As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[DramatistDreamer]

This storyline obviously had limitations but today's daytime soaps don't even acknowledge that Native Americans exist, let alone create a third dimensional Native American character. Whomever said soaps are going backward, not forward, ICAM.

 

With the coming and going of Penny and Don Hughes, I do think that Marland intended for more than just the Snyders to be able to come and go and maintain a presence.  Of course, cameos are different from storyline arcs. I do think that had Marland lived, a character like Frannie definitely would've been like Penny Hughes, popping up here and there. It seemed as though the show wanted that for Henderson Forsythe's character David Stewart until for whatever reason, that model became unsustainable. I wonder if Forsythe requested an end to the character to focus on the stage or if someone decided that it no longer worked.

 

Several other Snyders could've used a good "talking to" from Kim,lol.  I always appreciated how Kim didn't have to scream or shout to give someone a good dressing down.

 

Although I thought middle aged Meg was borderline useless, teenage Meg was a great foil for Lily and made that small teen circle very interesting.

[DRW50]

13 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

This storyline obviously had limitations but today's daytime soaps don't even acknowledge that Native Americans exist, let alone create a third dimensional Native American character. Whomever said soaps are going backward, not forward, ICAM.

 

With the coming and going of Penny and Don Hughes, I do think that Marland intended for more than just the Snyders to be able to come and go and maintain a presence.  Of course, cameos are different from storyline arcs. I do think that had Marland lived, a character like Frannie definitely would've been like Penny Hughes, popping up here and there. It seemed as though the show wanted that for Henderson Forsythe's character David Stewart until for whatever reason, that model became unsustainable. I wonder if Forsythe requested an end to the character to focus on the stage or if someone decided that it no longer worked.

 

I don't know if it was ever confirmed but I think the plans before Marland's death were to recast Frannie again. 

[DramatistDreamer]

7 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

 

I don't know if it was ever confirmed but I think the plans before Marland's death were to recast Frannie again. 

 

Oh that is interesting, although I do think because the show had a good number of female supporting characters and leads at that time, the canvas could very well have gotten by on having Frannie turn up for storyline arcs, here and there.

[Bill Bauer]

5 hours ago, DRW50 said:

 

With Kim's hair I might have too - if not for Betsy leaving for good in fall 1988 I would have a harder time knowing.

 

(I still think never having her come back, aside from a few very short bits, was a mistake, but oh well) 

 

Yeah, the hair is one of the things that threw me. I think it was a mistake to forget about Betsy as well. I always liked the character. I liked her a lot more than KMH's Emily and Dani. 

[DramatistDreamer]

1 hour ago, BillBauer said:

 

Yeah, the hair is one of the things that threw me. I think it was a mistake to forget about Betsy as well. I always liked the character. I liked her a lot more than KMH's Emily and Dani. 

 

Same.  If Lindsey Frost didn't want to stay, they could've brought back Kim Johnston Ulrich as Betsy.  I know she played Diana but since the McColl family was pretty much gone by the late 80s, I think the viewers would've accepted it.

[Paul Raven]

By the end the show had forgotten

Betsy

Dani

Frannie

Kristina

Ryder

Bianca

Scott

Andy

and several others.

[All My Shadows]

They brought Dani back for a pretty forgettable six-month stint in 2008-2009 where they very disgustingly paired her with Craig. It was gross.

They completely missed the boat by not bringing in Christina Hughes at some point. I will say it every time her name is mentioned. Christina and at least two of the Ward quads.

Edited August 3, 2020 by All My Shadows

[Bill Bauer]

2 hours ago, All My Shadows said:

They brought Dani back for a pretty forgettable six-month stint in 2008-2009 where they very disgustingly paired her with Craig. It was gross.
 

 

 

Wow. I had forgotten about that. Thank God I had largely tuned out by then. That's really disturbing and shows you how low things had sunk in the writing department. 

