^ I'm curious as to what exactly is turning you off. I'm just curious as to people's reason's for being disappointed with the show. I haven't watched for long, so I'm interested in longer term viewer's perspective. So many people say this show sucks. Where did it go wrong?

Where did it go wrong? It has zero depth or complexity. It's all plot with no continuity or characterization. Shock and awe reign over substance. New one dimensional characters take up the majority of the show in bad stories while the characters who have been loved for years and are generally played by the best actors on the show are lucky to have 5 lines an episode. Couples make no sense and are lackluster at best.

Nothing is left to hope for or tune in to watch.

Nothing. I stopped watching.

The vets are not used.

Evangeline has been changed to put her with the most boring ill matched person they could find for her on the show. She is my favorite so the fact that she doesnt have a story and is in an awful pairing I find nothing of interest to watch.

Todd should have gone after Spencer long ago. Now I have no interest to watch him play catch up.

Cannot stand Natalie. I dont know why the show thinks we would care or root for her. She has been frontburner every sweeps since last year and I got sick of watching an actress who cannot act and that plays an awful character ruin every boring sweeps the inept DH could pen.

They ruined John to force him into a pairing with a character most do not root for (Natalie). So I could care less that he died or is back from the dead.

Stupid dragged out stories featuring characters with no rooting value and every couple on the show are terrible. Everyone is with the wrong person. So basically the show sucks lemon.

What she said! I 2nd this emotion! SECOND! SECOND! SECOND!

Where did it go wrong? Where did it not go wrong is the better question or the complete answer.

First and foremost-Brian Frons. Since he was hired all of the ABC soaps have been suffering terribly.

Frons immediately fired Gary Tomlin, the EP that won the Emmy for OLTL. Frons then hired Malone and Griffith and proceeded to shoot down every single storyline they came up with, mainly because their storylines featured the vets, the tried and true actors and characters that DO bring in the DEMOS, problem was they weren't either Frons' fave or they were all too 'old' in his view to bring in the young demos, which is totally incorrect because under Tomlin and even JFP, they featured all the 'vet' characters/actors Like Viki, Nora, Bo, etc and guess what? With them featured front and center OL had not only great demos, sometimes coming in #1 (like for Viki's last big wedding), and oddly enough they were able to maintain high demos, households and viewers, because even though people were upset, they still saw the big characters front and center featured in storyline after storyline.

Frons fires Emmy winner Tomlin and gives a big promotion to Frank Valentini, a no experience yes-man producer, who along with Higley, has gone on to destroy OLTL. Why? Because Mr. Frankie has no balls, no vision and even less creativity, hence the whole product suffers and along with the awful writing from Higley, the whole show as a whole product is poorly executed, poor in every way imaginable.

Then Frons got Griffith so ticked off by constantly negating all their storyline ideas, he ups and leaves and Malone is on with weak EP Frankie as no help. Now Malone did a lot of good for the show for what he could, but again Frons was vetoing all of Malone's ideas since again they featured all the vets, who in Frons' ageist and misogynistic views, are not the correct age to feature on a soap. This was about the time PC got cancelled thanks to Frons and essentially let Genie Francis walk from GH and called her an old, fat middle-aged housewife, why would anyone want to see that on daytime TV? RME.

Don't forget that at that time Frons also called Kathy Brier ugly, fat and all kinds of not so nice things. The man is a pig.

Meanwhile Frons gets PC canceled and he promises the actors roles on the rest of the lineup. For OL that means a complete new role for ME, whose character immediately took over the whole show, literally. He became the king of air hog, and has remained so ever since, in fact he was re-upped at the cost of quite a few others all because Frons can sell cell phone display screens of Johnnie Boy to all the devoted fans. It would have been fine with all of that if it hadn't of come at the worst price and the death knell of the show: the ostracizing of the whole vet roster from Slezak, HBS, RSW, PC, and then having to take people off contract like TDS, CH, firing the actors that played Max, Gabrielle, Kevin, that whole Al to heaven thing, then forcing Malone to write it for Michael to come back as fake Al.

At this time Disney decided to try a new promotion, Malone writes a book published through a Disney subsidiary for cross promotion. Malone writes it but the show he just doesn't care about any more because he has had it with all the interference and had already decided to leave when the Summer of Santi occurred and Frons used that to hire the absolute worst disaster for OL ever: Dena Higley.

Higley came on with years of failure and demotion at DOOL, but like Frankie, she was a yes woman for Frons, perfect in his eyes. If Frons says, write for John 24-7, she does, if Frons says JAVA is it, then they are. In exchange Higley gets to bring on her own characters that also proceed to take up all the rest of the airtime not given to Johnnie, in the form of Spencer, who is in every single storyline and between these two male characters they literally control the whole show and still do. Every single storyline is about them.

