Variety review
AS THE WORLD TURNS With Helen Wagner, Don Mac- Laughlin, Hal Studer, Rosemary Prinz, Ruth Warrick, Anne Burr, Les Damon, Bill Johnstone, Joyce Van Patten, others; —Producer: Charles Fisher Directors: Ted Corday, Bill Howell
Writers: Irna Phillips, Agnes Nixon 30 Mins., Mon.-thru-Fri., 1:30 p.m. PROCTER & GAMBLE 'CBS-TV, from N. Y. (Benton & Bowles)
If anybody got the idea that Procter & Gamble was pioneering something by sponsoring the first half-hour soap opera, they were greatly misinformed or mistaken. There was an advantage of doing the first of the 30-minute soapers, but it may not prove to be of enduring importance. Weighed against it, the disadvantage is emphatic in nature. As the first of its kind to reach beyond a quarter-hour, “As the World Turns” has the potential, if only because of its size. of overwhelming the viewers and temporarily capturing their favor to a larger degree than its antecedents. But from the point of program content, 30 minutes simply require the writers to fill the usual amount of time with twice the usual amount of pap, as was so painfully evident in the preem (2) telecast.
If P&G were interested in innovations, it might have started by hiring a. staff of writers which hadn't remotely been connected with the old way of soap opera, a way much exposed over the years to the worst of critical barbs. Veteran scribe Irna Phillips and Agnes Nixon,the team responsible for the storyline, seemed to confuse quantity with quality. Depending on how they're counted, the pair contrived six or seven plots and they all came out in the all-expository first program. Evidently, Misses Phillips and Nixon didn't want to get caught short as the problem of creating situations got tougher with time.
Not all of the cast members were introduced in the initial undertaking on Monday, but the viewer met {Chris and Nancy Hughes, their three kids and a friend’s daughter, and it was through them that the future of the show was unravelled. The plots: (1) Penny Hughes, about 15 or 16, hates her mother Nancy; (2) Penny wants to go away for a week during spring vacation with friend’s daughter (her name sounded like Ellen Lowell), screener doesn’t learn why; (3) there is a grandfather, off on a farm someplace, for whom the Hugheses want to find a city home: (4) there is some planning to be done for the Hughes’ wedding anniversary; (5) 18-year-old Don Hughes is in love with a yet to be seen 20-year old girl name of Janice, and (6) the Hughes’ friends Jim and Claire Lowell have been separated for a couple of years, while (7) daughter Ellen is terribly melancholy about the rift. These were all given equal importance in the script.
There wasn't much directors Bill Howell and Ted Corday had to do, it appeared; the actors had to walk through their scenes by rote. Since none of the roles were demanding, it would be hard to judge the competency of the actors. Helen Wagner and Don MacLaughlin appeared as Mrs. Hughes and her lawyer hubby; Rosemary Prinz as their problem-daughter, Penny, Hal Studer as their 18-year old son, Don, and there were a | couple of others seen; the remainder of the dramatis personnae ,including Ruth Warrick, as Mr. Hughes’ sister, to appear at a later date.
By
Paul Raven ·
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