Planet Soap

Best feuds: B&B: Stephanie vs Sheila: much is made about Steph's feud with Brooke and Sally, but Sheila was her most formidable opponent. It was the only person I ever saw Stephanie be afraid of. By 1998 Stephanie was clearly intimidated by the crazy woman when she threatened Thomas and shot her to take baby Mary. (Forgot I posted that already) Y&R: Kay vs Jill: enough said. This drove 40 years of story. Y&R: Nikki vs Diane: their fued drove story from 1997-2002: everything from Victor's marriage, to the vasectomy, to the Veronica Landers shooting, to sperm gate. OLTL: Viki vs Dorian...enough said. So much back history and RETCONS all revolving around the all consuming ghost of Victor Lord GL: Reva vs Annie: loved Annie's crazy antics. GH: Alan vs Monica: these who may have been married, but they were their best opponents. Their toxic yet loving marriage was great television and comic relief. ATWT: Kim vs Susan: Susan's affair with Bob in 1990 drew me in, it was very compelling to see an upstanding Mid-America do good or character cheat on his wife. But it's even more interesting to learn that both Bob and Kim were cheaters, and the feud goes back further.

exactly, I'm only supporting this for the sake of keeping the genre alive. Otherwise B&B is well overdue for cancellation based on writing. For the love of God, get rid of Brad Bell, bring in a new writing regime, and remove Liam, Hope, Steffy as core characters. Please find something else for Brooke, Taylor and Ridge to do other than an endless triad. The sad part is a 30 minute episode of B&B --as trash as it is -- wi keep me awake longer than a full hour of Y&R. The latter is so slow and dry.

SMH! I haven't watched Y&R so I can't speak to how prominent they are making their black characters. At the very least the bold and the beautiful is prominently featuring some Asian cast members, with an Asian villain.

So Kristina is a mechanic now eh? I hated Molly reaching out to repair the bond first, further allowing Christina to skirt responsibility. Kristina was remarkably restrained after discovering Ava not helping Sonny. I expected her to explode more than that, especially since her next move was to kill Ava. That scene reminded me of Tracy and Edward in the 70s. Good to see Stephen A Smith took a pause from his beef with LeBron to make an appearance on GH lol! Sasha taking up for Sidwell was just embarrassing. Kirsten storms looks fantastic. Maybe it's because I don't watch any of her scenes when I browse through online , but it seems like she lost the weight overnight!

B&B and Y&R have been begging for cancellation with the quality of storylines they've put out in the past few years. I think The Edge of Night has been off the air too long to work as a revival. Maybe the niche core fan base is still string, but I'm not sure the wider populous of soap audience is that familiar with it. To me me, AMC and OLTL are the best options for revival. they seem to be mentioned much more in layman circles than ATWT or GL. But again, despite our rebbo era, a lot of of the writers and actors who made cancelled soaps special are dead. Reviving some of these soaps would essentially be name recognition only. Maybe it's time to just make new soaps and build a new generation of fans, and characters. This is a premature question, and I don't want to jinx anything, but how long do we predict Beyond the Gates stays on the air?

Agreed. Y&R is the least interesting soap on the air right now. How it remains #1 is a testament to audience loyalty. I'm surprised she lasted this long. At this point I would like to see Amelia and Heather Tom swap roles. Amelia can pull off a kind and timid character like B&B's Katie, we need Heather's boldness back in Victoria. I can accept the Jess Walton and Peter Bergman recasts but I have never felt Amelia Heinle as Victoria.

I knew that would be a controversial pick. To me Dante hasn't added any value since he returned was with Sam. Regarding Sam, I never wanted a long-term character like her to be killed off, I would've preferred they either gave her some storyline, Kelly Monaco acted better, or they recasted her role. They could've even written her off the canvas and brought her back in a few years with refreshed ideas.

In addition characters like Shiloh, Esme, Sam, Dante, Drew, Cyrus remained way past their expiration dates.

I agree with the comments about Jason's lack of story. The last time Jason was interesting is when he was with Brit. While I liked the idea of having a marriage to Carly drive a wedge in their relationship, it was poorly executed. I don't think Steve Burton should be fired however. It's clear Maurice Bernard has given up on acting for years now. The last time I was riveted by his acting was at Claudia's birthday party in 2009! Maybe have Jason step up and be the head of the organization while Sonny takes a backseat? Maybe bring back tension between Sonnny & Jason and make them rival organization heads? IDK something other than Jason is an easy going, all knowing, all comforting protector. It's clear their next move is to pair him with Sasha to add some drama.

I was tempted to say Brennan was Australian but from years of mistakenly believing Finola Hughes was Australian, I said maybe not.

