54 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I also have to give a mention to ATWT for the absolutely atrocious treatment of the Denise storyline. What should have been a compelling baby swap storyline, on a show that was competent and more willing to not stack the deck, instead became the perfect, loving white wife and mother vs a black stripper and crack addict who sold her child. As if that wasn't enough, they had the character go around fighting with people for most of her first months on the show, complete with a terrible scene where she went after Camille for being "high yellow." I don't think the audience ever forgave Denise or gave her a chance after that introduction. 

That was so randomly awkward and bad but I know a few people actually thought was “groundbreaking” she said that but the character of Denise really fell apart after that and then we had that of her and Andy which could have been really interesting but ended up pretty twisted & wretched. I remember the actress had been alright on AW but this was a mess. 

1 minute ago, soapfan770 said:

That was so randomly awkward and bad but I know a few people actually thought was “groundbreaking” she said that but the character of Denise really fell apart after that and then we had that of her and Andy which could have been really interesting but ended up pretty twisted & wretched. I remember the actress had been alright on AW but this was a mess. 

 

If this had been on a completely different type of soap, I could have seen it that way, but on ATWT it was just a lousy idea, especially since there was no real effort to follow up on these tensions.

 

The Andy/Denise/Ben triangle was also a terrible idea, as Ben and Denise had little chemistry and the pairing involved trying to make viewers hate a character they'd basically watched grow up. The scene where Ben raged at God for not leaving Andy dead was awful. 

7 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

 

If this had been on a completely different type of soap, I could have seen it that way, but on ATWT it was just a lousy idea, especially since there was no real effort to follow up on these tensions.

 

The Andy/Denise/Ben triangle was also a terrible idea, as Ben and Denise had little chemistry and the pairing involved trying to make viewers hate a character they'd basically watched grow up. The scene where Ben raged at God for not leaving Andy dead was awful. 

Yikes I remember that too! Aside from Ben & Camille I wasn’t impressed by anything ATWT had tried in the late in the ‘90’s. I remember the show hyped it up big they hired Monti Sharpe so of course his character was a filthy creep. 

1 minute ago, soapfan770 said:

Yikes I remember that too! Aside from Ben & Camille I wasn’t impressed by anything ATWT had tried in the late in the ‘90’s. I remember the show hyped it up big they hired Monti Sharpe so of course his character was a filthy creep. 

 

Such a waste of a talented actor. I guess the story was well-meaning but it was panned at the time (especially the church scene with the Oakdale residents, including Lucinda, singing "Reach Out and Touch Somebody's Hand").

21 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

 

Such a waste of a talented actor. I guess the story was well-meaning but it was panned at the time (especially the church scene with the Oakdale residents, including Lucinda, singing "Reach Out and Touch Somebody’s”)

 

Considering what all was going on the show at time it wasn’t that bad of an umbrella event although it wasn’t all that great either.

 

As for Sharp after he left ATWT I recall another soap, I think PC hired him and hyped it up like ATWT did that they had hired him yet next thing I knew he was under SOD’s Who’s Goings section. I don’t think Monti has done anything daytime since.

Edited June 2, 20205 yr by soapfan770

5 hours ago, soapfan770 said:

 

The Grant family was dismantled in 1996. Instead we a had a trashy triangle between Marcus/Dahlia/Sugar Hill and later the Bourdreau’s came on with not much to do.

 

Gilly got engaged to Alan’s deviant lawyer Sid Dickerson but she broke it off after seeing Sid’s true colors as he attacked witnesses on the stand and got Alan off the hook for aiding and abetting Brent Lawerence. She then met and developed feelings with Griffith Williams, a man who had a past with her mother Vivian. Just as Gilly and Griffith were about sleep together, Vivian rushed in to reveal that Griffith was Gilly’s father! A disgusted Gilly left town to find herself.

 

David ended up being recast a couple times, had a brief marriage and brief relationships with Bridget and Vicky Spaulding and was on and off until 2000/2001 or so. Charles Grant would occasionally still pop up as the head of Cedars through the mid-00’s. 
 

 

Thank you for the info.  That sounds awful.

Re OLTL: Don't forget in addition to the other diverse type of characters Ron and Frank started off with, there was also BethAnn Bonner's character Talia Sayid, who finally made Antonio interesting.

3 hours ago, DRW50 said:

And the so-called soap press giddily went along with the idea that black and gay characters caused a ratings crash and the show was better off without them. 

Yes, they giddily went along with this stupidity then a year later referred to it as "brazen" when melodramatically eulogizing Ronald's OLTL. A full decade has passed, and it still sticks in my craw.

4 hours ago, Faulkner said:

Ironically GH has the most prominent black contingent these days, with the Ashfords (Curtis, Jordan, and T.J., the latter of whom I believe is recurring) and Trina. I think they still show Aunt Stella, Felix, Trina’s mom, and Epiphany, all recurring. Parry Shen, who is Chinese-American, still recurs as Brad.

 

Y&R has Lily, Devon, Nate, Amanda, and Elena. Lily is only one with a story, with Amanda sniffing around Billy. They also have the Rosaleses (Lola and Rey), Mal Young/Angelica McD leftovers who have been greatly diminished under Griffith/Morina. (Neither has been that well-received.)

 

DAYS has Abe and Lani, Eli, and Gabi and Rafe.

 

B&B pretty much only has Zoey, with Maya, Carter, and Justin popping up every blue moon.

I wish there was a "like" option. Thank you. 

 

You're right I did see Abe in one of the preview posts around and I did catch Lani on a day I caught a bit of an episode.

