Harrowing soap moments

[Paul Raven]

2022 - Anytime Billy Abbott takes off his shirt.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[Planet Soap]

GH DianaTaylor's murder scene (11:36) was surprisingly graphic for soaps.

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Y&R (1975) Jennifer Brooks waking up after a mastectomy, running her hands over her removed breasts then bawling in dispair was haunting.

ATWT (1992) Margo's Rape was actually SVU level disturbing. Usually soaps just cut away during the rape but ATWT showed during the act. Particularly the scene of Margo seeing the rapists eyes through his mask while he was ontop of her was actually eerie. The rape kit dialog was also SVU worthy with terms like "withdrew" and "ejaculate".

Edited February 17, 2022 by ironlion

[Faulkner]

Ryan savagely beating Steve and Audrey on GH.

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[Mona Kane Croft]

A scene on Another World in 1978 was one of the most graphic things I have seen on a soap opera.  Jamie, Dennis, and Regina unexpectedly found the rotting body of the missing Cory servant, Rocky Olson.  The body had been wrapped in plastic and hidden in the water under a dock in the Cory boathouse.  When Jamie, Dennis, and Regina tried to untie a boat, they accidentally pulled the body from under the dock -- and the scene was gruesome.  The acting, directing, background music, along with the sight of the floating body in plastic -- made the scene unforgettable.   

[LondonScribe]

From a U.K. perspective, Aiden’s suicide in Coronation Street was both powerful and harrowing for a number of viewers and reasons. Not a comment on the show itself. 
 

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[Planet Soap]

That was sad and uncomfortable when I saw it. Soaps don't have that effect anymore.

GH Metro Court Hostage Crisis was intense especially after Jerry Jax "Mr.Craig" shot Robin and Alan's heart attack. I read that this was inspired by the show "24".

[Mona Kane Croft]

Wasn't this Steve and Audrey's final storyline? I realize they both remained on the show for years after.  

Edited February 17, 2022 by Neil Johnson

[Forever8]

Sarah Barnes on Hollyoaks. Her death involved falling while skydiving. 

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[Soapsuds]

Bold & Beautiful

Fake Angela Forrester and her doctor in crime scamming Stephanie and blackmailing her and receiving a cash load of money and then the doctor realizing how horrible Angela is on purpose driving the car off a cliff. Fake Angela burned and dying as a total stranger saves her life only for Angela to hit her over head with rock and placing her in the burning car and watching as the car exploded into flames with doctor and the innocent bystander in the car.

[Faulkner]

 

It was terrifying. That was around the time I had started really watching GH (with my beloved GL losing its way), and I couldn’t imagine a soap subjecting its elderly patriarch/matriarch to such brutality. It was kind of traumatizing seeing it as a kid. It was like seeing your grandparents beaten.

I do believe this was John Beradino’s last big story before his passing a few years later. At least I don’t remember another one after this. 

[Vee]

My ex still talks about the Steve/Audrey sequence. I haven't been able to watch the whole thing.

I believe Matt Ashford talked about how they'd wanted Beradino to be more involved in his storyline when he came to the show as Tom, but he was apparently physically unable.

[Errol]

These clips are why I can't root for bad guys on soaps, and would like to see them pay for their crimes. Anyone who roots for Ryan or Jerry Jacks after seeing these videos would be a fool. I don't care if it's fantasy. You wouldn't cheer them on in the real world under any circumstances.

[Sapounopera]

I remember being horrified as I watched Nancy Karr tied in a bed in bandages. This was a 1981 story about her being kidnapped and held at a clinic.  

[Vee]

Allegedly, Guza was always pissed about the original casting of Jerry Jacks in the '90s and felt Wendy Riche and ABC had molded the character into a romantic lead for Bobbie which was supposedly the opposite of his hard-edged vision of the character. When Sebastian Roche took off in the unexpected role of Mr. Craig he saw the chance to reconceive Jerry.

I didn't mind the idea of seizing on a talented actor, or reworking Jerry a bit. But the endless attempts to overtly name-check Casino Royale and Daniel Craig in the ensuing storyline that kept Roche on the show, a blockbuster that had just come out and that Guza was clearly gagging to emulate, were embarrassing for a soap opera. And I was never, ever going to root for a character that gut-shot Alan Quartermaine and watched him die. They wanted to have it both ways with Jerry from then on - make him a lead on the show and keep him a dark edgelord - and it never worked. They never were able to make him viable long-term.

[Planet Soap]

if a show wants to keep a villain on long-term I think that they have to get their just desserts frequently, even if it isn't necessarily prison. (Ex. Cartman on South Park typically had his schemes backfire, leaving him looking foolish and ignorant).

Many TV shows today have lead characters that do abhorrent things but never pay, which almost makes it seem as if the show is glamorizing the evil lifestyle.

Once characters do full-blown disgusting things like Franco on GH or go cartoonish like Sheila Carter after 2003, its hard to make them viable longterm. Sheila was able to be a long term functioning villain back on 90s B&B because they took the time to explore her romantic relationships and gave her schemes milder than baby switching and attempted murder. 

Victor Newman and Adam Chandler are examples of villainous charachters that can go long-term because they still have a code of ethics to them and their schemes pale in comparison to someone like Jerry Jax.

Stefano DiMera on the other hand does large scale bad things but it's so cartoonish that they're easier to swallow than someone like Todd Manning doing realistic things like serial rape or being abusive to his to his kids (during TSJs tenure). 

Edited February 17, 2022 by ironlion