Top 10 Over the Top Plots of 1996

[Cat]

Dear lord. Do I have to ask what this "secretion" refers to? The mind boggles, and not in a good way.

Those were actually kind of awesome moments -- I felt so bad for Sally and Brooke, though. I remember Ridge put Taylor in the wedding dress he had designed for Brooke and got her to walk down the runway and then proposed to her publicly. How this turd was ever considered a romantic lead after that, I'll never know.

Bwahahahahaha! I actually sort of loved Stefan, especially his relationship with Alexis and Nikolas. But he did take over GH in a big way.

[DRW50]

I don't remember that happening, the secretion, I just remember the octopus, but that's certainly something no one would make up.

I hated the stuff with Brooke and Sally being humiliated just because it reinforced yet again the show's devotion to the idea of Stephanie and Taylor being so wonderful. Stephanie I didn't mind but I hated seeing Sally kicked around for her. And Taylor, I thought she looked like a loser to accept the proposal of a man who was clearly on the rebound. That whole story was ridiculous, and Brooke was better with Grant.

At the time Marlena wrote that column Stefan was still a pretty dynamic character. Sadly by 1997 it was all downhill, between the dull Katherine/Stefan relationship and the show permanently ending Bobbie/Stefan, which was electric. After Luza returned, Stefan spent years in a holding pattern, with some of the most confusing writing ever (he's Nik's father...wait, no he isn't!), and the Laura/Stefan relationship stalled out for ages and ages. Luza got all the praise for Stefan but I wonder now if that was Riche. The writing for Stefan in his 2003 return showed very clearly the loathing Guza felt for him.

[DRW50]

The Marlena column from 1998. This year she said there were so many OTT stories and many soaps did the same stories. I'll just give the basic descriptions and if you want any more detail let me know.

10. ABC Daytime's "Year of the Soap" campaign, which she called pompous and falsely prophetic, and which didn't even last the whole year.

9. OLTL - Nora getting Sam to impregnate her.

8. GL/AW - Annie getting plastic surgery to be Teri/Marley getting plastic surgery and going back to Ellen Wheeler.

7. AMC/ATWT - Liza and Carly being inseminated with sperm which did not belong to the donor they had asked for

6. DAYS/B&B/AW/GL/PC - mind control

5. GH - Katherine returns from the dead without a scratch

4. Y&R - Katherine and Jill's overly violent attic catfight

3. AMC - Harold the dog's death

2. Sunset Beach - Virginia sexually assaulting Vanessa with a turkey baster

1. GL - The Reva cloning

[YRBB]

Ah, the Katherine/Jill attic catfight God, was I shocked when it happened or what?

[Gray Bunny]

It seemed all the positive buzz coming from the soap world fizzled in 1998. 1997 seemed to be the last good year for the majority of soaps, and the last time it got consistent mainstream press. Being reminded of the stories that were dished out in 1998, I can see why...

[soapfan770]

I wouldn't consider the imfamous attic fight over the top, maybe just a tad but yes it was shocking but I didn't find it campy, it was played a lot more serious if anything else. I remember a lot of the criticism of it was seeing a 70-year old woman fighting like that, people thought Katherine Chancellor was too old to be involved in catfights. True, but what occurred on screen was a masterpiece and one of Y&R's finest moments in history as 25 years of hatred finally came out.

The rest of those stories were most certainly over the top, especially GL, Days and Sunset Beach. I'm surprised Marlena didn't mention the other shocking GL tales of 1998. Kind of reminds me of Melrose Place going wayyy to far when Kimberly developed a split persona and tried to lobotomize Peter.

[Gray Bunny]

Yup, yup, yup. Those 3 were the most over-the-top, and I watched two out of the three. Though I preferred GL's over-the-top era to Santos/San Cristobel era.

And yup, that Melrose story was too much. It was so contrived. We see her sleeping peacefully, and then she randomly flashes back to some of the more traumatic moments of her life (car crash, pulling off her wig, the bombing) and suddenly she has an alternate personality. Just an excuse to have a crazy May sweeps story.

[DRW50]

I think what made that Melrose story worse was it seemed so lifeless. It was all too self-conscious, they were just trying to be shocking and they obviously didn't care. This was also around the time of that incredibly dull story where Peter or Michael slept with the beauty pageant contestant and Barbara Eden blackmailed them or something. Or was it Loni Anderson?

What were GL's other shocking 1998 plots? I remember being shocked - mostly at how incredibly laughable it was - by Teri drugging Josh through his aftershave.

[EricMontreal22]

Would any of that GL fall under McTavish's hated run?

[EricMontreal22]

Double

[Dion]

It was Loni Anderson. Michael had slept with her supposedly virginal beauty contestant daughter (played by Denise Richards) and Loni Anderson's character had tried to seduce Peter.

[soapfan770]

Well I was thinking of stories like Lizzie being Carl's killer, the Nursery Rhyme Stalker, Kevin's paternity undone, Dinah's descent, and of course the Teri/Annie stuff.

Don't forget around that same time we also had Anne-Marie Johnson, who for some reason made herself look white for the show, push a guy out a skyscraper window and then died when she crashed head on into a semi truck. It was all utterly pointless, I think that's why MP tried to ground itself in Season 5, a bit unsuccessfully with all those bad characters. Which is why I think a comparison of MP seasons 3, 4, and 5 is relevant to GL in the years 1997, 1998, and 1999.

[Gray Bunny]

Ah, I love a good Melrose discussion. Yes, it seemed the only way to write off a character in season 4 was to kill them off. Luckily Jo survived when she moved away.

I think Season 5 was when the show lost its way. It tried to be really sexually provocative with people bedhopping even moreso than before and characters suddenly weren't behaving like themselves. Jane briefly turned psychotic, Jake and Alison sucked the life out of each other with their romance, and everyone was in their own little bubble of drama. I don't think the show really regrouped and tried to start fresh until Season 7 when they got rid of their over-inflated cast and focused on just 7-8 main characters.

One thing I find disappointing is that the main money couples didn't end up together, due to cast members leaving at different times. The endgames should've been Billy/Allison, Jo/Jake, and hell maybe even Jane/Michael.

[Gray Bunny]

One thing I noticed during that time (kinda off topic) was that background music played ALL THE TIME. There was never any silence it seemed. A silent scene of just dialogue and no music can be even more effective, but during that time it was endless background music, and usually the kind that sounded intense and chaotic.

[EricMontreal22]

Pratt was in charge of Melrose by then, wasn't he? Or was he still at Models Inc (the timeline is a mess in my head).

Carl, what exactly was the Year of the Soap? Also, I still find the inclusion of the death of Harold the Dog as the number *3* over the top story of the year, just kinda bizarre. Wasn't this the year AMC had the bleeding tattoo, the child pornographer, etc? And a rather sweetly done, ow key story about the death of a family dog wins out?