I'd say AMC's last great year was '04:

*Before Ryan began to eat up the show.

*In the midst of the exciting baby swap story.

*The last year of Edmund.

*Before Brooke was phased out (for the first time).

*Erica's showgirl era/intervention (Susan's last Emmy-worthy scenes and material was here.)

*Cambias murder trial.

*JR/Babe's twisted relationship really shook up the screens.

*The last time Greenlee was truly the stuck-up bitch. The 2010 return was a wash.

OLTL's was '09:

*Jarlie!

*Fantastic, camp story involving Stacy and Kim.

*Kish. I loved how Fish was connected to the Morasco baby s/l.

*Victor and Téa really establishing themselves as a tentpole couple.

*Last great year of the Dorian/Viki rivalry.

*The beginning of Jess/Brody.

*The year before the Ford takeover.

2004 was Y&R's swan song for sure.

I agree with 2004 for Y&R

the last time i genuinely loved everything Days was 2002.

ATWT 2005

GH 1996

Edited August 29, 201411 yr by Days22

DAYS - 2002

GL - 2002

AMC the last great story was maybe the two Natalies, whatever year that was.

OLTL Eterna, so whatever year that was

GH the last great story was the initial Carly storyline, so whatever year that was.

I believe Eterna was 1988

And the Carly storyline was 1996-1998

I give DOOL credit, they intermittently turn out great stories at random times by different writers. A few years back I loved the Victor vs Stefano story. Then the airplane little story was great, maybe the best episode of a soap I have seen in 20 years. You never now what DOOL will just surprise you with a really solid story.

1999 - Another World. I loved Another World to it's bitter end. It had some crap stories (e.g. Lumina/Stark saga) but it's better than majority of the crap on soaps nowadays.

2001 - General Hospital. The following year would be Rick Webber being made into a murder and Laura offing him and that was just the beginning of the end for me.

2004 - Days of our Lives. The show introduced Charity Rahmer. That girl alone ruined Days for me for the remainder of the year. They've won be back as of last year but DAYS was good in the 90 to early 00s.

2004 - As the World Turns. The following year was alright but it became too much of the Gwen/Paul & Meg show for me.

2004 - Guiding Light. The last decent year of GL as well. 2005 marked the beginning of the downfall in writing and production but we can blame Kreizman and Wheeler for that....

2004 - All My Children. This was the last year the show had some heart to it still. 2005 became the Ryan, Zach, Greenpea, Kendall show and I was done and over it.

2005 - Bold and the Beautiful. This was the last year that Brad actually tried to give us good A, B, and C stories. 2006 was the beginning of him focusing heavily on one story dominating the entire 30 minutes of the show.

2007 - Young and the Restless. LML didn't bother me that much but after Dru was tossed off a cliff, I was done. The show went downhill for me.

2007 - One Life to Live. Evangeline was the character to draw me into the show. When she was written off stupidly along with that drawn out Marcie/Todd baby story, I was over it. It didn't have the same appeal that much anymore.

Edited August 29, 201411 yr by Nothin'ButAttitude

Last year for DAYS was...well...last year. I nearly said 1997 but that would just be because I was so fed up of Dannifer, but if you overlook that, it was a solid year between Kristen's return and Nick's release from prison. It just all snowballed beautifully. It's too bad this year has been so patchy, but they really have got quite a bit of mileage out of those initial 2012 stories we all thought were a bit crappy at that time.

GH - 1998, though the Sonny/Jason pimping was getting pretty bad, I gotta say I can watch some of those old episodes with Liz's rape and be really invested and pleased with the direction of the show. After that, it just got worse and worse and worse.

Y&R's last decent year was 2003.

DAYS - 2003

Who killed Colin

Larry tormenting Hope

Victor and Nicole's abusive marriage, Nicole and Larry teaming up to kill Victor.

Lexie pregnant, who's the daddy? Abe or Brandon.

The Salem Stalker

Y&R.....1998....Bill Bell stepped down.

Y&R.....1998....Bill Bell stepped down.

Same with ATWT...1993 when Marland passed...the show had one or two nice moments in each year till its cancellation but it was never the same.

ALL MY CHILDREN: 1992. I've always seen "Who Killed Will Cortlandt?" as their last, quintessentially good storyline.

Dool: 2004-2005 after thing went downhill after the serial killer story.

GL: Sometime in the very early 2000s I can't really pinpoint a particular year.

Edited August 30, 201411 yr by JtSmarts