As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[Vee]

I think Robin Wright is the same way, and she's been more charitable in recent years on SB. There are certainly stuck-up, dismissive stars re: their time on soaps. But I think people are way too knee-jerk with Wright (who had a tough time and was young) and some others.

[FrenchBug82]

Well to be fair, some of the things, as documented recently on the SB thread, Wright said about her time on SB were pretty cross-the-line horrible. Moore never spoke of it that way. 

Softening with time is good and I take it but there is a reason for which the bar is higher for Wright.

[Vee]

If it's the thing I saw where I said she was young a few weeks ago, I didn't consider any of that 'cross the line horrible'.

[FrenchBug82]

I am not going to turn this into a bash-Wright post because I really don't have a personal investment in it, but the last interview I posted of her a few days ago did shock me in terms of open hatred for the show and disrespect for the fans.

To get back to ATWT though, Moore has always shown appreciation. When she was "big", Meg Ryan used to ban questions about it altogether although I don't know if that's still the case.

[titan1978]

I thought it was really special that she returned when the show was ending.  Not just for fans or to acknowledge the importance of the show to her career.  She also did it to tell those folks how important they had been in her life, as she commented at the time.  Just a kind human on top of not being ashamed of her employment on a soap, if not thrilled with her younger self’s craft at that point.

Chelsea Lately was the first time I had ever seen Robin Wright not slam her past on a soap.  She was a guest and they had become friendly, and Chelsea told the audience how much she loved Santa Barbara and how she had told Robin that repeatedly.  I remember her being much kinder about it than I had seen in the past, and I wonder if it was because Handler was a fan, not just looking to make fun of someone like what usually happens on talk shows when a soap clip is played.

 

Chelsea even brought it up again while promoting Wright’s new project on her Instagram, that she had loved her since her days as Kelly and now they are friends.  It was sweet.

[DramatistDreamer]

I think we also need to make allowances for the possibility that not everyone may have had a positive experience on their respective shows. Sexiam, racism and discrimination and various forms of ostracization and bullying are all things that exist in any workplace and the soap industry functions like any other workplace. I am not saying it is a factor in many of these cases but we know that it exists and CBS shows were among some of the worst offenders in that regard.

Not everyone will have positive things to say about their time on soaps, and not everyone will want to discuss it either. I also try to keep this in mind.

[FrenchBug82]

That's very true. That's why I give Tamara Tunie allowance for her refusal to talk about the show, despite my frustration about it. I get it.
BUT being in the public eye means faking it to an extent. How many movies have sets where everybody hates each other, bad things happen left and right and it is dysfunctional and awful? Probably a huge proportion. How many actors refuse to promote the movie for that reason or spend their PR tour talking about how much they hated it? How many even discuss bad experiences even years later? Very few and when it happens it is generally for movies thar are masterpieces and get BTS documentaries made.
It should be the same for soaps. Even if you weren't happy there, there are easy ways for someone who became more famous later to give a saccharine content-free answer about how grateful you are for the opportunity and the fans you made along the way. And then next question.
When someone like Meg Ryan refused to even entertain questions it was because she was ashamed of that work and as a soap fan, I am offended.

[Soapsuds]

 

[Paul Raven]

Probably one of the first (if not THE first ) location shoots for ATWT. In those days it would have been just visuals (no dialogue)

Interesting that two new characters were involved - obviously they wanted to push Simon and Meredith.

This was when Irna was absent and perhaps TPTB felt new characters would jazz up the show,

 

'As The World Turns' In Tenafly By ART MYERS Staff Writer

 

There was Nina Hart, a strikingly pretty 21-year-old girl, lurking in the bushes Tuesday night outside the Clinton Inn Motor Hotel in Tenafly. Out of the Inn came two people, a young tycoon type and his older-woman secretary." Nina peeps, then ducks behind a bush. A limousine glides up. The chauffeur gets out, opens the door, and the tycoon and secretary pop in. They drive away, and Nina follows the car with her eyes, looking kind of bitter. Funny goings on in Tenafly? Not only that, but all this is being recorded by two television cameras, with technicians swarming all over the place, and a big Columbia "Broadcasting System equipment van parked around the side of the Clinton Inn. This was the taping of a sequence from CBS"s daily 1:30 . p.m. serial, "As The World Turns," one of the most popular soap operas on television.

