With summer just around the corner and our remaining shows beefing up their younger sets, I wanted to start a thread on teen storylines. What were your favorite stories and sets of teens? Feel free to post clips or rant about how much you hate teens on soaps.

My Favorites

1. GH- Lucky/Liz/Emily/Nik- 4 strong actors with solid friendship chemisty. Beyond the L&L2 sweet romance and Emily's crush on Nik, you had the brothers dynamic, Liz & Emily as close girlfriends and Lucky & Emily as longtime friends played by actors who had been in the parts for years. They were tied to and interacted with famiilies and characters outside the teen storyline. Teen scenes don't get much better.

2. Will/Gwen- ATWT- Before they became all about serial killers and infertility at 20 and other crises, this was a strong couple played by two solid actors. I loved the early days and the build from friendship to romance. I'm a sucker for us against the world couples and for the first year, they were fantastic. Its a shame Jen Landon isn't a bigger star.

3. Last Blast crew on days- Yes they ate the show and yes it was campy and silly but I loved this crew. Probably because I was right around their age. Unlike my first two, this one doesn't hold up as well but I remember being obsessed and waiting all year for summer when I knew they would be on pretty much everyday.

Honorable mention- the Glow by Jabot crew on Y&R (Billy, Mac, Raul, Brittany);

Dishonorable mentions- every AMC teen set post Jenny & Greg. Also I could never get into Starr/Cole.

Brenda, Dylan, Kelly

Karen, Jagger, Brenda

Just sayin'....

Wow I became a huge fan of BH90210 in repeats but was like 6 during the Jagger/Karen/Brenda story. Was the triangle as good as original recipe 90210? I saw Jagger a little bit on NS2 and was...less than impressed and found Karen boring on PC so its interesting thing that they built an entire teen story around them.

Meanwhile, GH didn't even bother to find a David or Ahn-drea...

I think Robin had some Andrea traits for sure. And they had their David Silver, wannabe music superstar, in Juan Santiago, during the next teen scene who was Emily's BF until he was mercifully sacrificed for Zem.

Meanwhile, GH didn't even bother to find a David or Ahn-drea...

I guess Stone could have been their David. There's no way to get an interesting Andrea counterpart...lol

Soaps have written teen stories horribly for years and years. The last soaps which tried them, like ATWT and OLTL, did a disastrous job.

Now you have shows like B&B, which writes teens as 40 year olds.

Wow I became a huge fan of BH90210 in repeats but was like 6 during the Jagger/Karen/Brenda story. Was the triangle as good as original recipe 90210? I saw Jagger a little bit on NS2 and was...less than impressed and found Karen boring on PC so its interesting thing that they built an entire teen story around them.

I think Robin had some Andrea traits for sure. And they had their David Silver, wannabe music superstar, in Juan Santiago, during the next teen scene who was Emily's BF until he was mercifully sacrificed for Zem.

Juan? That's a name I hadn't heard in years.... I don't even know what happened to the guy because I stopped watching a bit after his arrival and when I came back, he was already gone.

As for the PC 90210 triangle, I started watching around the last few months of that (when it was clear that Karen was going to win the battle and Brenda was going to be left out in the cold) so I can't really say whether it was good overall. I found Karen to be a stick in the mud on GH and after a while thought that Brenda needed to let Jagger go instead of trying to hold on to a man that wasn't interested in her.

Zander... I liked him with AT's Emily and was mad as hell when he was thrown under the bus a few years later.

I guess Stone could have been their David. There's no way to get an interesting Andrea counterpart...lol

Thank God Stone never pursued a rap career...

It's interesting to me that ABC gets credit for the youth/young adult movement in the late 70s and early 80s (and rightfully so, IMO), by the late 80s, I don't think any of their Big 3 had a memorable teen/college age scene. By the time I started watching in college around '86, Tad, Jesse, and Angie were "older" and Charlie, Julie, Nico, and Cecily didn't make much impact on AMC. OLTL had Mari Lynn, Wade & Rick in very minor plots, and I don't remember ANY on GH. Robin was still a child & if there was anyone between her age & Frisco, Felicia and that group, I don't remember them. My favorite in that era was actually AW's (and I know I'm in the minority.) Nancy, Marley, Ben, Carter, Thomasina, were my age - Julia and Perry just slightly older. So that was who I related to. Of course that lasted just one summer before they were either killed off or written off.

Juan? That's a name I hadn't heard in years.... I don't even know what happened to the guy because I stopped watching a bit after his arrival and when I came back, he was already gone.

As for the PC 90210 triangle, I started watching around the last few months of that (when it was clear that Karen was going to win the battle and Brenda was going to be left out in the cold) so I can't really say whether it was good overall. I found Karen to be a stick in the mud on GH and after a while thought that Brenda needed to let Jagger go instead of trying to hold on to a man that wasn't interested in her.

Zander... I liked him with AT's Emily and was mad as hell when he was thrown under the bus a few years later.

I assured you that you didn't miss much with Juan. I remember being so upset that they were wasting AT on this lame character. I like Zander/Emily too and I hated how they ended him but I never accepted Natalia as Emily anyway. Anyway, I think Juan left to go on tour. GH had no shortage of wannabe musicans in the 90s with Juan, the Ricky Martin character and Eddie Maine (who I did like). But for awhile, it seemed like someone was always singing.

Thank God Stone never pursued a rap career...

Haha indeed. That might have ruined the poignancy of the AIDS storyline entirely.

