Jump to content

ATWT LEGEND KATHRYN HAYS PASSES AWAY


Recommended Posts

  • Members

R.I.P.  

Please register in order to view this content

As the World Turns is one of the few long-running soaps that, to my knowledge, never aired here in Sweden, so I'm not all that familiar with it. But it's always sad when a legend leave us, and from everything I've learned about ATWT and Ms Hays she really lived up to that often over-used label.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 103
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Members

Well many of you fellow ATWT fans already know how I feel about Ms. Kathryn Hays.
I don’t feel as though she ever truly got her due, in terms of individual awards but her imprint and contribution to the legacy of a daytime serial that came to define some of the best of the genre is immeasurable.

Kim was not just one half of a core couple, she was a core character on her own and Hays played her with a subtlety and a depth that was and still is unique in the genre. She was one of the reasons why longtime fans could even still recognize that daytime drama in its final years. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Well said!! It’s unfortunate that a lot of ATWT’s veteran cast like Hays, Hastings, Masters and Fulton never got their fair share of recognition. The world never stopped turning when they were on the screen. 

LOL maybe Kim should have been more specific. With the bad memory of Bob’s affair with Susan, Emily’s torrid affairs with Tom and Chris, and Alison then taking Chris on a run for his money, I suppose Kim should be greatful that Ellen never eyed Bob for herself or that either Betsy or Dee never broke Andy’s heart

Please register in order to view this content

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Last year, thanks to @VeeI saw Kathryn in an early '60s film, Ladybug Ladybug, set at the height of Cold War fears. It reminded me of the grace and intelligence Kathryn brought to her work, as also shown in her lovely, ethereal performance on Star Trek, and of course, as Kim.

One of the reasons I had no patience for the clawfest scenes with Kim and Susan that hacks like Sheffer and Goutman were so fond of is because they went against everything Kim was, everything  Kathryn Hays brought to the role. Kim was blunt, hard living telling her about the realities of life, but she was not bitchy. At worst she was impatient. 

I remember a scene that was, I am assuming, during the 1988 writers strike as it was a bit tougher than most of ATWT tended to be under Marland, and also because Kim's ties to Betsy were remembered, where Kim, after learning that Betsy and Seth were together, sat Seth down, and told him that Betsy was like her daughter, and how important they were to each other, how she had, in so many words, seen  him go through all of her daughters, and how  she simply was not able to support this happening yet again.

This could have been a big camporama, full of sour digs and Hays vamping to the skies. Instead, it felt, as Kim so often did, utterly honest. 

So many grand dames of soaps surrendered to amdram, trying to disguise weak scripts  and rushed production schedules, but Kathryn never did. 

One of the benefits of Goutman and the failures of ATWT's last decade not caring about Kim is that we never got  the bilge that ruined so many other icons in those years - no "shocking" reveal that  Kim murdered a nanny as a child because of latent DID, or that Don Hughes raped her and she and Lisa killed  him and hid the body in the woods, and so on. We still knew Kim, and cared about her. She was still our dear friend, our mother, or our grandmother. 

I'm so sorry that all of her early work as Kim is gone, likely never to be found. I'm never going to stop wanting to see it. 

The Locher Room shows gets a lot of hate, and I get why, but the constant anger towards them becomes so overpowering that I think they tend to overshadow the main reason for their worth - to allow fans and veterans to reconnect, one last time. Yes, I would like to know how an actor  felt about a storyline from 1987 - who wouldn't? - but right now, I am just glad to know that in her last years, after being on a show that was thrown away like old trash, Kathryn was reminded of the deep love generations of viewers still felt for her. 

I grew up watching Kim, and Bob, and Nancy, and all  my other friends and family in Oakdale, and, bad as  most of the last 15 years of the show  were, I wouldn't trade that experience for anything. I am sorry for all the people now who never had the pleasure of seeing Kathryn Hays in their living room 2-3 days a week, week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade. We were lucky. And I will miss both Kathryn and Kim dearly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I just got home and heard the news. 

 

ATWT (along with GL) was my grandma's favorite soap and Kim was her favorite character. Early on, I remember watching soaps with my grandma  and just becoming enamored with Kim as she mirrored my grandma in many ways--loving, strong, but no nonsense. 

 

The final years of World Turns (and my grandma's life), I'd schedule my college classes around the show and we'd sit and watch the show along with her reminiscing about her old favorite stories on the show (as she had watched from the inception). My grandma died a few months shy of the final episode, but I'd remain watching to the very end. 

