SOD's excerpt from Carolyn Hinsey's new book

[Soapsuds]

How do you get everybody back in Oakdale? A retirement bash party for Bob. Hell they do it every year at my work....with coworkers and family members attending. It could have been an easy way to bring so many fan favorites back. They could even have brought back a character from the past that was gay to be introduced to Luke. Giving us a hint that maybe Luke might get his happy ending.

[Quent]

What really got me angry about the end of ATWT was the waste. The show received PLENTY of notice to come up with a good wrap-up. But what did we get? The return of Iris Dumbrowski. The death of an iconic villain by some annoying twit. That ENDLESS kidnapping story with Chuckles The Clown. And endless attention to Jean Passante's attempt to recreate the Snyders, the dreaded Ciccones. Hell, a character we saw maybe five times, Rocco C, got twice as much funeral coverage as the woman who said ATWT's first line of dialogue. And we can't get Scott DeFrietas back (when he's married to the show's leading lady), but we get Julie Pinson's husband on as Useless Character No. 412, Blackie?

Nobody wanted all this crap at the end. What we wanted was a chance for us to say goodbye, and for the characters who went through so much to say goodbye to each other. I would've preferred to see Katie and Henry say goodbye to each other, or see film clips of the shows glory years than all the Avalon Castles, and Gabriels/Libertys in the world.

[soapfan770]

You know, as much as I hated GL's last two years I really did enjoy GL's final weeks a lot just to see all the old faces pop up. Yes it had its flaws and was goofy but you know what for the most part GL's finale brought closure and peace. Fletcher came back. Ed and Holly reunited. Dylan and Bridget got to reconcile. Billy and Vanessa remarried.

On the other hand, I did like some of ATWT but aside from Jack, Carly, John, Lucinda, Barbara, Henry, Bob, Kim and Luke I didn't care too much for the rest. ATWT's finale was sad and strange, maybe it was because ATWT had so much story left to tell. Yet at the same time ATWT had a good nine months to wrap up but instead for the most part we got some ridiculous storylines. Heck 2009 had more returns like Damien, Mike, Ben, Jessica, Simon etc. than 2010 and that was for Jack's side journey in addition to James Stenbeck in the Henry is a Stenbeck tale.

Oh and those deleted scenes between Craig and Rosanna were very strange.

[DRW50]

I felt like Goutman only cared about bringing back past characters when he was hoping ratings would go up and when the show was canceled there was no real effort in that area, aside from people he knew, Liz Hubbard's work for Larry B, and Julianne Moore being nice enough to return.

It was strange to me that Seth could return for Holden's SECOND fake funeral, but not for the last episodes.

I don't want to turn this into GL/ATWT because certainly GL was a bigger mess creatively than ATWT at the end, but I felt much more of an emotional connection with the last weeks of GL. The returns were shoddy at times but at least they were there, and even though it should have been better, I was glad to say goodbye to Bridget, Nola, Fletcher, and others I never expected to see again. Looking back I still can't believe they got Lisa Brown back considering how she loathed her 90's stint on the show and how she didn't even think that much of anything at GL after Marland. Yet she was nowhere to be found when ATWT ended

They were odd but I felt like Cady was the only one Jon sparked with on ATWT, aside from Liz Hubbard, somewhat.

I was most annoyed by the stuff about how he learned forgiveness through Lily. Come on. They should have brought Betsy back for that.

[Michael]

I think ATWT was probably a better finale for the show that was on that time (what Goutman had turned it into), but GL -- despite perhaps being a weaker actual episode -- was a more satisfying finale for the entire series (or perhaps the last 30ish years of it).

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Speaking of Lisa Brown, has anyone seen how awful she looks lately? I can't believe this is the same woman we saw just two years on GL's finale.

3:41 in:

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[soapfan770]

Wouldn't be the first time. Remember when she came back on ATWT for Rose's funeral sporting like pink hair? That was a bad hair day for her, and she only had like two lines.

[Soapsuds]

She looks bad for her age. She is only 57. My parents look better than her.

I love seeing Martha again. Good thing she didn't run into Goutman.

