3 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

 

Yeah, Sheila was always shown to be an evil tactician who was masterful in her madness, but I agree with the assessment that the characterization of her became akin to a kind of 'Looney Tunes' villain.

Sort of what Phyllis quickly became.

 

Although Meg had first been introduced as a cunning and manipulative Lolita-esque temptress who, with her brother Holden conspired to break up Dusty and Lily, the character was mostly humbled after a disastrous first marriage and settling down with a different partner (albeit, her sister's ex rapist).

The wet sackcloth version of the character that returned to the canvas in the show's last decade was a poorly written characterization mostly because she was deathly dull.

The actress was all wrong  for Meg...she should have been Ellie

Meg was a jealous money hungry cunning bitch. The ending she got was awful and so out character. She ended up in a mental hospital. Really?????  Ridiculous!!!

6 minutes ago, Soapsuds said:

Meg was a jealous money hungry cunning bitch. The ending she got was awful and so out character. She ended up in a mental hospital. Really?????  Ridiculous!!!

 

When the character left with Josh/Rod Landry, she had mostly been reformed.

 

21 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

The actress was all wrong  for Meg...she should have been Ellie

 

Despite liking the original actress Babette Renee Props and Ellie's commitment to being a walking billboard for 90s fashion trends, Ellie made little to no lasting impact (other than being a spoiler for Iva's relationships) and there were already so many Snyders on the canvas that Ellie really wasn't needed. The only angle that I'd find interesting is if they brought back Props but go in a totally different direction with the character. Maybe uncover that Brock was never dead and entered the witness protection program and Ellie ran off to be with him (or something). Have Ellie turn up with husband (whose enemies are all either in jail or dead) and a couple of kids.

15 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

 

When the character left with Josh/Rod Landry, she had mostly been reformed.

 

 

 

Oh I know. I didn't care for her pairing with Josh either. I would've written a totally different ending for Meg. Considering everyone on the show got a rotten ending ...I shouldn't be surprised by Meg going nuts.

32 minutes ago, Soapsuds said:

Oh I know. I didn't care for her pairing with Josh either. I would've written a totally different ending for Meg. Considering everyone on the show got a rotten ending ...I shouldn't be surprised by Meg going nuts.

 

Despite Jennifer Ashe (another actor Alan should try to get for a reunion, along with Peter Boynton) playing the heck out of that Meg, Tonio betrayal story, it didn't sit right with me that she and 'cousin Josh's got together, despite how talented the actors involved are.

I stopped watching ATWT in the late spring, early summer the year it got cancelled so I didn't see Meg's final story. From the sound of things, I am glad to have missed it.

1 hour ago, Soapsuds said:

Meg was a jealous money hungry cunning bitch. The ending she got was awful and so out character. She ended up in a mental hospital. Really?????  Ridiculous!!!

On the other hand, that's literally the only time I found Marie Wilson to be interesting in the role. So maybe it's a character assassination and a character redemption at the same time 🤣

Marty, OLTL

@BingCherry OMG!! Long time no 👀..lol

43 minutes ago, BingCherry said:

Marty, OLTL

Though Susan Haskell played the heck out of it. I think with the gift of hindsight, I will agree. So many ways she could have been written out.

Justus Ward, GH. He never recovered from the Damian Smith story.

 

 

1 hour ago, Soapsuds said:

@BingCherry OMG!! Long time no 👀..lol

I lurk from time to time

58 minutes ago, Taoboi said:

Though Susan Haskell played the heck out of it. I think with the gift of hindsight, I will agree. So many ways she could have been written out.

It was just really insulting to see Marty, this character that we’ve seen deal and persevere through so much, suddenly reach her breaking point over...John.

21 minutes ago, Faulkner said:

Justus Ward, GH. He never recovered from the Damian Smith story.

 

 

Like Tony.  Guza got them into the darkness, with no actual plan to get them out of it.  Break the toys and leave them broken.

 

I think the only front burner “classic” characters he didn’t try or succeed in dismantling from 1996 to his first firing in the early 2000’s were Monica, Bobbie, Lucy and Ned. Alan became a drug addict, Justus killed Damian, Tony kidnapped Robin, Luke and Laura were slowly broken apart, he tried to turn Felicia darker after the Kevin stalking storyline, and then the affair with Luke did her in.  If I remember correctly, even Mac was going to have played a part in whatever happened with Miranda during her missing years.

33 minutes ago, titan1978 said:

I think the only front burner “classic” characters he didn’t try or succeed in dismantling from 1996 to his first firing in the early 2000’s were Monica, Bobbie, Lucy and Ned.

It’s actually kind of amazing that Bobbie and Monica got out of that era relatively unscathed, considering the destruction that was happening to their long term partners and families. (Monica had that iffy story with Dr. Pierce, I remember.) They just ended up being marginalized. Lucy survived by buggering off to PC.

 

Edit: when I say “unscathed,” I mean that their integrity as characters wasn’t as damaged as many of their peers. Had they not been punished for growing older, they’d still have been very viable.

Edited October 27, 20205 yr by Faulkner

Agreed @titan1978 Tony Jones never recovered after Carly told him Michael wasn't his son. He went on the backburner till they killed him off. 

 

Maybe not character assassination but GH's Bobbie became a sideshow to Sonny and Carly after she accepted Carly as her daughter. I loved the way she used to hold Sarah Brown's Carly accountable for her crap. 

 

Any GH character that compromised themselves to allow for Franco's acceptance on the canvas died a little. (Monica, Carly, Elizabeth...) 

 

Clint on OLTL. After Viki slept with Sloan, they broke Clint down. He became a side character until he left. Ver Dorn's Clint had an off the rails stint in the mid 00s if I recall. I don't remember much of it to assess whether or not it was character assassination, but it did seem like that was not the same Clint in behavior from the 80s and 90s.

 

Viki suffered alot too. The writers implied that she (not Nikki Smith) let baby Jessica get kidnapped by Mitch, making her out to be a bad mother. Viki's character suffered as well during the Tess plot which said Nikki neglected Jessica, leading to her molestation.

Edited October 27, 20205 yr by ironlion

51 minutes ago, BingCherry said:

I lurk from time to time

It was just really insulting to see Marty, this character that we’ve seen deal and persevere through so much, suddenly reach her breaking point over...John.

I liked just seeing more of her at the time. But yeah...hindsight they could have written all of that to happen so much better if that (Marty goes back to the dark side over John...heck she could just go back to her troublemaking roots, but not cray cray though SH did good with that). They had a good thing with a Natalie/Marty rivalry that was organic. And then they started slanted writing and it was just downhill. 

 

And I was so disappointed that as one of my favorite characters that she just got on a plane and we never got a conclusion to that shown.