As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[slick jones]

I have the book, too, I've tied a bunch of sites as well. Maybe someday those old archived episodes somewhere will turn up, and we'll find out!

[amybrickwallace]

She's not listed under ATWT's entry in the old book Soap World, either.

[DRW50]

Two 1962/63 episodes. The first one, the first part hasn't been on Youtube in a while. The second part was, but in lower quality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp9gL9O6Jtk&list=UU1SN29flGTjicPnAzxJM28A&index=4

The second one; for some reason this is labeled as part 2, but it's the first part.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaWIFFCHYMM&list=UU1SN29flGTjicPnAzxJM28A&index=1

The tightly wound neuroses of Nancy and Lisa and the tension between Grandpa and Nancy always fascinates me. Irna Philips really knew how to write the troubled undercurrents of the "typical" American family.

Grandpa's wide-eyed shaming sessions on Lisa also amuse me.

Edited November 20, 2014 by DRW50

[Mitch]

Thanks I love it! After you get used to the Night of the Living Dead music cues (I thought when Lisa came down the stairs that Bruce was going to be a zombie or something) you can really get caught up in it.

I love that the writers and producers Dobsons up until Marland viewed the Hughes as the boring all American family while as you say, Phillips showed the tensions and problems in a core family. They didnt have to sit around and serve coffee and listen to others problems. I like that Lisa is a relatable "bad girl, " not vamping it up and snearing...she is a silly young married woman who got caught up in this affair and doesnt know what to do. I also like her subtle bitchiness and manipulations...she is all sweet with Nancy about Penny keeping Tom, but throwing in a little inference that she is the long suffering mother giving up for her child, and then breaking bad on Penny to Bob later. I like her also insunuating about Nancy's control issues...("Well I tried to help but your mother wouldnt let me." ) They hadnt got to point of Nancy/Lisa dynamic I remember. I like that Grandpa was trying to hint to Nancy something was up and Nancy purposely ignoring it and then his funny, "Well she'll be suprised all right!"

I like the other segment with Grandpa and Lisa..it all seems so natural and not over the top as soaps became..plust its fun to see, what Fulton and Hastings referred to as "The Bordello," Granpa's tacky bedroom.

GL really lost an opportunity when they went to Peapack. They should have told these kinds of stories which would be realistlcally take place on lving room sets. I think that this might have really counterprogrammed GH and the mob and really set it apart from other soaps..even if it failed it failed anyway. GL kept going with business take overs and hunky jewel theifs and assasains and special agents and it didnt work on that budget.

[DRW50]

I can't help wondering if what you describe is why the average viewer at the time hated Lisa - because they had met someone like this in their life (sly, "sweet," restless, quietly conniving).

I agree with you about what GL should have done. The early soaps had a bare bones budget. They survived on human, relateable drama. Soaps are ashamed of that now. Just look at something like Walking Dead, which is full of that type of thing.

[amybrickwallace]

That's really a shame. As long as you have strong actors and good writing, the rest will fall into place.

[Mitch]

Yea, isnt it funny that a show about a zombie apocolypse has more human intereaction and relatablility then any soap now...well, I have to say, I havent see one since ATWT went off the arit but when Im home and I flip through channels they all look so cliched and stupid.

Its sad about GL, as I knew the hey day was gone but I thought the idea was interesting and could have brought soaps back to its roots..every day people dealing with slightly hightened reality..but Wheeler kept the bad cliched types she had no budget for.

Yea, its funny, I remember my Mom saying she had to watch that "Damn Lisa," was up to, (it was my quiet time so she could watch the shenangians..) so I always thought Lisa was really, really bad in her hey day. But watching this (and it is much earlier Lisa then my reference) she was just a silly manipulative girl who made bad choices. Nowadays Lisa would have poisioned Bob, gaslighted Grandpa, etc. Watching these episodes it really does seem as the crtiics did that Phillips wanted to show a slice of life and that is what hooked viewers. Too bad it became old hat in the 70s and 80s,

Maybe what needs to happen is that the generation who grew up on the 80s camp and excess, will leave, the remaining soaps die off, and then a new generation will recreate them. Look at NPR's "Serial," a tiny little podcast which has a million listeners each time, sure its about a murder, and its real but its a continuing story with just voice overs like a radio soap, and its a huge hit with no budget at all.

Edited November 21, 2014 by Mitch

[Paul Raven]

Variety May 24th 1967

Negro actor P. Jay Sidney has notified producers of the Procter & Gamble-CBS soaper, "As the World Turns," that he will not work the strip again without a contract. Sidney, who has made 14 appearances on the show, claims that white actors with similar feature roles are on contract.

Sidney played Dr Bellamy. I wonder what the outcome of that was.Irna Phillips wanted to include Black actors on the show but refused to show them as janitors etc

Nonetheless,she did not take kindly to actors setting the agenda. Maybe she would have had little to do with this and Dr Bellamy was dropped quickly and quietly.

[amybrickwallace]

That's interesting - and then he would start on The Doctors a few months later.

[ljacks13]

May 31, 1988

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[DramatistDreamer]

ljacks13

And I was just wondering if AsTheWorldStillTurns was okay because I hadn't seen a new upload recently.

Thanks!

[Mitch]

LOL..."I love Craig like he was another son." Lisa, had "adopted," half the town by then and most of the under 30 characters. Its sad what they did to her under Goutman and Sheffer when she was so isolated..I can't believe she would not have been involved in Carly's shenagans half the time trying to right her wrongs and the other half aiding and abateing her. Did Lisa and Tom ever have scenes with the NuCraig guy? Bryce looked cute in this with the longer hair but of course, he was blubbering about to cry which all I remember him doing under Marland. Everybody besides Craigs hair is so bad!

[amybrickwallace]

I know. Even by 80s standards, the hair was hideous!!!

[DramatistDreamer]

The late 1980s hair and clothes were a special kind of bad though. I remember seeing a recent episode where Betsey was wearing what had to be the beginnings of the Mom jeans (did we discuss that on this board? I feel like we did).

Only a few years ago, there were so many cute bobs and precision haircuts (Barbara and Sierra, etc), now even Dusty (whom I always adored) is sporting an ugly looking half mullet. Flyaways and frizz galore and weird side ponytails on grown women.

AsTheWorldStillTurns posted an undated episode and Victoria Rowell is playing Nella Franklin, Roy's sister. Funny how I remember the other two Nellas (the 1st and the last) but don't remember her in the role, of all people! So funny how she's playing a sweeter version of Nella than the original actress, who, attitude-wise would've had more in common with Drucilla.

[Mitch]

The sets seemed to be especially dark and ugly too. I don't remember that with Bunim and of course, by this time GL had always had better, brighter sets. But I will take the better writing anyday.