So is Brennan not European anymore? It's always odd when accents get dropped or added with recasting. Biggest example, acting like Ridge on B&B doesn't have a European accent, after the recast. Joan Collins having a British accent taking over his Alexandra Spalding kind of works because she's supposed to be a grande character. Recasts aside, there is Victor Newman. He clearly has a German accent but we're acting like he was born in America lol. Anyway, back to GH

I was going to say It would be cool to see some income diversity which is a-typical of soaps today, but you make a good point. The family is very large and we could do with certain characters split off or eliminated.

Came here to say the same. Model minority representation might've been more critical in the days of the Cosby Show (which I loved) when we had less black programs on TV. But today where there are a whole swath, I think we have the space and freedom to show imperfect black characters. If everyone on the show was a great human being, as to positively represent black people, it wouldn't be compelling television. In soaps we have so few black characters and leads I get why positive representation matters. Moreover I get that flawed white characters don't have the same representation pressures because they're a part of the majority/ in-power group. But again, I refer to my point above.

Been saying this should be airing on BET. SON says limited run but this should be for good.

His promos were funny and the best. ABC's Love in the Afternoon aside, CBS had the best promos from the late 80s to early 00s! I agree. Brenda Epperson's Ashley feels way more put together than Eileen Davidsons more messy character. I could not see Brenda Epperson stealing sperm and hiding paternity amid a cancer diagnosis. The only similarity I saw between portrayals is when Brenda's Ashley went crazy after the Blade/Rick reveal.

Agreed that We need a competing Grand Dame for Anita. Based on the promos, and without reading the description, I thought that's what Nicole was going to be.

I'll put this here instead since discussion is shifting to March. A little laugh to hold us over until tomorrow😂

BTG was mentioned on SNL. They said this is the white version of the show lol:

i know.... It's a compliment to how young she looks😁

Friday was good. Loved the cliffhangers. New Dollar Bill is a great villain. His mistress is puzzling though. Does she really expect everyone to have sympathy for her or is this just an act? I got flashes of Katherine Chancellor when Dani begged for Bill to stay with her. But then she turned into Stephanie Forrester: she knows her man is no good, and won't hesitate to call him out, but she still wants him. As the old saying goes: Don't let a man tell you he doesn't want you more than once. Even Bill *the master gas lighter* told her to have some pride. I'm still puzzled as to why the entire family went to that wedding. Kara Mosley looks so young, Nowhere near her 40s, so it was surprising to see Dani with full blown grown children. Speaking of great black villains I would love to see the Rj Gannon actor make an appearance on BTG.

I agree.

@te. I agree and I think your assment was fair. It is the first new soap in a quarter century so people are understandably protective of this going well --- especially amid all the undue hate the show gets. It's OK for some people to say was one of the greatest first weeks ever and it's also OK to say think that viewpoint is an exaguration. As long as contrasting options are delivered fairly and respectfully and not dismissive of others, I'm okay😄 Again, Im a huge cheerleader for BTG, but I think it's fair to express what's working/not working from one's POV.

I just don't see that. BTG's intro was okay. I'm torn on this subject. Cancelled soaps coming back is an understandable thought in this era of reboots. On the other hand old soaps have long-established plot lines and characters and new audiences may not be able to keep up with all of the past exposition (assuming Soap audiences are growing, and it's not just the niche crowd who still watches). Moreover, several of the actors and producers who made the soaps great have died. Nothing lasts forever, even the greatest soaps grow stale after 30+ years. Perhaps the best move is to start new soaps like BTG. I read that Sheila was sent to B&B for that exact reason, because she had gone to far on Y&R to remain on canvas. IIRC Bell also was adamant about villains paying.

Name in the credits, Kurth Farquhar, Instantly recognized him from The Parkers and other UPN sitcoms. I can definitely hear his early 2000s influence in that closing theme. Agree. When I say slow, I mean a new soap needed to start big with a sweeps event. In many ways this was a decent, old school, slower paced pilot episode. On par with the pilot episodes of today's soaps from back in the day. Like General Hospital starting with a woman recovering from a car accident and slow interactions between doctors is good in 1963. IMO today, GH would need to come out of the gate hot with something like Jason's accident, Or Monica giving birth and saying Rick is AJ's father, or something long dramatic and drawn out like the metro court crisis. Something that grips you from the beginning, and when the show eventually slows down at least you've been established with the characters. I want BTG to succeed. I Had to fire off again some of it's racist detractors in some chat groups. But I want to BTG to do it well.

I would say BTG definitely has the best production of the daytime soaps (B&B has the best lighting however). I also wonder how they are sustaining this level of sets and production. I will certainly be in the minority here, my only gripe is that BTGs plot lines are a little slow, and some of the supporting cast actors sound unnatural, like they are reciting lines. Especially in this day and age where there's so much to watch, I think they needed to come right out of the gate like it was sweeps month. General Hospital is not well written, but I feel slightly more gripped by the plots. But it's just the beginning, the BTG will continue to grow. I really hope this is successful and leads to other soaps.