As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[Forever8]

Now you know this would've made too much sense to the brass.

I always think As The World Turns had so much potential wasted regarding their legacy characters and history. I wanted them to bring on a rebellious teenage Hope Dixon to stay at Bob & Kim's. The way I would've salivated over Grandma Kim giving her one of her famous "Kiddos." to her granddaughter. Not to mention having her mix it up with Faith and Parker too. 

[MarlandFan]

I think we find it hard to believe because -- if true --  it is perhaps one of the most idiotic corporate decisions ever made.  You never delete or trash content/property -- especially in this day and age when there are so many niche-related media outlets and so much demand for content.  Even if they trashed the physical tapes because it cost too much to store, at some point they were creating episodes in digital format. Storing digital is easy and cheap. 

[Vee]

As several of us have said the last time this came up, it's not at all hard to believe P&G doesn't give two shíts about its soaps. It has nothing to do with their value judgment. The issue in this day and age is simple logistics. Both safe physical disposal of that kind of archive per local or federal laws, and the internal expenditure involved with wiping year after year, day after day. I don't believe they cared enough to take the time and effort to physically wipe 50+ years. I can believe the game of telephone from person to person has confused things a bit down to any actors who claimed such, and so I think it's much more likely ATWT is just rotting away in some closet somewhere, forgotten. That's more often the banal way of things in forgotten company properties vs. any grand gesture of contempt. Real contempt is not caring at all.

Edited April 28, 2023 by Vee

[adrnyc]

LOL at the thought that a corporation would care about ethically and safely disposing of material. Especially a company like P&G. And once everything was digitized around what 2007? It's super easy. You drag the files to "trash" and click "empty trash."

 

[All My Shadows]

I personally find it extremely hard to believe that any production/distribution company would willingly trash their own product for no other reason than "we don't care." I mean, I absolutely believe that they don't care - that's just a matter of hard-proven fact at this point. But I agree with Vee. "We don't care" means "we don't care" at all. They denied requests for Liz Hubbard clips because no one wants to sift through the archive to find them.

Remember that awful soap special that aired on, I think, ABC just a few years ago? Majority of the clips were very obviously grainy lifts from YouTube, including stuff from the 2000s. It was a special on ABC! And the clips from ABC SOAPS weren't even from ABC!

[Vee]

They care about avoiding a fine, which means they're not dumping 50 years of tapes or reels in the Hudson. I just don't think they care enough to do anything that requires any effort, vs. letting the material rot in some closet.

I realize you are very invested in believing the show's archive is gone for good and take it very personally that anyone would disagree with your scoop. We established this at least a year or two ago. What you fail to understand is that just like P&G doesn't care about these soaps, few of us here care enough about you to make this some sort of personal thing. I barely have any idea who you are; I would take this position with anyone who claimed P&G had somehow taken the time and effort to nuke the entire archive. It's just not something they realistically need to do vs. shutting the stuff away and forgetting it's somewhere. That's not a reflection on you, it's just my opinion about P&G. If you don't agree, that's fine. If you could stop showing up every 6-9 months solely to rage at strangers though, that would be great.

Edited April 29, 2023 by Vee

[wonderwoman1951]

this was hogan shefer’s worst decision. i’d love to know if anyone with some institutional memory ever explained to him that bryant was connected by blood or marriage to virtually every ‘world turns character. as was jennifer. properly written and cast, they could have been the next generation’s umbrella couple. 

bryant’s connections

jennifer’s connections

as for kim onasch, i never heard about any issues between her and todd. however, helen wagner told me that kim often came to the set not knowing her lines. 

Edited May 1, 2023 by wonderwoman1951

[P.J.]

Well, we know Sheffer thought he was single-handedly reinventing the wheel, and we know Jean Passanante shot it out of her mouth as soon as she was hired. 

Personally, while it broke my heart that a legacy child I'd been so invested in at birth was killed off---I was not a fan of the writing for or casting of the character. IMO, his death was partly emmy-bait for Hunt Block, which I believe failed spectacularly. 

[wonderwoman1951]

agreed! while i understood the need to bring more people in as writers, it never made any sense to me bringing in people who were so openly contemptuous. while i loved hunt block’s ben warren on guiding light, his version of craig was hogan’s misguided idea that what was wrong with ‘world turns was that the men were lacking ‘balls.’ 

and for jeanp, the person i’d really like to ask is courtney simon. 

Edited April 30, 2023 by wonderwoman1951

[adrnyc]

 

Again, am laughing at the thought that companies care about paying a fine. They only pay the fines if they get caught and even then, a good lawyer can get them out of practically anything that might seriously affect their bottom line. I agree though, they wouldn't dump them into the Hudson; they'd just throw them away in their giant bulk trash bins in individual bags that don't get checked by an anyone. They just go to a landfill..

And I don't have an investment in believing the show's archive is gone. It's just what I believe and makes the most sense to me. And has now been told to me by multiple sources with knowledge inside P&G. I don't take anything you say as a personal attack. Nor did I come at you with one. I just laughed at the thought of a company caring about disposing of waste properly as I know most of them don't. 

I'm on this forum practically every day; I don't just come to rage at strangers every 6-9 months. I just only post when I feel I have something to say. If you consider what I do raging, you must be an incredibly sensitive human being, which I would completely understand. I know many people like that. And, on the internet, just reading words with no inflections makes the reader add the inflection and meaning that they want. 

Peace to you. And in 20 years time, when this board is still posing the question "Why doesn't P&G put all of their shows on some streaming service or let a network like RetroTV have them, or send along clips to news outlets when their stars die?" I'll be over here knowing it's because it no longer exists. What's on YouTube is what we've got!

 

[Vee]

K.

[DRW50]

I still shudder at the memory of Block trying to cry. 

[Soapsuds]

Here you go!

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[DRW50]

Just embarrassing. And people were gassing this up to no end at the time. 

Sheffer (RIP) was a hack to the nth degree. 

If I'd actually cared about Bryant I would have been even more angry over him being killed off for this flop.

Edited May 1, 2023 by DRW50

[danfling]

Happy birthday today to Penny!   I am sure that she will be receiving flowers from her brother, Bob.