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Cancelled Daytime Drama Had to Endure Salt Being Rubbed in Its Wound: ‘Only the Special Soaps Are Going to Survive’ — Plus, a Photo-Filled Review of the Show’s Epic History
Thursday, December 8th, 2022
December 8 was never the same after 2009.
Fuhgeddabout, they said in almost as many words. It’s finished. Get over it.
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But it wasn’t so easy for those of us who had loved — and were now losing — As the World Turns.
On December 8, 2009, CBS announced that it was cancelling the 54-year-old soap opera that had launched the careers of Oscar winners Julianne Moore, Marisa Tomei and — we’re not great at counting, so we’ll guesstimate… — countless others.
Procter & Gamble, which had produced the show, expressed its empathy thusly, per the New York Times: “It’s a part of our business that we will miss.”
Wow. Thanks. That kind of compassion is, erm, hard to come across.
CBS’ then-chairman Les Moonves was equally understanding. “Is it the end of an era?” he mused, as if working overtime to kick sand in our face. “Sort of.”
Thanks, dude. “Only the special soaps are going to survive,” he said, pouring Drain-O on an open wound. “It’s certainly the end of the client-owned soap.
“All good things come to an end, whether it’s after 72 years or 54 years or 10 years,” he added. “It’s a different time and a different business.”
Worth noting: In the fall of 2018, per our sister site TVLine, Moonves stepped down as the network’s big kahuna in the wake of sexual-assault allegations. The CEO was subsequently denied any severance, in accordance with what CBS’ Board of Directors called “his willful and material misfeasance, violation of company policies and breach of his employment contract.”
For starters.
Small-screen bigwig Tim Brooks told the Times that “the world has turned,” and with more women in the workplace, the audience for soap operas had irrevocably shrunk. We would counter that with more women in the workplace, more women than ever need an escape, a place like Oakdale to which they can flee to get away from the rigors of their 9-to-5 lives.
But what do we know, right? We’re just a website that covers soaps day in and day out. What could we possibly comprehend about daytime dramas and their inherent value, eh?
While you’re here, and we‘ll go out on a limb and suggest feeling as nostalgic as we are, why not check out the below photo gallery? It’s not only a Who’s Who of Oakdale’s most memorable characters, it’s a time capsule into which we’d happily crawl.
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Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
1/42
<p>Back in 1958, the Hughes family’s kitchen was <em>the</em> place to be. Here, close talkers “Pa” (Santos Ortega), Nancy (Helen Wagner), Penny (Rosemary Prinz), sweetheart Jeff Baker (Mark Rydell), Don (Richard Holland) and Chris (Don MacLaughlin) enjoy coffee, one another’s company and a time before social distancing. Which was all well and good, but… would there be pie?</p>
Image: TV Guide/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
2/42
<p>Southern belle Lisa Hughes (Eileen Fulton) earned the wrath of the soap’s audience of housewives simply by hiring a maid to do the dishes and a little light dusting. OK, maybe that wasn’t the scheme queen’s <em>only</em> offense… But viewers really <em>were</em> legit pissed about the cleaning lady.</p>
Image: Robert Milazzo/CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
3/42
<p>From the looks of this 1997 photo, Lily Snyder (Martha Byrne) has figured out that husband Holden (Jon Hensley) has a past with besotted buddy Molly Conlan (Lesli Kay). Needless to say, this marked the last time that Lily brought home any friends that she made in prison.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
4/42
<p>In 2007, <em>As the World Turns</em> detonated a “Nuke,” making history by airing daytime’s first kiss between two men, specifically Lily’s son Luke (Van Hansis) and crush Noah Mayer (Jake Silbermann). You’re welcome, <em>Days of Our Lives</em>’ WilSon.</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
5/42
<p>Following a remarkable 50-year run as stalwart Dr. Bob Hughes, Don Hastings was given the final line ever spoken on the CBS soap: “Good night.” He forgot “… and good luck,” but otherwise? Nailed it.</p>
Image: Courtesy of the Everett Collection
6/42
<p>When fans balked at <em>As the World Turns</em> creator Irna Phillips’ decision to have Kim Reynolds (Kathryn Hays) seduce brother-in-law Bob in 1973, the legendary writer was fired and passed away that same year. In the decades that followed, Kim and Bob became one of the soap’s most beloved tentpole couples, as reassuring a presence as the spinning globe.</p>