 

When I first started watching soaps what I noticed about Y&R was that they actually has a black family that was prominent. I knew who all these characters were and they actually seemed to serve a purpose and have things going on. I'm surprised Lily and Devon are still on because I would have recognized them right away, unless they're being played by new actors. Just probably weren't on much these past few weeks before repeats.

 

I have not seen a single non-white face the weeks I watched BB. I remember a few years ago when I started following more regularly again there was the Avant family which was just being introduced. I also remember Rome Flynn was on but can't remember his character's name which I swear I read somewhere that his character was going to come out as gay but I don't remember that ever happening on the show unless that rumor completely made up. 

 

As for GH, I usually tune in and out right away or don't bother as there's an hour gap between the end of BB and GH and I start doing other things. So I was probably not paying attention. 

41 minutes ago, GLATWT88 said:

I wish there was a "like" option. Thank you. 

 

You're right I did see Abe in one of the preview posts around and I did catch Lani on a day I caught a bit of an episode.

 

When I first started watching soaps what I noticed about Y&R was that they actually has a black family that was prominent. I knew who all these characters were and they actually seemed to serve a purpose and have things going on. I'm surprised Lily and Devon are still on because I would have recognized them right away, unless they're being played by new actors. Just probably weren't on much these past few weeks before repeats.

 

I have not seen a single non-white face the weeks I watched BB. I remember a few years ago when I started following more regularly again there was the Avant family which was just being introduced. I also remember Rome Flynn was on but can't remember his character's name which I swear I read somewhere that his character was going to come out as gay but I don't remember that ever happening on the show unless that rumor completely made up. 

 

As for GH, I usually tune in and out right away or don't bother as there's an hour gap between the end of BB and GH and I start doing other things. So I was probably not paying attention. 

Re Y&R: Lily was on a bit before the hiatus but Devon has basically disappeared. That show has really gone all in on Adam, Chelsea, and Phyllis, with some Nick/Sharon/Newmans and Kyle/Summer thrown in.

 

The Avants actually dominated B&B for a few weeks when Nicole was waffling over giving her surrogate child to her transgender sister Maya or keeping it for her own after learning she wouldn’t be able to have another child. It was a very soapy story, and I believe what Rome Flynn won his Emmy for. But after that, they were done, and we had that weak triangle with Zoey/Xander/Emma.

 

GH had certainly pushed Curtis/Jordan/T.J. to the forefront, ironically around the time the original Jordan, Vinessa Antoine, gave an interview about how neglectful the show had been towards black characters during her tenure. But the Ashford story ultimately became about Sonny.

 

DAYS is hot and cold on Eli and Lani. They gave them a big wedding and made Lani friends and co-conspirators with Kristen after the time jump. But unlike Gabi, who dominates DAYS year-round, Eli and Lani’s presence on the show is inconsistent. Abe is currently flirting with Kate, and we’ll see where that goes.

Isn't Sadie worst than Mamie?

 

Tyrone the Pimp

 

The firing of Renee Goldsberry

 

IMHO, the missed opportunity of Marshall/Felicia, AlanMichael/Gilly, and Trucker/Angie pairings respectively

 

And don't get me started on the Jessica/Duncan/Shannon triangle and the bts Emmy bs!

 

 

I did not know about this but it's being discussed these days in the AW Forum:

 

j swift said:

Of course eventually, Paulina went from a South American con artist to an Italian chef with a long lost child who somehow knew to try to find her in Bay City, but that's soaps.

 

Bear in mind: Paulina was always waspy blonde.

What do people think of Evangeline on OLTL with the benefit of hindsight? We all remember the ugliness of the Jovan/Jolie fan wars, and I believe this caused a lot of anger:

 

 

It’s just weird how much Evangeline dominated OLTL in the mid-2000s (alongside Jessica/Natalie/Blair), and how easily she was simply dismissed and forgotten. And it was so clear the show considered John/Natalie endgame, as they valued Natalie more as a character.

6 hours ago, DRW50 said:

While we're talking about AMC, they went from trying to have a relatively integrated black cast to, by 1995/1996, having Derek as a degraded supporting character, Noah there to be generic eye candy for white housewives, and incredibly insulting character trashing for Taylor (going from layered character to a badly acted psycho). And then they got a voodoo priestess who joined from the Jamaica jaunt, until seemingly someone decided this wasn't the best idea, and she vanished. If the original plans to kill Belinda had gone through, AMC would have had no black cast, aside from degraded Derek, by 1997. And Belinda never really had much of a chance even after that. 

 

And the so-called soap press giddily went along with the idea that black and gay characters caused a ratings crash and the show was better off without them. 

I loved Derek!

 

That OLTL nonsense-  maybe your ratings crashed because the Dorian part of the gay story was stupid.  And I don’t remember Viki having anything worthwhile going on, and the rest of the show except those characters was pretty awful.  But blame what was even remotely working.

 

Ron should never be a solo HW, and Frank continues to be a wimp when it comes to portraying gay characters on GH.

24 minutes ago, Faulkner said:

What do people think of Evangeline on OLTL with the benefit of hindsight? We all remember the ugliness of the Jovan/Jolie fan wars, and I believe this caused a lot of anger:

 

 

It’s just weird how much Evangeline dominated OLTL in the mid-2000s (alongside Jessica/Natalie/Blair), and how easily she was simply dismissed and forgotten. And it was so clear the show considered John/Natalie endgame, as they valued Natalie more as a character.

 

I found her and REG frankly annoying (it took until the Hamilton soundtrack for me to warm up to her) but I didn't realize how good or rare it was for a soap to actually have a black woman so frontburner. Evangeline absolutely dominated the screen for most of her tenure and I can't imagine any black character getting even a tenth of the material she did.