I hated all of them. If there's one thing Sheffer did right it was getting rid of The Lockharts.

Actually, he wanted to keep Bonnie around and have her hook up with Victor. But when Farah Fath decided to leave, he decided to write out Bonnie too.

Days - The Lockharts who consisted of Bonnie, Mimi, Patrick and Conner.

I'm not sure you can call them a failure. Mimi was a main part of the show for 7 years. Bonnie was a big part for over 3 years...same with Patrick.

If you're counting the Lockharts as a failure, then the Walkers (Nicole, Taylor, Brandon, Fay, and Paul Mendez) should be counted as well. But I don't view either family as failures. No families other than the Bradys and Hortons, and the lesser families like the DiMeras, Alamains, and Kiriakises stand much of a chance in Salem.

On the Y&R, do the Brookses and Fosters count as failed families? There are no traces of them anymore. Jill isn't even a biological Foster.

Hmmm...Jill wanted to find Kay's biological daughter, but isn't she interested in finding her own biological mother???

Edited February 23, 201015 yr by catsmeouch

Ugh I HATED that they made Ryan related to Duke in any way.

Like Ryan's horrible family wasn't enough.

AMC Hunters, Keefers, Cambias, Fryes, Montgomerys, Smythes

ATWT Walshes, Grimaldis

It's too bad ATWT never made more of an effort with the Walshes. They gave up on Sierra, Bianca disappeared, Sam disappeared, Royce fizzled out. If only Neal hadn't died...

The best part of the Keefers for me was Belinda.

I love Anna Stuart but the Smythes never clicked for me. I don't think it helped that every time I saw Grandmother I started hearing the One Day at a Time theme in my head.

I hated early Buzz, partially because of all his airtime and also because of the way he treated Nadine. I liked Jean and Justin together but the writing for that relationship often pushed my buttons the wrong way, especially since he had abandoned her and their children. The OTT acting from Deas and the sense that my favorites were being hustled out also made me dislike Jenna/Buzz. Looking at their clips now, I see the chemistry between them, especially when Deas is more restrained.

I think I have the opposite reaction to watching early JFP work then vs. now: I tended to take things at face value at the time, and now looking back they make me cringe. My age probably had a lot to do with it, but I can see parallels. Like the introduction of Nick - at the time he and (Kimberly Simms') Mindy made for a lovely couple, but the way everyone fawned over him and he treated Alex so wretchedly is now clearly a precursor of things to come with JFP propping up her friends. Plus knowing how much Beverlee McKinsey hated those scenes and made her want to quit underscores just how much it wasn't worth it. I'm sure there were similarities with Buzz, although at the time what Nadine was doing to Bridget was so awful that I just didn't sympathize with her that much. Also on GL in the early '90s, I think nearly everyone got their moment in the spotlight eventually, at least more so than in later JFP endeavors.

Edited February 23, 201015 yr by DeliaIrisFan

Like Ryan's horrible family wasn't enough.

Well, since Rae Cummings and Anna Devane made everyone on ABC soaps connected to each other, it only made sense. I find it strangely weird that Dillon Quartermaine lives in Llanview and uses a fake name, though.

Yeah, I hated Nick, partially for that reason and also because Mindy and Alex were always about his character after that. I also thought he was a sanctimonious prick. I hated the way he said "Melinda". I didn't start to like Nick until after JFP left, by which time he was almost gone. I don't blame Vincent for that, as I have always liked him on AMC and he was fine in the Lujack clips I've seen. JFP just has a way of not showcasing her friends in the way she expects.

Would someone say that the Lockridges were a failed family? Outside of Augusta and Lionel, were any of them around for long? Wasn't Laken recast over and over and over?

Poor Dani, what a mess her character became

The father died early on, right? I guess it was Steve and what, Frank, was that his name? Frank was fired sometime in 1985 or 1986? I wonder why they didn't keep Frank and Maggie around, since she was Lyla's sister.

Poor Dani indeed. Stern and Black turned her into a pathological liar and being obsessed over Nikki Munson's boyfriend of the month; of course Passanate having her sleep with step-dad Craig was the final nail.

Marland quickly wrote Frank and Maggie along with the daughter, Jill once her took over. A few months after they left, Jill's bio father Cal Randolph was violently murdered(see after the Y&R ad):

I didn't mind the Dennison girls either. Megan gave the already unstable Tony/Grace another wrench, while Tricia helped break the stalemate of the three years running Ryan/Nina/Cole/Victoria quad and then turned into something else.

