Planet Soap

GH had fantastic warm lighting and soft focus effects like nightime scenes by the docks back in the 90s! Just like AMC and OLTL the show really looked washed out and grainy by the mid 2000s. At least AMC improved aesthetically after switiching to HD and moving to LA. Today's GH has the best sets in daytime but suffers from harshly bright lighting which further cheapens it's visuals. Agreed. Almost every 90s Y&R charachter spoke in proper diction with no variation in speech. Whenever the (most likely white) writers tried to pen slang for the Winters crew, it sounded awkward.

Critical clips from OG Matt Clark story are back up on YT again. Cool to see Nick interact with Hope and late era Douglas! Douglas never got a proper send off. No call from abroad even to say that the charachter died. Y&R was alwas so strange in that way. A constatt feature in the shows just fades away never to be heard from again (Mamie, Douglas, John Silva, Lynn, Carroll, Paul's parents). Good to see when Victor was a quasi good father and Nick looked up to him. Matt Clark & Victor's shootings were probably the strongest stories during the 94-96 slump.

Agreed. They tried t make him Luke. It's clear the the writers hated the Quartermaines for no reason but they had something against the Spencers too. The destruction of Luke & Laura, followed by the distruction of Lucky and Liz, Jake's death, Lucky's pill addiction, coupled with the nihlistic attitudes of Luke and Lucky were all nails in the coffin. Add the Fluke/Bill mess under Frank and the Spencers were broken. The only long running non Cornithos family to survived the last two regimes seems to be the Cassedines. SB: If only Cameron read Joss for filth the way Lucky did to Liz!

OLTL closing 1972

Wow that's relatively early in the show's run. I can only imagine what kind of stories or scenes Emily McLaughlin could have gotten under the Riche era had she lived loger. I liked some of the humanist material she gave the older actors like Edward, Lila, Steve and Audrey.

Definately alot of history there! At what point did Steve, Audrey and Jessie stop getting consistent stories?

I agree with you.

This! 90s Guiding Light felt like a big/medium city more .than small town It reverted to even smaller town with the new production model. One category I'd like to meditate on is the multi faceted soap. Dramas with a wide variety of plot themes. GH, DAYS, OLTL, ATWT and somewhat GL. Those shows had a consistent mix of action adventure, romance, business, medical, crime, mystery, sci fi and occasionally supernatural stories. Other soaps like Y&R, B&B and AMC all dabbled in different kinds of stories over the years but largely stuck to romance and business.

How did you all feel about the Lucky, Liz, Nick, Aiden paternity drama? I dislike the destruction that it caused to the Lucky and Liz that was built up so much in the late 90s. GOOD-GH: AJ is Alan's son not Rick's, a confusion caused by "Bombay Phenotype Syndrome". The reveal at the party and the satisfaction that came from Lesley slapping Monica was an epic climax. 1979-1983 Alan and Monica were on fire. At their most toxic, vicious and comically entertaining. The story also displayed Leslie's sheer class and dignity, a trait passed down to Laura.

Josh Griffith think's he's Tyler Perry, writing everything solo. Y&R for better and worse is a show that could only function under one vision: Bill Bell. I have not seen another soap completely collapse without a single period of recovery once it's brain left. Y&R has not had once uptick in quality since WJB's death, it's been a straight decline. No matter how many EP'S and HW'S have passed through the revolving door the show remains in a crap state. So longs as the show holds onto the #1 spot, CBS will assume the show is doing something right. You know it's bad when GH is now the best produced soap on the air.

I meeeean the writers weren't doing a good job, but Griffith is pretty incabale so he needed to go too. Dare I say it but what is Ron Carlivati up to👀👀👀👀👀. Not the best but that dead show needs something to shake things up.

Just remembered this scene. Luke, Laura and Lucky are staying at Bobbie's house due to broken heating. Bobbie tells Lucas and Lucky to stop eating under the table to which Laura interjects that Lucky isn't hurting anyone so what he's doing is fine. Such a great scene because it takes an average domestic moment like disciplining children and turns it into a conversation analyzing the historic tensions between Laura and Bobbie, and L&L's undomesticated lifestyle. To me, Laura & Luke are completely wrong. Laura should allow Lucky's aunt to render some discipline and be able to set boundaries in her own house--especially if her son is following Lucky's behavior. This is what the 90s GH had, deep charachter driven conversation even when nothing plot significant was occurring. You also have characters with layers to the relationship. Bobbie and Laura get along more now, but still have some underlying tension from the 70s.

