Mysteriously dropped Storylines

[allmc2008]

Oh, that sounds great! Was it TV GUIDE?

[Paul Raven]

Y&R

The infamous mini story where Patty was mentioned suddenly and a mysterious person phoned the William's home...

[asafi]

Exactly, I remember this! they story just dropped completely! 

[will81]

Also on Y&R Matt and Brock were being linked with something happening in Rio or some place I can't remember and Matt having audio flashbacks of a plane crashing and it was all dropped. Brock kept saying he knew Matt and Matt denied it and one day it was just dropped

[Ben]

Days: All the gifts Stefano left in his will to many characters in 2002. Much prominence was placed in these items and the ominous messages that accompanied them. Particular interest to Celeste’s paper dolls, a plot point that seemed connected to Caprice knowing Celeste from the past. Lots of setup that never went anywhere. I can’t remember if this was due to a change in head writers?

 

Sunset Beach: AJ’s secret regarding Leo. He stopped Leo from donating blood and had it analysed; he hired someone to steal a lock of Cole’s hair... It all seemed to be leading to some kind of genetic disorder or something, but then it was never mentioned again.

[Jonathan]

 

Really? This is the reason the writers dropped it? Weird. 

 

 

Agree. It's not like Willey was ever overweight any way.

[DRW50]

Continuing on the Y&R track, around the same time as the Patty phone call (which was when Bill Bell's writing really started coming unspooled, likely due to his memory issues), focus was put on Nina/Ryan/Victoria/Cole all being invited to a dinner at the Colonnade Room. At this time Victoria was pining for Ryan while married to Cole, and Nina was paranoid about Victoria winning Ryan back, so viewers could believe that one of them might have set up the dinner, but it was made clear neither of them had. Whatever this was meant to lead up to never happened (possibly because Heather Tom decided to leave). 

[Pine Charles]

Perhaps he was irked because they continuously referred to Lars as a “Nazi”??

 

”WWII war criminal” sounds nicer.

 

I often wonder if the revision saved the Janet character..??

 

How can a person (who’s already committed kidnappings, identity theft, murder, numerous attempted murders, ect.) come back from bombing a public event??

 

(ETA: Of course, years later, she bombed Erica Kane’s Mardi Gras Ball)

Edited February 12, 2021 by Pine Charles

[SoapDope]

On Dallas they implied that Wes Parmalee was really Jock Ewing then they dropped it as a hoax. Also after Pam's car crash, Katherine shows up in Pam's room, Pam disappears and Katherine is never seen or referred to again.

 

Y&R.....Wasn't there some sort of storyline with Jonas and Lucas saving orphans in South America that was dropped ? There was also the unexplained conclusion of Liz Foster's marriage to Stuart Brooks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[FrenchBug82]

Here is another one:

On B&B Bell re-signed Sarah G. Buxton to a new long-term contract, brought Morgan back, set up the Venice story and... dropped it - and her altogether - after just a few weeks.
Even by Bell's short-attention-span standards, the completely lack of climax and payoff to the story he had taken weeks to set up and the abrupt nature of its disappearance means this was a last-minute U-turn for... reasons we will never know*

* which is too bad because I love Sarah G. Buxton and Morgan vs Brooke would have probably been more interesting than Taylor vs Morgan

[Gray Bunny]

 

Ask Dr. Kimberly Shaw from Melrose Place... 

Please register in order to view this content

[soapfan770]

Interesting that happened the same year as the mysterious psychic that called in the Cole/Victoria/Ryan/Nina quad as well as the Dina/John/Audrey North story that felt so rushed and dropped.

[DRW50]

Nothing very mysterious about this, sadly, but on GL around 2000 and 2001 there was a token triangle between Vicky Spaulding, David Grant, and Ruth, a woman Reva had helped turn around after dire financial straits for herself and her son had led her to hold someone hostage (this also started Reva's TV talk show career). If memory serves, they all just vanished. 

 

On AMC, Vicky Platt (Victoria) had the same problem in 1996. She, along with some dubious material about voodoo, was introduced during the splashy Jamaica remote for Noah/Julia/Hayley/Mateo. She returned with them to Pine Valley. I think they teased a relationship with Jack, who was still in a 3-4 year backburner period at this point. Nothing happened. I can't even remember if she got an exit. 

 

That became an extremely irritating constant at AMC over the next 5 years, as any number of characters (Kevin Sheffield, Becca, Tina) simply disappeared, never to be mentioned again. Soapcentral archivists would add "After the stresses of ______/end of relationship with _____, _____ quietly left town," over and over again.

Edited February 12, 2021 by DRW50

[Roman]

it's still debated to this day that Wes really was Jock. The NE got ahold of the casting for replacing Jim Davis and fans went crazy. the Ewing BBQ was supposed to be the episode were Wes proved he was Jock, but is was re-written due to backlash. and to add....that was the only SL that was kept from The Dream Season. every other SL was dropped when Bobby turned up in the shower.

[titan1978]

The infamous phone call luring Nina/Ryan/Victoria/Cole to the Colonnade Room.  I even remember someone from the show being asked about that in soap mags and basically saying that’s not the story, just ignore this mystery element and focus on the quad.