Failed famailies

[Cheap21]

Also on Y&R what about Britney and her family? I know they added her parents but did the show try to integrate them or were they simply short term to support her?

GH - Taggert/Campbell. It was the last time GH tried to make a black family work and they failed miserably

[DRW50]

I don't remember if the father had a story. The mother slept with JT, although that was more about Brittney.

[Paul Raven]

The Kendalls on SFT.We had Lloyd(recast 3 times)sons Chase,Michael,Steve and Alec(who came and went at different times) as well as Alexis clone ex wife Estelle.

[Darn]

They hinted at Jill and Brittany's father. Didn't go anywhere.

[LoyaltoAMC]

Wasn't the Holloway family introduced on AW after Lemay left in 79? There was Kit Holloway, her brother, and aunt Miranda Bishop (played by Judith McConnell) and maybe some other family members. I was only a kid at the time, so it's pretty hazy, but I do recall them on for a while. They weren't very successful. Then again, almost nothing worked in the immediate post-Lemay era with Tom King as HW, besides the Rachel/Mac/Janice/Mitch storyline, which I think was mostly King. Also, were the McKinnons considered a successful family? Yeah, Jake and Kathleen were popular, mostly because of their romantic pairings, but were they a success as a family unit? I know that Maggie DePriest brought them front and center when she HW in 86/87 with the whole Jason Frame murder thing, but besides Jake and Kathleen, they just seemed to fade away by the late 80s. At least that's my memory of them. How about the Walkers of Santa Barbara? They were Pam Long's attempt to mainstream the show and showcase Zimmer, but they were a disaster from the get-go and never really jibed with the offbeat nature of the rest of the show.

[DRW50]

Wasn't the Dbujak family on RH a flop? I remember some comments which said that the daughter in that family was worse than any of the Kirklands ever were.

Would it be wrong if I list the Logans from B&B? I was a big fan of Brooke when I watched more often but I don't think anyone in her family has ever worked as a character, with the too young, loopy version of Beth and the plastic bimbo Donna being the most out of place.

[DRW50]

Most of them were gone by the time Jason was killed.

I don't know if they were successful but I think MJ was somewhat popular, at least until that story where she was revealed to be an ex-prostitute. I don't think they ever knew what to do with Mary. Cheryl was OK. I guess she couldn't have been that popular, as she was fired, wasn't she?

They did bring a few of them back for Kathleen's return, although after that the family just completely vanished. In 1997 Michael Malone said he wanted them to return but couldn't afford it.

I also wonder about the Love family. Were they popular, or was it only Donna? Nicole was recast over and over and never had a good story, then she was sent off crazy. Peter was also recast multiple times, with a personality change each time. I thought Reginald was just about unwatchable (his relationship with Philece's Donna especially got on my nerves).

[Mr. Vixen]

Also, GH's WARD's were sort of like this too.

I mean, they were on for a while, but then they completely fizzled out for a long time. And the last return of Justus didnt accomplish anything other than the fact that Sonny needed a new lawyer.

But, GH seems to be rebirthing them with Maya/Zoe...I am hoping Keesha will return, too.

[DRW50]

The Ward family only had a purpose with Mary Mae.

[DeeeDee]

GH Barretts, Cates, Drakes & Jeromes

B&B Warwicks

OLTL Medinas, Grandes, DeMerests & Moodys

PC Woods, Barringtons, Garzas & Ramseys

[DeliaIrisFan]

What's interesting about this thread is that I'm having trouble remembering any families in that vein that actually did survive over the long haul. It seems like, historically, a new regime always has come along sooner or later and dismantled the interloper family that viewers hated. In the past 10-15 years, of course, it's typically been to replace them with other, equally banal newcomers, so it's a hollow victory. But shamelessly grafting a new family on a show in which the stories for the existing characters are a mess never seems to be successful. The closest I can think of is when one lone character from the family survives and makes a mark, long after the others - like Lindsay on OLTL or Leigh Kirkland.

