Soap Opera Digest Best & Worst of 1996

[soapfan770]

From the  12-31-1996   issue of Digest these are their picks for the best and worst of 1996:                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

                                                                                           

Best Daytime Couple - Nick and Sharon (Y&R)
Most Tragic Couple - Gary and Josie (AW)

Best Triangle - Sonny, Brenda and Jax (GH)
Maurice Benard, Vanessa Marcil & Ingo Rademacher
Worst Triangle - Jack, Jennifer and Peter (DAYS)
Mark Valley, Stephanie Cameron & Jason Brooks

Best Addiction - Erica (AMC)
Worst Addiction - Matt (Melrose Place)

Best Insanity - Stephanie (B&B)
Worst Insanity - Brooke (B&B)
Best Wedding - Carla and Tony (The City)
Worst Wedding - Lucy and Alan-Michael (GL)
Best Revenge - John Dumps Lisa (ATWT)
Most Shocking Plot Twist - Travis Is Alive...Not Really (Savannah)
Most Preposterous Plot - Bobby Has Ryan's Memories (AW)
Best Proposal - Ridge to Taylor (B&B)
Best Hero - John (DAYS)
Best Heroine - Vicky (AW)
Best Marriage - Bo and Nora (OLTL)
Worst Marriage - Austin and Sami (DAYS)
Best Breakup - Tad and Dixie (AMC)
Worst Breakup - Ned and Lois (GH)

Most Romantic Character - Patrick (OLTL)
Most Rejuvenated Character - Kristen (DAYS)

Best Daytime Vixen - Phyllis (Y&R)
Best Prime-Time Vixen - Peyton (Savannah)

Best Family Feud - The Quartermaines (GH)
Worst Family Feud - The Spauldings (GL)

Best Use Of History - The Battle For Adam (ATWT)
Worst Use Of History - Skye Reappears (AMC)

Best Prime-Time Couple - Peter and Amanda (MP)
Most Boring Couple - Mac and Katherine (GH)

Most Entertaining Couple - Vivian and Ivan (DAYS)
Best Friendship - Rick and Phillip (GL)

Best Mystery - Who Shot Victor? (Y&R)
Best Comeback - Todd (OLTL)

Worst Comeback - Becky Lee (OLTL)
Dumbest Female Character - Nikki (Y&R)

Dumbest Male Character - Danny (The City)
Best New Female Character - Kelsey (AMC)

Best New Male Character - Nikolas (GH)
Worst New Female Character - Cameron/Olivia (OLTL)

Worst New Male Character - Franco (DAYS)
Best On-Screen Secret - Blake's Twins (GL)

Best Off-Screen Secret - Kelly Ripa & Mark Consuelos' Marriage

Best Affairs - Victoria/Cole/Nina/Ryan (Y&R)
Worst Affair - Monica and Dorman (GH)

Best Recast - Kevin Stapleton as Kevin (OLTL)
Worst Recast - John Howard as Paul (ATWT)

Best Guest Appearance - Rosie O'Donnell (AMC)
Biggest Waste Of Talent - Elizabeth Hubbard (ATWT)

Best Use Of Senseless Violence - Lily's Death (GH)
Worst Use Of Senseless Violence - Frankie's Death (AW)

Best Tearjerker - The Saga of Baby Sam (AMC)
Best Daytime Story - The Cassadine Saga (GH)

Worst Daytime Story - Roger's Gaslighting (GL)
Most Disappointing Show - As The World Turns

Best Shows - A three way between Y&R, DAYS and General Hospital

Edited November 25, 2020 by soapfan770

[yrfan1983]

I'm surprised YR rated high in many categories as '96-97 is generally considered a "down period" for the show.  (I am biased as I can't stand Nick and Sharon)

[Faulkner]

I agree. Nick and Sharon ruined what felt like such a classy, adult show for me. 
 

Sad what happened to Kevin Stapleton as Kevin on OLTL. He was such a welcome reprieve after the Jack Armstrong/Ken Kenitzer recast debacles, and JFP cast him aside for Timothy Gibbs. Soaps really loved throwing out their charming, dashing leading men for thugs and tortured brooders.

[prefab1]

LOL at OLTL's Patrick as "Most Romantic Character." I couldn't stand him, and I thought he ruined one of my favorite characters (Marty). Frankly, a lot of what's gone wrong with soaps in the past 25 years can be summed up in the fact that Thorsten Kaye keeps getting cast in lead roles, while Susan Haskell doesn't. 

