As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[DRW50]

No, just that it was a campy, fun entrance.

 

[NothinButAttitude]

Duncan truly looked like he had seen a ghost. 

[DramatistDreamer]

 

Edited September 20, 2015 by DramatistDreamer

[Mitch]

If anyone watches "Once Upon a Time," (I know, I know, its a guilty pleasure...actually a soap opera about an extended family that just happens to involve Snow White and the Evil Queen) the character of Zelena could be Lilith's twin sister...tall red head with an accent, who most importantly is bat [!@#$%^&*] crazy and loves to chew the scenery while telling everyone beforehand (in the form of a gloat) exactly what supremely stupid and over convoluted evil scheme she will be up to next. Since Once owe's much to soaps Zelena is actually the Wicked Witch of the West who just happens to be, due to convoluted plot points, the Evil Queen's illegitimate sister who, tricked her boyfriend into impregnating her by magically impersonating the guy's thought to be dead wife (who actually is dead, because, you guessed it, Zelena killed her. )
 

The posters on the Once board HATE her but I love her similarity to Lilith and that the writers have basically embraced soap insanity and over the top storylines.. I almost swear that they are doing a homage to Lilith. I would know for sure if Zelena produced Robin's shrunken head to taunt Regina with (which, since this is Once, the Blue Fairy or someone would come up with a dumb spell to revert his to his old self.

[Soapsuds]

Lilieth was pure camp through her entire run on ATWT. Isabella…LMAO…I remember when she used that name to introduce herself to Oakdale…she was a hoot!

[DramatistDreamer]

Almost all of Duncan's story lines were camp.  Especially in the '80s.

[NothinButAttitude]

 

So clearly this was before Sierra found out about Craig/Lucinda's tryst. After the reveal, she'd go on and marry Tonio, correct? 

 

The exchange between John and Lisa was hilarious. I've never seen someone wind Lisa up like John did in this scene. It was also funny of Lisa to rehash all of John's history and all the women he screwed over, and for Lyla to soon follow and back Lisa's argument. I wondered why the show never attempted a Lyla/John pairing. Those two always seemed to have a good chemistry, and from watching old clips of ATWT, Lyla has been one of the few that knows how to chin-check John every now and then. I did feel bad for John watching him become deflated once he spotted Craig kissing Sierra. 

 

I wish that the episode where Marie Kovac was killed was post back on YT. Heck, I'd like to watch that whole arc. While Marie was a bit of a flop character (according to some ATWT old fans), she did play a pivotal role in one of the show's greatest stories/murder mysteries. 

 

And was Marsha the one that sent the note to the police to get the police off her track and onto Lucinda's? 

[DramatistDreamer]

I think in the previous year (1985) there were some shadings of Lyla and John possibly getting together before John became obsessed with Sierra after also having a thing briefly for Shannon.  I remember there was supposed to be a date one episode and Lyla, I think cancelled.  On another occasion during Kim and Bob's wedding, John coarsely or inconsiderately (I'm not sure which one) threw out a remark, reminding Lyla of her broken engagement with Bob (gosh, I wish that storyline with Margo's paternity reveal were on You Tube as I've never seen it!).  I think John was in his feelings about Kim marrying Bob and decided that misery loves company so he wanted to make Lyla feel like crap on an otherwise happy occasion.

 

I didn't feel sorry for John at all during the Craig and Sierra storyline.  John  often went after  after the younger bird (Shannon and then Sierra , even though neither never gave any indication that she was interested in anything other than friendship) and that's one of the reasons why Lyla nixed giving it another go with John and she made the right decision.  John and Lucinda were made for each other.

 

And yeah, NBA, Sierra would eventually run off and marry Tonio Reyes, her childhood friend, who she later told Lucinda was the biggest mistake of her life.  I would love to see that episode where Sierra cheats on Tonio and takes Craig to bed at the Foxwood Lodge (I saw that episode when it first aired but would love to see it again LOL).

