As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[Mitch]

I forgot Ryder was actaully "Teddy!" That would have been great to have Joyce try to come back in his life, and slowly turn him against the Hughes...all the while maybe living with Bob and Kim. I woulda loved to see Kim give Joyce a big KIDDO!  Joyce "Wow, and I used to think LISA was the bitch!"

[DramatistDreamer]

Did ATWT ever bring back a teen MJ Dixon?  If Aaron returned in his late teens so should've MJ.  

[Soapsuds]

Nope…unfortunately it never happened. Cancellation and bad writing prevented that….

[John]

iva and john's son right

 

so brother to lily, rose craig and margo

 

so many possibles ughh

 

caseys prison pal matt could have been mj

Edited May 6, 2016 by John

[Soapsuds]

Matt was a great character…and the actor was as well…he was a fan fav and was brought back a few times but was never offered a contract…shame….I remember at the time fans speculating whose Oakdale son he was….of course the writers at the time had no clue what to do such a wasted opportunity.

Matt and Casey…I think this was the last time he was seen….

[DramatistDreamer]

 

Yeah, Iva & John's son.  ATWT did not manage characters (especially young adult ones) very well in the last fifteen years of the show.  This mismanagement cost the show a lot in the end.

[NothinButAttitude]

I've said this countless times. The writing was there. Plus MJ's real name is Matthew John. I swear JP and CG were morons. 

[Khan]

Honestly, you could write a book (or several) on all the missed opportunities on ATWT.  But what's even MORE amazing to me is that despite P&G's very best efforts, ATWT remained, at the very end, about one good HW and EP away from being a truly good (if not great) show again.  Enough of what was good about the show in the first place remained intact enough, IMO, to rebuild upon; and what had been lost could have been restored with minimal effort.  I don't think you could say the same about GL -- and I say THAT as someone who adored GL the most.

[Soapsuds]

@Khan I am curious who you would have hired as HW and EP if you were in charge?

 

[NothinButAttitude]

Yeah. GL was practically decimated to nothingness in the end. I don't think it would've been easy to fix as ATWT or AW both could've easily been. I think with ATWT all the show had to do was refocus the show on the Hughes and resort back to its community centered, glacial paced, complex stories.

 

The cast didn't even need real retooling. The character that were needed were already there. Just drop a few of the deadweight and bring a few legacy characters back for the younger generation and we would've had a show. 

 

I would've brought back John to put Lisa and Lucinda back at odds again.

 

For the middle aged crowd, I would've brought back Scott (Lisa's son) and Seth. 

 

I would've created a young female ingenue, preferably a daughter of Frannie or Sabrina, to be the new Hughes heroine of the show. Also, I would've brought back MJ, Dani, Ryder, Aaron, Hope, Jeremy, 1-2 of the Stewart quads, and Jessica/Ben's adopted kids, Sarah and Curtis to add diversity. 

[DRW50]

And yet GL still managed a much better final week than ATWT did.

[NothinButAttitude]

They sure did. That's because as dreadful as Ellen was as EP, she at least had the better sense to bring back characters we loved. Plus, they also had Jill Lorie Hurst, who cleaned up a lot of GL--as much as she could.

[Khan]

Good question.  Many believe Wendy Riche (GH) might have made for a good EP.  However, I might have gone in a different direction and hired someone like Edward Scott (Y&R, B&B).  And if I couldn't have persuaded Nancy Curlee (GL) to come out of retirement, or Kay Alden (Y&R) to set aside whatever issues she might have had with Scott when the two worked together at Y&R, then I might have thought outside the box and hired a novelist such as Richard Russo or Jane Smiley.  After all, CBS' Lucy Johnson had wanted August Wilson to succeed Marland (allegedly) and although I'm not entirely sure that's true, if it WERE true, I think it would have been a step in the right direction. 

True dat.  

That's true as well.  I mean, forget about attempting to usher in a new golden era for that particular show.  You would have needed to junk about 90 percent of the regular cast AND re-revamp the entire production model (a more definite hybrid of studio and on-location taping with someone in charge who knew how to pull it together and make it more economically feasible) just to make the damn thing watchable again.

[Soapsuds]

I would have brought back Robert Calhoun as EP and fired Caso once ATWT became stale…..I would have rehired Susan Bedsow Horgan. I liked her ATWT….I am not sure if it would have saved the show but at least both EP and HW had history with the show.

Edited May 7, 2016 by Soapsuds

[Khan]

It's funny, but most of the time, whenever a soap opera is cancelled, it feels almost like a mercy killing.  You're not glad to see it go, but at the same time, you are almost relieved that nobody else can mess with it anymore.  But ATWT and EON are probably the two shows I can think of that I would say didn't NEED to be put down.