Best US Soap Scenes

[Planet Soap]

The storyline was okay to me. Viki shifiting from her stoic self to other wild alters was awesome. It was arguably a gem of the Malone era and to take it a step further one of the best plots in the show's history.

 

I guess camp is a turn off but personally thats the draw in factor for soaps (post 80s). Over the top melodrama....the one thing the writer must do though is make the storyline as watchable, serious, and believable as possible.

[AllMyDaysatGH]

 

Yes!! My part is “Isn’t that true Maria? SAINT Maria of Wildwind, tending to the sick in her push up bra. Always ready to relieve SUFFERING as long as the suffering isn’t MINE. And that brings me to my so called husband.”

 

I get my life every time !!

 

Twitter would have a field day. I’m determined. 

[All My Shadows]

ICONIC!! Any time I hear that song now, my mind immediately goes back to this scene. Just those first few opening notes.

My dad passed away a year and a half ago, and I've watched my mother move through so many stages of grief in regards to it. Watching this scene now just takes on a whole new meaning. Like you said, there were many problems with the whole Hubbard return story, but Debbi Morgan felt every beat of emotion needed to play a woman who is about to be reunited with a love who has been gone for years. She deserved one last Emmy for that role, but the fact that AMC ended (on ABC and online) with her firmly planted at its center is enough for me. This scene makes me so proud to be one of Agnes's kids.

Here is a classic GL scene from 1966 (starts at about the 5-minute mark) in which Bert Bauer confronts Maggie Scott in regards to her affair with Bill. You never get to see a lot of good Charita Bauer stuff because most of it has been wiped, but here is a great example of how wonderfully she played the awkward, upset, sad wife. All of those words, but jealous is never one of them. No matter how upset she was with her husband and his various affairs, she never lost belief that Bill was hers and that any of those others bitches could never hold a candle to her. The beauty of this is that they hit so many of the same notes 27 years later when Maureen confronted Lillian.

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[Darn]

Alexis goes off on Sonny and fans after the death of her sister Kristina.

 

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First of all, hard to believe this was almost 20 years ago. Nancy Lee Grahn is incomparable here but my favorite part is Ned's "Be quiet!" to Carly and Carly actually listening. I feel not enough characters on soaps are told to shut up.

[Khan]

Was that during the post-9/11 period when JFP and Megan McTavish tried for awhile to give nothing but love and lightness to GH fans?  Man, did that change of heart running through all their material feel so phony.

[cct]

 

So Much can be said about this scene. AMC at its finest and in probably its last good era.

 

The beauty of the scene is how layered it is. Not only are we watching the interweaving of several "current" storylines in her speech, but you are also watching some deep cracks in the history of the character of Erica Kane emerge and be exposed to the light. Lucci is laying it bare; all of the subtext, the nuance. And on top of it...she's high as a kite. "Hold my hand...I'll catch you." So much more than Dmitri and the scaffolding there. Why Lucci didn't win the Emmy for this scene alone is beyond me...it spoke volumes about her ability to inhabit this character.

 

And the whole gang is there, even Enid Nelson and Marian Colby, because Broderick was attempt to reinstate the "community" of Pine Valley. Broderick was head writing the show then, but do we know who actually wrote this wonderful "scene?"

[Khan]

 

I think Hal Corley?  But I could be wrong.

[Darn]

 

It's from August 2002. And about the death of a young character (RIP Kristina) who was noticeably happier than...well, everyone on that show. So I'm gonna say no. 

 

 

I believe her competition that year was Erika Slezak and the DID story. One good scene couldn't compete with the work Slezak was putting out.

[cct]

 

I think that was one of Lucci's problems in trying to get that Emmy. She always had her "scene." I could even smell it coming. He**, I probably smelled it when I saw WOTY too.

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 But she never got the storyline to see it through to a win. 

 

Until she did...and even though I had a feeling that year; it was more about competition than Lucci's actual work.

[Darn]

 

Yeah for all of Erica's tragedies she hardly ever got the type of stories that delivered the sort of melodrama that won Emmys. She was a comedic character thrown into dramatic situations. Which is why things like kidnapping Maria's baby didn't work for her, it wasn't something she as a character would do and there was no humor to be gleaned from making a woman think her baby was dead.

[Faulkner]

Yeah, Erica’s speech is very erudite. The “teeming mediocrity”? It is pretty much Erica’s autobiography (the daddy issues connected to her husband issues) and mission statement in 20 minutes. But it’s great. When Erica tearfully says, “Daddy didn’t give a damn!” and jerks her head to punctuate the word “damn” is just perfection. But yeah, if that was up against Slezak doing a proto-Orphan Black, there’s not much Lucci could have done.

 

BUT was it Slezak or Jess Walton who beat her for this material? Walton won in 1997, which was for 1996 material, and Erica’s WOTY speech was in 1996, right?

[All My Shadows]

 

As much as I love Susan and Erica, she never needed that Emmy to prove anything, and you’re right, the character wasn’t made to win Emmys the way other leading ladies of daytime’s characters were. Erica was the type of woman who provided the catalyst for other characters’ portrayers to win Emmys. She was just fun and perfect without any need for critical acclaim.

[Khan]

As much as I adore Susan Lucci and Erica Kane, it's long been my contention that Lucci won her Emmy in a year when the competition was not terribly strong.  Jeanne Cooper likely came in second with her material from the "Battle for Chancellor Mansion" story w/ Jess Walton -- which was fantastic, don't get me wrong, but not exactly "Emmy bait," like Erica begging her daughter to tell her she has an eating disorder. 

 

(As for the others: Liz Hubbard had very little to work with, IMO; Melody Thomas Scott had more than Hubbard, but again, not "Emmy bait;" and Kim Zimmer...well...she gave her all, but I think the ridiculousness of the cloning storyline made it impossible for the panel to take her seriously.)

 

 

I'd say the same about the storyline (Erica's drug addiction) that led to that speech.  Lucci performed admirably, but I've always felt Erica was the wrong character to explore prescription drug addiction.  It was unexpected, like Karen Mackenzie on KNOTS LANDING battling drug dependency was unexpected; however, what's unexpected isn't always what's appropriate.

[DRW50]

 

I think the story was written too heavy-handedly to be completely true to Erica's character, as so much was telegraphed. It also felt like FMB/Broderick were trying to get Erica out of a pairing they may not have liked very much, which became even more blatant after Behr left and we got the gross Maria/Dimitri ONS that Erica would never be able to forgive. 

 

I agree about the competition and I also think that she won the Emmy, finally, in part because it was just a good storyline. No one wants to see a running story for that many years about when will Susan win her Emmy. No matter how good-natured Susan was in her reaction and no matter how much money was made on commercials and appearances, in the long run it would have just become degrading, and it would have cast a pall on an awards show already falling out of fashion anyway. 

 

I will say that I think Susan was very strong, on a day-to-day basis, for much of 95-97. I think that was her best era as an actress and she pretty much salvaged the baby stealing storyline as much as any actor could have. 

[Khan]

 

Agree.  If ever there was a time when I was afraid Erica was done for, that was the time.