B&B: Old/Classic Discussion & Articles

[Videnbas]

The S13 episodes are all from YT. Sadly, some are missing or in bad quality because that's how they were uploaded by the official channel.

[Jennybold1974]

 

Yes, thank you.

Are we getting the late 1998 / early 1999 episodes with this quality? As I see it now, the last one uploaded is #2832. I hope #2833 (and the following) will be added some day.

Thanks garcia for the new link.

I kind of agree with your list of best 2005-2019 years. 2015/Maya was one of last best recent years we had. I thought 2016 was decent too. The whole Quinn/Liam/Steffy/Wyatt arc, Caroline's pregnancy, Avants family drama  and the start of Quinn/Eric were okay. It's the last year I really enjoyed, personally.

Edited March 24 by Jennybold1974

[EyeOnFashion]

They’re definitely YouTube episodes (from 3160) in that folder. I think whomever added them just tweaked the filename

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[Maxim]

Nice to hear that someone agrees with my list. Hehe. Of course everything is so subjective... I remember at the time... when watching them... 2006-2008 felt okay. But in time... I've just forgotten these years and that's why I consider them... a dull period. I have to read into to what happened to be reminded of them. I remember the idiotic Taylor gets pregnant by Brooke storyline. I remember how they made Taylor very unlikable in that period... her affair with Rick which was absurd when Phoebe was in love with him... coupled with Brooke's rape before that... this period is just... awful in my view. And I remember a lot of people crying and hospital scenes.

P.S My mistake - VIDEOLAND continues uploading new episodes. They must be airing the new episodes on some other RTL channel... or just the RTL Lounge program I was looking at... was wrong.

[yrfan1983]

How was the 2007 “Katie gets Storm’s heart” story? From reading basic details, it sounded interesting in bringing back Brooke’s family and being a meaty dramatic introduction for Heather Tom’s Katie.

[Maxim]

It was something different at least (different from a stupid love triangle)... and back then Katie was still fresh... so I loved Heather Tom and she was selling the material as usual. But I also remember some absurd melodramatic scenes... Jennifer Gareis making faces and crying with violins in the background... I remember lots of hospital scenes and tubes coming out of Katie. Depressing. Bradley Bell doesn't know how to write grief, pain... suffering... etc. (I'm sure you know this LOL)... so I would never want to revisit this period.  

[yrfan1983]

Damn, what a wasted opportunity. Storm literally lost his heart for nothing

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[Maxim]

And then we were subjected to Katie almost dying every season for 10 years straight. Bill drinks alcohol after he promised not to... Katie faints... Brooke gives Bill fellatio - Katie is in a hospital. It was becoming tiring seeing her die every year for an Emmy. Till they miraculously told her one day... Well... You won't die. You are fine, bish.

[Maxim]

@Anooj I forgot to ask you... What are YOUR top 5 seasons post 2005?

[Anooj]

Not counting 2005, my Top 3 would be easy, that’s 2013-2015. The show felt like it differentiated itself after half the core cast was gone, so it felt less like a corpse being raped and more like something to be enjoyed on its own (nonetheless only barely competent) terms. Brill was very entertaining and scandalous, Aly and Quinn brought some of those Sheila vibes, Liam/Hope was vastly improved by Wyatt being thrown in the mix, and the whole ”inevitable designated supercouple” gaslighting with Bridge was gone. Then there was the awesome quadrangle between Ridge/Caroline/Rick/Maya, which surely pushes 2015 to the top spot. 

After those, it must be 2010. Many parts of the year are crap, but the first few months with Bill & Katie leading FC is a surprisingly competent period for this era of B&B, and then there was the crazy summer period with Brooke and Oliver, Stephen Logan’s manipulation of Pam, and Bridget and Owen sleeping together. Badly written written but campy and fun.

Not sure what I’d pick for the 5th spot. I stopped watching around 2017, so I can’t rate the years past 2016. Maybe 2008, at least Eric/Donna was campy and fun, the who-shot-Stephanie plot had some interesting moments, Pam was an entertaining psycho, and the September 07 to September 08 season was generally full of stereotypically soapy twists and turns (but like you said, WAY too much of it was medical drama). But it’s a bit of a pick-your-poison, as that year had lots of crap too, like blatant violations of the show’s history (the backstory of Marcus, Tridge twins retconned as non-identical), character assassination (Taylor ”cannot bond” with her Brooke embryo child, Eric’s never-ending midlife crisis, psycho stalker Storm), unbalanced or biased writing (Stephanie treated as a borderline villanous opponent of artificially propped-up Brooke and Donna), and the quality collapses in the final months with the Rick/Steffy saga that would dominate much of 2009. But I’ll take it over the grimdark 2006 or the utter incompetence of 2009 and 2011-12.

So maybe: 2015 > 2014 > 2013 > 2010 > 2008(?)

Edited March 27 by Anooj

[Maxim]

2006 was really grim dark. Loved reading your take.

[Chris B]

This is one of my favorite stories of all the soaps. All of the Logan's did such a great job with this story. The episode where Storm decided he needed to kill himself was so well done and absolutely heartbreaking. Then when Katie woke up and revealed to everybody she'd accidently shot herself and wanted to apologize to Storm it was so rough because Brooke had been screaming at Storm and blaming him for what happened to Katie, not knowing the truth. Heather Tom also gave a stunning performance at Storm's memorial.

Now like everything else on B&B it was forgotten but they did a great job with the story in the first few months.

BTW, in my rewatch I'm finally towards the end of season 7. This has been the most difficult season for me to watch. I hope season 8 is better. I couldn't understand just why I was so bored and then I realized for months I've hardly seen Sheila, Eric, Stephanie and even Thorne. Every storyline they're currently running is a total snoozefest for me. Sally/Anthony/Macy, Connor/Karen and this dreadfully dull Ridge/Taylor/Brooke/James story.

[kalbir]

Belief was Bill Bell last hurrah before he passed the reins to Bradley. There's a lull from end of Catalina crossover until Ridge/Brooke beach wedding.

[Chris B]

This is disappointing to hear because Ridge and Brooke don't seem anywhere close to a wedding where I'm at lol.

[kalbir]

@Chris B Ridge/Brooke beach wedding was September 1994 and that episode has been rebroadcast like three times.