All: 25 biggest blunders in Daytime Soap History

[EricMontreal22]

Brad certainly didn't inherit much of what made his father's writing so great--Bill Bell was also the king of knowing how to draw out a story for a long time but keep it interesting--Brad seems to either just drop things, quickly wrap them up, or has stories that go on forever (like a certain love triangle) with no real deolpment.

[~bl~]

With the death of Maureen on GL, I felt they did a good job on the initial story, through the reconnection of Roger and Holly at Lake House, and Ed’s Hero Party where everything came out, but after that it lost its way. I think losing Nancy Curlee in late 1993 was part of why things got messed up as the writing team became unstable. Of course, there were cast issues, that I mention below that factored in when it came to story concerns.

Losing Kim Simms (who decided to leave because she only wanted to stay another year and GL wanted a longer commitment) and Beverlee McKinsey decimated the Spaulding story, as Alan-Michael was only really being played with Frank and Eleni and barely interacting with his family except for an occasional scene with Ed. There was Jenna taking over Spaulding, but after that umbrella story, things tended to get separated. If GL had gotten a good recast of Mindy, at least it would have saved Nick, but the Nick/Eve/Mindy triangle was just bad as it hinged on a relationship that happened off camera (Nick and Eve) and one that was a recast. With Beth Ehlers and Mark Derwin, well the Harley and Mallet relationship started to get less emphasis in 1992 once it came out the actors were involved as supposedly JFP has or had major issues with people getting involved romantically with their screen partners. Jenna was supposed to be short-term, but Fiona decided she wanted to stay and they continued to write for the character. If GL had hired someone else to play Buzz, I think things would have played differently, as Justin’s style of acting is very much in contrast with the people who were big at GL in that era. Jerry verDorn’s illness messed up Ross’s story as they couldn't write for someone who may not be able to work and the character was one of the leads the year prior. The show also lost Jordan Clarke’s Billy screwing with the Lewis plot. Then on top of that, you had Leonard Stabb being hired to play Hart, getting into a hand-gliding accident making it impossible for him to work. They recast to quickly write off the character, which changed the young adult story. Basically just about every major story group ran into difficulty within a 12-18 month period. There were a lot of things that impacted what happened at GL and it wasn’t just the character of Maureen dying.

[DRW50]

You have a wonderful memory and a way with words! Some of that I didn't list because I was only focusing on mistakes I thought JFP made (clearly what happened with Leonard Stabb and Jordan Clarke was not the show's fault), but some of that like Jerry's cancer I'd totally forgotten about.

I think it just shows again the folly of killing off tentpole characters who, on the surface, don't "do" or "mean" anything. It's easy to say that when the show is going great guns. When a show is faltering, you need those people. The show lost a lot of its meaning and moral center in 1993 and 1994, and I truly believe this type of thing is what drives viewers away most.

[JaneAusten]

Most recent = 6 to 10

http://www.welovesoaps.net/2011/09/blunders106.html

[OLTL_fan]

The link doesnt work. :/

[Mitch]

Agreed, how many years did I stick it out on ATWT as Bob and Kim and Lisa, etc were still there? Even when Ieft I came back when things got better and could ease into things with the tentpole characters in place. GL didnt have that, and unless you were a big fan of Reva's or Buzz or the couple dujour at the time (Pharely, Gus and Harley) there was nothing to hold unto as Ed wanst there, Van was in and out, etc.

I think the deathnell of GL was not just Mo's death, but that there was no one to pick up the slack. If they had brought in say, Aunt Meta, about three months before, or right after, so there was a central maternal figure, things could have gotten better. As it was, as soon as Mo died, we left the Bauer kitchen and had to be stuck in the Diner, listening to Buzz scream all day long and windmill his arms.

[JaneAusten]

Fixed hopefully

http://www.welovesoaps.net/2011/09/blunders106.html#more

[Shawn]

If Brian Frons is only at number 9, I'm curious to see what they decide number 1 is...

I'm sure the cancelling of AW for Passions will be in the top 5. What a dreadful mistake that was.

[JaneAusten]

Frons should be number 1. Look at all the destruction in his path. I forgot he cancelled SFT twice.

[OLTL_fan]

Brian Frons #9?? WTF????

[JaneAusten]

I think they are bringing up some good points but are also getting too narrow focused. I don;t think changing Jills backstory was a top 25 blunder but changing the backstory and retconning so much of a characters history is and many soaps have done that with Y&R the most transparent

But Frons should be number 1. I said I forgot how many networks actually lived through his destruction.

[All My Shadows]

How so? I honestly don't think AW would have lasted any longer than PSNS did.

[DRW50]

I don't think the Jill/Katharine rewrites should be so high. Jill as a character has been damaged by neglect, more than anything else - I even think making her Katharine's daughter could have worked if the writing had done something with it.

I also don't understand why they make it sound like MAB came after the disastrous Cane and Phillip rewrites (the cattle mafia and Philip being a self-loathing gay man who abandoned a newborn son).

I do agree with the others, although I think that the Ice Princess story on GH did far more damage to daytime than the possession story did.

Odd that they didn't mention AMC or OLTL of the 70's or early 90's when talking about diverse casts.

[Shawn]

It was a slap in the face to axe AW like they did, and that's coming from someone who wasn't a dedicated watcher (my mother was). The network was so desperate at the time to recapture the ratings magic that JERk brought with Days' Devil storyline that they got rid of a show that was on for decades and was considered one of the best of its genre (though, according to my mother, the last year, while not horrible, wasn't the best).

The funny thing is that Passions never had the ratings during its peak that AW had at its lowest, but because of their all "important" demographic that the network was adamantly pursuing, legacy got destroyed and camp was nurtured.

[sungrey]

I think what you will see talked about is NBC's overall destruction of its lineup. You'd have been stuck because NBC wouldn't have given up 12:30, nor would they have moved Days back to 12:30. But you had Days, AW and Sunset Beach... and then they wanted to throw Passions in there. What NBC did was criminal. To put fans of AW and Sunset Beach against each other saying "one of you is going to go" and then having it be AW... that didn't win Passions any brownie points with pissed-off longtime AW viewers.

Then NBC goes six months later and cancels Sunset Beach.

I think if NBC had left its lineup alone, Passions might have had a fighting chance with viewers. As it was, so many were driven away before Passions even premiered.