History of As the World Turns (1970-1979)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|
|
|
 |
|
This article is about the history of As the World Turns (ATWT), the second longest-running American television soap opera.
[edit] 1970 - 1979
Notable storylines during the 1970s revolved around the two Sullivan sisters; Jennifer (Gillian Spencer) and Kimberly Sullivan Reynolds (Kathryn Hays) came to town and shook up the moral fabric. Destined to become one of the show's great heroines, the character of Kim was creator/writer Irna Phillips's last great contribution to As the World Turns. At a time when soaps were under pressure to become more relevant and reflect the enormous societal changes of the period, Kim was conceived as an ideal of the burgeoning women's movement: a strong, smart, self-made career (an accomplished lounge singer and recently divorced) woman who did not require a man to define her identity (partly modeled after Phillips herself, who, in the 1930s, was an unmarried woman with two adopted children). It was not long, however, before Kim was involved in romantic entanglements as complex and tortured as those of any other daytime heroine, including an affair with her sister's husband Bob that resulted in a pregnancy. Phillips planned to have Bob divorce the popular, Jennifer and marry Kim. Fans were outraged and CBS, wary of falling ratings, demanded Kim "pay" for her adultery. Phillips refused and CBS fired her (Phillips died a year later, in 1973). Kim was "punished" by miscarrying her baby and marrying evil Dr. John Dixon (a protege of the now deceased Dr. Michael Shea), but 15 years later, Bob and Kim would learn their child had been snatched away at birth and raised in England as Sabrina Fullerton. In the meanntime, Bob reconciled with Jennifer (their problems had been caused in part by Jennifer's grown son, Dr. Rick Ryan's drug addiction problems, who years later was discovered to have participated in the lie that baby Sabrina was dead) and she gave birth to his daughter, Frannie. After a few years, Jennifer wanted to return to school. Bob told her a wife's place was in a home, and Nancy and Ellen concurred. Jennifer dropped her plans to go to school. Soon after, she was killed off in an automobile accident.
When ethically-challenged Dr. John Dixon (Larry Bryggman) first came to Oakdale in 1969, a professional and personal rivalry began between him and Bob Hughes that lasted more than twenty years, and eventually blossomed into a love triangle with Kim in the center. John tortured Kim emotionally during their marriage, at one point faking paralysis to keep her by his side, at another raping her (their son Andy would become a core character in the 80's and 90's). However, Kim's pairing in the 1970s with Dan Stewart (John Colenback) was a great favorite with many viewers, making Kim a full-fledged heroine and weaving her into the fabric of one of Oakdale's core families. 10 years later, Bob and Kim reunited, by which time fans had forgiven their past transgressions.
The early 1970s also saw the beginning of the ongoing triangle of Lisa with attorney Grant Colman (James Douglas), and his scheming ex wife, Joyce (Barbara Rodell). Lisa and Grant became engaged, and were to be married in 1974, when Joyce announced, on Grant and Lisa's intended wedding day, that she and Grant had had a child that she never told him about. Grant postponed the wedding to investigate, and determined that they had indeed had a son whom Joyce had put up for adoption a few years prior. His name was Teddy Ellison, who was being raised by Wyoming rancher, Brian Ellison and his wife, Mary (Kelly Wood). When Grant met the adoptive family, he decided the child was in a happy home, and fought to keep Joyce from reclaiming their son. Grant and Lisa's eventually did marry, but due to Joyce's interfering and Lisa jealousy, it was a rocky union, and they were divorced in 1979. Brian Ellison died in 1976, and Mary moved to Oakdale, much to Lisa and Joyce's chagrin. Joyce, meanwhile, first started a relationship with Bob (which made Lisa furious), and later married Bob's brother Don Hughes (played in the 1970s by Peter Brandon, Martin West and Conrad Fowkes), and went on wild spending sprees. Don sank deeper