Image: George De Sota/JPI
7/42
<p>Worldwide power player Lucinda Walsh (Elizabeth Hubbard) and dastardly doctor John Dixon (Larry Bryggman) really never should have split up. Even before they fell into a hot tub while arguing and crossed the line between hate and love, the sparring partners were as perfect for each other as ever two imperfect people were.</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
8/42
<p><em>As the World Turns</em> launched more careers than we can count, including that of <em>Law & Order: SVU</em> mainstay Tamara Tunie, whose Jessica Griffin was paired with Michael Swan’s Duncan McKechnie despite what looked like it should have been a deal-breaking height difference. (Kidding aside, she’s sitting on a stool. We think.)</p>
Image: George De Sota/JPI
9/42
<p>After playing baby-faced supercouple Gwen Norbeck and Will Munson — and striking this singularly sassy pose on the soap’s set — Jennifer Landon and Jesse Soffer moved to primetime, where she’s bopped from one series (<em>Animal Kingdom</em>) to another (<em>Yellowstone</em>), and since 2014, he’s starred on <em>Chicago P.D.</em></p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
10/42
<p>Peter Parros left behind not only Dr. Ben Harris’ stethoscope but also his halo when he left Oakdale. In 2013, the soap vet was cast on <em>The Haves and the Have Nots</em> as a judge so morally compromised, he was in no position to decide whether <em>anyone</em> was innocent or guilty.</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
11/42
<p>… usually going to be Julianne Moore, we’ve learned over time. Decades after scoring a 1988 Outstanding Ingenue Daytime Emmy for her work as twins Frannie and Sabrina Hughes (opposite, among many others, Bill Shanks as Casey Peretti), the actress nabbed an Oscar for <em>Still Alice</em>. To her credit, the big-time movie star reprised her soap role as the show neared the end of its storied run in 2010.</p>
Image: Courtesy of the Everett Collection
12/42
<p>Doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as <em>When Harry Met Sally</em>, does it? Nonetheless, future romcom queen Meg Ryan and Frank Runyeon were a smash in the early 1980s as Betsy Stewart and Steve Andropoulos. In fact, they were <em>such</em> a smash that their characters’ wedding remains daytime’s second-highest-rated (after only the nuptials of <em>General Hospital</em> supercouple Luke and Laura).</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
13/42
<p>Playing ditzy Marcy Thompson in the mid-’80s, future Oscar winner Marisa Tomei was hooked up on screen with future Daytime Emmy winner Christian Jules LeBlanc (Michael, <em>The Young and the Restless</em>) as rich kid Kirk McColl. Though they made the cutest of couples, Marcy’s fairy tale wouldn’t be complete before she’d married an actual prince. To be clear, that was <em>not</em> Kirk.</p>
Image: Arthur L. Cohen/CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
14/42
<p>Wrong show, it’s true. But that <em>was</em> kinda what future <em>The Fast and the Furious</em> leading lady Jordana Brewster’s Nikki Munson and Scott DeFreitas’ Andy Dixon were when more developed between John’s photographer son and Hal Munson’s daughter than just pictures. Ironically, DeFreitas had better chemistry <em>off</em> screen with <em>another</em> castmate…</p>
Image: E.J. Carr/CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
15/42
<p>Upon being cast in 1995 as pot-stirrer Carly Tenney, Maura West (now <em>General Hospital</em> femme fatale Ava) took <em>As the World Turns</em> — <em>and</em> daytime — by storm. She also made quite an impression on DeFreitas, to whom she’s been wed since 2000; needless to say, they’re included on our list of <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/soaps/news/571955/soap-actors-real-life-longest-marriages-couples-photos/" target="_blank">soaps’ longest-married real-life couples</a>.</p>
Image: George De Sota/JPI
16/42
<p>No man in Oakdale could resist the charms of Kelley Menighan’s seductive Emily Stewart (seen here “taking a meeting” in 2008 with Billy Magnussen’s Casey Hughes, who honestly didn’t seem to be trying at all hard to resist). But behind the scenes, the actress only had eyes for one fella…</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
17/42
<p>From 1996 to 2015, Menighan was hitched to <em>As the World Turns</em>’ foremost heartthrob, Jon Hensley, whose Holden Snyder had actually been involved with and even married to Emily before his future ex-wife took over the role from Melanie Smith.</p>
Image: George De Sota/JPI
18/42
<p>Despite having the kind of chemistry that no lab could conjure up, Paul Ryan (Roger Howarth, now a <em>General Hospital</em> regular as Franco) and Rosanna Cabot (Cady McClain, aka <em>Days of Our Lives</em>’ Jennifer) never could get it right. Not for long, anyway. However, the show more successfully played matchmaker for the actress and someone else…</p>
Image: George De Sota/JPI
19/42
<p>Though Rosanna’s union with Craig Montgomery probably belongs on our countdown of <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/soaps/news/583700/poisonous-dangerous-destructive-toxic-soap-opera-marriages/" target="_blank">daytime’s most toxic marriages</a>, it <em>did</em> introduce to McClain the actor who became her real-life husband: Jon Lindstrom, a venerable soap-hopper arguably best known for his <em>General Hospital</em> roles of Kevin and his evil twin, Ryan.</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
20/42
<p>Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: Married supervillain James Stenbeck (Anthony Herrera) was <em>totally</em> going to leave his wife for mistess Margo Hughes (Margaret Colin) — or at least John’s naive daughter thought so in the early 1980s. Go easy on her; it was a simpler time.</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
21/42
<p>Obviously, Margo <em>really</em> belonged with future better half Tom Hughes — on screen <em>and</em> off. In 1988, Colin tied the knot with castmate Justin Deas (who’d go on to play Keith on <em>Santa Barbara</em> and Buzz on <em>Guiding Light</em> and win about a gazillion Daytime Emmys). Editor’s note: It was actually six.</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of Everett Collection
22/42
<p>No matter how many times the Hugheses cheated on one another — was there something adulterous in the water in Oakdale?!? — or how many times they were recast — in this 1986 shot, they’re Gregg Marx and Hillary B. Smith — we considered them lifers. Still do, come to think of it.</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
23/42
<p>This is the way that we like to remember Margo and Tom: happy, together and being played by Ellen Dolan and Scott Holmes, the long-running cast members who inherited the parts in the late ’80s. Not pictured — deliberately: homewrecker Emily!</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
24/42
<p>Looking as ready to cut loose as they were ever going to in 1961 were “Pa,” Chris, Nancy and James Lowell (William Johnstone), who only looked like he was #judgingyou because he was, in fact, a judge. But wait… if they were all hanging around in that hallway posing for pictures, who was in the kitchen?!? That coffee wasn’t going to drink itself; this wasn’t <em>Passions</em>, for Pete Wendell’s sake!</p>
Image: Fabrice Trombert/CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
25/42
<p>Viewers were so enamored of the pairing of Casey’s daughter, Katie (Terri Conn), and Aussie jewel thief Simon Frasier (Paul Leyden) that they were made the central lovers in the novel <em>Oakdale Confidential</em>. You can still find used copies on Amazon, by the way; we checked. Also, you’re welcome.</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
26/42
<p>In 1994, future <em>Days of Our Lives</em> star Shawn Christian (ex-Daniel) made more than just motors rev when he was added to <em>As the World Turns</em>’ cast as Oakdale’s answer to Speed Racer, Mike Kasnoff. </p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
27/42
<p>Penny and Jeff’s romance so captivated viewers that her portrayer became a bona-fide soap superstar. But behind the scenes, there was said to be major tension between Prinz and boss Phillips. When the actress left the show in 1968, she swore she’d never do another soap… and then, two years later, agreed to help launch <em>All My Children</em> as Amy Tyler — provided that she got above-the-title billing <em>and</em> her character would, as she did, oppose the Vietnam War.</p>
Image: Jimmy Wood/JPI
28/42
<p>We’re going to be painfully honest here. We have no recollection whatsoever of why Paul was dressed like this in 2009. None. (If you do, please, by all means, drop it in a comment.) It was just too amazing an image to exclude. Even Howarth would have to agree. Like, WTH?</p>
Image: Arthur L. Cohen/CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
29/42
<p>As a teenager, Lily had thought that she had it rough, what with the way that she couldn’t so much as <em>blush</em> at a boy without drawing the attention of her overbearing mother, Lucinda. But Lily was even <em>more</em> upset when she learned that she was adopted, and her biological mother was the sister of her true love, Holden. Thankfully, it turned out that Iva had been adopted, too. Whew.</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
30/42
<p>In 1999, <em>As the World Turns</em>’ younger set included two actors who’d be lost to us far too soon: the late Nathaniel Marston as Eddie Silva, a teenager whose mother detective Margo killed in the line of duty, and Ben Jorgensen as Chris Hughes, Bob and Kim’s oft-recast son.</p>
Image: Courtesy of the Everett Collection
31/42
<p>When Bob finally wised up and gave Lisa the heave-ho in 1965 — as if the housekepper hadn’t been enough! — she took off for Chicago and her own primetime spinoff, <em>Our Private World</em>. Yes, <em>that’s</em> how much viewers loved to hate Fulton’s alter ego; she got her own damn primetime spinoff — and, we might add, the first of its kind!</p>
Image: Courtesy of the Everett Collection
32/42
<p>No sooner had Lisa blown into the Windy City than she’d engaged in her favorite hobby — getting married — and tied the knot with John Eldridge (Nicolas Coster, who’d years later appear on <em>As the World Turns</em> as husband No. 7, Eduardo Grimaldi). Next, the strumpet engaged in her second favorite hobby — straying — and had a fling with brother-in-law Tom (Sam Groom). All the while, movie star Geraldine Fitzgerald looked on as Helen Eldridge, as you’d expect, disapprovingly.</p>
Image: Barbara Nitke/CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
33/42
<p>Hashtag this photo “awkward.” While Jack Snyder (Michael Park) was pining for Carly but dating Julia Lindsay (Annie Parisse), Carly was pining for Jack but married to Hal (Benjamin Hendrickson). No <em>wonder</em> they needed a drink!</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
34/42
<p>Bad girl Carly found the tables turned when romantic rival Julia was revealed to be nuttier than a jar of Jif. (Not pictured: the tables, only the chairs.) Before all was said and done, the madwoman had raped Jack and weaponized quicksand. Yes, quicksand. How would <em>you</em> do away with the woman your man wanted way more than you? Poison their coffee? Actually, that’s not a bad idea.</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
35/42
<p>What did Lisa do to land herself in the hot seat again in 1961? Bake a cake from a mix? Hire a sitter? Order takeout? We jest. Lisa was actually so rotten that no less than <em>Time</em> magazine once referred to her as a “superbitch” and “the most hated woman on television.” Yikes!</p>
Image: E.J. Carr/CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
36/42
<p>Holden got a formidable rival for Lily’s affections in the mid-1990s when Paolo Seganti was cast as Italian stallion Damian Grimaldi. Sure, he lacked the cerulean-blue eyes that had made Brian Bloom’s Dusty Donovan such a threat. But on the plus side, he didn’t plot Lily’s murder the way that Derek Mason had. <em>Other</em> people’s murders, yes, but Lily’s? Not so much.</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
37/42
<p>Eager to give a baby to younger-man husband Larry McDermott (Ed Fry) in the mid-1990s, fellow doctor Susan Stewart (Marie Masters) recruited daughter Emily to donate an egg, which her stepfather subsequently fertilized and Mom carried to term, resulting in the birth of Alison, who would forevermore have the world’s most interesting answer to the question “Where do babies come from?”</p>
Image: Courtesy of the Everett Collection
38/42
<p>Between her movie career (in films like the classic <em>Citizen Kane</em>) and her signature soap role (that of <em>All My Children</em>’s snobbish “Aunt Phoebe”), Ruth Warrick helped make <em>As the World Turns</em> an insta-hit as strong-minded Edith Hughes, whose affair with married man Jim Lowell set tongues wagging from one end of Oakdale to the other.</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
39/42
<p>The romance between designing woman Barbara Ryan (Colleen Zenk) and pseudo-reformed rat bastard John surprised no one more than them. Note: These are <em>not</em> their shocked expressions. Unfortunately, their marriage wasn’t able to survive the death of their son, whose premature birth his doctor father had OK’d in order to save Barbara’s life after she ran afoul of an explosion.</p>
Image: Lorenzo Bevilaqua/CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
40/42
<p><em>The Great Gatsby</em> only seemed pretty good after Lily and Holden donned period garb for a Roaring ’20s-themed party in 2000. Or… hold on… was that Lily’s twin sister, showgirl Rose D’Angelo, with Holden? For a few years there, it was hard to tell unless a headdress and tassles were involved.</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
41/42
<p>Lisa’s 1965 hairdo wasn’t just stylish, it was sensible: The Machiavellian minx needed extra head room to store all the plots that she was hatching. And she was <em>always</em> hatching plots.</p>
Image: CBS/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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