Destructive Couple Pairings on Soaps

[Planet Soap]

Name a couple whose relationship came at the expense of several other charachters, perhaps even the show itself. 

Easy answer: Sonny & Carly ate GH to detriment of several other charachters.

[kalbir]

Y&R Nick/Phyllis might apply here.

[soapfan770]

Oh yes easily Nick & Phyllis, Billy & Victoria, Cane & Lily, and Kevin & Chloe on Y&R win this thread. So much destruction was wrought….

Other pairings?

ATWT: Jack & Katie and Jack & Janet

B&B: Thomas & Caroline

Days: I feel like there’s a lot here lol, but for right now EJ and Sami.

GL: Gus & Harley

[Soaplovers]

GL: Hart & Cassie

 

[te.]

DAYS: obviously Ben & Ciara since they had to prop him up constantly, making all other characters seem dumb along with making Ciara (a heritage character) seem completely dense.

[Darn]

To the detriment of the entire program.

Deciding to re-center the show around these two immoral, selfish, histrionic criminals irreparably damaged the fabric of the show and only recently, with age creeping up on both of them and lead stories waning, is the canvas getting something of a balance. Now they feel like part of a whole and not the whole damn thing.

For AMC I’ll name two: Zach and Kendall, Ryan and Greenlee. Only one of these characters was likeable or sympathetic or played by a charismatic actor (Kendall), the other three were unwatchable narcissistic a-holes played by actors either trying too hard (Mathison) or actors who’d sleepwalk through their scenes (Rebecca Budig and that jackass who somehow got them to make Myrtle’s death have entirely too much Zach). So naturally they made them the stars of the show.

Y&R

Victoria and Billy’s pairing, which existed solely because of the alleged chemistry between Toothy Bedhead and Toothy Blockhead, did neither character any favors and they’re STILL trying to recover from it years and recasts later. Warping your show around what some small but vocal subset of fans think is “hot” is why soaps are where they are today.

Edited March 7, 2023 by Darn

[Planet Soap]

Tell me more about Jack and Katie/Janet. I only remember a little from the final years of ATWT.

B&B: Liam & Hope/Steffy. That triangle was so repetitive and dull that it sucked the life out of an already troubled soap. It doesn't help that Liam isn't a strong male lead to command years of fighting between both women. Ridge/Taylor/Brooke was overdone but they were much better television. 

OLTL- Where do you all stand on Todd & Blair's effect of the show.(both RH and TSJ versions). 

[AMCOLTLLover]

It’s a hot take but: Nikki & Victor from Y&R!

Marlena and John on DAYS!!! Ugh.. 

[heffos]

GL: Reva and Josh and any member of the opposite sex either one got involved with.

[Soaplovers]

I liked Ryan and Kendall as a couple...two lost souls coming together.  It also helped humanize Kendall and it was what made people start to think of her as Kendall vs SMG

[Darn]

I didn't like Ryan and Kendall personally, Ryan was verbally abusive to every woman they paired him with. But yeah, Kendall and Zach were, to me, awful. I think Thorsten Kaye is a lazy, uninteresting actor.

I've always said that while Alicia Minshew wasn't the greatest of actresses but she had charisma, much like her onscreen mother, in spades. She made all of her pairings work because she was endearing somehow and they worked hard to give Kendall layers, layers that I feel diminished first with Ryan and were further diminished with Zach.

But most individual characters can diminished when they become just one half of The Couple.

Todd as the defacto male lead for the last 15 years of the show made me angrier the longer it went on. An immoral malcontent with a penchant for deliberately hurting the people he loved. At least Luke went after the Cassadines with maybe a friend or two as collateral damamge, but Todd regularly abused Blair and Tea and hurt Viki's children and then his own children over and over for selfish, cruel reasons.

It was never amusing to me, especially when the actors who played him became so lazy that they didn't bother hiding how much they hated doing the work.

Edited March 7, 2023 by Darn

[dragonflies]

Ryan and Kendall were horrible, I hated them from day 1. Ryan was at his best with Gillian after she died, he was ruined. 

I agree with whomever said Liam/Steffy/Hope, that triangle ate the show and made Hope and Steffy look ridiculous, LIam was no prize to fight over, I'll never understand what either woman saw in that waffler

[DRW50]

RH:

Jill/Frank. Just endless toxicity and dishonesty in the writing from day 1 of the show, compounded that it took three Franks to find an actor who had chemistry with Nancy Addison. A slew of characters were thrown under the bus, and it was never worth the damage done. I remember Ilene Kristen saying people sympathized with Delia (in spite of the writing telling us that she was a child that Frank was somehow tricked into marrying compared to the worldly, noble Jill), which is likely why the show then went out of its way to trash anyone else (and Delia as well) in later breakups and makeups, to the point of having Seneca force alcohol on Jill and sexually assault her to try to conceive another child. 

I did root for Jill/Frank over Frank/Faith, but that's more because I hated her guts and wanted to see her humiliated and suffering.

 

[Planet Soap]

In a contest of a-moral male leads, Todd was defintely worse than Sonny. Marty's rape and the dead baby lie alone gives Manning the edge. 

There was a stark contrast between how animated TSJ was in 2003-04 versus later in his run.  TSJ appeared checked out and non chalant in the late 2000s compared to Howarth's 1998+ animated and comical style.

Tea and Blair looked like two women who had a toxic addiction to Todd. 

Edited March 7, 2023 by ironlion

[Paul Raven]

Y&R

Cane/Lily - even killing him off didn't work -right up till the end they had to stay together when she should have kicked him to the kerb years before.