 

 Nina, it seems, is on the lam from her guardian, the young tycoon, played by Jerry Lacy, but she wants one more look at him before she leaves town. Well, that's the way it goes in daytime television. Millions of housewives take these little dramas very seriously indeed, and so do the people who make them. Said Mary Harris, producer of the show: "Daytime shows are the most vital part of television. They don't come out of a tin can from Hollywood." Someone made an injudicious remark about the "sappiness" of soap serials, provoking an indignant response from Miss Harris and actor Lacy. "These characters are not sappy," snapped Miss Harris. "They're not conceived sappilv. Thev are thought through in depth."

"The characters are very deep and are thought out," said Lacy. "There are many years of history behind them, and the viewers know it." So much for cynics about the caliber of the soaps. They work very hard and conscientiously. "Preparation is all," said Miss Harris, and the scene was one of highly organized chaos.

In the equipment van-command post nearby sat a half-dozen technicians watching a dozen screens and fiddling with all sorts of controls. Twice jet planes spoiled takes. "Non acceptable," Miss Harris told the technical crew. Someone suggested that if a jet went over next time, the actors look up and make it part of the show. The show had gone on location in Tenafly from its usual CBS Manhattan studio to gain authenticity. "You can't lick live sound," Miss Harris said, "the quality of the traffic moving in a suburban setting." They got not only an authentic inn, traffic noises, and jets, but a real life limousine driver. He was Bob Hogan of Maywood, who owns the Acme Auto Renting Co. A tall, spare man, he showed up with his limousine and uniform, and professed no stage fright. In fact, he was so relaxed in getting out of his car to let in the tycoon and secretary, that Cort Steen, director of the show, drew a laugh in the equipment van by saying, "Come on, Mr. Hogan, this is only a half-hour show."

 Two other actors in the serial, Santos Ortega and Henderson Forsythe, live in Tenafly, but they weren't in the sequence. In addition to the jet problem, there was the cigar contretemps. At one point the tycoon takes a cigar out of his coat pocket, and the secretary lights it. In the van they were seen to giggle momentarily, but Miss Harris, worn down by the jets, okayed the shot, saying, "We can live with it." "Sorry about that," Lacy explained later. "The cigar had broken in my pocket, and when I pulled it out it was onlv half a cigar." ""it'll be all right," said Miss Harris, looking wan.

[Bill Bauer]

 

 

Wow. I thought I was pretty knowledgeable about ATWT history but I've never heard of those characters before. What year is that from? Do you know? 

[victoria foxton]

Nina Hart who played Meredith passed away on December 23, 2020. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiHg5P9yo3vAhViUd8KHYxpBDkQFjAGegQICxAD&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.legacy.com%2Fobituaries%2Fnytimes%2Fobituary.aspx%3Fn%3Dnina-griffiths%26pid%3D197469519&usg=AOvVaw02_oSxkcBlTbAF4AVThLk9  

[DRW50]

What type of stories did Meredith have? 

[Paul Raven]

Sorry, forgot to date it as 1971

 

Simon Gilbey and Meredith Halliday

Tom Hughes, upon his release from prison, gets a job at Dr. Paul Stewart's clinic. It is there that he meets a patient named Meredith Halliday, who is suffering from an indeterminate illness. Meredith tells tom that she has just been evicted from her apartment and needs a place to stay. Thus Meredith moves in with Tom. Meredith, however, is not as down and out as she lets on, and a tip off comes when Meredith gives Nancy some costume jewelry that turns out to be worth $2000.

The truth is that Meredith Halliday is a runaway heiress trying to escape the supervision of her legal guardian, business tycoon Simon Gilbey. Simon, himself, arrives in Oakdale and has Chris Hughes handle his affairs. Simon is very demanding and pushes Chris so hard that he suffers an apparent heart attack. Chris is rushed to the hospital for treatment, and Donald returns from California. Donald disagrees with both Bob and Chris on Chris's treatment; Don wants Chris to undergo an experimental heart procedure, but Chris and Bob are against it. As it turns out, Chris' "heart attack" was caused by an abdominal obstruction.

Simon suffers a real heart attack of his own because of his workaholic ways. Bob and David warn Simon to start taking it easy or else he may die an early death.

Recently widowed Lisa briefly has an affair with Simon, but she is reluctant to marry him because of animosity between him and her son, Tom. The irony is that Meredith would leave Oakdale with Simon--as lovers!

 

[DramatistDreamer]

The interesting irony if those location scenes being filmed in New Jersey, near an airport and Nina Hart later becoming a pilot.

 

Also ironic is the fact that the above passage describes two people inbthe crew speaking up for the technical craft of the show, wanting people to respect the show, while P&G didn't even respect the show enough to preserve the episodes back then (and damn near the 1980s).

[Soapsuds]