[kalbir]

 

 

The aftermath of OJ was not a good time for Y&R. Nick and Sharon ate the show from Fall 1994-Spring 1996. Then there was the lull from Fall 1996 through to the first half of 1997. In that same period, Reilly's Days had a huge rise and almost knocked Y&R out of #1 in June 1997.

[Forever8]

I wonder why Ned and Lois got worst breakup? 

[titan1978]

Part of it, and Rena leaving was Guza just did not get Lois, and she felt her character was getting less intelligent as time went on.  It’s telling that she was willing to keep playing Lois if Labine’s soap had been picked up instead of Port Charles.

I really liked him too.  I thought he had a personality, and was attractive and seemed like he would be in a family with NF’s Joey.

[Forever8]

Thanks!!! I know Port Charles came to fruition because ABC didn't want to spend the $$$ on having another show in NYC. Wasn't this the show with the two entertainment families or was that another show Claire was working on?

 

Biggest Waste Of Talent - Elizabeth Hubbard (ATWT

 

What was going on with Lucinda/Elizabeth at the time? 

[soapfan770]

Lucinda had nothing going on at the time except: 

 

1)Be Lily’s meddling mother

2)Be a cheerleader for John 

3)Hide Sam away from Kirk and shame him every time she saw him.

 

I recall Lucinda also briefly tangled with the notorious Martin Chedwyn as well. 
 

All in all the show had basically stopped giving Lucinda her own storylines, Lucinda would be reignited with her scenes with Holden’s return in early 1997 but then of course would be thrown into the Stenbeck family drama all which cumulated in Lucinda’s  exit in early 1999 from the show. 

[carolineg]

 

It seemed rushed IMO.  She left Ned once over Q business stuff with Tracy before Brooklyn was born.  Then she returned with Brook to give Ned another chance, found out a bunch of random bad stuff Ned did (his long ago affair with Monica, blackmailing Justus, and other Q stuff) and left again.  They had been through so much and I felt it ended with such a whimper.  I am sure a lot of it had to do with RS's contract and her RL pregnancy, but I know I was disappointed by it.  And I genuinely thought Rena/Lois would be back to tie up the story but that never happened.

[Dion]

Yeah pretty much as @titan1978 and @carolinegdescribe, although the best and worst column itself was actually published about two months before Lois' brief return in early '97 (which was so bad that if it weren't for Thorne and Macy I wouldn't have been surprised if they had gotten worst break-up of '97 as well as '96!).

 

I had this particular issue of SOD once upon a time and I'm trying to remember what the write up actually said. I think it made the argument that - after forgiving Ned for his Eddie Maine lies and marrying Katherine - it was out of character for Lois to have left Ned due to Q family squabbles, let alone whilst pregnant.

 

Funnily enough she did come back to support Brenda after the jilting, but I think Ned was out of town. And then Rena Sofer got Melrose Place and also separated from Wally Kurth so I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

[DRW50]

 

My scans are who knows where, but that's about it. They said Lois was a fighter and she and Ned loved each other so much, she wouldn't have just left that way. 

 

I think fall 1996 is when the wheels are deemed as going off, due to a number of factors (stories that were clearly dropped; a number of important actors beginning to leave; poor recasts; brief stories that left viewers baffled [like a big ole retcon being used to bring back Dina just so Shari Shattuck could woodenly berate her for a month or two]; the weird Kurt Costner saga, Hope's pointless return; Victor/Diane and Nikki/Josh rushing into marriage - the latter in particular got a ton of criticism as he was her doctor while she was having female problems and in no time this somehow led to going down the aisle).

[Dion]

A fighter. Yes, I remember that part now. Thanks

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That was so inappropriate and IIRC they even had Victoria going to him for a check-up just to check him out even though Victoria and Nikki had already discussed Victoria's preference for a female ob-gyn (as opposed to Nikki's stated preference for a male one, which it seems was just to pick up another husband!).

[DRW50]

 

Geez. I don't remember that. I was not watching frequently by this point. It is one of those moments which felt like the writing team were becoming out of touch with reality (this is also around the time of the bizarre "what does it say about the world today if you can't go walking in the woods at night" scenes with Ashley that I want to see again someday).

[kalbir]

Who Shot Victor was a clever way to accommodate EB's filming his part in Titanic. Victor gets shot and lies in a hospital bed for like a month. The hospital scenes were probably pre-taped and thus the audience couldn't tell that Victor was MIA.