As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[Faulkner]

I remember Courtney was bulimic. I also remember Lauryn Hill playing an illiterate street girl (another one on soaps) and Lisa disapproving of Duncan and Jessica’s wedding. Lots of Emma and Iva and the Snyder Farm. Still, I just recall snatches and moments and individual scenes. My mom loved it, but it seemed dry compared to OLTL.

 

Broderick was there for Susan Batten/Connor, right? What a sh!tshow that was.

[Soapsuds]

Yeah, FMB, the former AMC EP fired Allyson Rice and hired her best buddy Susan Batten. She didn't last long as fans of Rice protested by sending cans of food saying..."Can her!"

[victoria foxton]

I had crush on Hans. I enjoyed his reign of terror. That was such a rough period for ATWT. Which went on for yrs. 

[Faulkner]

I never understood the logic that if they thought ART was dry and unappealing, the answer is to replace her with SUSAN BATTEN. But if it was just to hook up a bestie who’d just been killed off a competing show, I understand it only *slightly* more.

[DramatistDreamer]

 

That was the period of "Issue TV" that ATWT boxed itself into.  ATWT still had great casting but many of their stories simply fizzled during that particular period.

I felt like there were some decent and pretty good storylines in the last fifteen years of the show but very little matched up to the stories ending up to '91-92. 

There were some well cast actors for years afterwards but by '94-'95, the show had taken on this weird sepia toned look, a washed out look, I can't explain it but it just started to look so drab by '96.  It was no longer the "must see" soap that I cut my teeth on.

If you look at storylines going up to 1989, there is a different energy creeping into the show.  There were already a  lot of changes in talent by then.  I also think by 1995, the cost-cutting measures truly became apparent.

Edited February 8, 2019 by DramatistDreamer

[Soaplovers]

What I noticed about Marland's writing was that it was more energetic/fun in his first two years or so (fall 1985 until early 1988).. partly because he was carrying on the tone established by the previous headwriter (Bledsoe Horgan) and writing the story threads started by her, including characters created by her (Shannon O'hara.. at least early Shannon is an exact copy of Bledsoe Horgan.. quirky/life coach/whimsical). 

 

However, I noticed after the writers strike that his tone of writing started to get more somber/serious/darker.. even fun characters like Shannon got watered down.  I often wondered if he was going with the trend of soaps at that time to be less over the top/flashy and more somber/serious?

 

It's why when I rewatch his era.. I liked the first two years because there is an energy and sense of fun that is missing by the late 80s/early 90s (though I do admit I liked his one comical creation Dana.. who was the surrogate for Darryl/Carolyn.. and her attempts at doing Margo's hair and also her being more of a hindrance to a hitman that took her hostage).  

 

I mentioned before I liked Noelle Beck/Heather Rattray better than Martha Bryne as Lily... so I'll also say I liked Mary Ellen Stuart better than Julianne Moore as Frannie.  

[Faulkner]

So you’d say 1986-87 were the peak Marland years? It’s basically all on YouTube, I know. ATWT always struck me as colder than GL during the early ‘90s. GL had such verve and energy, some of which was JFP amping things up, I’m sure. Aside from really solid actors like Scott DeFreitas and Andrew Kavovit, I also felt like GL had a more charismatic young cast (Nia Long, Melissa Hayden, Monti Sharp, Rachel Miner, Bryan Buffington). Again, my viewing was spotty.

 

ATWT and OLTL really were the “issue” soaps in the early ‘90s, weren’t they?

 

I do find the mid-‘80s ATWT to have a much warmer vibe than what I’d seen with my mom as a teenager. Even just seeing HBS and Gregg Marx (warm) vs Dolan/Holmes (cold) makes a huge difference.

[DramatistDreamer]

 

I'd definitely say that 1986-1987 were peak Marland years, although I think there are some key episodes missing from YouTube (e.g. Kim going into labor at the Stewart cabin and giving birth to baby Christopher, while resident Casey Peretti, (who Bob could barely stand up until that time) delivering the baby while Craig, who was ordered "not to leave town" during the Channing murder mystery, of course left town to find Sierra (and they ended up conceiving a baby) all going on at once, LOL.

 

I think GL diverse younger set (which I loved) really got going in the early 90s.  ATWT's younger set with Andy, Paul and Lien, whose prime was mostly late 1980s was too small a circle.  Now had ATWT added Lauryn Hill and Parker Posey (who came onto the show a few years later) all in the same circle, they'd have had a younger set to rival GL. 

 

One thing that worked against ATWT was timing. 

