Some of the most prominent ones off the top of my head are: 

 

Y&R: Sharon's kleptomania, three way "Who's the Daddy?", and subsequent marriage to Adam pretty much permanently destroyed and ruined Sharon for good on Y&R. There were some good moments early on, I guess the early popularity let MAB/Hamner/Sheffer feel to let Sharon on the loose. Never understood the popularity of Shadam though. 

 

Ho boy,  I could add a big list of "popular" stories that destroyed favorite characters on Y&R in the last 20 years, with Spermgate being a definite big one as well; however even Bell himself let Scotty Grainger and Nathan Hastings go out as villains. 

 

ATWT:

 

Barbara's descent, fascinating in the beginning turned out to be appalling in the long run as by late 2004 she had become a complete loon and the show stopped writing for her outside of a supporting role for a few years there until 2009 because she had bottomed out.  I know there were some great iconic scenes but it was hard to swallow her becoming a complete nutcase by the time she was gaslighting people in 2005.  Not a favorite character, but Julia Lindsay was destroyed so much by her descent that I never wanted to see here again after her constant coming and going in 2002. 

 

AW: Paulina getting married to Joe derailed the character for the rest of the series. 

 

GL: As much as I loved Reva she definitely owns this lol I though I wouldn't necessarily call all her early 2000's stories coming to my mind popular. Someone mentioned above Alex in the Nick and Mindy story and I completely agree! Also ruining Alex later on was it turning out that she was in fact Reva's stalker, with no logical or rational explanation provided at all as to why. 

 

 

2 hours ago, soapfan770 said:

Some of the most prominent ones off the top of my head are: 

 

Y&R: Sharon's kleptomania, three way "Who's the Daddy?", and subsequent marriage to Adam pretty much permanently destroyed and ruined Sharon for good on Y&R. There were some good moments early on, I guess the early popularity let MAB/Hamner/Sheffer feel to let Sharon on the loose. Never understood the popularity of Shadam though.

 

Also Victor & Sabrina and Victor & Ashley 2.0 which both involved bratty Newman kids and dead children.

On 1/2/2019 at 4:42 PM, soapfan770 said:

ATWT:

 

Barbara's descent, fascinating in the beginning turned out to be appalling in the long run as by late 2004 she had become a complete loon and the show stopped writing for her outside of a supporting role for a few years there until 2009 because she had bottomed out.  I know there were some great iconic scenes but it was hard to swallow her becoming a complete nutcase by the time she was gaslighting people in 2005.  Not a favorite character, but Julia Lindsay was destroyed so much by her descent that I never wanted to see here again after her constant coming and going in 2002. 

One of the things that Hogan talked about quite a bit when he first started getting attention as a new HW on ATWT was studying Marland’s bibles.  Marland is the one that kind of made Barbara into a vixen for a bit.  I wonder if he got the idea to bring that side back out in her from there?  

 

I know from reading interviews and such over the years that Barbara going after Tom and being such a bitch early in Marland’s run was seen as out of character, including by Colleen Zink.

 

By the time Hogan got there, I’m sure she was just excited to be a central player again.

Edited January 6, 20196 yr by titan1978

True, Douglas Marland turned Barbara into a vixen for awhile after she had been through the metaphorical mill as a "Perils of Pauline"-type heroine during Mary-Ellis Bunim's regime.  However, I think it's very telling that Marland, however well-intentioned he might have been in his efforts to shake up that particular character, didn't keep Barbara that way forever.

 

On 1/2/2019 at 6:42 PM, soapfan770 said:

Y&R: Sharon's kleptomania, three way "Who's the Daddy?", and subsequent marriage to Adam pretty much permanently destroyed and ruined Sharon for good on Y&R.

 

I'd add her phantom pregnancy during Pratt's regime and her actions throughout her marriage to Victor, including her attempts to seize control of Newman Enterprises, to the list.  Sally Sussman and even Mal Young have tried valiantly to redeem Sharon, but I would agree that the damage has long since been done.

