Goodbye to an old friend, Goodbye As the World Turns
Usually I use this journal for other purposes but today I am going to rant and rave and remember one of my all time favorite shows, As the World Turns. It ends today after being on the air forever, and it is a sad, sad day.
Come reminisce and watch some clips on YouTube with me...
Now ATWT has been around since the 1950s but I started watching it in the 1980s as a student. I watched religiously from the mid80s to the mid-90s. Writing and backstage changes took hold and the show was not as good after that, so this recap will really focus on the plots and characters I loved. I still checked in on ATWT in the years afterwards, and my kids got hooked on it in the past few years as the young characters in the 2000s turned out to be some of the better actors.
But back to 1985 on. Holden and Lily snared me in during their summers of teenage angst. They were so young then! Holden was hotter than hot back in those days. Here's a great classic clip of them from 1986.
Of course the big plot was that Holden's ADOPTED sister Iva was really Lily's mother, and her father was the guy who raped Iva, Josh. (Who later rehabbed himself, atoned for misdeeds and married Holden and Iva's sister Meg o_O). This led to one of the best soap scenes ever when Lily found out. (I linked you to the good part, but try to watch it all, that was quite an episode.)
Later on, they actually introduced a viable contender for Lily in Damian. Loved Damian. Hated how later writers and years messed up his character. But in 1994, Damian was the man.
Through the years though, no matter what writers threw at them, Holden and Lily found their way back to each other (although she did dump him for Damian at least three times I can remember). They will end up together which is fitting. The worst thing that ATWT ever did was fire the main Lily, Martha Byrne. She was a great actress. The current one is competent, but she is not the Lily we all grew up with. Martha's firing was really a bad sign of the end to come.
My all time favorite character though is Lily's adopted mother Lucinda Walsh. Lucinda is a rich, kick ass bitch businesswoman and she had so many excellent scenes through the 80s and early 90s. They used to write all these awesome business oriented plots. Lucinda and her henchmen/enemies were always trying to outdo each other and take over companies. I especially loved her stepchildren Evan and Connor, two of my favorite 90s characters coming back, snowing her, and stealing the company. Aside: They are not the most classic characters, but I adored Evan and Connor. They were good actors, and being young professionals and around my age, I could relate to them and did.
But back to Lucinda? Did Lucinda fold? HALE NO. She came back and then some. She's what all soap characters should be, interesting and multi-faceted. She'll do anything for her family and her companies.
Of course when talking about ATWT, you have to talk about the Hughes. They were the core family at the show's start. The best Hughes' IMO are Bob and Kim. I love, love, love Bob and Kim and I would die laughing when Kim would lecture one of the younger characters and call them "kiddo". Awesome. God bless the person who put this awesome tribute video online and allowed embedding:
Now in the 2000s, we got the epic coupling of Nuke - Lily & Damian's son Luke and Noah. They were great together - not the first gay couple on soaps, but among the most ground-breaking ones- and brought some young viewers to the show. We got Carly and Jack, ATWT's mainstay couple. I wasn't a huge fan (they were super dysfunctional IMO) but they had a rapid huge fanbase who were invested and you can find many Carjack tributes on YouTube like this popular one. We also got Parker and Liberty who weren't ground-breaking at all but who were good actors and got teenagers like mine hooked on the show.
Unfortunately, times have changed and so have viewing habits, and soap operas are a dying, no longer profitable genre. It's all about $$ now and whatever replaces ATWT (I won't be watching) will be cheap and not worth your time.
So let's hear it for the veteran cast of ATWT, they rocked! This soap opera has always had the best actors. May they all find work and may we all see them again soon. Goodbye ATWT.
Come reminisce and watch some clips on YouTube with me...
Now ATWT has been around since the 1950s but I started watching it in the 1980s as a student. I watched religiously from the mid80s to the mid-90s. Writing and backstage changes took hold and the show was not as good after that, so this recap will really focus on the plots and characters I loved. I still checked in on ATWT in the years afterwards, and my kids got hooked on it in the past few years as the young characters in the 2000s turned out to be some of the better actors.
But back to 1985 on. Holden and Lily snared me in during their summers of teenage angst. They were so young then! Holden was hotter than hot back in those days. Here's a great classic clip of them from 1986.
Of course the big plot was that Holden's ADOPTED sister Iva was really Lily's mother, and her father was the guy who raped Iva, Josh. (Who later rehabbed himself, atoned for misdeeds and married Holden and Iva's sister Meg o_O). This led to one of the best soap scenes ever when Lily found out. (I linked you to the good part, but try to watch it all, that was quite an episode.)
Later on, they actually introduced a viable contender for Lily in Damian. Loved Damian. Hated how later writers and years messed up his character. But in 1994, Damian was the man.
Through the years though, no matter what writers threw at them, Holden and Lily found their way back to each other (although she did dump him for Damian at least three times I can remember). They will end up together which is fitting. The worst thing that ATWT ever did was fire the main Lily, Martha Byrne. She was a great actress. The current one is competent, but she is not the Lily we all grew up with. Martha's firing was really a bad sign of the end to come.
My all time favorite character though is Lily's adopted mother Lucinda Walsh. Lucinda is a rich, kick ass bitch businesswoman and she had so many excellent scenes through the 80s and early 90s. They used to write all these awesome business oriented plots. Lucinda and her henchmen/enemies were always trying to outdo each other and take over companies. I especially loved her stepchildren Evan and Connor, two of my favorite 90s characters coming back, snowing her, and stealing the company. Aside: They are not the most classic characters, but I adored Evan and Connor. They were good actors, and being young professionals and around my age, I could relate to them and did.
But back to Lucinda? Did Lucinda fold? HALE NO. She came back and then some. She's what all soap characters should be, interesting and multi-faceted. She'll do anything for her family and her companies.
Of course when talking about ATWT, you have to talk about the Hughes. They were the core family at the show's start. The best Hughes' IMO are Bob and Kim. I love, love, love Bob and Kim and I would die laughing when Kim would lecture one of the younger characters and call them "kiddo". Awesome. God bless the person who put this awesome tribute video online and allowed embedding:
Click to viewNow in the 2000s, we got the epic coupling of Nuke - Lily & Damian's son Luke and Noah. They were great together - not the first gay couple on soaps, but among the most ground-breaking ones- and brought some young viewers to the show. We got Carly and Jack, ATWT's mainstay couple. I wasn't a huge fan (they were super dysfunctional IMO) but they had a rapid huge fanbase who were invested and you can find many Carjack tributes on YouTube like this popular one. We also got Parker and Liberty who weren't ground-breaking at all but who were good actors and got teenagers like mine hooked on the show.
Unfortunately, times have changed and so have viewing habits, and soap operas are a dying, no longer profitable genre. It's all about $$ now and whatever replaces ATWT (I won't be watching) will be cheap and not worth your time.
So let's hear it for the veteran cast of ATWT, they rocked! This soap opera has always had the best actors. May they all find work and may we all see them again soon. Goodbye ATWT.