All: Big Mistakes Soaps/Networks made over the years

[turnerhughes]

One Life to Live:

the embarrasing Teen Jessica storyline

Todd's sociopathic behavior never results in any consequences - he always gets away with his crimes

Kelly Cramer returning and boring everyone to tears

John McBain's brooding, moody persona boring everyone to more tears

The sudden disappearance of Kish

In one fell swoop, dumping Scott Evans, Brett Claywell, Daphne DuPlaix Samuel, John Brotherton, and Scott Clifton

Not moving heaven and earth to get the incredibly gifted Amanda Setton on contract

Shoving Ilene Kristen and Pamela Payton-Wright to the side

The comings and goings of David Vickers and shoehorning him into storylines he doesn't belong in

[All My Shadows]

ALL (or a lot): Expanding to an hour.

[quartermainefan]

That's a mistake? Tuc Watkins is great and OLTL is lucky to have him, and if they have to reshuffle stories to make room for him, they better snap to it.

I loved the July 4th showdown of David vs Ford and who looked better in the USA speedo.

[Paul Raven]

P&G Soaps- in the late 70's/early 80's - dropping older/veteran/ core characters and thus robbing the shows of their history and identity in an attempt to 'modernize' and compete

Some examples

AW - dropped Russ,Pat and Alice Matthews,Mike and Marianne Randolph

ATWT - dropped Don Hughes,Nancy and Chris Hughes,Carol,Sandy,Mary ,Grant,Joyce etc

SFT-dropped John Wyatt,Ellie Bergman,Gary Walton

EON-dropped Bill Marceau

GL - dropped Sara,Steve,Barbara,Adam,Hillary,Mike and Hope Bauer

[turnerhughes]

As the World Turns:

Putting the vets: Bob/Kim/Lisa/Susan/Nancy/Emma/Lucinda - on the backburner

Allowing Larry Bryggman to get away

Allowing Martha Byrne to get away

Losing the show's sense of history

Allowing James Stenbeck, one of soap's all-time best villains, become cartoonish

Dumping Jessica and Bonnie

Not taking advantage of the media interest in and the gay community's interest in Luke and Noah and tip-toeing around their love story and coming up with a series of absurd storylines to keep them apart

Not taking advantage of the chemistry between Luke and Reid and going-for-broke in the show's final months with a soapy, torrid romantic storyline

Pairing off everyone at the end except "widowed" Luke

Not spending a whole week honoring Nancy Hughes/Helen Wagner

Not bringing back Penny/Don/Ellen Stewart/Andy Dixon and many others for Nancy's funeral

The disrepect shown to Eileen Fulton in the final episode by reducing Lisa's role to a walk-on

Turning Adam Hughes/Munson into a bad guy and then bringing him back only to send him off again before resolving his storyline once and for all

Turning feisty Meg Snyder into a victimized, wishy-washy bore

Ruining the character of Vienna

Not bringing back Iva/Seth/Caleb/Ellie for the finale

Forgetting about J.J. Snyder and Daniel Hughes

Allowing that goddamned Janet Ciccone and her family to dominate the show in its final year

Bringing on Billy Warlock towards the end for another dreary mob storyline

Dusty Donovan ending up with Janet

[DRW50]

You really said it all! I agree with everything, only I would add that it was a very bad mistake never bothering to bring back Lyla.

[reallyhateskateonlost]

ABC hiring Brian Frons.

AMC: KWAK and her Babydrawl coming to PIne Valley and throwing characters under their bus, Tad, David.

[DeeeDee]

+1.

[Gray Bunny]

ATWT's finale was full of missed opportunities. GL didn't utilize their returning faves very much (one-minute reunions between Ed/Holly, Alex/Fletcher, etc) but at least they brought them back and gave closure and a nice nod to history.

[bellcurve]

[Khan]

AMC: Sticking Natalie down the well, and giving Erica a daughter and history as a rape victim no one had ever heard of before.

AS THE WORLD TURNS: Killing off Jennifer Munson.

GUIDING LIGHT: The Maryanne Caruthers storyline.

OLTL: Marty's rape.

[Cheap21]

IDA. These were two of the best things the show ever did

[Dr Neil Curtis]

I liked those two stories, I don't think if I was rape I would talk about it throughout Pine Valley.

The mistake that was made was recasting Natalie and killing her off.

[NYC123]

ABC: Hiring Brian Frons.

AMC: Hiring Megan McTavish back in 1998. Also letting go of Richard Culliton back in 2002. I actually enjoyed the show under his wing.

[aMLCproduction]

I think I read some where that the reason he let them go was because their stories were expensive to produce as to why he let Brash and Cwickly go.