Planet Soap

1999!!!!! Teriffic, Wish I could find the whole Veronica Landers fiasco anywhere.

Question: Carly is not the most revered charachter here (LOL), but who was the best in the role. I found Sarah Brown the most compelling, and that she had more chemistry amd sex appeal with Jason than the others. Tamera Braun I thought had the most chesmistry with Sonny. Brown to me had more fire with Sonny as Claudia. SB: Laura Wright isn't bad either.

Awesome, hard to find anything after '95

Awesome thread. Curious as to what is considered the last solid quality year for AMC? In watching old episodes on youtube something seemed to fall off after 1997.

Great thread. CBS daytime late 80s-02ish to me had the best promos..."Don't Blink & Don't Look Away", "Get It On", Clarence the announcer, "Everything is Everything", "Turn on the Light Guiiiding Light" were some of their best.

Alan and Monica really got pushed off the canvas after that 98/99 pill popping storyline. They're really underrated as a couple, often just lumped together with the rest of the Quartermaines. The appeal of them to me was that (depite the cheating) the charachters were together for a LONG TIME. The Monica/Rick affair and Susan Moore fiascos were my favorite storylines of their's.

With all the criticism of Brad Bell and Mal Young it seems no EP can truly do justice for the Bell soaps outside of Bill Bell himself. Alot of posters on this site cite 1996 as a year b&b fell off which is about the time Bill Bell stepped away as head of the show. Similarly when Bill Bell left in 1998, Y&R's slow decline began, even more so after his death in 2005. Other soaps seem to be able to stay afloat despite shifiting regimes but apparenly not the Bell soaps. Yet, desite this they have remained #1 &#2 in ratings despite years of lackluster storylines since about '07ish? Perhaps the fact that Y&R and B&B still grant major screen time to their veteran actors and still have a decent production value (compared to GH and DAYS) can be attributed to this?

LOL! B&B had it's decent years, but the soap's biggest issue for me was it's over reliance on (halfway incestuous) romance driven plots. One thing B&B did get right though was sticking to the 30 min format. Soaps might be able to have better stretched content and budget if they didn't try to fill an hour 5 days a week. agreed

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.

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.