actress on ATWT. I will also say this, she is one of the classiest former soaps stars around. She is an Emmy award winner and has been nominated for a handful of Oscars, yet she asked to return to As the World Turns for one last time before it left the air, because she harbored such warm feelings toward it and the audience that made her star. There are damn few performers with this attitude, and some, such as Meg Ryan, would rather pretend the show never existed. I think Julianne is wonderful.

Edited October 23, 2013 by saynotoursoap