Planet Soap

Everything Sheila Carter since 2003 (except 2005) has sucked. The Sugar plastic surgery storyline was STOOPID and to duplicate it with Phyllis was even stupider. On the current B&B, if they want Sheila long term she should be written as a trouble maker woman with unstable tendencies, sort of like early Michelle Stafford/Sandra Nelson's Phyllis. They managed to make Sheila long-term during her first B&B run. Turning her into a full-blown murderous psyco writes her into a corner. What was the necessity of inventing another child for Sheila, when Erica, Diana, Rider, Daisy, and even (not her son) Scott Jr. all exist. It's clear that Finn was his own character at first then they decided to connect him with Sheila. Otherwise, it would have made more sense to just have Finn be Scott Jr and to have Sheila still obsessed with him. That would open the door for Lauren to come back.

It feels like B&B is moving closer to having Hope & Finn smoosh to quote Jersey Shore. He was massaging her temples today---- in a purely doctoral way of course. Finn even tells Hope that she's so beautiful and any man would be lucky to be with her, and Thomas is not the right man. Unless this is a fake out, it's coming eventually.

@VelekaCarruthers B&B was pretty good up until 2002, more specifically 87-93 and 98-02, IMO. Pretty much every GH RETCON since 2012 has been shotty writing. B&B Justin tries to overtake Spencer publications. This would have fueled stories for years just like Brooke taking 51% of Forrester did. But instead it was over in two minutes. This was also a perfect opportunity to showcase a strong black villain which I'm not sure Bold has ever had.

Yes Nancy is very irritating online, comes off as self riteous. Since there was talk about where they are going to eventually put Jason romantically,since Frank likes being back post charachters I'd like a follow up on Keesha. The actress had some legal trouble a while back I wonder if she's overcome that now. Their pairing ended abruptly after his personality switch, during which time he was very nasty to her. Repairing the Keesha bond, otherwise Brenda or Elizabeth.

2006 to Present. The initial decline in 2006, stem from the death of the show's creator Bill Bell. The show's accelerated decline started continued in 2013 with the addition of executive producer Jill Farren Phelps. Maybe I haven't been paying attention, but when was the last time we saw Nikki in the Abbott living room! Omggggggg😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

I wish I lived in an area where GH airs at 3 (Rather than 2 pm, against The Gates). That be nostalgic! The ability to watch soaps from 12:30-4 pm straight!

Yes, he's a very Jack Bauer from 24 like charachter (or vice versa since Jason came first). Sexually disciplined, non chalant, strong but silent. Sonny is an erratic mess. Both men dealing with a neurological issue.

I liked Sam's assessment of Jason to Dante. "His openness and honesty draws Danny in which makes him a threat." Looks and the whole badboy aesthetic baside, this is clearly why Jason has continued to be a woman magnet for years. Not to mention playijg the role of captain save a h*e -- befriending troubled women and pretending to be the father of their child (Sam, Carly). It's also why he comes off as more likeable/sympathetic at times than Sonny.

I feel like Lois and Olivia are essentially the same charachter and putting Olivia with Ned was their substitute for no Lois. Both ladies play the same archetype--- brash and sassy Italian woman with a latina flair. Then again we have Michael, Chase, Dex, etc... serving the same function. Similarly, when Billy Miller's Drew was in simultaneously with Jason it was two in the same expect Miller's was an imitation of Burton. That why I like Ryan's more animated portrayal of Drew---it differentiates him from Jason.

Really? I thought he was pretty good. I am all for the angle of Kristina being *the one child in Sonny's corner but her cluelessness to his level of criminality does not work. Her character has been well aware of this for years not to mention the whole mob princess reality show storyline they tried to do back in the day. *This is the exact same way Josslyn thinks of Dex and Jason. Why is everyone so outraged that Sonny beat Cyrus who did so many things the year before??? Just because Cyrus was weak and in jail does not lessen that.

Not Joss confiding in Sonny's hitman of nearly 30 years about how Dex "is not the kind of guy that would kill for money", lol. There are other shows on TV that have criminal protagonists yet do not prop them up or excuse their behavior this much.

A massive cast is why I found it hard to follow the history of ATWT as opposed to the smaller and orbit structured cast of Y&R. ( Plus classic ATWT youtube videos artificially full episodes instead of individual story line playlists which also makes the show harder to follow). As others have said, GH does not have a proper timeline for the beginning middle and end of storylines, they start, drop off, Pick back up, and end at random times. It's good that GH is more of an ensemble now than under Guza, but the way they show a structure. Now it's hard to figure out which storylines are central. IMO Bill Bell was the best at storyline structure. His stories had clear starts, climaxes and endings, with great filler to keep things going. Everyone didn't interact with everyone, so there wasn't character connections all over the maps to confuse the viewer.

