As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[Soapsuds]

I think it was more than adlibing from Rex. Mary Ellen would've spilled that especially since Liz Hubbard did it a lot too.

That was so funny.

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Melanie had no clue and was raving about Julianne Moore.

[victoria foxton]

It's so cool that Bette Davis requested Melanie's autograph.

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Edited June 17, 2021 by victoria foxton

[DRW50]

It was odd that no one (including Alan, of course) remembered another woman (Colleen McDermott) had played Emily not long before Melanie. I guess it's easy to forget unless you really look, as she wasn't very memorable.

[Soapsuds]

Her Emily came off very cold to me. She wasn't there that long.

[DramatistDreamer]

Colleen McDermott seemed very  inexperienced during her time on the show. The last time I really looked at episodes where she was featured, she looked mostly overwhelmed to me.

 

Both Melanie and Mary mentioned being raised to feel confident in their abilities, so even when they booked their first onscreen gigs and weren't really sure what they were doing, they felt that they could improve. I don't know if McDermott felt that way while on ATWT, which I assume was her first onscreen gig.

 

Melanie talked about seeing how disciplined all the actors were when she arrived on the show and how certain things like always being prepared and to never be late, became embedded in her consciousness. She said she was shocked when some of the actors who came on after her show up unprepared or late. I wondered whether this was an issue with today's soap actors because in the past 12+ years or so, I have seen some young actors in a few soaps that looked lost, and I often found myself wondering whether it was the writing or the actor that is flailing, maybe both?

 

I also thought man, some of these soaps need to contract Smith to work with a few of these actors who need help.

[Liberty City]

 

I'm honestly surprised that Melanie Smith never worked on another soap again. I feel like soaps could use her talents, whether acting-wise or training-wise.

[DramatistDreamer]

 

JMo but I think many soaps would have been happy to have her but it seems like she pivoted to prime time work soon after ATWT, then took time away. I am not sure if lack of compelling roles had anything to do with it, or if she really felt strongly about taking so long away from acting, but I get the sense that she chose not to do soaps again.

[Soapsuds]

She worked a lot after she left ATWT. Interesting that she's moving to Florida where Colleen and Andrew are at. I'd love to see some musical ATWT reunion they mentioned.

[Liberty City]

 

Oh, I get that sense, too... but I'm just surprised she never went back, despite her primetime roles, etc. Granted she was a bit older... but I could've seen her, visually, as Karen on General Hospital, etc.

[DRW50]

In the interview she said she decided to leave the business to raise her son.

[gimmetoo]

 

This discipline is because so many of the daytime actors had come from the theater / theater training...and many did stage work alongside their soap roles.  This was a clear advantage the NYC soaps had over the LA soaps.

[Paul Raven]

Bette did an interview with SOD in the early 80's about her soap watching. I recall she praised Kathryn Hays.

[Vee]

Didn't Bette love Lisa Brown on GL and want her to play her in a biopic?

[DramatistDreamer]

 

As someone who once studied writing for the theater in NYC, I can attest to this.

I also took some acting courses as an undergrad and personally got to witness another student in my acting class get verbally chewed out for being tardy for a class. I learned right then and there that being late was a no-no.

[wonderwoman1951]

i have no clue, either. and am in agreement re MADD.

 

when she replaced ken fitts at pgp, then brought felicia minei behr to replace john valente at ‘world turns, one of minei behr’s first acts was to fire allyson rice taylor and bring on susan batten to play connor walsh. batten has played luna on one life to life.

 

and while i had my issues with hogan schefer as headwriter, i have to give goutman credit for  casting scott holryod as paul ryan. but two years later, after former abc exec, barbara bloom, replaced lucy johnson at cbs daytime, holryod is fired and roger howarth — todd on one life to live — takes over. 

 

seeing a pattern here? a friend called it ‘the abcafication of as the world turns — a situation that escalated when pgp eliminated madd’s position when she let in 2005 — leaving goutman and ellen wheeler at gl with no one to run interference with the network.