Harrowing soap moments

[Khan]

I could be wrong, but I have the very distinct feeling that Heather was intended to be Diana's killer all along and that Alice's confession to it was a rewrite in order to keep Robin Mattson on the show.

[DRW50]

You're right. 

(I think that may also be  why Alice  got a relatively light punishment compared to some soap killers  - she was in jail for  part of a year then went back to working for the  Webbers)

[John]

But Died in 1983 from a cebreal Hemerage

[te.]

To be fair, I don't think the brass had anything against the actress playing Linda on KL - I just think it was the changing tv landscape at the time, moving more into crime and "gritty" drama that made them do the ill-advised death. I agree though that it felt really off even watching it for the first time a few years ago - and this is the show that had Chip fall on a pitch fork!

Edited February 17, 2022 by te.

[titan1978]

Agree.  And truthfully, I hated the original Jerry casting as well as his relationship with Bobbie.  Other than Carly Guza really didn’t do anything good for Bobbie that I can recall (although I would love to see his original story with Stefan and Bobbie play out).

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Anne written in blood is a classic moment.  If Robin had not taken off as Heather I can’t imagine she wasn’t the original killer.

I found those ATWT scenes with Margo and her rapists a little on the gratuitous side and now that I have seen more of HBS I am so glad she didn’t have to play that.

 

Maggie’s death was so awful.  Hard to watch because it was Maggie and also because the actress wasn’t shy about how sad she was to be fired.

Knots Landing was on fire then.  And Ginger was no Ciji…

[j swift]

I'm mildly fearful of heights, so the trifecta of leading men dying (or being injured) from falling off of cliffs always gave me the chills.  From DAYS Roman's fatal fall during his fight with Stefano while Bo watched from below on the island, to GL Roger's fall from a cliff when Ed rescued a kidnapped Crissy (aka Blake) in South America, and AW's Carl fight with Jake on top of a sand dune in the desert, it freaks me out to see character die like that. 

I guess there is some solace in the fact that in each of those cases the characters later returned from the dead.

But, don't get me started on falls from planes, or broken parachutes, like one that killed Sarah Barnes on Hollyoaks.

[Gray Bunny]

Though it happens off-camera, you could hear slaps, punches and cries in the Season 3 finale of Melrose Place, when Jo's abusive boyfriend Jesse (Jake's brother) beats the living daylights out of her and leaves her clinging to life on the bathroom floor. It always sends chills up my spine. 

[Sapounopera]

But she was not fired. It was all part of the plan, right?

[DRW50]

When I first started watching  Emmerdale, they had a cot death storyline. The moment was built  up to through the episode as we saw a number of lovely moments with mother and son, and others who  were close to the family. At this time Emmerdale had an hour-long episode a week, which  they often used to  layer material in a way that gave more impact to this type  of moment. But beyond  anything else - the community, the heart - it's  Charlotte Bellamy, who played  the mother (and is still on  Emmerdale - she is one of the finest actors in soap), who absolutely wrecks me any time I watch this episode. 

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[MichaelGL]

I was able to catch Roman's killing on Days during SSK and that was harrowing, but I didn't catch some of the others like Maggie's. 

[titan1978]

Who knows?  Because the plan was changed before the killings were done.  The earlier victims believed they were fired, and I am pretty sure I read that they had to sign them to new contracts when they returned.  Plus Cassie never re-signed, which is why we barely saw her once they were revealed in Melaswen.

[DramatistDreamer]

When I was a kid, I saw this and back then, this sequence was the most harrowing I had ever seen on a soap opera. I wish someone (ahem) had asked Melanie Smith and Andrew Kavovit what is was like to film this sequence when they appeared on that livestream reunion last year.  

 

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Edited February 18, 2022 by DramatistDreamer
Had to compress & Re-up clip

[Khan]

Douglas Marland did such a masterful job of convincing us WHY James Stenbeck was irredeemable that it almost pissed me off when they brought James back from the dead years later.

[DramatistDreamer]

Honestly, that 1989 story really should have been the ultimate chapter (having Paul commit patricide against the man he once idolized seemed like a fairly clear indicator that this should be James' final chapter), but down the road, soap writers who were ill equipped to write a suitable story for the character, decided that they could somehow resurrect the character, which was ridiculous.

And I know that later fans claim to have enjoyed it, but having James conspire with Barbara, the woman he terrorized for years seemed so stupid a concept that I really can't bother trying to analyze how idiotic that was. Who consulted on that story, Les Moonves?

Edited February 18, 2022 by DramatistDreamer
Why the hell does autocorrect change ill to I'll?? Every. Single. Time.

[Vee]

They were absolutely fired and released to do other work. Frances Reid said it in public and Matt Ashford went to OLTL for an extended stint. It was forcibly rewritten because of fan and possibly network backlash. It was never a Reilly "master plan".