Planet Soap

That makes sense @j swift With Gene Francis supposed to return soon, it has me wondering why there constantly seems to be issues with her staying around long term. Laura's the most iconic female charachter in GH history but always appears to be in an on and off capacity. I understand in the 80s, 90s, and 2002 there was some behind the scenes drama that lead to her various departures. I would think the show leadership would try to do better by the charachter and actress that helped put them on the map.

As much as I don't like Peter that much either, without him a decent bit of characters would have no story right now, lol. We keep getting these yearly supervillains involved in some sort of umbrella plot. Victor Cassedine a few years ago, Shiloh, Cyrus, now Peter.

Y&R: Tracey Bregman's pregnancy in 1991 gave us the Lauren/Sheila baby switch, one of the greatest plots of all time. It went on the after nearly 15 years of story material.

She used to help eat the show when she was attached to Sonny/Carly/Jason, now she's sort of on the back burner w/o Jason.

GH: Britt- Im surprised that's she's still around after nearly 10 years minus a few stints. Jax-When I realized Jax was on the show from about the 90s straight till 2010/11 I was surprised. I thought he at least left and came back a couple times, because I had no idea what he was doing in that period between Brenda leaving him and him getting with Carly. Y&R: Amelia Heinle as Victoria-I know this is about characters and not actors but I'm baffled she's gone 16 years as a dry lifeless version of Victoria. She'd be better as her own charachter not sassy girl Heather Tom played.

I did sense some sort of teen pregnancy plot coming. If it were Esme though that would be too reminiscent of Nelle. Maybe they could age Jake since he's supposed to be older than Josslyn.

Thinking about it, how is Jason this tactical super soldier when pre accident he was a goody two shoes med student? So greatful for the 60s and 70s GH episodes! Is anyone else having trouble playing the 1971 episode on archive.org?

Lmao at Spencer wondering if Cam and Joss smashed yet!

GH- none of Sonny's children, minus Dante, look like they have any ounce of Latino in them.

GH - killing off Jake and making Luke the drunk driver. Absolutely no benefit came from that story, and then it was undone. Worse yet, Lucky and Liz were epically what upon when JJ returned to the role. OLTL- Killing off Jared and Nash. OLTL- making Mitch Jessica's dad and suggesting Viki let Mitch take Natalie away. It further destroyed Viki's character through her alters.

Sam and Molly on GH look alike (Not related) but Willow and Ana Devane loon alike

The Kendall being Tom's daughter idea isn't bad @Lust4Life76 Big risk: OLTL - Natalie being Viki's daughter. She was a decent addition to the canvas. What didn't work for me, the implication that Mitch was Jessica's daughter, and the further degredation of Viki's character. GH: Recasting Carly with Tamera Braun and Laura Wright. Filling Sarah Brown's shoes after her departure was a huge task but those two ladies were solid choices, Tamera especially. It especially paid off for Laura because she went from TGL --which got cancelled just 4 years later -- to literally being the top female lead on GH.

MarDevil 2021 just further lowered the respect of soaps as a genre to non fans. I'll still tune in tho😂 Also, the background lighting is really blue.

I'm surprised at how soft Donna is dealing with Quinn.

I don't think any of Y&R's risky deaths had any payoffs in the last 20 years: Ryan, Brad, Drucilla, Colleen, Cassie, Delia, John. I don't To go back further not even killing Rex did anything for the show. Worse yet, Y&R poorly invested in any children born on the show (after about the mid 90s) going on to impact story in a major capacity. So killing Colleen and Cassie was wasted potential of the next generation of characters.

Plastic aside, Donna looked good in Friday's episode. I suppose Dinna and Erif would work. If anything I believe Eric belongs with his female equivalent--Brooke. Ridge belongs with Taylor and Stephanie deserved someone more solid like Massimo perhaps.

OLTL Viki's DID revisitation in the 90s, GH- giving Jason brain damage.Taking the Quartermaine golden boy into a brain damaged gangster. It went on to establish the next 25+ years of story. AMC - Re writing history and making Kendall Erica's daughter. It set up years of story with the fantastic Sarah Michelle Gellar. DAYS- recasting Wayne Northrup with Drake H. as Roman, then bringing back Wayne. It lead up years of tension especially the John & Marlena story which created evil Sammy!

The contrast between the two Drew actors reminds me of TSJ's portrayal of Todd on OLTL. TSJ was animated in the beginning (maybe he was trying to imitate Roger Howarth) then got more monotone and stoic as time went on. Billy Miller appeared to have been trying to imitate Steve Burton by being emotionless. I like that Cameron's Drew on the other hand has more personality. I'm seeing shades of Ryan Lavery. Perhaps he can even bring some life back into Kelly Monaco's acting?

I don't mind the mob stuff but it's better when balanced. The mob plots had more human impact in the 90s such as when those men came to shoot up Luke & Laura's house. The JFP era didn't give the mob plots as much humanity but it had better action than now. Faith Roscoe, Alcazar, Manny Ruiz, Claudia, and Jerry Jax were more powerful adversaries than Julian Jerome, Carlos, and Cyrus. The mob stuff also gives GH a bit of a "masculine" appeal, as a balance to the romance plots.

Agreed!

Someone mentioned a soap that doesn't take itself seriously. I think Gary Tomlin era OLTL mastered this from around 2000-2002. The live week stuff and Asa taking his death, Nikki Smith, Roxi stuff has serious and comedic elements to them, even is there were some crappy fluff stories. But back to DAYS...

Spencer's h*eing had me dead🤣 Telling Trina how much he wants her while still smashing Esme (who he can't stand)! I like the direction they're going in with Esme manipulating Cameron, angering Joss.

As cringe as some of those scenes could be, Erika did her thing in 1995. The DID plot was perhaps Viki's last powerful storyline for a few years there (dare I say one of her greatest) and it was fun to see her transition between characters. Leslie Charleson is underrated as Monica, and definately gave a more grounded performance on a more realistic storyline. Unpopular opinion: Knots Landing was better than Dallas. I wrestle with which of those two night time soaps deserve the top spot. At the very least, Knots Landing was better than Dallas after Jock's death.

I get that Sonny has a sordid history and deserves his comeuppance but why is everyone making excuses for Nina? They need to stop making Ava so soft, she's a whole murderer. Does Spencer not know this? It was good to see her act hard towards him today. It would be nice if Phyliss took over Kelly's and became a Ruby type figure.

Cool! I'm surprised she never made it into the Y&R opening back during her first run.