Stories that sounded better than they actually were

[Khan]

IA. To me, a story about drug addiction and recovery, although in keeping with Erica's family history (what with brother Mark being a recovering addict and all), was too dark and heavy for that particular character. I guess the writers wanted to convey the message that "If it could happen to Erica Kane, it could happen to anyone," though. #shrug

[NothinButAttitude]

+1

I'd also add John and Felicia's affair to this list. On paper it sounded good but it was an epic fail. At least Anna Holbrook snagged an emmy from this crud.

[teplin]

I'll see your Justine and John/Felicia, and raise you a Red Swan. Also, I was really intrigued to watch the Toni rape storyline play out after Malone teased that it would be an hard-hitting examination of race relations in Bay City. Though I'm sure that's what he intended, NBC and P&G made sure it turned out nothing at like that.

[edgeofnik]

On ATWT,

1) After Rose died and they brought Jade as her wild "bi-racial" daughter. It was an unexpected development and a nice way to give Lily a part of Rose back, but the writing for the character was just tragic.

2) Same with introduction of Hunter as Emily and Larry's "test tube" baby. Since the story has "real" history - Emily/Larry genetics used to create Allison for Susan on the show 20 years earlier, it was believable that Larry used another "sample" to create a child with another woman, just like he did with Susan. After the big reveal, the story fell completely flat.

[watson71]

I'll cut the Red Swan story some slack since the show had to rework stories because of Douglass Watson's death, but I am in agreement about John and Felicia. While we are on Michael Malone we can add that glowing love idol, Cindy the cat burglar, Grant vs Donna for mayor, Bobby Reno/Shane Roberts, and Alexander Nikos to the list of bad stories he penned for AW.

[John]

Plus it made no sense that Hunter & Jade (The 2008-09 version) just disappeared without a reason why

[cassadine1991]

Reminds me of the Riley Morgan is really Adam Munson, and we see how that turned out

[quartermainefan]

DOOL The Colleen Brady/Santos DiMera story. The origin of the DiMera hatred for the Bradys should have been a winner, but it fizzled.

[titan1978]

That was a bad idea to begin with. Roman hunted Stefano, was killed. Bo/Hope/Marlena get even. Stefano creates the Pawn as revenge on all parties. Stefano becomes obsessed with Marlena and hates John. It didn't need anything more.

[John]

That too. Why make him Adam & send him away

[Paul Raven]

Patty's return on Y&R. Initially intriguing as to who Victor had brought to GC. I remember much speculation on this board. Was it Patty, Mari Jo, Lynsey etc

Then we had the reveal as Patty and things quickly went askew and we ended up with another MAB trainwreck.

[StevieM]

Star Trek: Enterprise should have been the crown jewel of the franchise. It could have gone so much better.

[EnglishTea]

Maria's return on AMC. They wasted Edmund much of the time that Maria was away, matching him up with TKFP (which was also not a good story on the stage as it had been nearly 10 years since Jackson Montgomery had lamented about the sister whose death he thought he was responsible for), and then the mishap with Alex/Anna (which was story that felt as if it was being written as it went along rather than any long term vision).

TPTB held off on reuniting Edmund and Brooke long past the point of it feeling organic. Edmund was pissed after Alex returned to Dimitri, and Brooke was torn up after finding out that Eliot was really the man responsible for killing her daughter.

The two bonded over their broken hearts, and it was the perfect time to bring these two characters back together, it would have given the Edmund/Brooke fans the wedding they wanted, allowed the characters to form a family, and then bam - Maria's back on the scene... perhaps right around the time Edmund's kids are starting to call Brooke, "Mommy."

Instead, with three different writing teams responsible for Maria's return, her reunion with Edmund, and then her betrayal with Zach, it was a major clusterf... all around. Brooke became the monster who lied about Maria being alive. Edmund became the monster who drugged Maureen, and then planned his divorce behind Maria's back. Maria/Maureen was just a mess, who couldn't decide from week to week if she was Maureen or Maria.

[NothinButAttitude]

Because like GL in final years, it was clear that ATWT had no long-term story projections and they were flying at the seat of their pants.

[John]

You just hit the nail on the head there