When did "Bold and the Beautiful" stop being good to you?

[Lust4Life76]

Hello you bold and beautiful people,

  I was curious, I been watching scenes from the early to mid 90s - with Stephanie vs. Sally over Jack, Stephanie vs. Sheila over Eric, Stephanie homeless, Brooke's seduction of the Forrester men, Brook overtaking the Forrester business - it's all so well written and the acting is incredible...

  When did the creative well run dry for you? Like what jumped the shark in the show and you were done? Was it when Ridge turned out to be Massimo's son? When Pam covered Donna in honey and tried to feed her to a bear? When Stephanie died? When the cast started kissing mannequins?

What year do you think was the last good year of this show before it started to decline?

Thank you,

Erik

[NothinButAttitude]

When they kept tossing Brooke back into the Ridge's orbit after we finally thought the cycle was broken with Nick coming on the scene. That whole era was weird too with Sheila coming back and supposedly having a past with Massimo, etc. Also, I feel like this was point where the show only had an A or B story and everyone else that wasn't in either of those stories was just there was window dressing/quota. 

 

Sad part is that this show will have glimmers of the show going into an upswing, but Brad's dumb*** will nuke that quickly when he comes up with Brooke or now Steffy's latest tryst. 

[Lust4Life76]

Was this 2003, 2004?

[MinnaH]

I don’t recall Sheila and Massimo having a past...apart from a fling in 2002. I think the show has gradually deteriorated from its golden era in the early-mid 90s, but it remained mostly good up until 2003/2004, by which point Nick and Jackie ate up a lot of the show for years. Darlene Conley’s passing, the introduction of the horrible triangle, and Susan Flannery’s departure were just nail after nail in the coffin. The show has a decent cast but they are not used properly.

[pdm1974]

I think when people started changing romantic partners at the blink of the eye often with little motivation is when I began to lose interest after watching for years. For example, we went through the whole Brooke and Thorne relationship which I thought was very good only for her to drop him in a single episode to try and be with Ridge again. We won't even get into the whole Liam and his harem "story."

 

The show often feels like it has no end game, so you can't get invested in any of the stories.

[Cat]

The show jumped the shark maybe 15-20 years ago but I was loyal and hung on, because you always hope that things will change for the better. For me, there were 3 moments when I stopped caring in any way -- that was probably 10 years ago.

 

1. When Liam, Hope and Steffy became the new Ridge, Taylor and Brooke. Brad Bell is nothing if not a repetitive writer, but this was a repetitive bridge too far. I wasn't feeling Pipsqueak Liam as the new centre of the show either.

 

2. When Susan Flannery left, the show lost the one actress who could make any SL fly. Even Bell's. We (the audience) also had history with her that we didn't have with many other actors on the show. She was the tentpole.

 

3. Ridge was recast from Ronn Moss to Thorsten Kaye. OK, so Ronn Moss really was the worst actor in soaps, but Moss the Human Ken Doll just was Ridge Forrester, the aging, womanising fashion designer in all his preening, face-lifted, vain glory. I didn't expect Moss leaving to sap the fun out of B&B, but it did. 

Edited February 15, 2021 by Cat

[sheilaforever]

Firstly: I realllllly miss your posts and spot-on assessment on all things B&B!

 

Secondly: All these moments were indeed pivotal. I actually lost my B&B love by around 2011 (with "Aggie" Sarah Joy Brown), yet stayed on a little longer, but dropped out in 2012 even before Susan Flannery and Ronn Moss departed. I did watch Stephanie's farewell, yet immediately tuned out the day after with casual recap reading. I then came back full-time in early 2014 after Thorsten Kaye had joined the show. It was like a second love affair for me because L.A. felt so fresh with some new stories, new faces and gorgeous locations shoots. Sometime in 2018 it all crashed & burned again, but I'm still watching (even though about three months behind now). It's a sad shade of its former glory but still not at all-time lows, IMO. And I love me some Rena Sofer and will continue watching as long as she proves how amazing acting on a daytime drama can be.

Edited February 15, 2021 by sheilaforever

[Cat]

 

@sheilaforever it's so good to read you! I've been lurking on the classic B&B thread so I see your fab comments on there. We had some fun times, you and I, posting about B&B when it was at its campiest!

