ALL: Types of characters every soap needs

[Paul Raven]

Stefano as written by Pat Falken Smith was a charismatic, villianous character whose misdeeds bordered on the criminal .Once she left Days went to the campy crime stuff and Stefano was turned into a cardboard villian. Mascolo stated as much which is why he left. And then Days started on the merry go round of bringing him back over and over, in ridiculous stories.

Marland brought back James and the first return worked but then once he kept coming back and going unpunished the supervillian tag applied I guess.

[Planet Soap]

The sassy snarky girl (sometimes mean girl) Victoria Y&R, Fallon DYNASTY

[dragonflies]

We need more heroes and anti heros.

 

All we get nowadays are abusive arseholes

 

Characters with shades of grey no longer exist and are needed too 

[DemetriKane]

Every soap needs an:

 

1. Love to hate characters

Delia Hope (Ryans hope)

Roger Thrope (Guiding Light)

2. Surrogate canvas mom 

Myrtle Fargate (All My Children)

3. That one character that grounds the soap in reality.

Laura Avery Sumner ( Knots Landing)

4. Lovable screw ups 

Tad Martin (All My Children)

 

 

 

[Contessa Donatella]

Well, there's an Agnes Nixon character pair trope that I think could be used over & over, everywhere. It started on 'The Brighter Day' where Agnes Nixon had been hired to write the show & created the characters on which Ada & Rachel Davis, later on Another World were based, but the show was cancelled before her work was ever taped.

So, the troublesome daughter with the put-upon mother, Aggie created, in this order 
The Brighter Day's LikeRachel/LikeAda, then 
AW's Rachel/Ada, then 
AMC's Erica/Mona, last 
LOV's Kate & Ava

[SteelCity]

For a while, Abby Devereaux had makings of a "good girl gone bitch" on DAYS, but I guess they weren't having it. I LOVED OG recipe Nicole Walker as well. The conniving, alcoholic bitch was amazing. 

Weren't they all basically the same character, no shade, but I know that Rachel was only created because she got AW first, and Erica was created first.

[Contessa Donatella]

Well, for years we thought that Erica/Mona was written first & that bible was in a drawer & meanwhile she saved AW so Rachel/Ada was written second but done first. Then we found out about "The Brighter Day" which was the earliest (1954-1962) & it literally says that she created 2 characters that she later did again as Rachel/Ada, so now we know that Erica/Mona was not written first. This, below here, is the correct order. 

But, no, I would not say that they were identical or same. They were similar, parallel, etc. 

Edited July 8, 2023 by Donna L. Bridges
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[SteelCity]

Thanks for the notes! I'm a big soap historian so I love the correct into.

[Contessa Donatella]

Me, too. We have that in common. 

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[slick jones]

You're taking it from a font of misinformation.  While that particular point is correct, there's a reason more than half the board has her on ignore. 

[Soapsuds]

Something Days doesn't have anymore.

Rootable characters!!!

[DaytimeFan]

You need a strong, fabulous, woman who is 40+ and who isn't necessarily the lead and can be parachuted into any storyline and instantly enhance it.

DAYS: Kate Roberts

B&B: Sally Spectra

Y&R: Jill Abbott

AMC: Marian Colby Chandler

[Paul Raven]

@Donna L. BridgesI'm interested in the Agnes Nixon/Brighter Day connection.

I have never read that she was going to be headwriter. Did she mention it in her book? Is that where the talk of the mother/daughter character came from?

[Contessa Donatella]

Good morning, Paul. No, it's a paragraph in the Wikipedia/Wikiwand entry for "The Brighter Day": 

Among the show's writers were Doris Frankle, and Sam Hall. Agnes Nixon had been hired to write the show (and had created the character on which Ada and Rachel Davis, two characters on NBC's Another World were based), but the show was cancelled before her work was ever taped. Ms. Nixon then went to write The Guiding Light and, later, Another World before creating her two classic soap operas on the ABC network.

Probably the only criticism that can be made about Agnes's own book is that she did not mention so many things: not even Loving, nor AW nor GL. 

Edited July 9, 2023 by Donna L. Bridges

[Paul Raven]

That Wiki entry says Agnes Nixon went on to write The Guiding Light, when in fact she was already writing that show in 1962. So on the basis of that incorrect statement and no other mention of this in any other reference I am not convinced about Agnes writing TBD or plans to bring on a mother/daughter story.