Aah, The Custom of the Country... After I posted what I did, it actually crossed my mind that only Edith Wharton's earlier work (maybe just House of Mirth) was comparable to what Iris's end on AW was/could have been; as Wharton honed her irony, her endings gotten even bleaker in some regards than anything soaps have ever done. Custom took the cake. Good stuff, though, to be sure.

Like I said, when I finally saw Iris's last scene on YouTube after missing it due to preemption, I saw the potential there, and that was a great line.

I think maybe one of the script writers who had been with the show for a while recognized the gravitas of her last scenes: that they might have been the last time we would ever see this character that had been an integral part of the show on and off for two decades and that this was a really tragic ending.

I think you've got it totally right. Someone low on the food chain, likely a script writer, knew what was happening with Iris' exit and tried their best to give her a bleak exit that properly reflected the character.

And the official line from Carmen Duncan is that she quit to travel the world with a rich boyfriend, which she did, till 2000. Moved back to Australia, was diagnosed and treated for breast cancer and now busies herself as a socialite in Sydney.

UK soaps have four levels of exits -

Happy

Vanish/who cares

Death, but happy, or poignant moments in the throes (Jamie and Dennis on Eastenders)

Horribly depressing and agonizing (Pauline Fowler)

So how would you classify the following UK soap exits:

Emmerdale: Kim Merchant takes off in a helicopter with a bag of cash, her baby and her name (Kim Merchant? No! Kim Tate!")

EastEnders: Peggy Mitchell. The Vic burns, Phil goes on a bender and Peggy just walks away.

Coronation Street: Liz McDonald. Her head swirls with flashbacks of times in the Rovers, turns off the lights, locks up the pub, gets in a cab headed for the airport with "Go For It!" as her last line.

I think you've got it totally right. Someone low on the food chain, likely a script writer, knew what was happening with Iris' exit and tried their best to give her a bleak exit that properly reflected the character.

And the official line from Carmen Duncan is that she quit to travel the world with a rich boyfriend, which she did, till 2000. Moved back to Australia, was diagnosed and treated for breast cancer and now busies herself as a socialite in Sydney.

And is a board member/fundraising officer for a breast cancer charity, I believe? Yes, Carmen Duncan is fabulous, and it's more than consolation to think of her overcoming adversity and living the life that Iris had lived for so long.

I still wish they had resolved the Iris loose end before the show went off, though. Even to the very end, I could always see how Iris would have fit in (and vastly improve) the current stories. When that Jordan Stark/Lumina nonsense first started, and it was still somewhat ambiguous as far as whether something supernatural was really going on, I so wanted Iris to be behind it. Or, better yet, with the Corys having fallen on hard times and Iris probably being richer than any of them by that point, Rachel could have just gone to visit Iris and seek out her help in fending off this mysterious new guy who had bought the local haunted house - being sure, after having lived in a soap town for long enough, that he must have had some sinister agenda. Iris would have wasted no time in checking The Witches of Eastwick out of the prison library and recruiting this random guy who had Rachel so spooked to step up his game, so that the family would be paranoid enough to help Iris get paroled so that she would be their ally.

I think you've got it totally right. Someone low on the food chain, likely a script writer, knew what was happening with Iris' exit and tried their best to give her a bleak exit that properly reflected the character.

And the official line from Carmen Duncan is that she quit to travel the world with a rich boyfriend, which she did, till 2000. Moved back to Australia, was diagnosed and treated for breast cancer and now busies herself as a socialite in Sydney.

I miss Carmen. I wasn't born when Beverlee played Iris, but I was in love with Carmen's portrayal.

I miss Carmen. I wasn't born when Beverlee played Iris, but I was in love with Carmen's portrayal.

I thought I was the only one! Well I guess I was alive by the time BM's Iris left Texas. I do have memories of Beverlee as Alex on GL, so finding out that she originated the role was icing on the cake. But all I knew was that Carmen's Iris was often the best part of AW when I watched at that point, no matter how insignificantly she was being written as being.

I miss Carmen. I wasn't born when Beverlee played Iris, but I was in love with Carmen's portrayal.

And is a board member/fundraising officer for a breast cancer charity, I believe? Yes, Carmen Duncan is fabulous, and it's more than consolation to think of her overcoming adversity and living the life that Iris had lived for so long.

I'm one of those people who preferred Carmen to Beverlee as Iris. And yes, Carmen is fabulous and I am very pleased that she's living the life she deserves.

