Best US Soap Scenes

[titan1978]

Alex and Roger at the country club is epic in a way only soaps can do.  Slow build, culminating in several stories coming together.  The scenes with Alex confronting Mindy before, the actual Country Club scene with most of the major players in town, the scene outside on the balcony with Alex, Alan-Michael, Roger, Blake and Frank, and the next scenes with Alexandra and Roger are just incredible.

 

She plays so many layers between all those scenes, and that voice!

[Faulkner]

I agree. I certainly think Susan’s performance is entertaining and iconic and shows more depth than she often gets credit for, but it’s ultimately narcissistic and indulgent, which is perfect for Erica as a character. Whereas Bev is full of vitriol and sarcasm toward Roger (and Mindy), but also a lot of tenderness, regret, humility, and hurt. As writing, it’s stronger, and has great lines (the “I’m worth millions” lines are clever) while maybe not as “yas queen” flashy and meme-able as Erica’s speech. And Bev just has full command of every little pivot Alex makes. She was just a genius, and I was only 10-11 when I saw that, so it definitely left a lasting impression.

[DaysFanatic777]

Beverly was an artist!  She had a way of taking us on a journey without announcing it.  Yes, the writing for GL during that era was amazing, but the writing alone didn't sell the performance; Beverly did.  She had a way of backing off and portraying a sense of meekness, but she also knew when to plunge the knife.  She had uncanny instincts.  

 

On most of the "soaps" now, they only know how to glaze the ham and serve it for dinner.  She is truly missed. 

[Darn]

I can't believe any Susan Flannery scenes haven't been posted! As bad as B&B can be she never was. She played every single moment with such intensity and honesty. Can you imagine 25 years of having to be angry with Brooke? Not once was she not absolutely on fire with her hatred of this woman. Just look at how she answers Nick's (the idiot) question in this clip.

 

Please register in order to view this content

 

She's also phenomenal here, giving Eric (the idiot) a dressing down for lying to her over her part ownership of Forrester. Give her a stage and a speech and she utterly kills it.

 

 

 

Here Stephanie confronts Brooke (the idiot) over her affair with her daughter's husband. It is visceral and full of such venom. "Take a look, you b!tch! That's no halo and you're no heroine!"

 

 

The show lost so much with SF's departure. She was the intellectual center of the show. Without her it's just a bunch of hair models and Brooke and Ridge and Eric and their libidos dictating every single decision in their lives.

[Faulkner]

SF really did elevate the show, but I imagine unhinged, grotesque Stephanie is similar to what Beverlee McKinsey would have faced had she remained as Alex on GL.

 

Basically, a great, ferociously intelligent actress slumming it.

[DaysFanatic777]

So true.  

 

I remember how many people reacted when McKinsey walked away from GL.  A lot of folks thought she must be some difficult control freak that didn't know her place.  In reality, she ran out of that place like it was on fire for several good reasons.  One of those many mitigating factors was that she saw the handwriting on the wall, and knew her character would be butchered had she stayed.  

 

I hate that she left, and yet I am thankful she exited when she did.  In my mind, she was Alexandra, and she's preserved in time as the character I always loved more than any other.  In hindsight, her departure has allowed us to remember those days more fondly. 

[Darn]

 

You're so right. As the show went on Stephanie became this...entity. She was hardly a character, she was just the stuff of nightmares. There to scream at her children and her rival and not much else. I'm glad she left when she did even if the show lost a lot (it didn't deserve her).

 

 

I only ever saw Marj's Alex and I found to be treated as more of a nuisance than anything, almost a joke. So imagine my surprise in watching Beverlee clips and seeing her as this grande dame of Springfield. 

[Dan]

Please register in order to view this content

Honestly, the country club scenes are great, but these might be even better. Bev starts out afraid of what Roger might do then absolutely lowers the boom on him when she confronts him about his affair with Mindy. When she starts revealing her hand and Roger goes from confident to realizing just how little leverage he really has, it's worth every penny. What a master class by two legends. 

 

Edit: By the way, "I'm betting the farm on it." might be one of my favorite GL lines ever. 

[Faulkner]

They were SO amazing. I loved those scenes. Every line delivery was perfection.

[juppiter]

Susan Flannery legitimized the trash that B&B always was. In the best of times, B&B was addictive trash and a guilty pleasure, but Susan gave it a hint of legitimacy. In the worst of times, B&B was mindless Hollywood stars without a third grade education, and Susan Flannery was Alex Trebek’s mustache, sneering and towering above them. 

 

I do think B&B with Susan Flannery was sometimes a great guilty pleasure, sometimes awful, but always watchable. Without her, it’s just another soap, and coincidentally, a bad one. IDK if there’s ever been another soap so dependent on one actress. 

[Soapsuds]

Once Flannery left B&B it became the Liam Show and totally went downhill. Even KKL was reduced to nothing without Flannery around. 

[DramatistDreamer]

Maybe I find myself posting so many ATWT clips because even at their zenith, the show seemed highly underrated and the talent was usually criminally underappreciated.  

Although she was only on for a few years, Sierra Esteban was one of my all-time favorites when she was portrayed by Finn Carter.  Sierra, similar to Kim Hughes, tended to want to see the best in people but also like Kim, if you got on her bad side...look out.

If you saw the other side of Sierra, she would remind you that she was that b*tch who took up arms and fought in a revolution.  In other words, Sierra was a real G.

 

 

Please register in order to view this content

[juppiter]

 

B&B was always fully dependent on LaFlannery and I thought they knew if. Turns out they didn’t. Bradley Bell was just the figurative monkey on the typewriter in the same way his contemporary ken Corday was. Which soap trust fund baby revealed himself sooner? 

[DeeeDee]

You can't discuss B&B without mentioning the great Darlene Conley.

 

She & the scruffy Spectra clan were perfect rivals for the stuffy Forrester family.

 

Please register in order to view this content

 

[Darn]

Please register in order to view this content