Back from the dead - The good, the bad, & the ugly

[BuckyB12]

I don't think the supernatural resurrections on Dark Shadows (like vampirism, or literally changing history through time travel) really equate to the BFTD soap opera trope, which was certainly used previously in radio soaps. The one opportunity they had to do a conventional BFTD story was with Burke Devlin, lost in a plane crash, but they decided to move on, probably because they weren't able to recast Victoria Winters.

[te.]

Yeah, exactly. I recently finished watching the entire run and they really didn't have any traditional "back from the dead" storylines where someone is killed off and comes back eventually. As you said, if the show had continued they might've gone there with Burke due to him being killed off screen in a plane crash, but clearly with Victoria's character gone there was no opportunity to do so (along with their obvious growing disinterest in the current day Collins's). 

[Vee]

Burke's death is absolutely a classic fake soap death that seemed primed for him to turn up alive (and maybe was intended to leave the door open). I fully expected to see him return when I was a kid watching on Sci-Fi, as I was already very familiar with the old plane crash chestnut from soaps. For whatever reason they never pulled the trigger though and just moved on to pairing Vicki with Roger Davis. Maybe they felt the Anthony George recast was not working and that the character was too uniquely paired with Mitch Ryan (who'd made himself unemployable due to his alcoholism).

I also always loved the very dark note of ambiguity to Burke's presumed death: The possibility raised in the scripts, I believe, that Barnabas could have had something to do with his plane going down, perhaps by appearing on it.

Edited February 2, 2023 by Vee

[te.]

I always assumed they might've intended to revive Burke in some way via Jeremiah - something-something about changing the flows of time yadda-yadda, but apparently Anthony George wanted off the show hence why he didn't appear as the "undead" Jeremiah. So they just dropped it, especially as AG wasn't that popular in the role either way.

Then of course they just never invested in whatever current shenanigans went on at Collinwood again after they went to 1897.

[dragonflies]

I remember it that way too that she didnt remember who she was or whatnot cause of the drugs she was given

[Cat]

I remember Tony/Andre (I forget which one! Probably Tony) filmed himself killing himself so he could frame John for his 'murder.' And may have still come BFTD some time later. Who knows? It's the DiMera curse: very few deaths that they plan actually succeed. Even their own.

I really loved Marlena's return in the early 90s which basically kicked off the R-M-J triangle and a decade worth of story. Back when shows had time to lay all the groundwork and could do so because they already had a number of other 'A' stories they could juggle. Days really felt like Must-See TV around this time.

One BFTD story I enjoyed was B&B's Taylor, whose plane crashed in Morocco, was rescued by Prince Omar, and had temporary amnesia for a hot second. Prince Omar renamed her Laila. But then she got her memory back. And this coincided with Ridge (who mourned her all of 3 days) coincidentally showing up in 'Morocco' with Brooke on their honeymoon. There was a whole host of near-misses and plot twists for many months. It was cheesy but actually pretty involving and not beyond the realms of possibility. It wasn't lazy writing, either. We knew Taylor was alive pretty much every step of the way. Also, Prince Omar could have been a contender for Taylor's affections, but Taylor had already been dickmatized by Ridge and at the time, Ridge's D was where it was at for B&B. 

I was so excited by Brenda's return on GH, but I felt like it was set up for Brenda to witness the slo-mo Amazing Grace shooting of Sonny. Like, her return was all about creating another 4-minute Click Boom moment. I was still thrilled that she was back, though, and after that, they put her in Jason's orbit which was actually a pretty good move chemistry-wise. It's too bad they couldn't get her on the show for longer than a limited return.

Edited February 2, 2023 by Cat

[Dr Neil Curtis]

Lexie Carver return from the dead was a good one. 
 

i enjoyed the reactions to Abe, Maggie, and Doug returns from the dead in 2004. I don’t recall the other reactions (Don’t even remember if Alice family reacted to her return.), but those three stood out the most, I just wish John Clarke was Mickey at that time. 

[Contessa Donatella]

Just last week was the anniversary of John C. Clarke's last day & I just sighed. I certainly understood his wanting to spend time with his family in a real retirement but dang he was missed. 

[Paul Raven]

Bill Bauer on GL. I don't know the reason he was killed off the first time. Did Ed Bryce want to leave?

Anyway he came back in 77 but the story wasn't popular and he left town.

 

[BuckyB12]

And then they got him back in 1983 to be killed again in the horrible Annabelle Sims story.

[Vee]

They could have. They didn't want to accommodate her request for more time with her newborn son; they had her on all week. That's why she walked.

[titan1978]

She wanted a deal similar to Genie’s after her kids were born- her scenes shot first so she didn’t have to be at the studio all hours of the day and wanted to work no more than 3 days a week.  According to Vanessa the sticking point on GH’s/ABC’s side was the schedule, not the money.  And that has always reeked of JFP to me.

[Vee]

I suspect it was Frons. JFP was largely a facilitator at that point, stripped of most of her control and power after her solo stint with McTavish tanked the show. She was reduced to facilitating Guza and Chuck Pratt's vision while they got co-producer credits. Frons interfaced with the HWs directly in those years and was heavily involved.

[carolineg]

I remember it all fell apart very suddenly too because all the insiders and mags said a deal was close or likely and then she was out a week or so later.  It really screwed GH and wasn't a good look, but I am sure Vanessa is fine with it because she booked Las Vegas very shortly after.  GH/ABC looked stupid

Edited February 4, 2023 by carolineg

[titan1978]

It very well could have been Frons.  I always suspected it was JFP because she was the one that tried to stop Genie from taking the summer off which lead to her leaving the show.  Even though Tony was also going to be gone for the same amount of time.  This was after Guza and Pratt were installed as HW and given their producer credits.  I just always chalked it up to another example of JFP not being willing to work with a woman performers needs and wants like she clearly did with the men.