One way to avoid these dense offscreen backstories for every new charachter is to stop trying to tie them to the existing canvas. Sometimes making them related to someone works. Best example: Carly. However her backstory was relatively simple: Bobbie is my mother who gave me up for adoption, I'm hiding my identity by using my best friend's name. Everything else that made today's charachter played out onscreen. I don't mind tying Trina to Taggert especially because GH lacks a black family let alone any family of color. In other cases like Franco, it becomes confusing. I know this is a soap but GH has had way too many paternity/maternity reveals and switches going on in the Frank era. We have Esme and Willow's parental histories playing out simultaneously. Sometimes the confusion further compounds when writers RETCON what happened offscreen.

Again, a huge issue with today's GH are charachters with loaded backstories that didn't play out on screen.

Both Portia and Curtis are at fault for carrying on an extra marrital affair, but moreso Portia because she was the one married. Yes, Curtis should have did the conception math but Portia should've obtained a DNA test given her suspicions to avoid this 20 year blow up. Curits did have a right to get to know a child that was his (if it's his). Plus, did Portia know about Curtis' troubled background before messing around with him? If so, it was crazy not using potection (both of them are at fault for this) while cheating with someone caughtup with drugs/illegal actvities.

As for the evolution of the show: Regis & Kathy Lee had a good friends/mature married couple rapport. Regis & Kelly had an older man hot young trophy wife vibe. Kelly & Michael had a burly footballer petite wife chemistry going. Ryan & Kelly had a more goofy brother sister energy. We can already tell what the dynamic with Mark & Kelly will be, let's see if the audience responds well to Mark full time.

If her POV is the whole story, she should vocalize this more because Regis and the narrative around Michael present Kelly as being bitter that they left her. I like Ripa, I just find her to be too overly worshiping of some celebrity guests some of which feels fake.

Unexected but not surpsing given how busy Seacrest is. Mark is a solid choice. I suppose Kelly didn't want to go through months of guest hosts and the audience is already used Consuelos. Hopefully the saying about working with your spouce doesn't happen here -- but they all ready worked together on All My Children. I expected Kelly to leave before Ryan, in that case Maria Menunos would have been a solid replacement. As for the future of the show, (this was tried already) but Michael Strahan, Sarah Haines and Keke Palmer were good together. I believe their show didn't work out because GMA 3 was an unkown show duplicating a saturated format. LIVE on the other hand has an established brand and maybe the trio --or Michael and one of the two ladies-- would work. But please keep LIVE going rather than replacing it with GMA 3.

Interesting answer she gave regarding Eric Braden (at 54:40). Speaking of Robin and Dorian, how lovingly she spoke of Victor in the 1977 episode, makes it hard to believe she covered up Victor being a child molester for all those years.

Post got me thinking. To continue to tie the show to the hospital, the default occupation for any new charachter could have been hospital related unless story dictated otherwise

GH/Guiding Light: big city action adventure soap; Guiding light has more of a small community feel OLTL- urban soap, dark campy storylines, touches of comedy ATWT- conservative, multi generational community based soap AMC- community based, multi income diverse soap, social issue oriented B&B: trashy tabloid scandals surrounding rich glamorous people Y&R: glamour, dark, moody, charachter driven, little comic relief; business executive focused, more individualistic than community DAYS: high camp, reality bending stories with a touch of supernatural

Steffy could just tell Douglas he can't live with her to keep him safe from her mess with Sheila.

My list based on most impactful: 1 Victor 2 Katherine 3 Nikki 4 Jill 5 Jack 6 Drucilla 7 Ashley 8 Christine 9 Lorie 10 Sharon Bonus: Nick

OLTL Plot hole: Mitch says he gave his baby to Viki to grow up in luxury and gave Clint's baby to Walter & Roxy in 1986. How could Mitch have known which newborn twin was his vs Clint's without a blood test???

It's telling that the two most reality grounded soaps, Y&R and B&B, have remained on top.