Well, for me...

DAYS: 2004-2008 (Reilly 2.0 was a mess and Hogan was embarrassing, Dena at least had the baby switch to help make the show at least watchable).
GH: 2001-present. Guza gutted everything I loved about the show, and Cartini has set the carcass on fire. I can't begin to care about this show anymore, and Jean P Smart TV isn't inspiring my interest either. 
Y&R: 2005-present. Been some peaks and valleys through this time, but it isn't The Young & The Restless anymore, and Pratt writes the show like he's Snoopy writing his Dark & Stormy Night novel. I can't.
OLTL: 1990-91 are particularly embarrassing years, though 2010-11 was awful too, after The Great Minority Purge that saw the Abs Brothers eat the show. I've never been so glad to see someone killed off by a falling chandelier in all my life.

AMC: Whatever year the unabortion happened until the end of Pratt. Gross.

But that's just what I've seen. The last decade has been REALLY rough on these shows. Yikes.
 

So for you concerning AMC it's basically 2005-2010

that long, eh? This was during the time I would sporadically read up on what was happening with the soaps and cringe, instead of watching.  Only really got back into them once GL's cancelation was announced, so my timelines are a bit off in some cases, I will admit. 

The John Conboy/Ellen Weston era was downright one of the most abysmal eras I've seen on a soap next to Dena Higley's first stint. It's truly puzzling that any of that stuff made it to air. 

Say what you will about the excessive and OTT '80's, but compared to the post-O.J. period (and no, I don't blame O.J. or the trial for the soaps' decline), the industry as a whole was much healthier back then.

Though, I do think there was a period between 1990-1993 where soaps seemed to go back to basics and embraced themselves without the excess of the 80's or repugnant attitude from the late 90's. I really think the very early portion of the 90s was the last real golden era for the genre. 

Well, for me...

AMC: Whatever year the unabortion happened until the end of Pratt. Gross.

 

I go much, much, MUCH further back.  Just as OLTL never really came back from Eterna (IMO), AMC never really came back from the well Janet threw Natalie in.  It had its moments, but even then, as the story was unfolding, I felt the show morphing into something I didn't care for.

I think JER once commented in the soap press that he loved the Natalie in the well storyline. 

Edited November 25, 201510 yr by BetterForgotten

I think JER once commented in the soap press that he loved the Natalia in the well storyline. 

 

He WOULD love it.  #smh

Days: 1989(anne howard bailey was the drizzling shits) 2005-2015

AMC: def the mid 2000's till 2010

ATWT: Those last couple of "smart tv" years

GL: The last couple years of peapack is when I gave up

OLTL: 1988-1991, also the last few years

Y&R: 2005-present. Probably the same for B&B

I dont think GH was ever my cup of tea except for a few years in the 90s.

Edited November 25, 201510 yr by Days22

GL: Mid-2000 to mid-2002 was pretty awful. In hindsight, I wish I had stuck it through and watched, knowing now what it became after 2005. The Santos uprising, NuMichelle, Catalina, May Merisi, Beth & Edmund and the endless San Cristobel baby drama...  2005 to The End was not Guiding Light. It had the same name, but the show was literally a shell, complete with a rotating Beacon Hotel Room where everyone lived, and the weird tiki green hospital that Cedars had morphed into. 

 

DAYS: 1998-1999; 2003-2006 Reilly's 2.0 era in Salem. It's been mostly miss and few hits ever since. 

I definitely agree for DOOL it was the JER 2003-2006 era.  I liked JER's first term on DOOL with the exception of Mardevil and later Princess Gina.    But he must have been a huge fan of the old  ABC Movie Of The Week  series because he ripped off the plots from those movies left and right.   "Lady In The Cage" and such , heck even his first biggie SL  "Carly Buried Alive"  was ripped from the 1972  ABC Movie Of The Week  " The Longest Night" starring David Janssen.  Based on true events I believe. 

 

 

Well, for me...

AMC: Whatever year the unabortion happened until the end of Pratt. Gross.

 

 

I go much, much, MUCH further back.  Just as OLTL never really came back from Eterna (IMO), AMC never really came back from the well Janet threw Natalie in.  It had its moments, but even then, as the story was unfolding, I felt the show morphing into something I didn't care for.

If we're going that far back, I'd say when ratings fell in 1988 and they responded by demoting Lorraine Broderick (who'd done a damn good job in 1987) and firing a ton of actors (or giving them nothing to do until they quit) and bringing in a ton of new, not all that interesting characters. Yes, some of it paid off, but it robbed AMC of its identity, and aside from a few periods when Broderick or McTavish (yes, I said McTavish) were writing, it never really seemed to find its identity ever again.

Well, for me...

AMC: Whatever year the unabortion happened until the end of Pratt. Gross.

 

 

I go much, much, MUCH further back.  Just as OLTL never really came back from Eterna (IMO), AMC never really came back from the well Janet threw Natalie in.  It had its moments, but even then, as the story was unfolding, I felt the show morphing into something I didn't care for.

 

If we're going that far back, I'd say when ratings fell in 1988 and they responded by demoting Lorraine Broderick (who'd done a damn good job in 1987) and firing a ton of actors (or giving them nothing to do until they quit) and bringing in a ton of new, not all that interesting characters. Yes, some of it paid off, but it robbed AMC of its identity, and aside from a few periods when Broderick or McTavish (yes, I said McTavish) were writing, it never really seemed to find its identity ever again.

The show dropped a whole ratings point from 87 to 88…went from a 7.7 HH for the year in 1987 to a 6.7 rating in 1988.

Yeah, I definitely see why they needed to make changes, as the show was all over the place and too "big," and there were decisions at that time I just don't understand (like that foolishness with breaking Natalie and Jeremy up via Marisa Rampal almost as soon as they married), but I don't think they needed to change as much as they did. The show feels vacant to me in a lot of the 1989 and 1990 material I've seen, very generic. And then there's that mess with Genie Francis...

Didnt Genie play some character named Ciara? I forgot the details of her character….

Yes. She was Myrtle's niece, a vixen. She was supposed to be campy and naughty and so on, which Genie can't play, even though Genie has spent decades trying to convince people she can play this.