The Day the Earth Stood Still

So after 13,858 episodes As the World Turns ended on Friday to little fanfare.

Apparently the two and half tornadoes that hit NYC was more important. So any special soap opera coverage never happened.

As the World Turns was a NY filmed showed and it should have been an event but with the bad weather and the fact the show wrapped up back in July it did not have a big impact.

The final episode showed no old clips instead it had the chief of the hospital retiring in a quiet moment while a glass globe spun on his desk.

The ending was awkward since the shows power couple, Holden and Lilly, were not back together. This is because the original actress who played Lily was dumped last year and the replacement was not as good. Also ever clip of Lily was the original actress so they chose not to show her face again which was a big mistake.

As far as I can tell all the storylines wrapped up with love and babies.

So for the next week instead of showing clips and best of episodes the will have The Price is Right. Then after that they will have a new talk show that is just a copy of The View, which itself is a copy of Politically Incorrect.

The golden age of TV is gone and if I never get an HDTV I no longer care.

Update for Update's Sake

Image via Wikipedia
It's not that I'm overwhelmingly busy at work more like TV has not been inspiring.


Emmys
Lots of great winners especially Modern Family for best comedy.
Shame that Mad Men won again seeing how I can't seem to get into the show.


Futurama
They should have kept it canceled. They have lost that edge.





Royal Pains, Rescue Me
Both shows have been stretching out their season beyond reason and with weak storylines this is not good.


As The World Turns
Well in a few weeks this longest running soap/TV serial/radio drama will end and they have been wrapping up storylines left and right.
Special guest, memorials for those who have passed, and lots of clips from over 50 years have been sprinkled throughout the final episodes.
I can only hope they end with dignity.

The State of Morning TV

I'm rarely awake before noon if I have to be at home and when I'm at school/work I don't come home until after noon. That being said I still keep in touch with the failing morning shows and soaps, it's sad.

The View
They still need to replace the clown and the psycho, I'll let you guess which is which. The front runner is Kathy Griffin who is current showing her more serious side by crying in every episode of her show.
Side Note: I didn't realize she has a dead brother who was a criminal.
I think this show is watchable just because it fascinating to see how some people think.












As The World Turns
As soap operas struggle for ratings in a dying format they bring out stars to boost viewership. Jewel, Ricky Martin, Beyonce and others have done this. Who appears on this soap in a week long story line....Andy Williams.
Not to knock Mr. Williams I mean I love Moon River but he will turn 80 this year. Sending a rising star(Gwen Munson aka Jennifer Landon) to Branson, MI to duet with a blast from past.
They also had an actual two damsels in distress who were tied to a railroad track and a girl running through the woods the fell and twisted her ankle.

They could not possibly fit any more stereotypes about women into this show.

The Price is Right
Bob Barker is gone and no good replacements were announced.

Why they don't all these crappy reality shows on during the daytime this way primetime TV can return to its heyday of sitcom and dramas is beyond me.

Life After Tomorrow

Just saw the Annie documentary following up on various girls who played in the musical Annie.
Sarah Jessica Parker(Sex and the City), Allison Smith(Kate and Allie), Martha Byrne(As the World Turns), and Danielle Brisebois(All in the Family) are among the featured talkers.
Noticeably missing is Alyssa Milano and Molly Ringwald the most famous Annie alums. The most outrageous involve Ana Lovelis making this show not suitable for kids.

Most of the ladies have left the acting business and are doing ok. It was nice to see so many familiar faces from the seventies and eighties are doing fine. Only one religious nut among them.

Showtime will be airing the documentary 1,000 more times.
http://www.lifeaftertomorrow.com/index.html

Todd Is Kinda Creepy

As The World Turns
Ralph Maschio better known as the Todd from Scrubs has started a 16 episode guest spot on this CBS soap opera. He is playing the brother-in-law of sexual assault victim Maddie Coleman. Is he a bad guy, is he a rapist, is he a good guy. Well we don't know but it's nice to see him after also seeing him last year in Veronica Mars.