into his law practice to keep the money coming, and Joyce began sleeping with another attorney, Ralph Mitchell (Keith Charles). Joyce then became pregnant with Ralph's child, and tried to pass the child off as Don's (and to add insult to injury goaded Nancy into waiting on her hand and foot, although Lisa and Mary -- who by this time was dating Ralph -- tried to tell Nancy the baby wasn't even Don's). After Ralph met Don, he was impressed and demanded Joyce come clean with her husband. Joyce refused, then suffered a miscarriage, and a plot to kill Ralph ended with her accidentally shooting Don; Don was thought permanently paralyzed. Although Don eventually recovered, Ralph told him the whole story, and Joyce fled town, later presumably perishing in a car accident in the summer of 1979. Mary Ellison and Don Hughes then got romantically involved, got engaged and planned to marry. But at their engagement party on Valentine's Day, 1980, Joyce showed up back "alive" (after making mysterious phone calls to both Don and Ralph for several weeks). Joyce then became a thorn in the side of both Mary and Don, and the renewed coupling of Lisa and Grant. When Joyce supposedly had a relapse of a drug addiction problem, she worked on the sympathies of both Don and Grant and tried to work both of them over to get them to come back to her and try to get them in bed. Mary though was onto her manipulations and told Don it was either her or Joyce, and that Joyce was allowed nowhere near Teddy, including at Teddy's birthday party. Don reluctantly agreed to Mary's demands and they renewed their engagement and set a wedding date for sometime in early 1981, and Joyce overheard all. But Joyce then faked a fatal illness, which raised the suspicions of Lisa, but Mary decided to renege on previous demands and allowed Teddy over for supervised visits at Joyce's apartment. But one day in November 1980, Joyce wouldn't allow Mary to leave with Teddy, and Joyce got into an argument with Mary. Mary seeing how delusional Joyce was, and concerned about Teddy overhearing the truth from Joyce about his parentage, started backing out of Joyce's apartment. In her haste, Mary knocked over and broke Joyce's prized glass horse (a present from her mother, and the only thing Joyce had to remind her of her mother) and Joyce got hysterical and started backing Mary up into falling from a balcony. Mary was taken to Memorial unconscious, and Joyce was charged with attempted murder, when one of her neighbors said she saw the whole thing. Joyce was told by Don, Grant and Chris Hughes that if Mary died she'd be charged with murder. Joyce tried to tell everyone that she didn't push Mary off the balcony, but no one believed her. Teddy went to live with Nancy and Chris, and Nancy refused to let Joyce visit Teddy. Right after Thanksgiving day, 1980, Mary awoke from her coma and told the courts that Joyce had not tried to kill her, but then she moved with Teddy back to Wyoming, with promises by Don Hughes of soon following her there. In mid-December 1980, word came that Mary was in yet another coma, after being in a car accident during a Wyoming blizzard. Teddy temporarily moved back with Nancy and Chris, and then Joyce planned her next strategy in an attempt to again get back with Grant and take custody of Teddy for good. Joyce faked blood test to show that her fatal illness was indeed fatal and allowed Grant to see them. Lisa was livid and one day, in disguise, followed Joyce to a clinic. Lisa was able to find out that Joyce was faking her fatal illness, but Grant wouldn't believe Lisa and started cutting Lisa out of his life. But a short time later, Grant found out that about the faked test, and Grant immediately dumped Joyce who had to come clean. Grant and Joyce left Oakdale separately, with Lisa refusing to accept Grant's apologies and telling him to finally take a hike, in the spring of 1981 with Grant only making a couple of visits in later years (1985, 1986, 1988, 1989 and 1993). Joyce has never been heard from since her departure. Don left town and along with his new wife Mary (who had come out of her coma) (Don and Mary would visit Oakdale in 1985, 1986 and 1993), raised Teddy, who would return in the mid-1990s as Ryder Hughes (Kerr Smith).
