Jump to content

Soap Opera Digest Best & Worst of 1997


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 49
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Members

 

Nikki and Josh as well. (I can't remember if SOD commented on this) At least that story had one hell of a bang, I suppose. Still, there was such a basic breakdown in storytelling for Y&R around late '96/early '97 that is a bit fascinating to think of looking back. I guess it may have been Bill's memory problems starting.

 

This is off topic but do you have the episode where John kept going on about what kind of world we live in when someone can't go walking in the woods at night? I laughed my ass off at the absurdity of those scenes when they aired. (this was when Ashley went walking in the woods in the middle of the night and got beaten up)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

I don't have the specifics, just this list unfortunately however a quick search I did lead me to an archived OLTL fan site with this info: 

 

Best Family Feud: The Cramer Clan, OLTL

With Dorian playing den mother, it's no wonder the Cramer women are at each other's thorats. Between Blair's blistering assaults on Kelly for causing her to lose both her unborn baby and custody of Starr, and Dorian blasting Cassie for digging into a dirty family secret, there's barely a moment's peace in the Lord lair. But it's not just recent skirmishes that make this family feud such a beaut. It takes years to establish the kind of tangled relationships that an honest-to-goodness feud is built on. Cousins Kelly, Cassie and Blair didn't exactly have a legacy of family harmony---their mothers, Melinda, Dorian and Addie, range from unstable to certifiable. (Watch Dorian fill mentally ill Melinda's pills with sugar! See Melinda sing off-key to her mutilated doll!) While the younger generation seems to get mad rather than go mad, these girls could find themselves an egg or two short of a dozen, as well. And Dorian's looming secret could be just the thing to push them over the edge.

Most Improved Show: One Life to Live

This time last year, we were treated to riveting tales like Maggie loves Max, but she's becoming a nun! and Let's hypnotize Viki into killing Kevin! and don't forget Let's make Carlo think he is dying a rare blood disease that can only cured by Serenity Springs water! Let's face it: OLTL had nowhere to go but up, which we are happy to report that they did in 1997.

Though they lost two of their most popular couples---Patrick and Marty, and Antonio and Andy---OLTL managed to take our minds off the departures by creating fascinating, new characters and sparking long-dormant family feuds that add zest to Llanview, without sacrificing its identity.

Special kudos are in order for the development of daytime's most unorthodox, yet intriguing, new duo, Todd and Tea. Initially, we couldn't have imagined Todd with anyone but Blair. Guess what? We were wrong. The tough- talking, in-control attorney has proven to be a perfect match for the always tormented, out-of-control Todd.

Long-time fave Max was given back his bite and moved front-burner---the former rogue had gone soft on us during the Luna years. Andrew and Cassie's snoozer of a marriage was accorded a jolt when Cassie left the preacher for Kevin, then wafled over whether she had moved too fast. Viewers were treated to lots of Bo and Nora, with a fresh look at pre-menopausal angst. It looks like these deserving favorites will soon be moving to the front-burner, as well. And mainstay Viki is struggling with an identity crisis and her relationship with her ex, Clint.

OLTL may be a show in transition, but it's moving full speed ahead in the right direction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interestingly they don't list any of the negative choices 

Please register in order to view this content

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

At the time I wondered if the show had gotten intense viewer backlash over how offputting Shari Shattuck's Ashley was, especially her ruining Dina and John's second chance at love (with that out of nowhere secretary-kept-them-apart retcon), and this was a fast attempt to make fans feel for her. I just remember finding the whole thing ludicrous because I've never known anyone who went around walking in the woods in the middle of the night, in a crime-ridden city no less. That whole time period was full of strange and abrupt writing choices, like the Cole/Ryan/Nina/Victoria saga, where we went from eons of Victoria worrying about Cole and his hot book editor to teasing Cole and Nina but making it clear nothing happened, to then retconning a ONS between Cole and Nina when Ryan went from lusting after Victoria to lusting after an 18 year old girl.

 

People speculated, especially with Sunset Beach there and JER recently leaving DAYS for his own projects. Fans definitely knew of the agenda to force out older actors - this was even given by Michael Malone as reason why they would not recast Iris. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

AW has been near the bottom of the ratings for close to 20 years at this point. No one could quite figure out how to make it a more more competitive soap (in the ratings) again. This was magnified when DOOL had those ratings increases in the mid-90's due to Reilly's stories. There were several times NBC almost canceled it before they finally did in 1999. I think by the time it happened, many weren't shocked and were just waiting for it to be announced. 

