ALL: How to Break a Soap

[marceline]

The OLTL spoilers re: Todd and Marty have me wondering... What stories, in your opinion, have irreparably damaged i.e. broken their respective shows and/or characters?

I believe there are storylines that are so misguided or out of line with the shows narrative and history that they forever damage that show in the eyes of viewers. These are the stories that either drive us away from the show or we force ourselves to ignore because they're so ...wrong. Here's my examples:

GL: The death of Maureen - I believe the death of Maureen Bauer "broke" GL in the minds of viewers. I know that people die unexpectedly but Maureen was the heart and soul of GL. There was a giant hole left with her death and no character poised to fill it. I watched GL for years after she was gone but it never felt the same.

AMC: Bianca forgiving Babe - We suffered with Bianca as she dealt with the "death" of her child. When Babe finally fessed up, that should've unleashed a hatred from Bianca that surpassed God's righteous fury. Instead we got a slap, some coldness and Bianca's way-too-ready forgiveness. Eventually Babe and Bianca became friends again. WTF?!! Note to ABC: you don't ever forgive the skank who took your child and told you she was dead. That story should've set the stage for a world of payback but instead we got the beatification of St. Bianca. Everything that came after that rang false.

OLTL: Todd/Marty - RC has decided to rewrite one of the show's most groundbreaking stories by turning an act of deplorable sickness and rage into foreplay. The Todd/Marty story is like watching a toddler shove a peanut butter sandwich into a VCR. You'll never get all that stuff out and even if you do, the machine will never work right again.

So what stories have you found irretrievably toxic. What can't you get past?(I suspect the word "unabortion" is going to pop up a lot.)

[EricMontreal22]

Bianca forgiving Babe didn't bother me SOO much because she had already been (annoyingly) painted as the one all forgiving, saint Kane member. Didn't like it but it didn't feel like breaking something or something I didn't expect. I know a LOT of people will say unabortion--and I agree but, historical importance aside, that didn't feel as ill fitting as such cartoony earlier stories like, well Passanante's Libidizone was prob the height of weirdness for me (and it climaxed a bunch of awful stories and characters).

That said the thing that really damaged AMC's legacy for me, and I may be alone in thinking of this as so important, but that really amde me lose faith in my show was the dismissal of the stunning Julia Barr and her character of Brooke, with not even an official exit. If Pratt could bring her back (I know there were VRY vague rumours for a while she would return by Xmas but I doubt it) I seriously would give him all the faith he wanted.

OLTL first really broke me as a viewer with the "Raping of Todd" story. Just such a phony, trumped up, badly written, cartoony and STUPID story could be made, and the writer had some sort of rationale that to redeem a rapist the only thing to be done was to rape, him, was beyond inane, juvenile, and showed a complete lack of understanding for the characters, the stories, or the issue. But I agree that Marty/Todd seems to be doing that one worse (however, I do find it at least more interesting, in a horrible way, to watch). OLTL's main prob was a LONG chunk of late 90s, early 2000's which were simply *deadly dull*.

[dragonflies]

AMC: Bianca spewing Babe is love, the continued propping of characters like Greenlee, Ryan, Babe who do stuff like drive babies off cliffs and whatnot but yet are CONTINUALLY rewarded for their actions. Like with Tad, how did he suffer by burying a man alive? He got a shiny new baby from his adulterous act with Adam's wife, Greenlee got rewarded with a shiny new sex buddy(Aidan), and her victims were the ones punished.

Also in AMC's case things like the unabortion, acts like that, that undo history, trample and spit on it, all so whomever is currently writing can make THEIR mark on the show, not giving a damn what it does to the show.

OLTL: The Todd/Marty stuff is the straw that breaks the camel's back for me

[Gray Bunny]

GL: The death of Maureen, as already mentioned. Also, the cloning of Reva. It marked the beginning to a long string of unrealistic storytelling that GL was not known for. GL was always considered a more realistic, family-centered soap. To all of the sudden jump the shark and do unreal sci-fi storylines turned a lot of long-time viewers off.

DAYS: The Serial Killer story of 2003-04. It forever mocked the whole soap concept of "returning from the dead". The whole island reveal and the explanation of the killings really killed any ounce of credibility that DAYS still may have had. It was also the last time there was a good buzz about the show and to have *that* twist come when there was finally a spotlight back on DAYS... well, suffice it to say that spotlight will most likely never turn back on.

[quartermainefan]

GH

Sonny comes to town

Jason loses his mind

AJ loses his son

Carly meets Sonny

AMC

Kendell II comes to town

Ryan comes to town

Greenlee comes to town

Zach comes to town

[Kylie]

Josh "broke" AMC for me. When a show has that little respect for it's own history and the women that watch it, it's beyond repair, IMO. They can never fix in me what Josh broke. And that's sad, because for the first time in three years, I actually want to watch.

