As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[chrisml]

I never watched ATWT consistently, but in going through some old magazines, I found a lot of complaints about Marland's ATWT during the early part of the nineties. There was a lot of talk about some long drawn out murder mystery that everyone seemed to hate. I think it was over some Carolyn Crawford woman and the actor Rex Smith was involved.

[DramatistDreamer]

 

It was my theory and my contention that Marland was likely burned out and needed some time off and also likely a co-headwriter.  If the actors talked about the exhausting pace of playing out those scripts, think about how much went into conceiving and writing those scripts, making tweaks and changes on the fly. I wouldn't be surprised if going at the pace, almost non-stop for consecutive years led to his deteriorating health.

[BetterForgotten]

Marland likely violated one of his own rules by staying too long, and unlike say Bell Y&R, he didn't have an owning financial interest in the show that would emotionally bond him to it at the same extent. But the sad thing is they had absolutely no one who could replace him, and no one at P&G imagined that there would be a day where the show would have to go on without him.

 

I would have loved to have seen Marland go on to HW another soap, though. Perhaps he could have given AW some dignity in its waning years, or OLTL more depth and structure in those weird/late 90's years. 

[Soaplovers]

He should have left after 1988 and gone to a different soap.  Didn't P & G use to rotate writers to avoid burnout?

[dc11786]

I recently received Marland's story notes from March 1991 which included some of the early plans involving the Carolyn Crawford murder plot. Marland makes it clear that Darryl is going to be the killer, but he also intended for Darryl to get away with the murder. Frannie and Darryl still would have married, and Frannie would have become increasingly terrified by the realization that Darryl was in fact the killer. She even expressed concern over Carolyn's child, which Frannie feared Darryl would. Eventually, the police would be lead to believe that the Chicago mob was involved in Carolyn's death and the proof of Darryl's crime (a page in Carolyn's diary) would go missing. 

 

The invitro-fertilization element was supposedly an element introduced very late in the story and the plan was to start the murder story earlier than they did, but the writers had delayed the plot due to Bob Hughes' shooting (I don't think they wanted two dark plots playing at once). Dana was suppose to be a red herring in the story and there was going to be a blackmailer who would call the police and then Darryl in order to throw the audience off. In the original story, it sounds like Darryl had paid someone to kill Carolyn and may have been involved in the death of her father. 

 

I don't know much about this period of "As the World Turns," but one of the bigger shocks to me was that Marland introduced Darryl in order to create a dynamic, modern villain. Was Darryl actually portrayed as a villain?

 

Also, the initial long term plan was to repair Larry McDermott and Frannie after Darryl and Frannie's divorce (which the notes suggestion would be in the summer of 1992) after Larry and Susan's affair petered out. Marland's comments implied that Larry had become an audience favorite so they were going to develop him a bit further. The Susan / Larry relationship was suppose to be short term and Marland specifically states they wouldn't be the type of couple to marry. 

[chrisml]

The reviews and viewers letters do not seem to enjoy the 90-93 ATWT too much. Was Marland also responsible for writing for the O'Connor Margo or did that happen after his death? It seems that there might have been a brief overlap during her arrival on the show. I also read some stuff praising the rape storyline with Alice Haining as Angel. From what I can gather, the Angel stuff is what got them the 1991 win for Best Show. I tried to google the character, but her character history was so convoluted that I got confused.

[P.J.]

 

Yeah, it was infamous. Marland had a habit of "layering" a new character in. (It's annoying and brilliant all at the same time...) Darryl was a new client of Lucinda's, who happened to go to high school with Margo, and happened to randomly impregnate Barb while she and Hal were "on a break" and fell for Barb's half sister Frannie after his wife was murdered. The murder of Carolyn was drawn out because of a writer's strike, centered on four newbie characters and was one of the few times Marland switched horses mid-story, backtracking on Darryl as the murderer.

[P.J.]

I thought the Lorraine Broderick era was better than advertised as well. Kathryn Hays got a moving anniversary episode, the church fire/Teague saga, etc. Some great casting--Danny Markel/David, Mikey Park, Peter Parros, Lauren B Martin---all great. 

 

There were also flaws, but they seem trivial in light of what passes for daytime now. There were some revolving personalities/characters (firing Danny Markel for Keith Coulouris? The Brad parade, Andy being so desperate over Denise, the frustrating, constant flux of the terms of Carly's trust), but Broderick knew how to build to a climax, and move characters towards growth. Sheffer simply kept his characters in vicious circles. 