Edited September 26, 2015 by DramatistDreamer

[Mitch]

I don't know, considering their history a Lyla and John reunion would have been weird. Original recipe Lyla (the first actress, who I am sorry, played her with more spunk then the wet rag that the next actress played) was a slut who was getting it on with John in a bid for a social climb and then dumped him when someone with money came along ( I would have loved to have seen what the Dobsons were attempting to do with the Governor storyline...the man who Lyla dumped John who eventually dumped poor preggers Lyla, became Gov of the state and John were taunt her about him but that was dropped.) We knew she was a slut because the flashbacks would show her in a sarong type thing with a drink in hand dancing with John (the shame...) Ann Swards Lyla came in and with her wet rag potrayal (she made Ellen look interesting) that was dropped.

[DramatistDreamer]

Ouch Mitch, tell us how you really feel (lol)!  Anne Sward was really the only Lyla I've known (I don't count Lee Bryant who was just filler) and I didn't think she was bad but I would have loved to see those earlier storylines where Veleka Gray played Lyla.  When ATWT briefly brought back Bart Montgomery later on, he seemed a bit down on his luck. 

Well, Margo was a bit of a slut too at one time so, I guess it ran in the family (lol).

Edited September 26, 2015 by DramatistDreamer

[NothinButAttitude]

Oh wow. I didn't know that Lyla was originally intended to be a slutty character. But I guess b/c I've never seen scenes with Veleka Gray in the role. IMO, I think Lyla would've been more interesting if she was a bit more sultry than the drip she was. I like Lyla but she always comes off as sullen and meek all the time. I always wonder how she bagged a sexpot like Casey Peretti being as dowdy as she was. 

 

And poor John has always had a thing for younger women even though his best pairings (IMO) were with women who were his contemporaries (i.e. Lucinda/Lisa/Emma). I do get mad all over again at how the show allowed Larry Bryggman to walk away when John Dixon was a character that could wreak havoc and drive the whole show just off his antics. I would've enjoyed the show had they put Bob and John against each other again for the hospital OR a Lisa/Lucinda/John triangle at the end of the show. Plus, with Dusty's return, it would've been good to see them interact too. 

 

But all this recent ATWT viewing I've been doing along with the talks I've had with you all make me wish that P&G would just release all the episodes in their vault to the public instead of allowing them to rot. I seriously would love to watch all the episodes of ATWT from the 80s that I can. I just find it to be an interesting era of the show. 

[DramatistDreamer]

 

 

Me too.  I miss ATWT a hella lot, especially the 80s episodes.  I know some fans have their favorite eras and some disparage the Dobsons while others disparage Marland but let's face it-- both regimes were better than Sheffer by a country mile even during Hogan's best days!  Even the strike/scab material beats what I see on 90% of today's remaining soaps. 

Edited September 26, 2015 by DramatistDreamer

[NothinButAttitude]

So agree. I'm sure that the Dobson or Marland at their 'worst' is better than what is onscreen now. 

 

But what I miss most about soaps and what I get from watching old clips of all of the soaps are there sense of identity. Each soap had it's own identity, which separated it from the rest. You don't get that now as they all just worry about telling the next shock story. Shock storytelling will boost your ratings for a second but the payoff (if sucky) will turn people off. 

[DRW50]

I think Lyla was a strong woman during Marland's era - I rarely felt she was sullen or meek. She was somewhat somber, and she definitely was not suited to sexy or risque material (she couldn't even sing uptempo numbers) but she had humor and grit. It's only in the pre-Marland years I've found her to be a wet rag. I think they kept her in the shadows somewhat while Maggie was around and then after Marland wrote Maggie out he gave Lyla more personality.

 

From what I remember (although I may have it backwards), Sierra learned that Lucinda was her mother. She was upset but tried to get over it. She went to talk to Lily, who resented her and felt Sierra had taken Lucinda away from her, and Lily told her about Craig and Lucinda, which she thought Sierra already knew about. 

 

This was around the time Marland still wrote Lily as flawed and allowed people (usually John, sometimes Dusty) to call her out. By 1987 that had mostly faded away.

Edited September 27, 2015 by DRW50

[BetterForgotten]

I prefer to only watch Lily when I could stand her - when Heather Rattray was in the role. 

 

She was so much better than Byrne ever was, and I hate how some have dismissed her as a failed recast, ugh, such revisionist history. 

Edited September 27, 2015 by BetterForgotten