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I feel like Knots Landing's early seasons were much more "social issue" forward than the other primetime soaps in an effort to differentiate itself from Dallas. Aside from the middle class dealing with money and relationship issues, we had Richard's emotional/financial breakdown, Gary's alcoholism, Laura's rape, and Abby's custody issues, and even some illusions to sexual fluidity with Ciji. In later seasons they wrote about Anne's homelessness, Jason's abuse within the foster care system, and the memorable bottle episode about Olivia's teen-aged drug abuse. Overall, I remember Knots for the balance of unrealistic organized crime stories (what syndicate kidnaps twins in order to get oil reserves?) with more family-driven social issues.

Thumbs down. GH has had iconic openings, from the OG ambulance into the hospital to Dave Koz's Faces of the heart, to the weird one where Luke walked away at the end, and the more recent faces over the cityscape. This feels like an elementary PowerPoint slideshow, and the lighting is not doing most of the actors any favors.

I guess that's the answer to that question.. The lip biter won

Has there been any mention of Jackie Templeton (or her husband) since the infamous poisoning incident?

Almost a week later and I still don't know what a "stack" of vaginas means, but I also desperately do not want it to be explained to me.

I recall when we were following the old soap archives posted by @will81 there was a story that Y&R's rise to number one coincided not with any particular story, but the expansion of Price is Right to an hour, and the Olympics which interrupted the ABC schedule. It is interesting that every minor rise and fall in the ratings is often attributed to the plot of the moment, but in a prior generation, when people were less apt to change the channel, the lead-in of game shows or talk shows really mattered.

We've all heard the maxim that entertainment is created by committee. As a result, a writer could make an excellent pitch only to have it squandered by poor acting choices, bad directing, cheap sets, odd makeup, ugly hair, terrible casting, horrible breakdown writers, or even awful background music. I would bet that there are dozens of writers who felt unfairly blamed for a bad plot line, when in reality the idea was good, but the production messed up the execution of the story. I'll start the list with a controversial example. After the trauma of her daughter being kidnapped, her husband leaving her to care for a sick relative, and her son (who was switched at birth) being killed in car accident, a female cop turns to Xanax to help with sleep. Eventually she becomes addicted to the prescription and rather than admitting her dependency she blames her emotionally unstable daughter. Hitting rock bottom, she looses her job on the police force and becomes addicted to gambling. That,of course, could have been the pitch for Nighttime Hope. As bad as the story was produced, I maintain the idea was valid. Here's another Soaps have a history of ripping stories from the headlines. The NXIVM cult seized the imagination of the country through true crime podcasts and documentaries. The cult preyed on young women by promising empowerment, but they became enslaved by revealing secrets that would be harmful if they were revealed. Now imagine Kristina Corinthos-Davis, a young woman who felt neglected by her career-driven mother, dropped out of college, and recently broke up with her first female romantic relationship. That story would become GH's Dawn of the Day cult story. The writer who pitched it had no idea that it would stretch out so long, or that the actor hired to lead the cult would not be charismatic, or that story would devolve into a fight over memory chips. Again, probably a good pitch that was poorly executed. The obvious sarcastic response would be that the original ideas were inherently flawed (which is why Oscar Wilde said that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit). Or this whole thread will take an unpredictable tangent into discussing the career of Coby McLaughlin. However, my intention is that I am interested in your perspective as viewers of stories that seemed like a good idea, but went wrong in execution.

We could say the same thing for Diana Colville on DAYS. Whatever the pitch was for that character, they clearly did not follow through. Remember the infamous cover of SOD with Diana in a wedding dress and then the wedding was scrapped before the cover was printed? And, of course, her 2019 return was equally bizarre and forgettable.

In Los Angeles everything in daytime is an hour earlier. So historically the ABC line-up was Ryan's Hope at 11:30, AMC at noon, OLTL at 1, GH at 2, and Edge of Night at 3. In fact, growing up I always remembered the order because One Life was on at 1:00. The 2pm NBC soap was always in the "deathslot" becuase it was pitted against GH and GL, which was why SB, and those that inherited that slot always failed. However, over a decade ago Y&R switched from its 11am timeslot due to the expansion of local news. I always think of the Daytime Confidential podcast discussion about how when a habit of watching a soap at certain time is interrupted, it is difficult to keep watching. That was the pattern for me. I think Y&R may have returned to 11, and with modern DVRs the time doesn't matter because they record by title, but I stopped watching when the time period became unpredictable.

