As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[Mitch64]

I love the off kilter music they use when the focus on the package...this was the high point of Marland's ATWT..the Hughes as the center of it all, great use of history to spring new story...so much character interaction...and bit of campiness. It was all down here into morose stories focusing on the Snyder's quasi incest and a unknown kid popping up every other week...(Duke, what the hell was the point with him???) 

Compare this to Sheffer/Gautman Christmas time in what 2000? The Huhghes, who made a big deal on Christmas since Nancy and Chris, all are two busy to have their "open house" and are split apart for most of the episode, and since they have no house set anymore, they have to have dinner at the Mona Lisa. Sad indeed.

[danfling]

How sad to learn of the death of actress Rita McLaughlin Walter (Carol Deming Hughes Stalling

).

Edited December 28, 2022 by danfling

[Paul Raven]

Rita was a Christian and upfront about it, long before it became more mainstream.

I wonder how she felt about all the affairs, illegitimate children etc depicted on the show, especially when the stories became less rigid about punishing misdeeds?

Used properly,and with good writing, Carol could have become a good support character to various characters on the show, offering a different perspective (which they probably would ignore!)

 

[Mitch64]

They wanted to forget Carol ever existed, and did, when Steve and Betsy became a thing. She was never mentioned in relation to her marriage to him. Would have been interested to see her pop up and warn Betsy, but they would never have done that. Agreed, she should have stuck around on recurring, would be interesting to see a non judgemental character with a Christian background dealing with all the nonsense in Oakdale..much less her former, and much married mother in law Lisa.

[DramatistDreamer]

Randomly came across this cover from YM Magazine ca. 1980s. It appears that soap stars made for popular cover models for prominent teen magazines back then. I am guessing that by the early-mid 90s that was all over.

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[DRW50]

I wish Carol's main years were available to watch, especially her early relationship with Tom. She was vitally important to transitioning ATWT to a new era and in keeping viewers there when the rockiness of Irna's last years alienated many core fans (of course Irna had brought Carol back to the show in the first place). She was the ingenue accepted by fans even as many attempts at the end of the '70s to try to usher in new ingenues never worked out, for one reason or another, and wouldn't until Meg Ryan basically took her place in Steve's life. I wonder if Steve was any more bearable with her than he was with Betsy. 

I know the P&G soaps have been off for many years by this point, and no one is getting any younger, but this year has had so many major losses, it's impacted me in a way most of these passings won't.

I just wish there was enough of a respect for the soap genre that most of these people had had proper interviews while they were still with us. There is for horror movies, there is for porn movies, but soaps remained bottom of the rung culturally, and now we're paying the price.

Edited December 29, 2022 by DRW50

[DramatistDreamer]

For all of the irritation that the handling of The Doctors app/website and re-airings has stirred up in fans, at least there is a component that has has allowed the actors to discuss (without too much moderation) storylines, social mores and their characters in a dignified setting, with decently edited clips. Yes, there was a minor “cheese” factor with how the program is introduced but the show’s producers wisely made that a separate component from the actual program itself that was centered on the discussion. 

[Vee]

The deep memory hole the P&G soaps in particular have fallen into - when P&G and its internal culture used to dominate a massive amount of the historical soap landscape - is not lost on me. I feel really blessed that OLTL got an oral history when it did. So many of the surviving and past soaps discover the same at a bare minimum, but especially the P&G soap opera superstructure.

It's particularly sad when you note the cross-pollination of the horror and soap worlds, not just a ton of popular actors (Barbara Crampton, Rick Hearst, Kassie DePaiva, more) but a fair number of longtime BTS soap personnel (Victor Miller, Bob Guza, etc.). These are people horror aficionados can and will invite for interviews and embrace on the convention circuit or give new work. The Shudder app's Last Drive-In show regularly either invites soap vets onto the live segments or freely references any featured film's daytime connections - they know how interconnected those worlds are. They respect them and they'll honor them.

[Soapsuds]

John Wesley Shipp will be on the Locher Room on Friday Jan 6th.

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Edited December 31, 2022 by Soapsuds

[DRW50]

To enter 2023, a wild 1996 episode appears!

This is one of the years that taught me my ATWT was gone for good (with FMB and then Sheffer hammering the final nails in - and of course MADD, can't forget her), but still, for the sake of completion it's important more show up. 

And right off the bat we get the screaming and yelling from Tom and Margo that pretty much took away any interest I had in the characters. 

At least there are multiple mentions of Lisa owning The Argus, which is something the show seemed to later memory hole.

Nice to see Mac being used properly.

The episodes before and after this are on Youtube.

@DramatistDreamer @slick jones @Soapsuds @Paul Raven @Vee @soapfan770 @victoria foxton @Mitch64 @danfling @bboy875 @wonderwoman1951 @P.J.

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[bboy875]

Thanks! 

[AMCOLTLLover]

A 1996 episode.. oh no… Let me guess it has the annoying Mark in it before I watch it coz then I’m going to skip it.

i hate that guy since my childhood and avoid any episode he is in lol

[vetsoapfan]

@DRW50, I also felt that 1996 was a very bad year for our show. John Valente was not good for the show. The writing was weak. The screen was filled with a plethora of people I did not want to watch. Little did I know that everything would get even WORSE as the years went on.

[Sapounopera]

Was FMB really that bad? I know all about Susan Batten (and losing Lucinda after a stupid story with James?) but episodes from that era seem watchable to me. I hate the generic young couples, but all soaps are guilty of that. I even preferred her ABC aesthetics to Goutman's. 

Denise was a very intriguing character who was gone once the next regime tried to turn ATWT into Days. 

[DRW50]

There were a lot of terrible choices made that year (and the cuts Valente made were terrible in some cases, like getting rid of Andy, although if they had not done such an awful job of bringing in new characters/actors it wouldn't have mattered as much), and the history and continuity and family feel were ripped away, never truly to return, but sometimes it does feel now like the old Joni Mitchell song (later repurposed by Janet Jackson). I remember Soap Opera Weekly complaining about Nancy being in a storyline about being potentially swindled by dance teachers, and how the closing credits had her wearing a clown nose....not great, but a world away from her just being there to cheerlead Katie. I also remember Michael Logan being aghast that ATWT reportedly had no long-term story plans at that point. I question if they ever did again...

To me much of her 1997 run is unwatchable, and even the "better" material afterward does not feel like ATWT to me and also just has a very seamy edge (Emily's endless obsession with Tom, to the point of using information said in confidence at a rape support group...or so much with David/Reid). The choices she made with Carly also genuinely befuddle me. I hated most of what ATWT did with Carly in the '00s but at least in cynical terms I "get" it. I don't get choices like her marrying John Dixon and him inseminating her without her knowledge.

Denise lasted about 3-4 years, although they never knew how to use Cassandra Creech. I always liked Denise, but I'm not sure she ever fully recovered from her intro, which not only was unsuitable to the remaining ATWT conservative audience (selling her baby), but also included commentary on race that I don't know if ATWT, or any soap, was capable of addressing (her calling Camille "high yellow").

Edited January 2, 2023 by DRW50