Just some random thoughts.
The revolving door of writers and recasts really hurt the show. If Conboy hadn't pissed in Bill Bell's Cheerios early on, he may have lent a hand to Conboy. I wonder if Conboy ever tried to lure Bell writers over to the show like Kay Alden by offering them more money etc...? The show never really evolved in 5 years.
The political storylines took a back seat after the first couple of years. Why set a soap in Washington D.C. and not play up that angle more ? Viewers were left to assume the McCandless were Democrat and the Clegg's Republican.
The sets were beautiful. The Clegg mansion was probably one of the grandest sets on daytime at the time. with his shortcomings Conboy did know how to stage a show to look attractive.
Catherine Hickland was a better Julie. Beck was too weepy in the role. David Mason Daniels was a wooden actor (like Kent McCord of Adam-12), but it somehow worked for the character of Tyler. I felt Witherspoon was all wrong as a recast.
Leslie Graves was great as the feisty little Brenda. The recasts were bad. I wonder if Teri Hatcher should have been cast as Brenda instead of Angelica?
I loved Marj as Myrna. She was an awesome recast after the death of Carolyn Jones.
All of the back from the dead/missing storylines were too much. Baxter is back from the dead. Sam's first wife/Trey's mother is back blah blah blah. They also did the paternity switcheroo too much. Sam turned out to be the father of Kelly's son, Sam had an out of wedlock daughter, Matt is not really a McCandless blah blah blah.
They character assassinated Mark by making him a traitor/spy out of the blue. Ed Nelson quit in disgust, and they killed him off. What was the point of that?
If the show had went on into the 90's, they could have used some of the political scandals of the day in Capitol storylines. Trey denies an affair with an intern, but she saves a dress as evidence. Or to be less obvious they could have it be a bedspread she refuses to take to the cleaners. Maybe Myrna tries to break in to steal and dispose of it.