If doof-doofs are an option, then I am going to choose it every time. The sound of those synth drums gets me so excited and I've watched the countdown of the favorite doof-doofs a couple of times. Overall, using Eastenders as an example, I like the idea of a musical cue, like the drums or Julia's theme, to send off the day's episode and get you revved up to watch tomorrow.

Ok, let's simmer down, a hazy memory is not an offense. I don't know if it is compliment or not, but I am of an age to have watched AMC in 1970s as a (very young) child, I just didn't keep contemporaneous notes thinking that 50 years later I would be discussing it on a message board. I don't think I've said that Mona thought Nick was Erica's father, she just objected to their romance. However, I think it is well established that Nick was a dancer and Mona knew him from the clubs. And if read the synopsis of the plot surrounding Phoebe and Charles's divorce you will see that Mona threatened to tell Phoebe's kids that Phoebe hired Myrtle to impersonate Kitty's mother, which Mona knew to be true because she had know Kitty's mother back in her day. Try the Pine Valley Bulletin as a resource for verification, and let's all try to use a bit more kindness, understanding, and levity when discussing our memories http://www.pinevalleybulletin.com/Quick Guide/BiographiesWeb/KaneMona.html

OK, but we can agree this one was a huge bomb, and an illogical attempt to prop up an unpopular actor (at least I've never read anyone asking for more of RKK).

TBH the biting is the detail that I wonder about the most. Did she ask for one last kiss and then bit him, or did she just lunge at him and happened upon his lip? I don't mean to belittle DV issues, but this was an intriguing and dramatic event, especially because as a model Rib's lip were one of his defining features. Also, using my social media detective skills, he still lives in their familial home/apartment with their kids, but his wife was not in his holiday post, and his wife does not have any pictures of him on her IG page....

Also, I disagree with this choice because it inspired stories for Nina and others for the next decade (or more if you include Cain) - however obviously they couldn't predict that in 1999

Is this the David Gray story with the introduction of Laura and Jackie Templeton? I recently googled Paul Rossilli who play David and either they were very lucky with casting or the plot point about people being memorized by his eyes was inspired by the actors own peepers. Unfortunately his acting was not as memorable as his facial features. The sword is a classic Macguffin, when it was finally revealed it looked so cheap, like a Halloween prop. And, in the end, it really didn't give an explanation for Laura Webber Spencer's disappearance.

Mona knew Kitty's mother which is how she uncovered that Phoebe had paid Myrtle to impersonate Lucy Carpenter in order to interfere with the romance of Ann and Nick as well as Kitty and Linc. Which explained why Kitty's "mother" didn't know she had a twin named Kelly. That was also the start of the lifelong friendship between Mona and Myrtle. Also, in case it is difficult to infer my intentions in written form, I am using humor to imply that Mona's motivation was anything but innocent with regard to Charles. Because I enjoy the irony that this single mother just happened to wind up with one of the richest doctors in Pine Valley, while chastising her daughter Erica for chasing after wealthy married men like Kent Bogart.

I agree and disagree on these When Melinda returned in the late 80s she was nothing like her original character and she seemed much more like a Dorian re-boot. The exploitation of her mental health story (including an evil psychiatrist who used medication to subdue his enemies) would be offensive to modern viewers. There was no hint of the frail Melinda who kept Peter from Jenny. I am trying to avoid mentioning the actors for fear of diverting the topic once again, but it seemed like Sharon Gabet was brought on to mop up the mess of the mistake of recasting Dorian with Elaine Princi. On the other hand Genevieve had enormous potential. Not only was she rich, powerful, and funny, but she had her own mansion. She was a viable romantic nemesis for Nikki or Ashley. I liked the chemistry she had with Victor. And, I liked that she was an old fashioned soap schemer who just wanted wealth, not world domination or violence. The obvious weakness was connecting her introduction to Cain and Colin, both of whom already had convoluted backstories. It would have given the character less baggage to either be totally new to Genoa City, or to have mysterious ties to either the Chancellors or Brookes families. However, she is great example of an abandoned character because they rushed her out town and she had no long term effect on the story.