I've only seen some glimpses of Beverlee as Iris (I haven't gotten around to watching Texas yet), but I adored Carmen as Iris. Witty, yet able to break your heart in an instant. Beautiful, clever, more than able to deal with the fearsome goddess that was Rachel Cory (I loved their quasi-understanding of each other which started after Mac's death), and always just a little bit superior to most of those around her. She had star quality. Carmen was born in the wrong era.

Edited October 12, 201114 yr by CarlD2

So how would you classify the following UK soap exits:

Emmerdale: Kim Merchant takes off in a helicopter with a bag of cash, her baby and her name (Kim Merchant? No! Kim Tate!")

EastEnders: Peggy Mitchell. The Vic burns, Phil goes on a bender and Peggy just walks away.

Coronation Street: Liz McDonald. Her head swirls with flashbacks of times in the Rovers, turns off the lights, locks up the pub, gets in a cab headed for the airport with "Go For It!" as her last line.

I thought Liz's exit was rushed and awkward, as it came on the end of a bizarre "comedy" story where her soulmate Jim held a bank hostage. I think they had some anger towards the actress, based on her real life issues, and it showed in the writing.

Kim's exit is considered one of the best ever on British soaps. Amazingly enough she wouldn't have even been brought back from the dead a few years before that if the actor who played her husband hadn't wanted to leave. Kim returned from the dead to give him a fatal heart attack.

I really liked Peggy's exit, I thought it was poignant, full of pathos, especially the last look back.

I thought I was the only one! Well I guess I was alive by the time BM's Iris left Texas. I do have memories of Beverlee as Alex on GL, so finding out that she originated the role was icing on the cake. But all I knew was that Carmen's Iris was often the best part of AW when I watched at that point, no matter how insignificantly she was being written as being.

I'm one of those people who preferred Carmen to Beverlee as Iris. And yes, Carmen is fabulous and I am very pleased that she's living the life she deserves.

I've only seen some glimpses of Beverlee as Iris (I haven't gotten around to watching Texas yet), but I adored Carmen as Iris. Witty, yet able to break your heart in an instant. Beautiful, clever, more than able to deal with the fearsome goddess that was Rachel Cory (I loved their quasi-understanding of each other which started after Mac's death), and always just a little bit superior to most of those around her. She had star quality. Carmen was born in the wrong era.

Yay! Fellow Carmen lovers. Glad I'm not alone.

I don't know whether you would count it as an exit since the whole show exited, but I think the end for Luke on As the World Turns is the first one that comes to mind for me. I hate that the very last image of him we'll ever see was of him sitting sad and lonely on the couch with only little sister Natalie by his side. It left a bitter taste in my mouth, and I'll never forgive JP or CG for that.

That was really depressing, especially in contrast with the much happier endings everyone else in the episode had. He deserved much better than that and it annoys me that Reids' death was done partly because they wanted Katie to have a happy ending with Chris. They weren't even a popular couple.

Preach it, RomeAt50! To say that Katie and Chris weren't a popular couple is putting it mildly. Everyone knows that Katie should have walked off into the sunset with Simon.

The raging hard-on Goutman had for Katie really ruined the show in some ways the last couple of years. She should have been written out after Mike left. Even if Columbino had had a lick of chemistry with Cosgrove, there wasn't enough time for them to be "popular".

Bobbie's GH exit....Oh wait, she didn't even get one.

That was really depressing, especially in contrast with the much happier endings everyone else in the episode had. He deserved much better than that and it annoys me that Reids' death was done partly because they wanted Katie to have a happy ending with Chris. They weren't even a popular couple.

Ah come on, at least Reid a short term character had a dramatic exit and the Luke actor got some meaty material to try and act out (even if he couldn't) Poor Lisa got I believe under three minutes of air time and that was all in response to dealing with her archnemises John and Lucinda. She wasnt there for her grandkid going off to school, or Bob's final farewell to Memorial and Oakdale. They left her as kind of a pathetic, lonely figure which what Lisa would have been terrified of becoming.

DAYS: Addie Olson beats leukemia only to be hit and killed by a car. That was pretty bleak.

Although I think Beverlee McKinsey's Iris was the most delicious character in the history of soaps, I did come to like Carmen Duncan. I just had to accept that that somehow an ultra-sophisticated ice queen had become a hot-tempered Aussie.