Examples of characters that have been on for years but rarely interacted

[DeeeDee]

KEESHA DOESN'T NEED YOU TO LIKE IT!

Not really.

In a lot of ways it was similar to Marland's ATWT.

Unlike ABC soaps that let newbies eat the show.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

And neither actress that played KEESHA was African American (like the character was). One was Puerto Rican and the other was dark skin Italian.

[SFK]

Ouch. That kind of hurt my feelings.

-Keeth

[DeeeDee]

And his

-Teeth

[bellcurve]

AHAHAHAHA!

WIN!

[R Sinclair]

Collateral damage.

Good heavens. I can't get past them!

[tylerbo20]

i hate on DAYS how Sami and Vivian have not shared a scene yet and when Vivian was in town last time she was mentoring Sami Brady!!!

[Chris B]

I liked the isolation on Y&R and how characters would cross paths when it made sense. Y&R had a large cast and it wouldn't make sense for them all to be jumping over each other. For example, Michael didn't meet Victor until he returned in 1998. But think about it....why would Victor have needed to meet himbefore?

They had various recurring lawyers and whatnot so you didn't have one or two people covering all the cases as it is now. Some of those tiny little things helped the show so much.

[JamesF]

Allegedly that's because Anne Kirkbride and Helen Worth do not get on. In all my years watching I'd never cottoned on to it but a friend pointed out to me and it's been glaring ever since. It'll be interesting now Tracy's supposed to be involved in Gail's story...

As far as other examples, B&B ironically seems converse to Y&R. Until the mid 90s, people did interact a lot - particularly the Forresters who actually seemed like an 80s primetime soap family as opposed to a disparate bunch of perverts. Sheila is a case in point. She married Eric and touched on everybody's lives within the family even bringing Kristen back to town. By around 1994, she wasn't involved with some characters at all (Thorne, Macy, Taylor, even Brooke eventually).

[DaytimeFan]

Y&R had it's sense of isolation which I thought was a positive, it made the show realistic because in reality many of the characters wouldn't see each other all the time. Having those recurring characters like John Silva that padded out the interaction. I liked how it used to be.

On DAYS there were YEARS when Caroline and Maggie never spoke a word to each other. They literally were never in the same scene aside from a wedding or funeral when they were both extras. Same could be said for Kate and Celeste, I cannot recall them being in the same scene ever.

[soapfan770]

This is more on the level of limited interaction but on GL Reva and Harley didn't share too much story during Harley's 1997-2008 run did they? I mean outside of Harley being the first to realize that clone Reva wasn't Reva and some stuff involving Susan/Daisy they controlled their own spheres really and never crossed. Nothing like circa 1989-1991.

About John Silva I always thought it was interesting to have two characters named John with zero relation on contract and both appeared in the opening credits. I'm surprised John never got a family of his own, Bell could have easily created a full fledged Hispanic family with John and bring Miguel into the mix using the same formula with the Barbers and bringing already established characters like Mamie and Nathan into the mix. Oh well they would have been decimated by Rauch by now.

[Eric83]

They briefly interacted in 2004, during the Maryanne Caruthers storyline. Harley was investigating it and Reva was psychic during this time. They were working together to find out who really killed Maryanne Caruthers.

[Cheap21]

Has Greenlee on AMC ever have anything to do with Brooke? They have one thing in common...they hate Erica

[MichaelGL]

On Guiding Light, I don't believe Blake and Olivia really interacted with one another from 1999-2003/2004. I think those two would have been perfect rivals.

Did WM's Dinah ever interact with her cousin Phillip?

[DRW50]

The only time I remember Brooke and Greenlee around the same story was when Leo and Greenlee were on the outs and Brooke was trying to get Leo to marry a dying Laura.

Reva and Harley had a few scenes in early 1997, very strong if brief scenes, where Harley and Reva argued in the country club bathroom over how Reva could dump Buzz. Someone came in and Reva threw them out and put a chair in front of the door. They also talked about how Harley had been too upset to attend her mother's funeral.

I don't remember WM's Dinah spending time with Phillip. By this time GL forgot for long periods of time that Phillip and Ross were related.