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

[Paul Raven]

Ryan's Hope did the much derided King Kong rip off with Delia and the ape.

 

Love of Life was inspired by Love Story by having Bill Prentiss tragically succumb to illness.

 

Dark Shadows ripped off several classic horror novels/movies.

 

Days story of Frankie witnessing a crime while visiting his secret lover was from The Bedroom Window

[Manny]

I always thought that Sunset Beach took those big storylines from the movies... Terror Island was like Scream and Shockwave was like Poseidon Adventure.

[Fevuh]

Y&R and the Newman Tower that burned for like 2 weeks and no one died lolllll.  Towering Inferno 

[EricMontreal22]

The Carter Jones storyline on AMC (kidnapping Natalie on a houseboat) was inspired by Cape Fear I believe (I think the remake had recently been released)--that story was quite involved and may have been inspired by other works as well.  Was it Guiding Light that had a Psycho/Dressed to Kill cross dressing killer (I won't call them trans). 

Ha yes Frons would name drop SatC when mentioning Fusion and AMC.  Funny, he never applied a similar identity to poor/lucky OLTL.

In general working class, so even a bit lower than what I'd call middle class.  It's funny, in a country where class is such a big deal (although N Americans also suffer from this, we just like to pretend otherwise) the UK soaps rarely take advantage of the conflicts between people of lower classes.  I remember hearing the producer of the long running BBC radio soap The Archers pointing out they're the only major UK soap that does do this.

Has any soap ripped off Rebecca?  I mean AMC had elements of it with Helga before we knew that Angelique was actually alive.

[Paul Raven]

Hello again Eric!

 

Guiding Light had elements of Rebecca with Quint, the mysterious gentleman and Mrs Renfield severe housekeeper of the Thornway Rd mansion.

 

AW ripped off Misery with Felicia kidnapped by a disgruntled fan.

[titan1978]

Named Marion Crane on the show as well, in homage to Janet Leigh’s character.

[Titus Andronicus]

John Black was inspired by Jason Bourne.

Shane Donovan always had bits of James Bond, but they went as far as to have him do the helicopter rescue in Miami wearing a tuxedo.

 

The Edge of Night, of course, was supposed to be Perry Mason, but CBS and Erle Stanley Gardner had a falling out. 

 

As did Days with Shawn Douglas being held captive by Jan in a cage.

[Franko]

Sheila Carter already had issues, but surely having her end up a nanny for the Forresters had to be a shout-out to The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, right?

[ReddFoxx]

I'll admit that I don't know much about early Y&R so I wasn't aware of those story elements. Cheese and sausage might not work, but beer probably would. Falcon Crest managed to make wine work, but then again wine making is associated with wealthier people and vineyards are a good scenic backdrop.

[applcin]

I always thought of Sonny on GH as a ripoff of The Godfather. Michael Corinthos/Michael Corleone. Nickname Sonny. Wife getting killed by a car bomb. Short & dark haired. I'm surprised he didn't have a brother named Fredo.

RH did a Jaws thing with Joe & Siobhan at the beach in Long Island.
AW and AMC had characters wearing "Phantom of the Opera"-type masks.
On OLTL, when Tina went to search for her baby in Italy and pretended to be a nun, she met this big, hulking hermit contrarily named Piccolino (little one) in a church tower who developed a crush on her a la The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

[Franko]

This apparently happened on DOOL, too, in 1989 when Eve ran away and took shelter in a mansion where a masked Nick was hiding out.

[All My Shadows]

Dark Shadows also had elements of it in the 1970PT story with Maggie, Quentin, Hoffman, and Angelique/Alexis.

[P.J.]

Early Reva/Josh felt  a lot like Brick and Maggie from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

[watson71]

Another World did copy Misery when Walter Trask kidnapped Felicia and held her hostage until she wrote a novel to his liking.

[j swift]

RH did a lot of cultural rip-offs.  Siobhan had a Jaws-esque scare with a shark in the Hamptons (see below).  There was the King Tut's tomb inspired story.  And, of course there were multiple Kennedy, Godfather, and NYC society references that were contemporary for the time.   

 

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Passions did a Di Vinci Code homage story in Italy with stolen religious iconography

 

And, as Christopher Booker wrote, if there are only seven basic plots in fiction, then certainly most soaps have borrowed heavily from Shakespeare.  Romeo & Juliet, wherein the offspring of two warring families fall in love (e.g. Julie&Tyler from Capitol).  The Taming of the Shrew, a mean woman is "tamed" by the love of a good man (e.g. Erica&Jackson from AMC).  And Macbeth, the evil woman behind the powerful man (e.g. Stephanie&Eric from B&B) have all been recycled on daytime. 

 

Also, My Fair Lady/Pygmalion has been replayed a thousand times (e.g. AW's Cass Winthrop and Tony the Tuna's daughter Dee) and It's a Wonderful Life & Dickens' Christmas Carol are the sources of perennial Xmas soap fever dreams (e.g. Santa Barbara).  

Edited September 8, 2020 by j swift