Planet Soap

Finally took the time to watch the mardevil storyline, heard about it for years but never really got to watch it till I discovered 1995 DAYS episodes on youtube. Do you all think Corday should have green lit this?

The least I could say is that it was fun to watch and probably would have been 10x more outrageous had it been done on Passions! But Im sure Rielly's storyline further eroded soap's credibility and exacerbated the negative perception of soaps as being utterly rediculous. 

I really don't want to see GH cancelled but...it needs new characters, a massive cast dismissal and a better writer. But that's asking for "too much" of ABC so never mind. It's sad that soaps have been lackluster for so long now but we can't stop watching them out of sheer nostalgia and audience loyalty. Please, is there anything that can make soaps better at this point? I hope there is!

I see GH released another classic episode collection on abc's website. Would it kill Y&R  to give the fans a little something? Something along the lines of a 45 episode online collection for their anniverary would have been cool like GH had on SOAPnet for their 50th. It is what it is at this point I suppose. 

I really enjoyed dark lighting and the ornate camera movements y&r used to have. It realy set the shadowy and dramatic tone for the show.  

13 hours ago, OldGHFan said:

 

I'm trying to think of something nice to say about this.  I can't.

 

LOL! Despite my griviances against Maurice's current acting and the forced push to see Sonny and Jason as family men, I do appretiate that GH isn't hesistant to refer to history and make classic  (not really classic in this case) episodes avalible. CBS Soaps dont do that any more. I wish Y&R or B&B would release or replay classic episodes, or atleast stop blocking youtubers from uploading classic scenes. 

Surprised they didn't include Carly falling down the stairs, Kristina's birth/Sam's miscarriage fiasco, Claudia's car accident/miscarriage.....Jesus it's really time Sonny consider a vasectomy. 

On 8/27/2019 at 10:55 PM, Vizion said:

Yep all the time. 

 

Y&R - It ebbs and flows. There is a lot of nonsensical crap that happened on that show after 2005 that I just flat out ignore. 

 

B&B - I don't pay attention to anything that happened after 2001/2002. Once Bill Bell got sick and was no longer involved in the show, the show went to hell. It was an obvious and rapid decline. I'm not really concerned about any plot points that happened after that. I just kind of pretend it was cancelled after Sheila went to jail. Shrugs.

 

GL - Was the show still on the air after 2007? I like to pretend it wasn't. I also don't acknowledge any of the San Cristohell mess 

Straight facts!

Currently GH appears to be pulling things out of no where such as Drew being Jason's twin or Franco being Scott's son. OLTL kept inventing things from David Vikers being Asa's son to Mitch fathering Jessica. 

Guza and Phelps destroyed the show, but that show was far more interesting than Valentini's. Valentini could not pull off metro court, the panic room, pch fire etc..  The only positive to the latter is the attempt to showcase veteran actors like Bobbie, Scott, Felicia and so on and the 50th anniversary hype  All in all Riche & Monty 1.0 were the prime eras of the show 

19 minutes ago, Antoyne said:

One thing I don’t miss at all about this show is MB’s “acting.” It’s laughsble that he’s still getting a paycheck.

The last "riveting" scene I can recall from Maurice Bernard was when Sonny confronted Claudia at the birthday party about shooting Michael waaay back in 2009. 

11 hours ago, Bright Eyes said:

I saw a recent clip of Maurice Benard as Sonny. He takes 5 years just to get one word out. How excruciatingly painful to sit through.

Him and Kelly Monaco appear to have absolutely no energy left in their performances. Likewise, Sam was supposed to be this PI/Spy yet Jason had to rescue her multiple times? What's the deal with Jason. I know he's supposed to be the all knowing good guy (who's a bad guy because he's a criminal) but give him some energy, an actual story line instead of being bland, supportive, and passive. And what was the point in Sonny having yet another child? IDK at this point. 

On 9/1/2019 at 10:37 PM, Vizion said:

Oh that's from B&B, the terrible years. 

 

I have to say, Flannery is Flannery and they obviously let her do what she wanted but I kind of hated the change in Stephanie's attire and overall lack of care given to her appearance after a certain period. The clothes, the hair, all of it felt very out of character. I think again most of it was the show doing whatever it could to make Flannery happy so she wouldn't quit that crapfest earlier than she did but still....

 

In the same vein, they also started letting Ridge morph into Ronn Moss with all the ugly scarves and that nonsense. 

I noticed this too! Somewhere after 1998ish it seemed Stephanie stopped trying to be the glamorous self she was earlier on. I grew up with gray haircut Stephanie but when I saw what she looked like in the late 80s-mid 90s on youtube I was surprised it was the same person!

To a certain extent the problem with Stephanie & Katherine Chancellor on Y&R is that they became too obsessed with the life of their nemesis...Brooke/Jill. It was fun to watch but slightly pathetic after a while. At least with Stephanie Brooke's endless hoeing gave fuel for Stephanie's constant vitriol. But with Katherine the constant martyring of Phillip for YEARS was questionable given that she drove him away and killed him, plus Rex Sterling was a waaay better husband...but that's for the Y&R thread lol. 

Aside from what Stephanie became the show isn't worth watching at all without her! 

Amen! The mere fact that the farmhouse scenes stretched a full week was a testament to their abilities back then. Soaps cannot write like this anymore, stretch out a story line for 3-5 years and keep it interesting without feeling the bore of endless prolongation.

Really hope the reboot rumors are true because OLTL was the best! When would you all consider the last great era for OLTL? I liked the 70s, 92-96, and 01-02 especially. 1996 was the cut off point for prime quality OLTL for me. I will say that the Tomlin era had great momentum with Live Week, Todd/Blair, Norah & Lindsay, moreover though  Ron C/ Frank V years really eroded the show's quality, OLTL managed  stay action packed right up till the 2012 finalie. 

