Favorite/best written and least favorite/worst written soap murder mystery of all time.

[soapsfordays]

OK, so I just thought I would get everyone's opinion on this. Seems like a fun topic. I love murder mystery when they are done right. What's your all time favorite? Least favorite?

My favorite:

The Loving murders hands down. So well written, and kept you guessing. The victims were all people we knew, not random day players.

Honorable mention:

Who killed Will Cortlandt? (AMC)

Least favorites:

The masquerade. (The City). It was a pale carbon copy of the Loving murders. And silly at that.

General Homicide. (Port Charles). It started off really good, but its like they decided on who the killer was at the last minute. It made no sense.

Who killed Carolyn Crawford? (ATWT). Went on way too long, was way too confusing, and involved too many day players. By the end, it was a big who cares.

[NothinButAttitude]

Favorite:

Anything Edge of Night that I've seen. But that's what that show excelled at. But I'll be more specific and pick the Clown Puppet Murders. Watching clips of Molly become unhinged on behalf of what happened to Emily was phenomenal. The climax of Raven popping up very much alive and causing Molly to tumble down the stair to her death is classic soap. I just wish I got to see it in real time. That would've been awesome but that's one of the reasons why I appreciate Youtube so much.

Least:

Text Message Killer. Just stupid and pointless all around. I felt bringing Diego back to kill people was stupid and pointless. Especially, resulting in the death of Georgie, a legacy character. She should still be alive driving story today alongside Lulu and Maxie. Plus, Diego and Georgie became close so him killing her was stupid. And killing off Coop, who had so much untapped potential and could've been Brenda's nephew/Julia's son, annoyed me. He was Maxie's best pairing besides Jesse IMO.

[SOAPSFOREVER]

The Keith Whitney saga on "The Edge of Night". Brilliantly written and plotted (by Henry Slesar), exquisitely acted and directed. The story unfolded over the course of a year, and built masterfully to it's sensational conclusion with Keith falling to his death while reciting the oath of office.

[OldGHFan]

I really like the Susan Moore murder mystery on GH back in 1983. It involved a lot of characters. First off, was Susan Moore herself. She was having an affair with Alan Quartermaine - so of course all the Qs were involved. Scotty had an affair with Susan so he was involved as was Heather Webber (Scotty's love) and her mother Alice (who was the maid for Rick & Lesley). Robert Scorpio had just become the Police Commissioner and was trying to solve the murder. His new wife Holly (who he had married for convenience), wanted to help solve the mystery and was slowly falling in love with her new husband. Edward Quartermaine's bastard child (with Beatrice) Jimmy Lee showed up around this time as well. I loved how the storyline involved so many people! Great storyline!

[quartermainefan]

I love the Susan Moore murder for the set up of it all and the actual murder scene, but it loses points for the obvious solution.

GH has a killer murder scene with Who Killed Beatrice. Her death scene is great.

AMC had a doozy with Who Killed Zach Grayson and the revelation of the killer was really well done with a bunch of the cast gathered in time for the killer to be revealed. Maybe my favorite AMC scene thanks to Ruth Warrick.

AMC had another one with Will Cortlandt, and while I love the way they had 15 suspects all wearing trench coats at the same time, the identity of the killer was completely out of left field.

OLTL had Who Killed Michael Grande, and that I will always have a soft spot for thanks to its ridiculous solution

I would have to say while I loved all of them, the most intelligently written one was EON and Who Killed Margo Dorn. The solution you can see the writer put serious thought into and you are left with the impression there was no other possible solution. The reveal is on YT.

What I don't like is the lazy whodunit where the motive is "he was crazy" and there were no actual clues. I also don't care when the story is so meaningless you can change the ending. Agatha Christie said she would come up with the murder first and then she would be able to write a story that only had the actual solution. On soaps they feel the logic of the murder is so immaterial they are able to plug in any killer they want anytime they want.

Oh before I forget. Worst mystery? That's easy, Laurelton.

[Dale]

The Wade Meecham murder on Edge is one that comes to mind. Was Winter Austen the first and last defendant in a soap opera murder mystery who actually turned out to be guilty? I thought it was brilliant! The defendant is NEVER the guilty party on a soap!

[vetsoapfan]

You beat me to the punch.

There has never been a more riveting, suspenseful, brilliantly-done murder mystery on daytime TV (or, I daresay, most primetime TV) than Slesar's Keith Whitney/Jonah Lockwood saga.

It was perfect, and perfectly terrifying, and the fact that none of its episodes survive today is a crime.

[Khan]

RE: "Who Killed Carolyn Crawford?" -- Several years ago, Julie Poll, a former associate writer for ATWT, told SOD that Douglas Marland changed his mind about who Carolyn's killer was to be about halfway through the story. I think that's why it became so convoluted. Otherwise, I'm certain it was supposed to climax with Frannie learning Darryl was the culprit in that cable car.

BEST: I'm with NBA. Henry Slesar and EON own this contest. Hands down. DAYS should have had him, in fact, when they were doing all those Salem Strangler-esque stories throughout the '80's.

WORST: PC's "General Homicide". As soon as you remembered that Julie was onscreen and somewhere else when one of the murders was supposed to have occurred, you knew the "shocking reveal" was b.s. and a total continuity lapse. Also, I'm not sure, but didn't the murder in question put an end to the Nurses' Ball until Frank and Ron brought it back on GH? Regardless, it was sad how an annual event to raise AIDS awareness had devolved into a backdrop for a grisly murder.

[Soapsuds]

Darryl was suppose to be the killer but Marland didn't want to dumb Frannie any further by her being involved with another killer since she was already with Douglas Cummings when played by Julianne Moore.

[slick jones]

Best: Diana Taylor, GH, Susan Moore, GH ; Nora Fulton, EON: Billy Aldrich, TD(two killers, one being the cop investigating it); Diane Ballard, GL; Loving murders, LOV; Salem Strangler, Salem Slasher, DOOL; Zack Grayson, Will Cortlandt, AMC; The Sin Stalker AW(except Quinn Harding...I liked her); Channing Capwell, SB.

Worst: Joshua Cassen and Diane Jenkins,Y&R; Carolyn Crawford,(later) ATWT, Stuart Chandler, AMC: Sally Frame, AW; Madeline Laurent, SB;

more later

[NothinButAttitude]

That I never understood either. Why didn't anyone try and snag him post Capitol? Especially when serial killer stories were hot in the 80s.

But I always wanted to ask fellow posters, why do you think that serial killer stories were hot in the 80s on soaps? Do you all think that it was a reflection of the time or was it b/c the horror genre was hot at that time [i.e. Freddy, Jason, Chucky, Michael, Poltergeist, Steven King novel adaptions, etc]?

[DRW50]

I'd say it was the time. Slasher films, shock value, but above all else, the 80s was a time of paranoia and drug-addled mania in general. You can see that stamped all over mess like the Sin Stalker on AW.

They didn't end until a few years later, but it was a low point (along with the NB being used to play a sex tape...)

[cassadine1991]

Not to mention there were a lot of real life serial killer cases also going on in the 80s

[applcin]

AMC's Eddie Dorrance was the first soap murder storyline I saw and I remember that being full of some good suspects.

AW's Fax Newman killings were pretty bad. A minor character, he whistled, killed a couple of minor characters, whistled some more, killed Frankie where AW went overboard with the cruelty of it. It seemed at the time, AW was more concerned about shocking than telling a good story.

[saynotoursoap]

I interviewed Slesar several years after he left Capitol, and he was still deeply hurt by the experience. He worked as a consultant at ABC afterward, and in the 1990s worked on a German serial, but he was not anxious to headwrite another American soap.