[DramatistDreamer]

They made such of mess of several characters in the show's last decade.  I'm glad I missed that six month period as it would've tested my gag reflexes. By never even bothering to bring back many of those characters, it seems as if they were hoping the viewers would forget about the mess the show had made.

 

You know what I don't understand, what I'll never understand? Instead of wasting time "tying up loose ends" with inconsequential characters why couldn't the show have brought back some characters of substance.  They sort of did this with the return of John Dixon. There are plenty of characters that they could have done this with and it would've been meaningful, but instead what do they do? Resolve Liberty and Janet's storylines. What an entire waste.

[DramatistDreamer]

2 hours ago, All My Shadows said:

They brought Dani back for a pretty forgettable six-month stint in 2008-2009 where they very disgustingly paired her with Craig. It was gross.

They completely missed the boat by not bringing in Christina Hughes at some point. I will say it every time her name is mentioned. Christina and at least two of the Ward quads.

 

The show missed the big ticket, which would've been Dani and Craig's son Bryant. Bryant should've been relentlessly pursuing Dani to the point that Craig would become worried that Bryant would follow his path with Betsey. I remember a few years ago, watching the wedding between Craig and Sierra after Bryant was born and Craig introduced Danielle to baby Bryant and Craig said something like "I have a feeling you two will be getting in lots of trouble together in years to come".  Then looks at little Danielle and says "Do you like him?"  I mean c'mon, wasn't that meant to be a foreshadowing? Also, Dani should've been pursuing what happened to her father, even going to Greece, leading Bryant to pursue her there.  When Dani was in Oakdale in the mid-late 90s, the writing as much as set that up with Dani making up this image of her father in her mind, etc.

 

I agree that it would've made sense to bring Christina Nancy Hughes onto the canvas. She had no history and would have been a blank slate for writers to write for her as if she were brand new.

Same with Hope Dixon.

Bringing back that group of young legacy characters would inevitably brought up chances to bring in their parents (Betsy, Andy, etc.).

It's so sad that the writers discarded so much of the show's history.

[Bill Bauer]

12 hours ago, DramatistDreamer said:

They made such of mess of several characters in the show's last decade.  I'm glad I missed that six month period as it would've tested my gag reflexes. By never even bothering to bring back many of those characters, it seems as if they were hoping the viewers would forget about the mess the show had made.

 

You know what I don't understand, what I'll never understand? Instead of wasting time "tying up loose ends" with inconsequential characters why couldn't the show have brought back some characters of substance.  They sort of did this with the return of John Dixon. There are plenty of characters that they could have done this with and it would've been meaningful, but instead what do they do? Resolve Liberty and Janet's storylines. What an entire waste.

 

 

But how could we have gone on not knowing what happened to Liberty and Janet? 

[DramatistDreamer]

2 hours ago, Bill Bauer said:

But how could we have gone on not knowing what happened to Liberty and Janet? 

 

I guess they thought Liberty and Janet made our collective world turn. More like eyes roll.

[Forever8]

41 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

 

I guess they thought Liberty and Janet made our collective world turn. More like eyes roll.

I still can't believe their story took over the last six months of this show. Whilst, Dusty who had over thirty years of history was relegated to the background. 

[DramatistDreamer]

4 hours ago, Forever8 said:

I still can't believe their story took over the last six months of this show. Whilst, Dusty who had over thirty years of history was relegated to the background. 

 

Tbh, I stopped watching in the last few months of the show because I just couldn't be bothered. The show had become of shell of its former self and I had gotten tired of waiting for it to return to some semblance of coherence. I mean, the show was pretty bad in its last decade but there had been talented actors and occasionally decent storylines but by the summer, it seemed as though the production values had given up and out.

[Manny]

Oh I just received in mail my order of "As The World Turns Complete Family Scrapbook - Special 40th Anniversary Edition"! Really excited! 

And since in my real life no one cares about soaps or even know what ATWT is, I thought to share my excitement here

 

Do you guys know other books like that which are worth buying that you would like to recommend?