I second what someone said earlier...I prefer Brenda Epperson as Ashley. Likewise, I'm surprised Amelia H. has lasted so long as Victoria. Heather Tom had a strong energy, but it seemed they somewhere along the line the writers didn't know what to do with her and post David Kimble Nina. The Cole/Ryan debacle dragged on for a while. Also not feeling Jason Thompson as the current Billy. Billy Miller or David Tom were the best in that role, IMO. 

From the clips and episodes posted it does seem that Y&R lost steam between 1994-1996 but really picked back up around 97-98 and kept that strong momentum going till about 2001. The Billy/Mac teen seen, Tricia, The Winters, Nikki vs Diane were all great during that era.

Similarly, B&B cooled down around 95 but got good again from 98-02. 

Unfortunately the Brandon Densen YouTube channel finnaly got shut down. He had over 50 y&r clips spanning 1998-2001. Idk if someone had an email of his or something to get him to post his videos directly to this thread?

SB: Why is Sony so stingy with copyright? They hardly ever re-air classic episodes, so why the fuss about posting clips to YouTube. Would they rather years of classic episodes sit in the vaults and rot? Meanwhile one can pull up abc soaps and the the p&g CBS soaps like nothing.

I'm surprised Sheila never made it into the Y&R opening sequence in the 90s or 2005. If Lynn, Esther and Carroll could make it in, surely a major character like Sheila could have. At least she had a beauty shot in the B&B opener.

Speaking of Josh & Reva, powerful scene from 1996. Still stunned at some of what Josh said to Reva in public!

On many ranker lists including a 20/20 people magazine special years ago, I see GH hailed as the greatest soap of all time. Curious as to which soap you all would consider the GOAT.

imo ranking  all the final soaps (though I like them all): 

1 GH

2 Y&R

3 ATWT

4 OLTL (4/5th place debateable)

5 AMC (4/5th place debatable)

6 GL

7 DAYS

8 B&B

(Passions)

Y&R was on fire during this era! 

The clip and a few episodes recently posted really go back to the previous discussion of how separated the characters are on the show. Phyllis who'd been in town since '94 apparently meets Jill for the first time in 2000. Likewise during the Kay/Jill attic fight episode, I believe Victor learns Michael sexually harassed Christine a whole five years after the fact. Even in a 2005 episode uploaded, Michael was just finding out about Lauren & Sheila even though he was in town during major portions of those story lines. The separation element was cool and unique though. 

6 hours ago, ChickenNuggetz92 said:

 

I personally feel like while Sheila's 2005 storyline was executed well, it was very cartoonish in the writing itself. It just didn't make sense that all of a sudden she would redevelop an obsession over Scotty while most of her life before then was around raising Mary/Erica whilst supposedly raising Massimo's baby. And Sheila during her 90s run on Bold sort of humanized her in a way while raising hell. 2002 was mildly cartoonish, but the context of where the story came from at least made sense.

If Kimberlin ever comes back I think she would be better utilized on Y&R, minus the campy cartoon aspect and more of the character development she got on B&B. A person "on edge" who could function as a long-term character like Lindsay on OLTL, rather than a constantly revived supervillain who only appears in stints like James Stenbeck or Mitch Lawrence. 

For me, Sheila's grandest storylines were on Y&R while her best character development was on B&B.

One could only imagine if Sheila and Victor crossed paths what storyline we could have gotten! (Given only if Bill Bell wrote it).

Watching the 2007 episodes recenly posted. I finally got to see how the whole Pheila fiasco played out....God have mercy,  who allowed this to air? Michelle Stafford---love her as Phyliss, pre overacting---was cringeworthy as "Sheila". At the very least Brad Bell basically erased that trash when Kimberlin returned to B&B in 2017 (that storyline within itself was another problem, but at least we got real Sheila back). 

Overall, Sheila had decent storyline up to 2002, and her 2005 plot was decent. 

Great to finally see more Eva Longoria content with the 2003 episodes. Had to grin at the rediculous amount of times  they made Cricket & Lauren face off with a deranged character. Lauren alone dealt with Shawn, Sheila, Sarah, Kevin, Rush?, Tom Fisher, Daisy/Ryder, even Carmine. Not to mention Christine dealing with Derek, David Kimble, Michael, Phyliss, Isabella, etc... Lol, the writers just unloaded on them.

Thankyou!!!!!!

18 hours ago, DeeeDee said:

Y&R's last classic year was 2003.

 

Y&R had an INCREDIBLE run from 98 to the summer of 03 but the autumn & winter of that year is when the trouble really began.

 

And it's been downhill ever since.

Agreed. The show was at least good until 05, somewhat decent up to 06/07ish, and bareley watchable up to 2012. Anything after Jill Pharen Phelps took over has been unwatchable.

I loved 89-93 for the great storlines and 95 to about 01 especially  for the aestetics. The show had their lighting, directing and background music formula down pat! 

The early 2000s in general seems to be the cut off point for quality where soaps are concerned. 

does someone have the episode or scenes where kay and jill find out they're  mother and daughter? or any portion ofthe Veronica Landers storyline? 

Its striking to think of Brenda Epperson and Eileen Davison's Ashley as the same charachter. As Im sure someone said before I couldn't imagine Brenda Epperson's version fighting with Victoria over cole or involved in the sperm fiasco.  Brenda's bersion was nice, calm, classy and well put together (aside from the Blade/Rick aftermath).

Eileen's was more---for lack ofa better term---posessive of that "vixen like " quality. Overall, loved both actreses in the role. SB: Brenda was and still is STUNNING. Eileen more so after her 1999 return