ALL: The Least Destroyed Soap Opera

[Sylph]

Given the right writer and executive producer, in your view — which soap opera is the one that is the easiest to fix?

[Jack]

All My Children, this has been proven. Think of all the negative comments that have been said in the past few months about AMC. Now look at how since Pratt has been gone and the show is moving all the positive things. With the right EP and HW this show will turn its self around.

[atwtfan]

The biggest thing that networks have to stop doing is taking their viewing audience for granted. When they changed a way a charater would act or place them in position they would not normally be in they are slapping the viewer in the face. The least destroyed soap opera is not on the air currently. Each of the last seven shows have been so destroyed that producers and writers need to step back and see what is being put out. As The World Turns is on a slight turn around but nothing will save the show unless they replace the exective producer and the entire writing team. But we do not have to worry about this as the show will be off the air in about 8 months.

[All My Shadows]

As the World Turns, but unfortunately...well, exactly.

IMO, all it takes for a show to get back on the right track is the right characters and its integrity. ATWT has several generations, could use some tweaking in some of the families, but for the most part, no one's really isolated. Everyone could have a place on Oakdale's canvas, and the show, no matter how ridiculous and tired the storylines, still has a pretty sturdy foundation of family-based/relationship-based/domestic-based stories going on, and they've rarely gotten off of that foundation over the years.

It's just a damn shame that it has to end. GL was a dead soap. ATWT is not.

[Chris B]

Probably Days of Our Lives. B&B, ATWT and AMC all have strong enough casts full of key characters so they have potential to reach greatness. Just need better writing and in AMC's case, better production values. Y&R's cast has been weakened, production values are bad and so is the writing. Along with GH both shows seem set in their ways so I'd say both are the most destroyed.

[Mr. Vixen]

GH I think.

I know some say that GH has been like this for sooo long, and that it is pretty much destroyed, I think it is fixable. If there were an new HW, then all he would have to do is break up the most intollerable couples (Jax/Carly, Olivia/Johnny, Sonny/ANYONE, Sam/Jason, Robin/Patrick, Lucky/Liz), and pair them up with new people.

Write out Sonny, Jax, Spinelli, Johnny, Nikolas, and Dante. Recast Michael and Kristina (or at least PLEASE drastically change both characters, cause they are INTOLLERABLE). Focus on a storyline of Keifer and Kristina and the abuse, have it progress to more and more serious storylines leading up to maybe a trial, or something of that nature.

Maxie cheats on Spinelli, and he walks in on it. He is upset and ends up at GH after a drunk driving accident. Nadine is back in town to work on a special case. They sleep together, fall in love, and have a big wedding, and leave PC forever. We find out Jax has been stealing money from Crimson and Metro Court profits, and he goes to jail. Carly lashes out and sleeps with Steven Lars Webber who really loves Robin.

Robin and Patrick are splitsville because he cheats with Lisa, Robin finds out and forgives him, he cheats again, she leaves and takes the kid. Carly and Steven have a few hookups, and Carly gets pregnant so Steven is forced to choose between pregnant Carly and Robin (who he really loves, and she loves him).

Jason gets hit by a car, and slips into a coma for 8 months. When he wakes up he has no interest in anyone or anything that was in his life, and slowly his Quartermaine memories start to return. He convinces Sonny to relocate to Miami, where Sonny has an old mob buddy, so that Jason can stay out of the mob. Once Sonny is gone, Jason goes back and finishes med school (after Monica pulls some strings) and becomes a doctor. Maxie becomes a trainwreck drunk and starts an affair with a griefstricken Lucky (who is depressed with the outcome of finding out Liz is a dirty hoe). Maxie destroys her life and quits her job at Crimson. Sam decides to stop working as a PI after Spinelli leaves, and becomes Kate Howards chief assistant at Crimson.

