Planet Soap

Awesome 1988!!! Lol, Those Leanna & Victor fantasy scenes were awfully Days of our Livesish.

Michael and Lauren are boring to me. It seems like they dont know what to do with Ms.Fenmore other than have a psyco chase after her. Michael and Phyliss, being bad together however....I could get behind that! I do like Phyliss' friends with sexual tension dynamic with both Michael Baldwin & Malcolm.

Excited to see these 1988 episodes!! I'd like to see both Diamont and Tom back on Y&R today. I liked the Brad & Nikki storyline aswell as his friends with benefits dynamic with Lauren in the early 90s. (Im still mad over how they played Scott Sr. though. He didnt deserve that). As for Diamont on B&B, I cannot stand Bill Spencer. Lol, he's often so poorly written at times. I do agree that Diane's anger was extreemly justified. She basically broke off her engagement to Jack for Victor, only for Victor to return to Nikki (which didn't last).

@Dion Got u! I found Davetta Sherwood to be much better than than Christel Khalil as Lilly. I felt annnoyed when CK started screaming at Malcom. Sherwood would have been a great replacement for Khalil since Lilly went to prison.

Great clips. I'm confused though. I thought Lilly already learned of her paternity from eavesdropping on Dru and Phyllis, and confronted Dru here:

Yeah, confirmed it:

I believe she did. That was perhaps my favorite Y&R storyline of the late 90s. Nikki looking so pale and lifeless in hospital scenes was so grim, serious, and realistic. Soaps couldn't pull off something so unsettling like that today effectively. The best part was that it lead to vilianess Diane which fueled years of animosity between Nikki and Diane, and later Diane vs. Phyliss which was gold! The biggest joke had to be Victor and Nikki "remarrying" after 10 years only for Nikki to sleep with Brad (lol, who didnt Brad sleep with) the next year.

Some of the 1998 videos he posted, I saw on archive.org before his channel launched such as the two October episodes where Sharon's arm was broken.

He responded to my comment to hide his videos, i was willing to email him the link to DTS t(not post it in the youtube comments). Hopefully he/she reaches out. SONY! Never showed classic episodes of DAYS, B&B or Y&R on SOAPnet, hardly ever shows classic reruns in daytime, and wont release its soaps on streaming...because they'd rather a century's worth of television sit in a basement vault somewhere. P&G and ABC soap fans have it good!

Looks like firehawk just got taken down (as predicted). At least most of his content is on archive.org. Literally just watched one of the channels videos this morning.

I commented on one of firehawk's videos that they should disguise the video titles. At least a few of his videos are already up on archive.org. Would hate to see a repeat of that Brandon channel where all the 98-01 videos got deleted.

With you on that one. The Kay/Jill/ Phillip triangle is the draw factor from the 70s for me. Anything 89-02ish on streaming would be GOLD. That's when Y&R got its look and story line down to a solid formula. In watching 90s episodes it really seems like they didn't know where to go with Nina after David Kimble died. The Ryan/Cole/Victoria stuff went on a while! Kind of like Sammy, Austin, Carrie etc.. on DAYS. Similarly after Marge (and the breast cancer scare which I never saw) I'm glad they finally got around to giving Kay and actual story line in '98 where she fought Jill for the house. I've said this before, but It's amazing how she obsessed over Phillip for years when Rex was a far better husband----never heard her mention him much in years prior. When it comes to Nikki, some might not agree, but I liked when they got her involved in business plots. It gave the character something else to do other than being at the ranch all day and seeking fulfillment from her man of the moment. It's annoying how she and Victor just can't settle down after almost 40 years...it's time they use another plot device other than relationship problems between the two. (The same goes for Nick and Sharon).

Wow! Strasser called her out by name! If JFP is clearly an issue, why does she keep getting hired🤔

I didnt mind that plot, but the Manning last name thing was indeed convoluted. Considering how deranged Todd was he fits as post 90s rewritten Victor Lord's son. LOL, they just kept re-writing things when it came to Victor Lord Sr. First he's an overbearing dad, then he's a sex addict, then he's a child molester, he has a plethora of ilegitimate children (Todd, Victor Jr, Tina), Dorian killed him, no Viki killed him, no he's alive...wait was that actually him in 2003? He was basically OLTL's Phillip Chancellor, a long dead charachter that had bigger historical impact post mortem than alive.

Did the writers ever question how low they were willing to drag the charachter? The dead baby lie would have been the end of alot of charachters but Todd kept going and Blair kept forgiving! (What a shame Jack Manning turned out to be later in life). Inspite of it all I must conceed in that Cassie and Roger had great chemistry from 00-03. The dead baby lie plot and it's live week conclusion remain one of my all time favorite OLTL storylines. Next to the rape that had to be the second most heinous thing Todd got away with.

What are your general feelings toward the charachter of Todd Manning? I found Howarth to be superior to St John in the role, St John gets his props though! I also liked that Howarth managed to make the charachter humorous in 98 and 00-03, despite the sick things he was doing like faking DID and giving away a baby. This in comparison the the outright angry Todd from 92-95. When St John first came on I liked that he was animated (almost as if he were trying to mirror Howarth) but once he settled in, the charachter became just heinous. When he did things like beat up Cole, bully Langston, push Starr off the boardwalk, and help Jack get away with killing "GG", the charachter became unlikeable. Even worse, Blair and Starr kept falling into the habitual forgiveness rut with the charachter. (Howarth's 2011 return basically negated the latter but still..) Todd's crimes almost hit harder than those of say Stefano Dimera being that they were somewhat realistic. Leading a gang rape, selling a baby because you thought it wasn't yours and so on. Hell, he makes Sonny Corinthos look soft!

IMO Guza under Riche beats Guza under Phelps. Guza in general beats anyone who's been writing GH post 2014, and that's an unfortunate statement considering the damage he did to that soap. Growing up in the 2000s, I thought GH was the bomb until I watched older episodes online and realized what I was watching was a far cry from what came before. The contrast between 90s and 00s GH became fully evident to me when I saw numerous classic episodes during the 50th anniversary marathon. Case and point, the mob plots had more weight and impact to me from 93-95ish, I believe under Levinson then Labine. The mob stuff was wayy more serious with plots like breaking Frank Smith out of jail, and Luke's house getting shot up. There were earthy concequemces and not as much of the glorification of Sonny as we see today. The mob plots today lack any sort of dramatic impact, they're almost comical to say the least. The last time any mob drama hit hard for me was when Michael got shot in 2008, or the Metro Court fiasco in 07.

I wanna know why they fired Riche in favor of soap killer Phelps aswell? Speaking of Luke and Laura I enjoyed them under Labine in the 90s because they appeared more domesticated than their action adventure plots in the 80s. However, 95-02 basically shat on Luke and Laura with the mob violence, Nickolas' intro, Stefan, the rape revisitation, Lucky's death and the Felicia affair. Not to mention Laura going mad in 02. I liked some of those plots but it's interesting how it basically destroyed the couple.

On that note, alot of DTS commemtators cite Luke and Laura's Ice Princess saga as the turning point of soaps from a theater play like tv drama to over the top plots. Guiding Light, DAYS, and ATWT especially seemd to be influenced by this, particularly in the 80s. Wondering if you all agree?

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.

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!

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.