Best and the Worst Black Storylines

[DeeeDee]

She's done fine with The Chief (other than this season), Bailey, Yang, Adele & Burke.

And pulls HUGE stars (past & present) while making massive profit almost each time.

Tyler's writing is horrendous but it's SOMETHING.

Tyler leaves much to be desired as a writer (to put it mildly) but his dedication to telling minority stories via minority talent in front & behind the camera can't be denied.

The racism, inequality & disparity need to be addressed first.

The fact that there are virtually no writers, directors & producers of color behind the scenes in Daytime is indicative of those with privilege commitment to telling minority stories.

[Dee41]

Y&R

Best

Keesha/Malcolm/Olivia/Nathan Sr- I loved this storyline back in the day.

Worst

Devon/Tyra/Neil/Karen- MAB's attempt to write for the black folk

[Paul Raven]

Another World in the early 80's made black characters the focus in the Quinn/Bob/Henrietta storyline that also included RJ,Thomasina and Ed.

That was penned under Corinne Jacker(whom I have read was black or bi-racial) and Paul Rauch was the producer.

However,the show was a mess at that time.

When Pat Falken Smith returned to Days in 81,she introduced Abe(her first new character) and brought back Valerie and Danny.Abe was given a background and it looked like he was going to be a fully fleshed character.Once Smith left,Val was gone and Abe lost his importance.

Of course Generations must get a mention here for consistently using black characters in front burner stories.Did that show do better with black audiences?

In terms of worst,I guess Search For Tomorrow must be mentioned as I don't believe they ever had a black actor on contract,let alone any kind of story.

[Cheap21]

For the most part, I hated the Gannons on OLTL. Every last one of them. I thought there storylines were boring. I did like DD as Rachel but that never felt like the right role for her bc the character is too boring for her talents. I only started to tolerate RJ after Keri died bc I rooted for him over Antonio. I did like him with Lindsay also. I always thought Hank was sanctimonious and came across as such a hater

[Faulkner]

I always thought Nancy Curlee did an exceptional job integrating black characters into Springfield's canvas without sacrificing or "whitewashing" them. The Vinny Morrison story was a true umbrella story that affected ALL of Springfield, and Monti Sharp and Nia Long acted the hell out of it.

Too bad GL was hamstrung by an unwillingness at the time to do interracial couples. David/Bridget would have made a lot of sense. Amelia Marshall's Gilly had oodles of chemistry with Rick Hearst's Alan-Michael, of course, and even Gilly/Roger could have worked. I always thought AM and Michael Zaslow shared a nice vibe.

[quartermainefan]

It is interesting 20 posts in and nobody has cited Generations.

Angie and Jesse's original run with them trying to get together but everything just working against them (especially her father).

Not sure if this counts, but GH did a nice little story with Mary Mae Ward and Edward Quartermaine. It wasn't long, but it was pretty good.

GH had another interesting one about Simone Hardy, her nasty boyfriend Dr Hamilton whatever, his easily manipulated girlfriend, Nurse Meg, and Simone's white hubby Tom Hardy. Hamilton was a typical soap baddie, out to make everyone miserable.

And then I liked (and put a clip on the video lounge a while back) the story of Brian and his father. Brian's father abandoned him years ago to become a song and dance man, but now dying of cancer he returns to find Brian and Brian will have none of it. They eventually reunite and then just as Brian thinks he will have a relationship with his father, the father takes off again (probably to die without Brian ever knowing)

[DeeeDee]

He should be a star.

[DRW50]

I never quite knew what happened with Monti Sharp. When he was on GH and ATWT, he seemed very miscast and ill at ease, there wasn't a lot of connection with the characters he interacted with. I don't think it helped that GH decided to trash the Justus character.

Too bad he didn't find some strong primetime work.

[catsmeouch]

DAYS: When Lexie was searching for her birth parents and Celeste was trying to stop her.

[DaytimeFan]

Best

Y&R: Mamie v Jill. One of my top five Y&R storylines ever. Veronica Redd and Jess Walton had fiery chemistry.

DAYS: Lexie Embraces her DiMera roots. Renee Jones is amazing.

[ChiTownBoi03]

I think I concur with Mamie vs. Jill on Y&R, that was one of my favorites. Mamie was not afraid of Jill and her tirades. "Oh, you gonna hit me now? I WISH YOU WOULD!" LOL yes.

Also enjoyed on DAYS, Lexie's descent into villainy during the baby switch story. She was pretty convincingly creepy in her attempts to keep who she thought was her child.

Other than these, I haven't seen many black storylines in daytime I considered great. I never saw Generations, except for the few clips on Youtube, so I can't say much there.

[catsmeouch]

For the record, I enjoyed all of Passions' "black" storylines: Chad and Whitney's romance, Simone's lesbianism, TC's tool shed secret, Eve and Julian's love affair, Liz is Eve's sister, Chad's search for his parentage, Chad and Whitney are siblings, Vincent, etc...

[Sindacco]

This thread is silly. Am I the only one that want good stories for characters played by good actors? Am I the only one that doesn't care if those characters are black, white, brown or yellow?

[edgeofnik]

Y&R's worst (and it continues to bother me) was Neil's spiraling into the gutter as an alcoholic. It was disgusting to watch. Here was a corporate guy and they turned him into a bum. Awful.

[quartermainefan]

Vincent on Passions though was so bizarre it defies color. It crosses all boundaries to just be Vincent. You either liked the craziness of it or you didn't. I loved when he and Eric Martsolf danced to Fred Astaire.