As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[DramatistDreamer]

 

You're entitled to your preferences, but a warning that you're feeding trolls.

[mango]

 

I'll be the first to admit I get attached to actors in certain roles. While Scott Bryce will always be Craig to me, Hunt Block certainly brought a different spark to the role. And I totally agree, he had chemistry with a lot of actresses, including Cady McClain and Mary Beth Evans. His protective dad persona with Lucy was totally believable too.
 

I'd love to see him on screen again. I wonder what he's up to these days.

Edited October 10, 2017 by mango

[adrnyc]

 

What does that mean?

[DramatistDreamer]

 

Look at the AVI and you'll quickly figure out who is a troll and who is not.

[Mitch]

I liked Hunt Block very much, he just would have worked better as a different character..he was just playing his GL character..(who should never had been killed off..he and Beth Chamberlin had smoking hot chemistry and the character finally worked as a woman who found out it was okay to not be a golden girl all the time but show some of the edge) The other problem is that with Block' s cocky, annoying persona..a good writer was needed to show some heart underneath, on a daily basis, not just when your kid is killed. Block was sexy as hell you have to admit,he was one soap opera actor who didnt act like an underwear model or uh....trying to act straight. He looked like he really, really liked sex..with women.

 

Bryce's Craig I never liked, as even in his bad boy days, he was weak and kind of sniveling. He was the villain that would not be "this is what I want because I deserve it," but would sneak around and snivel to get it. An interesting character but not a major villain or hero.   As someone up thread posted...during the Marland years Craig practically turned into a bad 70s heroine...crying at the drop of a hat, and living for LOVE!  No wonder he got along with Lily so well.

 

Lee Bryant's Lyla was just like Swards...boring and useless. Lyla was the Lillian of ATWT which fine, if they had kept her at the desk ala Jesse Brewer...but having romances and a personal life, I just didn't give a damn...and as soon as she put on a sequin dress and started wailing those bad songs...UGGGHH.

Edited October 12, 2017 by Mitch

[DramatistDreamer]

@Mitch You and I will have to agree to disagree on the "Battle of the Craigs", LOL.

I do think Scott Bryce's versatility beyond soaps speaks for itself. He may not have had many leading man roles since ATWT but he's a consistently working character actor, which means a helluva lot in an industry rife with competition.

Many soap actors haven't been able extend themselves beyond the soaps.

[Mitch]

I am not saying Bryce isnt a good actor, or even a better actor then Block...perhaps the problem is in his character of Craig more then him. When they first brought him on it was as this kid who wanted money and power..first involved in Dee Stewarts stupid perfume thing that last one month (dont ask) and then as Whit's driver and then lackey. He went after Betsy for her trust fund and then made him just in lurve and possesive of Betsy. Everthing after that, good or evil was about him obsessed with a woman and in LOVE...Byrce has a ...more sensitive quality about him that  in Craig made him appear weak or on the verge of tears!  That is why I think Block should have played someone else.

 

[Soapsuds]

Mitch...I am disappointed in you.

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  SB>HB.......hands down!

Edited October 12, 2017 by Hunk Chandler Massey

[DramatistDreamer]

 

Well, on that we both can agree!

[NothinButAttitude]

As many of us suggested over the years, Block should've been made Rick Ryan. 

 

All the heinous stuff they had Craig doing would've fit perfectly for that character. He would've still interacted with the same characters and got the same results too without pissing off long time viewers. Plus, it would've possibly given Bob/Kim more story too had he been Rick.

[Mitch]

 

Okay here is the patented Bryce Craig puss...moaning over boring  Seirra... Bryce's Craig cried more then the girls on the show ever did...

 

And of course, his big sister had to encourage him to get his wussy ass on the plane...he calls his mother to cry, and then its her and Betsy who are worried about him...God now I remember how much I hated his Craig. Did women find him romantic or a big ole puss??

 

 

 

 

[Scrapple]

There is NO comparison between the two actors. Bryce took Craig from the villain -you-love-to-hate days (Betsy) to the show's male lead (Sierra). But he always made his Craig multi-layered and complicated. Block's Craig, while entertaining, was a cartoon. 

[DramatistDreamer]

@Mitch

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 No fair, those screenshots are from the same scene, the plane ride where he returns to Oakdale, thinking that Sierra was dead!

 

Victor Newman on Y&R cried a lot more over the course of his soap career than Craig.

 

I do think that the writing exploited the fact that Bryce could 'cry on cue' unlike a lot of his male peers. Perhaps too much but Marland was very much 'going with the flow' of the times.  

Could Craig have been written less "emo" during that time? Yes, but I can't blame Marland for writing the character to appeal to the majority of his audience members who were women and swooned over such a characterization.

 

The early 80s were the time of "The Cad" where you saw a roguish Craig and the emergence of "Tad the Cad" on AMC. 

The late 80s were the times of "The Sensitive Man" where you saw much more expressive male characters--  look at the representation of 'non-villain' male characters on the soaps and you will see this pattern.

 

 

[Mitch]

LOL..I didn't have time to search all his episodes!!!

Marland had all his male characters talking like they just came out of "Male Sensitivity Training"  ( I forgot..remember all those guys beating on drums and crying in the woods in real life..weird!!!) They never had sex, they "made love"  they loved "honesty" they had no sense of humor...they went Casey's bachelo party in suits and ties, and stood around listening to Lyla wail her boring song, and missed their wives...etc. Which was weird..Pam Long and her successors wrote more realistic guys then Marland did.

[DramatistDreamer]

Pamela Long was a talented writer. I was reading that some people blamed her for having Reva Shayne eat the show in her second stint as HW for GL but I mostly enjoyed those years.