Shocking Deaths and Surprises

[victoria foxton]

That was Knots worst season ever. Seeing Linda murdered was truly disgusting. A real waste of a truly fascinating character.

[Khan]

 

 

ICAM.

[Soaplovers]

 

And what is more frustrating is that when David Jacobs finally stepped in to rescue the show along with Ann marcus... they had to create a new character Vanessa to fill the void left by Linda's murder.

[DRW50]

 

And she didn't even come close. I can't even remember her being able to act.

[tune_in_tomorrow]

Renee's murder got me hooked on DAYS for a few years. I was shocked by two of the later Salem Slasher victims- Trista, because she had been predominantly featured during the short time I watched, and Ruth Buzzi's character Letitia. She was comic relief for a couple of months. What show murders the comic relief! This was early in my soap-viewing days.

[Soapsuds]

Linda>Vanessa

 

You love to hate Linda. She was an awesome character.

 

Vanessa was a hated character played by an awful actress in a horrible role.

 

Linda's death shocked me. I remember thinking no they can't kill her off.

[titan1978]

Instead of killing Linda and the mess with Meg, I would have dealt with the real life death of Eric and given Linda, Michael and Karen a storyline dealing with their relationships with him and his untimely death.  That grounded type of story usually did well on the show, could honor the actor, and give Michele Lee a great story.

[Khan]

In the brief period of time she was on the show, Lar Park Lincoln did what neither Kathleen Noone (Claudia), nor Michelle Phillips (Anne), nor Nicollette Sheridan (Paige) could: she filled the void left by the incomparable Donna Mills (Abby).  And that's because Linda, like Abby before her, was one who saw the middle-class life as a trap, desired something better and was willing to do just about anything to get it.  If they had not killed her off, I think, Linda, and LPL, would have an even bigger asset to KL as the show itself was winding down.

 

Unfortunately, Linda became collateral damage to the Brian Johnston story, an arc that serves almost as an example of what could happen to a story that gets taken over by new writers in mid-stream.  I mean, the story started off okay, if a little routine, with Philip Brown as a corporate executive with a fondness for taping his sexual conquests.  But, all of a sudden, the story took a weird, dark turn between seasons, and we went from a kinky "suit" to a psychopath on the lam, killing and threatening people, holding them hostage, and wanting a face-to-face (for some reason) with Greg Sumner like BAD.

[DRW50]

 

That's so beautifully said. 

[SoapDope]

I got so sick of all that crap with Karen/Mac/Greg/Meg. Michelle Lee went overboard with her acting. When they did the reunion Back To The Cul-De-Sac it was back to the Meg drama again. 

[Soaplovers]

 

I will agree with this.  Linda started off from a cold and broken middle class family.. and at first thought she wanted the security of a family hence the sudden marriage to Eric.. only to realize she really wanted power and money (just like Abby).  It is a shame she was killed just as she was getting a good momentum in her desire for wealth, power, and security.

 

And I think the show realized quickly Paige wasn't like Abby.. and the show wrote her in an interesting place as an anti heroine.  Her mother Anne was more of a free spirited trust fund baby that just enjoyed life and was more comical then ruthless.  Claudia.. the show never did figure her out.

 

Keeping on the Knots Landing thing... I remember was upset that the show killed off Laura with a tumor and that she went to die off screen.

 

Lastly, Jill Bennett being found dead in her car trunk as well.

[soapfan770]

Shocking Deaths: 

• Abby whipping a gun from a courtroom bailiff and gunning down Roy point blank on GL. It was a snowy Friday and I remember flying off my couch as the show ended gasping.
• Cassie's death on Y&R. I had been out of the loop with the show for a good month and was shocked to tune in to see her actually die.
• Nathan on Y&R getting plowed down by a car on a busy night street to save Nate. I had no idea the whole ordeal would actually end like that. 
• Neal's murder on ATWT because to me it felt like it really came out of left field on that one. 
• Shannon's death on ATWT. Even though she later turned out to be alive, the shrunken head still disturbs me to this day. 

Surprises:

• Shelia arriving in L.A. on B&B! 
• Sheila jumping a building in her wedding dress on B&B
• Sharon's 2001 miscarriage on Y&R
• Sami seeing John and Marlena having sex in the Titan boardroom Days
• Roger living in Holly's basement with a gunshot wound on GL
• Bob having an affair with Susan, ATWT

 

 

 

Linda's death completed a trifecta of gruesome deaths that all occurred on CBS' primetime soaps in their late seasons. First was Maggie's drowning on FC, then April being gunned down on Dallas, and of course Linda's bloody mess of a murder. Then of course 90210 felt they had to compete with Scott Scalon's bleeding out over his mother's fancy rug. 

[Khan]

I should mention, of course, that at the beginning of the same season when Linda was murdered, we learned that Paige was suddenly involved with a new boyfriend, Pierce Lawton, who went seemingly from milquetoast to malevolent in the span of one commercial break.

 

Wow.  I never thought of it THAT way.  Given that all three were produced by the same company, too, I wonder whether the deaths were more than unfortunate coincidences.  Maybe they felt their audiences were aging/shrinking, so they had to do something (like kill off a female character unexpectedly) in order to get people to watch again?  It's just a theory, though.

 

Now that WAS a surprise.  And, it was probably the last time I was excited about anything related to GL.

[SoapDope]

Y&R....Cassandra's death was a shock.

 

Dynasty.....Claudia being burned to death.

 

The Colby's.....Fallon boarding the UFO.

 

 

 

 

[soapfan770]

 

In the cases of Sullivan she was done with the show pretty much so I suppose they wanted a memorable send-off of her instead of her just leaving town. Sullivan, who had quit, wasn't too pleased with it at all. With Wilson she was pregnant and I seem recall there's a couple versions/theories of what happened with that one. One version goes that Wilson quit and asked to be killed off, the other version was that April may have been brought back alive had Dallas been picked up for '91-92 season.