When supercouples become hated

[Kylie]

I think Tad and Dixie definitely belong on the list. Over the entire time I can remember watching, mid 90's through to the end, NOTHING ever chanvgd about their relationship. The trust issues were there the same the first day as they were the last. It was like they kept bringing her back from the dead, hoping to pretend that nothing ever happened between them. Ugh. Seriously, after she miscarried Bess and decided to hop all over David, I never felt the same about them.

[DRW50]

That's a good point. I think the 2006 return probably killed it off once and for all, as that was so badly mishandled and there was some ugly stuff said.

I liked the idea of her 2011 return and I thought their fans deserved closure, but on one level it also felt like someone trying very hard to make up for the past 10+ years.

[august1229]

Victor and Nikki I prefer apart for some reason.

I think the main aspect is just the repetitiveness and getting interested in the off-time couples. Jack and Carly - I always preferred Jack's romance with whoever else it was. Same with Holden and Lily and Bo and Hope.

Also for me there is an aspect of not having watched the original relationship develop - which probably would have been good.

[Shawn]

I never really hated Austin/Carrie, but when I saw the chemistry between Christie and Roark (as Mike) back in the day, I wanted them apart for the first time since they had gotten together.

[Gray Bunny]

Interesting that no one has mentioned Bo & Hope from DAYS. They seem to outlast all other couples without sucking the life out of each other. No wonder they were the one mainstream couple during the serial killer storyline of 2003-2004.

Anyhow, the thing about all these supercouples is that they've all pretty much outlasted their shelf life. The original heyday of supercouples in the 80's had big popular couples that were on the canvas for a few years and then left the show while other supercouples were groomed to take their place onscreen (Bo & Hope were originally on for only 4 years before leaving in '87). Ever since the late 90's, the shows have held on to as many heavy hitters as possible to keep the audience around, which means having the break up & make up the same couples over & over & over again.

[DRW50]

It's too bad they didn't learn how to write drama for couples while still keeping them together - soaps used to know how to do this, albeit mostly with older couples (Johnny and Maeve on Ryan's Hope; Bob and Kim on ATWT).

[JaneAusten]

I think that makes more sense with older established couples that function as anchors to the show. Both couples also served to support the younger members of the canvas and enriched those stories.I doesn't mean older couples should not get romance.Maggie/Victor and Katherine/Murphy are 2 examples that romance sells at any age but then those relationships were not founded on partner swapping.

[DRW50]

That's true. I think ATWT also did a good job of this with Tom and Margo for the late 80's and up to the late 90's.

[VirginiaHamilton]

Actually, the horrendous writing for her last two returns is what scarred the J&B/S&B supercouplings - something that could've been avoided if the idiots that write that show were actually invested in penning good story for either of those characters.

[soapfan770]

The problem with "Shick" is that every story outside of finding and raising Cassie and the problems with Noah's birth was an infidelity story over and over. Nick cheats with Grace again again and again before cheating with Phyllis. Sharon shacks up with Carter/Matt, Diego, kisses Victor and then the whole Cameron ordeal finally before she lands in bed with Brad.

[MissLlanviewPA]

I suppose this could change with the new regime, but there are still many who feel that it would be wrong to have Luke & Laura back together after everything Luke has said/done over the last several years.

Would Jack & Erica fit in this thread? I got the feeling many were thrilled to see Jack tell Erica off in the final show, without any reunion afterwards.

[OldGHFan]

I loved the supercouples. Of course I don't think there have been any since the early 90s. I do think fans want to see supercouples. They're always clamoring on about how so-and-so is a supercouple. I just shake my head. But today's regimes don't want to write for supercouples and now we're nearing the end of soaps. Maybe Ron and Frank can reunite some supercouples over at GH before it goes off the air.

[DeeeDee]

Sharon was never with Matt after marrying Nick.

That was Tricia.

[ellabelle]

I think Jack and Erica fit. They were hugely popular when they got together - if you go to YT and watch the Oprah episode from 1990 with Erica and her men, the audience went INSANE when Walt Willey came out and when Susan and Walt interacted. They had a very active fanbase who kept lobbying hard for them to be put back together, and I think TPTB may have deliberately had Jack walk out on Erica at the end in the hopes that people would tune in to the online version of the show to see if they got back together. I was one of those who LOVED Jack and Erica together for the longest, and I still think Susan and Walt had incredible chemistry together, but by 2008 or so, the magic was gone for me. They'd done the same cycle of getting together and breaking up so many times with neither of them learning from their mistakes or ever really learning how to communicate with each other. There were plenty of substantive things the writers could have had them do, but for whatever reason, they never went that direction.

I was a little irked with the Gone with the Wind comment at the end because Jack lost any bad boy Rhett Butler-ish feel to me when he refused to lie about his affair with Erica. Prior to that he was a bit of a rogue, but eh... after 1991 not so much. Now David and Erica on the other hand, they had the Rhett/Scarlett dynamic down to a T. Then again, the writers had Tom Cudahy drop the "I don't give a damn" line with Erica too, and Tom never struck me as a Rhett Butler type either.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I've never liked supercouples. It allows for cheap and lazy writing, with little character development given to the individual characters within the pairing.

Anti-supercouples like Roger and Holly on GL have appealed to me the most. Well, really, I can't think of another relationship between characters on daytime where characters had the same or similar dynamic. That was unique.