This is an article from the 2/27/98 issue of Soap News, which is pretty damning towards both the character of Molly and Leslie Kay. Molly was certainly a character I grew to love but I found her annoying her first year but it got better over time, but I don't remember it being this bad:

IN MY OPINION

Molly, the One-Dimensional Loose Cannon

by Margery Scott

If World Turns' powers that be are intent on rehabilitating the character Molly (and it seems that they are) the writers need to give the audience some clue, other than obsession, about what makes her tick. They need to give her character more depth: develop her personality, make her more human and complex, and give her some capacity for introspection. (Put aside for the moment the capability of the actress, Leslie Kay Sterling, to portray this character.) They have had a year in which to do this and have not yet done so. Up to this point in the story I find her character rather one-dimensional. She has been a device, a shell of a person, who is fixated, delusional, scheming and vindictive. She acts out her delusions in destructive ways without considering anyone else's welfare, not even that of Holden, who, she claims, is the "love" of her life. She is not capable of an emotional relationship; she is only capable of obsession.

The writers attempted to provide some motivation for her emotional state: her father made her give up her baby and moved her out of Luther's Corners. She had a tough life after that and got mixed up with the wrong people. In my opinion it has not been enough to motivate her bizarre behavior and/or create a discernible personality. The writers must have realized something more was needed: this week Kim was trying to explain Molly's behavior to Bob (and the audience) by comparing her former situation to Molly's. Kim's empathy is admirable but does anyone buy that? It's much too late and still too little. We should expect more and from the character herself.Molly has recently been shown to distrust Kim and her kindness. Why would she do that? We don't know; we can only surmise that compassion is foreign to her and makes her suspicious. Yet, people have been kind to her: Lily, Jack and even Holden treated her with kindness until she alienated them with her compulsive agenda. Carly, who has aided and abetted her in these delusional schemes, is the one person whom she trusts. All the audience knows is that Molly is a loose cannon, which, in my opinion, makes her a device. She seems more of a thing (the loose cannon) than a person. In our posts we have even dubbed her "IT" and I don't think we chose that name by accident. And I don't think we were being unkind. That is how she has been written and also how she has been portrayed. I think this is one of the reasons the audience dislikes the character so much. It's difficult to relate to an "IT."

The character Molly is as seriously stunted in emotional growth as the actress who portrays her is seriously deficient to bring such a character to life on the screen. I think the powers that be were trying to create another Annie (GL) and fell somewhat short of the mark. Annie (Cynthia Watros) is a villainess, par excellence. Even Sarah/Veronica (Candice Daly of Y&R, whose credentials at the official CBS site seem similar to those of Leslie Kay Sterling) does a credible job of portraying delusion and mental instability. But in this category the prize goes to Sheila (Kimberlin Brown of B& who does both with such mastery and ease that she draws the audience to her and even elicits their compassion at times. And this is a woman whose exploits make Molly look like an amateur. When writing has not proved sufficient to the task, it often happens that the actor/actress brings his/her own personality to the part and gives us a more fully developed, alive character. For example, the audience has appreciated Elizabeth Hubbard through good writing and bad. This actress (Leslie Kay Sterling), in my opinion, has given no indication that she is capable of doing that. She seems as one-dimensional as her character. Try to imagine what this part could have been if it had been well written and if Kimberlin had been cast as Molly. If you aren't familiar with Kimberlin, try to imagine Toby Poser (Amanda GL) or some other competent, strong actress. Either one of these women would have been chilling and formidable. ATWT's Molly could have easily been viewed as a comic character if she had not been allowed to run amok and if her story had not involved everyone in Oakdale. (In fact this story line has been so bad that I'm tempted to do that anyway.) As it is, she remains a major irritant and getting the audience to accept her is going to be a gargantuan task and one that I'm not at all sure is possible. If Molly is to stick around for the next two years I hope the writers can fill in that empty shell and give her depth by adding some substance to her nonexistent personality. I'm not sure if TPTB are committed to the character or the "actress." If it is the character they should look for a more proficient actress. If it is the "actress" then I'm afraid we're just going to have to suffer through until Oakdale gets too small for her.

