soapfave06

Frons being behind Jared's death does make sense, I haven't rewatched the finale in so long I forgot Natalie did indeed avenge Jared. 

His death brought so much pointless plot, primarily Natalie vs Marty and Marty going mad. 

I remember not enjoying the show again until Tale of Two Todd's launched. I had given up once they wrote out Rachel, Layla, Fish and Kyle and Viki/Dorian got involved on that ridiculous David shenanigans in summer 2010. 

Indeed-years of story lost over the potential custody plot and they could have involved Layla and Chris in that as well as close friends of Fish and Kyle. I would have liked to see Layla vs. Stacy/Kim. 

One thing I forgot to add-a massive difference in writing for Blair when you see 2009 Blair looking at Todd like a teenager and 2011 Blair angst with RH Todd, which I remember loving. 

In between watching the Fall 1989 episodes, I got caught up with Fall 2009. 

So many good things, so many bad things. 

I was a huge Gigi and Rex fan until 2009 and it went downhill from there. FF has the worst hairstyle and JPL is overactive and this is the beginning of the constant who is Rex's dad...dull as dishwater. 

There was a disgusting line where he asked Roxy if Mitch was his dad and if he raped her like it didn't even matter if he did. 

Mitch return isn't horrible but not worth losing Jared, they focused so much on John and he and Viki have probably had one minute of airtime together. 

Natalie immediately goes to John; Blair is hyper focused on Todd; the Danielle drama is HORRIBLE with Ross evil and Todd fantastic; Todd bullying absolutely everyone. OMG talk about horrible. 

In a bright side I love how central Viki/Charlie and Nora/Bo reconnecting at the same time with Rachel back in town for Matthew. 

If they properly balanced the show and did not ignore Layla/Chris/Fish/Kyle (for one example) the show could have really been on fire. Stacy and Kim are actually fun, Jessica/Brody were such a good match, so many opportunities. 

Lastly-how bring back Mitch and NOT utilize a cult? They could have done some OTT drama in Napa with his followers doing some crazy staff at the vineyard or in Llanview post-coffin rising. 

I was just watching that week of OLTL with the 1989 episodes being posted. It was great fun with Tina back and the Megan/Max/Gabrielle triangle but they still had nothing else good going with Clint focused on Julia, Megan bonding with Raymond and Viki dealing with icky Roger and none of these had any chemistry going for them. Add to that I never realized how odd Roger was until I saw the daily episodes. 

@vetsoapfanAre there any lesser remembered stories or scenes you remember fondly? 

I would also love to know what you remember of Carla and Ed's wedding and Josh entering their lives or Julie & Mark Toland drama. 

Are the episodes prior to 1230 not available in the better quality? I started watching 1230 to see the much reviled Prince Albert plot but can't find the build up to the Belvedere Castle climax. 

Unless I was that bored, and I do love camp, I rather enjoyed the ending with Roger sitting vigil below and the rescue. I thought the fall was actually well produced and loved the added effect of Delia awaking as she began her fall below. I caught a few episodes in the 1170 range. 

Overall I enjoy the show, I remember loving Jack when I watched on SoapNet. I prefer Ilene as Delia but rather enjoy this one (Randall Edwards?) 

I watched some 1994 episodes surrounding April's trial, Lillie Bell mentally healing, Cole/Victoria drama and Brad in the hospital. Amazing how many different family dramas were happening at one time, the great production and characters scenes and I can't remember the last time I was lured into watching the show. It's quite sad how far it has fallen. 

Continuing on into the fall of 1989 so I can see fully Andreas bittersweet exit. Tina and Gabrielle are beyond fun together! I am glad Gabrielle was briefly able to tone down her crying theatrics for some funny hysterics in another scheme with Tina as they both squirm their way through LLC schemes. 

And oddly enough, Andrea and John hardly have any scenes together but they have him being a total arse getting close with Debra. 

Another miss I think as the show was rather dreadful aside from the baby switch plot: the miscasting of Roger Gordon and Prince Raymond.

Larry Pine worked great as Eterna Roger but there is NO romantic chemistry to make this work with Viki torn between her future and her past and that could have and should have been something even if we knew she would stay with Clint. 

The actor playing Prince Raymond is well enough but given it was nearly a 5 month plot casting someone with amazing romantic chemistry with Jessica Tuck really could have elevated the entire Mendorra plot with Megan in an over the top romance we knew would not last, something I wish soaps would do more often. 

