The world will stop turning in September, 2010.
After Guiding Light was canceled this year, I sort of knew this was coming, since ATWT was also a Procter & Gamble production. Sigh.
I record the show every day, and generally have a few hours of catch-up on a weekend every couple of months, to clear out my DVR. My grandma and I both watch this story, and I will be very sad to lose my regular escape to Oakdale. My favorite bit of trivia about the show was that it was ATWT which was pre-empted when the death of President Kennedy was announced by Walter Cronkite. Helen Wagner (as matriarch Nancy Hughes) was on-screen at the time, and she’s still a cast member today! Cast members who’ve gone on to bigger and better things include Jason Biggs, Parker Posey, Marisa Tomei, and probably most famous of all, Meg Ryan.
I always appreciated that ATWT stayed old school. While other soaps were going with vampires and demon possessions, in Oakdale the stories revolved around the tried and true favorites: baby-switching, murder trials, kidnappings, blackmail, adultery. And let’s not forget the classic Soap Opera Villain Who Cannot be Killed No Matter How Hard Anyone Tries (in ATWT’s case, the evil James Stenbeck).
For old-school viewers like me, here’s a clip featuring a young Brian Bloom (post-Once Upon A Time In America, but pre-video game voiceovers):
Farewell, residents of Oakdale! We’ll miss you.
umm the clip is of Robert Downey Jr., Whoopi Goldberg and Sally Field and Kevin Klein ??? What is this from???
It’s from Soapdish, a hilarious early-90s movie. Whoopi and RD Jr are arguing about bringing a man back to life who has previously been decapitated! Which is totally what I was talking about with “cannot be killed no matter how hard you try” characters.