Best/Worst Written Soap Affairs

[Mitch64]

Blake and Rick was idiotic...they were raised as brother and sister until they were , in soap time, ten years old.  It was written as a joke too, with MOL mugging through it, while it should have had a greater impact that Rick screwed his step sister, wife of his dad's best friend who was like an uncle to him.  A better way to go would have been Matt and Blake...Van kicking Matt out since she found out he was manho and the then reconciling just in time for her to find out a younger woman is carrying his kid. I would have used this as a possible path to Ross and Van getting together and becoming the core couple..but boy would the crazy Blossies go nuts.

Rick and Beth would have made sense if anyone gave too sh*ts to write it correctly so yes, a big vote on that.

[carolineg]

Yeah, it's a shame they discarded Wayne's Roman at a point when he had so much story to give.  Roman was in the middle of a huge plot and just left. So odd.  Even if john/marlena were endgame, there is no reason roman/marlena couldn't have given it a go for a bit while Kristen was around but I guess it would have been difficult to build the possession and subsequent stories with him around.  Although it's not like Carrie, Sami, Bo, etc couldn't use Roman in their stories.

[titan1978]

Good point, I do not see Wayne as Roman in any way a natural fit during the Possession.

I think Alan and Monica worked because they were always a volatile couple.  From almost the start it was toxic and they seemed to never get enough of each other.

[DeliaIrisFan]

Both Ed/Lillian and John/Felicia have been mentioned (separately) in this thread.  Given the common denominator of JFP, I can't help but connect the two.  Both were fairly similar in terms of plot and the obvious aim of restoring an attractive, middle-aged actor to leading man status, and both perhaps inadvertently gave the actresses playing the wronged wives Emmy-winning material.  But I don't think JFP ever planned to repeat Maureen's death and fire Anna Holbrook, did she?  In fact, Holbrook was one of the few actresses in their mid 30s-40s on contract at AW at the time whose name I have never seen mentioned in the rumors about those focus groups that inspired Frankie's death.

It almost seemed like JFP, in her own way, genuinely learned at least something from her mistake at GL.  If Ed's affair and the revelation had played out as they did but Maureen lived to kick Ed to the curb and start a new life a la Sharlene, the whole thing probably would have been a big success.  Alas, the AW story had subpar writing from the start, and by that point the industry was radically transformed, so Holbrook was written out within months of JFP's exit anyway.

Anyway, in terms of best-written affairs, I would love to see kinescopes or whatever of the story on Where the Heart Is with James Palmer's character having an affair and meeting his mistress at an Irish bar, which supposedly inspired head writers Claire Labine and Paul Avila Mayer to create Ryan's Hope.  So much soap opera history there.  Relatedly, I'd happily watch any Where the Heart Is, which by all accounts dominated this category throughout its brief run.

Edited November 1, 2022 by DeliaIrisFan

[carolineg]

It's hard to picture Wayne's Roman anywhere post-MB until Roman returns and even then I can't see Wayne's Roman acting weak, sickly, and slightly pathetic like JT's Roman.   I think perhaps WN's Roman would have worked popping in and out.  Going on ISA missions and then coming back when family/Marlena warranted so he didn't seem like an absolute deadbeat all those years.  Roman didn't fit during the John/Kristen/Marlena triangle, but I can see it working if he kept Marlena at arms length (but still had feelings) and came back to help his family and him and Marlena still had scenes that reminded the audience of their past.  Then, Roman gets lost on his ISA mission, presumed dead, and shows up at J/M's wedding still and it would be an actual triangle that would have had some rooting value on both sides.

I agree Alan and Monica worked because they weren't supposed be a picture perfect couple.  The love and passion were there, but so were their many faults.   It makes for an interesting dynamic to watch and automatically makes you more inclined to forgive their indiscretions because they both had them.  It wasn't always one partner screwing up.  

[DRW50]

I'll have more to choose, but just off the top of my head:

Worst: 

Chastity/Cameron, Emmerdale. They began having an affair while Cameron's partner, who was also Chastity's niece, was doing anything she could to keep her young daughter from dying of cancer. The story was shocking, and out of character for who Chas had once been. She has never really recovered (and is now in another wretched affair storyline, which involved her emotionally blackmailing her mentally ill son to leave town right after losing his sister to sudden death) 

 

[Paul Raven]

Y&R Worst

Jill/Jed

Jill had only recently remarried John , which I never bought considering the horrible divorce they went through.

I can see Jill wanting to be Mrs John Abbott again, but John looked like an idiot for going back to Jill.

Then Jill turns around and starts sleeping with dreary Jed, even though extra marital sex broke up her marriage the first time. Apparently John couldn't satisfy her sexually...

All that lead to John and Jill breaking up again and the dead end 'romance' with Mamie.

[Cruising Soaps]

Best

Y&R- For me- Phyllis and Nick- The first time!

B&B- Deacon and Brooke

 

Edited November 2, 2022 by Cruising Soaps

[Soapsuds]

Any affair involving Nick Newman.

Worst that is

[DramatistDreamer]

Best:

The Tom, Margo and Hal affair (ATWT) made the best of a bad BTS situation with Gregg Marx’s decision to leave the show. It seemed like a sudden adjustment to the trajectory of the characters but the subsequent storyline was grounded in the history of those characters, when years Margo initially and briefly turned to Hal for comfort when she mistakenly believed that Tom had had an affair with Barbara. Looking ahead, when Tom and Margo experienced a rift in their marriage after a miscarriage, Margo and Hal had an affair, for real this time—which had consequences for a number of characters, including Barbara who would go on to marry Hal.

Worst: 

Jennifer Munson and Craig Montgomery- Just. Yuck. The same could be said of most of the affairs and relationships TPTB had Craig involved in during that time period. Just anachronistic, awful and without merit.

 

So-so/On The Fence:

Nathan Hastings and Keisha- It sort of had a PSA (the perils of engaging in a lack of monogamous relationship in HIV+ era) wrapped up in the middle of the storyline and it was very much of its time, it also gave Tonya Lee Williams the chance to emote and demonstrate her talent as an actor but man, did it ever ruin Nathan! The character, that had been there before either the Barbers or the Winters, was never able to rebound from that, especially seeing as there seemed to be no interest in rehabbing the character the way many other characters had been given opportunities to (I’m looking at you, Victor Newman and Michael Baldwin!)

 

 

[Soapsuds]

Must have blocked it out of my memory because I don't remember it.

Please register in order to view this content

[DramatistDreamer]

During that awful final decade of the show.

[Paul Raven]

My issue with that story is that it came out of nowhere.

I think Nate was offscreen for a while between recasts and when he returned he was already in the affair with Keesha. There was no real setup -it all occurred offscreen, which took away the impact and interest of seeing Nathan drawn into the affair.

[sheilaforever]

Surprisingly, a more recent came to my mind upon reading the topics title:

 

Michael/Lauren/Carmine on Y&R in 2013 (?) was probably Josh Griffiths only ever really well thought out storyline. The ending sucked but the beginning and middle were just REAL.

Apart from that B&B as the mothership of love triangles probably owns this thread. One of the good affairs were already mentioned: Brooke & Deacon

[Planet Soap]

Agreed!