The main problem with OL now, has been the destruction of the show happening for several years now. The writing is the worst problem, but so is lack of character balance, the pacing is slow as can be, there is no vision, fan faves are fired or leaving, or relegated to background nothingness. There is no sense of where the show is going or what they are trying to do in their stories. There is no payoff, guilty parties never pay for their crimes and instead are rewarded (Spencer and Dorian the worst here and it isn’t fulfilling as a viewer to see that evil and illegal crimes are rewarded, so there is no payoff for the viewer). The fact that vets like Viki, with a 6 time Emmy winner, can’t get a story or love interest, Nora can’t be the DA is court even though she is there sitting doing nothing, Bo is an idiot, Clint a complete jerk, Kevin gets ousted and destroyed, probably never to be seen again, David leaves and I am sure a large part of that is Tuc being unhappy with the writing since the David brother took over the show whereas the story should have centered on David, not his brother. The couples are really bad, boring or make no sense. There are exactly two married couples on this show, one is never show, Asa/Renee, the other finally getting some story Michael/Marcie, but will Kathy Brier stick around? All of the women are weak on this show which is very bother some. In the past the best part of OL was all the strong women, all of them made the show and as a female viewer it was empowering to see them, and enjoy them, but under Frons all the women are weak and victims. There is NO romance on this show; it is always dark, dumb and bad. Why? Higley lies so much it isn’t funny, the thing she said she would do first for the show? Lighten the show with romance, so where is it? Why has Viki been alone for 5 years? Why has Nora been completely demolished, what happened to the love to hate Dorian, who now I just hate. Why is Bo so stupid, Clint is not only a moron, but boring and just isn’t working as a Buchanan? Asa is not on, the characters overall are boring. They have lead actors doing support or nothing, and all the support actors as leads. Why is Antonio a lead? Why is Cris? There isn’t a reason behind it other than their muscle bods and little else. Why must every story be about John and Spencer, why is the Banner never shown, or BE or the Sun or even Craze now? Why is only the cop show the only Llanview place shown? Where is Carlotta, RJ??? Where is Llanview? Why is this show settling for below subpar crap when it shouldn’t? Why aren’t they pushing the envelope socially but doing so with good writing and using all the characters. Remember Malone and his Aids story, featured ensemble, not just 2 characters, same with the Spring fling rape, all ensemble, now 2 characters, why?

What to do? Fire Higley and Valentini. Frons must back off and let a strong creative EP and HW do what Gottlieb/Malone/Griffith did, or Tomlin with his major sense of humor, let Llanview live but with ALL citizens, not just the 2. And don’t ever let a 6-time Emmy winner languish with no story or love interest when it is thanks to Viki she IS OLTL and made the show because of her being around front and center since inception. Don’t reinvent daytime drama for ratings stunts that don’t work and do not have long term viability. And for me, give Viki a damned story and a romance!

Where did it go wrong? It has zero depth or complexity. It's all plot with no continuity or characterization. Shock and awe reign over substance. New one dimensional characters take up the majority of the show in bad stories while the characters who have been loved for years and are generally played by the best actors on the show are lucky to have 5 lines an episode. Couples make no sense and are lackluster at best.

Nothing is left to hope for or tune in to watch.

Perfectly put. Why is it that Viki when she is on only gets about 10 lines and 2 scenes? Assuming she is on...same for Nora...same for the rest.

I'm enjoying the Todd/Marty storyline, and well, I love Marcie/Michael. They're the best two characters on the show.

the last time Ive even seen OLTL was before the Jess/Antonio wedding

Sadly, I can't really put a positive spin for this thread. OLTL isn't the worst soap on TV, but it's been very disappointing for quite some time.

I find Evangeline and Cris both boring and laughable. They are THE most mismatched couple in Llanview. The writing for them is too cutesy for my taste. They are written like a teen couple when they are really in their 30's. I don't get them. David Fumero cannot act and if OLTL is invested in the character of Cris, I really wish they'd recast with a capable actor. It also doesn't help that I can't stand Evangeline. She's way too goody-two shoes. Ugh. And to add, I resent Evangeline because it appears that she is taking over Nora's ADA role. I guess I need to accept the fact that OLTL has no interest in writing for Hilary B. Smith.

I find Todd and Blair disgusting. I've never really accepted TSJ as NuTodd, and Blair is, well, TRASH. And not the kind of trash I can enjoy (i.e. Roxie).

I don't mind Spencer like most OLTL fans, but I don't really know where Dena is going with this character. Maybe she doesn't either.

If there is 1 thing about OLTL that I am kinda enjoying, it's the Cole/Starr story. But I'm afraid OLTL is going to make a collosal mess out of NuMarty. I've been on her side since her reintroduction, but I read the previews for this week, and I'm a little worried

Sadly, I can't really put a positive spin for this thread. OLTL isn't the worst soap on TV, but it's been very disappointing for quite some time.

