Disaster Stories in Soaps are usually ratings grabbing stories in a bid to catch the viewer's attention. Some are bad , most of them are bad. But can a disaster story be done realisticlly and above all , well made.

Has anyone got any fresh ideas on new disasters for the soaps. Can any of the soaps do a realisitc and successful plane crash where actually someone dies.

Has there been a disaster you liked in the past or an idea of a disaster you liked but execution wise failed ?

Let me know. I am interested to know.

Here are some of mine

OLTL - A Plane Crash In The Center Of Llamview affecting the people living there including Viki

GH - An Explosion In The Hospital like a Bomb OR A Collission of some sorts on The Waterfront (A Boat or Cruise crashes into the Waterfront leaving THe Dock In Ruins)

Any Other Ideas ?

A Earthquake that affects all 3 shows AMC, OLTL, and GH since all of them are neighboring towns the shock waves can go through PA and NY

I think disaster storylines are cheap stunts that rarely give the payoff, story wise, in relation to what they cost, production wise.

Two, however, spring to mind as being successes.

1) AMC's tornado in the mid 1990s, it was really well done, the production beat what they did a few years ago and the storylines culminated with it. The writing and the action were in sync.

2) DAYS had a plane issue that caused Shaun Brady to choose giving oxygen to one of his children over himself, resulting in his death. It was more a story of circumstance, it was really well done. DAYS did another plane crash, years ago, that had Julie Williams and Alice Horton on board, that was very well executed.

Otherwise, it's all about blow sh*t up, bad writing, no characterization, etc.

A tsunami on B&B. Doesn't Oliver live next to the ocean? Maybe him & Amber (and maybe Aggie) could all be in there, and then a tidal wave just comes galloping in and they all die.

A Earthquake that affects all 3 shows AMC, OLTL, and GH since all of them are neighboring towns the shock waves can go through PA and NY

GH is set too far for an earthquake originating in PA to realistically affect it. Plus having all 3 soaps do that would be overkill and I dont think ABC has the budget for that. I do welcome an earthquake story in at least one of them though

In 2013 , OLTL celebrates Its 45th Year , GH celebrates its 50th , AMC i dunno may do a milestone EP and ABC Celebrates Its 55th Year. So they should do some sort of big story come 2013. Earthquake , All of them meet together for the disaster. Who Knows ?

They should have a plague story. If Survivors (the first one) could do it so well then any soap with a decent writer and production team (wherever those are now) can too and soaps are a perfect outlet to explore that slowly unfolding.

I thought that the GL blackout was a unique idea. Not only was it a "disaster," but we also got to see how the characters behaved when the lights go out.

B&B is ripe for a disaster story and it's a shock they haven't done one yet. I say bring some more characters back and have a huge earthquake. I think Brad Bell would write it very well. Very over the top, campy and overwraught. It would be great! I'd also like to see if another soap could pull off a flood as well as Search For Tomorrow. I still don't know how they pulled that off.

Brad Bell takes himself too seriously to be able to do something like that.

Well, if they wanted to get some mainstream press -- mostly negative, since there's not a soap on the air that would handle it correctly -- they could do an Al Qaeda terrorism story. They don't have to stage the attack, just show the aftermath of a town and its citizens dealing with a devastating incident.

Well, if they wanted to get some mainstream press -- mostly negative, since there's not a soap on the air that would handle it correctly -- they could do an Al Qaeda terrorism story. They don't have to stage the attack, just show the aftermath of a town and its citizens dealing with a devastating incident.

There isn't a way to handle that correctly. That idea is in the poorest of taste and frankly I'm stunned anyone would bring that up.

They should have a plague story. If Survivors (the first one) could do it so well then any soap with a decent writer and production team (wherever those are now) can too and soaps are a perfect outlet to explore that slowly unfolding.

This for AMC. Get Stephen King. Just leave David the only survivor.

Edited December 12, 201015 yr by reallyhateskateonlost

There isn't a way to handle that correctly. That idea is in the poorest of taste and frankly I'm stunned anyone would bring that up.

If this were 1984, Gloria Monty would be all over this. There would be a fictional islamic radical group in Port Charles, ready to destroy something or other and visiting dignitaries. The leader would look something like the guy at the beginning of this clip.

Bad taste? Yes, but it was fun.

The Towering Inferno. Unless GH did something like it in recent years?