Stories that soaps stole from movies, primetime, books, and other soaps

[Faulkner]

All genres steal from each other, and soaps even “steal“ stories from their own histories. But what are some obvious instances of theft (or homage) on soaps from famous films, TV, or books? Beyond just the Romeo & Juliet tropes, which basically every writer in history has stolen...

 

A few examples from the MAB era were listed in Y&R thread. And of course, there were Nola’s film fantasies on GL, which were tributes and acknowledged as fantasies.
 

But an egregious example (which we’ve discussed here) was Mal Young’s Big Little Lies rip-off with the Victoria/JT abuse story on Y&R. Edit: spoiler tag added for those who haven’t seen BLL.

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[AbcNbc247]

Well, we can't even begin to count the number of times soap writers recycled the same plots on multiple soaps that they wrote. Even the greats did it many times.

 

As for ripping other movies or other TV shows

 

Both DOOL and Passions ripped off Carrie.

Patrick and Robin's storyline on GH was borrowed from Grey's Anatomy.

Though it wasn't a complete ripoff, Passions used some elements from Poltergeist during the "Hell in the Closet" storyline.

The Shockwave storyline on Sunset Beach was a complete ripoff of The Poseidon Adventure.

[titan1978]

Sonny on GH was clearly trying to get in on The Sopranos hype when Guza was there, especially in his second HW stint, early part of his third.

 

Wasn’t there some Sex and the City name dropping by Frons when they were doing Fusion on AMC?
 

 

[Faulkner]

It’s funny how much ABC Daytime in the ‘00s wanted to be HBO. (Then again, so did everyone at that time, but ABC’s ambitions were so transparent and they missed the mark sooo badly.)

[Paul Raven]

There were elements of the Rita Hayworth/Glenn Ford movie Gilda in the set up of the Paul/Cassandra story on Y&R.

[AbcNbc247]

So they turned AMC into Sex and the City and GH into The Sopranos.

 

What did they try to turn OLTL into?

[heffer]

OLTL (the Buchanan family) Guiding Light (the Lewis family) and TEXAS (all of it) all cashed in on the DALLAS craze. GL also had GREASE knockoffs Lujack and the Galahads.

[Faulkner]

Ha, I don’t think it extended to OLTL tbh. They were too busy turning their teen scene into High School Musical.

[lucaslesann23]

I think JG is a fan of dynasty. 

Isnt adam newman just An adam carrington copy

[ReddFoxx]

I wasn't a Guiding Light viewer, but I do recall reading that the producer was trying to emulate "The Hills" with the filming style.

[kalbir]

Y&R had some Dallas/Dynasty influence in the first half of the 1980s. I mentioned these in the Y&R Old Articles thread:

Victor Newman, billionaire businessman that owns and lives on a horse ranch.

The wealthy Abbott family owns and operates a cosmetics company.

Dina Abbott abandons her family and years later returns to Genoa City as wealthy widow Madame Dina Mergeron that has inherited her late husband's business which rivals her ex-husband's business.

 

At least Bill Bell didn't have Victor and the Abbotts running rival oil companies or have Dina be a foreign diva that lived in a luxury penthouse as that would've been too obvious 

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There was also the General Hospital influence on 1980s Y&R with the police corruption and mob storylines, and more action/adventure elements.

1983-1990 Days took the General Hospital action/adventure/supercouple formula and went ham with it.

 

The Newmans from 2008-2010 resembled Dynasty from 1984-1985. I think MAB was a Dynasty fan.

[ReddFoxx]

Much of the business elements and wealth on daytime soaps was copied from primetime soaps. There was some wealth on soap operas before Dallas and Dynasty, but daytime soap operas originally revolved around working to middle class characters. In fact many of the small town settings do not fit with corporations and wealth. B&B is the only soap with a setting that matches with wealth and business machinations.

[kalbir]

1970s Y&R had the Chancellors, Lance Prentiss, Prentiss Industries; all those preceded Dallas. Yes, we don't picture Wisconsin as home to multinational conglomerates and a cosmetics company in the vein of Clinique, Elizabeth Arden, Estee Lauder. Then again, would anyone watch a daytime drama set in Wisconsin with rival families in the business of artisan cheese or gourmet sausage or craft beer? Probably not

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[lucaslesann23]

I think UK viewers would. Their soaps are still about middle class regular people.

[Franko]

FATAL ATTRACTION inspired at least two soap stories in 1988: Ray and Connie (DALLAS) and Duke and Olivia (GH). The latter went so far as to have Olivia killing Robin's new pet (one of a pair of lovebirds) and kidnapping her, just like Glenn Close did.