As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[amybrickwallace]

 

According to Gerry Waggett's Soap Opera Encyclopedia, Peter Galman played Tom from 1969-1973.

[SoapDope]

I agree. I don't really remember Jason Kincaid as Tom. Greg Marx replaced him pretty quick. I think Peter Galman played Tom 1969-1974. 

Thanks for confirming. I have seen some places as 1974. 

[DRW50]

 

I think someone here once said Kincaid was cast because he had been a popular supporting player on AMC (as Opal's cowboy husband). I have a feeling they just said "He's goofy like Justin Deas - hire him" and didn't think past that. Thank goodness they got Gregg Marx not long after. 

 

I just wish Marx and HBS had been able to have the long periods of happiness (in soap terms) that Dolan and Holmes got to play, as the happy and fun moments I've seen of them are really something special. All the angst Marland gave them is too much for me to watch.

[adrnyc]

Kincaid is definitely a forgettable Tom! It was fun to watch that posted '84 episode again. I must have seen it from another account because I would've watched it 2016 - I definitely remember seeing some of the scenes in it, though - Bob & Kim in his office; Dan bringing Margo the chicken soup. Oh, how I would love to see all of the episodes be digitized and released online someday!!

 

I've always enjoyed Maggie in the episodes I've seen with her in them.

I forgot/didn't realize how much they tried to make Lindsay Frost look like Meg Ryan at the beginning - that hair!!

I miss having Mark Pinter on the show. Fortunately for me, I'll be getting to his time on AW soon.

[DRW50]

 

I like Maggie too, although making her all about babies made her difficult to tolerate, as happens so often with women on soaps.

 

It's still weird to me how she was written out and never mentioned again. Even many years later my mother would talk about "Lyla's sister Maggie" and "Lyla's sister was with Tom too," and I never had heard anything of this character. I knew nothing of her until I got the ATWT history book when it came out. 

[adrnyc]

 

I could see how Maggie being about nothing but babies would be infuriating. That's part of why I'd love to see all the episodes - to see if being able to watch more of the day-to-day episodes would help bring some shading to different characters than I'm getting. 

 

List of characters I've seen on these old episode but of whom I've never heard:

Rick Ryan

Anyone with the last name "Andropolous"

Kirk Anderson

Maggie Crawford

Seth Snyder

Ellie Snyder

Caleb Snyder

Roy Franklin (and any of his siblings)

Shannon O' Hara

Ooooh, I've just realized there are way too many to type!  And I'm sure there are so many characters coming throughout the 90s to whom I'll be introduced that I've never heard mentioned!

 

[DramatistDreamer]

For all the public murmurings about people wanting the show back (or some part of the show/episodes), I honestly doubt that anyone really wants to launch a concerted effort to try to get more episodes issued and no wonder because it seems so daunting.

 

A quick search and I encountered some information on the company that SoapClassics worked with for digitization of the videos. 

I may be wrong but two men, Mark Yates and Richard Keatinge seemed to be the ones in charge of the SoapClassics/Broadway Video Digital media effort.  I think one of them (perhaps both) are on LinkedIn but I don't think either one is still with B'way Video Digital anymore. 

 

I'm sort of curious as to how they did it (work out an agreement w/ P&G to allow them to distribute the DVD sets) and why they were unable to continue digitizing more videos.

Were there ever any podcasts interviews with these guys?  Surely, someone in the vaunted soap media must've had these guys as guests on their podcast, right?

 

 

Edited June 20, 2018 by DramatistDreamer

[SoapDope]

Someone needs to contact them and point them in the direction of the UCLA  film library and get those 1971 & 1973 shows on DVD. 

[All My Shadows]

 

Roger Newcomb of We Love Soaps used to post here frequently and was heavily involved in the production of the DVDs. There was a separate thread for discussion of the releases, but I can’t renember if he ever shared why they stopped.

 

 

Aren’t those deteriorated to the point of being unplayable? I hate the thought of them being there but not being able to be seen.

[DramatistDreamer]

 

I remember those times. 

