MIA at Major Characters' Funerals

[antmunoz]

I was just watching Jo's "funeral" on SEARCH FOR TOMORROW from 1983 (during her abduction by Vargas). I had forgotten that it was held at The River Boat, her restaurant, which kind of screamed gaudy (the decor) and cheap ("Let's use an existing set!") at the same time.

But I was hoping to hear ANY reference to Jo's daughter, Patti, who was written off in 1976, or Jo's ward, Bruce, gone since about 1978.

Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Despite the fact that Jo had been missing for WEEKS and was finally declared dead, her own daughter is never mentioned as even being "unable to attend the funeral," that old soap staple. Meanwhile, Jo's niece, Suzi, whom she did raise, is played up as her only relation.

(Of course, Patti/Patty returned two years later, de-aged about 12 years, to mourn her own (adopted) daughter, Sarah, whose own funeral she missed. And apparently with amnesia of the two children she raised from infancy,Chris and Tracey.)

This reminded me of one of the best soap funerals ever, Katherine's "funeral" on Y&R when lookalike Marge died. Honestly the show spent more money on the fake funeral then they actually did for the funeral went Kay actually died. More vets came back for the fake funeral and more characters that were connected to Kay, including members of her own family.

MIA characters at Katherine's real funeral included granddaughter Mackenzie and extended "family" Phillip and Chance. And I seem to recall Danny and Gina at the fake funeral but not at the real one.

Don't get me started on the fiasco funerals that were Bert Bauer's or Nancy Hughes'. No Mike. Hope. Meta. Bruce. Trudy. Steve. Sara. Holly. Barbara. No Don. Mary. Penny. Amy. Lien. Ellen. Ad infinitum.

Any other glaring funeral MIAs from any soap?

[cassadine1991]

Edward Quartermaine AND AJ Quartermaine got NO funeral onscreen

[OldGHFan]

I just remember Robert was not at Robin's funeral. He was offscreen looking for Luke's "son" Ethan. FV and RC wanted Luke to be there to comfort Anna. Gag!

[JellicleCat]

The funerals of Holden Snyder and Adam Munson during ATWT's last years. Sure, neither of them were actually dead, but their funerals were nevertheless absolutely pathetic. I was surprised though that they actually bothered to get Seth back for Holden's "funeral".

[Scrapple]

Holden's "funeral" was the first one I thought of. Did ANY of his sisters show up? There were about six people there. I could never understand why the show just didn't bring in extras (or fans) to fill the seats, so the service didn't look so pathetic.

[antmunoz]

Which funeral? LOL. Holden "died" twice!

[Paul Raven]

Days made an effort with Alice's funeral,even bringing in a recast Bill,but the mystery of Tommy remained. No sign of Jessica,David,Scotty,Sandy,Sarah,Steve etc

[titan1978]

I can't remember if Georgie even had a funeral on GH but I know Frisco wasn't there.

[cassadine1991]

Georgie definitely had a funeral, Maxie chewed up Felicia and spit her out

[tylerbo20]

Days sucks at funerals and weddings and christmas times family is always missing

[SoapDope]

When Liz Foster died on Y&R , they just donated her body to medical science and had no memorial. When Katherine died for real, a lot of past characters made no appearances. Her fake funeral when it was Marge was better than her actual one.

[Gray Bunny]

I'd say DAYS' funeral for Alice was one of the best efforts any soap opera has done in a long time with bringing back key important characters (and A LOT of 'em!) for the funeral, as well as Alice's final moments (off-camera) before she died. Yes, there were plenty still missing-- most who haven't been seen or heard of in 2 or 3 decades.

I'd say that Tommy, and to a lesser extent, Sarah, were the most glaring absenses. Since they've educated us viewers, even in more recent years, of Tom & Alice's 5 children, to have one missing and not even mentioned makes no sense. Then, you have Sarah who had just been mentioned a few months earlier when Mickey Horton passed away.

[Michael]

Yeah, those were very glaring omissions to me. And they didn't even need to cast Tommy -- just a reference to him having passed away would've sufficed. I really appreciated that they not only brought in Marie and bothered to recast Bill, but also that all the visitors got actual scenes of substance. It wasn't just "Oh cool, Laura said hi to someone and is now standing in the background for one episode." They even made the effort to weave in Mike and give him material, despite Roark Critchlow not being available for the key tape dates.

They really should've cast someone as Sarah for both Mickey's funeral and Alice's. The others mentioned -- obviously it would've been nice to have ALL living Hortons there, but most of those folks hadn't been on in a long, long time, and they didn't have identifiable portrayers. (And they did bring back Jean Bruce Scott as Jessica in 2012 when Nick returned, for which I give them credit.) I don't know, I really can't rag on them for the way they did Alice's death and funeral at all (well, aside from how the episode in which Alice officially died ended with Carly barging in on Chloe's hospital wedding). It mostly felt like a loving tribute to Frances Reid, Alice, and the fans, even if it wasn't perfect.

[StevieM]

On DAYS, Doug didn't make it back for Hope's funeral in 1990 when she was presumed dead. And neither Doug nor Julie came back for Bo and Hope's wedding in 1985.

[slick jones]

To be fair, Bill and Susan, along w/ Lanna Saunders, Jed Allan, and Suzanne Rogers had all been unceremoniously dropped in '84, so I'm sure Doug/Julie's absence was due to TPTB only focusing on younger characters.