I find Evangeline and Cris both boring and laughable. They are THE most mismatched couple in Llanview. The writing for them is too cutesy for my taste. They are written like a teen couple when they are really in their 30's. I don't get them. David Fumero cannot act and if OLTL is invested in the character of Cris, I really wish they'd recast with a capable actor. It also doesn't help that I can't stand Evangeline. She's way too goody-two shoes. Ugh. And to add, I resent Evangeline because it appears that she is taking over Nora's ADA role. I guess I need to accept the fact that OLTL has no interest in writing for Hilary B. Smith.

I agree with you about the laughability of Evangeline with Chris and that they are the most mismatched couple on a show full of horrible chemistry impaired couples. I also agree that they have changed Evangeline and made her too goody-two shes and boring, especially with DF's Christian.

As for Evangeline taking over Nora's ADA position that is incorrect. Evangeline took over Hugh's ADA position. Nora is DA. Nora not having a story or airtime rests wth Brian Frons agist agenda.

I'm in the minority here, but the spot where it went wrong for me was on June 16,2006. Anyone know what that date was? I'll give you a minute to think about it (especially those of you who know me).

It was Tari Signor's final airdate as the wonderful Margaret Cochran. Margaret was the only bright spot in Dena's writing for 2005-early 2006. She had such neat stories going with her, especially with the amensia and looking for TJ..but then she just HAD to screw it up. I'll never forgive her for killing off Margaret, who had so many possibilities.

I'm in the minority here, but the spot where it went wrong for me was on June 16,2006. Anyone know what that date was? I'll give you a minute to think about it (especially those of you who know me).

It was Tari Signor's final airdate as the wonderful Margaret Cochran. Margaret was the only bright spot in Dena's writing for 2005-early 2006. She had such neat stories going with her, especially with the amensia and looking for TJ..but then she just HAD to screw it up. I'll never forgive her for killing off Margaret, who had so many possibilities.

EXACTLY! She was not my favorite character, but Margaret was I think one of the few best things Dena ever did, I LOVED Margaret and she is even in my blog right now.

I pretty much lost interest with The Todd and Blair story after Margaret died.

The Tommy storyline is good but it has hit a boring point. It will get better once the fallout begins. I wish Rex would just spill his guts.

I may be in the minority but I like the Star/Cole storyline. The guy that plays cole may not be the best of actors but Kristen Alderson is one of my favorite people to watch on daytime so almost any storyline involving her I usually enjoy.

John/Hugh mess. It's not good/It's not horrible. In the past I could NOT STAND natalie but she has been okay recently. I have a feeling that once she is with John again, I wont be able to stand her anymore.

Nash/Jessica/Antonio triangle is okay. I like watching the scenes with Nash and not so much the scenes with Antonio.

Margaret was one of the hallmarks of Dena Higley's worst excesses in my opinion. She(Dena) came from a horrible show that she and writers like her made horrible in the 1990s, and that kind of sleazy, shocking, plot-driven madness is what she is used to. Margaret and Spencer the invincible psychos are a part of it. Remember, DOOL used to have an excess of "psychos," "[!@#$%^&*]es," etc like it was some "Dick Tracy" rogues gallery, instead of having real characters. I despised Margaret and I hated the way the show tried to spin her every homicidal action as "funny." Unfortunately, her final death has meant very little in terms of fixing the show, since Dena is still there.

Nothing.

I gave up on the show when they dumped Kevin and Kelly. I had already lost hope when it became clear we would be stuck with the painfully awful couple Jessica and Antonio.

As far as Margaret, the actress was talented and she could have evolved into a decent villan. Instead, Dena wrote this awful cartoon character. There was nothing left for Margaret but death because of Dena's awful story-telling. You can't create this evil person with superpowers and then expect that character to survive.

The same is true of Spencer. Paul Satterfield created a great character, but thanks to really awful overwriting, he can't be saved. There is no way to credibly save villans as bad as Dena writes them.

I watched Friday's episode on SN and was disappointed. Margaret could've have been a fun villaness and Spencer (after hearing how he was misled by his mother) could have been saved -- but I think it's too late now. The great thing about daytime, is that new characters can be created and if there's good writing and strong actors a show can be saved. Not giving up yet -- I tune in every now and then. Maybe I'll be surprised. I hope so.

Nothing.

As far as Margaret, the actress was talented and she could have evolved into a decent villan. Instead, Dena wrote this awful cartoon character. There was nothing left for Margaret but death because of Dena's awful story-telling. You can't create this evil person with superpowers and then expect that character to survive.

The same is true of Spencer. Paul Satterfield created a great character, but thanks to really awful overwriting, he can't be saved. There is no way to credibly save villans as bad as Dena writes them.