Here is his website where he describes his role that he filmed in July.
http://robertmaschio.com/

The World Keeps Turning

Emmy winning Benjamin Hendrickson from As The World Turns fame died in his Huntington home on Saturday.

The death was an apparent suicide. Hendrickson was still depressed after the death of mother from cancer in 2003. The storyline of his on screen duaghter dying seemed to make his depression worse and he killed himself with a single gun shot to the head.

I have been watching Hal Munson on this soap for over 20 years. He was an excellent actor and I always wanted to see him in a major motion picture. Here is one of his quotes, "To my mom, who scrimped and saved to send me to Juilliard to study the classics - I'm sorry," it was from his daytime Emmy acceptence speech.

With some soap actors you can tell that they hated being in such a lowly role, you can tell their frustration from not moving on. Hendrickson was one of those.

One thing I hope is that he is not replaced by Randolph Mantooth, who replaced him before. Honor his legacy by killing of the character because if he is just replaced then his suicide will seem justified.

Windfall Makes Lotto No Fun

Windfall: There and Gone Again
Some bitch tries to claim that the Kimberly is not the twentieth winner.This party pooper planner is so jealous that she never wins that she decides to hold everyones money hostage until she gets a fair share. Eventually they all agree to give her a million each in order to avoid lawyers fees.

Meanwhile Zoe went missing with all of her new boyfriends money so now Sean and her sister must track her down, oh yeah the sister is hot she is played by Peyton List of As The World Turns fame.

Cameron took the crack baby home and his wife fell in love.


Kathy Griffin: My Life on The D-List

I'm so bored I started watching this, despite my no reality show rule.
Griffin goes to Iraq to preform for the troops and watching her and Michael McDonald trying not be scared is funny. Also seeing how awful the troops have it in the infirmary is heartbreaking.

50 Years of As The Worlds Turns

Whether or not you like soaps you have to give credit for a show that made the transition from radio to television and is still highly rated. It has been 50 years of As The World Turns on television.

Among the other long running cast members there is Helen Wagner who has played Nancy Hughes on As The World Turns since April 2, 1956, the first TV episode. She was born 3 September 1918 in Lubbock, Texas.

Today is the first of the two part anniversary episode of CBS's As The World Turns. The episode has Maddie Coleman imagining all the family's from Oakdale as classic TV shows.

The Snyders are in a Beverly Hillbillies skit.

Carly Tenney-Lowe-Snyder is in a I Dream of Jeannie skit including the canned laughter.

The Munsons in a Munsters skit.

Katie and family in an I Love Lucy skit Henry Coleman was Ethel and Fred.

Gwen and Will in a Happy Days skit.

The best parts was the use of original theme songs.

To Blog Or Not To Blog(Soaps)

As a kid I watched those daytimes soap operas , not because I wanted to, because we only had one television and I had no say on what to watch. So for years I've grown to know these characters and storylines. Later on when I'm sick or injured at home, not working or in class I would watch daytime TV and all those reruns and talk shows were bad. Instead I would leave the soaps on for background noise. Eventually the story lines of General Hospital and As The World Turns became interesting and I started to watch them again. But as soon as I got a life I would stop, this went on for years.
Then I bought a TiVo and I heard about this Passions show that was outrages and a lesbian kiss on All My Children so I programed TiVo to season pass these shows so I wouldn't miss the juicy parts. Well Passions sucked and Bianca's lesbian kiss was crap. The side-effect though is that TiVo started recording As The World Turns and I got into the storyline.
Now there are two soaps that I have Seasoned Passed, All My Children and As The World Turns.
I probably won't write about these because there exist huge obsessive fan sites. Although I have to say All My Children is long drawn out and annoying while As The World Turns is quick and well written they also have Michael Landon's daughter on their cast. I could never give a detailed view of each episode and I think TV Guides' 6 sentence summary is great.
A warning to all those parents who watch soaps keep your kids away or they will become addicts in the future..."I learned it by watching you".