Stories that sounded better than they actually were

[DRW50]

I'm sure this thread has been around before, but if it has, then if someone wants to lock it, be my guest.

Are there any stories you heard about and you thought, "That's so moving/awesome/etc." and then when you watched...it wasn't that great?

I haven't seen the whole story, but the whole Jason story on AW in the early 80s, where Jason was in love with his singer, Tracy, but couldn't have her (which eventually leads into stories about the mob and his underworld ties) was very haunting when I read the AWHP summaries.

Onscreen, so far, it's mostly Jason being bitchy and pouting as Tracy plays homemaker and Janice Lynde sings...sometimes incredibly off-key.

[cassadine1991]

The AMC/OLTL and OLTL/GH baby switches come to mind

[DRW50]

Oh yeah the OLTL/GH baby switch. What ass that was. It must sound better on paper.

Toilet paper, most likely.

[cassadine1991]

I honestly think that if OLTL were still on in 2012, and we at least see Téa bond with Danny/Victor III and see the Llanview side of the story if would've been a little different

[John]

I agree with the OLTL/GH baby switch and the AMC/OLTL baby switch sounded better on paper

I mean AMC won out & OLTL got bunk

I was hoping PP would have had Kelly or Kevin on PP in 2013 so there could have been a cross over with AMC where they meet Ace (AJ Chandler)

[ellabelle]

I think that's a problem with crossovers - they're really hyped by the TPTB, but unless you're already a fan of both shows, I think you end up watching it and going "wow, there are a lot of extra people on this show right now." I mean, for a second it's kind of cool in a "what would happen if Erica and Dorian crossed paths" kind of way, but then it just falls flat.

For me Erica's drug addiction was one of those "sounds good in theory" stories, but I admit that I got really bored watching it back in the 90s when it aired. I loved Erica, but the whole thing just dragged on and on and on, no one called Kinder's initial drugged up seduction of Erica rape even though she had no clue who he was when they first had sex, the Betty Ford stint was boring, and it all resulted in a sober Erica who couldn't drink, thus forever eliminating fun tipsy Erica scenes. That the whole thing felt like contrived Emmy bait didn't help either.

[Dr Neil Curtis]

Didn't AMC fast forward a few years and OLTL picked up in present time during the PP run?

[cassadine1991]

I don't think so, I think it was in real time but everything was pushed by five years

[John]

I think even though AMC said it was five years later, both shows were in 2013. They just meant the ABC events happened in 2008

[Mathewson]

OLTL - In 2006 with Kelly having Duke's baby and betraying Kevin. The story would have been better if Higley didn't ruin it. And if another actor played Duke. Mathew Metzger was unwatchable. He couldn't act and didn't have any screen presence. If another actor played Duke, it could have made the drama with Kevin and Kelly far better. The story had potential with Dan Gauthier and Heather Tom but they couldn't save Higley's hack writing.

[cassadine1991]

All of Mitch Laurence's 2009-2010 stint

[watson71]

The entire Rachel/Justine story on Another World. Justine became this over-the-top villain who tried to kill a number of people in Bay City. The train track scenes were well directed and produced; however, Paul Michael Valley's Ryan should have fallen off the tracks and disappeared- this way he could have later returned to the show without being a ghost. Instead, Ryan is gunned down by Grant, and Justine falls off the tracks only to return months later dressed as a nun with a scarred face and a hook for a hand that tried to blow up Bay City General Hospital. Even a talented actress like Victoria Wyndham couldn't pull off this story because it was far- fetched. Plus, her Rachel never lost Justine's accent after Justine was long gone. Never understood Wyndham's decision to continue the accent for Rachel- was it because she was playing opposite British Charles Keating (Carl)- she certainly never had that accent opposite Douglass Watson's Mac.

[juppiter]

I think the entire McPherson/Thomas reign qualifies as this. They thought they were respecting the history of the show, but on air it was just like really bad and pointless (and boring) fan fiction.

[DRW50]

I think it was all the stage work she was doing with Keating at this time, like Couplets.

The best part of that story was Wyndham tearing into Michael Logan for criticizing her work.

[Khan]

I felt that VW affected an accent in her later years as Rachel b/c she was becoming bored and restless with the material they were handing her. You know, sort of like how Damon Wayans forced Lorne Michaels to fire him from "Saturday Night Live" by changing characterizations in mid-sketch (and turning his cop character into a swishy, lisping queen)? And if that was the case, then the fact that TPTB apparently didn't force VW to ditch that accent probably proved her point (i.e., that no one at P&G or NBC was paying any attention at all to older, veteran cast members).