Remembering Douglas Marland: Timeless Storylines, Timeless Talent

 Douglas Marland:  May 5, 1935 – March 6, 1993

By Patrick Erwin

It’s been fifteen years since Douglas Marland’s death. That seems impossible to me, but then again, maybe that’s because I still see aspects of his work and his characters on screen every day.

Certainly, his body of work has had a big impact on me. I was eagerly watching his work before I even knew who he was. When I watched Another World and The Doctors during those sick days and snow days, Doug was writing those shows. When my sisters became big fans of General Hospital and I watched to see what the fuss was about, Doug was working his magic on that show. It made sense that when I started to watch Guiding Light, Doug was already there.  

One of the things that always strikes me about Doug’s work is how timeless and durable his characters are. It’s been thirty years since he wrote General Hospital, but many of the characters he introduced or helped shape as they came onto the canvas —  the Spencers and Quartermaines — are still part of that show.nola 1

During his two years at Guiding Light, he energized the show and gave us a host of unforgettable characters. He helped us say goodbye to Roger Thorpe (for a while, anyway) by unforgettably tossing him off a cliff, and gave us the formidable Ross Marler and his heartbreaking love story with the mentally unstable Carrie Marler.  Many

Two of Nola’s Hollywood fantasies:  Now, Voyager (above) and Draculanola 2

of us were glued to our television sets to see the scheming, dreaming Nola Reardon. Nola, like all of us, was capable of great manipulation and malevolence as well as deep affection, love, and trust. We watched her play Kelly for a fool and become the woman we loved to loathe. Then we watched the brick wall come down to display her  vulnerabilities. Nola shared her dreams and Hollywood-style fantasies with us, and with Doug’s masterful writing, the audience saw a different side of her and began to root for her. Then, in one of the most lyrical love stories I’ve ever seen, we watched her and Quinton Chamberlain fall in love.

I think it’s fitting that Doug’s best work was at As The World Turns. He had eight glorious years at ATWT as head storyteller. He did update the canvas at ATWT when he came on board, introducing the Snyders (still there today) and Doug Cummings. But at ATWT, I think the real proof of Doug’s creative genius was how magnificently he wrote for the characters that were already on canvas. While most head writers have “pets” or only tell a story through a handful of characters, Doug wrote for many characters. We saw characters of all ages and demographics in Oakdale. Bob and Kim were frontburner for much of Marland’s reign, beginning with Kim’s chilling role in the Doug Cummings story. John DixonThey weren’t the only ones who were busy; the then-fifty-something John Dixon was front and center in romance (with Susan, Emma, and Lucinda, to name just three) as well as scheming. We saw Chris and Nancy’s 50th anniversary, then watched Nancy deal with the loss of Chris and the chance to fall in love again with Mac. Later, we watched as Mac and his new family dealt with Alzheimer’s. Doug also took characters who had been on the show for a few years at that time — like Lucinda and Lily — and gave them focus and purpose. Lucinda’s seemingly schizophrenic actions towards Sierra and Lily became understandable when we learned about Lily’s adoption and the fact that Iva was her mother.

More importantly — and this is so, so important and a lesson today’s scribes could learn — Doug didn’t ignore the show’s history.  Instead, he used it as a springboard for more story. When he learned about the backstory of Kim’s and Bob’s illicit affair during Bob’s marriage to Jennifer, and Kim’s miscarriage, he wrote the Sabrina Fullerton story, where Bob andbob and kim Kim learn that their child, a daughter, is alive. (Those scenes, shot in Italy, still to this day send a shiver up my spine!) That history would come to the forefront again a few years later, when Kim’s old nemesis Susan Stewart ended up doing the unthinkable — having an affair with Bob. A remembrance of an early relationship of Lisa’s — her marriage to John Eldridge– led to the introduction of Scott Eldridge, which shook Lisa’s life and her relationship with Tom.