Speaking of Y&R, I think Devon's family was an EPIC FAILURE.

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.

This got buried and I never got the chance to respond. I guess I did overestimate the significance of Kale Browne being replaced as some kind of repudiation of the "Rappa-Davidsons." Even so, that was such a bold move, and right out of the gate for Tomlin and Co. - especially since JFP was being "rewarded" for her "success" at OLTL by being transferred to GH. You'd think her favorites would have been sacred cows. I was also thinking of Matthew turning out to be Bo's son after all, years later. And I actually thought that Jessica Morris did not leave of her own volition. Maybe I'm wrong, but even if she was fired, Jen did last so long and through so many different regimes that it's just as likely that ABC now considered her to be a woman of a certain age and thought that younger viewers wouldn't want to see her anymore as anything else. I guess this family really did become a mainstay, inasmuch as anything on soaps in the past 5-10 years can be a mainstay. Everybody is expendable, sad to say.

It's weird seeing Esther as devious.

Shh, if we talk about Devon's family they might come back.

This got buried and I never got the chance to respond. I guess I did overestimate the significance of Kale Browne being replaced as some kind of repudiation of the "Rappa-Davidsons." Even so, that was such a bold move, and right out of the gate for Tomlin and Co. - especially since JFP was being "rewarded" for her "success" at OLTL by being transferred to GH. You'd think her favorites would have been sacred cows. I was also thinking of Matthew turning out to be Bo's son after all, years later. And I actually thought that Jessica Morris did not leave of her own volition. Maybe I'm wrong, but even if she was fired, Jen did last so long and through so many different regimes that it's just as likely that ABC now considered her to be a woman of a certain age and thought that younger viewers wouldn't want to see her anymore as anything else. I guess this family really did become a mainstay, inasmuch as anything on soaps in the past 5-10 years can be a mainstay. Everybody is expendable, sad to say.

For some reason I thought Jen was popular at ABC -- she was featured heavily for years through Tomlin/Malone/Higley until she was finally gone.

I think that ABC knew the worst parts of JFP's OLTL run. Kale Browne and Tim Gibbs were immediately fired as soon as she was gone. I don't know if the family itself suffered the same fate, that was more like a slow death. You're right about them rewriting Matthew's paternity, although I think that was more about just common sense writing. Having him as Sam's son was stupid. I think some here have said that was just a blatant stunt by JFP to try to tie Sam to the show for good.

For me the fastest dumping of a failed family on OLTL was the Santis.

The Kasnoffs were an attempt by later writers to replace the Snyders. They failed miserably. Mike Kasnoff was a similar start to Holden Snyder, but Mark Kasnoff was just a Fabio-type prettyboy. Sarah Kasnoff was so unpopular that she quickly disappeared from the scene.

Don't forget Nick!

For some reason I thought Jen was popular at ABC -- she was featured heavily for years through Tomlin/Malone/Higley until she was finally gone.

I think that ABC knew the worst parts of JFP's OLTL run. Kale Browne and Tim Gibbs were immediately fired as soon as she was gone.

I'm sure she was popular with Frons/ABC, and like I said if she was fired - which I thought she was for some reason - I think it was for some arbitrary reason, not because they suddenly realized she should not have been the central ingenue/vixen of the show.

Tim Gibbs - that's the other actor Tomlin fired that made me think they were cleaning house where the Rappaports were concerned. How sad is it that I had associated his character with this family, which he wasn't, and completely forgot that he played Kevin? But not surprising, since what little I saw of him, he acted nothing like any other Kevin recast I've seen.

Edited February 23, 201015 yr by DeliaIrisFan

Don't forget Nick!

Boy was that ever bad. After spending six months of completely destroying Carly as well as Carjack for the sake of giving Katie sainthood, TPTB realized nobody liked Nick or the hunk who couldn't act so they quickly out of nowhere transformed into this secret deranged serial murderer who tried framing Mike for skeletons in a wall and then Nick was killed off himself. All in the course of three weeks tops I should say.

I don't know how OLTL expected anyone to like the Rappaports. Sam and Lindsay broke up Bo and Nora, and Will broke up Jessica and Cristian, two of my favourite couples. I immediately hated that family.

Also, I remember being so pissed when Kevin Stapleton was fired and replaced with Gibbs. The only good thing was that it eventually led to Dan Gauthier's casting.