As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[Jerry675]

 

[DramatistDreamer]

Anyone familiar with a writer named Percy Granger?

 

I was watching an episode from the 1980s and in the closing credits decided to 'zero in' on the writing staff under Marland and my eye caught the name Percy Granger (my eyes usually see Meredith Post and then daze over because the names tend to go by quickly, at some point).

 

Out of the blue, I decided to Google the name Percy Granger and came up with this fascinating obituary (a bit morbid, I know). They do mention his writing for As The World Turns and Loving waaaay at the bottom but one of his plays Scherazade was a sartire that took place behind the scenes of a soap opera and how soap opera can mirror life.  

I think I may try to see if I can find a copy to borrow through the library system.

 

Percy Granger, 51, Author of Satirical Plays

 

I wonder whether he might have written the episode that I just watched which contained a few zany scenes.

[Soapsuds]

I  believe he is related to Farley Granger, who played Earl Mitchell and was the bf of Lisa McColl and uncle of Shannon O'Hara. I think they might have been cousins. 

[DramatistDreamer]

 

Earl Mitchell was more than Lisa's bf, he was her husband, LOL.

 

I've got to see if I can read Farley Granger's autobiography because maybe there's more information in there but I don't see anything written about them being related.

Farley's Wikipedia page does mention there being some confusion with a British actor with the same last name.  Also, Farley Granger and Robert Calhoun were partners.

Farley's wiki page sounds like bragging though as he mentioned the torrid affairs he had with both men and women (apparently sometimes in the same night- whoa!).

 

I've gotta read that autobiography! Has anybody read it?

Edited August 28, 2017 by DramatistDreamer

[SoapDope]

 

[NothinButAttitude]

Is that Carol and Jay Stallings in the promo? Why was Amy gonna be put up for adoption?

[DramatistDreamer]

Totally Off Subject, but The Conversation with Gene Hackman is a great movie, I saw it a few years ago.

 

Wow, a daytime promo during primetime!  And I bet it was treated as a welcome sight rather than be regarded as an aberration, as it no doubt would be regarded as these days.

[DRW50]

 

Wasn't this after Natalie dumped the kid on their doorstep? Maybe Jay felt they had no choice. 

 

Poor Carol. The only popular younger heroine in these years (and for many years, really), soon completely forgotten about after leaving in the early '80s.

[Soaplovers]

On paper, Carol seemed like a typical ingenure...bland and insipid...yet seeing her in clips...she was anything but bland.  Didn't she leave in 1982?  I often think Marland would have done well with her.

[NothinButAttitude]

 

But wasn't Jay Amy's biological dad? I need to go re-read their histories again as this promo has me a bit intrigued. 

 

I am somewhat glad that Carol was forgotten. Could you imagine how she'd be had all the writers post Marland gotten their hands on her? She'd be bitter, vampish, and out to break up Tom & Margo as she'd all of a sudden had some epiphany she wanted Tom again. 

[Khan]

 

IA.  Either she would become a bitter vamp, as you've described, NBA, or she'd have been a self-righteous shrew (think DAYS' Maggie).

 

But, you know, one reason why I think soaps are dying is because "normal" characters like Carol have been tossed aside for seemingly flashier, more neurotic ones.  TPTB don't realize that a good soap opera requires Carol-like characters as part of its foundation.  Otherwise, where are the "normal" characters for the others to play off of, and for the viewers to relate to?

[DRW50]

 

Yes.

 

I think he would have, but the frequent Tom recasts and de-aging of Tom seemed to mean that most of his past was meaningless, aside from remembering his time in Vietnam for the Lien story.

[NothinButAttitude]

 

I agree. I feel like there are no longer moral compass type characters on soaps anymore. If they are, soaps make them too saccharine, too dull, or one-note that fans don't want them around as they do come off as righteous (like Y&R's Neil). There's nothing wrong with having normal characters on soaps that balance out the rest.

 

Do you think that this is a problem across the board in all of television and film? 

 

Speaking of Carol (and Lisa by extension), does anyone know what happened to the Wade Bookstore? I was watching some of the episode that WeLoveSoaps post awhile back again, and I know burned down, but wasn't it rebuilt? Did the show just phase it out? 

[Scrapple]

I started watching the show when the Steve/Betsy/Craig story started. So I watched the show for the next 30 years, and never realized Steve had been married before. I never once heard the name Carol mentioned. Usually, the show was pretty good with using its history (except for Goutman). I wonder why the Carol character was forgotten?

[SoapDope]

Carol for a time was married to Steve before he took up with Betsy. I think I remember reading that Rita Walter McLaughlin (Carol) was Patty Dukes twin double (when it was the back of her head) on her 60's sitcom.