Unpopular Opinions

[MichaelGL]

-I enjoyed 60% of Lloyd Gold's time on GL. I hated Reva going blind (which was under Claire Labine), but he was able to make that story quite interesting. Loved Alan/Olivia/Josh/Reva/Noah, the earthquake was fun. I didn't get the hatred most folks had for San Cristobel, I hoped for a spin off honestly. I think his time on GL truly went off the tracks with the time travel storyline. Although entertaining, it was just not Guiding Light. It was a Dark Shadows rip off meets romantic novel.

-I think during the end of his reign, Richard Culliton had AMC on the right track until Rayfield and Cascio arrived. I didn't enjoy their tenure until their final few months.

-I don't think Claire Labine is all that great. Don't get me wrong, I've seen some of her stuff from GH and RH, and it's amazing, but I had a front seat to her GOD AWFUL tenure on GL. How could anyone so talented write such trite nonsense? Boring, mob infested, saran wrap sex GL, that's what she made the show into. I just think by the time she arrived at GL she had lost all her magic. Some would say that happened before GL, on OLTL. For me, I didn't watch OLTL so I wouldn't know.

-This might be popular or not, but from reading up on and watching videos, why was ATWT number one for so long? The quality seemed to dip once the 70s started.

-Got hooked on ATWT a year before Hogan and thought the show was amazing. I tuned out once Sheffer joined. (I think the Gabriel/Ruby SL was what did it for me.)

-I didn't find Kim O that bad as Jennifer Munson.

-Loved Sally Sussman Morina's tenure on DAYS, the only thing I didn't like was Mike and Carrie's pairing.

-I hated Billy/Mac/Raul/Brittany the first go around, esp. Mac and Billy's portrayers.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I don't know if this is unpopular or not, but Another World's final episode sucked.

[DRW50]

Michael, I also thought her tenure at GL was a huge mess (for me it was the Selena exit story -- I hated it and only more horrific exits since that time have mollified some of my disgust), but she was also sabotaged from very early on by Rauch, if the stories are true. I'm more mystified by just why she was so bad at OLTL.

Y&RWorldTurner, there was some criticism of AW's last episode in the soap press, especially about the gorilla.

My unpopular opinion for Y&R is that I was happy they got rid of Ashley. I think she's a huge self-righteous bore and has been for decades. She was involved in some distasteful stories which tarnished Y&R, like the sperm theft, and I don't know why she's back. I think she was much better suited for B&B.

1975-1976 is not a good textbook. It's all very forced (partially because ABC made them rewrite tons of storyline, as Frank was supposed to die and Mary was supposed to run for office in his place), poorly cast in key roles (Faith, Frank), and they rely too much on using Delia to cause problems for characters who weren't interesting in their own right. Only Nell and Jack/Mary save those early episodes.

I do think 1977 and especially 1978 are very good. Then the show started to fall apart when it was sold to ABC.

Here's my unpopular opinion for RH. I enjoyed the King Kong story. I have never understood how this story somehow ruined RH more than the vile Kimberly taking away most of what Rae and Seneca work as characters, or the endless mob focus which took away from the heart of RH (the Ryans) and turned Siobhan into a mob moll.

[Delia]

Yeah, I agree mostly. Megan's death was excellently done and it brought in Marty Saybrooke, but, in the long run, it probably would've been wiser to keep her around because Tuck was such an excellent actress and Megan was a great character.

The main problem I had with Malone was when he broke up Viki and Clint for no real reason. I know Slezak wasn't pleased with it at all.

To somebody else's point - I think the genre passed Claire Labine by. This was especially notable during her OLTL and GL tenures.

[Khan]

Re: RH ~ It isn't that I think the show was "awful"; far from it. However, in the long run, I do believe it would've been more effective as a weekly, hour-long, primetime series, just b/c all the recasting became too ridiculous after awhile, and the stories too plodding.

Not necessarily. Look, far be it from me to defend Malone's work in daytime, but the fact of the matter is, the working conditions were different for him at ANOTHER WORLD, and later, during his second stint at OLTL. More interference from "on high," and less trust in his creative vision, or his ability to execute it.

I'm sure it did. Too bad, though, I didn't give a s**t, on account of the story revolving mostly around relative newcomers and characters I did not "know" and was not invested in emotionally (i.e., Marty, Nora, Todd, Powell, Zach, Todd's father, etc.). In fact, once Marty remembered that Kevin wasn't one of her rapists, the story was pretty much over for me.

Now, if Marty had remembered that Kevin wasn't in the room, but ultimately was too afraid to say so out of fear her entire case would be ruined; and if Kevin actually had gone to prison with the others -- even though, we (and Marty) knew he was innocent -- and we had followed the group from there, I might've been more invested, simply b/c, Kevin was Viki's son, I care(d) about Viki, and I knew she would not rest until justice had been done for her child.

Honestly, though, I feel like that story was told maybe 2-3 years too soon. After all, part of the reason why the aftermath of Karen Wolek's courtroom stand confession was so riveting, I think, was b/c, we had had the previous few years to get to know Judith Light, and understand why Karen was motivated to do the things she did.

It was, and she was. However, as Agnes Nixon remarked to MM once the story had concluded, "Now, what happens?" (or words to that effect).

Played by Ryan Phillippe, one of daytime's (and possibly Hollywood's) most offensive hair models (tm Nelson Branco). But that isn't what I found wrong with the story.

