Worst Storylines

[Eric83]

I'm so glad someone else loves the Maryanne Caruthers storyline on GL. Sure, it was pointless and disregarded history, but it was damn fun to watch.

I'd give anything to watch that whole story all over again.

I loved all of these. LOL

[Jay]

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[vetsoapfan]

EEEEEK!!!!!

[Cheap21]

Really Jack? Ive never seen any say they loved this. I thought it was hands down one of the worst storylines ever in daytime. I loved Austin/Greta together but this was pure cringeworthy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMFG5c9DkBQ

[NorrthCafe]

Port Charles - The Vamp storyline... apparently no one else in PC (like the GH characters) were ever in danger. Two soaps, one town, zero connection.

General Hospital - The mob with a heart of gold storyline. I could tolerate them when they were awful and most people knew it. Now the police officers are the bad guys and the mob is misunderstood.

As The World Turns - The Carolyn Crawford murder mystery was the biggest snoozer of a storyline I can remember. I don't think anything on ATWT ever bored me as much.

Young and the Restless - Double the doppelganger storylines. It was all the more insulting tha the writers praised themselves for 'connecting' the two storylines.

Bold and Beautiful - almost any taylor storyline, but that she returned from the dead a SECOND TIME - and this time because no one knew that the dead body they stared at for days was actually a wax dummy.

Day of Our Lives - Stefano kidnaps Marlena for the millionth time and John has to travel through tunnels in Paris to find her. Didn't Stefano have some sort of 'crystal ball' like contraption he used to see what was going on in Salem? I was torn between that and ED's 1001 roles. I know many enjoyed them, I didn't.

One Life To Live - Todd raping Marty a second time and calling it love is at the top of my list, but tied for second is the current teen storyline most and Rachel becoming a murderer and going to prison.

All My Children - Tom Cudahy suing Brooke English for full custody of their daughter because Brooke would be too busy with her job to raise Laura, according to Tom - the man who always held a job or ran his own company. The writers made Tom a bit backwards when it came to his relationships with women.

[juniorz1]

I've never been a GH fan- I rarely even check it out- but I remember the one thing I liked about that story was that they named her "Dobson," which I'm sure was a reference to Jerome & Bridget Dobson, creators of Santa Barbara, where NLG played her signature role of Julia Wainright.

[SFK]

And who JFP didn't exactly get along swimmingly with.

[JackPeyton]

Ha, i LOVED that storyline. The mystery, the needle in the bear, the fashion show, the tunnels, the loft the girls lived in conencting to michelles house and maryannes home. The fact they all had a name that started with M. the rings, all of it. Esp the climax in the hall of mirrors and marah killing her to save Josh.

It was, by far, one of the worst storylines. No doubt about it.

However, it was cheesy fun and OTT. it was so redic it was amazing. And Austin Peck in nothing? Yes, please.

[Jane1978]

DAYS: Iraq - the idea itself wasn´t so bad, but when all Phillip scenes consisted him having some "strategic" talk with his sergant and next pulling out Belle´s photo and singing his praises and promissing he will come back to her (while she is about to screw Shawn at home), it turned into bad parody. And it went worse after Reilly thought screw the realism and let Tony, Sami as "Stan" and finally Shawn, Rex and Lucas! all involved in the Iraq war and we discovered even AlKaida soldiers are on DiMera payroll.

[Jay]

I have often wondered whether "CC" could have gone on as long as it did if it were being written today. The combination of constant spoilers and instantaneous fan response would have killed it before it had been a central storyline within a year, max, I think. I think one reason I watched ATWT as intently as I did was because I didn't have anyone to talk about it with, and CBS/P&G certainly had no idea how I felt about it. It would never have occurred to me to send a letter in the mail, either for or against any storyline, character, or actor.

[Quent]

I have mixed feelings about the Carolyn Crawford storyline. Yes, it was not one of Marland's best-thought-out plots. It involved the murder of a woman in a wheelchair that we knew nothing about, nor really had any time to care about. The story went on FOREVER. And when it finally was over, we learned that CC had been murdered by some day-player hired thug, on orders of Gavin Krueger, who never shared a scene with CC before she died!

On the other hand, there were a few neat elements. The surrogate mother angle was interesting. The Daryl Crawford/Frannie Hughes/ Larry McDermott triangle was hot, and that scene on the tram at the ski lodge where Frannie thinks Daryl is trying to kill her was thrilling. I know everyone always thinks of Julianne Moore as "ultimate Frannie", but Mary Ellen Stuart was also very, very good in the role.

