Planet Soap

Its odd seeing everyone treat Esme with kid gloves as if amnesia erases the impact of what you've done to others. I like Laura but she needs to dial down her compassion and forget idea of Esme being a good mother. Loved Spencer is supporting Cam and that the writers didn't make Cameron do something wrong to facilitate audience acceptance of Joss' cheating. To my surprise and delight there is virtually zero support for Joss in the YouTube comments. The storyline is being recieved as black and white, Joss is wrong, Cam is the victim. This comared to odd support for Esme during the custody battle, plus the support for some of SJB Carly's antics. Finally Liz's mother is revealed after all these years!

AMC: Janet's regression, from the little I saw of it, seems disappointing given the extra lengths they went to redeem her in the 90s. Plus Kate Collins coming back basically undid the charachter's new face. Y&R: I have to agree on Nick/Victoria and Jack. There's literally no hint that that he was their stepfather at all. Jack & Nikki today are lresented as friends but it's not referenced all that much that they were married. As someone saod earlier its most likely because of all the marital partners they've shared.

You'd think Sharon would be a close aunt/unnoficial surrogate mother to them especially since Olivia, Malcolm (and now Neil) isn't around but nope. Tey've just erased any idea that Sharon and Dru were best friends--a friendship that I must say felt random. I've said this before but I dont know what it is about Young and Restless that they are so bad at maintaining past charachter connections and evoking history. They'll take the time to endlessly mention one or two speciffic events like Victor and Nikki's wedding and Katherine's drunken divorce however.

What did you all think of Sunset Beach & Passions? It's really something that all of the big 3 had an area where they struggled. NBC couldn't get daytime right, CBS still can't get morning news right, and ABC (since the late 70s) has had pretty balanced success in daytime, news and primetime. Slightly off topic but the mid to late 2000s was not a great time for NBC as a whole. Tom Brokaw left Nightly News (he had a solid replacement though) Will & Grace, Friends and Frasier ended, Katie Couric left Today (her replacement was also good), Tim Russert died and Meet the Press hasn't recovered since, Jeff Zucker's leadership didn't help either.

Y&R: Paul & Lauren

What is a charachter thats underused (not being given enough story, or not being used to their full potential), or misused (given the wrong storylines or being taken in a direction not best for their charachter). I'll start. UNDERUSED-Justin on B&B. We could have really had a months/years long storyline of Justin trying to take over Spencer Publications. Instead we get him begging for forgiveness after trying to send Liam and Bill to jail? UNDERUSED-Monica GH: all the Q drama going on, yet we havent seen Monica in months on the show! Not even for Thanksgiving. MISUSED- Diane on Y&R 2022. She shouldn't be seeking redemption, she should be stirring things up on this otherwise boring soap.

Definately GH Spencer & Trina, Y&R Nick & Sharon, B&B: Hope/Liam/Steffy, Bridge/Brooke/Taylor

Totally agree.

Actually Tognoni as Victoria would make for much better television than Heinle. She would have to play the role a little less gritty and masculine but more sassy and prissy. Also ironic because Heather Tom replaced Gina as Kelly on OLTL. Truth. Starting at 16:39, Josh lambasted Reeva for intruding on him and Annie at the ball saying she allowed herself to be molested and that she was a slut having slept with numerous men in the room. Josh had such contempt for Reeva, ignoring the fact that her **post partum depression** led her to drive off that bridge. Her diagnosable psycological reason for attempted suicide was never really addressed from what I saw.

Agreed that Y&R's dialouge is flat and doesn't reference the past enough to make charachter conflicts rooted in something. I second that the housewives notion is outdated. Soaps need to look at who is home in the daytime. Yes moms, but also the elderly, unemplyed, night workers, etc. They need to in some way appeal their stores to whatever sexes, racial groups, ages etc, make up those demographics. There is a youth obsession from the networks. However, Gen Z/ Younger Millenials are busy streaming whatever and largely dont give AF about soaps, unless they grew up with a family member who watched it.

Exactly. When I hear Victor or Devon called billionaires I have a hard time feeling it because the show can't really illustrate it based on budget. Modern soaps in a nutshell. Abuse the loyal audience with terrible story lines -- and when they finally change the channel -- blame the change in viewing habits for the cancellation. I'm surprised network heads still interfere so heavily in soap storylines, because it's been proven that the audience will stick around for anything given how s**tty the shows are currently. The appeal of 20th century era soaps was that they did cutting edge material versus what you would get on prime time. Now, almost every show on television is tackling social issues. Would taking soaps deeper in that direction improve things? I'm not sure. Now, people probably watch daytime for it's campy yet intricate and creative long-form storytelling. Even though we've maxed out the camp factor where almost nothing feels shocking anymore, there's a horrid lack of imagination in Y&R's current storylines. It's too realistic and boring. At least B&B (as awful as it is) pushes the camp envelope with Vinny jumping infront of a cliff or Sheila's toe lol! Maybe they need to look to true crime stories, Lifetime movies, or scandals or something to inspire their plots because nothing happens.