I feel guilty that my nomination of the character of Dorothy as an example of an aborted & wasted opportunity for OLTL has turned into an Elizabeth Rohm career retrospective. Sorry @Joseph for creating a tangent to your intriguing topic of discussion.

Also, from Jessica's perspective, isn't this what DM's are for? Why publicly flirt with the guy who got you on TMZ?

I was fascinated by the story of Rib Hillis (Jake - PC) being bitten on the lip by his mistress Jessica Morris (Jennifer OLTL). TMZ reported that Rib, who is married to a Dancing with the Stars pro, was having an affair with Jessica, and when he refused to leave his wife, she bit him so hard it required plastic surgery, and she was arrested. https://www.tmz.com/2019/09/25/rib-hillis-gruesome-lip-injury-jessica-morris-bit-domestic-violence/ I followed Rib on social media and he posted many mia culpa professions of love to his wife and photos of their kids. Cut to three years late, Rib posts a pic on Instagram, and who gives a flirty response but Jessica Morris, with an odd typo response by Rib... I could not think of anywhere else to post this obscure, but juicy information, so I created a topic.

Although I wish that AMC had given adult Tad and Liza more of a chance at a relationship (not when played by Jamie Luner, who I don't even consider as Liza), I think Tad's track record suggested that he wouldn't have been attracted to Erica. From Hillary to Dixie, Cara, and Krystal, it seemed like Tad liked a more earnest woman, who was a yin to his yang. Meanwhile, except for her dalliances into cougar-dom, Erica seemed to prefer much more established and mature men than Tad. Adam, Dimitri, and Travis were much more evolved than Tad, even as he aged. She went for titans of industry, not a guy whose career path veered from local tv producer to working at his Mom's beauty parlor.

Although I would never claim to be an expert, here's my recollection: Mona was friends with Nick Davis and Kitty Shea's mother Lucy Carpenter (who was once impersonated by Myrtle Fargate) from her time on the cabaret circuit. I don't think she was ever a performer. However, after Eric abandoned her, she found work in nightclubs and hung with a "fast" crowd which both stunned and embarrassed her daughter when she found out. One assumes that was either in Center City or some other urban center prior to moving to Pine Valley. It must have been a very short, but meaningful, period of time because although Erica seems to have been raised in Pine Valley as a child, many of Mona's closest friends were from the club scene. I'm sure someone will correct me if I am wrong, but there was some ambiguity in the beginning if Eric was actually in Hollywood, or if Mona made up that detail to explain his absence to Erica because she was never willing to provide many details. Later, with the Kendall retcon, Eric's backstory was made clearer, but that story was different from the tales that Erica told while in high school wishing she could move to the bright lights of Hollywood with her father.

Allow me to clarify. After Cassie, it seemed unlikely that Dorian had another daughter like Adriana who was conveniently raised out of town and harbored no ill will toward her mother's neglect. And, after Blair and Kelly, it would have been an indictment of the American system of psychiatric hospitalization that one of Dorian's sisters would have had another child while institutionalized. So, structurally Dorothy provided material for maternal stories for Dorian, without the convoluted origins of other Cramer characters. Regardless of Ms. Rohm's acting prowess, I see the character of Dorothy as a missed opportunity both as a younger resident of La Boule and a nemesis for Kelly. Especially after the many failed attempted to make Cassie into a viable heroine. Which is why I nominated her in the "aborted & wasted" category because she was only given four months to make an impression.

I'm going with another OLTL character, (I would bet there are dozens from that show given that each new writing regime tended to phase out the characters of the previous regime immediately upon arrival). Dorothy Hayes played by the very charismatic Elizabeth Rohm. She was the daughter of Mel Hayes, which many would consider the love of Dorian's life, and a girlfriend to Joey Buchanan for four months from August 1997 to January of 1998. There was the regular criticism from the soap press that any new family was taking over the show. However, Dorothy was such a grounded contrast to Kelly that it made for an intriguing triangle. It would also have been interesting to see her impact on Dorian. Later writers bent over backward to create other "Cramer women" like "Bitchy Bangs" and Paul, but Dorothy had a logical connection to Dorian that went unexplored.