SOD Best and Worst 1992

[Dan]

Most Improved Show DAYS

Most Entertaining Character Erica, AMC

Most Overexposed Character Blair, OLTL [NOTE: This is the Mia Korf version)

Most Boring Character Galen, AMC

Best Love Story Harley and Mallet, GL

Worst Love Story Bill and Holly, GH

Best Hero Andrew, OLTL

Dumbest Hero Frank, GL

Best Heroine Carly, DAYS

Worst Heroine Brooke, B&B

Best Tearjerker Isabella's Death, DAYS

Best Storyline Margo's Rape, ATWT

Worst Storyline John's Identity, DAYS

Best New Male Character Casey, LOVING

Best New Female Character Vivian, DAYS

Nicest Character Eleni, GL

Nastiest Character Stephanie, B&B

Best Triangle Nina/Ryan/Victoria, Y&R

Worst Triangle Grant/Vicky/Ryan, AW

Best Comeback Thom Christopher, OLTL

Worst Comeback James Depaiva, OLTL

Best Recast Robert Kelker-Kelly as Bo, DAYS

Worst Recast Melody Anderson as Natalie, AMC

Biggest Waste of Talent The Cast of SANTA BARBARA

Hottest Couple Ross and Blake, GL

Most Boring Couple Roman and Marlena, DAYS

Best Husband Jack, Y&R

Worst Husband Asa, OLTL

Best Wife Kim, ATWT

Worst Wife Caroline, HOMEFRONT

Best Crossover Sheila and Lauren, Y&R/B&B

Best Marital Crisis Ed and Maureen, GL

Worst Marital Crisis Viki and Clint, OLTL

Worst Plot Device Amnesia (Felicia, GH; Trucker, LOVING; Holden, ATWT)

Best Mystery Who Killed Jean Wetherill? GL

Worst Mystery Ballymoor, SANTA BARBARA

Sneakiest Character Ryan, GH

Best Reunion Felicia and Lorna, AW

Best Entrance Marco Dane, GH

Worst Exit Cruz, SANTA BARBARA

Best Rebel Dylan, 90210

Sexiest Character Jagger, GH

Best Wedding Ridge and Taylor, B&B

Worst Wedding Trevor and Natalie. AMC

Most Shocking Twist Sheila's Nightmare, B&B

Best Special Show AW's Black-and-White Episode

Worst Special Show GL's Primetime Special

Best Hot Topic Terrence's Beating, AMC

Best Parents Jim and Cindy, 90210

Worst Parents Holly and Roger, GL

Best Family The Quartermaines, GH

Worst Family The Aldens, LOVING

Best TV Trend Social Issues (Featured AMC, SANTA BARBARA, ATWT, OLTL, Y&R)

Worst TV Trend Young Adult Overload

Most Dissapointing Show LOVING

Best Show ATWT

The issue also showed the best episode from 1986 to 1991:

1986: Y&R

1987: ATWT

1988: SANTA BARBARA

1989: AMC

1990: ATWT

1991: (TIE) ATWT, DAYS, GL

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Thanks Dan! Such good times back then...

[Port Oak Valley]

This was a good year for DAYS, Carly was a great heroine, Isabellas death was so sad, and one of my favorite characters, Vivian was introduced.

[EricMontreal22]

Poor Galen! She had a stalker played by John Wesley Shipp no less, led a crossover event to Loving, was recast, and still she was voted most boring character

I remember thinking Melody Anderson was an AWFUL Natalie--sooo goody two shoes. I only kinda liked her when she was blind and being stlaked by Carter.

What was the 1989 AMC episode as best? I know many think 87-89 was a bit rough on AMC (Behr came in as EP to revitalize the show in 89 but Margaret DePriest was the interim HW of such gems like Erica's dad the clown)

92 what was the year Addie Walsh was writing Loving and focused it on the campus again--and that Carter Jones crossover imentioned got me addicted to it--I didn't know better but I thought it was quite strong actually (more than '93)... And I lvoed the Aldens

And I dont' remember Korff's Blair being oevrexposed but I didn't come to OLTL until that Summer with the Billy DOuglas story--nor Depaiva's return being bad

(HAHA at the mention of Homefront)

[Dan]

Oops. Sorry; meant best show, not best individual episode.

[EricMontreal22]

Interesting--I guess Behr's revitalization made a quick impact

[dc11786]

I suspect "Loving" got most disappointing because of the show's potential but terrible execution. The show spent the better part of a year building up a Stacey/Trucker pairing only to have Trucker proclaim his love for Stacey in October and remarry Trisha in November. The show did a ghost story involving the younger crew that went no where. The show spent a lot of time on Dinahlee/Clay pairing, which barely lasted the year.

The campus stuff didn't work as well this time because of the lack of an adult connection to AU. In the beginning, Garth, Roger, Billy, Noreen, Doug, and Mike all worked on the campus or were around the campus on a fairly consistent basis. In 1992, only Giff Bowman was around until Jeremy arrived as dean and recruited Stacey to teach a writing course in November. The young adults, while tied to the main cast, were fairly isolated on the college campus. Plus when the show finally introduced the show's big young adult story, Ally and Coop conceive Tyler during a one night stand, the outcome meant most of the characters had to drop out of school.

Bad year for the Alden family.

