As the World Turns is a long-running soap opera television series that aired on CBS from April 2, 1956, to September 17, 2010. Its fictional world has a long and involved history.
1956–1960
Original cast List of characters who were part of the original cast:
Christopher Hughes - Don MacLaughlin (1956–86) Nancy Hughes - Helen Wagner (1956-2010) Donald Hughes - Hal Studer (1956–72, 1976–81, 1985, 1986, 1993, 1995) Penny Hughes - Rosemary Prinz (1956–68, 1971, 1985, 1986–87, 1998, 2000) Bob Hughes - Bobby Alford (1956-2010) Grandpa William Hughes - William Lee (1956–76) Edith Hughes - Ruth Warrick (1956–60) John Hughes - Larry Hugo (1956–57) Janice Turner - Joyce Van Patten (1956–57, 1962) Mrs. Turner - Leona Powers (1956–62) Judge James Lowell - William Johnstone (1956–79) Jim Lowell - Les Damon (1956–57) Claire Lowell - Anne Burr McDermott (1956–71) Ellen Lowell - Wendy Drew (1956-95 1998) Dr. Doug Cassen - Nat Polen (1956–67)
Storylines Chris (Don MacLaughlin) and Nancy (Helen Wagner) debate as to whether his father (Will "Pa" Hughes, played after the first episode by Santos Ortega) will live with them. Nancy's struggle to get over the death of her eldest unseen daughter, Susan, leads Penny (Rosemary Prinz) to have feelings of inadequacy. Penny puts her Aunt Edith (Ruth Warrick) on a pedestal. She also has allusions of her best friend, Ellen Cole (Wendy Drew), having a romance with her older brother Don. Edith Hughes and a married man, Jim Lowell (Les Damon), have an affair. Nancy visits her unseen sister Pearl, who lives away from Oakdale. Claire English Lowell tries to keep husband Jim at her side by overdosing. Dr. Doug Cassen (Nat Polen) helps her. Jim dies in a boating accident in Florida. John Hughes (Lawrence Hugo), Chris's brother, marries a woman named Marion. Don and Nancy fall out over Janice because Nancy thinks Janice Turner isn't good enough for Donald. Donald becomes engaged to Janice Turner. She breaks it off and marries Carl Whipple (Rod Colbin). Penny is in love with Jeff Baker (Mark Rydell) and elopes with him but it is annulled at Nancy's insistence. Al James (Donald Madden) and Jeff get in a fight over Penny, and Jeff is arrested after James dies. Penny becomes engaged to Tom Pope, but when she says she still loves Jeff, Tom breaks it off. Donald works for Mitchell Dru (Geoffrey Lum) on this show as well as two other serials, The Brighter Day and Another World). Donald leaves and works for the DA and then at the Lowell firm. Claire Lowell marries Dr. Doug Cassen. Ellen and Dr. Tim Cole (William Redfield), a married man, fall in love and have a child, James "Jimmy" Cole, but she gives him up for adoption. Louise Cole, Tim's wife (Mary K. Wells), arrives in Oakdale and names Ellen in their divorce proceedings. Edith marries Dr. George Frey (played by George O. Petrie and they leave town. Penny and Jeff get married. A live wedding and reception were broadcast, with on-air invitations at the end of the program for several days prior. When Jeff leaves town), Penny becomes pregnant but loses the baby. Lisa Miller (Eileen Fulton) comes to town with medical student Bob Hughes. Later, they secretly marry and her parents visit Oakdale from Rockport, Henry and Alma Miller (Luis van Ruten and Ethel Remey) attend the wedding. Lisa begins a relationship with Bob and they are secretly married. Lisa becomes pregnant. Nancy wants Bob and Lisa's marriage annulled but is forced to accept her into the Hughes home when Nancy discovers Lisa is pregnant. Jeff returns to Oakdale and is revealed to have an alcohol problem. He is treated at the hospital, where Penny approves of Dr. Cassen's treatment and his mother Grace does not. Tim has leukemia. Ellen marries him and weeks later he dies. The Stewart family comes to Oakdale. They are Dr. David Stewart (originally played by Ernest Graves and played for twenty years by Henderson Forsythe), his wife Betty Jackson Stewart (Patricia Benoit) and their two sons, Paul and Danny.