 

Aggie, ugh. I really rate SJB but she was totally miscast in a nothingburger role.

 

You know, it's funny you should say that about Thorsten Kaye, because when he came on, I was intrigued by a possible new take on Ridge and watched for a bit. I've got to give it to TK, I thought he would look down on the role, but he embraced the job.

 

And I also was sort of excited by the arrival of Dollar Bill Spencer because it felt like history throwback. In some ways, Bill as played by Donn Diamont is like Ridge 2.0 (there's a lot of 80s energy about DD) and I think that's why Ronn Moss was considered superfluous on the show. I was excited about the Spencers coming in as a counterpont to the Forresters, but then they started hogging all the story and it kind of came at the expense of the Forresters? At that point I felt a little exhausted by all the newness B&B was giving me -- new central family, new young faces, new recasts of old characters... but still the same old solitary SL (usually a triangle). I started missing the old-timers' energy -- the Ronn Mosses and Susan Flannerys.

 

You have reminded me of something -- I think when B&B lost the original Sally Spectra (Darlene Conley), it lost its soulfulness, and that may have been the beginning of a slippery slope into fast-food SLs (quickly chewed through, quickly forgotten).

 

Rena Sofer is awesome and plays Quinn for all it is worth. I sometimes feel like Bell is continuously surprised (and maybe unsure how to handle) how popular Quinn is and what an asset Sofer is to the show.

[Khan]

Day. One.

[ccroom50]

------These Are The Reasons The Bold and the Beautiful(B&B)Stopped Being Good To Me------

When Bradley Bell Introduce Incestuous Relationships and Having Male and Female Characters Having Sex With In-Laws, Adopted Family Members, Ste-Family Members, Families Once and Twice and Three Times Remove Family Members, Etc.

 

When Bradley Bell Treated Our Favorite B&B Characters As An Afterthought and They Eventually Left The Show, Characters Like: Thorne Forrester, Kristen Forrester Dominguez, Felicia Forrester, Rick Forrester, Deacon Sharpe, Amber Moore, CJ Garrison, Morgan Dewitt, The Entire Jackie M. Group, The Entire Sally Spectra 2.0 Gang, The Entire Avant Family, Thomas Forrester(Pierson Fode), Etc.

 

When Bradley Bell Killed Off Our Favorite B&B Characters and Refuses To Give Them Way More Screentime/Airtime and Meaty Storyline With Substance and Depth To Them and Continue Keeping Front and Center and Never Ever On The Backburner Again, Characters Like: Caroline Spencer Forrester(Joanna Johnson), Macy Alexander, Bill Spencer, Sr., Darla Einstein Forrester, Phoebe Forrester, Alexandria "Aly" Forrester, Stephanie Douglas Forrester, Etc.

 

When Bradley Bell Didn't Give Both Sally Spectra(Darlene Conley) and Stephanie Douglas Forrester Funerals

 

When Bradley Bell Stop Having Fashion Show On The Show

 

When Bradley Bell Write Storylines That Get Dragged Out For Way Too Long Or Dropped Or Have God-Awful Resolutions Or Just Don't Finish

 

When Bradley Bell Treat Marriages, Love Lives, Family Lives, Business/Workplace Relationships and Friendships Like Expired Food To Just Throw Away

 

When Bradley Bell Focuses B&B On The Wrong Characters and Not The B&B Characters That Made The Show The Sensational Hit That It Was In The 1980's and The 19990's Until The Late Bill Bell's Death

 

When Bradley Bell Stop Having Electrifying and Spectacular and Sensational Villains, Super Villains, and Arch Enemies On The Show

 

When Bradley Bell Forget What B&B Was All About(Love, Romance, Passion, Seduction, Intimacy, Real Love Stories, Real Relationship Stories, Real Family Conversations and Togetherness, Sensuality, Sexuality, Glitz, Glamour, Splashy, Excitement, Thrilling, Suspenseful, Riveting, Real Drama, Electrifying, Spectacular, Sensational, Fantasy, Escapism, Jaw-Dropping and On The Edge Of Your Seat Soap Opera

 

 When Bradley Bell Let All The Standards, Qualities and Quantities Go Away On The Show

 

