As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[JarrodMFiresofLove]

Who was Ruth Snyder?

November 2, 1985
Everyone was shocked to hear Kevin publicly threaten Marie`s life. Lucinda and Craig met Holden`s mother, Emma Snyder. Margo left town to complete a police training program. Dusty and Lily shared a first kiss. Cal romped in the sack with Marie. Ken insisted that he`s not the person harassing Kim even though the evidence suggests that he is. Marsha doesn`t like the fact that Doug and Frannie are growing close. Brian flipped to learn that bag-lady Harriet moved into Shannon`s pad. Marie wrote in her diary that she`s afraid of Ken. Emma reminisced about her youngest daughter, Iva, and her eldest daughter Ruth, who`s estranged from the family. Marie warned Doug that Marsha`s jealous of anyone that comes near him.

 

[DramatistDreamer]

@JarrodMFiresofLove Where did you find these episode summaries??  LOL.

 

Iva is Emma's youngest daughter?  That would be news to Meg!  I have no idea who Ruth Snyder is.

 

Question to anyone who can answer: is there a list of background music that was used on the show?  There is one particular piece of music that I've always recalled from my childhood watching ATWT and I have heard it for the first time in decades since I've been watching episodes from '86 and '87.  I wonder what the is the name of that particular piece? Just curious, I guess.

[JarrodMFiresofLove]

 

I've been going through weekly synopses from 1985 to 1993, studying Marland's era. These are found archived on the Chicago Tribune website. They were published every Saturday so I guess the Trib waited till after Friday so as not to spoil any plots.

 

Kim's stalker storyline begins the first week of September '85. Marie arrives in Oakdale the second week of September, which suggests she was a short-term character created by Marland for this plot. Marie is only on the show for two months-- she disappears the second week of November and her strangled body is found the following week.

 

Doug Cummings' nightclub is first mentioned the last week of September when Marie gets a job there. Lisa meets Doug the first week of October, and she is charmed by him though they are business rivals.

 

Holden is first mentioned in the synopses the third week of October. He's the first Snyder on screen. He's been hired as the new stable boy, because the previous one, a temporary character named Hank, tried to rape Lily.

 

Emma appears the first week of November in the synopsis I posted above. Meaning she was the second Snyder viewers met. It is possible the syndicated columnist for the Trib was mistaken, that Iva was supposed to be described as the Emma's oldest daughter. Maybe Marland originally called the youngest daughter Ruth, before calling her Meg? Or else it was the columnist's error. Meg does not appear on screen until the second week of January '86. So again, it's possible Marland called her Ruth in the early episodes but between November and January he renamed her Meg. As we know, there was no other sister named Ruth, just Ellie.

 

Edited July 7, 2018 by JarrodMFiresofLove

[Vee]

I'm only just getting to Kim learning the truth, but the scariest thing about Doug Cummings is how sweet and pleasant he often remains while talking casually about his madness. John Wesley Shipp remains a national treasure.

[robbwolff]

My hometown rag ran the synopses every Saturday too. They were fascinating to read...and sometimes had errors. Whether the errors were the result of changes in the script or the columnist’s mistake is unknown. For instance, Maureen Reardon was referenced as Noreen in the synopsis I read. As for Ruth/Iva, it’s possible Marland planned for the older daughter to be named Ruth especially since it refers to her as Emma’s estranged daughter. And perhaps the youngest was to be named Iva. But then Marland had a change of heart. I can’t recall if the Snyders are mentioned in Marland’s bible that showed up online some years back.

[Khan]

I know Holden was originally named "Clem Holden" in Marland's bible, but I can't recall any other mentions of the Snyders, or what became the Snyders, either.

 

Meanwhile, thank God Marland changed Holden's name.  CLEM?  Oy.

[DramatistDreamer]

 

Also, Ruth?  Whew, that's sounds old-fashioned. 

I could've imagined Meg as an Ivy (aka 'poison Ivy

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) but not and Iva for a youngest daughter.  If those names in the synopsis were the original names, then I'm glad Marland changed this.

 

EDT: Come to think about it Ivy and Lily on the same show, taking up residence in the Snyder household, both losing their virginity to Dusty...those two names juxtaposed like that, would sound odd to me.

Edited July 7, 2018 by DramatistDreamer

[JarrodMFiresofLove]

 

Both Iva and Meg were long-lost daughters of Emma in those early days of Marland's tenure. Iva shows up on Emma's doorstep in early November, shortly after Emma's been introduced. Iva had been working in Los Angeles for Tad Channing when she returns to Oakdale. Then in January Meg shows up.

January 11, 1986
Doug was shocked to receive a phone call from a woman who sounded like his deceased wife, Caroline. Emma was surprised when her long-lost daughter Meg arrived back at the family farm. Marsha learned that Kevin is spying on her at Margo`s request. Margo phoned the Houston police, who agreed to investigate Caroline`s death. Craig told Sierra there is hope that his sterility can be reversed and that they can have children after they marry. Steve and Betsy decided that they want to have another baby. Lily saw Craig kiss Lucinda, who had admitted to Craig that Marie tried to blackmail her. Marsha overheard Frannie admit that she`s in love with Doug.

 

[SoapDope]

 

LOL.....Imagine a soap today giving a young girl a name like Ruth or maybe Bertha. Bertha Newman, Bertha Forrester etc...