 

Sorry, y'all. This death just conjures up old feelings about my grandma, Kathy Hays, and missing ATWT. This death might be soap related death that hurts the most. 

 

RIP, Kathryn. Thank you for all the great memories you provided. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.



  • Recent Posts

    • These contract guarantees of 1 ep per month are ridiculous. How can you even have a story if your character apprars 4-5 times in a month? It's sad.
    • It's hard to tell with some actors appearing on average 4 times in a month whether they're recurring or just on a low guarantee contract. Someone recurring  like Beth Maitland can be used a lot for several months then disappear. So the monthly tallies aren't enough to go by.
    • Of the so-called "contract" cast members, I'd venture to say these are recurring: Bryton James, Camryn Grimes, and (possibly) Michael Graziadei.  I've suspected since 2018 that Kate Linder and Christian LeBlanc are recurring.  And I believe we all know Miss Ordway is, because she said so. lol.  
    • Dante blaming Gio instead of his dweeb son and the other dweeb was just ridiculous. Gio's paternity story is going in circles with no reveal. I've already started fast forwarding Drew and his stupid ho Willow's story. Kristina's story is beyond dumb with no great payoff.
    • Sarah (with the English accent) isn't just some random character.  Sarah was once the housekeeper for Eliot Dorn and Margo Huntington.  One of the following 2 scenarios happened a few months ago: (1):  One night, while Margo wasn't at home, and while Oscar the Doorman wasn't at his post, a burglar sneaked into the private elevator, rode up to the penthouse, stole several thousand dollars worth of Margo's valuable diamonds and pearls, and tied-up Eliot Dorn and Sarah the Housekeeper, ensuring that Eliot and Sarah couldn't pursue the burglar back down to the lobby or phone the police to apprehend the burglar. OR --  (2): Eliot Dorn was SLEEPING with Sarah the Housekeeper, and the two of them conspired to steal Margo's jewelry and went on a lavish spending spree and then tied THEMSELVES up to make it look as though a burglary had occurred in the penthouse. Margo Dorn currently believes Scenario #1 occurred, and she's rather annoyed that the "incompetent police" haven't located her stolen jewels yet.  Eliot and Sarah know that Scenario #2 actually occurred.  When Sarah stopped by the Unicorn and saw Eliot kissing Raven Swift, Sarah snidely said, "Oh! This must be Mrs. Dorn!  Nice to meet you, Mrs. Dorn!" Sarah knew good & damn well Raven isn't "Mrs. Dorn" because Sarah worked for Margo Dorn on a daily basis for many months.  That was Sarah's not-so-subtle way of announcing, "I'll be paying a visit to District Attorney Logan Swift and letting him know that his wife is sleeping with you, and I'll be paying a visit to WMON to let Margo Huntington know that you're sleeping with Mrs. Swift!"  lol.     
    • The AMC hate came from Jamey Giddens/DC and their industry friends, IMO. For whatever reason I always felt they targeted the show, and it was wrong. AMC ratings were decent and even went up under Pratt (Yet, he was fired). The ratings were also good under Broderick and lowered out after her interim.  There was no reason to be upset with the show other than it being slow. They literally played it safe and did the best they could in 2010 and 2011. 
    • I have very detailed synopses of all 1976 storylines for the soaps from the Daytime Serial Newsletter. Please let me know if you are interested in a particular show and I will post it in the appropriate thread. As I stated they are very detailed, so I don't want to clutter up threads if posters are not interested.
    • Please register in order to view this content

       
    • Surely we (and Billy Flynn) are not going to be saddled with a character named Aristotle Dumas? This isn't 1970's Edge of Night.
    • What annoys me a little bit about the "day players" is they sound a bit too "Brooklyn-ish" sometimes.  Obviously, the show was taped in New York City, and the actors are all New York actors, but Monticello is supposed to be located in Illinois or Ohio.  Occasionally, they grab actors and actresses for small roles who have VERY distinct New York accents, which contrasts sharply with the main cast, none of whom have noticeable accents (except for our dashing European gigolo, Eliot Dorn, of course).  The heavy Brooklyn accent works fine if the character is a bookie, or the owner of a pawn shop, or a guy who's selling stolen guns on the street corner.  But when it's a steadily recurring character -- such as the first Mrs. Goodman, who worked for Miles and Nicole -- it's pretty jarring to me sometimes.  And you'll see it often -- such as an "under-five" character who witnesses a car accident, or a character who witnesses a shooting, or the occasional desk clerk, or waiter.  
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy