Saturday, September 18, 2010

AS THE WORLD TURNS Finale: Deleted Scenes

Fans that read previews of the AS THE WORLD TURNS finale were surprised when some of the events mentioned never appeared during Friday's show. CBS.com has now added those deleted scenes which ended up on the cutting room floor. You can watch them here or below. The scenes feature the following characters:
- Craig/Rosanna/Johnny
- Parker/Faith
- Holden/Lily/Ethan/Jack
- Parker/Faith/Holden/Lily/Jack/Carly
- Rosanna/Craig
- Craig/Lily/Rosanna/Holden
- Craig/Rosanna
- Parker/Faith

Parker, Faith, Craig and Rosanna were completely edited out of the finale. Did ATWT make the right choice?

26 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. I will NEVER forgive ATWT for it's bad, boring finale. Margo acting like a doddering fool, Kim acting like Susan never slept with her husband ( lisa should have been the one saying farewell to Bob!) but I'll never understand how a writer, producer, network, etc allowed Eileen Fulton to appear as an extra in the last episode. Truly embarrassing for all parties involved. I'll forever miss the show I once lived and knew so well--I won't miss any of shat I witnessed today and will never look at this incomplete finale again!!!!

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  3. So Eileen Fulton didn't even appear in any scenes that made the cutting room floor? You'd think she caused the BP oil spill with the way she has been treated by Goutman and Passanante.

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  4. As is so frequently being mentioned, I'm appalled that Lisa was short changed in the finale.

    But after seeing those clips, the only ones that really begged to be a part of the actual final show were the Craig and Roseanna ones. And that's because Craig has been such an important part of the Oakdale canvas for so long. He should have been in the final episode.

    The others could have easily been skipped. We had closure with Parker knowing he was going to the police academy. As for Liberty, well who really cares about her?

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  6. I am in total agreement with all of the comments especially those regarding Eileen Fulton.

    Miss Fulton never failed the show during her 50 year run and dazzled, delighted, angered and amused her audience with her portrayal of Lisa, a woman who was never boring. Her storylines were diverse and used her very skillful talents.

    Whoever is responsible for the cruel underutilization of this gifted woman - not only in the finale but over the past decade, should never be allowed to work in soaps again. The missed opportunities to see Lisa stir things up as only she can are now lost forever

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  7. (NelsonAspen) I thought it was a real disappointment, not just for the overall legacy of the show, but for the most important people: the fans. I think we'd all have gotten a lot more satisfaction simply seeing the veteran actors gathered around on the soundstage, offering some recollections and farewells along with some well chosen clips. RIP ATWT.

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  8. I was a bit disappointed that there were no scenes in the finale from ATWT oldest set. The Snyder Farm. I see now that there was a scene film there, just didn't make it in.

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  9. Considering 54 years of service and the fact that it was the #1 rated programme for over twenty years, would it have been so awful for this to have been a 90 minute finale?

    I have seen the first and final episodes of every soap in the past 40 years. This is not the worst ending, i.e. "SANTA BARBARA" (cigarette stomping) and there were no gorillas (thank god!). But the lack of historical clips featuring past characters who were deceased or whom they could not afford to bring back, the general disconnection between everyone instead of a major gathering, and the horrible disrespect shown to the character of Lisa was incredibly disappointing.

    Where was the original theme that majestically ran for twenty years? Why did they play the blah 90's Jelinda's theme that put me to sleep? Heck, not even a snippet of the "The World Turns On And On"?

    There are too many"shoulda's" in this darn thing. It is as if none of the writers or producers ever watched the finales of any other daytime show to be able to know what fans responded to and enjoyed about the other departed classics. Instead of the beloved Irna Phillips ATWT epigram recited by Bob, a "What are you searching for?" or even a "The End", we get a tacky blow-up toy globe magically lighting up and spinning?!!! Yes. It's memorable all right. But NOT in a good way!

    Yes. This should have been a 90 minute episode and the deleted scenes should have been included. But they should have been better scenes.

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  10. @VAfromTx -- Oh, I don't know...I sort of thought the globe lighting up and slowly spinning was a rather sweet homage to the show. No, it wasn't the epigram -- and thank god it wasn't a Paul R. stubbing out a cigar! -- but Bob did get to say "Goodnight," and given Helen Wagner wasn't there to say it, that's pretty darned close to what I wanted.

    I too am quite disappointed in how Eileen Fulton was treated in the final show. :(

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  11. I think the oldest set on atwt was susan's house which was claire's house in the early 1960s and later david and Ellen's house. They really needed to have two final episodes, one devoted to the hughes/Stewart clans and one devoted to th snyder and everyone. Final scenes should have been bob's retirement party so everyone could have said goodbye to the audience.

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  12. Throughout the whole ep, people kept talking about going to the Lakeview. "Ok," I thought, "That's cheesy, but at least there will be one last gathering and at least Lisa will be there." By 2:40 I realized, "Uh oh, it may not happen." It would have been so easy to have everyone together one last time.

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  13. all those stories that wont get told how sad -what a shame its like losing a member of the family...

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  14. Oh, that was just so disappointing. Even the deleted scenes were lame. My favorite part of the whole mess was Lisa walking away from Lucinda and John with a completely disgusted look on her face. You just know that was Eileen Fulton's real opinion on the ridiculous fiasco.

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  15. VAfromTX:

    When did Jelinda's Theme play in the finale? I missed that.

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  16. A postscript: I watched the finale online yesterday. Someone posted on YouTube that the background music in the final scene that aired on the web was vastly different from the music that appeared on television. The music in the online clip was mellow and low key. The music that aired on television was dramatic and orchestral. Strange.

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  17. I'm not sorry that nuFaith was deleted.
    The only moment from the deleted scenes that had any resonance was Carly & Jack realizing that Parker & Faith were mini versions of them.
    The deleted scenes just reinforced the fact that even Craig had someone in his life, unlike Luke.
    I also agree that the snub of Eileen Fulton in the finale was astonishing.

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  18. The music used in the background during the end of the show was directly from the soundtrack of the 1981 film, "The Prince of Tides". As I watched I thought it seemed familiar and pulled out my CD of the music from the film and that is what it was.

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  19. My bad. I thought it was a re-orchestration of "Jelinda's Theme".

    As far as culling outside music, the same thing was done during the final episode of "EDGE OF NIGHT". The music just before the final scene when Liz and Preacher were leaving town was from "SOPHIE'S CHOICE". However, they made the awesome choice, for which I am eternally grateful, to play the 1976 theme over the ending. If only ATWT had made the same decision and played the Charles Paul theme.

    I know that there is no way for the ending to have been "perfect" and to have met all expectations of everyone in the audience. But I look back at "GUIDING LIGHT" and how they made the effort to add a few touches like having Fletcher Reade stop by for a few minutes. Why couldn't Andy Dixon or Penny be in town for Bob's retirement party and drop by the office to say Hi one last time? When Jack and Carly had their wedding, where were Iva, Aaron, Seth, Caleb or for goodness sake, Emma?

    It seems to me that the best endings have always involved family gatherings with extended family showing up to show solidarity and engender a sense of belonging for the audience as well.

    Was I being greedy to hope for such or is this everyone's opinion as well?

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  20. You may remember that for the final episode of SEARCH FOR TOMORROW, which revolved around the wedding of "Hogan & Patty," Domini Blythe and Jane Krakowski returned as guests ("Estelle" and "T.R.") and a nod to the past was included as "Liza" met a "Travis Lookalike" when snowbound at the airport.

    Of course, I still choke up whenever I watch Mary Stuart & Larry Haines play that final scene by the Christmas tree and "Jo" admits she's looking forward to "searching for tomorrow." Larry did a solemn Voice Over as the camera panned above the walls of the set and then a "Curtain Call" followed...each cast member got to wave goodbye or blow a kiss, while their name appeared on the screen. Finally, Mary Stuart looked into the camera, eyes moist, and thanked the audience for all the wonderful years. Then a full production crew list rolled over the Lou Rawls version (I may have the title wrong but the repeated lyrics are correct) of "Remember, there's always tomorrow..." While I clearly remember the discussion about using an original song sung by Mary Stuart (which I would have preferred, given that she sang often over the course of the show's 35 year run), it wasn't a bad choice.

    It, too, was a P&G show but they gave it a very respectful send-off that still satisfies. And that was a very rushed wrap up... We got word of the cancellation on October 31, 1986 and the last episode AIRED on December 26. Maybe the gift of a long goodbye isn't such a blesisng after all.

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  21. (NelsonAspen) P.S. - If you've never scene the final moments of SEARCH FOR TOMORROW, here ya go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_l7kbLbFxMA

    I think this kind of finale would have well suited ATWT. Show endings should be appropriate to the style & themes of the show itself. EDGE OF NIGHT and CAPITOL both capitalized on their penchant for mysteries. GUIDING LIGHT & RYAN'S HOPE made use of their core families. Lord knows what the heck AW was doing!

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  22. Nelson, I couldn't help but thinking that ATWT needed to have an SFT-type finale as well. I still remember all the actors waving their goodbyes and Mary Stuart saying thank you to the audience. The end of ATWT was pretty emotionally unsatisfying without a big group scene or goodbye from Dr. Bob

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  23. Nelson,

    Re: Search, I thought it was only Krakowski who returned for the final episodes. Domini Blythe was still a regular cast member, wasn't she? Didn't she run some kind of a club at Liberty House and wasn't she involved with Bela somehow?

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  24. Robb, yes...you're right! I stand corrected. It was definitely a "more the merrier" vibe that last week...several of us (including ex-GL, EON star Larkin Malloy) participated in the airport scenes as extras. Everybody wanted to be a part of that last episode and it was wonderful that the Execs let it happen!

    And cute little baby Jonah grew up to be a lovely young woman! (Did you know "he" was played by a little girl!?)

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  25. Almost all of the comments miss the point of the final show. Why should it have gone out with a "bang" when it was an undoubtedly sad event for not only the actors, but for television? The actors were fighting back tears in these final scenes. The very last scene brought the entire series full circle. It was a subtle tribute to Helen Wagner that the longest continuing cast member, Don Hastings, said "goodnight." It harkened back to the first show whereby Wagner said the opening words, "Good morning, dear." The animated globe right before the final fadeout recalled the original opening and closing credits with the animated "world." I couldn't have asked for anything better from a show. While the characters ended up happy, the actors were doubtless sad, as were the viewers.

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  26. Hello ATWT loyal fans. Firstly, THANK YOU for your years of support. Secondly, as an "insider" for ATWT, relax - Eileen did NOT want to be in a "good bye" final take. It is what it is and we did the VERY best we could. Please do not blame Chris or Jean or ANY of the production staff - go directly to the source(CBS/P&G)for edits.

    Peace

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