I never got the impression that Taylor was ever written as the "love of Ridge's life" either. He loved her, yes, but Ridge/Taylor were never written as "meant to be forever and ever" the way he was with both Caroline and Brooke. Even in the years that Brooke and Ridge weren't together, the show always hinted at their connection and that they were somehow star-crossed lovers.

I don't think Ridge's relationship with Taylor ever had the same passion, intensity, and love as the ones he had with Brooke and Caroline.

Taylor wasn't "the other woman," but Ridge's heart always belonged elsewhere and she was always going to be second best no matter what.

By 1998 or 1999 or so, he had chosen Taylor and the show seemed definitive about keeping them together. It was after Thomas was born that they were firmly cemented together and the show had Brooke accept that move on with Thorne. Its too bad bc it seemed as if they were gonna go with Thorne as the one Brooke was meant to be with and actually build something there but of course it didn't last. Even after they ended and she made a last ditch attempt at getting back with Ridge, he turned her down and reaffirmed his love for Taylor. They even brought Caroline back in angel form to give her blessing to Ridge and Taylor and push them to reunite and stay together after the Morgan drama. The triangle had peaked in the mid 90s but it had died down by the turn of the century. Ridge settled for Brooke bc Taylor died and it wasn't till 2005 that Brad Bell flipped the script and had Ridge be all about Brooke with Taylor being on the outside salivating for him to love and choose her

AMC:

Damon as Tad's son. It's not like Tad didn't have enough children and they completely trashed the character of Hilary in order to give Tad one more child to briefly obsess about. They could've just made Damon a kid that Tad grew to love and wanted to make a part of the family. There was no reason to eviscerate Hilary especially since they kept her offscreen the whole time.

IA. They should have made Damon, Tad's cousin. Say he was the son of Ray Gardner's brother, who's name escapes me. Tad saw himself in Damon and takes him under his wing bc he's family and emphasizes with him. I don't get why he needed to be Tad's actual son, especially since like you said, he had enough kids as it was

Edited December 30, 201212 yr by Cheap21

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how so?<br />

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By Marlena saying it was resolved, John and Hope aren't married anymore

First and foremost the constant retcons of who Rex's parents were on OLTL. Did anyone really give a f-ck?The same thing with John Black on DAYS.

Rex had a new daddy every six months to keep him relevant. Disgusting little piss ant who overstayed his welcome after year 3,

But the retcon from hades has to be the obliteration of Jessica's life for a cartoon perv! It simply took "creative" license too far. Everything we thought we knew about her was gone, and for what? They give her life to Natalie and then make her an unstable mable for no reason. I guess it had to be worth it as it related to the award winning story of her new daddy being obsessed with her and trying to rape her. Yeah, OL not getting awards was so wrong - NOT!

Looking back on it, I wish they had all stayed dead (except for Doug and Alice: their deaths were written after the decision was made to resurrect everyone)

I know many will disagree, but I don't think we would have had Days on the air had it happened. I maintain the ratings would have dropped considerably (no Doug? No Alice? No Tony? Maggie? Abe?) and forced NBC's hand to remove it.

Well, Doug and Alice were not going to be killed. When they asked Susan and Bill Hayes to return, they said they were not going to return for either of them to be killed off. Yes, Doug was killed but at that point, Corday was going to bring everyone back. Alice was another one that really wouldn't have died.

Everyone else? Maggie was irrelevant until a few years ago, Jack dies all the time, Abe is a nice 30 year vet but he hasn't contributed sh-t since the time of SSK, Roman... lol irrelevant, Cassie has been erased from the show's history, and Tony has been gone for 4 years and the show is fine. JER picked characters that had resonance with the audience but also were not crucial to the show.

Ugh not to mention I have always loathed Abe and Lexie as a couple and Jack/Jen wouldn't destroyed to what they are now.