Stephanie vs Sheila B&B. We often talk about their respective feuds with Lauren and Brooke but this was epic.

This! Even if they don't care genuinely care about black stories, from a business perspective, with Winter's success on y&r, surprisingly other soaps didn't take heed to attract that demo. Trina, Curtis & co are more diversity than GH has in years but their storylines are lacking.

Sean Kenan & Laura Wright as well as Billy Warlock & SJB had some toxic sexual energy the level of Alan & Monica. That would have been a more entertaining pairing than Carly and Drew and the poor attempt at Carly & Jason in 2021. It's amazing that a pairing that had so much behind it to work just fell flat. On paper the Britt story could have worked. Jason finally having a non-Sam romantic lead, only to have to marry Carly. Too bad the writing sucked.

Boy I really needed those explainer scenes between Jason and Carly today! I dipped out of GH around in 2023 because most of the channels that post *high resolution* scenes from daily episodes of GH were taken down. The only two remaining channels exclusively posted Dante and Sam or Spencer and Trina scenes.

This is a testment to how the fans have kept the genre alive through pure dedication and nostalgia despite the the genre's quality erosion and near total collapse. I could feel the nostalgia effect driving change around 2017 when we saw returns of charachters like Sheila Carter & Jason Morga, as well as the relaunch of B&B's classic intros.Y&R's charachter history episodes, holiday classics and pandemic classics were also proof of nostalgia's power in soaps.

Yes! More variety in daytime! Let's hope it's written properly!!!! and let's hope this leads to more soaps...and more diversity on soaps. CBS tends to do well in rural areas so let's hope those audiences support this show as much as black viewers have supported Y&R. Finally a soap (other than Y&R attempts to give one of their biggest demographics leading stories). Not that GH is ratings powerhouse, but I am curious as to which soap will prevail in ratings...but that's getting ahead of ourselves.

The eclipse coverage might have seemed like overkill, but at least it's one uncontroversial event that the entire nation can rally around. This is so needed, especially in the same year as what is bound to be a tumultuous election.

I feel the same way about Byron Allen. Love that we have a successful billionaire black media magnate, but he delivers crap product. His judge shows are cheap and casted with fake actors, and I believe his news stations are just as unfortunate. I don't know how many of you remember but during the 1 month gap between ATWT's ending and The Talk's launch in Sep/Oct 2010, I recall CBS in NYC airing Y&R again at 2pm. I don't recall the episodes looking like classics, they may have been recent reruns. I would like to see classic soaps air during the intermittent period. Even though you can get old episodes of B&B online, It feels like full-blown nostalgia to watch classic episodes live on TV in the afternoon. It recreates the appointment viewing feeling. I still do not think it is a wise idea to llaunchThe Gates as a 1 hour Soap. To those advocating, for 30 minute reboots of ATWT and Guiding Light, I would love that as well. The question is, with so many actors and writers dead/retired, how good would the reboots be?

Just to confirm... does Tyler Perry have no writers at all??? It's a shame that the most powerful black producer/creator in Hollywood delivers a s*it product. His refusal to hire writers and seeming ignorance of how bad his work is is astounding. There are a few Tyler Perry Productions like House of Pane that I enjoy, but others just fall flat. Finally CBS has given up on The Talk!

Yes! From what I saw of 2002, Carly's presumed death, Sonny & Alexis's affair, Carly & Zander's friendship, Alexis's pregnancy and Kristina Sr's death, Brenda's return were all great... Didn't *Sonny also fake his death around that time, and Carly had to meet with the five families (which was repeated in 2021 lol) Damn that's alot of Sonny centered stuff. The sad part was Rick Webber and Laura's destructions. From 2003 Ric and the panic room was good. I'm fuzzy on the rest.

With the news of Ole Orenthal's passing, how much can we attribute the decline of the genre to preemptions during his trial, and the appetite for reality television that the trial began?

Exactly! So many others deserve to go before Ava: Dex, Cyrus, Nina, Willow, Sasha, Curtis, Sam... The problem is they just haven't written properly for Ava. I do agree with the poster who said Frank hires big name actors and keeps them around past their expiration date. His stunt casting with no story trend needs to stop. On Jagger...Does every Gen X leading man have to pass through Carly lol! Sony looks like he hasn't slept in weeks. MB had some serious bags under his eyes today.

Maura West is the antithesis of Kelly Monaco. Kelly delivers her lines in a (currently disinterested) casual/regular conversation way. Maura does an old-school soap campy cadence. Sometimes Maura is brilliant, other times she's cartoonish. But I will take what Maura is giving (drama, enthusiasm, theatrics) over current Kelly any day. Loved her as ATWT's Carly, and I totally see why she was chosen as Y&R's Diane. Had she been given her own character rather than being in the shadow of Susan Walers & Alex Donnelly, her run might have been successful.