Was BJ's Heart Transplant the saddest story ever told?

[MarkH]

I think BJ's death may be all-time greatest and saddest.

The death of Y&R's Cassie really rocked me, though. These clips still kill me. The use of Nadia's theme makes me cry...I'm sitting here blubbering as I type. Does anyone have the May 9, 2005 youtube/equivalent, where Barry Manilow's "I am your child" played. Sappy, sentimental, and PERFECT for that point of the story.

The more extended version is here. CHECK OUT the writing credits. Many of those folks are still on Y&R. There is hope! Some people say Y&R shouldn't have done this, but I think it was the most powerful death on that show ever. IT STILL drives story today...for as long as Phick and Shack remain together.

[Quent]

To me, the saddest story was Jennifer's death on ATWT. The scenes where Jen said goodbye to her whole family one at a time were unbelievable. Colleen Pinter and Ben Hendrickson just broke your heart as they said goodbye to their dying daughter. What made it even sadder was knowing that a month later Ben would kill himself in real life. Heartbreaking.

[evermore]

Beautifully put, titan; of all the amazing scenes in that story, Felicia falling apart is the one I most remember too.

[Toups]

I want to see this entire storyline.

[Chris B]

Nothing touched me as much as the death of Jillian's young baby Edmund on Ryan's Hope. So shocking to take the young child of two central characters then have him die in such a cruel (but true to life) way. Jillian had one of those plug in heaters at her beach house, then it somehow caught on fire and blew up the beach house. When Jillian went in to try and save her baby the roof fell in on her. It was so sad because you knew based on the damage that her baby was dead, but she refused to believe that and still went into the severely damaged home to try and save her child.

Just realized that it was another Claire Labine story, lol. She knows how to do real human drama well.

[Cat]

I can't decide:

Tony resting his head on Maxie's sleeping chest.

Buh-Boom. Buh-Boom. Buh-BOOM. Then... fade to black.

Gets me every time.

OR Stone. "I see you, Robin!"

Then Robin goes to close his eyes and curls up next to him, knowing he has died.

--------

Man, I am such a wuss. Tearing up just thinking about these two scenes.

These two SLs were not about death as much as they were about "heart." The show could never write something like this today. Because that would require empathy on the writers' part for their characters. And empathy on our part in watching them. Sonny can no longer bring me to tears the way he did when he went to pay his respects to Stone, for example.

[DaytimeFan]

Exactly...nothing on GH is that sympathetic. The last touching scene was when Tony was dying and Bobbie said "Godspeed Tony" and then he died...now that was good, Brad and Jackie sold it.

I have to say that I think Stone's death was sadder than BJ's heart transplant. The "I see you Robin!" kills me every time. Each and every time it's sad. With BJ's heart I felt that story was both sad and hopeful because, in a small way, BJ got to live on through Maxie.

[MarkH]

I watched Tony die, and honestly....it wasn't that moving. Jackie Zeman really has lost the ability to emote (I don't mean her face...I mean she now seems to intellectualize everything, and I never see her FEEL in her rare performances). I was actually more moved by Lucas' goodbye to Tony...because of how curtailed and pre-empted his ability to come out was, and yet how accepting Tony was.

[dc11786]

Labine is wonderful creating real emotional drama.

One of the most chilling scenes I've ever seen was during the first year of "Ryan's Hope". Seneca was an arrogant neurosurgeon and his wife Nell had learned she had an inoperable brain tumor. Nell didn't want to be hooked up to life support. If her mind wasn't active, she didn't want to live. During a romantic evening with Seneca, Nell's aneursym bursted and she went into a coma. Seneca wasn't sure what to do as he would be breaking hospital protocol.

In his apartment, Seneca talked to Nell's nephew Bucky and his own mother Marguerite about the situation. Marguerite said she knew he would make the right decision and left the room, leaving Seneca and Bucky alone. As Seneca contemplated this difficult situation, Marguerite began singing in a room off stage. It was a very haunting melody and Bucky asked what the song was. Seneca repied it was the song the Senecas sing when someone has died. Seneca leaves the apartment to go pull the plug.

This story was well done overall. Nell and Bucky raced down the freeway nearly giving Bucky a coronary. Frank Ryan explaining his near death experience that happened four or five months earlier. Nell's interaction with an elderly patient who had endured nursing home abuse. Seneca explaining his dream to NEll about losing her on the snake bridge (a Native American image for life and death). Diana van der Vlis is a treasure, and it's too bad that she lived in Boston, which prevented her from continuing on soaps.

[titan1978]

I have been thinking about this storyline all day, more than 10 years after it first aired. That era on GH really was special.

I keep seeing Lucy, begging for Tony and Bobbie to be there for each other, feeling so much pain for her part in the Damian scheme, and her feelings of loss where BJ is concerned. This was an umbrella storyline based in the character and in human emotion. It has been years since I have seen something like this on any soap. Pity.

I loved Lucy as a manipulative bitch, but she broke my heart so much when she finally got one of her own, first a glimmer from Scotty/Dom/Serena, then the filling of that heart with her own actions, Bj's death, and Kevin's love. Time to dig out the DVD's!

[DaytimeFan]

Fair enough. The reason I believe you feel that way about Jackie is that the episode was a capsule, nothing happened before it that hinted at anything happening with Tony and Bobbie...nor had there been a Tony and Bobbie storyline for the better part of 10 years. I think the lack of feeling you see in Zeman, which I concede to, is based on the fact that the few episodes she gets a year do not have a long term narrative, Zeman is literally in and out of the storyline in a single episode...there isn't any buildup, there is no emotional crescendo. If you think of a great singer, it's one thing to hear a high note on it's own while it's a whole different experience to hear the buildup, peak and come down from the performance.

[Cat]

MarkH, that's an interesting assertion about Jackie Zeman. Obviously the "work done" has not helped, and I haven't seen GH in months. But I thought her goodbye to Tony, her scene at Tony and BJ's grave with Carly after, and her scene with Luke during the writer's strike exuded feeling and emotion. I remember thinking "Wow, JZ is an understated and really natural actress. I never noticed before now."

And ITA with whoever said that Stone's death made them cry unreservedly. Same here.

[AMCGio83]

Yeah that plane crash was something I think Laura's accdent was even sadder though. As big of an AMC fan as I am though, I think I have to give it to the maxie heart transplant story and Stone's AIDS; GH was generally, very sad and very good then.

[oltl1]

For me Megan's death on One Life To Live has to be one of the saddest ever. Jake walking in to Megan’s hospital room and Viki seeing him and breaking down, Jake going to Megan’s bed side and telling her about the day they were married. As she heard the story, her eyes closed she began to cry thinking she was hallucinating finally opening her eyes to see Jake and then asking him to get into bed with her so that they could be like “two spoons in a drawer for one last time”. Then Jake reading his poem to her and carrying her to the hospital window to see their wedding tree adorned with little red hearts as a gust of wind blew the hearts off the tree the camera panned to Megan’s hand as she let go of her valentine, her head falling forward and Jake left holding on to her limp empty body. Now that was sad.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

GH under Labine was some of the best relationship and emotional drama ever produced on daytime television. Some might have accused the show of being too dark during this time, but the heavy stories all served a purpose, had rippled effects throughout the show's canvas, and were done in a very organic and not too preachy way. Labine gave GH a heart, something the show sadly no longer has.