When supercouples become hated

[DRW50]

Some fans will always hate a supercouple, either through personal preference, or a sense of wanting to seem hip ("I wasn't watching for those people who hogged the screen 4 days a week - I loved that cool couple who showed up every other Thursday"). There's also the whole idea of a supercouple created by fans and one forced on them ("Sax", "Rylee", "Journey," et al).

Still, I am interested in the times when, for whatever reason, a genuinely popular couple becomes some object of dericion or disgust. How often does this happen, what are the reasons, how far does this reach, etc.?

I'm mostly asking this because of the surprising amount of hostility which the Cliff/Nina reunion received when they left town in 1989. When SOD had their best and worst of 1989 issue, they panned the reunion, panned AMC for taking an easy way out, and said this couple had stopped being believable a long time ago. I'm not sure I have ever seen such a blasting of a big couple who'd helped make a soap so popular.

[soapfan770]

I think the three biggest examples coming out of the 80s/90s and not counting any recent "supercouple":

-Josh and Reva on GL, mainly from complaints because they ate up the show and were always on the front in the late 80s and late 90s onward til the very end in 2009. Not to mention the stories became ridiculous.

-John and Marlena on Days, mainly because well see above. I think a lot of fans were also peeved over Marlena's cheating on Northrop's Roman but looking back Northrop and Hall just didn't have the same chemistry and the whole Roman/John story was terrible.

-Victor and Nikki on Y&R mainly because they aren't healthy for each other.

A runner-up would be Holden and Lily on ATWT, the biggest complaints and one of mine was they could be very boring a lot of the time.

[~bl~]

What couple is Sax?

The I loved that couple that showed up every other Thursday...hey!

For me the reason I sometimes don't care for many of the big couples is because they were over hyped. Show me why I should care about a couple, don't promote them to pieces and ignore the others. With Josh and Reva on GL they had awful stories from when she returned, and I didn't get them. John/Marlena/Roman when Marlena and Roman came back from the dead on Days, I didn't really know them, and then the guy I knew as Roman was John, it was just a mess. (I Know some viewers loved that, but it fell into a thing that made me go huh.) With Victor and Nikki, the toxic thing is a good reason. Again I didn't see them in early days...

With the strong comments about AMC's Nina and Cliff, perhaps some of it was a reaction to them rushing a reunion to get Peter Bergman off the program.

[DRW50]

Sam/Jax. I don't remember 100% what they were called.

[ellabelle]

I think one problem is that when a couple becomes incredibly popular with the fans, the TPTB seem to think that they must have that couple together, especially if the fanbase is particularly demanding. So then you end up with a handful of couples who go through endless cycles of falling in love, being together, splitting up and then doing it all over again and again and again. How many times can Cliff and Nina get married? When AMC ended, Tad and Dixie were headed to the altar for what, the fourth time? They'd already been split up by one half of the couple dying THREE TIMES. After a while, it gets old because the same stories are being recycled. Give them something new to do or split them up and try them out with other characters.

[VirginiaHamilton]

I could be wrong, but I was under the impression that the backlash had a lot to do with AMC bowing down to racist viewers by killing Cliff/Angie and sending him back to Nina.

[Antoyne]

John and Marlena just drag each other down honestly.

[Skin]

I was going to mention Todd/Blair until the Victor/Todd storyline. I think by the time 05/06' rolled around everyone was fed up with them.

[MissLlanviewPA]

I thought Sax was Skye/Jax, but they weren't really together long enough to be too hated--in fact, I think some hated Jax/Brenda for ending Sax.

I could imagine some being tired of Cord/Tina, given they were married three times--in 1986, 1988, and 1991 (with KW)--just because it was over such a short period of time.

Of course, it was probably lessened once they not only broke up permanently but were gone for several years. That's what made their final reunion last fall so special.

[Wendy]

I have even seen bitching about how boring Bo and Hope are at other boards.

[DeeeDee]

They were fine until their second divorce.

[yr9190]

Was there second divorce the period of time after Victor married Nikki on her "deathbed" ?

[Cheap21]

Sax was Skye and Jax. Jax and Sam were Jam

I wasnt!

Not supercouple but Jake and Amanda on AMC. They were pretty loved and popular when they started but after they made her David's stupid little victim, they took quite a hit and never quite recovered

[P.J.]

I think some of it is that every story has a shelf-life. A couple that's been involved for twenty-plus years making the same kind of mistakes they did at 17 isn't realistic.

The other is just how each new regime puts their own spin on a couple, and recycles them through plots often without acknowledging any previous history (at least now.)

[MissLlanviewPA]

You know now that I think of it, watching it onscreen most probably weren't, since they really had little choice other than to have them divorce given how quickly Andrea left and why. Looking at it on paper, though, it is kind of funny that they remarried a year after they got divorced .