Doug wrote several issue-oriented storylines during his time as head writer, but he
wrote them with a gentle touch, and avoided the lecturing, After School Special approach. From Hank Eliot, the first openly gay character, to Nancy’s second husband Dan McCluskey, the retired cop with Alzheimer’s, we saw a lot of faces and people that we simply weren’t seeing anywhere else. Doug explored varying opinions on euthanasia by having Margo pull the plug on her dying father-in-law Casey as he lay dying from Guillain-Barre disease. Watching the aftermath of Margo’s decision, and how each character reacted, was riveting. 

Perhaps the best example of Doug’s firm-yet-subtle approach was the courtship and marriage of Duncan and Jessica. These were two beloved, long-term characters in Oakdale, like any other couple, except that Jessica was African-American. Doug showed the citizens of Oakdale reacting to the coupling with varying degrees of acceptance — or in some cases, discomfort. We saw Lisa, a beloved character who in some ways represented the audience, object to the romance at first. Even Lisa was surprised at her own reactions, buried under the surface. Doug’s writing was always able to show the potential for good and bad in any character.

I don’t mean to suggest that Doug was perfect — his shows had lulls and valleys in the action from time to time, as any serialized show does. And if I had to pick out a valid criticism of his work from over the years, it would be that he wrote for characters so much there were too many of them in play at one time. This made for an awfully crowded canvas at times, with as many as 40 characters or more! But as busy as his canvases would be, you seldom saw a handful of characters monopolizing the action; Doug wrote for a wide range of characters across all generations.  You could still  do that in those soap days.

It’s been 15 years since Doug’s death, and it’s hard for me, sometimes, to explain to someone who hasn’t seen his work why I loved it, and why I remember it so warmly.
It’s a very different soap world today, in every possible way. And to new daytime fans
who have only heard Doug mentioned by name, or have seen brief snippets of his
work on YouTube, it may seem like we are contemplating his work through the
pleasant haze of our misty watercolor memories.

But Doug’s work — and more importantly, how he approached his work — is still a sterling approach for soap writers today. Soap opera writing is no easy task; it’s a delicate balance of fantasy and reality, of comfort and confrontation, of lurid behavior and loving embraces. For even the most talented of scribes, it’s a massive challenge to make viewers (and sponsors) happy. These days, the genre is competitive like it has never been before. Every show is fighting tooth and nail for every ratings point, and the casts and the budgets are significantly scaled down.

But in my humble opinion, Doug’s approach to telling a story is timeless. The ideas are simple: pay attention to history, develop strong and rich characters that your audience can see themselves in and relate to, and let those characters tell a strong, compelling story. Those are classic ideas, still applicable to any show in this genre. And that, to me, makes Doug’s work, and the man himself, just as relevant and important today.

Thursday, Marlena recalls the Doug Marland she knew as a friend for many years.

Comments

  1. Marland simply infused ATWT with a level of detail that would make other writers cry for their mommies. It’ s unrealistic that most characters only have a few other people in their social circles. Jane and Ambrose were just as necessary as Duncan and Shannon. The recurring roles added to the larger framework, not just pulling focus because there were no more ideas for the contract players. This was a special sign of respect for the audience. I looked forward to ATWT because I knew I’d be trusted to follow along with with the lives of all those personalities, and the writing was so filled with continuity that it was easy. I don’t see this as a weakness the way I see his many additions of long lost children.

    Fifteen years ago it was no big deal to periodically mention a character no longer on the canvas. Marland’s characters talked the way real people talk. They often referred to events that happened “three years ago,” even business deals. Try hearing that today. That alone shows you how he insisted on using the past to inform the present. Were we just spoiled by this level of greatness? I judge every soap by his ATWT, without ever finding an equal. It’s a crying shame that he didn’t get to groom a successor.

  2. Bravo!!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you both for remembering this enormously talented man & the countless hours of entertainment he gave so many. Your comments only emphasize what is so very wrong with soaps today including my favorite ATWT. One can only hope that a new writing regime will be brought on to ATWT & take a lesson from the Doug Marland School of Writing.

  3. “That history would come to the forefront again a few years later, when Kim’s old nemesis Susan Stewart ended up doing the unthinkable — having an affair with Bob.”

    This is probably my favorite Marland story – for all of the reasons you listed, and more. For me, the most compelling drama is created when there aren’t good guys and bad guys, but instead all of the characters involved in a storyline are trying to do the right thing and those efforts to do the right thing come into conflict.