Remember when.......

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[soapfan770]

Getting back on track, obviously GL's production woe's began under Conboy and his outlandish sets as well as dropping three important stars to recurring status in favor of cheaper newbies who didn't even last a year leading up the 2005 fiasco in which several cast members were eliminated.

[LoyaltoAMC]

I actually enjoyed the ATWT finale. I found it sweet and sentimental. The spinning globe at the end was a little hokey, but it still got me bawling. I wasn't a long-term fan. If I had been, maybe it would've been a different story. My only gripe was so little of Eileen Fulton. She drove the show to great success in those early years, and they should've had her doing more than just playing the Greek chorus to the John and Luncinda stuff. Why wasn't she with Tom and Margo when Casey and Alison took off. I did read that she had been more prominent in the finale, as originally taped, but that Goutman was forced to cut some of her scenes.

[DRW50]

Wow. She looks like my grandmother. Perhaps the lack of hair dye isn't helping. With those blaring lights that hit her face every so often it's like a homeless woman wandering until a police car picks her up.

And not forced to cut any of the garbage with the teens which took up most of the deleted scenes. I don't buy that.

[Soapsuds]

The hair color doesnt do Brown any favors.

[P.J.]

Uh...I was more disappointed in the GL returns than the ATWT non-returns. Yeah, great...Fletch, Nola and Bridget got two lines apiece. At Billy/Vanessa and Buzz/Lillian's wedding? NOTHING pissed me off more than the way GL blatantly had all of Billy and Van's relationship happen off screen. And Buzz and Lillian? *screams* I'm sorry---nothing against the actors, but GMAFB. Two characters who hadn't done crap for years get a wedded sendoff?

Do I wish ATWT would have weeded out the inconsequential characters, taken huge risks (sending the worthless Craig off to jail...) and went out with a bang? Sure....but that wasn't really ATWT's style in the first place. Frankly, even the two weeks they spent on Luke's tragic lovelife pissed me off. As good as ESS was...he hadn't even been on the show a year.

[DRW50]

I always have mixed feelings on fleeting returns or fleeting stories - would it be better to not see them at all than to see some truncated mess?

In GL's case, I went with happy to see them at all, mostly because I had been so burned out on GL's last 10-15 years that I was happy to take any crumbs. I never really thought Vanessa and Billy would get back together - I thought Vanessa would reconcile with boring Matt or just be alone and vanish. I didn't think I'd even hear Bridget's name, much less see her again. The same goes for Fletcher.

That's not to say they didn't waste most of their returns (especially Ed and Holly) or that they didn't waste time - there was huge amounts of pointless material, like the non-story of Ashlee reacting to her mother's insta-lesbianism, or anything with Daisy, or the Edmund/Richard "chase" scenes which looked like a direct-to-video release from 1994, or Cyrus being Jenna's son (as much as I grew to care about Jenna and as much as I liked Cyrus when he didn't have to actually do anything beyond look good half-naked/smirk, that really was totally pointless).

I guess I was just glad the effort was made.

ATWT had some decent stories and their characters were in better shape than GL's at the end, but I felt like there was almost no effort made on the show's history. It still bothers me because I don't understand why. Is it that difficult to mention names? To say, "Hey Katie, your mother's on the phone," or, "Allison, Ellen couldn't be here today, but she wanted me to give you this card"? I'd take anything. I know it's a sop to old pathetic deluded fans and that Goutman was somehow showing his genius by ignoring this (or that's what I read at the time anyway, on DC), but just even a token effort would have been nice.

[Michael]

Honestly, that's a huge reason I'm still into Days. I'd watch, or at least keep up, til the bitter end regardless, but they still make the effort to make it feel like Salem. Justin and Adrienne's kid just showed up, and he had a throwaway line about having seen his Grandma Jo (Adrienne's mom) and her husband, Vern. Those characters haven't been seen since 2006, but the show has kept them alive with little bits like that. I don't get why it was so hard for ATWT -- which was my #2 show behind Days -- to do that sort of stuff in latter years. I guess the answer is that it wasn't hard, but no one was interested in the history.