Lisa Grimaldi (née Miller; formerly Hughes, Eldridge, Shea, Colman,
McColl, Mitchell, and Chedwyn) is a fictional character on the CBS
soap opera As the World Turns. The character was portrayed by actress
Eileen Fulton for 50 years from May 1960, until the last broadcast
television episode aired in September 2010, with Fulton becoming one
of the longest-serving soap opera actors in the United States. Lisa is
considered to be the first soap "vixen" and was one half of an early
"super couple" of Bob and Lisa Hughes.As the World Turns creator and
longtime head writer Irna Phillips created Lisa in the late 1950s
originally as a short-term character. In a 2007 interview with the
Archive of American Television, Fulton explained that ATWT's casting
director contacted her agent, wanting to audition another of his
clients, Lois Smith, for the role, but because Smith was unavailable,
he recommended they audition Fulton instead. Lisa was kept on the As
the World Turns canvas due to Fulton's day-to-day acting improvement.
A Procter & Gamble executive said to Fulton six months into her run as
Lisa, "I want to tell you what a wonderful job you are doing, because
when you first came on the show we thought, 'We can't keep her. She's
not very good.'"Fulton's eagerness to play Lisa as a villainess
contributed to the character's popularity and therefore its longevity.
In the Archive of American Television interview, Fulton explained that
the character was originally written to be a "nice girl", which she
did not find compelling as an actress, and that, while she read
Phillips' lines exactly as they appeared on the script, she said them
with a "scheming tone" in her voice. When Phillips saw Fulton's
performance she said "I can write for that little rascal. She can play
a bitch!" In The Soap Opera Encyclopedia, Christopher Schermering
writes, "Although Lisa was guilty of many lapses, nothing made her
more hated by her audience of housewives than a simple sequence in
which she hired a maid to clean house and went gallivanting about
town. When mother-in-law Nancy complimented Lisa on what a nice home
she had made for Bob, audiences were furious."A scheming "vixen" in
her early years,TIME magazine once referred to Lisa as a "superbitch"
and the "most hated woman on TV." Since those days, Lisa has gone on
to become a well-respected presence in Oakdale (the fictional town in
which As the World Turns is set), often offering advice and support to
the town's younger residents.
McColl, Mitchell, and Chedwyn) is a fictional character on the CBS
soap opera As the World Turns. The character was portrayed by actress
Eileen Fulton for 50 years from May 1960, until the last broadcast
television episode aired in September 2010, with Fulton becoming one
of the longest-serving soap opera actors in the United States. Lisa is
considered to be the first soap "vixen" and was one half of an early
"super couple" of Bob and Lisa Hughes.As the World Turns creator and
longtime head writer Irna Phillips created Lisa in the late 1950s
originally as a short-term character. In a 2007 interview with the
Archive of American Television, Fulton explained that ATWT's casting
director contacted her agent, wanting to audition another of his
clients, Lois Smith, for the role, but because Smith was unavailable,
he recommended they audition Fulton instead. Lisa was kept on the As
the World Turns canvas due to Fulton's day-to-day acting improvement.
A Procter & Gamble executive said to Fulton six months into her run as
Lisa, "I want to tell you what a wonderful job you are doing, because
when you first came on the show we thought, 'We can't keep her. She's
not very good.'"Fulton's eagerness to play Lisa as a villainess
contributed to the character's popularity and therefore its longevity.
In the Archive of American Television interview, Fulton explained that
the character was originally written to be a "nice girl", which she
did not find compelling as an actress, and that, while she read
Phillips' lines exactly as they appeared on the script, she said them
with a "scheming tone" in her voice. When Phillips saw Fulton's
performance she said "I can write for that little rascal. She can play
a bitch!" In The Soap Opera Encyclopedia, Christopher Schermering
writes, "Although Lisa was guilty of many lapses, nothing made her
more hated by her audience of housewives than a simple sequence in
which she hired a maid to clean house and went gallivanting about
town. When mother-in-law Nancy complimented Lisa on what a nice home
she had made for Bob, audiences were furious."A scheming "vixen" in
her early years,TIME magazine once referred to Lisa as a "superbitch"
and the "most hated woman on TV." Since those days, Lisa has gone on
to become a well-respected presence in Oakdale (the fictional town in
which As the World Turns is set), often offering advice and support to
the town's younger residents.
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