1961–1965 While babysitting for the Stewarts, Ellen Lowell realized that Danny Stewart is really her son Jimmy. Jeff Baker became a piano player in a bar under the name Jack Bailey. Meg Blaine (Teri Keane) developed feelings for him, then discovered his true identity. Penny Baker and Greg Williams (Robert Readick) made plans for a date. Meg Blaine, who had gone to Oakdale to tell Penny where Jeff was, overheard. Jeff begged Penny to take him back. Janice Whipple returned to town with daughters Alice and Debbie after Carl Whipple died. Donald Hughes then married Janice. Nancy tried to stop Don from getting back with Janice. Chris asked Nancy to stop interfering in Don's life. Lisa Hughes gave birth to Thomas Christopher Hughes. Lisa made excuses so she wouldn't have to do housework. She also falsely claimed that Pa Hughes disliked her. Claire became attracted to Bill Abbott. The two were kissing in a parked car when they were sideswiped by another car. Doug Cassen got angry and Bill left town. Ellen Cole became engaged to Jim Norman (James Broderick), but when he found out she was marrying him just to get custody of her son he left her. Lisa Hughes had an affair with her friend Linda Elliot's brother Bruce (James Pritchett). Bruce, a shoe tycoon, broke off the affair because Lisa wasn't sophisticated enough for him. Penny sees flowers from Bruce Elliott being delivered to Lisa. Lisa asks her to not tell Bob, but Penny, filled with hatred of Lisa and dedication to her younger brother, decides that she will tell him. Jeff and Penny were involved in a car crash. Jeff was killed and Penny was in a coma and woke up with amnesia (in what has been called "the automobile accident that shook the nation"). Every time that she sees Lisa, she thinks of flowers. Lisa Hughes became pregnant, but she miscarried and divorced Bob Hughes. Bob Hughes met and got closer to Sylvia Hill, R. N. (Millette Alexander). Nancy was disappointed that Bob wouldn't give his marriage with Lisa another try. Edna Rice's husband died because Doug Cassen didn't get a message on time due to his wife Claire's attempted overdose. Chris tried to get Nancy to apologize to Don. Interruptions in 1963 for the first bulletins on the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Don stood up in front of the whole of the Hughes family and accused Nancy of ostracizing his new family. Janice and Donald Hughes left town to go to Texas. Neil Wade (Michael Lipton) came to town and met Penny Hughes. Neil was a doctor who couldn't save his dying father. Neil saved Pa Hughes's life after he chokes at the Hughes's 4th of July party. Doug Cassen was revealed to be Neil Wade's father. His mother was Judith Wade. Judith had married Frank Wade because she was pregnant. Doug offered Neil a job at Oakdale Memorial instead of Bob. Lisa Hughes ran off with Tommy Hughes and put him in military school, but Chris and Bob Hughes brought Tom back. Franny Brennan (Toni Darnay), David's new housekeeper, harbored delusions that they would marry. Penny Hughes Baker and Dr. Neil Wade got married. Neil opens the Wade Book Store. Judith Wade and Jerry Stevens (Roy Poole) got married and left town. Judge Lowell almost died while under Neil's care, and Claire Cassen told Doug Cassen to stay away from Neil. Neil Wade gave up medicine and opened up a bookstore, the Wade Book Shop. Judge James T. Lowell convinced Don to return to Oakdale after learning that Janice had died. Hurt that Don didn't tell them of Janice's death, Chris sent Don a letter about it, but Don tore it up. Nancy encouraged Don to get to know Sara Fuller better. Donald Hughes rekindled his relationship with old flame, Ellen Cole. Danny Stewart called Ellen Cole "mother" while delirious with a fever. Lisa Hughes went to look for Tommy and got kidnapped. She was raped on a train car from Texas to California. (Pamela King was playing Lisa during this time.) Bob Hughes and Sylvia Hill became engaged. She broke it off and later married Dr. Al Suker. The Holmes Family (Bill, Ann, and their daughter, Amanda) came to Oakdale. Amanda Holmes's mother was really Sara Fuller (Gloria DeHaven). Ellen Cole and Donald Hughes got engaged, but then Dr. David Stewart proposed to Ellen. Dan Stewart almost died from encephalitis. He recovered, and left town to attend medical school. Lisa Hughes (now played again by Eileen Fulton) moved to Chicago but did not reveal where she was to anyone in Oakdale. There, she met the Eldridge family and married John Eldridge (Nicolas Coster) on the primetime serial Our Private World. They returned to Oakdale later that year and divorced. Lisa Hughes was going to sue for custody of Tom and tell Bob Hughes that she had married John Eldridge. When Tom didn't want to go with her, Lisa Hughes came to the Hughes's door step demanding Tom, but Penny kicked her out.
