Bleakest soap exits

[DeliaIrisFan]

I'm glad others mentioned the Iris exit, because that was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw this topic. I thought it was extremely sad even if you just took the story at face value, but, if you read into the backstage implications, it was even worse. For me, as a young teenager at the time, that was my first exposure to how any soap character who was not important to the current management - and especially a female character of a certain age - could just be cast off without any resolution. Poor AW seemed to be a laboratory for many of the dumb things that TPTB later did across the board that helped ruin the genre. I remember thinking when I saw some '80s OLTL clips on YouTube that even Paul Rauch at that time didn't have the gall to just leave Dorian rotting in that prison in which Robin Strasser believed he stuck her for a long time in order to demean her into quitting - by the time Dorian left, she had been exonerated and she left town triumphantly to spearhead prison reform in Mendorra or whatever.

DaytimeFan, I sort of agree that that last scene of Iris's could have been an amazing ending. I'm a sucker for those Edith Wharton reversal of fortune tales, but she plotted her books so meticulously that every misstep that the tragic (anti) heroine made converged (along with the underlying gender and socioeconomic injustices that were being critiqued) to bring about her downfall. Whereas on AW, even parts of Iris's most recent history that a relatively new viewer like me actually was aware of were ignored (hell, by her last few days, key plot points from the very story that precipitated her exit were thrown out the window). And it wasn't until years later that I learned what an extensive history Iris had on AW, and specifically that she had once been in Rachel's shoes - watching her groom-to-be get shot at the altar at their wedding. Was that ever addressed on-screen? Or the fact that Iris's biological mother, whom she had always been ashamed of, was an ex-convict, and I believe one of the most devastating revelations for Iris about her true parentage was that she had actually been born in a women's prison? If the writers had actually mined 20-25 years of Iris's history, it could have been an epic conclusion for the character. As it was, not so much.

To be fair, it also would have helped if I'd actually seen Iris's last scene at the time...my affiliate had an OJ Simpson preemption that day and it wasn't until well over a decade later when it turned up on YouTube that I actually got to watch it.

[MichaelGL]

For such a fun loving character, Nadine was offed in such a horrid way on GL.

[DeliaIrisFan]

That one resonated with me also, even for such a minor role. She was a short-term character who had a back story and motivation that made sense (even if the story she was involved in didn't) and I felt for her as she made the impossible choices that she made.

Also, I once read years ago that soaps almost never depict a character successfully (that's an awful way to put it, but I hope everyone knows what I mean) committing suicide because some psychologists believed seeing fictional representations of that might actually make people do it. I have my doubts about that lore, but for whatever reason soaps have shied away from it, so such a gruesome end to a secondary character like that seemed extremely harsh.

Of course, Dr. Joplin's (adopted) son's exit a year or so later could also go into this category. Tying this back to my previous post, OLTL's Schuyler was kind of like the (d)evolution of Iris on AW - abruptly character-assassinated and shipped off to prison at warp speed never to be heard from again because they were seen as expendable. But OLTL managed to pull off a hat trick of sorts by randomly changing Schuyler's parentage as he was on his way out as well, in order to further marginalize Ilene Kristen's Roxy and help facilitate her effectively vanishing from the canvas not too much later.

[DRW50]

That's a good choice. I'm surprised there wasn't more fan backlash, as he'd been a very prominent character. Perhaps they felt the story had been built up enough to make sense.

I see those more as non-endings than bleak exits, something AMC seemed to have quite a few of (especially during the Passanante era - remember Becca, Tina, etc.). I do see your point though. For me bleak was what they did to Marian until Broderick and Nixon resolved it in the last episodes. A vivacious character like Marian, one you can do anything with, alone, unhinged, in a mental institution. Really??

[evermore]

+1 for Gabrielle Medina and Dr. Joplin on OLTL. Gabrielle dying in a bathroom was a cruel, unnecessary way to send off such a great character

Diana Taylor, Lesley Webber, and Blackie Parrish all had rather bleak sendoffs on GH in the 80s; Holly's goodbye after the Bill Eckert fiasco was awfully melancholy too

[ER Tosh]

That's how he left the show? Was he ever on the show again?

[DRW50]

No, he wasn't. He wrote his daughter a letter in 1994 or 1995, offcamera of course.

[P.J.]

^^^wasn't Steve's departure handled mostly off-camera? The audience knew James had manipulated him into it or something. I think it would have been a completely different reaction if Ryan had still been playing Betsy, or there had been chemistry between him and Frost. Steve/Betsy were never the same once Frost took over the role.

[DRW50]

I think he went to Greece for money reasons and then Betsy talked about him, although she didn't visit often. Then she learned he'd been arrested. So he was offcamera for all that. He was last seen during that story about Tad Channing's murder.

[DRW50]

Eastenders - Paul Trueman driving off to what he knew would be his death, in order to protect his family from harm.

DAYS - Samantha Evans being murdered and, once people learned it was her, everyone except Marlena being happy, because they thought Marlena had been killed.

[quartermainefan]

Almost all of Laura's exits on GH. Killed in the fog, wheeled away as a drooling psycho, slowly drifting away into catatonic fantasies..just dark stuff.

[EricMontreal22]

UK soaps tend to have a number of fairly bleak exits in general..

[EricMontreal22]

Yeah, non exits (Julia Barr's was the one that bugged me the most, though they did do a lot to help it when she returned in 2010) probably are a different thing all together. There were a number under Passanante (I forgot about Tina!) and Culliton--as well as the last years of McTavish, although most of them were for characters who never really even got going (ie non characters like Marcus in the coma).

Marian's REALLY upset me, and I'm glad they gave her a happy ending, even if it was of course rushed. To have her locked up in an asylum like that, and her family seem to instantly forget her, isn't a nice way to think of a character who became so loved. Controversially, but I found Pratt's murder of Josh similar--like the character or not, to have him disappear off canvas, then suddenly apparently have been embezzling or whatever, and then shot by Zack was all too much (and typical Pratt)--even if it finally gave us a couple (OK, more like one) touching scenes with him and Erica about him never feeling he belonged.

[EricMontreal22]

The irony is I was actually FINALLY starting to like Taylor on AMC-she was showing surprising chemistry with Tad, didn't she even have a sudden out of character fight with him or something? Anyway--I was never too attached, but it was poorly handled. Brooke was obviously some sort of punishment--I'd say from Frons. While McTavish rarely wrote her all that well, she DID seem to like to write for her, and to have not even a MENTION of her leaving was ridiculous--but we know Frons wanted to move her to recurring, she didn't want to, and that seemed to be that.

[AmandainNC28655]

Sorry Carl, guess I misunderstood what was being asked here. My 2 year old has not been sleeping the last few nights, and my brain is not functioning. I told my secretary this morning if they could find a way to run coffee or diet pepsi in IV form sign me up!!!!! Yea the Marian exit was bleak, and I guess so was the exit of Annie and JFAP.

What about Di Henry's exit. She left town on Fusion business, only to turn up again lurking in the Chandler secret passages and then was shot?? WTH?? With her tie to Dixie, JR and Tad I would've liked to see them give her another type of send off. Also, the exit for Amelia Heinle (ex-Mia) was bleak. If I recall correctly, didn't she leave town on Fusion business too?? To like San Francisco?? I would've rather seen her go off looking for her son with Frankie or maybe even reconnecting with Frankie off screen somewhere.