Again, the story revolved around characters I just wasn't connected to on an emotional level. I'll admit, it wasn't as bad as that spousal abuse arc featuring Viki's heretofore unknown maid and the guy from "Ghost Story", but, damn. Rev. Andrew Carpenter; his father, Sloan; and his dayplayer, plot-convenient, gay brother, William...who were these people? And yes, Billy Douglas was Joey's best friend. Therefore, if you follow the logic, we'll care about Billy, b/c Joey (and by extension, Viki) cares. Before the start of the story, however, little-to-nothing was said about Billy, or his family; and the fact that the Douglases disappeared almost immediately afterward, and there hasn't been so much as a mention about them in the years since, speaks volumes, too. MM admitted, years later, that he intended for Joey to come out of the closet, but that the network advised him against it. For once, I side with Malone.

Furthermore, I had a serious, almost visceral reaction to Clint's depiction as a homophobe in this story. In retrospect, I see that was done to facilitate Viki's affair with Sloan, as well as her and Clint's divorce. Nevertheless, it bothered me then, and frankly, it bothers me still. On the one hand, I "get" that Clint, born and raised in a world where "men are men," so to speak, would not know how to process the concept of his stepson's best friend being homosexual. In fact, if you look at it on just that level, it's completely within character (more so than European Damian Grimaldi's reaction to his son, Luke's, coming out on ATWT). Yet, for whatever reason, it felt...wrong to me that someone as sophisticated as Clint would be so close-minded. (Asa, yes; Clint, no.)

I doubt this broke that rule of Marland's that says, "If your audience says, H/she would not do that, then you have failed"; but I really felt as if Malone did not know who Clint Buchanan truly was. Just as the current HW, Ron Carlivati, doesn't know who he is everytime someone on the show says Clint always has been the more free-spirited of Asa's sons (when, in fact, it's Bo).

Probably the only time I enjoyed Malone's OL stint. Of course, Susan Bedsow Horgan, whom I adore as a producer, was the show's unofficial Co-HW back then, so....

It was amazing, but why was it written as if that was the first time Dorian had confronted Viki about Victor's darker, kinkier side? Granted, I was only five or six at the time, but I remember very well what happened the first time Dorian showed Viki her father's private sex lair. If Dorian never brought it up then (and believe me, she would've), why bring it up now? "Gee, Viki, I thought you always knew!" doesn't cut it with me, either. Viki walked in on Victor having sex with her best friend, and girlfriend was so traumatized that (in the 1985 story, at least) she had to create a split personality to deal with the trauma. And Dorian believes Viki would keep memories of being sexually abused by her father so fresh in her memory?!?!

Furthermore, who the hell were Jean Randolph, Tommy, Tori, Princess, and "Victor"? As long as I had watched the show, it had been always Viki, and Niki, and that's it. Now, all of a sudden, there are these other personalities who've apparently been there all along, but I guess were just, I don't know, preoccupied? What's next? Jessica was sexually abused as a child, too, and she formed her own alter-egos to deal with the pain? (Never mind.)

About the only part of the tale that I didn't have reservations about was the fact that Victor had sexually abused Viki. Of course, once you've been outed as a Nazi sympathizer who brainwashed his daughter, gave away his own grandchild, and built an underground city to hoard his fortune, being proven a pedophile should hardly make you flinch.

[LeslieBauer]

GL - Curlee and Taggart were incredibly in love with the show. Period. Their love stories especially were mesmerizing and no one was ever on their level since.

[Khan]

One word: familiarity. ATWT viewers could take comfort in knowing their characters would be there, if not everyday, then at least as often as possible. And even though storylines occasionally stunk, it was not as if the show had characters reacting in ways they wouldn't have normally.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I don't think this is an unpopular opinion.

Patrick Mulcahey said it best, "Nancy Curlee's a magnificent, meticulous writer. One of the things that's wrong with daytime TV now is that she's not in it."

Though, I guess this counts as an unpopular opinion, I don't wish this industry in its current state on anyone, I'd hate for Curlee to make a return and have her reputation screwed over by some idiot network exec.

[Khan]

Except, wasn't it Tuck's decision to leave the show? Not that they should've written her out by killing her off.

I had a feeling, too, Pam Long was heading toward a Clint/Viki reconciliation when she was writing the show. Unfortunately, ABC fired her (or, she quit, I don't know the exact details).

[Delia]

Okay, you make some excellent points. The biggest one being that most of Malone's early stories focoused on newbies, Marty, Nora, Todd, David, Luna and so on and the treatment of Clint during his run was not always true to character. And yes some of the stories were contrived and cliched, but most stories on daytime are, maybe with this era I was a victim of low expectations, but I still think his tenure was the last time OLTL was truly good on a consistent basis. Many later writers, like Pamela Long and Claire Labine, who for all purposes have better reputations than Malone, but both of them failed miserably at OLTL. Malone just fit at that time and his stories worked.

I guess the mentioning of Malone brought back fond memories to me. Sure he wasn't perfect as Kahn has clearly pointed out, but the good, for me at least, far outweighed the bad.

[brimike]

I thought the whole point of this thread was so people could have a place to voice the opinions they know they're in the minority on, without fear of people disagreeing or judging them or making them defend why they feel that way? LOL!

[Khan]

Yeah, you knew that wasn't going to last!

[Sylph]

How many times on the previous pages, especially in the beginning of the thread have I shouted "Unpopular opinions, people, unpopular!"? The I saw that was silly and jumped on this train.

[JackPeyton]

SON: Bringing.Drama.Closer.

lol.

[Sylph]

I hate the nu- prefix. Annoying! Now we have the nuLiza... Lord...