Soaps Most Misguided Marriages

[Paul Raven]

Soaps still cling to the notion that marriage is the ultimate for couples.Hence the number of characters who have chalked up multiple marriages(some very short lived).

Often these marriages are nothing more than a plot point and can damage the characters and storylines.Shows don't seem interested in keeping couples together to face various challenges.More often than not,its a divorce after one,maybe two years.

What are some marriages that you thought should never have happened,because they really weren't explored,or the characters had no chemistry etc.

AMC is a show that has many characters married a lot.Were all of Palmer's,Adam's,Erica's and Hayley's marriages worthwile?

,It's ridiculous to see Jack Abbott on Y&R ready to marry for the 6th time to a woman he's only known for a few months.Wouldn't a supposedly intelligent woman like Emily have some hesitation about marrying so quickly,let alone to a man who's had several failed marriages?

On Y&R,I would nominate Ashley's marriages to Blade and Cole.Both of these were short lived and the stories that took place did not need the characters to be married for the stories to progress.Ditto,Ashley's last marriage to Victor was a waste of time.

Which marriages did you think were not necessary and why?

[DeeeDee]

7th.

Asa Buchanan Wives 12 - 14

Erica Kane & Jack Montgomery

Jessica Buchanan & Tico Santi

Jessica Buchanan & Antonio Vega

JR Chandler & Babe Carey

Adam Chandler & Krystal Carey

Tad Martin & Krystal Carey

David Hayward & Krystal Carey

Billy Abbott & Chloe Mitchell

Cane Ashby & Chloe Mitchell

Cane Ashby & Amber Moore

Nick Newman & Giggly Heffa

Nikki Newman & David Chow

Victor Newman & Sabrina

Jack Abbott & Sharon Newman

Katherine Chancellor & Patrick Murphy

Neil Winters & Karen Taylor

Ryan Lavery & Greenlee Smythe

Bianca Montgomery & Reese Williams

Leo DuPres & Laura English

Daniel Romalotti & Lily Winters

Lily Montgomery & Jonathan Lavery

Aidan Devane & Greenlee Smythe

Sonny Corinthos & Anyone

Jason Morgan & Anyone

Carly Benson & Anyone

Mike Kasnoff & Jennifer Munson

Paul Ryan & Rosanna Cabot

Paul Ryan & Meg Snyder

Craig Montgomery & Meg Snyder

John Abbott & Gloria Fisher

Will Bardwell & Gloria Fisher

Katie Peretti & Henry Coleman

Katie Peretti & Jack Snyder

Holden Snyder & Emily Stewart

[DRW50]

Alan Spaulding and Beth Raines. Why?

Rick Bauer and Beth Raines (the second time)

Josh Lewis and Cassie Layne

Mallet and Marina -- why? why?

Seneca Beaulac and Kimberly Harris on Ryan's Hope -- this storyline was a black hole from which Seneca never recovered

Joe Novak and Siobhan Ryan -- replace Seneca with Siobhan

Too many Brooke Logan marriages to count

Donna Logan and Eric Forrester

Thorne and Macy the second time around -- just wrong and a slap in the face to Macy's character

Sharon Newman and Adam Newman

Olivia Barber and Malcolm Winters

Ashley Abbott and Blade Bladeson

Honorable mention to Victor Newman/Diane Jenkins and Nikki Newman/Josh Landers, although the payoffs were worth it.

[DRW50]

As for Hayley on AMC, I think all of her marriages generally had a point, although I was not a fan of Mateo. The Will marriage was a big turning point for her character, and the marriage to Alec produced good trashy drama, one of my all time favorite trashy soap stories (Alec/Arlene).

[DeeeDee]

Owen/Jackie

Deacon/Macy

Thomas/Gabriela

Nick/Taylor

Nick/Bridget

Cristian/Vanessa

Ric/Liz

Rex/Jen

JR/Marissa

[Cat]

Clearly, B&B's Ridge & Taylor (if you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with!) and Brooke & most anybody OWN this damn thread.

[Khan]

Lord, where do I begin, lol?

As I've said elsewhere on this board, Erica Kane's best suitor, IMO, was Brandon Kingsley; and I believe very strongly that AMC cheated fans when they didn't at least try an Erica/Brandon marriage. (Yes, Brandon was married to Sara, who wasn't exactly willing to divorce, but you and I know there are ways around that, lol.) So, to me, all Erica's marriages after Tom Cudahy have been misguided.

[Khan]

When Asa married Renee for the first time (in that double ceremony w/ Cord & Tina), that should've been the end of it.

Three others off the top of my head...

AMC: Cliff & Nina Cortlandt Warner, nos. 3 & 4 (when they broke up the second time, the 'magic' had evaporated)

ATWT: Holden & Lily Walsh Snyder

and

GL: Josh & Reva Shayne Lewis, nos. 2-758.

And that would be...? ;P

[DRW50]

I never liked Reva and Josh that much as a couple (I always thought she worked best with Billy), but I did enjoy all of their weddings.

On AMC, going back to when I was more invested in the show, the marriage I was most put off by was Jake/Gillian. Talk about a textbook case of Martin sanctimony in full bloom. Gillian was shackled to Jake so she could prove what a "good" person she was. Her whole existence became about his fragile ego. Then as soon as she made a mistake, out she went.

I guess at least she wasn't shot in the head with that husband...