They also missed an opportunity to further diversify the show. I missed Miriam (played by Janet Hubert) being written out as apparently the Wymans took over the clinic for their baby selling by framing Miriam, who was friends with Dan and Brenda. They could have kept her on as an actual part of the LLC arc as she fights to prove her innocence and given her a romantic pairing along the way. 

PS-the amount of blonds, rather it be main character or extra, is absolutely insane and I could only imagine newer viewers trying to understand whose who. I would be totally lost. 

Watching some of the Fall 1989 episodes posted. The show really turned around quick once Tina/Gabrielle entered the halfway house with the Lord Love the Children caper. 

You almost have the end of an era with Tina being cornered by Ambrose Wyman in Llanview with Viki and Megan trapped in the dilapidated saloon after Taggert blew some dynamite up since Tina and Viki were always the Perils of Pauline in the latter half of the 80s. 

It's always the other characters for me that don't fit. Dan/Brenda/Michael were slightly interesting, Gabrielle is always on fire. 

But they really failed on banking on any new characters. They totally dropped Rafe and Delilah that had opportunity. No characters with the charisma of Andrea Evans for when she left. 

I would have loved to see a sister for Cord or some kind of spitfire younger vixen. They had nothing to move to the forefront besides a bunch of blond heroines. 

Started the Innocent Years clips with 1979...ugh what I would do to see these in high quality. The show couldn't dream of having atmosphere now. Just a dull void. 

If they alternated from say AMC for 4 months, GH for 4 months and then OLTL for 4 months, for an example I don't think it would be so bad as there is steady soap, granted not all three suits the interest of all but having good stories, production and atmosphere would work better for a 2021 streaming world. 

If OLTL were to end prior to 2011 then I would say the climax to the DID/Victor Lord saga at the end of the 1995 would be best. The show was still diverse then and it ended the biggest storyline ever. The late 90s seem trash overall to me, then the show became camp, then the Higley years and then the Ron C resurgence that was still all over the place. 

Maybe soaps should all rotate in and out with small arcs instead of airing consistently  

Man, these Breacon Playlist episodes are great. I appreciate that they post Season 1 & 2 but my main interest in this show is more like 1992-2005 and I began watching myself around 2008. 

I really enjoy seeing Taylor, Deacon, Brooke, Amber and even young Zende!

The biggest waste of potential is not having Maya/Rick/Amber on now  

I wish the other shows would take charge like this as well but maybe easier with a thirty minute show. Y&R could have done the same for Nikki & maybe Leslie. 

Can someone list of the couples in the gallery? I know some, but not all

Are the June 1981 episodes with the climax of the Brysons VS Mike/Nancy/April/Draper available? 

1 hour ago, Khan said:

Possibly, yes.

Recently, I learned Schnessel briefly wrote for ATWT (under Douglas Marland) after exiting OLTL.  I'm curious as to whether CBS/P&G planned to have him replace Marland as HW.  Of course, if that was their plan, his untimely death likely scuttled it.

Did he really? I had no idea. I wonder if he quit OLTL then as I always heard he passed away during his tenure but if he died two years after the fact maybe he just fell ill and quit and took a small job at ATWT? 

I wonder how his ATWT tenure would pan out given how plot driven OLTL was. 

I really would love to see the show did a transition like this again and the Rosales and Winters families were the way to go. 

If Mal Young had kept the film noir look and feel and modernized everything else, I would have heavily enjoyed seeing the Abbott and Newman families take the back burner while the Winters, Rosales, Fen, etc took the forefront 

Words can't express how bored I am of current Y&R and I don't think I've watched in a solid two to three years. 

I have been dipping in and out of DAYS but catching up starting with the Thanksgiving episodes and wow it feels like a different show, for the better. 

The budget had to have increased, it felt like they added several sets and the DiMera mansion update looks good IMO. 

MarDevil vs Julie at Thanksgiving was an absolute delight to see and I love how involved the canvas is in this arc...Once Rafe/Ava/Kristen/Gwen group came on, it kind of fell off for me.

Johnny/EJ/Paulina/Chanel add so much to the show for me....Susan/EJ scenes were great character moments and I LOLed at Susan saying she would vote Democrat for EJ (why must soaps act so vanilla and ignore real life) and I am here for EJ/Nicole. 

