We all here on the baord praise soap past greats such as Doug Marland, Harding Lemay, Henry Sleasar, Bill Bell, Agens nixion etc. Did these great ever writers write any story flops? If so which stories were they?

Agnes Nixon and the whole Alexandra Devane/pushing some guy named Geoffrey down a fight of stairs/Guy Donahue/Brynn Wydd mental asylum/brainwashing/Charlotte Devane/espionage/twins mess.

Agnes Nixon and the whole Alexandra Devane/pushing some guy named Geoffrey down a fight of stairs/Guy Donahue/Brynn Wydd mental asylum/brainwashing/Charlotte Devane/espionage/twins mess.

I actually liked that storyline

I actually liked that storyline

I will admit I did like sections of it (mainly Michael Nader's return and some of the stuff with Samantha Eggar).

But taken as a whole, I could not explain that story if my life depended on it.

TPTB clearly couldn't make up their minds as to whether Alex was really Anna. And then they finally decided that, yes, Alex was Anna...only to (according to Finola Hughes) change their minds again at the very last minute and, consequently, we got those clunky climax scenes with Alex and Charlotte on the plane, which were last-minute re-writes (and kind of a bad throwback to another AMC clunker: the Peg English/Brooke story).

I'm probably alone on this but I think that story was more of mess (albeit not by much) than the Proteus story.

I loved the Devane story as well

Erica kidnapping Maria's baby on AMC that Agnes Nixon ended up defending as people were very angry about it.

The ATWT story with Darryl and Frannie was universally panned.

The Devane story felt like it was made up as it went along, and I saw little chemistry between the actors involved. Finola Hughes seemed very awkward in the role of Alex.

Charles Pratt and Robert Guza were good on Santa Barbara, but on GH,,,

I loved Erica kidnapping Maria's baby. It got me hooked on AMC.

Wow, i was actually thinking about starting a topic like this, I was also curious to know if Agnes or Irna wrote some clunkers along the way. It's surprising to learn about Agnes's mishaps on AMC, since i always assumed that she was the best out of the top three (Her, Bell and Irna) and people loved her AMC/OLTL despite the fact neither show ever became Number 1. Didn't she also pretty much write off Peter Bergman as Cliff?

I would say Bill Bell's clunker stories were more in the 1995-1997 years based on what other people have said. between the Blade/Rick mess, and other uneveness during those years. I have to admit that despite being solid overall, I still think Bill had a problem with continuity in his shows, and sometimes episodes were broken down a little sloppy. Again not a big deal, but i think it has to do with Bill maybe not adjusting to the hour format as well as the 30 minute format.

I'm not sure if writing out Cliff was any big loss for AMC.

As for Irna, many of her most hated stories come from the end of her soap career - Liz Talbot falling up the stairs, and Lisa's phantom fetus.

Weren't fans grumbling about how she broke up Cliff and Angie though? I read lots of people for all for that.

It's surprising to learn about Agnes's mishaps on AMC, since i always assumed that she was the best out of the top three (Her, Bell and Irna) and people loved her AMC/OLTL despite the fact neither show ever became Number 1.

AMC was #1 for a year...1978-79, I believe. Agnes has had some clunkers, it's for sure. But again, I think most came from her last AMC run in 1999-2001.

beebs, don't forget about Janet and the candy cane. That still annoys me. I think it always will...

AMC was #1 for a year...1978-79, I believe. Agnes has had some clunkers, it's for sure. But again, I think most came from her last AMC run in 1999-2001.

I didn't realize it was #1 for a year, It's surprising that Agnes came back for two years in 1999-2001, I think by then some soaps were already losing their ways, and even if her stories then weren't as good as the ones she wrote in the 70's/80's/early90's I bet it was still nice to have the original voice behind the show then, I guess she came back because ratings had fallen under previous headwriters before her 3rd stint.