As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[Khan]

I just love Eileen Fulton's reaction.  It's as if she's more horrified that Whit's hair dye has left a nasty stain in the rug than she is that he's, you know, dead.

[Soapsuds]

Haha...agreed...I thought her reaction to that scene was so weird. I am surprised they didn't reshoot the scene. 

[P.J.]

I actually liked the McColl kids. Diana was a great troublemaker, and I loved Kim Johnston Ulrich. Kirk was kinda forgettably bland, and Brian stuck around for years. Mark Pinter is actually the first guy I remember in a towel (from his run on GL.)

[DRW50]

 

Kirk was best served by CLJ being so cute and energetic in his youth. Brian just doesn't do anything for me. Diana had a real spark, although she doesn't seem like a Marland character, so Kim was probably right to go when she did.

[victoria foxton]

I wish ATWT would've cast a good looking sliver fox to play Whit. Diana is my favorite McColl. Kirky was cute. Brian was very bland. I found Whit boring. He should've been a fun villain.

[Soapsuds]

Loved Diana and KJU. Kirk was forgettable. I never cared for Kirk even when he found out  that his mother was the gutter trash maid......LOL.

He was a gay twink.

Edited June 25, 2018 by Soapsuds

[P.J.]

 

I think Brian may have been another case of Marland writing a polar opposite character for an actor. Pinter's Mark Evans on GL was a [!@#$%^&*] while  Brian was stand up and boring (and possibly his blandest role on any of his soaps). 

 

Yeah, KJU was undervalued, and in some respect, ATWT doesn't have another vixen like her until Carly in 95. (Julie, bless her, was just plain slutty...IMO)

[JarrodMFiresofLove]

 

Yes, he was very sexy. Frank and Steve were cousins. But I think there's a homoerotic vibe going on between the actors, which I never picked up on as a kid watching this.

[Soapsuds]

Yeah, Frank was way hotter than Steve. I never understood why Betsy chose Steve or Craig(who I thought was much hotter).

[JarrodMFiresofLove]

 

Frank could've been a fashion model he was so hot. They didn't really put him front and center, because all the Andropolous stories revolved around Steve, then Nick, then finally Frank.

 

How were Frank and Maggie written out? I am assuming it was when Marland took over or else right before Marland came aboard.

[DramatistDreamer]

 

I've seen this promo on a number of occasions.  What I'd really like to see is the episode where Whit and Dorothy argued about telling Kurt, or was that done in flashback?  

[Soapsuds]

It's been so many years that I don't remember...LOL

[DRW50]

 

From what Pinter said I get the feeling Marland planned to write him out so early on (as he told him he planned to write him out very well in advance). I wonder if he ever tried with the character at all or just decided it wasn't worth it.

 

Diana is a wonderful anti-heroine, as Carly was. There were attempts at similar roles for Meg, Julie, and Tess (although Tess was more of a plot device than anything else), but it never quite worked - Meg was too one-dimensional when she was written that way, and while I loved Julie, she never quite fit that role either, as she was entirely defined by the Snyders and cared too much what people thought about her. 

 

I figure it was probably done as a flashback reveal to help explain why she killed him. 

 

They left town for Frank's job. I think it was Marland.

[JarrodMFiresofLove]

 

I think it was done in a flashback when they revealed her as the culprit. We were supposed to believe Jay was the killer with Steve being framed for it. Dorothy the housekeeper was not even a suspect. I think they devised all that retroactively when they decided to pin the murder on her and needed a motive. There was no real tension between Whit and Dorothy before his death.

*****

There are 35 contract players listed at the end of this August 1984 episode. Five of them I don't remember much, if anything, about them. I am guessing they didn't catch on and were soon junked by King/Taggart or Marland when he took over.

 

So who was:

TUCKER FOSTER (played by Eddie Earl Hatch)

RUSS ELLIOT (played by Richard Backus...I think Backus ended up becoming a scriptwriter for the show.)

EMMETT (no last name given, played by John DeVries)

KENT BRADFORD (played by Ernie Townsend)
CAL RANDOLPH (played by Luke Reilly)

Edited June 25, 2018 by JarrodMFiresofLove

[DRW50]

 

Tucker was Steve's construction business partner, and he was dating Heather Dalton. I don't know if Marland wrote him out or not (although Iva eventually bought into Steve's business, or became manager there). Russ was a doctor who was obsessed with Betsy and was taking care of her or something, I think. Cal Randolph was opening a club (didn't Lisa take it over after Diana left Oakdale?) and also tied to the mob, and carried a torch for Maggie. I think they may have been involved in the past (I can't remember). Kent Bradford - wasn't he in a story with Kim and the psychologist she dated who was a psycho (played by Adam Drake from EON)? I can't remember. Many, many pages ago I posted an interview with Ernie where he talked about what a bad state ATWT was in behind the scenes when he was there. I think he also said one of the actors was a huge prima donna and this affected his material.