As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[wonderwoman1951]

today, cbs sunday morning mentioned the passing of jackie zeman. i have no quarrel with that.

it’s just that the show never — NEVER — notes the passing of actors who were on p&g soaps for decades: kathryn hays, liz hubbard, jerry verdorn, lisa brown are the most recent ignored by the network.

does cbs have a rule forbidding the show from acknowledging these actors?

[antmunoz]

Guessing that because Zeman was still on an existing show, still appearing and working, it’s more newsworthy than the draths of actors that haven’t been seen onscreen, from shows that were cancelled, over a decade ago. 

[Khan]

Also, I'm sad to say this, but CBS likely noted JZ's passing, because GH was a pop culture phenomenon in ways that the P&G shows weren't.  The only actor from a now-defunct soap whose passing I could see making the news would be Susan Lucci's - again, because Erica Kane wasn't just a soap character, she was, for a long time, part of the zeitgeist.

Edited May 15, 2023 by Khan

[Wendy]

And Jacklyn Zeman, along with Anthony Geary, Genie Francis, etc., LITERALLY saved GH from cancellation and helped turn it into the pop culture phenomenon that GH became in the early '80s.

That soap reached viewer numbers at that time that NO other soap has or will ever see.

In that context, I get why a rival network would acknowledge Jackie Zeman's passing.

[wonderwoman1951]

 

all true — but kathryn hays was on atwt for 38 years, liz hubbard for 24. and not for nothing, ‘world turns and guiding light WERE ON CBS! and over the years those shows generated 10s, if not 100s of millions of $ for CBS. so one might think that would supersede the NEWS aspect of their passing.  

[Wendy]

I get what you're saying, but at the time Bobbie and Luke appeared with the whole Luke/Laura/Ice Princess craze, GH transcended "just" soap press. As someone said, it became a cultural phenomenon.

For better or worse, that never happened for the P&G soaps, so as unfair as it may be, the passing of actors from those shows won't get much notice.

[Khan]

Forgive me, @wonderwoman1951, but I don't know how else to say this: aside from their fans, no one gives a [!@#$%^&*] about ATWT or GL anymore; and to those from outside the industry, soaps mean only three things: Luke & Laura (and by extension, GH), Susan Lucci/Erica Kane, and maybe Eric Braeden/Victor Newman.  That's it.

[Paul Raven]

And possibly Deidre Hall.

[Khan]

Her, too.

Which is worse: not acknowledging their passings, or acknowledging them in the most grievous ways, like when FOX News's website marked Liz Hubbard's passing...with a photo of Marie Masters?

Found this after @Vee told me she had passed: they literally misidentified MM as Liz!  I thought this sort of thing only happened with us black folks!

https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/as-the-world-turns-emmy-winning-star-elizabeth-hubbard-dead-89

Edited May 15, 2023 by Khan

[Paul Raven]

Not to worry...when Marie passes they'll put up a photo of Liz.

[Khan]

My money's on Eileen Fulton.

[Vee]

Oh God, I'd forgotten all about that. BTW, you apparently cannot receive DMs.

[BetterForgotten]

I think a lot of it is recency bias for shows still on the air with stars that go back a long time. When Jeanne Cooper passed, CBS Sunday Morning did acknowledge it and saw fit to give her a segment. Yes, Y&R’s been the #1 rated soap for years and Jeanne was a big part of the success, but I don’t think that seemed to factor that much into it as much as she was on for years on an existing show for the network.

https://youtu.be/LBjNbaU28ek

 

 

 

 

Edited May 15, 2023 by BetterForgotten

[MarlandFan]

I think Jaclyn Zeman got more attention because she was currently on the air, was only 70, and passed away so suddenly.  Actors like Hubbard and Kathryn Hays spoke to an audience that is now in the 50+ age bracket -- and current TV/newspaper editors are in their 30s and 40s.  They just don't understand how significant these actors were.  And perhaps there is a bias against soap actors: I've noticed that the NYTimes does not publish obituaries for soap actors.  Nothing for Anthony Herrera, Lisa Brown, or Elizabeth Hubbard to name a few.  And these were SIGNIFICANT actors who were known by millions outside the soap world -- and who had long acting resumes in other fields.  I noticed they did give Kathryn Hays an obituary - but only a full three weeks after she died (perhaps the editors only included her once they realized she has been on a Star Trek episode and had once been married to Glenn Ford?) 

