Popular stories that destroyed favorite characters

[titan1978]

While watching the classic GH episode for New Year’s Eve, it struck me just how destroyed Tony was by that point.  And he hadn’t even hit bottom yet.  So I thought back to just how good and amazing BJ’s heart was as a storyline, and how ultimately Tony payed a huge price.

 

GH- BJ’s heart.  You can blame Guza all you want, but Labine set him up to become so angry about the affair and BJ’s death.  He didn’t really have another romance until Carly, and that would set him up for years of character destruction.  We never got to see him build himself back up.  Which is fine too from a storytelling point of view.  But he was never the same and then gone.

 

Any other examples?

[Faulkner]

The Alex/Roger/Mindy triangle on GL that led to Alex’s pathological obsession with Mindy above all other things. She became unhinged and pretty much remained that way for the rest of the time I watched GL, especially with Marj in the role.

 

 

[titan1978]

I agree to an extent.  Having Mindy be involved with Nick caused this to go on even longer than the initial Roger story.  It certainly was a huge factor in Beverlee quitting the show, and that pretty much ended the character for me.

[Faulkner]

Yeah, the Nick stuff just upped the ante. So, so bad, and she had been my favorite character.

[DeeeDee]

SpermGate ruined nearly half of Y&R's vets.

[Soaplovers]

 

Actually, I hated how the show painted Alex to be the villainess when it was Mindy that was the one to cause the trouble by first having an affair with Roger, and than altering the paternity test results.  So Alex had more than enough reason to hate the little slut.  I thought Mindy got off too easy, and I have to believe that had Pam Long not quit.. Alex wouldn't have been painted as such a villainess when she was the wronged party on all fronts.

[Faulkner]

I agree, and that was Kay Alden. We talk so much about LML, MAB, Pratt, and Mal, but those little seeds (no pun intended) of destruction were planted much earlier on. I would still prefer Kay to anyone we got in her wake, but still. I found her Y&R *very* problematic. There was certainly no coming back from that for Ashley.

True. And you may as well add Mindy to the characters ruined by that story. Certainly Simms leaving and the poor recasts (Hamilton, Crampton) didn’t help things down the line.

[titan1978]

Great example.  It really did compromise all three of those women, and Victor.  Jack too, considering how tied he was to all the characters.

Had Mindy Simms not left, maybe the fallout for her once the DNA test was revealed would have been better.  

 

This is an example of a story that was so good until it went too long and then wasn’t.  Alexandra’s anger and vengeance were amazing at the country club, and taunting Mindy for months and finally telling Billy the truth.  But you kind of also stopped rooting for her because it was only about Nick and her anger.  She even managed to work with Roger again but wouldn’t let Mindy off the hook.  She became a one note character.

 

What about the affair with Ed and Lillian?  Did the end result, the death of Maureen, ruin Ed in the long run?

[Eboneece]

Bold and Beautiful: not really a storyline, but more a throughline from the late 1990s to 2006... the friendship between Stephanie and Sally. It should never have been as chummy as it became especially towards the end of Darlene Conley’s life. It should have remained more or less a rivalry and a relationship of healthy respect.

[BetterForgotten]

Holly was also similarly painted as being in the wrong for hating Blake/Ross, when she was the wronged party during that time. Blake intentionally went out of her way to seduce Ross to stick it to Holly (she didn't know she'd end up falling in love with him), but somehow Holly was criticized and portrayed as being the bitter woman for wanting revenge on them. 

 

Granted, Holly could never give Ross what he wanted from her, but it never sat that well with me how Blake got off almost scot free. I guess it didn't help that the best Blake ever (Sherry Stringfield) left and never got to play the aftermath of the story. 

[Paul Raven]

I don't think being possessed and a serial killer did much for Marlena...

 

As for Phyllis, Nikki, Victoria and Sharon covering up a crime for months... (oh, sorry the topic is popular stories)

[Franko]

Likewise, I think John was lessened by the possibility that he fathered Hope's baby. But then again, the only one who came out great from that convoluted mess was Kristin Alfonso, not so much Hope.

[j swift]

I have three from OLTL

 

Starr Manning's Teen Pregnancy,  Started as a story about responsible parenting, sexual liberation, and a woman's options for termination evolved into a silly kidnapping story, followed by Starr being burdened with a baby while trying to date, which was resolved by killing the toddler.  Starr was so sassy as a child that it took away all of her agency as an adult and turned her into a victim.  

 

Karen Wolek's Baby Switching.  Jenny was the oldest living virgin in Llandview because all of her men died before the possibility of coitus.  So, her cousin tried to do her a solid by having her raise the child of a prostitute as a single mother/nurse in the 1980's.  Karen's impulses were misguided (at best), but there was no way that the soap universe was going to allow a kidnapper to have a happy ending.  So, once Katrina got her baby back, it ruined any future for the character of Karen.

 

Viki's Disassociative Identity Disorder - OLTL went back to this well once too often.  By the time Viki was raising three teenagers she should have been a more stable maternal figure.  However, poor judgment during her mental instability was later given as the cause of Jessica's DID.  Subsequent writers took Agnes Nixon's social issue and turned it against Viki to make her a bad mother.

 

Honorable mention goes to all of the rapists who later tried to become popular romantic heroes, but were always too creepy for me:  Laurence Alamain, EJ Dimera, Luke Spencer, and Todd Manning.

 

And a second honorable mention to independent female characters who developed an irrational need to procreate the second that they get married and turned into raging harpies who stole adopted children: Julie McCandliss (Capitol), Cassie Cramer (OLTL), and Lexie Carver (DAYS).

[StepBack]

JT being an abuser on Y&R. It started off very strong, but after they killed JT it continuously went downhill. There could have been material there for years to come and really impact the cast, if they just kept it grounded. However, Thad Luckinbill did an incredible job.

[DeeeDee]

 

Don't forget Brad, John, Traci, Drucilla, Steve, Colleen, Victoria, Sharon, Cole, Michael, Olivia & Phyllis.

 

But it didn't. Outside of one line about Victoria's eating habits he never really exhibited any abusive behavior until Mal decided to kill the character off.