Prior to her relationship with Grant, one infamous story of this era was the 1973 "phantom fetus" storyline, that occurred shortly after Lisa started her relationship with Don Hughes. Over a period of months, Lisa gained weight and had labor pains. She believed she was pregnant. But during the C-section, doctors discovered she was not pregnant at all! None other than future headwriter Douglas Marland played Lisa's doctor, Eric Lonsberry, during this storyline, which Fulton herself described as the most embarrassingly farfetched storyline she's ever been involved with. (Also this was still when the show was airing live, and one day during the show, Fulton almost revealed to the audience that the pregnancy wasn't real when she nearly pulled a pillow out from under her blouse, not realizing that the cameras were still rolling). Also, around the same time, Lisa's younger son, Chuckie was killed in a car accident. (This was done largely as an effort to redeem Lisa after all her past misdeeds, and to make her sympathetic to the viewers.) Lisa had other romantic troubles besides Don and Grant. Lisa briefly got involved with a younger man, Jay Stallings (Dennis Cooney) who helped with construction at the Wade Bookshop that Lisa owned and operated. But she would lose Jay to another younger woman. Also during the time that Lisa and Grant separated (in 1979, after another young woman came between the couple), Lisa got involved with an inn owner and a man named, Bennett Hadley (Doug Higgins), who saved Lisa when her car stalled during a thunderstorm. Bennett took Lisa back to the inn he owned, and pointed out to Lisa how much she reminded her of his dead wife. Lisa and Bennett got engaged, but Grant, Tom and Bob all grew suspicious of Hadley, and sure enough they had good reason to. Bennett's housekeeper was trying to kill Lisa, because she was in love with Bennett herself. After nearly being killed in a gothic type of storyline, Lisa left Bennett and returned to Oakdale.
Other popular storylines in the '70s included the quadrangle between brothers Paul (Dean Santoro; Paul would be killed off early in the quadrangle in the fall of 1972) and Dan Stewart, heroine Liz Talbot, and boozy, bitchy Dr. Susan Stewart, the wife who would not let Dan go under any circumstances. As with many early 70's ATWT plotlines, the outcome of this storyline was influenced by backstage fighting with Irna Phillips. Phillips despised Jane House, who played Liz, because of House's concurrent stint on Broadway as a stripper (with nude scenes) in the play Lenny. Phillips planned to kill Liz off via pneuomonia, but as she languished in the hospital bed day after day, angry viewers flooded the network with calls and Phillips was ordered to give Liz a miraculous recovery. House could not work with someone who had such clear loathing for her, and left soon after. Incredibly, Phillips continued to hate the character even after House departed, and planned to have Liz set herself on fire during her wedding night. CBS objected, as another of their soaps had just done the same thing, so Phillips instead had Liz fatally injure her spleen while saving baby Betsy (who later it would be revealed was Dan's child and not Paul's) from a nasty fall. Liz fell UP the stairs, an exit considered one of the oddest deaths in the history of daytime and a low point in As the World Turns history. Of the 4 main characters, it was boozy Susan who would remain on the show, reformed, for the next several decades.
Susan got involved with John Dixon, since both were recovering alcoholics, but instead of helping each other, instead Susan plotted with John to keep Dan and Kim apart, and nearly succeeded. Susan would later leave Oakdale in 1979 when she realized that breaking up Dan and Kim was never going to happen. Marie Masters and Susan would return in 1986 when her and Dan's daughter, Emily was SORASed. Kim's biggest consternation after Susan was the arrival in town (with her landing the private jet she was piloting in Kim and Dan's backyard, in February 1976 at the couple's wedding reception), her former sister-in-law, Valerie Reynolds Conway (Judith McConnell). Valerie, a former model, tried to take Dan away from Kim, but without any success. Valerie then got involved with Bob, but Bob quickly realized Valerie was too wild for him when she nearly was murdered by her former husband and his new girlfriend. Valerie would later become involved with Susan's former AA sponsor, Kevin Thompson (Michael Nader) (who ended up going back to the bottle and dying of liver failure), and then with Dr. Alex Keith who along with Valerie adopted a daughter and they left Oakdale together in late 1979. John would get involved with a nurse Pat Holland (Melinda Peterson), and he and Pat tried to kidnap Andy from Kim, but Pat would turn against John and as John was on trial for the kidnapping John chased her down a flight of stairs and Pat was killed. John also briefly got involved with Mary Ellison (claiming to everyone they were having a sexual relationship, until Mary told him to get out of her already complicated life), and then with a woman named Karen Peters (Leslie Denniston), who Bob Hughes also got involved with until both men found out all about Karen's criminal history.