The show easily could have lived without Maggie / Abe / Tony, the first two barely ever had a story and Tony's latest stint hadn't even been two years. Hell, anyone who watched the show from JER's first stint probably didn't even know who the hell Maggie was anyway.

Edited December 30, 201212 yr by Bright Eyes

Forgot about Caroline. She is another character that wasn't that important. The only thing she has done interesting since that time is change Parker's paternity test.

I only would have missed Maggie, Tony and Caroline. As bad as it sounds, I would've enjoyed everyone else staying dead. Abe and Roman bore me to death. Seeing as how Jack died two or three more times after the SSK, it would have been best if he was left dead.

The albatrosses that are/were Melanie and Daniel, DAYS. I have nothing against the actors, but egg baby was the most useless and contrived story to ever be written.

Looking back on it, I wish they had all stayed dead (except for Doug and Alice: their deaths were written after the decision was made to resurrect everyone)

I do now too. Abe is unfortunately a glorified day-player again, Roman is useless now, Maggie is unrecognizable (and we wouldn't have egg baby). Caroline and Victor shouldn't have been killed, though looking back on it now, Victor's a shell of himself and Caroline's a basket case.

LOL.

I agree with everyone on these topics. AMC, the unabortion was ... wow. Probably the worst for me, IMO. Meanwhile, parentage retcons are getting tiresome. Seriously. A majority of them were stupid.

By 1998 or 1999 or so, he had chosen Taylor and the show seemed definitive about keeping them together. It was after Thomas was born that they were firmly cemented together and the show had Brooke accept that move on with Thorne. Its too bad bc it seemed as if they were gonna go with Thorne as the one Brooke was meant to be with and actually build something there but of course it didn't last. Even after they ended and she made a last ditch attempt at getting back with Ridge, he turned her down and reaffirmed his love for Taylor. They even brought Caroline back in angel form to give her blessing to Ridge and Taylor and push them to reunite and stay together after the Morgan drama. The triangle had peaked in the mid 90s but it had died down by the turn of the century. Ridge settled for Brooke bc Taylor died and it wasn't till 2005 that Brad Bell flipped the script and had Ridge be all about Brooke with Taylor being on the outside salivating for him to love and choose her

IA. They should have made Damon, Tad's cousin. Say he was the son of Ray Gardner's brother, who's name escapes me. Tad saw himself in Damon and takes him under his wing bc he's family and emphasizes with him. I don't get why he needed to be Tad's actual son, especially since like you said, he had enough kids as it was

I agree about Damon. I liked the idea actually but I think Damon as a ward of Tad's would have been better. Kinda full circle for Tad as he would take in someone so similar to how he was. Although the stupidest part was not the rewrite, IMO, it was the fact that Hillary never even showed up. The actress was more than interested. It's too bad they weren't interested in really telling this story and when things get interesting (Liza/Damon) they dump the actor playing Damon and Liza becomes an extra.

Well, Doug and Alice were not going to be killed. When they asked Susan and Bill Hayes to return, they said they were not going to return for either of them to be killed off. Yes, Doug was killed but at that point, Corday was going to bring everyone back. Alice was another one that really wouldn't have died.

Everyone else? Maggie was irrelevant until a few years ago, Jack dies all the time, Abe is a nice 30 year vet but he hasn't contributed sh-t since the time of SSK, Roman... lol irrelevant, Cassie has been erased from the show's history, and Tony has been gone for 4 years and the show is fine. JER picked characters that had resonance with the audience but also were not crucial to the show.

Ugh not to mention I have always loathed Abe and Lexie as a couple and Jack/Jen wouldn't destroyed to what they are now.

In their joint autobiography, Bill and Susan Hayes said they initially believed Doug was truly going to be killed. Corday called them while they were on vacation in China and told them Doug was being killed off. He told Bill he understood if Bill didn't want to do it but that Doug would be recast if he didn't. It wasn't until weeks after Doug's death that Corday called him to tell him they were bringing Doug and everyone else back. Bill was sworn to secrecy and couldn't even tell Susan. They describe the mood on the set during that time in detail and it was apparently very gloomy.

