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Circa 1975, AMC did a child abuse (nonsexual) involving the Coles family--Stacey, Wyatt and Jamie. It was a little before I started watching the show, and I don't think the characters were on for very long or were integrated with the other characters. From what I've read, it was heavily PSA-ish.

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GL did a storyline which totally rewrote a character's history (Ben Reade) to say he had been molested as a child, and this was done solely to show why he had become a serial killer. It was horrific, and like Conboy and Weston's other attempts to rationalize their shock value storytelling with psychobabble (how daring to have a psycho Vietnam vet story...in 2003), deeply offensive.

ATWT had a story which was mapped out over 3 to 4 years with Angel Lange, a very fragile woman who was involved first with Caleb Snyder, then, after he left her and she had an abortion, his brother Holden. She refused to give Holden a divorce even when she clearly knew he didn't love her. Many thought she was being selfish, but actually she was terrified of her father, Henry, who had repeatedly raped her throughout her life, and who was the father of the child she had aborted. Henry committed suicide rather than face what he had done, and Caleb, who was accused of killing Henry, kept quiet to protect Angel, until she decided to speak out. They had a scene which flashed back to Henry molesting Angel when she was a little girl, then the next scene flashed back to his mother molesting him when he was a little boy.

OLTL had the very well known story with Viki being sexually abused by her father, and then, in a sick and shameful attempt to cash in on that history, had Jessica retconned as being put into child porn as a little girl when Niki Smith took her out to bars.

AMC had a storyline Genie Francis was very proud of where her character Caera had been molested by her father.

B&B had a story where Jake McClain believed his father had molested him, but actually it was his father's friend or friends, at a poker game.

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Jim Thomasen had put Laura into kiddie porn when she was living in New York. When her mother found out, Laura ran off, and her mother was killed in a fire. Laura blamed herself, but then they found out Jim had started the fire. The boy Jim had put in those movies came to Pine Valley, and Jim caused him to overdose.

Jim did tell Brooke he was going to go after her son Jamie -- that was the reason she shot him.

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I always wanted one for Jill Larson's Opal on AMC. Have Opal move on from clucking in the corner with the other hens, Myrtle and Marian, and quit pining away for Palmer, and cease being Erica's ugly duckling galpal... and get involved with a man who is charming, attractive and genuinely into Opal -- but finds Petey to be a monopoly on Opal's time and takes it out on him. I've always wanted Jill Larson to have something genuinely dramatic to play ever since she was given that rare-yet-brilliant moment to blow the roof off after Palmer locked Opal in the secret room. Definitely more than hocus pocus and peal clutching.

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It really has been a long time since she's gotten something really dramatic to do. I love having her back on more than she used to be, but yeah, it's time they gave her something to sink her teeth in for a while. Too bad that ship's passed because Petey was definitely the type of kid to get a guy keyed up. They should introduce a family member from her past.

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During the B&B storyline, I believe it was Jake's uncle (his father's twin brother) who was revealled to be the one who molested Jake.

Like AMC in the 1970s, "Days of our Lives" had the Barton family (Fred, Jean, and Billy). Fred beat Jean, and I think Billy. Later, wasn't Duke Johnson physically/sexually abusive to Adrienne.

Most of the time, daytime tells the story of the adult survivor of sexual abuse rather than from the child's point of view.

On "Loving," Cooper Alden had been sexually abused by his nanny Selina in his youth. On "General Hospital," Kevin's twin brother Ryan Chamberlain had been sexually abused by their mother.

Regarding the Ben Reade story, they didn't really rewrite his history, did they? When Ben left in the mid-1990s didn't he go off to boarding school? This was when the sexual abuse occurred during his time off screen. The audience may not have liked the fact, but I was more upset when online posters says this couldn't happen because Fletcher was such a great father. I found that statement very offensive. I thought there were much more controversial elements to Ben's final storyline. I remember Logan talking about how Ben was going to commit suicide, but the staging and direction of Ben's death suggested he was actually trying to kill Marina. I found that shocking since Ben supposedly loved Marina, but overall I didn't care much because I loathed Marina and Ben. I remember thinking the subsequent scenes where Lizzie tried to take her life with broken glass was pretty powerful, but I might think otherwise if I watched it again.

I'm blanking on the psycho Vietnam vet story on Conboy's "Guiding Light." Are you referring to Ramona's husband Mitch Hendon?

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