Best US Soap Scenes

[carolineg]

 

Lol the tin man saga.  The evil hitman out to get Sonny and Brenda with ominous gum wrappers of origami!!   It went on for what seemed like forever.  That was a really stupid story.  But at least it was tied to Lily's father, not a supervillain named the Balkan.

[titan1978]

My personal favorite mob shootout on the show.  So much came together, and the cliffhanger version when the shots start while Laura is singing the lullaby is just great production for a soap.

 

 

Those  two also did the stupid revisit of the Aztec stuff with Felicia, only to have Guza wrap it up when he was ghost writing the show before his official return when Nikolas was shot outside Luke’s.

[Vee]

I don't even remember an Aztec revisit with Felicia. But I was barely watching in '97.

Edited February 12, 2019 by Vee

[carolineg]

 

Same.  I was going to say the only thing I remember about 1997 was Jason and Robin breaking up, Sonny/Brenda's dirty cave sex and aborted wedding, and a vague memory of Jax being accused of being a drug trafficker.  I can't remember anything else.  I don't even remember Felicia being on lol. Wasn't she with Matt Ashford's Tom at the time?

[Vee]

I barely remember Ashford as Tom. I just know fans hated it, which is a shame since IMO that casting could've been a slam dunk if not for the lame sexcapades with Felicia. He got caught in a transitional time for the show (I think Labine hired him before exiting) and Guza/Culliton etc. seemed to have no real interest in updating the Hardys for the new Labine and post-Labine era.

 

And yeah, all I remember about '97 is a little of that Timoria shít, Stefan/Katherine ruining Stefan/Bobbie which I was all about, the dumb cave stuff and wasn't the origami guy "Tin Man"?

 

I know when Guza came back (I don't remember if his name was officially back on the show yet) we got the banishment denouement and Stefan's kiss, which is still the core of Alexis' character IMO. Sadly the scene seems to have been removed from YT.

 

I take that back! It's here, and it's 13 mins in. But watch from the start, it's worth it:

 

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Edited February 12, 2019 by Vee

[carolineg]

 

I didn't hate Matt Ashford as Tom.  He was just annoying.  Like look at my super cool African bracelets because I was in Africa healing all the kids and his relationship with Felicia wasn't awful in theory but the decision to make them super sexual and cringey was weird.

 

The tin man was origami gum wrapper guy. Super scary.....

 

I loved Bobbie and Stefan.  They were really great.  I was annoyed they threw it away for a Patch and Kayla redux.  I also like Ned and Alexis.  I liked Alexis before she was anxiety ridden and prone to be comedic.  Alexis sometimes has her moments still but I hate when she is a 'wacky' character.

 

This was a weird transitional time where Genie Francis was on maternity leave? and Laura was presumed dead and Katherine got shot and they were trying to fill the void of Vanessa Marcil and Maurice Benard leaving and wrap it up nicely.  Then VM decided to stay for one more year so it got more weird and we were forced to watch a Brenda breakdown and then KMc left so the one and only young female lead on the show was Sarah Brown's Carly and it legit lead to the beginning of everything bad because by 1998 they were hiring a bunch of non starters like Hannah and Chloe to fill the void left by having no young females in their 20's.

 

Was Miranda Guza's idea?  Because it always seem like they were going to do more with her (Secret Cassadine?) and then she was completely dropped never ever to be spoken of again.   Not sure if it was a writing change or just the unpopularity of the actress.

Edited February 12, 2019 by carolineg

[Vee]

Supposedly VM pushed for the breakdown story and then couldn't handle it, so it got cut short.

 

AFAIK Hannah and Chloe were all Wendy Riche - pushing those couples hard with a massive ad push on buses, etc. along with Bobbie and Roy. (Genie Francis had supposedly wanted to be paired with Roy and they were tested, but Riche vetoed it.) The Hannah/Chloe, etc. debacle began the war between Riche and Guza for creative control - Guza wanted to pair Jax and Alexis for real in the mixed marrieds storyline - which ultimately led to both being removed. Guza was also said to always be unhappy with the casting of Julian Stone as Jerry Jacks, and went out of his way to recreate the character in his original dark vision with Sebastian Roche in the 2000s. That Jerry of course became a cartoon fast. 

 

I did like Ned and Alexis for a while, but I got sick of wacky Alexis and the domesticity. I also really liked Tava Smiley/Chloe back in the day, but I got why people didn't. She and Jax were pushed too hard. I liked the idea of her romance with Stefan, even if the gothic mystery story of her visions did not make any sense.