Thanks! That "online reviews" part cracks me up for some reason.

It did with me as well, especially with the particular person being Frank Runyeon.

I didn't ever have a big problem with Lesli Kay, even in the early days. She was a little old school soap (quavering voice, big eyes) but she did what she could. Initially when Molly started, she got an OK reaction. Marlena de Lacroix named her as a newcomer to watch. Fans didn't seem to mind her, although I remember some comments saying they wanted to see more of another prison character (the woman who menaced Lily - I think she was a theater actress or the daughter of theater stars).

When she came to Oakdale and clutched that footprint 24/7, people began to hate her. Then the idiotic schemes to get Holden just spiraled out of control. The low point was her trying to drop a gargoyle on Lily. Or the church stuff.

FMB just kept showing her characters constantly, and trying to fix or change them. Molly was on constantly in those years. She made a decent couple with David Allen, but I think fans only began to warm to her more when she was with Andy. This was then thrown out the window for the affair with Reid, which certainly worked well for Lesli and Keith Colouris in real life, but which disgusted fans and led to such anger that when Colouris was fired, he blamed Internet posters.

Can't find the ATWT DVD thread (and I never watched the show, to be honest), but I was just at TVShowsOnDVD.com, and it says a "Carjack" DVD release is coming, in case no one knew:

DVD info

People hated Molly for the first year or so. It was weird, how suddenly people started to not hate her.

The single DVD sets have one issue, the disk is hard to get out for some reason. Other single DVDs I own are easy to take in and out, but the ATWT and GL ones not so much. I did not have a problem with the multi sets. I also thought it was strange how the large GL set has a white banner border around the cover.

BTW have the Carjack sets started shipping yet?

Well, they stopped using Molly as a run-of-the-mill-psychotic. I'm sure that helped.

That's why he was fired. He was suppose to be hated. He wasn't suppose to be sympathetic but that is the way Bryce played it and Goutman just went crazy over it and fired him.

That story was awful. Goutman seemed to not want Bryce back as if that decision was forced onto him by someone. So they wrote Craig so awfully. The quad was boring and tedious. The day Craig gave Meg some drug to make her lose her baby was despicable writing which I assumed at the time was meant to destroy the character of Craig forever. And yet I felt sorry for CRAIG. Only Scott Bryce could pull that off. The audience should have hated him for doing that. ATWT just did not want a humanized Craig in the last 10 years. I saw him go from bad to reformed and yet still flawed, a multi-dimensional fascinating and rootable character. It was a brilliant Emmy worthy portrayal by Scott Bryce, and then to see Craig come back and be so snide and cartoonish was hard for me as a fan. I can understand why people liked Hunt in the role, especially if they never saw Craig before. Hunt was playing it exactly how ATWT wanted him to at the time. It just wasn't for me. Plus, aside from Sierra, Craig's relationships with Lucinda and Lily were some of my faves and they never even tried to do that justice.

Beyond the snideness, Hunt just couldn't act. They tried to throw a few pity party moments in and he tanked them.

What is the date of the free Carly/Jack episode? If anyone can tell me that would be great, if you know where I can find that information that would be good too... TIA

What is the date of the free Carly/Jack episode? If anyone can tell me that would be great, if you know where I can find that information that would be good too... TIA

Here it is

http://soapclassics.com/index.php/free-online-episode.html

The episode is from Tuesday, June 29, 1999. Monday's episode is when Carly pulls him in there after Jack sees Reid propose to Julia, and Wednesday, they wake up and almost make love, only to be interrupted by Hal, Barbara and their wedding planner.

Transcript links.... http://atwtx.0catch.com/ATWT06291999.txt (atwt.x0catch.com 's transcripts start in March '99) while tvmegasite.com's start in 2000.

Got my ATWT CarJack DVD in the mail today....yay!

I got the Carjack set in the mail today also.

Very happy for both of you