Goodbye to As The World Turns: The Story of Luke & Noah (Part One)

This week after 55 years on-air the CBS soap As The World Turns ends and to mark the occasion we’ve commissioned a special feature, written by fan Andy Eldridge, looking at the soaps most popular storyline of recent years. The romance between Luke Snyder and Noah Mayer, dubbed ‘Nuke’ by fans, is remembered here as we say goodbye to another soap.

 

To mark the end of As The World Turns we’ve commissioned a special feature on the most memorable storyline of recent years; the romance between Luke and Noah. The feature has been written by Andy Eldridge for us who many will better know as LukeVanFan from You Tube who has uploaded various ‘Nuke’ related videos for fans across the world to enjoy.

Every so often, we come across television characters who we take an instant liking to. These characters speak to us. We relate to them in many different ways. Most of all, we just enjoy their presence on-screen and we want to see how their lives will unfold. So we tune in to the desired show to see what adventure this character will go through next no matter how big or small. The more we watch, the more we become attached. The character that did this for me like no other had done before was Luke Snyder, a teenager from the American CBS soap opera, ‘As The World Turns.’ Longtime viewers of ATWT were already aware of Luke’s existence. He had grown up before their eyes and had already gone through enough drama to fill a novel (kidnappings, an explosion where he was presumed dead and kidney failure) all before the age of 15. But it wasn’t until afterwards that the character truly started to make a name for himself.

 

 

It was December of 2005 and Van Hansis had taken over the role of Luke. Almost immediately, Luke struggled with a secret. He was gay and he agonized over the issue of coming out to his very large and loving family. What followed over the next several months was a beautiful coming out story that involved the usual concepts of one’s coming out: Fear, anger, uncertainty, sadness and acceptance. Those things were combined with the usual soapy drama: blackmail, a comatose mother and a gay deprogramming camp. Van’s portrayal of young Luke’s actions and reactions to being a newly out teenager were nothing short of brilliant. He never failed to knock his material out of the park. When the story was over, viewers had become quite attached to Luke Snyder. He was now a full-fledged character and no longer the little boy running around in the background to remind viewers that Holden and Lily Snyder had a son.

 

The coming out story was such a hit, in fact, that fans started flooding ATWT’s writers with letters about their desire to see Luke find love. The concept of Luke finding love, much less a boyfriend, never really crossed my mind at that point because I never expected it to happen. However, in the winter of 2007, ATWT announced that they would in fact be bringing a new character to the show to be Luke’s love interest. All we knew at that point was that his name was Noah and he would appear in Oakdale that summer. I was beside myself with excitement and anticipation for this Noah character to come to town. With YouTube having exploded in popularity the previous year, I decided to learn how to copy and upload videos just so I could share Luke’s love story with the rest of the world who otherwise would have never even known about it. I figured that if a person like me, who never took an interest in soap operas’ could love a character this much, others might do the same. I did not want anyone to miss out on the chance to see this relationship unfold.

 

On June 1, 2007, Noah Mayer made his triumphant debut on screen. He was played by the talented, handsome and very down to earth, Jake Silbermann. Like the majority of soap characters, Noah had led a somewhat tragic and lonely life to that point. He grew up a lonely boy moving back and forth to different army bases across the country with his very strict military father, Col. Winston Mayer. Noah never lived anywhere long enough to make any lasting friends and unlike Luke, he did not have an insane number of relatives to call on for emotional support whenever he needed it. It was because of this that Noah began his lifelong interest in film. Movies were the kind of a friend he could take with him wherever he went and they provided the perfect escape from his father during the rough times. He signed up for a summer internship at WOAK, Oakdale’s main TV station, to start learning the basic means of filming and production. Luke and his buddy Maddie Coleman had already started working at WOAK weeks earlier. When Noah first appeared, he met both of them but had very little interaction with Luke his first day.

 

To many viewers who were not yet “in the know,” they had no reason to think that anything would ever happen between Luke and Noah at that point. Noah spent most of his time bonding with Maddie and it didn’t appear that he was even gay. Luke, on the other hand, was so annoyed at first getting stuck with Noah’s work load while waiting for him to arrive in Oakdale. His behavior did not exactly strike people as someone who even wanted to be friends with Noah. But it wasn’t long before Luke got over his annoyance and developed an attraction to his new co-worker.

As the weeks passed by, Noah began to feel right at home with his new friendships with Maddie and Luke. However, the majority of his time was spent with Maddie. On a work trip to Branson, Missouri, Noah ran into his father. The Colonel told Noah that he would not be paying for his college tuition unless he served in the military first. The army, according to Winston, would make a man out of his son. After being dealt this devastating blow, Noah met up with Maddie, who was also extremely upset over a breakup with her boyfriend, Casey. While confiding to each other about their respective heartbreaks, the pair was drawn into a kiss that led to them having sex. Unfortunately, Luke walked in on them immediately afterwards and became flustered. When Noah suggested that it was because Luke was jealous, Luke confessed that he wasn’t; he was gay. Noah was obviously very surprised to hear such news.

 

Noah did not have a problem with this revelation and wanted to continue being Luke’s friend. Unfortunately, at the same time, Noah wanted to start dating Maddie and he successfully talked her in to starting a relationship. What followed was plenty of heartbreak for Luke, who had to constantly see his crush kissing his best friend at every turn. Life went on but Luke tried to make the situation less painful by avoiding Noah and Maddie outside of work at every chance. This did not go unnoticed by Noah, who eventually confronted Luke about his avoidance. Stuck with no other believable answer to give, Luke confessed his feelings to Noah.

 

While Luke was hesitant, Noah once again expressed no problem with Luke’s feelings and wanted to continue being friends. With another obstacle behind them, the boys continued being friends. Although, a very noticeable connection between them began the night they went for a swim at Snyder Pond, which accidently led to them ending up in each other’s arms.

 

In the ensuing weeks, Luke started having suspicions about Noah’s intentions as well as his sexuality. Noah denied these accusations at every turn. Finally, as Summer was wrapping up, Noah was getting ready for a scheduled dinner with Maddie and his father. As Luke helped him with his tie, Noah stared deep in to Luke’s eyes and then planted a kiss on him. Those of us who watched this moment live rejoiced but nobody could have imagined what was to come next. At that very moment, the characters’ lives as well as ATWT would never be the same again.

 

Part Two will be published on the site tomorrow. You can post your memories of As The World Turns and your thoughts on the romance between Luke and Noah below. Please note those it is the strict editorial policy of ATV Today NOT to publish anything of a homophobic nature. Such comments WILL NOT be published in any form.