Talented actors came and left and they didn't always share screen time.  Julianne Moore and Marisa Tomei's screen time overlapped but Marisa Tomei was close to leaving by the time that Julianne Moore arrived.  Marisa Tomei left before Doug Marland started back in 1985, which is a pity because the writing for Marcy had usually been pretty underwhelming.  Steven Weber shared screen time with Julianne Moore but he was there for only a relatively short period of time.  Imagine if Marisa Tomei, Julianne Moore and Steven Weber had all shared screen time under Marland's pen.  That would've been a great younger set too.

Timing.  I guess the timing was great for Marisa and Julianne who later won Oscar's and for Steven Weber who has also had a great career for primetime.  Not so great for the show though, I think. 

Edited February 8, 2019 by DramatistDreamer

[Faulkner]

It’s funny: as bad as the show was in the 2000s, they had a pretty strong young scene (Magnussen, Chando, Soffer, Landon—Peyton List and Zach Roerig have done really well post-ATWT and Van Hansis has more of a career I thought he would).

[DramatistDreamer]

 

Right, except Peyton List was with the previous group that consisted of Agim Kaba (Aaron) and Jessica Dunphy (Alison).  The one overlap was Soffer's Will Munson who had had a crush on Alison.

The writing was pretty bad for both groups, which was the connecting thread, imo.  I'd say List, Soffer, Chando and Roerig all have had pretty good careers since then.

I wasn't a fan of Magnussen's Casey Hughes but the writing for his iteration of the character was pretty darn lousy and he's done well in his career since those days.  

Just an aside, but Casey and Alison (essentially two screw-ups) had no business getting married at the show's end.  Just one of a few shoulda never been couples that ended up together on that show.

[Faulkner]

Peyton was pretty bad on ATWT from what I remember. I was somewhat surprised that she did well initially. Jennifer Landon is (was?) on Animal Kingdom and has had a pretty glam makeover, but with all the hype surrounding her, you’d think she’d have five Oscars. And you’re right: none of them had good writing.

 

I wondered what Agim Kaba was up to and saw he tweets a lot about politics and Premier League soccer. Also saw he acknowledged KSJ’s passing.

 

 

[DramatistDreamer]

 

The sad irony is that if you were to cast an actress that could be the adult daughter of Scott Bryce's Craig and Finn Carter's Sierra, she'd probably look a lot like Peyton List's Lucy Montgomery, at the time.  But yeah, I remember being on the old SoapCity messageboards and people would be screaming "Well, how did she get on a soap when she doesn't even know how to kiss properly!" lmao.

 

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For some reason, most of the former ATWT actors who are on Twitter seem to have woefully low numbers of followers, I feel kind of bad about that.  I'm pretty sure Twitter began before the show was canceled.  The one saving grace PGP could've tried to do for their actors and alumni was help them get a proper follower count.

[victoria foxton]

Dayum! She really looks like she can be their biological offspring. 

[DramatistDreamer]

@victoria foxton  IKR??  She and Finn have the same chin, shape of face and her nose looks like a combination of Finn and Scott's noses, LOL. When you even look at their physiques, Finn and Peyton were both very long & lean when they were at similar ages.

@FaulknerIn Peyton's defense, Jon Hensley was no better when he first got on the show but he had the benefit of being surrounded with highly experienced actresses Elizabeth Hubbard, Lisa Brown, Kathleen Widdoes and  Martha Byrne and Brian Bloom who already had years of acting experience by their teenage years.  Also, Jon had the benefit of much better writing to cling to until he improved.

 

Edited February 9, 2019 by DramatistDreamer

[DRW50]

 

That was before Broderick by about a year. FMB made that decision almost immediately upon her arrival, and I think various scriptwriters were headwriting at that time and up to spring 1997. Then Jessica Klein was headwriter for summer and early fall. And then I think interim writers took over until Lorraine Broderick's material began in early 1998. I remember some talk at the time about how much the quality had improved when the interim writers were in charge (this was when Kim was visited by Jennifer's ghost, Barbara and John lost their baby, etc.).

 

My main memory of Broderick's tenure was how incredibly out of control everything seemed. I never got the impression the show had any real idea what it wanted to do with characters like Molly and Carly. And there were so many new characters. I also thought the Emily and Tom story was grotesque and destroyed her character. It just didn't feel like ATWT to me. You could tell that FMB and Broderick were mainly from ABC soaps. ATWT was not an ABC soap, no matter how much P&G spent the last 10-15 years of its existence wanting it to be.

Edited February 9, 2019 by DRW50