[Mitch]

It think part of the problem with soaps is that they are stuck in a time warp and still hold "marriage," and a wedding as the "money shot" of a storyline. It just gets more and more ridiculous that these people get married more times then a Garbor, all the while living in conservative midwester and New England towns. On GL for instance it became ridiculous when Cassie or Harley would mention their new "loves of their lives," but no one would ever tell them, "uh, you've had about five already." A character like Harley in particular, who was so grounded in "reality," before she stopped being an individual character, and became all about "Gush," and went from a schemeing white trash upstart to a responsible single mother and cop, never once, after all the times she was burned, question marrying Gus or even considering having a kid with him (uh, you have kid with every male over 30 in Springfield, one kid was practically an adult..shouldnt they at least have has some scenes where Harley was like, "been there done that," but Gus naturally wanted to have a kid of his own??) It makes soap characters look silly, like someone gave them a memory wiping drug, that they forgot their high hopes about the rest of their marraiges which ended in disaster.

And why do soap characters, especially the older ones, immediately jump into marraige? Woudlnt a Jack Abbot or Alan Spaulding say, "sorry, I have a fortune to protect, so I am not interested in getting married again...lets just have an affair."

But I would have to say the most ill advised marriage on GL was Reva and Buzz. Why in God's name would the former Red Diva want to be with that dirty looking troll, and the two actors together,in the words on one critic, were like "Two dogs with a bone," in a scene together!

[soapfan770]

ATWT:

Craig and Meg

James and Lucinda

John and Barbara

Hal and Emily

Casey and Emily

AW:

Joe and Paulina

Michael and Donna

B&B:

Let's not go here...

Days:

Roman and Kate

many more

GL:

Mallet and Marina

Fletcher and Holly

Buzz and Reva

Jeffery and Reva

Josh and Cassie

Rick and Mel

Danny and Michelle

Y&R:

Adam and Sharon

Victor and Sabrina

Cole and Ashley

Cane and Lily

Joshua and Nikki--yes the pay off was superb though

Cane and Chloe

Billy and Chloe

Nick and Phyllis

[Khan]

See, I always wanted Reva to end up w/ Kyle Sampson. As good as Josh and Reva were (at one time), no way do I believe one should end up w/ one's "soulmate" just b/c he or she is. But I always rooted for the wrong couples (aside from Quint and Nola, of course), so what do I know?

[Mitch]

AGGGH, Kyle Sampson, he was a more controlling ass then even Jarsh!

Plus he had the nostrils which swallowed Springfield.

Though I have to say I dont know why they didnt retire RR's blustery Alan a few years ago, make Phillip the head of the family and bring back a recast Kyle to chase after Reva, and give SF a new big bad.

Ah, I lurved Quint and Nola..but thought she had a life outside of him, or should have.

[Quent]

ATWT:

The most pointless marriage had to be Alison and Aaron. Since it lasted about twenty minutes, what exactly was the point?

[Dion]

Here are some examples that spring to my mind...

Brooke Logan Forrester Forrester Chambers Forrester Forrester Jones Forrester Forrester Marone Forrester Forrester...while her checkered marital history was pushing it in the '90s at least it was entertaining and there was usually somewhat of a gap between her marriages. However after she got married every year for SIX years straight from 2001 - 2006 it was no longer fun anymore (ok most of her marriages were invalid, but that just makes it even more silly!).

Notable examples include

Her marriage to Whip...not really worth it considering they let him go after only six months (a mistake that they've since rectified), heck the whole storyline of Brooke marrying Whip to conceal Hope's paternity could have been done with Thorne instead since he was back-burnered at the time (for example just say that Brooke and Thorne's annulment/divorce/whatever hadn't come through yet and they lied about having a ONS while separated and were getting back together for the baby's sake, thus saving Brooke an unnecessary marriage).

her marriage to Ridge in South America...Sheila should have kidnapped Ridge before he managed to marry Brooke again, that would have saved Brooke from having to get another annulment when the whole WTD storyline with Nick started.

Her second marriage to Eric to spite Stephanie...that was just downright stupid!

Her marriage to Nick...it was over in weeks once again.

And speaking of Nick, his marriage to Bridget in 2008 must be mentioned. It would have been enough just for Nick and Bridget to be back together when Bridget found out Nick was screwing her Aunt Katie but no...they had to be married even though it had only been a few months since they reconciled (has Nick never heard of just living together for a while?). And now Nick has gone and married Bridget again, meaning Nick is tapping at Brooke's heels as he has gotten married every year for five years straight.

on to GH

Jason Morgan was mentioned earlier in this thread but surprisingly (considering hes one of the two male leads of the show) hes only been married twice. I did think his marriage to Brenda was a neat little twist (Brenda's back and who will she marry? Jax? Sonny?NO - Jason!) but his marriage to Courtney was a waste because after all that pining they were over in months and then it turned out that it wasn't even legal anyway! Jason seems to have learned his lesson though as if this were B&B or AMC you would have expected him to marry Sam (and ok they almost did get married when Sam was pregnant), divorce her and marry Liz and then divorce Liz and be currently planning his second marriage to Sam.

Speaking of Liz, her second marriage to Lucky was also a waste of time (or perhaps it was their divorce that was a waste of time). It would have been much better for Liz and Lucky to call off their divorce at the last minute and decide to give things another go rather than have her re-marry him barely two months after they got divorced! Ditto goes for Liz's second marriage to Ric. I just thank god Lucky found out about Liz and Nikolas' affair before he married her for the third time!

And no mention of misguided marriages on Gh would be complete without Sonny and Carly. Its not so much the fact they were married for the second time only five months after the first (and I don't think they even actually divorced so it was more of a vow renewal than an actual marriage which makes sense in light of the fact that their first marriage was one of convenience). But within months they were divorced and then were remarried the following year! but its their fourth marriage in 2007 which is the worst because instead of using it to have Sonny create months of tension for carjax it was all over in a matter of weeks and Carly was soon married off to Jax (who has his own share of misguided marriages but this post is getting too long lol).