Jump to content

Popular stories that destroyed favorite characters


Recommended Posts

  • Members

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. 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 42
  • Created
  • Last Reply
  • Members

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

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.

Please register in order to view this content

 

 

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

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.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • Members

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?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • Members

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. 

Please register in order to view this content

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.



  • Recent Posts

    • Thanks @Paul Raven  They should have brought Billy back in the early '90s for more drama with Hart and Blake. Maybe Blake would have gotten involved with him to try to ruin him in Roger's eyes, but realize under his sweet nature, Billy was a player himself.
    • Checked. Taggert last date, Wed, 7-19-23, so a long dadgummed time ago.
    • Please register in order to view this content

    • Watching the cult of Fetterman collapse is one of the few political bright spots for me. The best part  is watching all the people who built him up now decide they want to tear him down. I'll be fascinated to see how this ends for him. https://buckscountybeacon.com/2025/05/pennsylvanias-democratic-senator-john-fetterman-raises-alarms-with-outburst-at-meeting-with-union-officials/

      Please register in order to view this content

    • Long ago, this Rachel fan channel uploaded a number of clips of Rachel with Felicia during the alcoholism story, and this one in particular stands out for me. 

      Please register in order to view this content

      And then you have this scene, which is the dark mirror of the above, especially the final moment: By the late '80s, especially after Wallingford's death, those times were gone, and Donna Swajeski added further misery to Felicia with the Gold Street backstory. Luckily, after a bit of time the show found a good framing for this new twist on Felicia. The stories with finding and losing a love from her past, learning that a woman she hated was the daughter she'd spent years searching for, sinking into alcoholism, they all fit into the type of material suited for the '40s and '50s screen goddesses.  When Dano tried some of this old weepy type of material when she went back to ABC, it mostly fell flat, as the atmosphere wasn't the same and her character always felt shoehorned in. It worked perfectly at this period on AW because you had Iris, you had Rachel, you had Donna - you had a number of tough-but-vulnerable women of a certain age, most of them grandmothers by this point, but still trying to find love, find themselves. This is what AW could have had earlier if they hadn't dumped Pat and Alice, but better late than never. This is an approach you saw more often on British soaps than on US soaps, which for a number of years respected women in that age group. Both UK and US soaps have done away with this, both countries having the ladies devolve into perpetual ingenues (with added doses of endlessly self-aware camp in the UK) or just being shipped off entirely.  You could even see that on AW with the treatment of Iris (shipped off, never to be mentioned again, too old to return), Donna (repeatedly humiliated and crippled), Felicia (regressed into degrading herself with married John), Rachel (mother to newborn twins, put into lengthy periods of trauma through her new relationship with Carl). 
    • I'm of a certain age where I caught some of Upton's final year and it was not great but Jean Holloway was worse. All I remember is Bambi, Bambi, Bambi!
    • Yes, of course, all of those servants added to the overall picture at AW & also people had relationships with those servants! I like it when Anita asks after one of the servants at the club, how their children are doing & like that. 
    • Great scenes between Marlena and EJ today. Paula and Jeanne are making EJ have more depth than Ron had during his long drawn out tenure.
    • Might as well say it, Minority opinion, granted, but I like Joss & I'm okay with this WSB story & i hope that Emma will be their next recruit & she & Joss can be partners.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy