As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[juniorz1]

It's the little chain-looking icon next to the smiley face in the post screen. You click on that and paste the link in the box. There's also another box below it where you can name the link like this:

EARLY MAURA- Carly and Mike do the Nasty

1995 was pretty awesome, thanks to Maura's arrival as Carly and the Rosanna/Mike/Carly triangle.

God, re-watching those Colleen scenes and now the vintage Maura is making me miss the hell out of ATWT. Hard to believe it's almost been a year.

[DRW50]

[DRW50]

Thanks so very much for the writeup on ATWT. It's a good reminder of when networks had patience nad support for soaps, and didn't expect quick miracles. And of how unique ATWT was.

Of all the soaps that have gone off in recent years ATWT was the one I still felt had the most life in it, even if the last 15 years of the show I was often so upset by.

[KMan101]

I agree with you Carl. ATWT seemed to have a lot of untapped potential. I think GL had healthy veterans and bones, but the format it had turned into, it wasn't working, and GL had wasted away a lot of their vets between the Rauch and Conboy eras, hell, even starting with JFP.

It's a shame so much of the past was ignored on both soaps.

[saynotoursoap]

I agree with you two, as well. ATWT and GL had life in them as long as they were well-managed. The problem was that they were woefully mis-managed for years by Procter and Gamble and CBS.

Carl is correct. The downhill slide with ATWT began in 1995 when P&G sacked Laurie Caso. Caso understood the dynamics of World Turns and supported the strong familial foundation. John Valente replaced him and attempted to make the show more like an NBC serial. Then Felcia Minei Behr tried to give it an ABC feel by adding popular actors from other networks and changing the tone of the storylines. However, the true beginning of the end was when Chris Goutman got his hands on the series. He and Hogan Sheffer wanted ATWT to be a reincarnated Edge of Night. Instead of simply adapting the form to contemporary tastes while remaining true to the soap's history, they completely gutted it. Goutman & Sheffer eliminated aspects which endeared the show to longtime fans and substituted it with their juvenile, frat boy mentality of character assassinations, amped up violence, and trivialization of the core characters.

Like Carl, I am alternately sickened and infuriated at what happened to the series. Yes, I realize that at least 2 million viewers continued to find interest in the show, but what about the 6 million of us who were driven away? Another poster mentioned Carly/Mike/Rosanna. To me, this is a sterling example of what went wrong. Who were these characters? They had no ties to the Hughes family. In my opinion, Rosanna was one of the most annoying characters ever, regardless of who played her. She even managed to surpass Lily in getting on my nerves. An irritating ingenue is bad enough, but try one who also has a massive chip on her shoulder. Ok, Mike was cute, but again, he was a typical Marland male: buff, boring, and stupid. I enjoyed Maura West's Carly initially, and the biggest mistake the producers ever made was not keeping her with John Dixon. At least with John she had a purpose and ties to the core vets. When she was paired with Jack, and they gobbled up the show like GL's Josh and Reva, I not only lost interest, I began to actively dislike them for carjacking screen time from the real stars. I never understood why the writers kept bringing in all of these people with no relations or ties when they could have easily mined the Hughes and Stewart families for characters. There were so many missed and/or wasted opportunities, and we were losers.

[DRW50]

I thought the biggest problem with Jack and Carly was the material - they had the same story again and again. The show never really let them mature, the way Tom and Margo did throughout the 80's.

The worst part of the attempts at EON is that Sheffer and Goutman were woefully unsuited to that type of material. I don't remember any story in this time ever having any good ending or followthrough.

I never knew why they were so reluctant to bring back any Hughes (except for Chris, again and again). I think they just assumed viewers were too stupid to know the show's history and were ashamed of the soap format and the show's legacy. Even at the end, when Nancy passed away, there was not one mention of most of the family. They somehow managed to mention Susan Hughes, who died before the show began, but nothing of people viewers had seen onscreen and would know.

[KMan101]

When Nancy died, where were Don Hughes? Penny Hughes? Not to mention, many others.

I also think the soap missed the boat on Andy Dixon. I would have brought him back in a heartbeat.

Didn't Don have a son (Teddy, then Ryder in the '90s)? Though that storyline sounded badly mishandled. And doesn't he have a daughter?

I noticed whoever was in charge around that time also tried to bring on Dani, to pretty miserable results. You bring her on, then phase out Ellen? What sense does that make?

I dunno, but yeah, ATWT was badly mismanaged for a very long time. GL too. I look at their histories and for fun can come up with tons of material. Not saying it's great, but it was there to be used.

P&G never seemed to really give a damn, considering their constant efforts to infuse the soap with new characters, starting even way back in the 80s when all P&G soaps phased out many veterans. While a lot of new characters took off, I think it started the downfall. The 90s for most soaps seemed to be some effort made but then the 2000s, no real effort was made to bring anyone back from the past.

[P.J.]

Well, you can't have everyone have a tie to the Hughes family---you end up with B&B, which is incestuous to the point of ridiculousness. The important point is that there's balance. There were certainly other characters besides Hughes' that could have been brought back. Why they never recast Scott Eldredge (who's still related to a Hughes) is beyond me.

[DRW50]

February 1957 TV Radio Mirror.

[DRW50]

I think the problem with B&B is overusing the same Forresters. There are a lot of Hughes that didn't need to return, but Frannie, or Andy, for instance, could have easily fit back into story. Why not do that instead of bringing back Meg as a brand new character.

I also wish they had brought in Edith Hughes or her and Chris' brother. saynotoursoap uploaded a very rare 1957 episode that shows us more on these characters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_k8oF82bvQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loGVdFM5q04&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Edited June 26, 2011 by CarlD2

[Paul Raven]

They took their eye off the ball by ignoring the Hughes and Stewarts and later the Snyders.. One thing that happened when the shows went to an hour and the years went by was that so many characters came and went and the cast was a mixture of several writing regimes.

There should always been a committment to having core characters involved at some level.It is easier to use vets if they can connect with family members.

I think that CBS and P&G thought that by backburning the central families,they would shake off the 'dowdy' perception these shows had. It didn't work.

Characters that were under utilised

Andy Dixon

Frannie Hughes (and her children)

Sabrina

Rick Ryan-he should have been brought back along with Barbara in the late 70's

Kristina Hughes

Ryder

The Ward children

Dee Stewart-again she should have come back and by the late 90's her children would be major players.

Ellie Snyder

Had they not done Frannie/Sabrina and Scott,they could have brought back Chuck Shea by having Lisa discover the son she raised was accidentally switched at birth

[DRW50]

I've always wondered what happened with Rick Ryan when they brought Gary Hudson in in 1982. That ended up being so short-lived.

[Paul Raven]

I'd forgotten all about Rick's 82 return,That was such a bad time for the show with lot's of writer and cast changes and dreary stories.

[DRW50]

I'm always so confused by the timelines with the Aaron story. I know in some mid-1993 episodes John and Iva are back together. I can't remember if he knew by then. In late 1993 he was going to sue her for custody (perhaps that was just for MJ). At the time did you think they had Iva get pregnant with MJ to somehow make up for the impending loss of Aaron?

I have wondered for a while what the story plans would have been for Iva if Doug Marland had lived. He and Lisa Brown were very close friends and I don't know if he would have let them write Iva out, if he had any say in the matter.

What I hated most about the Aaron story is that after Holden took Aaron I don't remember him spending any time with Aaron at all. He just dumped the kid off on people. At the time that infuriated me, especially since Iva was gone and that meant a year and a half of Holden moping about Lily and staring into space. No thanks.

[DRW50]

Sorry, I'd forgotten I hadn't finished the Anne Burr article.