As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[amybrickwallace]

So will I. Good writing can cover a multitude of miscues elsewhere.

[ljacks13]

I have no idea. I do remember her saying that she has a busy life and uploads these episodes when she has the time. She tends to uploads episodes like a month at a time.

[amybrickwallace]

How long was Victoria Rowell on ATWT? Before this, I had no idea she was on any soap other than Y&R.

[DramatistDreamer]

Good question, amy. Just a guess but I don't think it could've been more than a year, if that. When I tried to look up the character history, it had Kasi Lemmons (whom I actually remember in the role) as Nella Franklin #2. So was Victoria the last Nella? She probably didn't have much of a storyline, so perhaps the character was on the way out by then?

If there's anyone with a damn good memory, I'd love to hear the story on this because I don't remember. At. All.

Edited December 6, 2014 by DramatistDreamer

[amybrickwallace]

Thanks! I know her one-time Y&R co-star, Sharon Case, was on ATWT at one point, but I guess her character was a dud.

[DRW50]

No, she wasn't the last Nella. That was another woman I don't remember the name of. I assume Rowell was in the role very briefly, and likely during one of the many periods where Nella had no real role beyond being another nursing student who chatted with Meg and Pam.

munecojim has some spring or summer 1989 episodes that also have Nella. She was sort of involved with Pam's boyfriend, Beau (she's one of the reasons they split up, although there were many reasons, like him pulling away after he lost his singing voice for a while). Nella also had a lot of apathy toward nursing, leading her to get kicked out of the program and the woman in charge telling her she was pretty sure Nella had no real interest in being a nurse, but if she wanted to prove her wrong, come back in 3-4 months or something like that. Nella and Beau decided to move to LA, although I don't think they were a couple, or they were at most possibly going to be a couple down the line. I think Marland may have either just been trying to prune down his cast (Pam also went, and with Meg and Lily leaving because of the actresses' choice, the young adult group became limited to Lien/Andy/Paul/Duke for the rest of 1989; Marland also wrote out the entire Franklin family, although I wonder if the guy who played Roy wanted to leave so the rest soon exited as a result), or he was getting viewers prepared for interracial relationships (I think this was the first black-white relationship ever even suggested on ATWT) and they were a test case.

Edited December 6, 2014 by DRW50

[amybrickwallace]

Wow, and I had never even heard of the character Nella before this! Thanks for the backstory.

[DRW50]

Nella isn't a character that gets much writeup, as she never had a major role on the show. After Marland or Joe Calhoun or whoever wrote out Heather's boyfriend's/Steve's construction partner, Tucker, they brought in Det. Roy Franklin. Several months later, they introduced his parents (his father was played by Palmer Deane, of The Doctors, I think) and his kid sister, Nella. Nella resented Heather as being perfect and fake. Heather worked hard to win her over, and by summer 1986, Nella confided in her that she was pregnant. The father was a gang member involved in an operation Roy was trying to bring down. I think Nella got caught up in this. She asked Heather to keep quiet about the pregnancy. She ultimately lost the baby, and the tension over the secret helped lead Roy and Heather to break their engagement. Heather went away for a while, and since Tonya Pinkins was fired with some acrimony by Calhoun (she claimed she left for a vacation and they essentially just told her not to bother coming back), Heather was never seen again.

At some point, Roy's father died, and his wife became involved with helping run charity services at the hospital. Nella joined the nurses' programs. They were seen in that capacity, and sometimes with Roy and his new girlfriend, Jessica Griffin.

Roy left in late 1988, presumably due to being upset over how much time his fiancee Jessica spent helping Duncan (as he was one of several people who thought Duncan and Jessica harbored feelings for each other). Nella and their mother soon followed.

Edited December 7, 2014 by DRW50

[slick jones]

One thing that Marland did was build large families for his characters. Roy's family:

Detective Roy Franklin...Count Stovall

Leonard Franklin...Charles Dumas and Mel Winkler...father

Sarah __Franklin...Novella Nelson...mother...later Judge Fitzwater on OLTL

Leonard Franklin, Jr. ...Never Seen...shot by a cop...brother

Nella Franklin...Tiffani Caesar,85-86...Kasi Lemmons 86-89...Victoria Rowell...88. I think she was a sub for a few weeks

Amy___ Phillips Franklin... Karen Evans Kandel ...abused by her first husband Lloyd, she married Roy shortly before he left.

Frank... Nella's boyfriend shot by Roy... Roy's father didn't speak to him because it reminded him of Junior. Not sure if he was shown or just talked about.

Lloyd Phillips...Amy's abusive husband, almost killed her...played by??????????

The Griffen family was fairly large as well. Say what you want about Marland, one of my favorite writers, but he was colorblind whe it came to talent! I know they were mostly recurring, but the families fleshed out Roy and Jessica.

Edited December 7, 2014 by slick jones

[DRW50]

Thanks. I don't think I ever saw most of that with Roy and Amy. Just a little, maybe.

So who did Palmer Deane play? Was it Heather's father?

I do agree that Marland slowly built up diversity in Oakdale, to the point where Jessica had the potential to be a major heroine. I wonder what might have been if he'd lived. I guess Tamara Tunie may have left anyway, but the last year or so of Jessica's material can't have enticed her to stay.

[slick jones]

I have four actors playing Lionel Dalton over the years:

Earle Hyman of the Cosby Show

Roscoe Lee Browne of Soap[briefly]

James Moody

Palmer Deane

I don't know who played Amy's ex husband. It was my freshman year at college in 89, and I had all afternoon classes my first trimester, so I had to rely on magazines to know what was going on.

As for Jessica,TT was fantastic, and I was surprised she went back after the recast. She had some terrible years there though.

[DramatistDreamer]

See, that's what I initially thought that Kasi Lemmons, not Victoria was the final Nella. I'm guessing too that V.R. was a temporary replacement but in my mind I didn't have Kasi starting in the role as early as '86!

I remember the first Nella very clearly (her eye roll in a weird way reminds me of Drucilla's) I also remember Nella being interested in Beau and them leaving together.

Count Stovall played Det. Roy Franklin by the way. I think his departure probably had much to do with him not getting a decent storyline. It probably couldn't have felt very good to know that Hal, who appeared around the same time, got a meaty storyline, love triangle and wedding-- even Mac got his courtship and wedding to Nancy Hughes. I wouldn't be surprised if Count Stovall felt his character was being left out in the cold.

Count Stovall does theater these days, by the way.

[DRW50]

I didn't remember that Lemmons was still playing the role at the end. I thought she was on AW by this time. I guess it may be that I haven't seen her 1986 work and just remember the first Nella who was there until 1986.

I wish they'd explored more of her feeling restless and rebelling somewhat at the end, that they'd kept her around. The show was very, very safe and quaint at this time and could have used the edge. I loved Julie but when she's the edgiest person in Oakdale...I'm not sure what to say.

Edited December 7, 2014 by DRW50

[amybrickwallace]

Speaking of the late Roscoe Lee Browne (one of the greatest character actors of all time, as far as I'm concerned), I just saw him yesterday morning on a Law & Order rerun on TNT. It was from 2003 and he played a defense attorney.

[DramatistDreamer]

In another bit of interesting trivia, Tiffani Caesar (Nella #1) was the daughter of actor Adolph Caesar (A Soldier's Story, The Color Purple).