Edited January 6, 20196 yr by Khan

I'm not sure the Y&R canvas is even set up to support a rehabilitated Sharon. What major career aspirations has she had back when she was fully in character? I am an occasional viewer at best but I can't remember a time she didn't work at that coffeehouse or have some background as a model coach or something. All economic spheres that Y&R long ago stopped taking seriously, and Sharon is too old to go back to modeling herself. Her only perceived major story value in her own right is not adequately independent, it is simply an extension of Nick and her children.  

Yeah, when you watched Y&R in the 1980’s and 1990’s, seeing the show try to make Nikki or Sharon business tycoons was pretty ridiculous.  Especially because this show had done so many business storylines and you watched people work for it for years.

 

I remember when Nikki seemed to never leave the ranch.  And Sharon seemed poised for a similar life as a character.  That coffee shop gave her scenes away from her home life stories with Nick, his family, and her mom.

49 minutes ago, Vee said:

I'm not sure the Y&R canvas is even set up to support a rehabilitated Sharon. What major career aspirations has she had back when she was fully in character? I am an occasional viewer at best but I can't remember a time she didn't work at that coffeehouse or have some background as a model coach or something. All economic spheres that Y&R long ago stopped taking seriously, and Sharon is too old to go back to modeling herself.

 

Fair point(s).  However, a rehabilitated Sharon wouldn't necessarily mean a Sharon with major life goals such as a career (although that would be nice).  But it would mean a Sharon whose behavior doesn't border on the psychotic.

Edited January 6, 20196 yr by Khan

I mean, isn't she already that again? And what has she got going? Propping the new family Young and McDaniel created?

I hated the crazy Barbara story on ATWT.  I don't think it was that popular but I remember "Holly is suddenly nuts" was awful.  I remember she kidnapped a bunch of kids or something...was always glad to see Maureen Garrett get airtime but not for something like that.  I never thought of her the same after that. 

 

Thought of another one...Neil on Y&R.  The (basically stalking) and kidnapping of Hillary (wasn't it Devon's and her honeymoon?  I can't even remember - didn't they get married ??)  to "save her" was the dumbest thing ever and I have hated him ever since.  He's somewhat coming back around for me but that was bottom of the barrel stuff.   He kidnapped her to save her?  WTH was it?

Edited January 15, 20196 yr by Fevuh
updated

OLTL: Jessica/Tess

On 1/14/2019 at 1:18 PM, Fevuh said:

I hated the crazy Barbara story on ATWT.  I don't think it was that popular but I remember "Holly is suddenly nuts" was awful.  I remember she kidnapped a bunch of kids or something...was always glad to see Maureen Garrett get airtime but not for something like that.  I never thought of her the same after that. 

 

Thought of another one...Neil on Y&R.  The (basically stalking) and kidnapping of Hillary (wasn't it Devon's and her honeymoon?  I can't even remember - didn't they get married ??)  to "save her" was the dumbest thing ever and I have hated him ever since.  He's somewhat coming back around for me but that was bottom of the barrel stuff.   He kidnapped her to save her?  WTH was it?

That was awful and anytime Neil was rude to her in recent times, I wanted Hilary to throw that in his face.

3 hours ago, Vee said:

OLTL: Jessica/Tess

Agreed.  Didn’t Nikki let someone molest Jessica?  What an awful storyline.

Yes Jessica/Tess I agree with 100% I hate the whole rewrite that Viki was a bad parent cause of Nikki Smith

 

I also agree about Tony Jones, I hate what they did to Tony.

 

Also the destruction of AJ Quartermaine with both BW and SK in the role. 

If Natalie(OLTL), rather than her sister, later developed DID in response to stress that might have been more tolerable - in an early 90's fight-club-twist Seth could have been revealed to be one of Natalie's other identities. 

Edited January 23, 20196 yr by j swift

12 minutes ago, dragonflies said:

 

Also the destruction of AJ Quartermaine with both BW and SK in the role. 

I still don't understand why RC and GH went through so much to bring back AJ from the dead just to kill him again. It made zero sense. There was so much story potential with AJ, and he could have been the way to keep the Quartermaines viable.