[Vee]

At the moment,

does it for me and OLTL. What is really tragic is it's a writer I've loved. It's not even something I could proudly feel vindicated in my hatred about, like Dena Higley.

[brimike]

LOL! Just because it isn't something you liked, doesn't mean it "broke" your soap. LOL!

For AW, I'd have to say Jordan Stark/Lumina. Yes, it was towards the end, but it really tainted my ability to enjoy the final few weeks of air shows. They wrapped up that nonsense, and got back to real soap storytelling... only to be go off the air four weeks later. It really marred what could have been a great send-off. I would have much rather had six months of solid storytelling with the characters I loved than the Hunchback of Reincarnation running around playing "Barnabas" looking for his "Josette". And it was tough for me to even care in those last few weeks, after so many years of loving that show.

I would also agree with Maureen's death on GL.

On Days, and I know I'm going to get really attacked for this, but Eileen Davidson's five roles really made me stop taking that show seriously, and it never recovered in my eyes, long before Melaswen. I LOVED Kristen/Susan, but once it went beyond that, I lost all joy watching it, and never really got it back. I understood the Exorcist story and Buried Alive because they were love stories at their core - but Mary Moira and Thomas and all of that wasn't about romance. It was just camp for camp's sake. I watched Days for many years after that, but never in the same way, and my expectations for the show were drastically lowered after that.

[cct]

Kylie, I say, "Go ahead and watch." Besides, Josh is gone now, and....for Pete's sake, it's a soap. IMHO, soaps don't "break" or "jump sharks," they just evolve. (Or devolve as the current case may be.) The long-term aspect of the genre negates any ideas like this. It's like saying America "broke" during the Civil War, or Europe "jumped shark" with World War II. There are peaks and valleys with soaps, because soaps, like no other medium, represent LIFE, with all its peaks and valleys.

I wish that were more eloquent, but it's getting late and I need to toddle off to bed.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

The thing with Maureen and GL, I can actually see where JFP was coming from when the focus groups came up lukewarm in terms of that character. I didn't agree with firing Ellen Parker just so Jill could her hire then FOJ, Justin Deas though.

However, Maureen was a supporting character, there was really no way of predicting that her death would have such a tremendous impact on the show. It wasn't until later with all the regime changes and the loss of a potential matriarch did it seem like such a stupid move. The show lost its potential matriarch, the one who was groomed to follow in Bert Bauer's footsteps. I also though the storyline leading up to Maureen's death, the death itself, and the IMMEDIATE aftermath was some of the BEST soap opera EVER created. No one can tell me that Nancy Curlee and Stephen Demorest didn't write the hell out of that mandate to kill Maureen.

However, once all the dust settled, it was clear that getting rid of her meant getting rid of that "certain character that all shows need," as Michael Zaslow put it in an interview after Maureen's death.

I'm so glad that both Ellen Parker and the GL writing team won an Emmy out of that storyline, in hindsight, it was probably the best thing to come out of it. GL was ROBBED of a win for Drama Series that year.

[brimike]

I absolutely see your point, Alvin. THing about these moments that "break" a soap (

), is that I don't think you know something is broken until long afterwards. I remember watching Maureen's death in the same horrible "good" way I watched Maxie/BJ on GH, or Cassie on Y&R. It wasn't until years later that I realized they had killed something far more than just a character, when they got rid of Maureen. I don't think it's possible to know in the moment that something like that can have a long-lasting effect, or to predict it. It's only in hindsight, when you realize that was the "beginning of the end" for a viewer, in terms of their viewership and how they perceive the show, that you realize it was such a show-changing moment.

[Kylie]

Seriously? Why is this the attitude people take with me? Did someone else in this thread pretty much say that if something on OLTL happens, they're done with it? God, I don't get this. Other people can stop watching and it's perfectly acceptable. But no one gets why I can't?

Wow.

[All My Shadows]

Honestly, I think that everything after cct's "IMHO" was not directed towards you personally but just in general. But i do agree with what came before the IMHO. The world will not cave in if you watch the show again...the writer who wrote the storyline is long gone, the actor and character have both disappeared from the show. There really is no reason to hold a grudge anymore...but if you're fine with not watching and fighting any temptations to watch, that's all on you.

[MTSRocks]

Y&R: Watch the Lynn Marie Latham saga.

[brimike]

ARGH!

Sorry, Toups!!! I FORGOT WHICH THREAD I WAS IN!!

I am humbled and shamed. Totally my bad... :-(