ATWT Spoilers and Casting News

[SpiritualJunkie]

No one is in their 20s except for Jen and Nick. The show could use some college-aged characters instead of having 30-somethings acting like highschool drama queens.

[PaceyLover]

awwww Simon :wub I'm happy that PL is coming back, I just hope that this time the writers give him a good storyline. Simon and Katie were my favorite couple on ATWT, but right now I can't stand Katie actually I want her to go away.

I can't wait to see Simon with Henry <<< Great chemistry

ITA!!!! She was horrible with him and Simon deserves better than boring Katie.

[SimoneS]

What I find interesting is how many people seem to have forgotten that Simon and Katie had started to get boring just before Paul Leyden left. It is like people only remember the beginning and peak of the Simon and Katie romance. As much as I didn't want him to leave, Paul did ATWT a favor by leaving and allowing them to transition Katie into a friendship and then a romance with Mike. Ideally, Paul would have come back for a longer stint and the triangle would have been mad crazy good. However, Paul didn't come back on a long term basis so TPTB had to let Katie move on with Mike by ruining Simon. I'm interested to see how they redeem Simon and insinuate him back into Katie's life. He was her first love, there is no walking away from all that love for Katie. Simon is a genuine threat to Katie and Mike. The last time Mike let his ego cause him to walk away from Katie in into that Pilar and Jennifer debacle. I'm interested in seeing if he has learnt his lesson and will fight for her this time.

[edgeofnik]

It's so funny, I was just thinking the other day, how much I missed seeing Simon and Katie together. (Plus the Simon/Henry friendship.) PL has stated in interviews that he is extremely grateful to ATWT for giving him a shot and that he is willing to come back if the story fits. (That's why he came back the last two times.) Yeah, the last one was bad, but probably necessary so that Katie could really move on + TC's pregnancy. Wasn't the way I would've written it, but I think the Simon can be redeem. (Remember he wasn't exactly a nice guy when he came on the show.) I hope this new story works and he can stick around for awhile.

[SpiritualJunkie]

I agree..the writing for Simon & Katie started to suck after they got together but I always thought Paul Leyden & Terri Colombino had the raw chemistry to make any mediocre story they were in worth watching. I also noticed that TPTB "stopped" writing for S&K as early as 5 months before PL left...they were by December 2002...S&K were only shown once a week...i wasn't until a month before PL's departure that they gave them a lot of airtime. Unfortunately, the story looked clearly rushed and unplanned. Had they known that PL wasn't resigning so early? If so, I don't get WTH they weren't showcasing him and using him as much as they could before he left. They've been desperately trying to get him back since he left so it's kinda ironic how they already slowly let him go way before then.

[RogerNewcomb]

The problem was that the show knew Paul was leaving for nearly a year so they stopped writing for them. And even with all this time to prepare his exit, they quickly rushed a 3 week story just before he left. It was lame. They had plenty of time to do this right and they blew it.

[SimoneS]

SpiritualJunkie, good to see someone remembers what was actually going on with Simon and Katie. I remember being so fustrated that they were never on and never seemed to be doing anything when they were on the screen. It was really annoying. I read that Paul and Terri weren't pleased with his last stint, but he has agreed to return so we'll have to see what they do with Simon this time.

Roger, I never understand that rationale behind the writers abandoning popular characters like a drop of a hat once they find out an actor is leaving. I don't get why they don't milk the farewell for a big dramatic climax. I didn't even kow that they had a year prepare and still they screwed up. Simon was so popular, yet they ignored Simon and Katie forever and then just dumped him. They could have even pulled in Mike into their storyline earlier, having Simon and Mike interact further complicating Mike and Katie's feelings for each other after Simon left. This is why I always think of TPTB at ATWT as too often lacking creativity and being lazy.

[sema608]

Well, that explains why they were hardly on during the last 6 months or so before PL left. I couldn't figure out why they were not being shown as much after the Dahli story. Now, I know. I had no idea that PL was leaving and tptb knew it for almost a year. When PL was leaving, I thought it came out of nowhere. I had no idea Simon was going to leave and I hated the way he left. It was so abrupt.

[SpiritualJunkie]

By the time Paul Leyden left, the show had gone to crap for me and I was just so frustrated that my favourites weren't getting the airtime they deserved and that PL wasn't given the farewell him and the fans deserved.

ATWT is really bad with departure stories...especially for actors who decide not to resign. It's like they stop writing for the character as soon as they find out an actor is leaving. They did it with Paul Leyden and they did it with Jessica Dunphy. It seemed like they were starting to write a story with her and Will after Aaron left but as soon as they found out that she wasn't resigning, they left her in limbo for the remaining months that she had left with the show. What's the point of signing a 3-year contract when TPTB are willing to waste up to a year?

PL had already decided not to resign as early as a year?? That's news to me...I thought it was 6 months but either way, the writers wasted precious time and an opportunity to write a good departure story.