When Bradley Bell Replaces The Real B&B Background Music With The God-Awful Ones In Recent Years On The Show

 

When Bradley Bell Don't Respect and Value B&B Actors, Actresses and Their B&B Characters and Give Them The Written Material That Shows That and Their Sensational Acting Abilities

 

When Bradley Bell Have Important B&B Male and Female Characters and Simply Wasted Them and Do Nothing With Them and Just Them There With No Purpose Or Directions, Characters Like: Eric Forrester, Ridge Forrester, Douglas Forrester, Quinn Fuller Forrester, Dollar Bill Spencer, Justin Barber, Katie Logan, Donna Logan, Wyatt Spencer, Carter Walton, Pam Douglas, Charlie Webber, Etc.

 

When Bradley Bell Dumb Down B&B Male Female Characters On The Show

 

When Bradley Bell Treat Female Young and Adult Characters On B&B God-Awful and Like Garbage and Have Them Put Up With Anything To Be With Their Men and Do Anything To Keep and Hold On To Their Men

 

When Bradley Bell Have The Male and Female Actors and Actresses and Their B&B Characters Dress and Make Them Up To Look God-Awful

 

When Bradley Bell Don't Give A Damn About B&B and How The Show Turns Out?

 

When Bradley Bell Having B&B Male and Female Actors and Actresses Hair Looking Atrocious 

 

When Bradley Bell Don't How To Recast B&B Characters

 

When Bradley Bell Forgets About B&B Male and Female Characters Young, Teenage and Adult Children and To Show and See Them On Screen Them In The Flesh On The Show

 

When Bradley Bell Promises Something Is Going To Happen To B&B Male and Female Characters and He Disappoints Us Fans/TV Viewers and Don't Delivers and See On Screen The The Results Of Things

 

 

 

Edited February 15, 2021 by ccroom50

[ChickenNuggetz92]

Considering what a year B&B had in 2002, 2003 was very underwhelming in comparison.

[Vizion]

2002 was the end of it being at least generally watchable.

 

But if I am being honest I actually think the last time it was good was in early 94 maybe?

 

This show has flat out stunk for so long though. Well over 15 years of it being as close to atrocious as it gets. There might be a decent spot here and there like the Avants but this show has been pretry horrific for well over a decade.  

[YRfan23]

I always have to agree that anything post 2003 was when the show really started to tank...even though I almost want to say like Y&R maybe  after 2005ish even. 
 

1989-1995 are probably the best years for me, but overall 1987-2002 the show was solid. 

[kalbir]

B&B's peak to me was Sally's arrival in 1988 to the first half of 1995. Signs of tanking began during the second half of 1995. I was done w/ B&B after the Jabot/Newman crossover ended in Spring 1999.

Edited February 15, 2021 by kalbir

[soapfan770]

1994 was the year Bell handed off the reins of the show over to his son. Since then I would say there were at least a couple periods were B&B was just downright fun and entertaining to watch,  with the absolute best periods IMO being 1997-1998 and then again for most of 2000-2005ish. 

 

At some point the show began a long slippery slope, hard to tell where it began. Maybe it was the unnecessary reveal that Massimo was Ridge's biological father. Maybe it was the Brooke/Deacon affair. Maybe it was when Amber found out she had a long lost twin. One thing for sure is something rotten began occurring on the show. First it was Ridge/Bridget, then Macy's inexplicable second death. The show went further down the slope. Ridge rapes Brooke while she's high on prescription medications, Taylor gets impregnated with Brooke's embryo, the idiotic Constantine story, Stephanie hires a man to seduce Brooke and he ends up raping her. I quit watching regularly with that last one in 2007 and only tuned in occasionally to see what was going or when I knew there was something big going down...of course tuning into see Katie's mermaid nightmare, Pam & Donna on the Price is Right, Beth Logan drowning, Jackie parasailing, all of LA trying to kill Rick, and Taylor getting marred to a horse? Yeah no thanks. 

 

I do think the show regained some potential it had and I'd day 2011-2016 weren't as bad as the show finally differentiated itself finally.  But of course Thudley has squandered it all and now the show is the same trashy unwatchable rinse & repeat cycle mess it was 2007-2011 that only keeps getting worse.