Leigh, incidentally, is an especially interesting case because she was brought on by Claire Labine and Paul Avila Mayer when they returned as head writers, after the rest of the family had already been written out. Then, in fact, years later, when Labine returned as head writer for the last time, she brought Leigh back again, and the Kirklands were actually being talked about in the final weeks of the show, nearly a decade after their fifteen minutes. Not to mention the fact that Leigh and her family were mentioned by name in several of the scenes in which Kate Mulgrew returned and Mary "talked" to Jack and Maeve when Jack was first getting involved with Leigh - which is so surprising because those scenes were supposedly filmed over a year before they aired, before Labine and Mayer left for the first time, and then they ended up sitting on a shelf while the show was too busy focusing on other things to bring on a new love interest for Jack. So the Kirklands must have been conceptualized before the change in writers, and the head writer at the time (Mary Ryan Munisteri) had been a longterm part of the writing team, so it stands to reason that she was privy to Labine and Mayer's longterm story projections. Clearly, something went very wrong in the execution and Labine and Mayer were not impressed with the family when they returned - they wrote the Kirklands out in essentially one episode - but it makes me wonder what Labine and Mayer would have done differently had they never left.

I wonder if the McColls on ATWT came close to surviving - the actors playing the siblings (not sure about the guy who played the father - everything I've seen of this family was after he was killed off) all seemed to have left willingly, around the same time, and they went on to be mainstays of other soaps. A part of me wishes the family has survived, based on what I've seen on YouTube. The show was clearly not great at the time, and the McColls all seemed to be poorly developed, paint-by-numbers kind of characters, compared to the more complex wealthy villains that Marland created. But there was something so soapy and '80s about them that was kind o fun, at least in small doses, and I think the way they were tied to the show with Lisa being Whit's widow and Diana having caused trouble for Steve and Betsy, leading to Steve standing trial for Whit's murder, was kind of interesting. If Marland had come along a year or so earlier, I wonder if he would have written for the McColls and found a more lasting way to integrate them into the canvas.

One of the cool things about soaps that doesn't really happen in any other medium is the way that remnants of one era - like a family that failed to take off - can be used as a bridge to something else. Years later, when the dust settles, it can be interesting to look back and see what ultimately had staying power. Some failed soap families made their marks, after all, because of the way in which they were written out. What are some of the most memorable swan songs for short-lived soap families? I'm thinking the O'Neils on OLTL must have been up there; Harry was killed by Mitch, leading to Nikki reemerging on the witness stand, and then didn't one of the daughters join his cult and eventually got sent off to be deprogrammed or whatever?

[Mr. Vixen]

Mary Mae Ward was great...Justus was a yawn in his later years, and where the HELL is Keesha? I dont think Senait Ashenafi is too busy...She'd probably be thrilled to come back and meet her "cousins"...

[DRW50]

There was another O'Neil who left with Brad, right? And then there was Didi, who was a very popular character, wasn't she? She worked well with Bo in the clips I've seen. I wonder what would have happened if she'd stayed around.

I think the main McColls were gone by the time Marland showed up. I don't know if he wrote out Kirk or if Kirk was going anyway. I know Mark Pinter said Marland told him Brian would be written out and this would take place over an entire year. From what I've seen my problem with that family, besides the shallow writing you mention, was the awful actor who played Whit.

[DRW50]

The Rappaports are an odd case because many viewers, myself included, loathed them, but aside from firing Kale Browne, there was no real move from OLTL to dismantle the family once JFP was gone. Jason Shane Scott wanted to leave, and if he hadn't left, he probably still would have been a big part of the show. Jessica Morris was front and center until she left of her own volition. Mark Derwin was given less airtime but I think he was probably also leaving of his own choice and they were phasing Ben out. And then Lindsay, who was a pointless character for a long time before her actual exit, lingered on for ages.

[DeliaIrisFan]

I wouldn't go that far, but Rosalind Cash was certainly the main draw and it didn't help that she passed away at the same time Claire Labine was leaving as head writer and ABC daytime in general was getting whitewashed after making some strides with diversity in the early and mid 90s. I liked the performers playing both Keesha and Justus (the original, that is) and the ties to the Quartermaines could have driven story for years. But it was a convenient point for writers and network higher ups who had no interested in developing characters of color to phase them out.

I've often thought that what might have helped give the family momentum that could have sustained them at that time was if Justus's sister, Faith (who was also Edward's granddaughter) had been brought onto the canvas before Mary Mae's passing. Given her name, it would have been ironic if Faith had turned out to be the one who took after the Quartermaine side of the family; she could have come to town eager to get her share of the newfound family wealth, butted heads with the Quartermaines who weren't so eager to share, been mentored by Edward to take over the family business after proving that she had more mettle for business than any of his grandsons, and just generally stirred up trouble for all kinds of people in Port Charles. Much to Mary Mae's horror, of course, and she and Justus would have tried everything to save Faith while Keesha might have resented her cousin. Of course, Faith would have felt awful for disappointing her grandmother after she died, and she would have grown up a little from that experience, but she still could have kept her edge a la Erica Kane after Mona died.