    The situation in this case was John and Kim’s son, Andy’s alcoholism. Of course, Kim and John were spending time together; their son was in trouble. Of course, Bob wanted to help, but he wasn’t Andy’s father; John was. Susan may have been a troublemaker in the past, but here, she was Andy’s AA sponsor. And so when Bob and Susan finally hit the sheets, viewers were sighing to themselves, “oh no,” not screaming, “what the f***?”

    And one scene I’ll always remember is when Kim and Bob were trying to put their marriage back together. They were getting ready for bed, and not surprisingly, things were a little icy in the Hughes’s bedroom. Kim took off her engagement ring and started washing her hands. She cried out and Bob came running in. Kim said she had dropped her ring in the sink. Bob showed her the engagement ring, and she said, “No, my wedding ring.” Bob pulled it out of the sink. I can’t remember if he put it back on her finger, or she did. But the worst was behind them.

    As for connecting the past to the present, a while back, the current regime did remember that Susan is a recovering alcoholic and had her fall off the wagon. That story lasted about an hour and a half and that was the last we’ve heard.

  4. Doug Marland was the master, and ATWT was without a doubt his finest eight years, an eight years that I was privileged to grow up on, and still have fond memories of to this day. The days of the Hughes family, teens Lily, Holden, Andy, Lien, and Paul, Casey and Lyla’s romance, Craig and Sierra’s love conquering all, Tom and Margo balancing each other out, and the unforgettable Doug Cummings, Sabrina, and Scott Eldridge stories, as well as the traditions of Christmas Eves at Bob and Kim’s house, and Thanksgivings carving the Hubbard squash in the Snyder kitchen. All of the Snyder boys were handsome–brooding Holden, hotheaded Caleb, and sensitive Seth, and I admit, I loved them all–and even at the age of 12, I thought Lucinda and John in the hot tub and eloping to Las Vegas was incredible! She was my favorite love interest of John’s. And who can forget James Stenbeck’s “Hello, Barbara” removing the black hood from his head and scaring the socks off Barbara? The Mona Lisa; Fashions, Ltd.; WorldWide; Barbara Ryan Originals; the Snyder Pond; Oakdale Memorial; and the Stewart house. And Emily and Brock’s sultry tango at the AIDS Ball, remember that?

    I went looking for this song because when I realized that today was the anniversary of Doug’s passing, I remembered the mention of “eight years” in the song, and this song says what I feel about what Doug Marland did during his tenure at ATWT.

    “Eight years later
    Time goes by fast
    Got my memories
    And they will last
    I try to keep it simple
    ‘Cause I hate goodbyes
    I try to keep it simple
    By tellin’ myself

    “That I
    I will remember you
    And all of the things that we’ve gone through
    There is so much I could say
    But words get in the way so
    When we’re not together
    I will remember you
    I will remember
    You

    “We’re a picture in my mind
    And when I want to find you
    I just close my eyes
    You’ll never be that far from me
    So don’t say goodbye ’cause
    You’ll never be that far from me
    I’m tellin’ myself that

    “I, I will remember you
    And all of the things that we’ve gone through
    There is so much I could say
    But words get in the way
    So when we’re not together
    I will remember you

    “You were there when
    I needed a friend
    Thank you, thank you
    I never told you
    How much that meant
    I thank you
    Thank you

    “I will remember you
    And all of the things that we’ve gone through
    There is so much I could say
    But words get in the way so
    I, I will remember you
    And all of the things that we’ve gone through (I will remember you)
    There is so much I could say
    But words get in the way so
    When we’re not together I will remember
    When we’re not together I will remember you
    Yeah
    I will remember you”

    –“I Will Remember You,” by Ryan Cabrera

    And 15 years later, I still remember you and thank you, Doug, for some of the best memories of my TV-viewing life. You and your work are always remembered by this fan.

  5. Connie Passalacqua Hayman says:

    Patrick–Just wanted to thank you so much for writing the wondefrul Days piece It is so increbile fantastitc. Nigel, Ed and I love you VERY much

    Speak to you soon. And if only Douglas was here with us—for always.

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