Edited May 15, 2023 by MarlandFan

[Broderick]

Mississippi Actress Actualizes Dream in Soap Opera Role

Finn Carter makes a name for herself

4/12/1985

On the CBS daytime drama As the World Turns, she plays Sierra Esteban, daughter of a slain Central American political figure.  In real life, Finn Carter is herself the product of a prominent family.  

Her grandfather, the late Hodding Carter, was the Pulitzer Prize-winning editor and publisher of the Greenville, Mississippi, Delta Democrat-Times.  Her father, Hodding Carter, III, is a television correspondent who previously carved a niche for himself as a Mississippi journalist, political advocate and State Department spokesman during the administration of Jimmy Carter.  

The 25-year-old Ms. Carter has roots on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, too.  Her mother, now divorced from Hodding Carter III, is the former Peggy Wolfe of Pass Christian.  In addition, her uncle, Hudson Wolfe III, is an Ocean Springs music instructor.  

The character of Sierra was introduced in January on As the World Turns.  She arrived in the fictional Midwest community of Oakdale after escaping from a Central American revolution.  Sierra's father was murdered during the turmoil.  Although she has been told her mother died years ago, she is actually the daughter of Lucinda Walsh (played by Elizabeth Hubbard), a wealthy and unscrupulous newspaper owner in Oakdale.  

Complicating matters further is the fact that Sierra is in love with Craig Montgomery (Scott Bryce), who attempted to rescue Sierra from the Central American revolution.  And Montgomery is involved with Lucinda Walsh in more ways than one.  

"My character escaped from a fictitious Central American country called Montega," Ms. Carter explained in a telephone interview from New York, where ATWT tapes.  "She's been raised essentially by nuns, but she's not nun-like herself ... She's been exposed to the cream of Montega, but she's not blind to what really goes on.  And she's the type who may come across as sweet, but she has a lot of inner strength."  

It definitely took a great deal of inner strength for Finn Carter to face the odds and pursue an acting career in New York. 

She was born Elizabeth Fearn Carter at Greenville's King's Daughters Hospital on March 9, 1960.  For most of her life, she has been addressed by her middle name, which is pronounced "Finn".  

"The name is Irish," explains her mother, who now resides in New Orleans.  "It's a family surname on my mother's side.  She changed the spelling of her name only because most people can't pronounce it."  

Finn Carter is the second of four children.  Her older sister Catherine, who has a television background, is 26 and a first-year law student at Tulane.  Their brother, Hodding Carter IV, is 22 and is working with the Peace Corps in Kenya.  And younger sister Margaret, who lives with her mother in New Orleans, is a junior at Isidore Newman School.  

"I wanted all my children to have knowledge of the arts," said Peggy Wolfe Carter, an amateur artist.  "They're into the humanities, who runs in my entire family and also in their father's side."  

Finn developed these interests early.  "My first dance class was when I was five," the actress says.  "So I guess it started then.  My mother had always wanted to be a dancer and couldn't -- I guess because her father didn't approve.  I continued to dance until I was eighteen.  Before that, I did little theatre in my hometown." 

Finn Carter attended public schools in Greenville until she was 16.  For her final year in high school, she was sent to Walnut Hill School in Nantick, Massachusetts, not far from Boston.  Walnut Hill specializes in the performing arts, and Ms. Carter studied dance and theater there.  

After graduation, she went to New York and studied dance for a year with the Alvin Ailey Company.  Skidmore College in Sarasota Springs came next. 

"I went to college because I had a bad knee and because I really wasn't that great of a dancer, anyway," Finn said.  "I was kind of klutzy, but I was getting by."  

Returning to the South a year later, she enrolled at Tulane and during the next three years earned extensive credits in regional theatre.  

Her first big paying role?  "I played Jill in Butterflies are Free at Minacepelli's Dinner Theatre in Slidell in 1981."

Though a desire to return to New York was in the back of her mind, she continued to be busy with small jobs obtained through her agent in New Orleans and work at the city's Contemporary Arts Center. 

"And then a friend said to me one night, 'Finn, actualize your dream.  Don't just keep talking about it.' So I moved.  I always knew I would.  It was just a matter of my having enough confidence to do it."  

Finn lived in New York for two rather lean years before she won the role of Sierra on As the World Turns.  "I was erratic and unfocused and didn't know how to deal with New York," she recalls.  "I was waitressing and kept changing jobs and trying to get enough money to have my pictures made.  In that first year, the agents I had didn't know what to do with me ... They weren't sending me out on enough auditions.  And it's sort of a rule around here: if you go to 100 auditions, you should get one thing a year.  Well, I hadn't done 100 auditions." 