 

I honestly don't recall who originally came up with Miranda. I know many have said she was conceived of by Guza in '96 as Alexis' secret kid, but I don't know if that's true. I don't think he was around for any of her casting or story, and I know Culliton loved her but fans hated her so away she went.

Edited February 12, 2019 by Vee

[Faulkner]

There was an interesting Matt Ashford/Tom scene in which Tom explained (maybe to Justus?) that when Simone stepped out on their marriage, she liked to “go home,” meaning she’d always cheat with a man of her own race. I thought it was such an unusually forthright discussion on the dynamics at play in an interracial relationship as well as between a white man and a black man vying for a black woman.

Edited February 12, 2019 by Faulkner

[Vee]

What!! I had no idea.

[Faulkner]

Yeah, I remember it very vividly. I wish I could find it. I felt like the show dealt with race in such an honest way around that time.

[carolineg]

 

I love me some Brenda but Vanessa Marcil has her limits.  The breakdown story was one of them.  I hate even watching it now.  And Jax was just basically treading water as a character until he decided to forgive Brenda.  He didn't even interact with anyone else outside his brother and Brenda and maybe V but she was being phased out.  Btw, I liked Julian Stone's rascal ne'er-do-well version of the character.  Sebastian Roche is great he is just a completely different, darker character.

 

I mean Tava Smiley wasn't horrible.  She was just wrong with Jax.  They were too Ken and Barbie.  Alexis and Jax were the way to go.  Lisa Vultaggio as Hannah was just ill conceived.  They really shouldn't have gotten Vanessa Marcil's less charismatic twin to be Sonny's first post Brenda love interest.  I get that it was a storyline point but they went solely on looks not on screen presence or chemistry.

 

Again, Miranda was a good story point.  Leslie Horan was just so boring.  She was beautiful but I didn't feel like she could convey any feelings outside of looking like she'd rather be anywhere else but on set.  

And she had anti chemistry with Ingo, who I feel always has some chemistry with his leading ladies.  They were so overwrought with their quoting poetry on beaches with horses and crap.  Mark Teschner had some real misses despite all his wins.

 

I vaguely remember Tom's anger toward Simone having some very racial undertones especially when she hooked up with Justus.  I think some scenes still exist around Sonny/Brenda on youtube that have Mary Mae, Simone, and a drunk Tom in it.

 

Edited February 12, 2019 by carolineg

[Vee]

I loved Julian Stone's Jerry.

[carolineg]

 

He fit a lot better as Jax's brother than an actually psychopath.  John and Jane (from what we were told) wouldn't have raised a complete psycho killer that would hurt his own family.

[DRW50]

 

There was some kind of brief set of scenes about a doll Maxie found or was given from a dig site. Guza dropped most of it and picked up a few pieces for the Mac doppleganger plot. 

 

The idea of Hannah was so lazy (oh she's an undercover agent - how original) and casting an actress who looked like Vanessa Marcil if Vanessa had been put into a blender with Lilly Melgar was also not the best idea. The worst of it was putting her scenes with Carly, as Sarah Brown tended to wipe the floor with her. 

 

I remember some fans who would push for V to be paired with Jax, and how wonderful it would be if he was with an ordinary woman after being with a supermodel. The thing for me is that they just didn't have that type of chemistry, and frankly, I never thought she was that interesting. She ended up staying around for like 3 years and got an actually happy ending with...was it some guy who was after Chloe, or something?

 

NLG and Ingo had amazing chemistry. I was rooting for Jax and Alexis very heavily back then, along with Jason and Carly. I got why Jason and Carly never made it (even if I resented how they dragged that story out [not knowing until later on that it was likely down to Steve Burton not wanting that pairing]) but Jax and Alexis had such an obvious, soapy love story - one GH had even done with couples like Scott and Dominique. I didn't hate Chloe, but she was just so vapid. When I realized the show was never going to give them a chance, that's when I stopped watching on a regular basis, as there sure as hell wasn't much else worth watching by that point - I mostly remember Juan wandering around with a gun and the same scene over and over of Roy and Bobbie porking. And Stefan and Laura putting me into a coma. 

[Vee]

I think Guza was supposedly very high on Jax and V. initially. Riche apparently ended that. I may have it twisted but I don't think so. I thought she was fine but not amazing.

 

V. got a happy ending with an aristocrat pining for Chloe, who I think was named Simon.

 

I still don't understand the Mac doppleganger storyline.

Edited February 12, 2019 by Vee