Most soaps at 15 minutes just had one main story per episode. As that changed to 30 minutes, you were more likely to have a number of stories, but most of them were important. At 60 minutes, you started getting more B plots and B characters, somewhat aimless stories mostly designed to fill up episodes. I started thinking about this when I was watching some old Santa Barbara clips and looking at some of their space-filling characters who never had any actual plotlines most of the time (Pearl, Courtney, Ted more often than not). GH had something like Dan Rooney's eternal quest to marry Jessie Brewer. DAYS had the Jonah/Lexie/Abe/Wendy stuff that I can't ever remember most of, Vivian and Ivan fleecing Robert Mandan, etc. Most recently, B&B had filler like Pam and Donna - office wars.

What were some B-type stories you enjoyed, and what were some of the stories you hated?

Edited May 4, 201213 yr by CarlD2

I find the B stories on DAYS to be actually quite good. It's the A stories that are usually crappy.

Best:

Anything involving Eugene and Calliope on Days.

I loved the Sally Spectra stories on BB.

Worst:

Anything involving Clarice and Larry from AW.

Poor Clarice and Larry

I wish they'd done a male stripper story with Larry (as he was one in real life, I think).

B&B

Best: Pam & Donna

Worst: Rick/Phoebe/Constantine, Nick & Aggie

Y&R

Best: Can't think of one. All the Y&R stories I've liked over the years have been A stories.

Worst: Anything MAB/Sheffer/Hamner have written for the Winters' (including Lily) up until the Devon/Tucker/Harmony reveal.

Best:

Anything involving my girls, Dru and Olivia. I think that many of Y&R stories all became an A story (IMO) when Bill Bell was at tenture, though they started off as B stories.

I loved anything with David/Gilly/Kat/Hamp in the Curlee years on GL. Though they had B stories, Curlee did (unlike many writers) have the black characters interact with the rest of the cast.

Abigail & Adam/Molly, Jake, & Vicky on ATWT.

Worst:

Casey & Allison "romance" on ATWT

That Angelina mess on Y&R

Amber faking the paternity of her baby with Liam (so stupid...) on B&B

It was a real treat to watch ATWT's Nancy, Bob, or Kim in any back-burner storyline during the post-Marland era.

This is not a storyline, but I really loved watching OLTL's Nigel. I wish his character had been given more than bread crumbs.

Worst:

Anything involving Clarice and Larry from AW.

I actually enjoyed these characters.

Edited May 4, 201213 yr by Max

On GH I liked the story with the two dogs in the 90s, and I loved in the 80s on AMC Pheobe and how she would have meetings of the Daughters Of Fine Lineage and their crusades to save the town from the low class stars of the show. She had that one friend with the spanish name, we never saw her, but I just loved that forever the show maintained this never seen woman as Phoebe's friend.

Juanita

Juanita

right! Juanita Ramsey.

This is a fun thread. I never knew about Phoebe's crusade against the lower class. That sounds like a lot of fun.

I adored the story of Dan Rooney trying to romance Jessie Brewer on GH. It was nice to see a realistic, sweet story based on a beloved veteran character like Jessie, who would later be relegated to a few lines from behind the nurses' station, every month or so. The only reason I endured watching soaps into the 1990s was to see even the smallest glimpses of my long-time favorites like Steve, Audrey and Jessie (GH), Nancy, Ellen, Bob, Lisa, and Kim (ATWT), Phoebe, Joe, and Ruth (AMC), etc. Once the vets were axed, my interest in the soaps vanished. A never-ending parade of poorly-written newbies, stumbling through badly-written stories, was not my cup of tea.

On ATWT, I loved Shannon O'Hara getting Harriet Corbman involved in some of her schemes. They were like the Lucy and Ethel of daytime! Also, before his romance with Barbara made him leading-man material, I loved Henry Coleman's wild schemes, like food poisoning Molly, sharing the island with Katie, teaming up with Emily and , of course, Geneva Swift.