Even though he offered some details on the challenges of digitization, he was pretty vague on other details, perhaps he didn't know much about the particulars of the other aspects. 

Those two guys are likely to have more information, especially the specific aspects of dealing with PGP, as well as building the streaming platform.

 

 

Who would that be though?  Actually, IMO, one person wouldn't be effective.  It would have to be a sustained team effort, supported by multitudes.

 

Although, if I were an alumni of UCLA and a ATWT fan or a fan who lived in the vicinity of UCLA, I would certainly try to pay a visit to the archives and ask the archivist what is being done (or not) to preserve/restore these videos.

I used to work with the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and had to deal with people wanting access to the archives. 

There is usually a permission request process, an acceptance (we rarely rejected written/oral requests), then a date and time is set to go on-site to view the archives.

If there is a fan near the UCLA film library or an alumni/fan, I would suggest they start there.  Even better if a team takes this on, as it would seem to be a lot for one person.

 

I may have to duck and hide for saying this but I don't think the effort to save ATWT/GL was nearly as cohesive as the one to try to save AMC/OLTL.  Okay, I'll run and hide now, lol.

Edited June 21, 2018 by DramatistDreamer

[zanereed]

 

Yes, Roger never clarified it - he was confused like the rest of us initially as to why Soap Classics all of a sudden lost the license. However, I will offer my own thanks to Roger, as he was able to help get out some classic episodes from ATWT and TGL that I never thought I would ever see.

 

As far as the UCLA film library, I'm hoping someone there at UCLA made an effort to digitize those films, as you are correct - those films may have deteriorated to the point of being unplayable. That's a huge shame - those films contain episodes I would love to see from TGL (and probably contains the only existing footage of certain actors on that show), but never likely will.

[Soaplovers]

 

I think the reason AMC/OLTL got more effort was due to both being canceled on the same day, as well as, being canceled after ATWT/GL were canceled.  With that said, both of those shows still had decent production values and still resembled the shows (AMC especially got a jolt of energy in the last months with all the returns and a return of humor).   Also, ABC was more willing to sell/lease the rights to the shows out.. while P & G refused.

Edited June 21, 2018 by Soaplovers

[Soapsuds]

I asked/talked to Roger about it and here's what he told me:

 

Music rights was a driving factor behind the DVD effort being scrapped at the time. I have worked with the company since all that on some other projects related to digitizing the P&G archive but there was no discussion of releasing DVDs, just digitizing for the sake of ensuring the history was preserved.

 

When the DVD project ended, multiple record companies were really scrutinizing use of their music in many areas because record sales were down and they wanted $$. P&G didn't have great records, not only of old actor contracts but contracts that supposedly gave them the rights to music, even for the one day use at the time. Music

before the late 90s was embedded on the same track as the character audio so there was no extracting it out and replacing it. So several of the episodes I wanted to use were never going to work (Roger Thorpe "Enough is Enough" Hall of Mirrors, for example). I did my best to capture the characters and stories people wanted to see,

while not always being able to choose the exact episode that many of us probably would have preferred.

 

The current regime at P&G has been open to preserving history, and understanding how important their shows were to people and how they chronicled parts of America over time. But the last I heard, which was fairly recently, they still weren't interested in another DVD project. They are so far away from having the archive digitized, but my hope is that one day the process will be completed and episodes can be available on sites like Amazon for purchase.

Edited June 21, 2018 by Soapsuds

[Soaplovers]

It did take The Doctors a couple of years before their episodes were digitized.. and it's being aired right now.. so I have hope that down the line we will see P & G episodes streamed.  It's a shame they wiped out a lot of the early episodes, which didn't have the music issues that later episodes had.

[SoapDope]

I saw UCLA also has 1971 & 1973 episodes of Another World. I hope they along with other soap episodes are not rotting away as we speak. It does say in the database they are not playable of archive equipment, which might mean they don't have the old playback equipment to view them. They are on those old huge quad reels. There is a guy named Rick Tomas on youtube who has a lot of old quad video's he is transferring and uploading. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt2UipISexd0yg9VoNrxDhQ  I wish UCLA would allow him to do those old soap episodes.