Strange / Awkward / Random Story Plots

[carolineg]

My favorite WTF was the Garden of Eden storyline on Days.  A virtual Garden of Eden with Austin and Greta?  It was awful.  Thank goodness it was basically never spoken of again.

[j swift]

Even in French that was nutty

 

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[DRW50]

OLTL - the attempt to make us see how loveable and quirky Todd was by giving him a parrot. 

[Vee]

That was Claire Labine and her ongoing fascination with animals on her shows.

[Dr Neil Curtis]

Dena Higley OLTL & Days bibles. 

[amybrickwallace]

I think I blocked that certain Passions story out. Even Tracey Ross admitted several years after the show's cancellation how uncomfortable it made her feel. I also had issues with the many rapes on the show. They were graphic, did nothing to advance story and were all about shock value and exploitation.

[DRW50]

On Eastenders, one particular hacky producer was determined to make Ronnie Mitchell into a lady gangster (in between breakdowns, anyway). She went to war with her ex-lover, Vincent (played by washed up hip hop artist Richard Blackwood), a gangster/police informant. A guy who had been trying to help her, Fatboy, who'd been on the show about 5 years and was a well-liked character, was caught in the crossfire. Vincent''s mother, who was ALSO a gangster (as well as a prostitute and a foster parent...), had him knocked out and put in the car boot that Ronnie had meant her ex to be put in. Over Christmas Day, no less, we saw Ronnie walking around a car boot, taunting who she thought was her ex. The car was then sent to the crusher. Her ex ran into her soon after. She was shocked, and tried to call off the hit. He went to the junkyard, opening the trunk and seeing (we didn't see thankfully) Fatboy's mangled corpse. He lied to her that he'd saved Fatboy in time. 

 

The show then almost completely dropped the storyline for Ronnie, instead putting her in a romcom type reunion with another of her exes (complete with her busting up a wedding she thought he was the groom in, only he wasn't - lol!!!) Vincent learned the truth about his mother and she fell down some stairs while they were fighting, but she actually wasn't dead...and she wandered around Walford for months, wearing a headscarf and hiding behind racks of clothing, until she was forgiven. She then left the show months later, let go by the next producer - she was convinced that her boyfriend, Patrick Trueman, was having an affair with Dot (!!!) and when Vincent realized she was going to kill Patrick in a rage, he shipped her off. Vincent himself was sent out of Walforda few years later via a racist, deeply unpleasant gangster storyline starring Patrick Bergin of Sleeping With the Enemy, in what must be a career worst performance.

 

Ronnie and her sister Roxy were then killed off a year after the Fatboy story, as the new producer felt that Ronnie had become a ludicrous character. They drowned in a swimming pool on Ronnie's wedding day.

 

To this day no one knows what happened to Fatboy, and they never will.

 

[Vee]

....That's nuts.

[Khan]

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Anyway.

 

AMC: Brooke's mother, Peg English, is revealed to be "the Cobra," head of some drug cartel -- and surprise!, she's also not Brooke's biological mother!

 

[DRW50]

 

That story always seemed so odd to me and so out of place for AMC of that era. Wasn't there a rumor Julia Barr quit because of it?

[Khan]

 

There was?  I always assumed she quit, or at least took a leave of absence, because she went on tour with some play starring Katharine Hepburn.

 

AMC had a terrible track record with drug-related storylines.  I'm always puzzled why they ever bothered with them.

[DRW50]

 

Ah that makes more sense. I wasn't sure as I thought she left directly after that storyline. 

 

I agree about the drug stories. I guess Mark's addiction being the exception. I'd say Kelly Cole's but I've never seen any of that story.

[crc]

I'm at work and people are wondering why I'm cracking up ... this beaver/porcupine stuff?!?!?!  I have no clue what y'all talking about, but my imagination is going wild with this one.

 

B&B: Brooke, Thomas, and the berries.

 

Y&R: Frozen sperm making the rounds in Genoa City.

 

GL: This show had quite a few during the 90s and 00s between clones, twins with different fathers, and anything San Cristobel, but perhaps that time traveling painting takes the cake.

[dragonflies]

GH: CASEY THE ALIEN

[KMan101]

 

I was only about half watching OLTL towards it's end (it was becoming similar to Ron/Frank's GH where you didn't understand half the plots and a bunch of new people were everywhere and on a lot and you'd go a week or two without certain storylines) but I definitely remember the beaver/porcupine. It was 100% a beaver and you could tell that it was. But yep, it got changed. It was just the dumbest storyline. I kind of wish I could remember more of it (well, maybe not). Did it ever go anywhere? I remember it involving Cutter and Rama and Terri Conn's waste of a character, right?

 

I actually didn't hate it at the time ... lol. But looking back I kind of cringe a bit. And at the time (I was young), I didn't take it as their way to "prop" him and make him more likeable or "quirky" but that clearly was probably the case. That and like Vee said, Claire liked her animals on shows. Remember Sigmund? Edward's dog and Sly/Lucky's dog? lol. It's like Ron with the kids, just Claire and the animals.

 

GL really did do a good job of pushing me away during some of those awful storylines. At the time, I didn't mind DAYS (and Passions) being outlandish, but GL just felt odd doing so many of those things. San Cristobel was HORRIBLE. I despised almost every minute of it. Initially, maybe it wasn't the worst, but it became the worst and they just couldn't seem to let it go. It was bizarre. And all of Reva's nonsense? lawd ...