It's interesting to me that ABC gets credit for the youth/young adult movement in the late 70s and early 80s (and rightfully so, IMO), by the late 80s, I don't think any of their Big 3 had a memorable teen/college age scene. By the time I started watching in college around '86, Tad, Jesse, and Angie were "older" and Charlie, Julie, Nico, and Cecily didn't make much impact on AMC. OLTL had Mari Lynn, Wade & Rick in very minor plots, and I don't remember ANY on GH. Robin was still a child & if there was anyone between her age & Frisco, Felicia and that group, I don't remember them. My favorite in that era was actually AW's (and I know I'm in the minority.) Nancy, Marley, Ben, Carter, Thomasina, were my age - Julia and Perry just slightly older. So that was who I related to. Of course that lasted just one summer before they were either killed off or written off.

GH had Terri Brock, not sure who else.

I assured you that you didn't miss much with Juan. I remember being so upset that they were wasting AT on this lame character. I like Zander/Emily too and I hated how they ended him but I never accepted Natalia as Emily anyway. Anyway, I think Juan left to go on tour. GH had no shortage of wannabe musicans in the 90s with Juan, the Ricky Martin character and Eddie Maine (who I did like). But for awhile, it seemed like someone was always singing.

That's when ABC was doing all those crossovers with the boy bands too. It was a mess for a while. The latest falsetto group was always appearing at Jake's on GH.

On one of the MBs back then, Juan was always referred to as VHJuan.

Why have soaps stopped trying to make teen sets happen? It's very weird. Everyone on daytime (other than the actual children) is over 20.

I loved Billy and Mac on Y&R, their story was classic soap. I still remember the scene after their junior prom, where Jill went in on Mac about kissing Billy. Jess Walton was absolutely perfect basically playing the part of a Disney villain to Billy and Mac's starr-crossed loves. And David Tom, in retrospect, was really working that whole Leonardo DiCaprio/Jack Dawson floppy haired white boy thing. Billy was only like 3 years old in real but it really just worked. Raul and Brittany worked too until Bobby came along and they forced her into a chemistry free pairing with Bobby (who sparked insanely well with MTS but Braeden couldn't have that). Unfortunately Billy and Mac fell apart with the awful recasts. Kelly Krueger just looked too hard and world weary to be Mac. And Ryan Brown was just too pretty. Let's not even talk about the guy who looked like he was punched in the face who played Billy for like a week or Cybil Shepherd's daughter who couldn't act much better than drywall.

This. I had never watched Y&R but I was in 7th grade during this story and found it when I was flipping during a boring AMC day. They did a great job of building them slowly as enemies then friends all winter/spring and culminating with the prom. They also weren't conventionally pretty like the Days kids at that time, which was sort of refreshing. It took me YEARS to warm up to Jill Abbott after how mean she was to poor orphan Mac. However, as much as I loved waiting for them to get together, once they were together it was kind of meh after a few months. The actress playing Mac did the whole sad loner orphan girl really well but when they dressed her better and gave her the popular guy and she had reasons to be happy, she just wasn't as good. (but 10000 times better than her successors in the role) DT was a good Billy and as much as I love BM if had wanted to stay all these years, I think they could have done a lot with his Billy. He fitwith the Abbotts and had a good/weird bond with Jill. Obviously, Villy would never have happened if he stayed.

1. I loved the Last Blast crew on Days (2000-2002)

2. I really liked the Kay/Miguel/Charity triangle on Passions, and enjoyed the younger characters from around 2000-2003.

3. I liked the teen scene with Rebecca Budig's Michelle, Drew, etc. During the late 90's on GL.

4. And I LOVED the Billy/Mac/Jt/Brittany/Raul crew on Y&R

Other than that nothing really stands out as particulary interesting to me from my time of soap watching.

Edited April 18, 201213 yr by Eric83

This. I had never watched Y&R but I was in 7th grade during this story and found it when I was flipping during a boring AMC day. They did a great job of building them slowly as enemies then friends all winter/spring and culminating with the prom. They also weren't conventionally pretty like the Days kids at that time, which was sort of refreshing. It took me YEARS to warm up to Jill Abbott after how mean she was to poor orphan Mac. However, as much as I loved waiting for them to get together, once they were together it was kind of meh after a few months. The actress playing Mac did the whole sad loner orphan girl really well but when they dressed her better and gave her the popular guy and she had reasons to be happy, she just wasn't as good. (but 10000 times better than her successors in the role) DT was a good Billy and as much as I love BM if had wanted to stay all these years, I think they could have done a lot with his Billy. He fitwith the Abbotts and had a good/weird bond with Jill. Obviously, Villy would never have happened if he stayed.

I tended to be the opposite. I never liked Billy or Mac, because of how Jill was written as their big nemesis.

David Tom was so tic-laden and AB was so depressed - it's too bad, as I really liked Mac at first.

Edited April 18, 201213 yr by CarlD2

That's when ABC was doing all those crossovers with the boy bands too. It was a mess for a while. The latest falsetto group was always appearing at Jake's on GH.

On one of the MBs back then, Juan was always referred to as VHJuan.

Hahaha VHJuan. Oh I hated Juan but I loved Emily- that was a mess. I think GH was at that time so used to having all their teen pairs take off in the 90s that they didnt know what to do with the clunker character. I guess it worked out for Becky Herbst since she married him. I forgot all about the Boybands. There was a summer where a musical group was on like every week. I do remember being excited for 98 degrees.

I tended to be the opposite. I never liked Billy or Mac, because of how Jill was written as their big nemesis.

David Tom was so tic-laden and AB was so depressed - it's too bad, as I really liked Mac at first.

Looking back, I would probably appreciate them less but being 12 at the time, I fell for it hook, line and sinker. Thinking back, Jill was definitely written like Cruella DeVille.

I remember when SheDaisy were at Luke's. It was endlessly amusing, as Luke was supposed to be so edgy, yet he had all these kid acts at his club.

Easily for me it's the Salem teen scene with Shawn D, Belle, Philip , Chloe, and Meems.