Planet Soap

Amazing old episodes. When did B&B hit really hit the gutter? To me the first strike came around 1996, the initial decent after 2002 and then crash and burn —much like all of soaps and general pop culture — after 2005. Also noticing the great Susan Flannery's visual transformation. It seems she started giving up on her previous glamours dressing style by 1998 up until a while after her gray haircut. 

GH (1998) Carly admits to Bobbie that she's her long lost daughter Caroline. Almost two years of plot built up to this.

Great scenes from OLTL:

1995: Viki in therapy about to open a diary in which one of the alters reveals that Victor Lord molested her, and the Tommy personality violently emerges,

Another one from OLTL. (2002) Blair finds out Todd sold baby Jack and told Blair Jack died (thinking Jack was Max's son). Todd learned Jack was his own son then brought the baby back home passing him off as an adopted child. Dramatic moment during a week of LIVE broadcast episodes for May sweeps.

On 1/13/2019 at 5:32 PM, dawn9476 said:

 

Yep. The events were great. The cast integration during those events was always fun. But GH would always make the mistake of going back to the Sonny, Carly, Jason show when the event was over. It's why they always came close to B&B in the ratings during that time but could never tie or maybe even pass B&B in the ratings. It was so maddening. 

Indeed. That's still a mystery to me: How the bell soaps remained #1 in the 2000s ? Y&R fell off the wagon after 05' when Bill Bell passed and still is #1 despite—even though I love the show—boring story lines since 2007 ish. Similarly B&B  has just been recycling couple combinations for the better part of the last decade yet maintains a solid #2 despite GH & OLTL having had far more creative plot lines. The credit I will give the mid 2000s on William J Bell soaps is that they still have decent production quality and maintain major screen time for their veteran actors. 

Well, new charachters definately tops destroying legacy charachters indeed!

The Riche era was the second best in the show’s history (after the Monty 80s). It brought humanism and emotion to the  more the raw action packed and “sophisticated” tone of the 80s. Post 1996 Riche/Guza set the foundation for what we have now. Its also intresting that despite it’s greatness it also planted the seeds for the shows impending transformation (Sonny, Jason, Carly , mob etc..) Furthermore it commenced the excusing and sympathy toward Sonny & Jason’s mob activity. The charachters, though very compelling, are constanty shown in a moral heroic light despite both men killing people for a living.

The destruction of AJ was also upsetting. AJ admittedly was a screw up, but the only person that had a right to mess with AJ was Jason because of the accident. Otherwise his own family plus Sonny & Carly did a number on him. AJ didnt push Carly down the stairs, she jerked back and fell. And yet again Sonny killed an innocent AJ in 2014? for Connie’s murder. 

I might be in the minority here but I think the Liz rape/ Luke & Laura rehash in 1998 was one of the shows greatest plots. Powerful emotion from a young couple and the confirmation that Luke did rape Laura in 1979. The only part I hated is that once again Luke & Laura were driven apart. The writers just couldnt let the Spencers be a unit, and the biggest couple in soaps be together.

@victorlord75 The Phelps period can't compare to the Riche and Monty years at all, but it is certainly better than today. The Phelps era sucked in that it allowed mob violence to envelop the show, and it put a lot of veteran cast members on the back burner (Alan, Monica, Bobbie, Felicia) and it's erasure of the Quartermaines. By the end of her run it was apparent she needed to go.

However, the era was still better at having focused, interesting and fast paced story lines compared to Valentini. The show today could never pull off something as interesting as the Metro Court crisis or Rick locking Carly in the panic room. To their credit, the Valentini team attempts to use history and veteran actors, but suffers from an over bloated cast, unfocused convoluted plots, and stunt/looks based casting.

Overall, from what I've read, the soaps JFP writes for are left considerably worse after she leaves (GL, GH, OLTL Y&R) it's a mystery as to why she keeps getting hired.

Awesome thread.

Personally GH as a soap was never "unwatchable". Even in it's worst periods you could still sit through an episode. The show was probably strongest from '78-'82 and again from '93-'00. Even the early Phelps era (01-04; later the Metro Court Crisis ) was still watchable and light years ahead of what we have now. 

Noticing that GH is airing classic episodes on holidays these days. It would be amazing if Y&R and B&B would follow suit. It would be awesome to see the Bill Bell era on tv again. Y&R is really a here and now show as it hardly mentions alot of past charachters and moments like Veronica Landers, or Mari Jo Mason, or Rex Sterling.