Which death of a character was totally unnecessary and damaging?

[DjPisces89]

This!!! I hate they killed off Brad too. i'm glad you also think Scotty and Colleen should have gotten together with Traci and Lauren's history. Brad, Colleen, and Diane should not be dead. They all were critical characters for the show. Now that Kyle is on the show Diane would have had a place on the show....

[AdelaideCate007]

AMC- Trevor, Natalie, Edmund. Trevor in the freezer is still especially egregious to me. What was the purpose of that?

 

AW- Frankie, Ryan. Both go without saying

 

However GH totally owns this topic. AJ, Alan, Georgie, Emily, Tony, and I'd even throw people like Stefan and Rick in there too. Emily and Georgie were shortsighted. AJ was just a waste both times. Alan was completely cruel and unnecessary. I get why they killed Tony but it's sad it ever came to that point. Killing off Stefan and Rick both were ridiculous stories that I could have done without, especially since both characters could have been used over the years..

[pdm1974]

IMO I totally agree! I remember watching it when it happened and was just stunned they would kill Traci's only child. I know the last actress didn't really set the world on fire playing the part, but she could have easily been recast. It was very short-sighted and done for just a moment of shock.

[titan1978]

These deaths just remind me of what happened from a network level by about 2002ish on almost all these shows- only a handful of characters were deemed important, and everybody else was fair game.  It didn’t matter if they were a vet, or legacy characters/kids.  If it wasn’t one of the sacred cows, then the future of their story was irrelevant.

 

On GH it became easy for them to kill off characters like Emily, Alan, Georgie, etc because if they were not Luke or a Spencer kid (Lucky or Lulu), in Sonny’s direct orbit (Jason, Carly, Michael and the rest of Carly or Sonny’s kids), or Robin, all bets were off.  Even a kid between Liz and Jason was fruit of a poisoned tree.

 

On Y&R, if it wasn’t a direct tie to Jack, Victor, Nick, or Phylis, then all bets were off.  They still protected that section of the show for future story, and had no problem even cutting down other Abbotts as long as Jack was still standing.

 

Even popular characters were burned to continue the focus on the characters networks wanted.

[beebs]

Just from having gone through the DAYS recaps as we have recently been doing: Stephanie Woodroffe/Brooke Hamilton. 

 

Spending so long having her identity and connection to her father Bob hanging in the air as a huge, life-changing secret, just to have the ball dropped unceremoniously by Harrower, who wrote the character into a corner before literally driving her off a cliff out of nowhere. An absolute waste, and it, along with Linda Patterson being driven out of town under dubious circumstances about two weeks later, made certain the writing was on the wall for the Anderson family. Her death meant the blow of Bob's death weeks later was much less powerful, and though there was still story to come from Bob's passing, it didn't have the far-reaching effects it could have had had Stephanie lived. 

 

Elsewhere, David Banning, Bill Horton, both deaths being off screen after thoughts that brought nothing impactful to the stories, and were completely unnecessary. 

[Paul Raven]

Guiding Light

Bill Bauer

Ross Marler

[edgeofnik]

Y&R: John, Dina, Colleen, Diane, Cassandra and Hillary. We know Dru ain't dead.

 

DAYS: Renee NEVER being revived always puzzled me. The character and actress seemed very popular. 

 

ATWT: Rose. Yeah, OTT at times, but without Lily's baggage, it allowed MB to take chances. ATWT worst offenses were recasting Connor and Molly. ATWT seemed to be pretty good about not killing off legacy characters. 

 

B&B: Macy.   

[asafi]

I forgot about Macy (B&B). I don't understand the point of bringing back a popular character from the death just to kill him/her again so soon after.. Couldn't TPTB just sent Macy overseas to do a concert tour instead of killing her with a chandelier? 

 

Same can be said about Stephanie Woodruff/Brooke Hamilton (Days of our lives) and Sarah Gordon Buchanan (One life to live). TPTB brought Sarah back in 1991.. just to kill her off yet again in 1993. ridiculous. 

 

Why killing a character brought back from the death.. again? and so soon after returning? 

Edited December 2, 2020 by asafi

[pdm1974]

Same happened to AJ Quartermaine on GH

[carolineg]

Reading through @beebsawesome Days recaps in the Days history thread, and I am wondering if anyone thinks it was short sighted to kill Samantha off?  I know her death and storyline were very good, but being Marlena's twin and all she could have popped in and out for years being a thorn in Marlena's side.  And given Marlena some non-Brady/Black relatives if Sam had children.   I don't know, it really didn't limit Marlena's storylines, but I think there was a lot of drama to be mined from Sam's character in general that ended so early on in Marlena's run.  I know DH's sister doesn't really act anymore, but Hattie should have just been Sam back from the dead somehow.