As The World Turns, in its final decade or so had some of the worst retcons and rewrites I'd ever seen in my life:

@ Virginia Hamilton- AMEN. That Marshall Travers debacle was a Travesty! At first, I loved the fact that Marshall was this cocky, smooth, sharp lawyer that mixed with Jessica like oil and water but bubbling beneath the surface was this passion between the two attorneys. I had images of them battling it out in court during the day and then cross 'examining' each other in the bedroom at night. ATWT had other plans. They took what was poised to be one of their most exciting couples to coming along in I don't know how long and rip them to shreds, and what was worse was they did it in that 'he said/she said' manner that soaps seemingly loved to do in the 90s and '00s, which I hated.

Y&R, was another offender with their Paul and Christine rape storyline-- a couple that they are poised to reunite now, by the way.

@weareclouds- YES. That Henry being Stenbeck's spawn made absolutely zero sense. What a waste of air time and talent. I'd love for someone to parse that for me and tell me what value that connection even had. And the fact that Barbara Ryan, James' ex-wife ended up with Henry, his son, makes it even worse. What, wasn't Paul enough of a connection between Barbara and James?? They had to throw in an extra Stenbeck for measure? And the convoluted story of the Stenbeck fortune (which was once compelling in the 80s) didn't help matters.

And whomever mentioned the re-writing of Lyla Montgomery Perretti, that one was just sad and unnecessary. That just made me convinced that Hogan Sheffer hated women.

Speaking of Montgomerys, at the risk of offending some Hunt Block fans, I HATED what they did to the Craig Montgomery character. Ugh! It's not just the fact that they made the character regress but they made him into a cackling, grinning idiot! You know how some of you Y&R fans feel about Billy Miller's choices in portraying Billy Abbott and how it makes you want to retch? Well, double it and that's how I felt about the direction they had taken the Craig character. I accept that Craig was always a flawed character but under Hogan Sheffer et al, they stripped away the pathos, the eros and the nuance that the character had transformed into during the mid/late 80s and made him into the Joker from a Batman comics. I kept waiting for Hunt Block to say 'Wait til they get a load of me!'
At that point, I knew the end was at hand for this show.

Edited December 30, 201212 yr by DramatistDreamer

I hate rewrites that are done with absolutely no thought to the long term effects bc the writer wants a quick plot point to work with. Changing Skye's paternity on GH is a perfect example of that. I hated the original retcon that made her Alan's daughter but there was thought to that and actual substance that they worked with. Changing it was only done to put her in a sexual relationship with Ned so she could fight Alexis for Kristina but once that was done (which only lasted a summer), she and Ned were broken up and they ruined her paternity and never fixed it. To this day, we still have no clue who her bio dad is and its obvious Guza never cared about doing anything with it

PC: Changing the General Homicide Killer from Julie to Greg Cooper - It was done to help redeem her but it was incredibly unrealistic to buy that Greg, who was locked away in Ferncliff the entire time, was sneaking out and doing all those murders unnoticed. Worse that he brainwashed Julie into thinking she was the killer. WTF? They should have just left it alone and had her work on moving past her crimes by getting treatment and trying to be a better person. I think the show even gave Greg a motive by saying he was Kevin's half brother and Julie was his sister. I don't even remember how that all went down as it was convoluted and messed with the original story.

The show easily could have lived without Maggie / Abe / Tony, the first two barely ever had a story and Tony's latest stint hadn't even been two years. Hell, anyone who watched the show from JER's first stint probably didn't even know who the hell Maggie was anyway.

Maggie who? LMAO, that's so true

Edited December 30, 201212 yr by Cheap21

Lyla and Marshall were not retcons, but re-directing characters they no longer had use for. The actress who played Lyla didn't pass as Ellen Dolan's mother anyhow.