Soap Opera Digest Best & Worst of 1997

[yrfan1983]

Why would they say Victor and Diane are Worst Marriage? I thought they had smokin' chemistry

[YRfan23]

I was expecting this year to more harsh on Y&R too, but they surprisingly didn’t tear it apart as much as I thought they did. 

[kalbir]

You are killing me 

 

The first half of 1997 was a lull, but things picked up in the second half of that year. 

[DRW50]

 

If memory serves, they felt the marriage was rushed and felt more like a business arrangement. 

[YRfan23]

I think the same was said for Blade and Ashley when they married in 1994.

[DRW50]

 

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)

[YRfan23]

Haha I don’t have that one unfortunately but I’d love to see it when it gets posted! 

[soapfan770]

 

Haha I remember that absurd scene too! Bell probably should have stuck to his famous traditional "I was down walking in the park...." mantra for Ashley's assault. 

[soapfan770]

 

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 

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[AbcNbc247]

Still irks me the way AW was sabotaged. Did fans know, at the time, what was going on BTS or were they just watching and wondering why the show was getting so bad?

[DRW50]

 

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. 

[BetterForgotten]

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. 

[AbcNbc247]

I wish they would have realized that turning it into a clone of DOOL or ER wasn't the answer.

[soapfan770]

 

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. 

[DRW50]

 

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.