No one knew how to stretch a story better naturally than Marland. Bill Bell knew how to do it, but at times you could get annoyed and feel like hitting your head against the wall, but I think Marland was a master at just giving the right amount away to keep you glued, and to not go out of his way in a contrived manner to shock his audience.

Moreover, although his characters did an awful lot of recap, I never minded it as much coming from Marland, or even Claire Labine on RYAN'S HOPE, as I did from others.

I miss conversations between characters, and people learning important news. On a good soap, if a person dies, then we see their spouse learn, then each of their children, their relatives, their friends, their co-workers, people who know those people, etc. On ATWT, when Casey Peretti died, we saw everyone from his close friend Frannie to Emmy Snyder, who barely knew him, find out.

There was some secret paternity drama that happened in my own family and honestly it's still up in the air almost 60 years later because both brothers/potential fathers have passed away and blood tests are a little difficult and in one case impossible at this point. I would love to see such long "forgotten yet not forgotten at all" plots. I always said if I ever wrote a soap I would purposely plan a story with a denouement several years later and tape secret scenes and put them in the can for never seen before flashbacks for a big 20th anniversary story or something. "Wait, I don't remember seeing that! " Because you DIDN'T!

There was some secret paternity drama that happened in my own family and honestly it's still up in the air almost 60 years later because both brothers/potential fathers have passed away and blood tests are a little difficult and in one case impossible at this point.

No paternity drama is too difficult or too impossible for Maury Povich. :-)

So Claire Labine dragged her stories out too?

Even Murray can't get blood from ashes scattered at sea.

That type of paternity drama would be riveting. In my family there is that type of unanswered question from many years ago. This is what soaps should be about. It's rarely been tried, and when it is it isn't very well-executed (Eastenders did this with Lou Beale for a misguided "Irish relatives" storyline).

aMLC are you writing fanfic starring New York's mother?

Corporate takeovers

I wish youtube had the video where Connor took over Walsh Enterprise from Lucinda. It was a great story from start midldle and end. A great payoff with a ratings increase. The look on Lucinda's face was priceless.

aMLC are you writing fanfic starring New York's mother?

Why Yes I am check ur PM

There was some secret paternity drama that happened in my own family and honestly it's still up in the air almost 60 years later because both brothers/potential fathers have passed away and blood tests are a little difficult and in one case impossible at this point. I would love to see such long "forgotten yet not forgotten at all" plots. I always said if I ever wrote a soap I would purposely plan a story with a denouement several years later and tape secret scenes and put them in the can for never seen before flashbacks for a big 20th anniversary story or something. "Wait, I don't remember seeing that! " Because you DIDN'T!

HELLER!!!

This got me more interested and intrigued than anything I've heard/seen on soaps in years...

*immediately starts writing fanfic dedicated to SFK*

I miss the socially relevant storylines soaps use to do that soap writers THINK they're doing now (Ha! Ha! Bold and Beautiful, the joke is on the audience). When ATWT revealed that Angel Lange's resulting inability to have a child after an abortion was because she aborted her father's child and not Caleb Snyder's child, I could have fallen over!

Caleb couldn't forgive himself for what he thought he'd taken from Angel.

Angel appeared to be a bit of a sociopath (forcing Holden to stay with her, stealing from her father)and in the end, she was a desperate young woman fighting to free herself from her abuser.

I'm not advocating an abuse storyline per year per soap, but I do miss storylines that had grit and shined a bright light on serious issues.

I've got to say that Angel Lange's story was one of the best that Marland did.

That type of paternity drama would be riveting. In my family there is that type of unanswered question from many years ago. This is what soaps should be about. It's rarely been tried, and when it is it isn't very well-executed (Eastenders did this with Lou Beale for a misguided "Irish relatives" storyline).

Yeah and I know in my relatives' case it was a much different time where there was a lot of shame involved not to mention the lack of today's technology. What may have not even been an issue still managed to haunt a couple of people and now the only one left is the child in question.

Cool aMLC, I'll check it out!

There was some secret paternity drama that happened in my own family and honestly it's still up in the air almost 60 years later because both brothers/potential fathers have passed away and blood tests are a little difficult and in one case impossible at this point. I would love to see such long "forgotten yet not forgotten at all" plots. I always said if I ever wrote a soap I would purposely plan a story with a denouement several years later and tape secret scenes and put them in the can for never seen before flashbacks for a big 20th anniversary story or something. "Wait, I don't remember seeing that! " Because you DIDN'T!

YES! YES! YES! I wrote a story line that when I used to write my own little soaps to keep myself busy. Twenty years! And on the kid's twentieth birthday, alllll hell breaks loose.

We have several big paternity legends in our family. Apparently, it's possible that my dad and godmother are brother and sister because her dad had a thing with his mother back in the day while they were both married to other people. Anyone who knows the truth took it to the grave, but imagine if my grandma had told one relative that she was sure would never be around these parts long enough to spill the beans. Imagine if that person came back, and imagine if she was just far-gone enough to not give a damn anymore. "Boy, that wasn't yo daddy! Yo mama told me years ago that that wasn't yo daddy. Yo daddy is..."

I really need to start writing my own sh!t again to keep myself soapily satisfied.

Edited April 24, 201114 yr by All My Shadows

YES! YES! YES! I wrote a story line that when I used to write my own little soaps to keep myself busy. Twenty years! And on the kid's twentieth birthday, alllll hell breaks loose.

We have several big paternity legends in our family. Apparently, it's possible that my dad and godmother are brother and sister because her dad had a thing with his mother back in the day while they were both married to other people. Anyone who knows the truth took it to the grave, but imagine if my grandma had told one relative that she was sure would never be around these parts long enough to spill the beans. Imagine if that person came back, and imagine if she was just far-gone enough to not give a damn anymore. "Boy, that wasn't yo daddy! Yo mama told me years ago that that wasn't yo daddy. Yo daddy is..."

Does that mean there are potential incest babies?