ALL: Stories that had no consequence/movement.

[DRW50]

Angela, who had water on the brain from birth and Stephanie lied about her being dead to spare Eric pain, or something. Stephanie didn't know that she'd died years earlier and the doctor had replaced her with a woman named Deveny, whom I think fell in love with Thorne or something.

Susan Flannery had an interview in the mid or late 90's, before B&B's writing got really awful, where she said that she used a line from that story (the line where they talked about how the real Angela had died when her wheelchair had gone into traffic - "she rolled all the way down 7th Avenue") any time she thought something in the writing was getting stupid again.

[mikelyons]

Proteus on AMC. That storyline was a mess. If I recall correctly, they didn't know who it was when they started it, they went through a regime change, and the whole thing was an unmitigated disaster.

[amybrickwallace]

How about every return of Carrie and/or Austin on DAYS? I remember in particular their 2005 return was heavily hyped and then it all fell flat. Both Clark and Peck were off the show again less than a year later.

[Gray Bunny]

Thanks for that write-up.

I have the B&B DVD's released in the U.S. and I saw that episode where a goth-looking Felicia is about to marry Dante, but keeps flashing back to seeing Bridget and Dante kissing, and I thought, "boy, this sure didn't last long and had absolutely no overall effect on anything current day."

B&B sure has bad luck at using celebrities that are having a lull in their career at the time, only to blow up afterwards. To think they totally squandered Mario Lopez, and then right after, he had a career resurgence through Dancing With The Stars. Same with Betty White, who became the talk of the town with her SNL appearance in 2010... right after B&B killed her character off.

Some other pointless characters that went nowhere...

Late in 1996, they introduced Enrique (George Alvarez) and illegal immigrant Claudia Cortez (Lily Melger). Both recently poached from GH. And both given storylines that went nowhere fast. Claudia briefly had a closeness with Thorne (Jeff Trachta, then Winsor Harmon), but he quickly moved on to trying to get Taylor. Enrique had a brief flirtation with Michael Lai (another character who didn't have much to do). They all disappeared by summer of 1997, if not earlier.

[Huntress]

Yes, Claudia, Enrique and Michael all vanished in June 1997 and were removed from the opening credits once Amber arrived.

Michael was on contract for about 2 years. She first appeared in the summer of 1995 as Dylan's roommate and was added to the credits in November along with Lark Voorhies as Jasmine, another pointless character. Michael worked at Forrester Creations and was secretly in love with Dylan, but he only had eyes for Jessica and then had an affair with Jessica's mother Maggie. I think she even tried to help Dylan cover up his affair with Maggie in front of Jessica. In 1996, Clarke tried to woo Michael but she turned him down. Michael then dated Grant Chambers for a while and lived with him at his beach house until he married Brooke.

Claudia and Enrique were introduced in December 1996. Claudia was an illegal immigrant, working as a sewer for Forrester Creations. Enrique was her ex-lover who tried to win her back. Claudia, however, fell for Thorne. Once Claudia was allowed to stay in the US, Thorne reunited with Macy. Claudia was seen in the background for maybe a month until she disappeared without explanation. For a brief time, both Enrique and Michael were suspects in the "Who shot Grant Chambers" storyline. When that was resolved, they vanished without a trace.

[DRW50]

That story (the illegal immigrant story) was so unsuited for B&B, even if it was set in Los Angeles.

I think the most memorable part about it was the idiocy of Thorne divorcing Macy by fax.

[Gray Bunny]

Ironically, I actually began watching B&B because of that pointless character, Jasmine Malone. Being a Saved by the Bell fan back in the day, I wanted to see Lark Voorhies do her thing. Never saw much of her until her ending story (where Sly raped Jessica, and Jasmine figured out he was the rapist, and then he got burned to death in a fire), but got hooked on Brooke losing her [!@#$%^&*] in Barbados, Sheila poisoning Stephanie, and all the rest.

[amybrickwallace]

Didn't George Alvarez leave GH for B&B then - only to wind back up on GH before 1997 was out? (I believe that would have been right around the same time Real Andrews returned to GH as Taggert.)

[DRW50]

Yes.

[amybrickwallace]

Thanks. I liked the detective George Alvarez played on GH (and the character name escapes me, LOL) - but he was a nice, cooler-headed contrast to Real Andrews' hot-headed Taggert.

[carolineg]

He played Alex Garcia. I think B&B stole him and lilly melgar because there was talk of the "chemistry" on GH. Det. Garcia always seemed to have a crush on Lily. Anyhow, he was fine, but Lilly Melgar didn't have chemistry with anyone on GH, but she was anything but pointless. Her story, IMO, changed everything about Sonny, the mob, S&B, etc.

[Khan]

I think I've heard the same.

Proteus should have taught everyone a valuable lesson. Namely, that no one should start a story where one character is manipulating others "from the shadows" without knowing from the beginning who that someone is.

[amybrickwallace]

Thank you, carolineg - I think he also reprised the character on PC, if I'm not mistaken.

[ellabelle]

Yep. Oooh... Vanessa killed that smarmy gigolo guy! She's a murderer! And then.... nothing. What a hot mess.

Also on AMC, the two Ericas story. What felt like months of Erica locked in a room, talking to herself, and all for NOTHING. Jane/David had tremendous potential, and there were so many great directions that story could have gone. What did we get? Erica deciding that she loved Jack and wanted to be with him, Jane turning herself in so Erica could live happily ever after, and then Jack and Erica imploding for the umpteenth time. What a waste.

Prior to that, Erica's involvement with Caleb was pretty pointless. Bianca's whole involvement with Zoey/Zarf was equally pointless.

[Cheap21]

he did early on but the character was recast on PC and played by Eddie Velez