ALL: Haven't they already met?

[edgeofnik]

Thank you. That's what I thought. It was a weird add-on considering Olivia came on the canvas in 1990 and, obviously, the Ashley character was on during that entire time. I consider that more bizarre than some of the examples above because the characters were very well known to each during that period.

[YRBB]

You're welcome. If this wasn't introduced earlier, I think the show was just trying to find a convenient reason to bring Ashley and Olivia together so that Ashley could learn that Victoria is Olivia's patient, so they retconned/adjusted the backstory. Ashley and Olivia got together to discuss going to a reunion and the dialogue and the actors played it as if they used to have good times but hadn't necessarily kept in touch. So it fit. And, obviously, they weren't insta biffles but the friendship stuck and built over the years.

[YRBB]

That has always been a myth. There were plenty of strong friendships and interactions. It's just that Y&R wasn't, say, ATWT. ATWT could have had Lisa walk into Tom & Margo's bedroom while they were having sex, chit chat while they ran into Kim and discussed Frannie's storyline, all while Tom and Margo went on, and I wouldn't really bat an eye. Also, due to Y&R's slower pace, it would be death to include tons of scenes with interactions because then it would take eight years to finish a story instead of just four. In a way, faster-paced soaps had to do a lot of it to generate material.

Perfect.

[edgeofnik]

That's an excellent analysis. Though I remember in the late 80s - especially. You'd have long scenes of nothing - example: Jill storms into the mansion, slams the door, walks in the living screaming "Katherine!" cut to Katherine putting down her tea and giving Jill a long stare, back to Jill seething - commercial. There were a lot of scenes in an episode where nothing really happened. This was a huge contrast to ATWT where it always seemed alive with stuff happening in every scene with interaction between many characters - it felt much more like a community. I enjoyed both shows during that era - especially when they were back-to-back (ATWT moved for B&B after Capitol was axed).

[Dr Neil Curtis]

Wasn't Donna Love introduced as a high school classmate of Rachel on Another World?

[Paul Raven]

I thought it was Michael who had known Rachel in high school.

Re Y&R I recall that Katherine knew of the Abbott's when Jack came to her trying to stop Jill marrying John but was not close to them.

Later when Dina came along,it was established that she and Dina had been close friends earlier at the time Dina was having the affair with Brent.And then later John and Katherine talked about the early days of their friendship whan they were young.

So was there some rewriting going on??

[edgeofnik]

Re: Katherine and Abbotts - most definitely a new back history for Katherine. What made it kind of ridiculous was that Jill being so embedded with Katherine's life, certainly would've had some similar exposure to the family. Instead it was like Jill started working at Jabot. (The reality is that if Katherine was "so close" to John, she would've put the kabosh on Jill EVER getting a job there. Plus, John would've known all about the history with Jill and P2.)

[SoapDope]

Yes, they rewrote that storyline to make Katherine & John Abbott school classmates. I think they also claimed Katherine went to school with Stuart Brooks and Earl & Allison Bancroft.

Bill Bell kept certain characters in storyline groupings, but seemed to like them all interact at some point with Katherine.

Speaking of John Abbott, I'm almost certain that before Ashley & Traci came on, he was talking about his girls and gave their names as Traci and Tiffany.

[StevieM]

Honest mistake here by the poster, because that is the kind of thing shows do all the time. And maybe Anna and Luke come across like classic characters still interacting after all these years. But the show actually didn't do that. They did acknowledge Anna and Luke having never met back in the day.

The part of the scene I am talking about starts at 1:50

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[StevieM]

The switch between John and Roman was handled incredibly badly, in a lot of different ways.

Roman immediately assumed John's rivalry with Victor. People forget just how long and deep the RoJohn/Victor rivalry ran. Abe once talked about RealRoman and Victor having a long history of going up against each other, when in fact they had very little history.

On RoJohn's end, when he was being held prisoner at Maison Blanche there was a calender on the wall that he had drawn up the last time he was there. It was written by John Black, as if that was his known name at the time. In actual fact, John Black was a name he picked off a sign at the midnight mission when he first arrived in Salem as the pawn. His face was in bandages, and he had no memory.

Drake went to TPTB to complain. He pointed this story out to them. They just laughed and said: "well, maybe it was a lie." Drake's comments years later, when recounting the story, was this: "That one hurt. It still does."

[Khan]

They could entire theses on the many continuity errors found within John Black's convoluted back stories. At this point, I am beginning to think the man is really one of Eugene Bradford's robots.

[titan1978]

Talk about a convoluted character. He's the Pawn, John Black, Roman, Whatever Alamain, a priest, a jewel thief, dead, not quite John, and now, deadly boring.

[JackPeyton]

Days did this with Sami and Madison. Such a waste cuz Madison could've known things about Sami we didn't.

[Dr Neil Curtis]

or been an ex lover of Eric. They all went to grade school together in Colorado or been an ex lover of Eric. They all went to grade school together in Colorado or been an ex lover of Eric. They all went to grade school together in Colorado

[ellabelle]

I thought of another one from AMC - in 2004 during Erica's intervention, Erica's half-brother Mark acted as if he'd never laid eyes on Kendall. Mark attended Mona's funeral almost exactly 10 years prior to that though, and he knew exactly who Kendall was when she walked into the visitation. Granted, I don't think Mark and Kendall really interacted much in 1994, but it was still a little strange that he acted as if he'd never met her in 2004.