Lisa and Bob's son Tom, initially aged to adulthood in the late 60's, began to gain prominence. Tom's first big story as an adult came shortly after, in 1971 - 1972, his exoneration for the murder of Dr. Michael Shea, his former stepfather. Tom was still going through law school and was working at Dr. Paul Stewart's medical clinic. There he met a seemingly sensitive young woman named Meredith Harcourt (Nina Hart), who was suffering from an indeterminate illness. Taking pity on the girl, Tom let her stay with him when she told him she had no money and no place to stay. Though Meredith presented herself as a poor, downtrodden girl, both Nancy and Lisa had their doubts since she seemed too "chic" to be telling the truth about her circumstances. Their suspicions were confirmed when Meredith, wanting to get on Nancy's good side, bought her a piece of "costume jewelry" that was valued at $2000. It turned out Meredith was the ward of the very wealthy Simon Gilbey (Jerry Lacey) and she'd run away in order to escape his strictness. But unbeknownst to Meredith, Simon was in Oakdale himself and found himself in a relationship with Lisa! Though Lisa was thoroughly charmed by Simon, Tom hated him immensely. Realizing that Simon and Tom would never like each other, Lisa broke up with Simon. Then in a surprising move, Simon and Meredith fell in love and left town together.
After his relationship with Meredith abruptly ended, Tom (played in the 1970s after the departure of Peter Galman by C. David Colson and then Tom Tammi) married pure-hearted Carol Demming (Rita McLaughlin), who had been his friend since he came back from Vietnam, but spent much of his time with client Natalie Bannon (Judith Chapman). Carol mistakenly believed they were having an affair, and she obtained a divorce. Carol married Jay Stallings (who had previously been involved with Natalie himself). In spite of warnings from his family, Tom married Natalie, even though she did not really love him. Natalie quickly grew bored and fell into an affair with Jay. Jay loved Carol and planned to make his marriage work, but Natalie was pregnant and Carol found out the whole ugly truth. Natalie gave birth to Amy, who she tried to pass off as Tom's child, but Joyce Hughes found out that it was actually Jay's and started goading Natalie to tell the truth and later they got into verbal fights while Joyce was pregnant and Nancy acting as unwitting barrier between the two women. Both couples split up - Tom unsuccessfully wooed Carol, who later reconciled with Jay. Carol's joy only increased when Natalie, while rushing out of town, abandoned her daughter with Jay on the Stallings doorstep. Carol and Jay named the girl Amy, and soon left town. Tom started a relationship with a return to town Barbara Ryan (Colleen Zenk; later Colleen Zenk Pinter), but Barbara would harbor a secret that would rock the town of Oakdale and drive much of the storyline for the remainder of the next three decades.
By 1976, Annie Stewart (Martina Deignan) and Dee Stewart (Marcia McClain) were also SORASed. Annie was studying to be a doctor, while Dee was unsure about what she wanted to do as a career. One day while driving out of town to go back to school, Dee ran into a man walking across the street named Beau Spencer (Wayne Hudgins). He was taken to Memorial where Annie became one of his doctors. Dee instantly fell in love with Beau, but Beau fell for Annie. Annie tried to back out of a relationship with Beau, not wanting to hurt Dee, but Beau wouldn't let her. Dee was let down when Beau later spurned her affection. But Dee wasn't the only one hurt by the romantic coupling of Annie and Beau. Waiting in the wings and secretly pining for Annie was her medical school mentor, Dr. Jeff Ward (Robert Lipton). But Jeff had his own romantic difficulties. Jeff had been involved with a woman who was now married, Marcia Campbell (Cynthia Bostick) who wouldn't leave Jeff alone. Meanwhile, Beau and Annie's romance was put on hold when Beau's mother, Jane Spencer (Georgann Johnson) came to town, to open the Spencer Hotel, and wasn't too happy to see Beau being romantically involved with either of the Stewart sisters. Annie then had to contend with the sexual advances of Marcia's husband, Dr. Doug Campbell (Denis Romer) who was feeling neglected by Marcia. Beau almost gave into the advances of Dee, but instead Jane decided that Beau would be more suited for Annie than the younger sister, Dee, and Dee was left lonely again, and Dee learned from working with Natalie Bannon Hughes and Valerie Conway that she had a knack for interior design and left for New York City to pursue an education in that field. Beau and Annie soon got married, when Doug got back with Marcia, and Jeff Ward was "holding the bag" as it were of dealing with Marcia's using him