[Khan]

 

Careful, Ron might hear you. 

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[carolineg]

 

I know, right?  Lol I do find Hattie extremely annoying and it disturbs me that she is used for comic relief when she's basically a psycho who made herself look like Marlena and tried to take over her life.  And Roman is kind of into that lol?  At least Sam would have some motivation to be a psycho, but Ron I don't wish that into existence lol

[RavenWhitney]

GL: Maureen/Lujack

EON: Margo

SFT: Suzie

Days: The entire cast

[Efulton]

There a times when the death of an important character tells a good story - Susan & BJ (GH), Isabella (Days), Stephanie (B&B), Victor & Megan (OLTL), Will (AMC) but others make my blood boil.  The decisions on Another World were extremely short sighted and bother me the most.

 

Lee Randolph

Bill Matthews

Steve Frame

Mary Matthews

John Randolph

Steve Frame (again)

Julia Shearer

Sally Frame

Quinn Harding

Frankie Frame

Bridget Connell

Ryan Harrison

 

• Lee and Bill were the next generation of the 2 core families.  There was so much future story potential for them. I don't know what Robert Cenedella was thinking. Lee could have left town if the character needed a break. Killing Bill to free up Melissa for Somerset was a smart move in the long run eh?
• Killing Mary Matthews was the equivalent of killing Alice Horton, Kate Martin, Nancy Hughes or Bert Bauer.  The PTB should never have allowed Harding Lemay's to do this. This was the peak of his arrogance and decisions like this are why the core of AW was gutted by the time he left.  Each time the show tried to bring back the Matthews (1981, 1984 and lastly in 1989) they failed.  
• Killing Steve Frame twice??!  Come on.  Seriously stupid.  I can accept the first time due to the issues with George Reinholt and because a window was left open a crack for his return. The second time was completely unnecessary. 
• John Randolph wast the most logical choice to take over for Jim Matthews as the wise patriarch of Bay City.  As the longest serving cast member at the time Michael Ryan deserved much more respect than he was given.
• Julia was yet another young Matthews that was wasted.  Faith Ford got the last laugh though.
• Sally was popular for a decade. A recast that did not work (mainly because of the writing IMO) should not have lead to the death of a legacy character.  Sally could have simply taken Kevin and left town after finding out Catlin got Brittany pregnant.  
• Quinn was beautiful, smart, had relationships with half of Bay City and Petronia Paley and James Pickens Jr had off the charts chemistry.  With all the upheaval on AW in the early 80s Quinn managed to stay relevant and one of the few things the show did well during that time period was feature interesting African American characters played by incredibly talented actors. 
• Frankie Frame - do not get me started.
• Not only was Bridget the only character in her age group she was played by a soap legend. Typical JFP move.
• Ryan's body could have not been found or he could have been shipped off to a long term care facility. There was no need to kill him onscreen.  Lazy writing.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 3, 2020 by Efulton

[DynamiteKiddo]

Yeah, the Qs and Georgie on GH own this thread.  Tony was a casualty of that virus Feb. Sweeps, which I think was the Sweeps to really kick off JFP and Guza's string of "BIG" Sweeps (or maybe it was the train wreck that started all that?).  It was unnecessary to dust Tony off to die, but honestly that didn't bother me like Alan being sacrificed for the Metro Court hostage crisis, who was very much still in play on the show.  Zander dying in 2004 at the alter of Nem still burns me, and that was AJ-level destruction.  Guza (and Pratt) had so many unnecessary deaths, but Ron is responsible for AJ's unforgivable second death and Kate's (both connected) was bad, too.  And I am still beyond shocked Ron & Frank killed off Cole and Hope weeks after his & Starr's HEA on the ABC OLTL finale (just so Kristen Alderson could be freed up to be paired with Michael?!?).

 

And on OLTL, killing off Jared was horrible.  All for freaking Jolie.  In contrast, a death that wasn't unnecessary and spring boarded so much story was Nash (even though that really hurt).  Jared's death served no purpose except to cut short one of the most successful parts of Ron's early OLTL run.

 

Recently on "Days," Adrienne's death was totally unnecessary.  It served a very, very short-term time jump purpose and she was an incredibly important legacy character, who was the glue that held the Johnsons together.  And now it feels like Bonnie is Adrienne-lite.  While it's great to have Judi on still (esp. after her horrible year), why kill Adrienne if Bonnie is literally filling her void??