Favorite Friday Cliffhangers

[darraholic]

Passions: Hank shooting and "killing" Sheridan.

Sunset Beach: The earthquake, Mark telling Meg that Ben killed him, Olivia & Caitlen driving off the cliff.

DAYS: Too much to mention. One of my favorites was Hope getting buried by an avalanche.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbZo3odGw3Y

[Mitch]

For years we have been having baby switching storylines, I never understood why an HIV twist was so offensive. I thought it was a good updated twist on an old cliche. I actually loved a lot of McTavish's tounge in cheekness with the story, she played with the conventions of soaps, without it becoming campy..(i.e. Marion is a plain frousy woman, who, in real life no one would notice, but in soapland immediatley set out warning signals that something aint right. The scene when Brett reveals himself to the cops over the internet, "The part of Marion Crane is now being played by....Brett Lawrence," a riff on both the old announcements they used to make for a new actor, and the morphing witch face in the crystal ball in the Wizard of Oz!" I thought McTavish was great at that, she just want good at "Guiding Light," (weird stuff, like Michelle calling Vanessa "Mrs. Reardon," and Nola, her aunt, "Mrs. Chamberlin," how the characters were ground down to their most cartoonish essentials, etc.) She also burned out after Brent, and the show lost all energy.

And yes, he was going to be "redeemed," and Abby was going to befriend him and be a Maureen to his Roger..but his breakdown closed that door.

[DRW50]

So that was confirmed, he was going to be redeemed? The Abby/Brent scenes would have been compelling but it was probably for the best that the character left (not for the best that the actor had a breakdown, I mean).

Remember when Vanessa and Lillian sat around with Annie talking about Reva being an adulteress? That was the biggest WTF moment on soaps at that time for me, and still stands out as one 15 years later. Of all people to cast aspersions regarding adultery, Lillian was not one (especially not only a few years after Maureen's death), and Vanessa may not have been a Reva booster, but she liked her a lot more than she liked Lillian.

I think one of the reasons some were upset is because AIDS was more of a sensitive subject then, there were fewer of the medications that prolong the life of someone with HIV, and this was coming right on the heels of the very serious Stone story on GH. I wasn't sure about the story, but generally I thought they handled it OK and I thought they did a wonderful job with the Susan character and showing her as having a full life with HIV.

I was more upset with the way Nadine was murdered, although the rest of the story I thought was very good, overall. There was, as you mentioned, a lot of humor, which was something good GL psychos in that era had (Cynthia Watros's Annie also had a lot of humor).

[Llantano Incorporated]

Best Friday cliffhangers:

Y&R-

David Kimble revealing his bandaged face (after getting plastic surgery to look like David Hassellfoff!)

The plastic surgeon etched the word KILLER in his forehead. AMAZING. I remember that my grandparents were watching me for a week, I was 14 or 15, and I called my grandmother in to watch it over and over! (I taped every episode of Y&R and OLTL back then).

OLTL:

After the Patrick London storyline ended Tina follows Ursulla to the lighthouse to look through Patrick's journals to try to understand him better.The tide comes in and Tina is trapped. Ursulla tells her there is no escape.

After he rapes Sarah and is then shot by Sarah, Asa and Cord bury the dead Austin Buchanan on Llantano Mountain. The episode ends with his hand coming up out of the ground. He was alive.

[Llantano Incorporated]

Sedrick- You summed up OLTL in the 80's perfectly. No one did Friday cliffhangers better than OLTL in the 80's. They were generally life or death cliffhangers. I never tired of it.

[DRW50]

The faux Bo story does seem very suspenseful in the clips I've watched of it. I think a lot is also down to the work from the actors -- I didn't know that Shelley Burch and the woman who played Didi were that good at dramatic stuff. Was it a cliffhanger when they briefly escaped from the guards and Didi tried to make a phone call, or was that just a regular part of the episode? That really got me, even though I knew she wasn't going to get through.

[Llantano Incorporated]

God I loved that storyline. It was so suspenseful. I do not remember if that was the cliffhanger or not..That was the summer that OLTL hit #1 for a week.

[Leia]

Y&R Jack walked away from Victor's heart attack at Newman.

Jill running through cornfields to prevent Billy and Mac from consumating their marriage.

GL Tammy finding out Johnathan was her cousin

Alex finding out Mick was her missing twin

B&B

Brooke finding out Thorne married Macy after Venice

Ridge proposing to Taylor instead of Brooke

Brooke racing to the church to tell Ridge she was pregnant with Bridget

OLTL

Nash's crash.

Adriana punching Gigi.

Nora finding out Daniel Coulson was gay

Todd trapping Nora at the beach house