Edited by BetterForgotten
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

I know I have a late 1996 interview Bell did with a newspaper somewhere, I'll have to dig it up as you can tell Bell was getting a little frustrated but the nice thing was he definitely showed he still loved the show so much. Definitely a strange time for Y&R especially with the above storylines and then a wave of recasts occurred as well, with Grace, Phyllis, and Victoria all being recast almost within a whole month in addition to Shattuck from the year before. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

And with Jill suddenly being with the Dennisons, the arrival of so many new characters, abrupt endings to so many stories (like Mamie's quick exit or Nate's death), other stories being repeated into the ground (like the Malcolm/Dru baby drama), etc. It would be interesting to go back and rewatch with modern eyes, as at the time I was more likely to just roll my eyes or crack jokes at the TV. I remember a domestic violence story with "Christine" at the time where she kneed the guy in the balls like something from a Hunter episode. This was right before that pairing with Victor which was supposedly dropped due to fan backlash. My father used to laugh because of an episode - a 4th of July or Memorial Day episode - where they showed up for the annual barbecue wearing matching sunglasses. 

Edited by DRW50
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.



  • Recent Posts

    • Well... I am. I think she's losing her initial menacing presence. Slowly but surely. I need the crazy dialed back. But as I said... this is very miniscule negative reaction. I am loving the show right now. We'll see how they'll continue after the fireworks. 
    • Oh, I am so looking forward to the reveal about Laura's accident, and Nicole and Leslie having a real one on one.
    • I'm not seeing that right now. I'm stepping out on faith and believeing MVJ will not turn "Silk" into a ridiculous caricature.   
    • One little... very little... tiny... minuscule negative comment. I was debating if I should care to say it... In some ways... Silk has been acting clownish... I think they need to dial it back, because if this continues with the current pace... she'll be worse than Sheila in terms of getting totally predictable and not menacing anymore. TMG is one hell of an actress... I just want to see a more normal and less clownish Silkpress in the coming weeks*months. We need to dial down the wigs too. It's becoming a funny caricature and we don't want that. Maybe we do, I'm not sure. I just like her more menacing and sinister than... "Hahhahahah what is she wearing today". That's a personal preference.   So far... I am okay with it... but I have fears this may turn into a really tired joke in the future. I want TMG as long as possible on my screen!  
    • Not really short-lived as GH went to color in 1967, so the blue background actually lasted about twice as long as the black background. You can see it at the very beginning of this set of clips from 1974:

      Please register in order to view this content

      Also would like to put it out there in the universe, as I often do, that the wait for any AMC from 1972-1976 has been too damn long. At this point, it is the only long-running soap (10+ years) that has absolutely zero video clips from that time period online. We have either whole episodes or clips from every year of the show's run except those five, which happen to be the exact years when one of my favorite characters I've never actually seen, Margo Flax, was a major player. Justice for Margo, please.
    • Both EE and Corrie remind me of RC's OLTL, where maybe, just maybe, if we keep bringing up the past in cheesy, forced ways, the audience will transfer their positive memories of better days onto what we're giving them now. I used to love that kind of crap, but it became so constant and transparent with OLTL, not to mention obnoxious as hell. Like when they had KDP singing the Peabo Bryson theme over the opening sequence for an episode or two. I've been reading little blurbs about Sonia's exit, and they all mention trumpets as if the she had grown up and became a trumpet virtuoso. It's too sitcommy to me, just like Bianca being damn near 50 and still wearing the jacket and hoops. But then they like to introduce new young female characters and put them in a metallic jacket and hoops so that the audience will like them right away. Things just hit better when it's more of an "If you know, you know," type of thing. Like Max watching Stacey's plane leave in 2010 as Stacey gazes down at the Thames in reference to the opening sequence...just like when Phil watched Kathy's plane leave in 1998 as Kathy gazed down at the Thames in reference to the opening sequence. It's like the more "iconic" the original scene is, the less effective the later allusion to it is. B&B and Y&R recreating their first scenes were perfect because we don't get hit over the head with how incredibly iconic those scenes were to begin with.
    • Ted has been too-good-to-be-true-on-the-surface guy from the get go. It's always these guys that end up having a secret mistress with 2 children on the side or are secretly bisexual and sleeping with men while they wifey thinks she is living the dream. Even the way Dani was talking about them in the beginning... I knew it was coming. The show was hinting at it. And it came.  I have nothing against the show writing a second affair, when it's used to present this exact type of message. That the two sisters end up dealing with a similar catastrophe. I would have had problems with it... if it was not written the way it is. But I have no problems with it right now. And I love how the focus is not just on the affair, but on Ted's overall character. His dark side. And, no, you don't need to be a serial killer or a lunatic with a knife to be a bad guy. Sometimes just making bad decisions that end up hurting your entire family makes you that.   
    • Oh, really? I didn't see that at all. Ted's only been loving and supportive, even with this reveal I still haven't seen anything too dark from him. Shitty father and husband, sure. My one nitpick is that they could have accomplished that without having another affair though. 
    • Remember post-ATWT how Brooke Alexander was in eight million commercials and home improvement shows?  She was the epitome of a millennial consumer surrogate. Meanwhile, Kelly Menighan worked the heck out of the short hairdo for years, and never got a beauty contract.  TBH, her whole vibe gave Midwest suburbs, as interpreted through the eyes of a Manhattan costume department with a network budget for designer goods. She was definitely sophisticated given her limited access to shopping at Lisa's Boutique in Oakdale.
    • Please register in order to view this content

      This is mine!

      Please register in order to view this content

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

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