Best/Worst Soap Funerals

[SFK]

You just made a friend for life.

We need to start a SON Posters Dramatic Funerals thread.

I'm biased, but I think AMC did funerals best. Laura Cudahy, Mona Tyler, Phoebe Wallingford... the one funeral which I heard was beautiful and regretfully missed as we got held up doing something that day was Natalie's We were so looking forward to hearing Livia sing Just a Closer Walk with Thee.

[AdelaideCate007]

I have Natalie's funeral! I'll try and post it on Youtube soon. That was a good one too. I loved that they brought Donna back for it.

[Darn]

I hated Myrtle's memorial. It became all about Zach's pain (and whatshisface's friendship with Eileen Herlie). I just felt like they spent more time on their few years of knowing it each other rather than EH's 30 years on the show.

[y&r_fan]

Y&R

Best:

Cassie Newman

Drucilla Winters

Katherine Chancellor

Colleen Carlton

Cane Ashby

Worst:

Chance Chancellor

Jana Fisher

Diane Jenkins

Sharon Newman

For some reason I can't even remember John Abbott's funeral.

B&B

Best:

Taylor Hayes (2002)

Darla Forrester

Storm Logan

Tiny

Worst:

Beth Logan

[SFK]

Awesome! I look forward to watching when you get the chance!

[MissLlanviewPA]

"I’m afraid that we haven’t made our Sonny very happy, but not to worry. No one ever has. But many have died trying. Do you think you’re the only person who understands family? My family, the Cassadines, was staging deadly vendettas while your ancestors were working our fields with the other peasants."

[DRW50]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oigznNhgOds

Imagine if it was like Ricky Nelson (where Tracy and Kris supposedly got into some big fight) or Sam Cooke (I think one of his family members pistol-whipped his widow and her boyfriend).

[DRW50]

Best:

Even though I had no big emotional reaction, in spite of my love for the character, HB Lewis' funeral was very classy, bringing back all of his loved ones, including long-forgotten characters like Trish.

Worst:

Nadine's funeral on GL angered me, as all we heard of Harley was a single red rose. Whatever! This must be the only soap funeral awkwardly rewritten less than a year later, as a returning Harley explained why she couldn't bear to attend.

[MissLlanviewPA]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDx3Jv5NVyE&feature=relmfu

The montage at the end is just perfect.

[darraholic]

Faves:

Carly Manning: The fact that she was still alive gave me the creeps. Being able to hear your own funeral would be quite terrifying. Then Bo comes storming into the funeral and starts screaming out that Carly feels warm and everyone thinking he's in denial. And to top it off you have Vivian rolling around Carly's grave after she's been buried and Carly finally waking up from her sleep to realize she's been buried alive.

Zack Brady: Shawn singing Danny Boy was a touching moment. Chelsea showing up despite Hope not wanting her there gave for some great drama.

John Black: Deidre Hall & Martha Madison were amazing. Worst decision the show ever did was making John come back to life.

Shawn Brady: I loved seeing the Brady children reunite. It's just a shame we couldn't have had Wayne Northrop instead of Taylor.

Lexie Carver: I thought it was just okay. I wanted a lot more, but I was surprised the show gave us anything. It was nice seeing all the flashbacks. And I loved that the show remembered Lexie & Sami's hatred for each other.

I honestly didn't care for either Tom or Alice's funerals/memorials. Tom's funeral was all about Hope/Gina. And Alice/Francis deserved more imo. The vets returning was nice, but I wanted a funeral as well. Not just a memorial. The memorial was just okay IMO. The last 10 minutes were great, but Higley should have done more!

[JellicleCat]

The memorial for Nancy Hughes (and Helen Wagner) on ATWT was pitiful. Just a few of the longtime characters (Bob, Kim, Lisa, Barbara, Susan, John and Lucinda etc) standing around holding candles. I don't think they even mentioned people like Penny, Don or Ellen.

[AMCHistory]

That funeral gets me everytime, especially because Kay's death was so premature. It was sad too to see Hugh Franklin in such poor shape. I believe this was one of Dr. Tyler's last appearences.

They were so deliberate in reuniting as many Martin family members a possible. Soaps just do not do this anymore. I mean, JR wasn't even at Palmer's funeral! Or my favoruite cop-out is when characters are mentioned but not seen onscreen.

[AMCHistory]

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AMC did a great job with Phoebe's, despite it not being a stand alone episode. We got Lincoln, Kelly, Chuck, and most importantly, Benny together. I never thought I was going to see 1/2 those characters ever again. And, it was focused on her family still on the canvas, Brooke and Jamie. The music from the episode still makes me cry. Perfect flashbacks too.

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On the other side of that equation has to be when Phoebe gets up to speak at Mona's funeral. Talk about another stellar guest list: Nick, Mark. I think Susan's nuanced performances throughout the service and weeks following were so poignant. There is a scene in the 25th Anniversary episode when Mark talks about Mona, and Susan, not Erica, is torn up that she hides her face behind her hair and in Dimitri's arms. We all miss Fra, but no one more than Susan.

[AMCHistory]

Here is the scene from the 25th Anniversary I was talking about (Start at 17:40):

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It was one of those moments where the line faded between Reel Life and Real Life.

[BKuzak]

I agree that All My children always did the best funerals. mostly for the flasbacks. I know it cuts away from the funeral itself but i love watching flashbacks of long term characters when they died. not just little flashes at the end or in some cases nothing at all. My faves were Mona Kane's and Myrtle's. I know they didn't do a proper funeral for Myrtle but it showed all the aspects of her life. They had Erica and Bianca meet at the old boutique and Opal getting the crystal ball from Myrtle's carny days and then Kitty, Jesse, Angie and others meeting at the old boarding house where they all stayed at one time or another under Myrtle's watchful eye. it was great. and as for Mona, I still can't watch it without shedding a tear when livie was singing "never walk alone" and then you see the boys come and take the casket. of course all of them Erica either slept with or flirted heavily with at one time. LOL

I'm suprised nobody mentioned Steve Hardy's funeral on GH. I thought it was pretty nice. several people got up to say things. even his son Tom who didn't want to get up...agreed to do it so Audrey didn't have to.and some of the clips at the end went back to the 60's of Steve and Audrey. he was the best doctor on the show and his death will always be sad even though nobody brings him up anymore (because most of the cast on the show weren't even around back then and all the real vets (sorry sonny) except Tracy only come on and off every so often.)

Lila Quartermaine's death would hinder on the rope of best and worst. sorry but fake Lois who's only been on the show for maybe a week crying to faux Edward who they tried to replace John Ingles with just wasn't great at all. Usually they wouldn't put up clips of past actors playing current characters but i guess because Anna Lee actually died they said 'the hell with it" and at the end put clips of her with the other two Edwards.I guess her death was just bad timing. LOL I mean if they could have done it before John Ingles left the show, they really could have done it well. I really don't think faux Edward had any scenes at all with Anna because she was off the show by that time. but I did like the Tracy, Monica and Emily scenes. and Jason bringing Michael. and of course Lucy comming in wearing Red because of that red dress she wore when she married Alan. LOL (a character who needs to come back!!) so it had a lot of good stuff but also a lot of crapy stuff with actors who didn't even work with the lady.

I hope they do edward's death but i have a feeling they will just do clips at the end of an episode and say, "this episode of dedicated to John Ingles." I could be wrong but GH is focussed on too many other things and newer characters now. I don't mean just OLTL, it's focussed way too much on new Kristina, Kate/Connie, and Joesph Scully.