As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[Khan]

Frankly, I don't even care for the minor revamp that Robert Calhoun performed on "As the World Turns On and On" when he took over the show in '84.  The original, more space-age-y version is much more provocative.

No, I wasn't talking about using "As the World Falls Down" as the show's final theme song.  What I meant was, in the show's final episode, in its' very last moments on the air, before it faded to black for the last time, they could've had a montage of many of the show's best-ever moments, or maybe just a montage of showing all the current characters going on with their lives, with that particular song running underneath.

Edited January 1, 2022 by Khan

[Soapsuds]

I liked the more revamped version Calhoun did. The previous one was just too slow for my tastes. Of course there were slight variations from 1985 to 1993. The best for me was the Fall of 1986 to the fall of 1987.

[DramatistDreamer]

Oh, okay. 

The show was way too cheap and lazy to put any effort into a final montage of the most poignant and captivating moments, on air or online. Honestly, ATWT's online component was severely underdeveloped. I know people will claim that the show ended before social media took flight but, by 2008-2009, Twitter and especially YouTube had taken off and the show could have put up a great 20 minutes montage on either platform. Slapping up 6 or 7 clips on the CBS YouTube page was inadequate at best. Fans demanded so little of Procter and Gamble for so many decades of devotion, and in the end, little is exactly what they got.

[TVFAN1144]

Here’s a montage of all the theme songs

I always thought the one from 1993 to 1999 with the nature scenes was kind of nice  And yes the last one was a sorry attempt at nothing

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Edited January 1, 2022 by TVFAN1144
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[DramatistDreamer]

The visuals weren't bad but the actual music, I didn't really care for, it seemed like the hold music I might hear waiting to speak to a customer service representative.

[Soapsuds]

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[DramatistDreamer]

The World Turns On and On is the type of music that sounds even better when played by a full piece orchestra.

I do wonder what a stripped down acoustic version or even a rock-ish version would sound like. Someone could have done something with this.

This and the theme song before it sounded like they were composed very well and had great flexibility, kind of like how the 70s and 80s Guiding Light theme songs were. A lot could be done with them, without losing the basic fundamental melody.

 

[AMCOLTLLover]

I really fell in love with the 2007-08 Theme and Opening of Atwt. Will always be my favorite

[DramatistDreamer]

Admittedly, I stopped watching at that time, the show was so bad, imo.

[Khan]

Same.  I kept up with it through synopses and the occasional watch, but it was so, so hard to witness what Christopher Goutman had been allowed to do to the show by a sponsor that no longer cared.

Still, even under THOSE conditions, I felt like ATWT still had life in it when it ended, and that all it needed was a new regime and for P&G to gaf again.  ATWT didn't have to go away forever (which was more than I could say about GL).

[DramatistDreamer]

This is basically what I did, with lengthy gaps in viewing. It was jarring each time to see how the show had degraded from where it once had been with each viewing.

When I compare the ending of ATWT and GL to other soaps like Search For Tomorrow, it just seems as if those earlier daytime dramas ended with a bit more dignity.

I'm in the middle of listening to the Will Smith memoir and in the midst of a chapter where he remembers the time when the decision about whether to end or continue The Fresh Prince Of Bel Aire and recounts a conversation he had with John Amos, where Amos talks about his firing from Good Times and the lack of dignity in which it was done, as well as in how the series eventually ended, it made Will Smith remember how it made him feel when he watched James Evans being killed off and how the series ended and impacted his decision on how and when the show would end. He recalled telling the cast before the season began, so they could prepare and make moves for what they wanted to do next. 

From what I have heard from the actors, most expressed shock, despite the fact that they knew the show had been in decline for years. And to me, it showed on camera. Everything looked so forlorn. Personally, any time I tuned in during the last decade, the show looked cheap and degraded, the storylines seemed careless.

[DramatistDreamer]

I can't claim to be a faithful viewer of The Fresh Prince, so I can't tell you when things became stale on that series but it's interesting to hear Will Smith talk about when he believes the show "jumped the shark" (sometime in Season 4, I think he said). For all his faults, at least Smith aimed for a dignified ending for the sitcom. I just don't feel the same about ATWT. It looked so down and out at the end.

[Khan]

True.  But that just shows to go you how much P&G's relationship with its' soaps had evolved -- or, rather, how it had DE-volved -- over the decades.  I doubt P&G ever looked at their shows as anything more than tools to sell their product lines, but at least SFT, EON, TEXAS and others had men like Bob Short and Ed Trach in their corner.  But ATWT and GL were basically on their own by the end, and it showed.

[DramatistDreamer]

Very sad. Very true.

Even the lack of preservation efforts with these shows' episodes, says a whole lot.

[Vee]

I swear one of these days you are singlehandedly going to get P&G to put up some sort of archive of ATWT and I hope I'm there to see it, lol.