Strongest slate of female characters

[DRW50]

The days of strong female characters on soaps are long gone, but in the past, this was often one of the biggest delights of daytime drama.

Of all the soaps, which years or periods of time do you think had a very strong set of female characters?

It's not necessarily about the talent of the actor, as a great actress can sometimes do nothing with a character.

My picks:

OLTL 1979-1983, with Viki and Jenny as strong central heroines, Carla and Edwina, Katrina, Karen and Robin Strasser's Dorian mixing it up, Pat, Gretel

OLTL 1988-1990, with Viki, the flawed and fascinating Megan, Gabrielle, and Tina, good solid junior heroines in Brenda and Sarah, Renee as a strong supporting character

RH 1977 - Mary (Kate Mulgrew), Jill, Maeve, Delia, Faith (Catherine Hicks), Ana Alicia, Rae

ATWT 1985-1993 - Kim, Barbara, Nancy, Lucinda, Barbara, Lily, Meg, Ellie, Emma, Sierra, on and on - a great mix of heroines and complex females in all age ranges

GL early 1990's - Holly, Maureen, Vanessa, Nadine, the delectable Alexandra, strong supporting figures like Gilly, and good junior heroines and vixens like Harley, Blake and Eleni

Dark Shadows - 1840 with Julia, Angelique, Samantha, Leticia Faye, Roxanne, Daphne

[quartermainefan]

GH in the 80s was chock full of strong women. Nobody was stronger than Monica, but Bobbie, Anna, Leslie, Lucy, Jackie and Heather all either ran their own show or really put up with a lot and would come back for more. Even Lila the ditz had an inner strength she used to navigate years of nonsense.

[DaytimeFan]

I think DAYS has always had a relatively strong female cast of characters. Alice, Maggie, Julie, Hope, Marlena, Kristin, Lexie, Kate, Sami, Carrie, Vivian, Jennifer etc.

[Cheap21]

I definetly agree with the late 80s OLTL

[DeeeDee]

John Loprieno

[Cheap21]

My first soap crush

[DRW50]

That's kind of odd they had him pose the same way with both Tinas.

I always feel like the DAYS women of the 70's would have fascinated me most. I started watching some in the 90's and aside from Vivian, Celeste, Lexie, Kate, and Kristen, and sometimes Sami, everyone blurred together.

[Carolyn1980]

AMC early 80's: Erica, Opal, Jenny, Nina, Angie, Liza, Ellen, Brooke, Ruth, Daisy, Myra, Phoebe.

AMC late 80's: Erica, Natalie, Angie, Ellen, Brooke, Barbara, Skye, Cecily, Dixie, Phoebe, Ruth, Julie, Cindy/Karen.

(These lists just reminded me what I liked best about AMC in its 1980's prime...balance. No one ate the show).

[Cheap21]

90s Days had a bad habit of turning their women into psychos and/or superbitches. Billie, Hope, Kristen, Sami, Nicole, Lexie and Im sure more all started out decent enough but the show had to make them needy, clingy and overly bitch to push plots along. Hope at least had the excuse of a brain chip but there were too many personality shifts, most of which revolved around desperately holding onto a man

[DeeeDee]

Him, Shemar & David Fumero look even better with age.

It's crazy.