1966–1970
Ellen Cole fires Franny Brennan. When Franny threatens to tell Dan that Ellen is his mother, Ellen hits her over the head, killing her. In prison, Ellen Cole meets Sandy McGuire (Dagne Crane). Her husband, Roy McGuire (Kasey Arnold), was a convict who was responsible for her imprisonment. In prison, Sandy McGuire gives birth to a boy and names him Jimmy at Ellen's behest. Bill Holmes (William Prince tells his daughter, Amanda (played by Deborah Solomon Steinberg), that her real mother is Sara Fuller (played by Gloria DeHaven. Sara and Nancy Hughes become fast friends., and Chris warns Nancy that Claire's feelings may be hurt. Donald Hughes and Sara Fuller get engaged. Pa Hughes is unhappy when Nancy offers to work in Sara Fuller's shop Michael Shea comes to town and becomes Doug Cassen's protégé. Joan Rogers has a tumor and Dr. Doug Cassen tries to treat her, but she dies. Her husband, Ted Rogers, pushes Dr. Cassen who dies after hitting his head. Dr. Neil Wade, while out of town, dies of an embolism. Ellen Cole is released from prison. She and Dr. David Stewart are married. Amanda (Deborah Steinberg), in love with Don, threatens to show him a letter revealing that Sara Fuller is her real mother. While chasing Amanda to get the letter form her, Sara falls down a flight of stairs and dies. Amada is placed on trial for the death of Sara. Chris Hughes believes that Sara's death was an accident; however, Nancy and Don believe was murdered by Amanda Homes, the child Sara gave up for adoption. Nancy stands as a witness for the prosecution against Amanda. Chris is Amanda's defense lawyer and grills Nancy. Nancy forces Chris to sleep on the couch, but Chris later proves that Sara's death was accidental. Amanda Holmes dates Donald Hughes for a while and later leaves town. She later returns to Oakdale briefly to work at Wade's Book Store. An older Tom Hughes returned from serving in the Vietnam War with a drug habit. He attempted to break into the office of Dr. Michael Shea (originated by John Lasell but mainly played by Roy Shumann) to steal drugs. Lisa Hughes Eldridge had a fling with Claire Cassen Shea's husband, Dr. Michael Shea. When she becomes pregnant, she tried to get him to marry her, but he refused. She told Claire of their affair, and Claire divorced Michael. Michael blackmailed Lisa (who now hated him) into marrying him. Ellen and Dr. David Stewart are expecting a child. Sandy McGuire and Dr. Bob Hughes begin a relationship. Nancy makes it clear that she thinks that Bob should remarry Lisa instead. While in Vermont, Sandy is in a fire and is severely burned. Bob Hughes places her in a sanitarium. Penny Wade and Roy McGuire get married, but when Jimmy is returned to his mother, Sandy Hughes, they get an annulment and Penny leaves Oakdale. Ellen Stewart gives birth to Carol Ann Stewart.