Worst Executive Producer...

[Contessa Donatella]

I agree with every word of this. And, just thank goodness he did not have any longer.

[Contessa Donatella]

As the World Turns Special 40th Anniversary Edition. The Complete Family Scrapbook. by Julie Poll. General Publishing Group. Los Angeles. ©1996 by Procter & Gamble Productions.

 

     "From Live to Tape: Joe Willmore" In the "live days," "As the World Turns" was shot in one piece from beginning to end. When it went to tape, it was done film style, which means scenes would be shot out of continuity. So executive producer Joe Willmore took a deep breath and insisted that they "keep day for day." In other words, whatever he shot on a Monday, and whatever he shot on a Friday had to air on a Friday. He would shoot out of order only on the condition that he had completed that show by the end of the day.

     Live or tape, the bottom line for Willmore was always character-motivated story. "If it's not believable, and it's motivated out of character, that's when they're going to turn you off. If it comes out of character, and it's well done, then you're going to see your numbers go up."

     Willmore's proudest moment as executive producer came on the eve of the show's 20th anniversary in April of 1976. The serial had dipped to sixth place in the ratings, but it was beginning to regain prominence with the Bob/Jennifer/Kim/John story. Willmore waited until he received the ratings to leave for the celebration party, and when he arrived, he took the microphone and told everyone that "As the World Turns" had resumed its rightful place and was number one again!

 

 

 

 

(Joe is on Facebook.)

[lucaslesann23]

No ones got time to read this huge chunk of text

[Contessa Donatella]

Doesn't seem huge to me.

[Sapounopera]

 

Hi Donna, welcome to this board. No, this text was not huge and trust me, on a soap board there will always be people around who have time to read just about anything about their shows.
I understand that you are very excited about joining this soap community, we are all equal members here.  Nobody gets to intimidate anybody. Each board has its own identity and "rules",  try understanding how things work around here and you will have an amazing time. 
 

[Contessa Donatella]

Wow, Elsa, thanks for the welcome! I'm trying to understand the rules and identity here! If you see me getting things right, just holler at me!

[Contessa Donatella]

Lumina? Jordan with the facial disfiguration? David Halliday without? He being after both Rachel and Amanda. As a fan and a fan activist at AW at the end, we thought Goutman was saving the show. He got the ratings ups. He got AW's ratings up above Sunset Beach's. He was a huge plus where the fans & the cast & the crew & the actors were concerned. He didn't want Laiman or Passanante but they were forced on him. Everyone cried at the end of AW, including Goutman. He came on strong at ATWT at the beginning but by 2004, he had gone over to the darkside.

[Melroser]

When were AW's ratings ever below Sunset Beach's??? Maybe I'm wrong but I thought SB debuted and stayed under what AW had the entire run. 

[soapfan770]

 

I know PC overtook AW briefly at one point if I recall right in 1998 but Beach never did, although it did come close to it during the Shockwave story. 

[beebs]

Yeah, Sunset Beach never was ahead of AW, not even for a single week. Jason47's weekly ratings database confirms this. 

[Contessa Donatella]

I agree with all of this. Charlotte Savitz was a nightmare.

[Melroser]

RKK's initial return to AW as Bobby with Ryan's eyes was stupid. If they wanted to pair him with Vicky then do it. I just thought him having Ryan's eyes (and didn't he supposedly have some of Ryan's memories too?) was lame. I did, however, later enjoy the Lila/Shane/Vicky/Jake quad. It should have been that to begin with. 

 

Killing off Michael was stupid. Michael and Donna should have been a permanent couple on AW. Anna Stuart was so underused and written horribly after Michael left. 

 

Jordan Stark/Lumina....just...no. 

 

I will say that I did not mind Josie's recast and the addition of Cameron was nice. I enjoyed the Gary/Josie/Cameron/Amanda quad as well...with the recast Gary as the weak link. Maybe if they had done a better recast for him, this could have been a better story.

[Contessa Donatella]

Have to agree there. If RKK wanted to come back to the show he should have come right back as Sam Fowler, not as "BobbaReno" or as Dr. Shane Roberts!

 

I liked Lila. Lisa Peluso is a fine actress. And, I was on the  phone with her hostessing her through an online chat & she was very personable, too.

 

Killing off MIchael & Shane was stupid. However, I really liked Donna with Matt.

 

 

Just NO!

I didn't go for recast Josie/Gary or bringing Cam on.

 

 

[Melroser]

I believe RKK only agreed to return if he wasn't playing Sam. Tho it would have been fun to throw Sam into the mix with Vicky and Amanda. The show toyed with the two of them as rivals for a while but I don't think it was ever developed properly. 

[Contessa Donatella]

Oh, that's what he said, sure. I just think it was the wrong time to let him have his way.