Planet Soap

What soap characters do you think should've been paired together? Not just for chemistry purposes but storyline potential. GH: Carly and AJ (Billy Warlock and Sarah Brown or Sean Kenan and Laura Wright) could've been the next Alan and Monica. Bickering, sexual chemistry and complicated history. Y&R: Lauren & Brad, they were each other's equivalent and it would've been interesting how that marriage would've worked out. I think it would've been a more interesting pairing than Brad and Eileen Davidson's Ashley. Jill & Victor (either Brenda Dickson or Jess Walton). That would have been tumultuous and ended explosively.

Soaps need to turn down the lighting alot! Ultra HD is not their friend. I miss the dark and shadowy mood lighting of yesteryear. It set the tone for the show and helped disguise any cheap aesthetics (even though production was A1 back then). Moreover, why are the frames per second slower than usual in some shots? Now that we have Diane back, and this is extremely unlikely, can we revive Drucilla!

Esme gives me better looking Nelle vibes. If they're planning to have her drug or concesually sleep with Nickolas, I'm curious to see it play out. Then again it'd just be Nelle all over again with a new face.

Brenda's 2010 return clothes were off as well. She seems to go for a more nerdy demur look with the glasses and what not these days.

Not. This. Again. One dozen years of wash, rinse, repeat. Is Hope that naive? The woman that smashed your husband just last year isn't a threat to your marriage?

That fire CGI 😬

I'll need to check out 2002 Guiding Light then, I had always assumed the show was half dead by the turn of the millenium but at least it still had a leg to stand on then. 2022: Best, GH: despite it's bloated the cast and subpar writing, it still attempts to make stories interesting Worst, Y&R: poor production value, boring lifeless stories *honorable mention for WORST, B&B- more interesting than Y&R but exteeemly repeditive dialoge, poorly planned--short impact plots that eat the show for months at a time rather than having several well-planned plots run concurrently.

If this is a move to push Chase & Liz I'm not against it.

Brad Bell strikes me as someone who has run out of steam after 30 years on the job. WJB had a sustainable specific vision. But Brad Bell goes to show you that a long term specific vision doesn't always remain great. I do wonder if WJB we're still alive, wether the show would have still suffered the same major writing decline as all soaps have. CBS Daytime remaining #1 -- only God knows how-- has blinded the exces and possibly the cast into believing they're still delivering good product. Nostalgia and loyalty alone are keeping all these soaps alive.

odd to see y&r tackling politics so heavily in this scene, ABC soaps were always adept at this. As i've said before, 2001 was the last of solid y&r. early 06 is when the show started dying and 2012 was the end of the any semblance of quality. Bell had a specific vision and the show died with him. Other soaps have been able to sustain regime changes. Not this one.

You would never know Paul and Lauren were married watching today's show. I was suprised seeing how much of a gentleman/player Paul was in the 80s and early 90s. I think Paul's drif into oblivion started after he got ran over by Phyliss, even moreso by the early 2000s. He and Chris have become a boring old couple. I dont remeber much of Nina's second run the late 00s, but after her first stint that was it for Nina as a leading lady. Her best stories were up until the David Kimble saga ended. After that it was a repeditive triangle with Ryan, Cole and Victoria. She did have some interesting scenes surrounding Ryan and Tricia's affair though.

Best soap of '91 was Y&R: Sheila baby switch, drunk Nikki, David Kimble Best of 1998: Y&R Victor/Nikki/Diane, Kay v Jill over the Chancellor estate, Sharon/Nick/Grace/Cassie drama, Sandra Nelson's Phyliss

Thank goodness Paris got rid of that wig. The show tries too hard to style her uniqely but she ende up looking tacky at times.

is that best or worst?

Best of 93 : OLTL with Marty's rape and Viki/Clint/Sloan/Dorian, leading to the beginnings of the Victor Lord murder trial and eventually the DID debacle. GH was good with Alan/Monica/Rhonda, Sonny & Brenda and Luke & Laura's return. Best of 2002 for me were B&B and OLTL. That was the last solid year for both shows. OLTL: I liked Natalie, Mitch's return, Live week and the dead baby lie, and Lindsay vs Norah. B&B was good with Brooke & Deacon's affair and Sheila's return. 1997 as a whole I'm not to great with. For worst: I know OLTL wasnt too strong around this time as JFP took over l, and ATWT was still in it's mid 90s slump.

Christine being a procecutor and going against Sharon, Victoria, Nikki, and Phyliss for killing JT also didnt help. She used to stabd up for the abused now she's percecuting them. This is similar to Molly on GH procecuting Trina. If Michael Baldwin had he retained his edgyness he would have been a better DA, if they kept him as an outsider charachter.

Choose a particular year and name the best soaps/worst drama on the air at the time based elements like on storyline, visual presentation, writing/directing changes. Best shows of 1995 OLTL-Viki's DID GH: Stone's AIDS, Monica's cancer, Sonny & Brenda, Jason's accident DAYS: Marlena's Posession, Sami etc.

Christine & Michael! What do you guys think about this, and what was the general concensus back then? I think this would be controversial given that he attempted to rape her, reminds me of when OLTL's Todd & Marty almost got together, minus the amnesia.

You know they don't have enough foresight or ability to write like this! (Your idea is much better than what the show did, BTW)

Wow this list is bad! Top 5 easily: 1. Katherine 2 Victor 3 Jill 4 Nikki 5 (someone from the 70s) Lori perhaps. My personal favorites: 1 Victor, 2 Katherine, 3 Sheila, 4 Nikki 5 Malcolm 6 Drucilla

Steve Burton is Jason, even attempting to recast him again would be ineffective. They should have just said Jason was missing not presumed dead after the tunnel collapse.

Well at least they're enjoying the show lol. Ignorance is bliss in a sense, you wouldn't know how terrible the current show is if you haven't watched earlier material. I loved Y&R having began watching in the mid 00, until I realized how much better it was in the 80s and 90s from seeing oldies on youtube.

I sometimes have that "I've-seen-it -already" attitude about rewatching night time soap episodes. But as for daytime, I wouldn't mind rewatching stuff that aired about once 25+ years ago. Given all shows crap state, I wouldn't be so eager to see the new content.

The fans complaining about Diane's return must be newer viewers who aren't too knowledgeable on past history. Might be the same who kept complaining about the show not running new episodes during lockdown.

What are some roles that you think just wouldn't work with a recast? Who comes to mind for me: Susan Flannery as Stephanie Forrester, Eric Braden as Victor Newman, Susan Lucci as Erica Kane. The aforementioned owned their roles to a point it'd be hard to accept anyone else playing that part. (or) Are there any roles that have been recasted that you feel cannot be recasted ever again? My choise: MTS as Nikki Newman, Erika Slezak as Viki Lord, Don Hastings as Bob Hughes. Reasoning: I think all of the previous actors listed were in their roles for far to long, and played their parts too exceptionally for the audience to be accepting of anyone newer in the role.