As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[victoria foxton]

I also find it easier to watch DM's latter years. For me maybe it's because. I started watching 1989. I loved how someone's actions affected the whole town. Just loved seeing people reacting. To latest scandal in Oakdale.  

 

 

On modern day soaps. We rarely see night-to-day transition. Change of seasons are ignored. Really miss munecojim. She/He had so much ATWT goodness.

 

      

[DramatistDreamer]

A lot of episodes and quite a few storylines are incomplete and/or missing from YT, even from Marland's HW tenure. Unfortunately, this gives a skewed impression of what characters and what storylines were out there and viable.

[Soapsuds]

Frannie and Daryl in Switzerland has never been seen on YouTube. None of Connor taking over of Walsh Enterprise has been on YouTube. 

[Vee]

I thought some of the Walsh siblings' takeover used to be on YT. I never watched it bc I didn't know where to start, but I always wanted to.

Edited December 2, 2020 by Vee

[DramatistDreamer]

Even further back, judging by what's on YT, the introduction and exit of several Black characters are missing. You hardly see any of the Franklin family. You see Meg and Pam as friends but it was Meg and Nella who actually went through the nursing program together and became good friends but all of those episodes are absent from YouTube. Yes, you can probably fill in some of what's missing but there is just a lot of detail missing and some of it gives a lot of color and shape to the storytelling.

Marland, for all his perceived faults was really the first HW that seemed to care enough to at least, try to create a viable Black family that was on par (at least representationally) with other families in Oakdale. I don't know what really happened with the Franklin, but he did seem to try it again with the Griffin family, although they were transplants, unlike the Franklin's who seemed to be Oakdale native-born.  Nella and Kiera were the only Black teens on the canvas that I remember.

 

[allmc2008]

I've been on a Marland binge. Started with Oct 1985 and now I'm at Chris' funeral. A lot of the audio is so terrible that I have to skip though.

 

I am amazed by the pacing. It's so.

Deliberate? Intricate?

 

I know some hate the Snyder's but they really offset the Walsh's in a good way. And it's classic ATWT. Rich but unstable family clashing against a poor but stable family.

 

I also have heard that the Snyder's, in essence, took over the show. I know this is blasphemy but is it really that bad of a thing for a new family to come in, as long as it's well developed? That's how I feel about Guiding Light. The families that were brought in, while not the Bauer's, at least were well-developed and embodied interesting characters. 

 

I never felt that it's practical to expect the same damn family to rule a show for 30+ years. Actors die. Characters are hard to recast.

 

My only two gripes: Sierra won't stop crying. I can't buy Hillary B Smith as the daughter of Lila and John.  She seems too old.

 

How did people like this Betsy? I never seen Meg Ryan in the role but I do like this actress.

 

I kinda feel bad for Tonio. I mean, he wants the thing most of us want, a family, but his overall sense of what that means is dated. A good representation of culture clash, I think. I don't think his misogyny is from a hateful place. It's from another time.

 

In speaking of what Tonio wants, every EVERY character on this show fits the theme. At NU, in Aggie's archive, the bible of the show is there. Literally, the document, or a copy of the one shown to the suites, is in her files and bound in a beautiful green representational binder--includes the first few episodes. Anyway, the theme of the show is basically that we all want to be a part of a family as a strong family will weather the storm called life. Everyone on this show wants that but some of them, like Lucinda, suck maintaining it.

 

Also, Marland's ATWT really does remind me of Harding's Another World in this regard.

 

His Another World was the same thing but 'Family' was replaced with 'Dream'.

[Soapsuds]

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[gimmetoo]

GREAT PHOTO the original Snyder clan !

[Forever8]

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[DramatistDreamer]

What a fun episode. Those Meg/Emily scenes are pure soapy goodness. Jennifer Ashe and Melanie Smith are so good in this battle of wills at Meg's hospital bedside. Had Jennifer Ashe stayed on, I am convinced that she/Meg would have had a much bigger imprint on the 90s ATWT. Ashe was so good at switching perspectives and emotions so quickly. At one point she looks so vulnerable and in the next moment she is turning the screws to Emily. And that look on her face when she discovers that she is actually pregnant after her public pretense is a subtle shift yet priceless. Speaking of reversals, the twists and turns in those scenes between Lucinda and Kirk were entertaining and fascinating, especially when Kirk questions Lucinda about her relationship with James Stenbeck and Lucinda is forced to admit that she was taken in by James' dark side. Suddenly, with that mysterious phone call, Lucinda looks at Kirk suspiciously.

A role reversal, of sorts, between Bob and Tom with son advising a sulky father to be open-minded about Nancy's blossoming relationship with Mac.

The choreography of character movements on ATWT in public spaces was second to none among daytime soaps at this time. Just take a moment to look at the blocking at the hospital, the Yacht Club, even Lucinda's office with characters moving in and out. The timing is Swiss sharp. The mention of Dusty reminded me of how irritated I was that, in later years the show decided to take a Harvard educated protoge of prominent businesswomen Lucinda Walsh and Adelaide Fitzgibbon and transform him into a two bit wannabe small-time hood. Even Brian Bloom's childhood character in 'Once Upon A Time In America' was more complex and more convincing as a gangster. Also, I was reminded of adolescent Dusty gawking at swimsuit-clad Shannon at the Yacht Club and her half surprise, half amusement at Dusty checking her out.

 

I still believe that there are not enough episodes with other characters up on YouTube. I mean, didn't Nella work as a nurse at Memorial? Weren't she and Meg friends? Where was she? This must have been the time when Victoria Rowell was in the role and we see almost none of her on YouTube.

Edited December 8, 2020 by DramatistDreamer
autocorrect, why you hate me?

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[victoria foxton]

Even this guy is a better interviewer than Alan.  Miss Locher would've been giving her. Resting bitch face the entire interview .Annie's rather indifferent about her ATWT days. I'm pretty sure she was there 3 yrs. With a couple of short runs afterwards. Most actors have really bad recall.  BLAND Julia only became interesting. When they made her a crazy cartoonish bitch. Which Annie played very well. But got tired after awhile.

Edited December 7, 2020 by victoria foxton

[Faulkner]

She mentioned Kathleen Widdoes trying to convince her to buy a NYC apartment somewhere like the East Village in 1998. My god. She would have been rolling in it now. 

[DramatistDreamer]

It was a relief to see that this is a re-up from two years ago, because the lack of social distancing horrified me at first, sending me to look for the date of original upload. Whew!

In the course of a career, three years goes by in the blink of an eye, so I can see why maybe it's not seen as being highly consequential in the scheme of things. Also, if she is predominantly NYC-based, the daytime soaps industry would have virtually no impact on her at this point, or even at anytime in recent years, especially if she had little to no contact with people still in the industry. Also, the ATWT she was on was probably worlds away from what the show was when someone like Julianne Moore was on it. So, I'm not surprised by her non-chalance.

[Mitch]

The show was so good even with character's I could care less about..and even with yet another sweaty Snyder making over Lily (and thank God MB got those eyebrows under control) with so many characters and the moving around it is hard to get bored or annoyed by characters you don't like. If you watch the same day episode of GL there are about 8 characters and the pace seems so slow, even with Zimmer doing her best to keep the energy up.   I gotta say I am with Bob (plus I hated Dan) and really dislike the soap trope that being single means you are "lonely" as Tom says. (uh no Tom, she was grieving its different you ass.)