New families that took off and families that didn’t

[soapfan770]

After reading some comments about the amount of families Guiding Light introduced between 1977-1987, it made me think about   a who’s who of new families that successfully were integrated into the show. On the flip side, I can easily think of the number of families that arrived into a show’s town already DOA. 
 

Some successful new families I can think of include:

ATWT: Snyders, Carly/Rosanna/Molly/Gwen

AW: Love/Hudson

B&B: Spectras

Days: Bradys, Reeds/Roberts

GL: Spauldings, Lewises

Y&R: Abbotts, Barber/Winters

Unsuccessful families include:

ATWT: Kasnoffs (except for Mike)

B&B: Ramirez family

Days: Scofield family

GL: Santos family 

Y&R: Rayburn family, Rosales 

[Franko]

Successful:

GH -- Quartermaines; Bobbie, Luke & Ruby

OLTL -- Buchanans

 

Unsuccessful

DOOL -- Chandlers

GH -- Eckerts

 

I think the key is that a good new family should come gradually, 1-2 members at a time if possible.

[Faulkner]

Successful 

GH: Quartermaines, Cassadines

Unsuccessful

DAYS: Hernandez family(even though Rafe/Gabi survived)

OLTL: Rappaports

Y&R: Dennisons

 

[Sapounopera]

Are the ATWT McCalls considered successful or unsuccessful? Nobody hated them (except perhaps the father), but they were gone within a few years.

Y&R really tried it with the new families in the early 80s, but only the Abbotts sticked around. Was the Williams family a success? Steve left really soon, Patty stayed for a few years, Todd never showed up and Carl vanished. 

B&B also tried it with the Marrones, but I wouldn't call them a success. Then there was a time where Lorenzo Lamas and Sydney Penny showed up as a new family unit. Linda Gray was part of the mix.

 

[AbcNbc247]

Successful

AW: The Frames

Days: The Bradys really do own the successful part of this thread, if you think about it.

GH: The Webbers

Unsuccessful

AW: The Sheas, The Gregorys

OLTL: The Fords

[dragonflies]

Successful:

AMC: Santos, Cambias, Montgomery to name a few lol

B&B: Avants, Spectras & Finnegan's

Unsucessful:

GH: Eckert's 
OLTL: Ford's

[kalbir]

Although not technically introduced as a family, Y&R Newmans would be considered successful I think. 

[Paul Raven]

Unsuccessful

SB The Perkins -John, Joe, Marissa, Jade, Amy

Y&R Laurences - Robert, Claire, Angela

[Soaplovers]

Perkins had potential...but only Amy was accepted.

I always saw Bell realizing the Laurences were a bust and fixed his mistake by replacing them with the Fenmores.

Successful

GL: Coopers

Failure:

GL: shaynes (only Reva had long time potential)

[Paul Raven]

Y&R

Success- Prentiss family - Vanessa, Lance and Lucas and Leslie/Lorie as in laws.

Flop- Bill Bell tried with the Stevens-April, Dorothy and Wayne and then  twin sister Barbara but then quickly dumped them all.

SFT

Kendalls -flop? Lloyd, Steve, Michael, Estelle,Chase, Alec,TR

So many recasts, story changes meant that family never really took off. They were never on the canvas at the same time.

AW Holloways -flop Taylor,Miranda,Amy, Rick,Kit .The show dropped many more familiar and long running characters to focus on this clan but they were soon dropped.

[Liberty City]

And the same could be said for the Andrade family.

[Planet Soap]

Unsuccessful: Rosales family Y&R

Successfully: The Buchannans OLTL in 1979. 

We're OLTL's Rapparports considered successful?

[Vee]

No. They were despised. Lindsay only survived based on Cat Hickland's performances.

[Broderick]

The Williams family kinda "morphed" into the Detective Agency Family.  

In one of his reviews during the 1980s, John Kelly Genovese remarked (wisely) that Y&R had basically three structural components -- the Jabot/Abbott storyline, the Victor/Nikki/Kevin/Kay storyline, and the Young Detectives storyline (which was comprised of Paul, Andy, Amy, Jazz, and Kong).  Paul Williams still had parents of course, and he still had a sister until about 1984, but his storyline was most often centered around his "work crew" with Andy, Amy, Jazz, Tyrone, and Nathan.  

[Wendy]

Days: The Johnson Family was successful. Steve and Adrienne - and Jack, tied to them as a biological Billy Johnson but raised by a corrupt wealthy politician in Harper Deveraux.

The Reeds reminded me of a bargain-basement version of the Johnsons: Lucas, the child of wealth/privilege, despising his half siblings (for a long time) in Austin/Billie. Kate losing Austin/Billie just as Jo gave up Steve/Billy (Jack).

And Earl Johnson and Curtis Reed terrorized their wives and sexually molested their daughters.

Edited January 30, 2023 by Wendy