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The Veteran Soap FANNY Awards!


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The Definitive Veteran Soap Fan Awards: THE FANNYS!

Celebrating the best of daytime television throughout the decades!

So often, I see fans on various websites, voting for the best of the best in the soap opera genre. While I always enjoy reading about their choices, it strikes me that many voters, because of their age, and therefore through no fault of their own, only have first-hand knowledge of daytime dramas from the more recent past. The golden-age, halycon years of the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and even (sometimes) the 1980s were before their time.

Having been a devoted soap fanatic throughout five decades (yes, I'm ancient, so please be kind, LOL), I thought it might be interesting to ask longtime viewers of many different soaps what they believe are the award-worthy highlights of the medium as a whole. Of course, folks who have just recently joined the soap community, and who have only watched one single soap (say, Y&R) for a year or two are also welcome to volunteer their two cents, but I'm really curious about the shows, storylines, and performances that veteran, multi-soap viewers still hail as milestones, even decades after their initial broadcast.

So...without further ado, here are my personal choices for the Soap Fanny Hall of Fame!

ALL-TIME BEST ROMANTIC TRIANGLE:

Alice/Steven/Rachel, "Another World"

ALL-TIME BEST SERIAL-KILLER STORYLINE:

Jonah Lockwood (aka Keith Whitney) terrorizes Monticello,

"The Edge Of Night"

ALL-TIME BEST MURDER TRIAL:

Viki Riley stands trial for killing Marco Dane; Karen Wolek

testifies of her behalf, "One Life To Live"

ALL-TIME BEST SECRET-PATERNITY SAGA:

Bill Horton is the real father of his brother's "son",

"Days Of Our Lives"

ALL-TIME BEST SOCIAL-ISSUE STORYLINE:

Chris Brooks is raped and goes through hell,

"The Young & The Restless"

ALL-TIME BEST TRAGEDY:

BJ dies and Maxie gets her heart,

"General Hospital"

ALL-TIME BEST NERVOUS BREAKDOWN:

Leslie Brooks collapses on stage during a concert,

has an acute schizophrenic breakdown, and ends

up in a public mad house, "The Young & The Restless"

ALL-TIME MOST-SATISFYING BITCH-SLAP:

Karen Wolek finds Dorian Lord trying to banish Larry

from the hospital, and opens up a serious can of whup-ass,

"One Life To Live"

ALL-TIME MOST MEMORABLE RETURN FROM THE DEAD:

"Hellooooooo, Barbara!" from "As The World Turns"

ALL-TIME BEST DEBUT EPISODE:

"The Young & The Restless"

ALL-TIME BEST FINAL EPISODE:

"Ryan's Hope"

Honorable Mention:

"Search For Tomorrow's last Jo/Stu scene

ALL-TIME BEST ANNIVERSARY EPISODE:

"As the World Turns" celebrates 30 years,

with Chris and Nancy Hughes' anniversary

ALL-TIME MOST LAVISH WEDDING:

Cruz and Eden, "Santa Barbara"

ALL-TIME BEST TRIBUTE TO A VET:

Papa Bauer's memorial, "The Guiding Light"

ALL-TIME BEST TRUE-BLUE HEROINE:

Alice Matthews (Jacqueline Courtney),

"Another World"

ALL-TIME BEST NOBLE HERO:

Cruz Castillo, "Santa Barbara"

ALL-TIME BEST ANTI-HERO:

Roger Thorpe, "The Guiding Light"

ALL-TIME BEST ANTI-HEROINE:

Iris Carrington, "Another World"

ALL-TIME BEST TEEN COUPLE:

Tara and Phil, "All My Children"

ALL-TIME MOST ENDURING FAMILY:

The Hughes clan, "As The World Turns"

ALL-TIME BEST SPIN-OFF:

"Somerset", from "Another World", depending

on the writers (Henry Slesar, Roy Winsor)

ALL-TIME BEST USE OF COMEDY:

"All My Children" in its glory days

ALL-TIME BEST SOAP THAT NOBODY WATCHED:

"How To Survive A Marriage", during its middle period,

written by the brilliant Rick Edelstein

LONGEST RUN OF CONTINUOUS QUALITY:

"The Guiding Light", 1937-83

WHAT I'D KILL TO SEE AGAIN:

"Another World", 1964-1975

"The Young & The Restless", 1973-1983

"The Edge Of Night" 1956-1976

ALL-TIME BEST WRITERS WHO UNDERSTOOD

THE MEDIUM:

William J. Bell, Rick Edelstein, Pat Falken Smith,

Harding Lemay, Douglas Marland, Agnes Nixon,

Irna Phillips, Henry Slesar, Roy Winsor

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Great idea for a thread, I look forward to hearing more responses. I was born in the late '70s and my soap memories don't begin until around '83/'84. Us younger fans (and there are plenty here who are a good decade younger than me ^_^ ) can read all of the synopses we want or get our hands on as many survivng episodes as possible, but there's nothing like having lived it firsthand. So much of our information is based on the recollections of those who were there, and in many cases we've accepted popular opinion as fact. Such is history I suppose. But I do find it rather annoying when fans born in the late '80s or 1990-anything try to wax poetic about Nancy Pinkerton or Beverlee McKinsey's Iris when they were years from even being born. <_<

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I guess what SFK says apply to me. I was born in 1987 and I'm totally obsessed with the golden age. My soap culture is mainly books, magazines, WOST when it used to work, and youtube now. It will never be the same as if I had seen everything on air but I can't change my date of birth. :)

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