[Vee]

I just watched Meg's debut a few days ago. IIRC Meg was not long-lost, just away at school.

[DramatistDreamer]

 

I also agree that Meg was not long-lost.  She was staying with her aunt Elizabeth and uncle Henry.  She had tried to run away at some point because uncle Henry was...not a nice man.  That's the same farm that Iva had run away from.

[Vee]

Oh, that's right. She was staying there (I thought for school purposes) and she and Iva commiserated about Henry.

[DRW50]

I think it was easy to get that impression because she was so at odds with the family, but yes she wasn't long-lost.

 

I wonder if they didn't go with "Ivy" because DAYS had recently had a character by that name. 

 

There's only one true Ivy on soaps anyway.

 

 

Edited July 7, 2018 by DRW50

[JarrodMFiresofLove]

I have created a file of all the newspaper synopses for Marland's era, which I am defining as the first week of September 1985 (when Kim's stalker story begins) to the end of March 1993, since I am not sure at what point Marland's material ends in April and I think he was still credited while Backus was  working from what Marland hadn't finished before he died. That's  7 years and 7 months of material. I have synopses for every week except these:

 

December 28, 1985 (which would have been episodes from December 23-27).

September 19, 1987 (which would've been episodes from September 14-18).

September 26, 1987 (which would've been episodes from September 21-25).

September 28, 1991 (which would've been episodes from September 23-27).

 

This is because for some reason they are not available on the Chicago Tribune website. A Google search indicates synopses for the four missing weeks are available online in the archives for the St. Louis Dispatch in St. Louis, Missouri and in the archives for the Salina Journal from Salina, Kansas. However to access the archives for those two papers, I would have to sign up for some free trial from newspapers.com and I don't want to sign up for something where I will start getting charged later. The info on the Chicago Tribune site is free.

 

So if anyone has a way to access the synopses for the four missing weeks please jump in! I've attached the Word file I created. - Jarrod

 

 

 

As the World Turns Word.docx

Edited July 7, 2018 by JarrodMFiresofLove

[dc11786]

I couldn't access the file, but hopefully these are the right summaries:

 

December 23-27, 1985 (Lydia Hirsch)
Marsha survives strangler when Frannie and Doug walk in and seemingly scare assailant away. Marsha suggests that Jay was attacker. Pretending to care no longer for Brian romantically, Barbara gets him to stay for holiday drink. When she hangs his coat up, she hides his gloves, hoping to use them to destroy Brian and Shannon’s romance. Steve tells Betsy he’ll try not to be jealous of Craig, but he still has little tolerance for Craig. Steve plans to build Betsy’s dream house. Texas police inform Margo that a patient who was severely disfigured has escaped from one of their sanitariums. Barbara makes certain Tom thinks she and Brian are lovers.

 

September 14-18, 1987 (Nancy Reichardt)
Duncan freaked when he found an effigy of Shannon floating face down in his castle moat. Duncan and Shannon romped in the sack. Seth felt guilty after he realized that he’d mistakenly made love with Sabrina instead of Frannie. Pam was surprised when Dusty suddenly gave her a passionate kiss, but he later stomped off in a huff after accusing her of snooping into his past. Lance offered to throw a big wedding shindig for Logan and Grace. Dusty told John that he’s moving into his own pad. Rod told Betsy that he lovers her and that he’ll wait forever for her to love him back. Someone is spying on Duncan and Shannon. Lance realized that Holden is hiding his jealous feelings toward Dusty in order to prove to Lily that he can hold his quick temper in check. Betsy told Rod she’s going to Chicago to train for her job with Miller brothers. Hal told Margo that he and Tom are working to solve the Falcon case.

 

September 21-25, 1987 (Nancy Reichardt)
Devastated to learn that Seth slept with Sabrina, Frannie called off her plans to marry him. Sierra phones from Greece to say that she and Det. Hoyt are still trying to find out if Craig is alive or dead. For the premiere of her television talk show, Kim plans to interview Barbara. Tom is suspicious of police office Nick Castello, who is James’ mystery contact within the police force. Casey wrongly thinks something’s going on between Lyla and her musical arranger, Tony Waldron. Duncan was arrested and charged with the murder of his former employer, Captain Cromwell. James nixed letting Nick kill Duncan because the police will be convinced that James is the Falcon. Lucinda paid James’ big bucks blackmail demands.

 

September 23-27, 1991 (Nancy Reichardt)
After Duncan found Kira at a rap club, he urged her not to run away but to admit to the police that she lied when she said Duncan tried to rape her. Darryl told Barbara that he will do anything to make sure Frannie never finds out about his one-night stand with Barbara in Rome. Arthur phoned Bob anonymously and warned him that Frannie is in danger. A hysterical Dana insisted to Darryl and Frannie that she saw the supposedly deceased Carolyn standing on the terrace. Later, Dana, Frannie, and Darryl were stunned when Arthur came into Lisa’s club with Carolyn lookalike Vicki Scott Harper, a member of the Harper crime family, which Hal has been investigating. Larry assured Bob that he has no intention of hurting Susan. Iva got nervous when Holden suggested that he and Lily could be Aaron’s godparents. Gavin introduced Lily and Ellie to Nicole, a designer and old “friend” of Darryl’s.