Daniel Jonas. Does that count?

I say yes!!!

I thought this looked familiar.

I will never get over the empty styrofoam cups that everyone carries in daytime (& primetime). An empty cup makes very distinct sounds and the actors don't even bother pretending that what they're carrying even has any weight. It just bugs. the. hell. outta. me.

Oh Lord, in acting school we spent hours doing sense memory, holding imaginary coffee cups in our hands, feeling the weight, the heat, so we'd learn to be realistic on stage with a cold empty cup.

This reminds me of a soap costume designer whose pet peeve was women walking around with obviously empty flat pocketbooks.

Insta-children irk me as well, especially when a character gets multiple ones. Adam and especially Amanda on Dynasty come to mind. Nothing against the characters per se, but the intros feel so cheap and tacked on. One can understand the need to give a major character like Dorian a child, Cassie is understandable, but to do it all over again with Adrianna is too much. Megan I have no issue with because I think the Eterna backstory is actually kinda neat, but again, Natalie TOO? I would much rather see a cousin/niece/nephew come to town and stir things up.

Edited July 31, 201411 yr by SFK

Insta-kids for women really bothers me. I refuse to accept that a woman can "forget" childbirth and/or never ever discuss the child she had.

-When family members don't speak like family, too formally with no short hand for the sake of us dumb viewers.

-When folks never make casual mention of family/friends who are currently off-screen. During the Eddie Maine storyline, Lois was telling the Qs how Eddie's mom was at Woodstock and Lila, Edward and them all had a good chuckle. I loved that.

Edited July 31, 201411 yr by SFK

This is a minor one that I actually kind of miss from when the stories used to be good, but when they reshoot the cliffhanger lines from the previous episode to open the day's episode. They never sell the lines with the same gusto and you're reminded that you're investing in something very fake as you watch people say the same thing twice with different inflection as 24 hours ago.

Long lost children. Not even cousins but grown ass kids characters conveniently never mentioned.

Y&R is prime example of this with the Nikki/Dylan/Paul crap.

Y&R always has a who's the father/paternity storyline constantly going.

My soap opera pet peeve is when writers and producers don't respect the history of the show. Yes, all of these soaps have been on for decades and sometimes there is a need to tweek history a bit to get a good story. However, more often than not, writers and producers simply disregard previous history and make up their own due to laziness. If there is an honest mistake, I would rather the writers and producers own up to it and try to correct it rather than shove this new history down our throats.

An even bigger pet peeve for me is when soap journalists excuse the writers and producers for their rewritten history and come down on the fans. This is inexcusable IMO. The so-called journalists come across as suck-ups and I just lose respect for them. They should be calling out the writer and producer.

Another pet peeve of mine is soap publications like SID stating "Will Change the Show Forever!" I can't count the number of times I've seen this written and yet my show remains the same. Zzz.

Insta-kids for women really bothers me. I refuse to accept that a woman can "forget" childbirth and/or never ever discuss the child she had.

I think it's more workable for female characters who haven't been on the show that long. When a character has been on for decades, it becomes a lot harder to believe that she never ONCE mentioned having this other child, or that we never saw a scene where she looked longingly at a mother with a baby and became a little misty-eyed or where it was subtly hinted that she was hiding a secret.

On AMC, it was established almost a full year before the Kendall reveal - and well before the character was ever cast or appeared in town - that Erica was afraid of thunderstorms (there was a storm during her rape, and she associated storms with that trauma), but even the thunderstorm fear might have been a retcon. I'm not sure if there were instances in the 70s or 90s or her being caught in a storm and being afraid. There was also a mention during Bianca's infancy of Erica dreaming about her birthday and her father, and it was clear that she associated the two together - it was a lead up to the Barney is Eric reveal, but it kind of fit in with the Kendall retcon later.

This is a minor one that I actually kind of miss from when the stories used to be good, but when they reshoot the cliffhanger lines from the previous episode to open the day's episode. They never sell the lines with the same gusto and you're reminded that you're investing in something very fake as you watch people say the same thing twice with different inflection as 24 hours ago.

OMG, I hate this too.

This reminds me of a soap costume designer whose pet peeve was women walking around with obviously empty flat pocketbooks.

I think you're talking about former AMC costume designer Carol Luiken, who is probably my all-time favorite next to Robert Anton (THE DOCTORS, GL, LOVING, SFT, etc.). According to one actress in the AMC anniversary book, Luiken would stuff pocketbooks with tissue paper if she saw one on set that looked flat. It's things like that, along with dressing for character and not for actor, that make a good costume designer, IMO.

They could at least pour a little bit of water in them.

Yes, they could! But that would probably mean that they are unable to use them again...!

Daniel Jonas. Does that count?

LOL +1

Oh Lord, in acting school we spent hours doing sense memory, holding imaginary coffee cups in our hands, feeling the weight, the heat, so we'd learn to be realistic on stage with a cold empty cup.

This reminds me of a soap costume designer whose pet peeve was women walking around with obviously empty flat pocketbooks.

Exactly!

The empty pocketbooks are annoying as well.

This is a minor one that I actually kind of miss from when the stories used to be good, but when they reshoot the cliffhanger lines from the previous episode to open the day's episode. They never sell the lines with the same gusto and you're reminded that you're investing in something very fake as you watch people say the same thing twice with different inflection as 24 hours ago.

That's a really good one! In one episode the character says the lines with episode-ending intensity and, at the beginning of the next, they just throw them away like they're discussing the weather before they get all passionate about the new lines, :s

Exactly YRBB! It falls flat and undercuts the adrenaline of the cliffhanger.

Khan, how could I forget that was Carol? I think I told you I worked with her once, what a lovely lady. And of course I asked her a million AMC questions, but she never got annoyed.

I totally agree about the cliffhanger lines. Good catch.