Retconning: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

[Dr Neil Curtis]

Ok... never read it

[Khan]

 

LOL!!  I always feel like they're saying that character slithered away in shame!

[Dr Neil Curtis]

My thoughts exactly! If she was that Kate, that medical background would have came up earlier on, especially in that Curtis Brown murder trial. I will continue to view them as different character because that’s who they are. 

[DRW50]

 

Considering the quality of those characters, they probably were.

[vetsoapfan]

 

The 1938 book really is worth getting, if you care about the soap's earliest characters and stories. It often turns up on ebay, and on Amazon. Even better, it's usually a steal, at under $5.00.

 

When characters disappear from soaps without any explanation, I think it's fine to write in a bio, "Ellen Stewart was no longer seen or mentioned in Oakdale after 1996, so we can assume she had left town." But to blatantly create non-existent marriages, deaths, divorces, etc., to justify a character's disappearance is NOT the job of the biographer.  I can see it now, on Wikipedia or Soap Central: "Amelia Earhart was never seen by the public again after her plane disappeared, because after she crashed on a deserted island, Earhart met a fabulously rich recluse who fell in love with her and took her to live with him in his secret, underground city of Eterna. They lived out the rest of their days in Eterna and had five children." ROTF!!!

[DRW50]

 

Don't give Ron Carlivati any ideas...

 

Thanks for the book info.

[vetsoapfan]

 

SOMEBODY has to!

 

(Oooooh, I appreciate my own shade, LOL!)

[SoapDope]

 

I remember back in the 90's Soap Opera Digest even printed a blurb like " In 1979 sleazy Paul brought VD to Genoa City. 

 

Some people also said Chris stood for Christian along with the Christabel error. I remember one board said Snapper was short for Snappington.....LOL

 

 

 

I always thought it was weird how Ellen disappeared. She returned a few years later I think for Nancy's party. Some Y&R fans insist Stuart Brooks is dead, even though he just stopped appearing. 

[mikelyons]

Nikki did give Paul VD. Doug Davidson told me the reason for the confusion is because Erica Hope (the original Nikki) played Nikki when the VD storyline happened, Melody never knew who gave it to whom, and thus, confusion has ensued for forty years!

[vetsoapfan]

 

In 1996, TPTB dropped Patricia Bruder from contract, for budgetary reasons I suppose. It was ridiculous for them not to give any respect to the character by giving Ellen Stewart a proper send off.  She just ceased to exist. Ellen had been an Oakdale stalwart for 40 years, and Bruder had been a cast member for decades, so it was shameful. Kudos to the succeeding  PTB who later brought her back for Nancy's birthday party, and explained on-air what had happened to the character.

 

The Stuart-Brooks-is-dead myth is another fan-fueled contention.  Like Tommy Horton, Bobby Martin, Jim Craig, Neil Curtis, Don Craig, etc., Stuart simply disappeared from the canvas without any explanation. As time went on, we saw Liz Foster Brooks and the Brooks sisters all returning to Genoa City without Stuart in tow, so it became perfectly plausible to assume that Stuart had passed away. Since nothing was ever mentioned about it on-air, however, it remains speculation drawn by fans trying to fill in the blanks, rather than an established fact.

 

 

 

Of course, Paul was a horn-dog back in those days, and if he had caught something first, I would not have been surprised, but as the story played out on the show, Nikki was indeed the one who infected Paul. And he was not happy. .

[Paul Raven]

Even the 'best' writers have been guilty of having characters disappear w/o explanation. 

In the case of Stuart Brooks, why not say Stu decided to go on a cruise or visit Lorie or something and then a while later Liz talks to Jill about a divorce. It would only have to be a couple of scenes and Julianna could sell it.

That way,anyone interested would get closure...

[SFK]

 

I almost spit my drink. Spoken like Alexis Colby herself.

[vetsoapfan]

 

Exactly, but Bill Bell was wont to having characters simply disappear without explanation: Tommy Horton, Stuart Brooks, Carl Williams....

[Khan]

In my mind, Stuart and Liz divorced after Liz caught Stuart in bed with another, younger woman.  Unfortunately, this same woman was also in bed with Stuart when he died of a heart attack, right in the middle of having sex.

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Also, in my mind: Carl Williams is still alive, but Ruth isn't (she died of cancer) and he has yet to regain his memory; and Tommy Horton passed away some time ago, in Hawaii, leaving behind a wife and possibly some children and grandchildren.

 

 

That makes him sound like a porn star.  ("He also delivered pizzas and said he was there to fix the plumbing.")

[DRW50]

 

With the Alexis/Cecil tryst playing in the background as it happened.