as a means to an end. Jeff looked on with much unspoken jealousy to Annie and Beau's marriage. Unfortunately a secret that Jane Spencer had would soon come back to haunt the newlyweds. In the midst of all of this came a mysterious woman into Kim Sullivan Reynolds Dixon Stewart's life. On the anniversary of Jennifer's death, in February 1978, a young blonde woman approached Kim at Jennifer's grave site. This young woman claimed to be Melinda Grey (Ariana Chase, later renamed Ariana Munker) (a painter), and the long lost daughter of Jennifer's from a previous affair Jennifer had had. At first Dan, Kim and Bob were skeptical of Melinda's claims, but eventually learned that she was indeed telling the truth. Melinda then got involved with the married Jay Stallings, and Dr. John Dixon found out about it. When John forced Melinda to cut off the affair with Jay, or he'd go to Carol and Natalie about the affair, Melinda dumped Jay. John in getting back into the good graces off Memorial Hospital's Board of Directors and get reinstated after Andy's kidnapping a few years back, got Jane Spencer to back him. But Jane soon discovered all about John's past, and started to cut him out of her life and cut off his financial backing. John still holding a blackmail against Melinda forced her to get a job working for Jane, at the Spencer hotel, and at a first reluctant Jane agreed to hire her. But John had another thing in mind for Melinda, John asked Melinda to find out about what secret Jane knew about Beau that made her very nervous. Melinda soon learned the startling secret that Beau was the illegitimate son of Jane and a man she had an affair with while married to Beau's father! When Melinda developed feelings for the married Beau, John shook her down for the secret, but Melinda refused. John forced Melinda though to start an affair with Beau, and Melinda reluctantly agreed to get John off her back. Later when Annie and then Bob Hughes discovered the affair between Melinda and Beau, Melinda decided to tell John the truth. A little later, a concerned Bob told Melinda all about John's past and that he wasn't to be trusted, Melinda blurted out Jane Spencer's secret, and unfortunately Beau heard all! Beau would soon leave Springfield, and cut Jane out of his life, and divorce Annie. Jeff Ward now thought he had a chance at Annie, but another man would soon take Beau's place in Annie's heart, but Melinda and Dee would also turn into more of a thorn in the side of Annie. In the fall of 1979, Dee returned to Oakdale (now played by Jacqueline Schultz), a full fledged interior designer. Dee started to fall for concert director and composer, Ian McFarland (Peter Simon) who was recently divorced. Ian started seeing Dee, romantically, and they fell in love. But Ian was reluctant to take Dee to bed, and Dee wasn't sure why. Ian started seeing Dr. John Dixon as his doctor. It would be revealed to the audience in discussions between Ian and John that Ian had a congential heart defect, and could die of a heart attack if he had anymore sexual relationships. In February 1980, when Ian took Dee to Zurich, Switzerland for the international unveiling of his new concert piece, Dee was delighted and sure that Ian would take her to bed. Ian also asked John to come along, and stay in the hotel room next door, with John warning Ian about his heart. Sure enough, Ian took Dee to bed, and in the middle of sexual intercourse, Ian dropped dead of a heart attack and died on top of her! John came to the hotel room, and helped Dee to get out from under Ian's corpse. John tried to get Dee to go seek professional psychiatric help, but Dee refused, and then coerced John into keeping silent about the way Ian had really died. With this promise, that John kept, Dr. John Dixon was about to become the Stewart family's worse nightmare.
Meanwhile in the last couple of months of 1979, Dan Stewart was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and would end up dead at the end of the summer of 1979, with Kim and Ellen having to explain to a SORASed teenaged Betsy (Suzanne Davidson) that Dan, not Paul was her father as she had been led to believe. Tom and Barbara got engaged, and planned a wedding for February 1980, not knowing that Barbara's secret was about to come out. And Judge Lowell was last seen alive on New Year's Eve 1979, the long time actor who played the judge, William Johnstone would die shortly into the new year of 1980 with the judge's death occurring off-camera shortly afterwards.
By the late 70's ATWT had fallen from the #1 slot and repetitive storylines about alcoholism and discos, plus a slew of characters who had been going through the same scenarios day after day for a decade or more, led CBS to make much-needed changes. The 80's would take As the World Turns to new heights.