Eventually, she changed agents, and after a series of auditions and screen tests and callbacks, she joined the cast of World Turns as Sierra.  "I was speechless when my agent told me I got the part," she said.  "I literally dropped the phone, hung up on my agent, and had to call back and apologize."  

As a result of her role on the long-running daytime series, she now joins her father, who currently hosts the PBS newsmagazine Capitol Journal as a television regular.   

"I'm glad to have the first TV star in the family," deadpanned Hodding Carter III, "because she actually will be before an audience of some size, as opposed to whatever may see me or not see me.  I'm also glad to have another wage earner in the family."  

Finn's father and grandfather have been two very tough acts to follow.  

Her grandfather was a veritable giant of journalism.  He headed the Delta Democrat-Times for three decades and became nationally known for his progressive racial stance during the Jim Crow era.  Hodding III took control of the paper during the 1960s but eventually entered the political arena, first on a state level with the Mississippi Democratic party and then on a national level. 

When President Carter’s term began in 1977, Hodding III was appointed Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and became a State Department spokesman.  During the hostage crisis in Iran in 1979 and 1980, his daily press briefings catapulted him to national prominence. 

Hodding III resigned from his State Department post in 1980 and became anchor and chief correspondent of the PBS news series Inside Story.  He is now married to Patt Derian, a longtime activist in the Mississippi civil rights movement who served as Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs. 

Her family’s progressive stance on civil rights had an impact on young Finn.  For her, growing up as a Carter in the Mississippi Delta was a double-edged sword. 

“I can remember being in the fourth grade and inviting a girl to my birthday party – and her parents not letting her come because there might be a Black at my party.  And because I was Hodding Carter’s daughter and granddaughter.  So certainly, there were things like that,” she says. 

Still, she insists that little of that really affected her life. 

“She had a very normal childhood,” says Hodding Carter III.  “But she grew up in Mississippi at a time of pretty wrenching and fundamental change.  In a way, I suppose it was normal to her.  If it was happening and that was all you’d ever known, it was normal.  I always figured that the ideals espoused by the newspaper were a burden for my children.  They were having to suffer for my principles – ones that hadn’t lived long enough to say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to it.  It was something I had experienced being my own father’s son.  And I’m sure they caught a little grief.” 

On another level, Finn Carter’s father declared she is lucky her first name isn’t Hodding. 

“I think the Carter name is a curse,” he said.  “People believe it opens doors.  Finn has tried very hard and very successfully.  And I’ve honored that desire on her part to not have it be something that Daddy tried to do for her.  I hasten to add that I don’t even know enough about that business to have been able to help her.  And I haven’t; she’s strictly done it on her own.” 

Finn Carter’s statements on the subject echo her father’s. 

“It is a little threatening to be born into a family like ours.  In my life, it affected me more during the Iranian crisis than in previous years.  And that’s because my father became nationally visible.  It was different to be his daughter in Greenville than to be his daughter in college.   Sometimes it’s been a curse because people would say, ‘Oh, it’s because she’s Hodding Carter’s daughter that she gets this’ … Even with this job, I’ve heard it said, ‘Well, her father …’ But he had absolutely nothing to do with my getting this part.  And certainly the people who cast me didn’t even know he was my father.” 

She expresses great pride in her family’s accomplishments, particularly those of her grandfather.  “He would be considered a moderate today,” she noted.  “But at that time, he was an extreme liberal.  And even his father was an amazing man in Hammond, Louisiana. He was doing things that people didn’t do.” 

Ms. Carter calls her stint on As the World Turns a learning experience.  “It’s been trying.  It’s not like anything I’ve ever done before, so I’m having to learn a whole new skill.  And I believe TV acting is a skill in itself.  I’m nowhere near having mastered it … I think it will create a lot of discipline.  I probably work with the best soap opera cast in New York.  Everyone’s very positive.  Everyone works really hard and cares and is supportive.  My first scenes were with Scott Bryce, and he couldn’t have been nicer or more supportive.  He was practically holding my hand through the whole thing.  It’s a very nice atmosphere.”

As for the future, Finn says she does not want to limit herself to any one acting arena.  “I’m glad to be doing a soap opera. I’m extremely grateful I’m doing it. I moved to New York, not with a soap opera in mind at all.  I moved here hoping to slowly move into theatre.  And I knew it would be a long road.  So after a while, I can hopefully get stage work here.  I want to do that, and I hope that film is in my future.” 

 

 

Edited May 15, 2023 by Broderick