 

Re Carly and Molly caring about each other----they did, but a lot of time early on, they simply intersected to catch each other up on their respective schemes.  Each would offer the other sound advice, but they'd usually ignore it to further their own established agenda. They had each other's backs---it just wasn't always in a positive way. At least until they grew a little and got involved with good men.

[DramatistDreamer]

 

P&G is a business. P&G was never about artistic integrity.  They just happened to have had the grit and tenacity of Irna Phillips building these shows and attracting considerable talent over decades.

Marland was winning Emmys for a show that had been a permanent underdog in the preceding years. They had no interest in the physical or mental health of their headwriters or their talent.  They simply wanted to keep the machine churning.  Giving talented headwriters or actors time off was not generally part of the plan, it's one of the reasons why so many young popular actors left at the height of their characters' success. 

When ATWT/P&G found the person who they believed wielded the 'Golden Pen', I doubt they were ever going to rotate him out.  They'd rather let him drop dead of exhaustion first.  Anyone who has ever worked in television knows this.  It is a grim reality of the business, especially network television, especially a long running show that ran very much like a machine.  A man in his early 50's who had worked as a writer in daytime and had become used to the security was unlikely to make waves at that point and stay put rather than try to strike out in an uncertain creative landscape.  Perhaps had Marland kept one foot in the theater, he might have been able to segue in that direction with some confidence that it would work out if he made the leap.  But yeah, if you think that P&G cared that much about Marland or any of their headwriters, you definitely don't know the business of television.  After all, Irna Phillips didn't toss herself out of the company and she created those shows!

 

If you had watched the grim, morbid storylines that Marland had written in his final years with a writer's discernment, you'd realize that this was the work of a man who likely knew he was not going to go on for much longer that way. 

[Paul Raven]

Re Mary Linda Rapeleye (Maggie Crawford Andropolous) SPW  April 1999.

 

According to Rapeleye, Robert Calhoun exec producer was full of praise for her work, telling her that Maggie was the best character on the show and she would be front burner for the next 18 months. "All of a sudden, a new writing team , headed by Doug Marland was hired", she says . "We were told he thought we had the best cast in daytime and that no changes were planned. Two weeks later, I was called in and Robert told me 'Kid, we're letting you go'. I was shocked."

[BetterForgotten]

lol - “Best character on the show.”

[Bill Bauer]

 

Personal taste is highly subjective but it's hard to believe even Rapeleye believed that.

[soapfan770]

LOL we were talking about her a few days ago on DTS in the topic of older characters giving birth about Lyla; how Maggie was suppose to be the much younger sister of Lyla although I believe Sward is actually younger than Rapeleye.

 

That said I don’t mind Frank & Maggie or the story they had with Cal & Diana from what I’ve seen but they certainly weren’t the most memorable thing going on. 

[DramatistDreamer]

Maggie was already being eclipsed by Margo before the new writing team took over. 

[DRW50]

 

It's a bit odd with regard to Maggie, because I feel like she was in competition with Margo from early on, due to the Tom relationship (he originally dated Maggie). I don't know if she and Margo ever quite gelled as aunt and niece, partly for that reason. So that probably didn't help Maggie stay on the show. 

 

 

She had quite a bit of major story in 1984 and 1985, with her adopting a baby and then the Cal story. I'm not surprised if she was shocked to be let go.

 

Angel is more complex on paper than on the show. Essentially, Caleb Snyder used to work for Henry Lange. He and Angel got involved. She aborted his child. This was all backstory, mostly - Angel didn't really get focus as a character until Holden Snyder returned to the show. He was working for Lange Enterprises, and had married Angel to get past his feelings for Lily. Angel couldn't have a child, due to her abortion. She and Holden considered adoption. She realized that Holden did not love her, but she wouldn't give him a divorce. As it turns out she didn't want to be alone because her father had been raping her for many years, and he was the father of the child she'd aborted. (Henry had been sexually abused by his mother, which the show let viewers know via flashback after a flashback of Henry with Angel) When Caleb found out, he confronted Henry. Henry committed suicide, but Caleb ended up being put on trial for murder until Angel agreed to testify and tell of her abuse. Caleb and Angel tried to reconcile, but realized their time had passed. Angel and Seth Snyder fell in love and married, and she moved away with him for a new life. 

 

Alice Haining's work was very tender and quietly powerful, and what could have been a very exploitative story was handled with a great deal of respect (in contrast to many ATWT stories about rape and sexual abuse). 

 

I think he started in summer and was gone by late September or early October. I have a feeling the interim writers may have had more plans but Marland wanted no part of that.