ALL: US Soap Opera`s best Villans

[quartermainefan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QONft7VEclA&feature=related

Nora Fulton. She was just so mean. Her death scene is a minute starting at 2:35. The actual act seems a little comical now, but her little speech before is something soap villains rarely get a chance to give anymore because the shows always try to hedge their bets and keep the villains redeemable and viable.

EoN was such a great show. I was shocked that as soon as they solved this murder they practically launched another mystery that same month (or so it seemed).

[Khan]

EDGE OF NIGHT is probably the only soap whose episodes don't look or feel the least bit dated, and that could run today (either in reruns, or in an entirely new variation) and still land an audience. The show was just that good.

[Mr. Vixen]

I would have to say Heather Webber is up there for me. Vivian Alamain, too.

[quartermainefan]

Best soap of all time. It was written for adults, and they had to fire their genius writer so they could dumb it down to bring it in line with the rest of the ABC line up.

[DRW50]

In some ways, EON seems a bit ahead of their time, yet also dated, in terms of how women are portrayed. Raven, for instance. Can you imagine a show today where a woman would have a casual sex relationship with the chief of police, or where a woman is allowed to enjoy sex with multiple partners without being called a slut or a whore.

[bellcurve]

YES YES YES! A 1000X Yes!

[!@#$%^&*] you, AOL, for taking EDGE off the soap lineup!

And Hot Damn! The most rightest thing you ever said, homes!

Raven owned. Period.

[Cat]

Thank you for posting that. I have never seen a second of EON and I was hooked from the moment Nicole walked into the bar searching for her husband (I think). And gosh, is that a young Lori Loughlin I see?

I *LOVE* movies from the 70s/early 80s, and that clip has a real Three Days of the Condor and Klute feel to it. I jumped out of my chair when that chain suddenly slipped over Nora's face and tightened around her neck. It was sudden, shocking and very effective.

This statement makes me so sad because when I was little, I looked up to characters like that who lived life on their terms. quartermainefan's clip shows Nicole, a journalist/anchorwoman out trying to nail her big story and look after her loved ones. Gosh, imagine that, a pro-active woman who works! And who is not waiting for the man in her life to save her.

[ghfan89]

I liked the way Slesar handled Raven, because usually that type of role is for male characters and he took a risk and tried it with a female. I thought he did it very well too, I never felt there was misogyny in the writing.

Another great villian I'm reminded of though the PGP episodes that used to stream on AOL is Nola Madison portrayed by academy award winning actress, Kim Hunter.

[quartermainefan]

She was great. I watched every episode with her on aol and she had this amazing episode where she was drunk and sitting in the bar, talking about being a woman and getting old. It was just something you wouldn't hear on a soap today. The episode where she exited the show was excellent and what made EoN so unique is she was what we would categorize as a female lead along with a couple of other characters, and they still gave her the EON treatment. It really sucks aolvideo ceased. That was a true gift to soap fans.

[Bright Eyes]

Did you ever get around to hanging that Sharon Gabet poster?

[Sindacco]

I disagree. Trevor was the only good thing about the Zacchara stories in 2007-2008. And I liked his relationships with Ric and Sonny.

[Pine Charles]

Raven is definetly a good villain... but I hope Jujubee wins.

[StevieM]

Sadly, Ken Corday, Tom Langan and Jim Reilly (RIP) have succeeded in their long battle to rewrite history. And so most posters, on this site and others, only remember Jack Deveraux of DAYS as comic relief, and maybe as part of a cute couple. Never before in daytime history has a show deliberately worked so hard to make the fans like one of their favorite characters less.

One of the all-time great soap villains was Jack Deveraux. For about a year and a half he was the top villain on DAYS, arguably the most hated character in the show's history. At one point, people were showing up in Matt Ashford's neighborhood to monitor "Jack's" behavior. Ultimately, the FBI had to be called in.

Then Matt Ashford did something amazing. In just over one year he went from being the most hated man on daytime to being the most popular actor on daytime. In 1990, 91 and 92 Jack Deveraux was the most popular character on the show, even though John and Bo (under both PR and RKK) got much bigger pushes. Finally, they just fired him. When they brought him back there was a constant battle to make sure he never got too big or too popular. Thus, the clownish portrayal and all the other nonsense.

Jack Deveraux was both a great lead villain, as well as a superb romantic lead.

I also liked Sami a lot.

Steve