[DRW50]

The ski lodge scenes were burned into my brain -- that was one of the last soap cliffhangers where I genuinely thought the character was in danger or cared what happened to them.

Mary Ellen Stuart was the first Frannie I saw, but even compared to Julianne Moore, I think Stuart was great. They were both good. ATWT made a huge mistake never even making an effort to bring Sabrina back after 1992.

[saynotoursoap]

I appreciate posts which fairly assess both sides of the coin. It is universally agreed that this plot line continued far too long, and the pacing was all wrong; however, most also miss the point of the story. It is called "the Carolyn Crawford murder mystery", but the story really had little to do Carolyn Crawford and was not a traditional whodunit. Marland's story was a twist on the Doug Cummings story of 1985-86. The point of it was "Did Darryl Crawford kill his wife?" From that perspective, the story was a success. I honestly did not know whether he was guilty or not. During the mountain tram sequences, I was convinced he had killed Carolyn. Marland used this story to create conflict in Frannie's marriage, and on a long-term canvas, it established discord between Frannie and Barbara. Remember, Gavin Kruger's involvement with the criminal Harper family was at the crux of the story. In November 1992, Hal worked undercover as the Harper chauffeur to get evidence that would clear Darryl and link Gavin to the Harpers. There was a shootout in the Harper vault, which apparently ended with Hal's death. Barbara had just discovered her pregnancy with Will. She thought she would have to raise her child alone and railed at Frannie, who she blamed for Hal's death.

The problem was that Mary Ellen Stuart decided to leave at the end of her contract. Marland was forced to write Frannie and Darryl out at the last minute. Their relationship was intentionally left open, with Darryl taking the baby Carrie to Des Moines and Frannie going to Montega with Sabrina. Frannie and Darryl needed time to work out their problems. The plan was Frannie to be recast and Rex Smith to return as Darryl later in 1993 or early 1994, but Doug Marland died, and the plot was left hanging. Had Stuart and Smith stayed, the aftermath of Carolyn's death and Hal's presumed murder would have caused numerous problems in the Hughes and Munson families.

[DRW50]

I never knew there were plans to bring them back. I wonder why they didn't try even without Marland. Rex Smith was popular as Darryl wasn't he? And the canvas certainly could have used some more drama at that time.

Instead Frannie just ceased to exist.

[saynotoursoap]

I loved the Annabelle Simms story. Continuity went straight to the devil with the idea that the Spaudlings, Bauers, Reardons, and Chamberlin men all knew one another, but those were fun mysteries with a touch of the supernatural, great location sequences, and some interesting characters. Carrie Nye's mannered by hysterical performance. I found it silly, but engaging like many of those 80's stories.

Worst of the worst on GL for me? The 1985-87 period when there was a succession of sucky writers after Jeff Ryder and Pam Long left: Mary Ryan Munisteri, Joseph D. Manetta, and Sheri Anderson. They wrote these chestnuts.

Jesse Matthews is a virgin. She spends the night with Simon and DOESN'T have sex, but worries for weeks that she's pregnant. Hello!

Calla Matthews suddenly can't have sex with Ross. The reason: she finally remembers that ex husband Gordon once gave her syphilis.

Chelsea Reardon's boyfriend Jean Claude (puhhhhlezze) crashes his car into Phillip Spaulding. When Jean Claude dies, the annoying Chelsea blames Rick (???) for Jean Claude's death.

"The Man From Amsterdam". A ridiculous plot involving a diamond smuggler, played (badly) by serial villain Jack Betts, and had absolutely no purpose, rhyme or reason that I recall.

Johnny Bauer/Christine Valere/Paul Valere: Christine dropped her dress in practically every episode, cooing "ooooo, Johnnnnny Bauer". Everybody in town vocally vowed to murder Paul, an art dealer, who again had no purpose at all. Paul WAS murdered, shot by Christine, only it later turned out that Warren Andrews had done the deed. Why? Who knew? The writers certainly didn't.

The Swamp Monster. There was swamp monster spotted at the local pond. I think it attacked Reva and had something to do with Jackson Freemont. It turned out to be Professor Blackburn looking for some gold coins or something.

Any one remember when every character on the show suddenly started working for some asinine trucking company? Even Jackson Freemont, European music promoter, found himself out of a job and hauling loads. Something shady was going on. Some guy beat Roxie to a pulp and tried to kill Rusty with a sawed-off shotgun and Hawk tied to a chair.

Worst of all, they tried to pair Alexandra with old coot H.B. Alex and H.B. spent the night locked in a fur vault. Did they do it to keep warm? God help us.