As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[victoria foxton]

As The World Turns - February 11, 1986 (Most)

[OzFrog]

 

Anne Sward and Scott Bryce always brought it in any scenes together. There was a May 1984 episode I watched a while ago where Lyla came to visit Craig in prison and ask his forgiveness for her not supporting him during his trial. That was one of the most heart-wrenching scenes I had ever watched.

[DRW50]

 

I remember that. I know Anne was a bit too young to play their mother, but she always had such believable connections with HBS and Scott Bryce. You truly felt like you were watching a mother and her kids. The Montgomery/Dixon family had such strong casting through most of the '80s, that quality superseded any writing issues.

[NothinButAttitude]

 

So funny that you post this episode as I spent all day yesterday watching the climax of the "Dreams End" arc. It is the one soap arc that I find myself watching over and over and never growing tired. I can only imagine how it was watching it all play out in real time. 

[DramatistDreamer]

A random thought:

I've often decried the seemingly unnecessary killing off of legacy characters just for what appeared to be a short-term boost but then you had situations where a real-life actor would die and the show would often choose not deal with it and leave it out there.

I sometimes wonder why the show never acknowledged Michael Louden's death? I seriously doubt it was on account of any desire to not be seen as "capitalizing" on tragedy since TPTB at that point didn't seem to hold either their actors or their characters in any particular regard as the BTS stories we've heard have proven as much. Perhaps they fel that it wouldn't be worth it with Larry Brygmann on the verge of exiting by then or the fact that killing off Bryant Montgomery just a few short years ago had made them reluctant but I think ATWT missed an opportunity to give Lucinda (who had a fraught relationship w/Duke) and Margo and Tom (who had his own battles with Duke over Lien) something to do. Even Lily. I guess Andy was long gone by then but Scott could've been brought back for a brief story arc, which would likely have been more compelling than most of what the show had going on in those years. The shock and grief might have provided a powerful exit for John Dixon.

 

 

That Elizabeth Daily clipped that jumped in during Bob and Lisa's scene.

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Is that the actress who played Annie Stewart on that Cascade commercial?

Edited March 15, 2020 by DramatistDreamer

[DramatistDreamer]

"Honey, that was 15 years ago". I always remember when Kim said that to Douglas.

[Paul Raven]

Wagner out of a job 24th April 1981

 

By MICHAEL KUCHWARA Associated Press Writer NEW YORK (AP) -

She’s poured more cups of coffee and listened to more troubles than Mrs. Olsen and Ann Landers combined, but after 25 years of playing Nancy Hughes on the CBS soap opera, ‘‘As The World Turns,” Helen Wagner is out of a job.

 

 “I am not retiring,” declared Miss Wagner, who, a CBS spokesman said, left the show last month because she and the network “could not come to a contractual agreement.” “I had nothing whatsoever to do anymore,” the actress said recently in describing the gradual elimination of Nancy from the show she had one line in three months and her decision to leave. “There just hasn’t been anything to Nancy’s character,” Miss Wagner said. “Anybody could read the lines I’ve been giv en. I haven’t been in the kitchen for a year and a half.”

 

Soap opera buffs know that Nancy’s kitchen, located in that mythical Midwest community of Oakdale, has been an important part of the show since its debut April 2,1956. It’s where problems involving the Hughes and Lowell clans were discussed, and then discussed some more. “World Turns" has always been the most traditional of soap operas, celebrating the family, of which Nancy, and her husband Chris, played by Don MacLaughlin, were the anchors. It was the show which celebrated the Fourth of July, Memorial Day and Christmas. And for nearly 20 years, it was No. 1, generating huge ratings and profits for CBS and its owner, Procter & Gamble Productions.

 

With the death in 1974 of its creator and head writer, Irna Phillips, and the gradual success of youth-oriented soaps on ABC, “World Turns” slipped in the ratings. It’s still among the five top-rated soaps, CBS said, but a turnover of writers and characters changed the tone of the show. The “World” of today is much sexier and turns at a faster pace, blurring characters, especially the newer ones who are in f 'd out of the show within six months.

 

“Writing an hour show, five days a week, 52 weeks a year is very, very difficult," Miss Wagner said. “To make all the little details fit is very demanding. "But if you’re going to write World Turns,’ you’re going to have to do that. It’s about the details of people’s lives and their interaction rather than the thrust of the story. “I am very much aware that as the years have gone by, the character must change,” Miss Wagner said. “I don’t expect to be used in the same way as I was in the beginning (of the show). "But I see no reason not to involve Chris and Nancy in the kinds of situations that their present age (early 60s) would be,” she said. "Don and 1 have never objected to being aged as we went along.”

 

Her husband and manager, Robert Willey, said, “Helen and Don MacLaughlin were the only happily married people on the air. As far as the writer's job is concerned, writing a happy marriage is incredibly hard to do.” The character of Nancy Hughes has not been written out of the show, Miss Wagner said. She is still there for writers to tap in any future episodes. “I have never really criticized what the authors have wanted to do," she said. "What I have criticized is what they wanted to lose or not bother with. They should use what background material they have inherited. It’s a loss of a great treasure if they don’t.”

Edited March 17, 2020 by Paul Raven

[Brolden]

Thanks for sharing! I've always wondered just when exactly Wagner & MacLaughlin were written out.

It's so interesting to see the article singling out Helen Wagner, instead of going for "Wagner and MacLaughlin out of a job". I'm used to Helen being mentioned on her her own from the many years she was (thankfully) on the show after Don's death, but I always assumed before that it was always Don & Helen.

[Paul Raven]

Don MacLaughlin accepted recurring status it seems and continued to appear, although not very often .

[victoria foxton]

 

 

[OzFrog]

 

That was GOOD. What was the storyline behind this and what year was this from?

[DRW50]

 

I think it's 1996, after Kirk was involved with the plane crash that "killed" Damien and blinded Sam. 

[victoria foxton]

 

  

[danfling]

Actor Mark Bloom, husband of Janet Zarish (Natalie Bannon Hughes #2), has passed away.  He had the c-virus.

[victoria foxton]