Basically the title. Y&R: Jack & Phyliss. Its been done, it's boring now, Michael & Lauren!!!, Nina/Ryan/Victoria/Cole. GH: Sonny & Carly. When they broke up in 07, Inwaited years for a reunion. The poor wiritng since has made them boring and the Nina Nixon falls plot was a disaster.

Y&R: Lightning rod...have mercy...Gina Tognoni's portrayl of Phyliss. I found her to be too hard and rough, like she was trying to oversell Phyliss's edge. Kevin and Clohe, Adam & Chelsea. Never felt either couple. I would rather watch the OG Adam with Sharon. Paul & Christine. They had interesting drama surrounding Michael and Isabella in the early 2000s. That pairing should have ended afterward. Both charachters have been stiff ever since. You'd never realize Paul was a playboy back in his day.

Y&R: Lilly & Cane, Nick & Phyliss Maybe I haven't seen enough of Nick and Phyliss together but I don't get the hype.

Any soap moments/charachters/writers/shows/ couples that don't measure up to the hype? Elaborate.

Exactly. Working through issues or even a separation --but not divorce--gives more weight to relationships. Best cases: GH's Alan and Monica or ATWT's Tom and Margo. Couples built up and really written for with so many years under their belt, that you feel the intensity when things go wrong. I also find it more compelling when couple issues aren't constantly driven by romance. Maybe its the kids or the business, something other than cheating that strains the marriage. (GH's Alan and Monica are a mix of this because they did nothing but cheat, but thats not for this thread lol). But then there is Nick and Sharon. Married a solid decade who endured countless consecutive issues that by the time they finally divorced the pairing felt beaten and exhausted.

Exactly! I have little to no investment in seeing Jack, Ashley, Victoria or even Sharon get married or even be in a relationship because they've all been married or coupled all over the map so many times. The Bold and the Beautiful is a prime example of couple pairings having zero effect because everyone's been with everyone. Writers have to learn that it's okay to have some people be single for a few years instead of romance being the go-to B plot to fill airtime.

GH: Maxie and Nathan were all the rage for a few minutes until Nathan was killed off. Patrick and Sabrina were big back in 2012/13 until Robin came back.

GH is a strange soap. Nefarious people are integrated members of the community. From the attempted humanization of Franco to Oberect, to Sonny being friends with Mayor Laura, and the Jason apologists, the morality is all weird. Josslyn for example was able to look past Sonny's criminal lifestyle until he cheated on her mother? I get having complex characters, but this is all mixed up. What's even worse are moral high ground women like Robin who excuses them, or like Alexis who still ended up having a child by Sonny.

As this year marks 20 years since the panic room storyline, question: how was Ric a functioning charachter after imprisoning a pregnant Carly and slipping Elizabeth birth control? How did he not go to jail or how was he not killed? He was able to become a detective (or was it police commissioner) and was able to marry Alexis.

Speaking of quads and triangles, I know we established the Bell wasn't big on supercouples. Outside of that, the couple pairings on the show lacked the power of say ABC daytime pairings. It seemed like charachters just hopped from one to the next after about a year or so. Only a handful of relationships like Neil and Dru or Victor and Nilki really had much impact.

Sonny is no longer the lead. His grasp began slipping with the new regime in 2012, even moreso since Jason returned in 2017. SJB to me was the best Carly because it felt like you were watching an actual trasy and bratty sociopathic b**ch on one of those WeTv/Zeus reality shows. She had a masculine edge --her muscularity added to this-- yet the feminine vulnerability of a delinquent teenage girl. She sold the performance so well. Tamera Braun was the petualnt diva pampered mob wife who was down to wear the ill gotten fur coat and tell off the cops for her man. Laura is a balance. In the beginning Wright was very snotty like SJB, especially toward Robin. Wright also had Tamera's pampered wife image with Jax. Laura has her own spin which is a boss lady career woman making her own money. The boldness she showed during the metro court crisis displayed that. To me, SJB had the best sexual chemistry with Jason. Tamera had the best chemistry with Sonny. Writght had the best friendship with Jason and the most sexual chemistry with AJ. Despite how we may feel about Laura at times, GH did a good job at poaching her from Guiding Light to clean up the Jennifer Bransford miscast and fill Braun's void.

Shows don't make me cry but those moments were very impactful. Remembering the ferocious Katherine of the 80s made it all the more difficult to see her looking so weak. But she went out in the most dignified way! Stephanie's lung cancer scenes where she was sick and coughing were so realistic, sad, and graphic in a way. Knowing that cancer is a very real way to die rather than some soap melo drama made it hit even harder.

Great promo for the 60th! even though CVS promotes it's soaps more, I have a feeling GH's 60th will be done better than Y&R's 50th. We could get Faces of the Heart back for the 60th like B&B brought back the 80s headshots for their 35th, that would be amazing. I'll keep dreaming though!

This is what soaps today lack the ability to do. Mini stories sandwiched in the main plot, so that it doesn't feel like the main plant is being endlessly prolonged. For example, while we waited for Bobbie to find out Carly was her daughter, we got the Tony/Carly affair plot, Michael's paternity, and Jason/Robin's breakup inbetween. From that story was a springbord into Carly hiding AJ as Michael's natural father which also launched the Tony kidnapping and marriage to AJ stories. Today its just repeated dialouge and excessive complications that drag.