Clay and Isabelle returned but neither Larkin Malloy or Patricia Barry appeared to be well liked in their roles. Patricia Barry's Isabelle was too bitchy compared to the others who had played the part. Online fans didn't think Malloy had much range in the role of Clay. Dennis Partalou was originally hired to temporarily replace Malloy when he was recovering from surgery, but they fired Malloy when he returned and kept Partalou permanently. Barry departed "Loving" in February 1994 after the Tim Sullivan storyline ended.

The Tim Sullivan storyline seems rather bizarre. Eric, it appears that storyline you were referring to in the episodes you recently found were the beginning of the Tim Sullivan story. Stacey and Trucker eventually look for Tim to find out about the mystery room after Isabelle banished the 'mysterious shadow'. I supsect the mysterious shadow lady was intended to be Cabot's lover (maybe Shana's mother Lillian?), but somehow it diverted into the reveal that Tim Sullivan was Clay's real father. Tim didn't appear very long maybe May through June. Tim died after Isabelle had a heart attack. Around the same time, Jack was presumed dead in a boating accident on his honeymoon. Shana, who spent most of the year backburnered, defended Trucker in a custody battle even though she and Trisha were really close. Trisha's lawyer Armand bedded Gwyneth while they looked into Isabelle's secret. A lot of plot driven stuff that didn't really help the mess. Gwyneth and Clay remarried for about minute because Isabelle thought she was going to die, but then she didn't.

Also, I believe the show aborted plans to bring back Curtis Alden in favor of Leo Burnell. Burnell's appeared on "Loving" as early as 1984 when Anne was trying to sell the Alden owned company because it wasn't making much money. Suddenly, Leo Burnell, a man who shares the same name as the store, is the owner and apparently he is a self made man who went to high school with Ava? Doesn't seem to make much sense. Ava's boss at Burnell's was a mystery man who was looking out for her. I suspect this man, who was called Mr. A before Mr.B in some soap columns, was probably Curtis Alden.

[EricMontreal22]

I knew that you would pipe in with Loving stuff--thanks!!

What was the ghost story?

You're right the Tim Sullivan story does sound a mess. Was 1992 when Stacy was being tricked with weird projections into thinking Jack was haunting her too?

It's funny--prob cuz he was Clay when I came to the show, but I always much prefer Larkin as Clay! That' sinteresting most longterm fans felt differently

[dc11786]

Clay was gaslighting Stacey around the end of 1992.

In August 1992, the younger generation was using a Ouija board. During the session, Ally became possessed by the spirit of Abigail Alden, who had died on her wedding day to Richard. Richard supposedly beared a resemblance to Cooper. After a few sessions, Casey got Ally to admit it was a hoax she and Staige had cooked up to land Cooper. Cooper overheard the conversation but said nothing. I believe Ally had been wearing a ring that belonged to Abigail Alden and after she revealed it was a hoax, the ring moved on its own after all the charactes left the room. This all ended rather quickly in September.

Yeah, I was shocked about that too since I thought Malloy was rather well liked as Sky on Edge of Night and Travis on All My Children. However, I think Larkin Malloy's Clay was too much of a romantic hero, not really his fault by rather the writing, and the character was a bit wishy washy. The clips I've seen of Partalou, he does seem to have a stronger brooding presence which seemed to work for the role.

[Dan]

Here's the write-up for LOVING:

Most Dissapointing Show

How many chances are fans going to give LOVING? Since its splashy inception in 1983, the show has limped along in the ratings, highlighting and then discarding whole families like the Forbeses, Donovans, and Vocheks. What's worse, viewers have been treated to four different Isabelles, four Clays, three Avas and two Jacks (so far). Every longtime major role currently on this show (except for Stacy and Trisha) has been recast at least twice. If that weren't confusing enough, characters are introduced, given front-burner status and then dropped just as quickly. (Where are Alex, Egypt, Rocky, Rio, Carly and Paul?) Fine actors like Patricia Kalember (ex-Merrill, now George on SISTERS) and Luke Perry (ex-Ned -- do we have to tell you where he is now?) were wasted and eventually found greater use (and success) on nighttime. After nine years of struggle, this show needs to pick a theme and stick with it. How about loving? Keep fan favorites Trisha and Trucker together, and create conflict with something other than a psychopath (Nick, Jeff, Giff) stalking Trisha. Develop the already solid couples like Kate and Louie, Ava and Leo, and the new best couple, Casey and Ally. Now that Clay is no longer an Alden, there's nothing keeping him from Dinah Lee: There from the same side of the tracks. And isn't about time for our favorite Jack, to come back from the dead and dry Stacy's tears? It's hard to expect much from LOVING anymore. So there's nowhere to go but up.

[EricMontreal22]

As much as I love and defend Loving--nearly all those complaints are justified. It's nice that 2 years later, under Nixon it got most improved show--even if it didn't quite keep that level, and was already basically on its way out.

[David V]

Ratings-wise it was a pretty strong year for all CBS soaps- Y&R, ATWT, B&B and GL, and also the year of the first Y&R/B&B crossover which helped to catapult B&B into CBS' 2nd highest-rating soap. Days ratings were actually starting to stagnate by this time, in fact NBC was in something of a retreat from the "Silver Age" years of the mid and late 80s.

Santa Barbara was really bad in its last year. They brought on a host of big names in a desparate bid to get attention, but to no avail.

[EricMontreal22]

I never thought NBC had substantially consistantly high ratins since the early to mis 70s...

[miajere]

They have their hours/nights- I love the fact that they are always willing to take on foreign shows and Americanize them....Nothing is as bad as FOX.

[EricMontreal22]

Oh I meant daytime... I knwo of NBC's Must See TV glory days