I also enjoyed the return of Gabriel and good vs evil especially the devil recapping their current chaos, I must say I am looking forward to more unfolding. 

I would love the show to focus on the Price/Carver/Grant's and Black/Brady/Horton groups, the rest can buzz off. 

On 11/29/2021 at 4:35 PM, OzFrog said:

Starting from the 13:30 mark here, this is one of the funniest sequences I’ve seen on DAYS. Eugene and Calliope were one heck of a couple, and I have no idea how anyone managed to keep a straight face during Eugene’s “memorial service”.

 

This is the most I have ever seen of them and that was hysterical, I'll need to find more clips of them. Definitely reminds me how stale the soaps have gotten with current budgets. 

I wasn't watching then but have watched many edits and I think if they had introduced a new family or heavily expanded Abe/Lexie/Jonah/Wendy instead of focusing on the recast Jack, Jennifer and Billie (just one example) then maybe things would have been better. 

I love ED and Kristen/Susan but watching a 1998 Killing Pool edit was kind of...exhausting. enjoyable but exhausting and too plot driven. 

When I watched Carly Buried Alive & Maison Blanche edits...that was soap opera on fire. The atmosphere, writing and community were top notch and I was so invested. 

Wow, this is certainly a surprise. Mary Stuart is amazing as Jo, so calming in the scenes with Linda Bove, tragic in Tony's death scenes. Awesome to have this in such nice quality. 

Was SEARCH known for  good production values? I was pretty impressed, especially the hospital scenes with Tony's death. 

I also have to say the writing and performances for Tony's apology to Jo was so mature and the 6 minutes only felt like 2. 

I really wish we knew more about Head Writer Michael Schnessel because the late 80s was just so much camp and I love it, those scenes with Cord battling Titan and Tina battling Ursula in the wrestling ring and ensuing electric chair drama is just insane.. 

With that said, I really wish they had more balanced the insanity with more real family drama/diversity as it ultimately killed the show once AE left as Tina, Schnessel left (or passed?) and they had no one else to rely on 

Were they main characters? I have never heard of the swamp amnesia story. How did Kate die?

I have to say I am enjoying the rehashes of the quads but watching the Bo and Billie scenes in the aftermath of Zacks death and this would have hit different for me with Lisa Rinna's Billie. I didn't care for this Billie even when I was a pre-teen and having seen 90s Billie since, I would have loved the drama. 

I agree on John/Marlena/Alex, John truly came off psycho...they did need a new twist on Carrie/Austin/Sami/Lucas, maybe Carrie should have returned solo and Austin down the line with Will closer to Carrie than Sami, allowing conflict there. The business drama seems stupid as well. 

When did the styling and wardrobe go downhill? I would definitely say the end of 2008, early 2009. Atrocious after that. I would rather they buy and reuse good clothes than have a new cheap wardrobe on the daily. 

Somehow got caught in some February and March 2006 episodes and don't recall anyone loving this era with Carrie/Austin/Sami/Lucas quad, Belle/Phillip/Mimi/Shawn quad and Alex/Marlena/John. This was in the days I first started watching so a little nostalgic for me but it's nice to see some atmosphere and mood, I feel like I am watching an actual TV series instead of a Saturday morning cartoon. 

Also has a little Hope/Patrick in the midst of Hope and Bo being apart from Chelsea killing Zach. Kristian Alfonso looks fabulous with the wavy hair. And they had $$$ for an entire island set with a cliff that Hope naturally falls off of. 

One downer: DH as John. The eyebrow is too much as is the whispering. I remember why I once didn't care for him. Oddly enough, John and Marlena are my faves now. 

Perhaps because it has been so long since I watched this time period but everyone looks their absolute best-the hair and wardrobe department as well as aging wise. 

I meant to add, it seems they never have any clue what to do with say Carrie, Belle and Chloe for example. 

Are there missed opportunities? I almost feel like Carrie would be the Christine/Cricket from Y&R of DAYS. 

Another character I wish had returned is Chelsea, I really enjoyed her. Around the time of Bo's death would have been great. 

Holy cow they look amazing on that cover. I would not trade having Jesse and Angie reunite in 2008 as I started watching soaps in 2006 on my own and that was such a treasure but they should have been mainstays on AMC in the 90s.