Lisa tells Patrick that she has been lying and that she is married and has a child back in (wherever the hell shes from), and that she had left her child with her husband because she got bored. Patrick throws her out, and she leaves town. Liz and Patrick start a fling, but nothing too serious, since Liz hasn't recooperated from losing both Liz and Lucky (after Lucky dumped her ass, Nik chased after her, she said go to hell, and he moved to greece). Lulu and Dante become engaged, but Dante falls off the cliff at the park while frollicking with her, though they dont find a body, he is presumed dead. Lulu decides to go spend time with Laura in France, and leaves town for 6 months.

I mean, it's obviously not perfect, but with a good writer, the show could be turned around. I mean if I could think of that off the top of my head, there is hope.

[DRW50]

I would have to agree with AMS and say ATWT is the least destroyed, which may say more about the other soaps than about it, but the potential is still there, with a regime change. Too bad it's too late

I think OLTL has great reserves still left, although every day that Todd/John/Rex take up airtime, and stories have the strange lack of payoff or followthrough, that diminishes a little more.

DAYS, thanks to Tomlin, is in decent shape.

[atwtfan]

At the time in point, each of the remaining soap operas have a chance to reparing themselves but it will not happen over night. To many of the shows today destroy characters to fit their storylines. All My Children has a chance if they are given the correct people to write the show. One Life to Live needs to stop using many supporting characters to carry their storylines and use the one they currently have. Bringing on a recurring character for 3 months does not solve any problem. General Hospital needs to get away from the mod story and focus on the hospital again. The Young and the Restless needs to fire the current produces and writers and start over. The Bold and the Beautiful needs to also stop bring on characters they use for 3 months then let go. As The World Turns needs to keep trying to right the ship and close the show out on a high note and give one to the network and say people still care about soaps in the daytime.

[Vee]

IMO OLTL doesn't need a new team for "fixing," but in terms of least destroyed, it's the one by a mile. I haven't recognized ATWT in years.

[MichaelGL]

I'm surprised OLTL hasn't been mentioned. I don't see it as fractured as some of the other soaps. It still has its heart and soul intact. The only improvements that probably need to be made are a few firings and that's it mostly. Most of the characters have acted in character most of the time, (Unlike AMC and GL) and characters, vital to the feel and fabric of the show, have not been offed(Unlike GH).

[DRW50]

The main problem with OLTL right now is their (or Frons's) idea of who is vital. It's vital to them that John be at the heart of Mitch's story, even though he does not even know Mitch and some of those who were key to his story barely seem to know he's even back. It's vital to them that extensive time and effort be spent on trying to generate pity for Rex. It's vital to them that extensive time and effort be spent on trying to hype Danielle, who did not even exist a year ago, and who has ruined almost a year's worth of story with Matthew and his parents because it's more important that he be a constant prop for her.

They do have core characters, some of whom are still used, and when the show is good it's better than anything else on daytime, but the faces they shove at fans and the storytelling issues (it's difficult to want to get invested in a story when there often isn't any aftermath) hurt. And the writing for the female characters also hurts, because the men are nowhere near strong enough to carry the show.

[DeeeDee]

Amen.

[atwtfan]

OLTL needs to make sure everything flows together and not to take the viewers for granted. The show does not need a new team but just make sure the storylines are not cheesy.

[EricMontreal22]

AMC (and ATWT and Y&R) still are recognizable IMHO if a fan from the 80s turned on the show--they'd see actors they knew, etc. So from that POV it's maybe the least destroyed.

[JaneAusten]

So who are the tentpole characters, where are the families? To rebuild this show you need core components that made it successful and it's not couples it's family. Stories centered around bringing the Quartermaines, Scorpios, and I;ll even say Spencers(although I hate them all with a passion) should be at the center of restoring this show. Where are the characters with goodness and heart. You need them too. Laura, Georgie, Emily all dead or gone. Laura should come back. Since that's never happening, it's unfixable IMO. I say let the mob infestation continue.