Soaps That Were Good at Comedy?

[Contessa Donatella]

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[Faulkner]

DAYS during Reilly’s era(s) could be very funny, often unintentionally. But Vivian and Ivan were often hilarious.

[Pine Charles]

All My Children

'80s: Opal, Langley, Phoebe, Tad, Erica, Verla Grubbs, Marian, Alfred VanderPool 

'90s: Janet (KC)

 

Edited July 7, 2023 by Pine Charles

[I Am A Swede]

The late, great, and much missed Darlene Conley provided humour throughout her time on B&B. She was of course equally adept at drama, but she really excelled at comedy.

[JamesF]

This has reminded me of recently watching 1995 B&B episodes where Gladys told Sally that she was Taylor Forrester's make up lady.

Sally, still believing Taylor to be dead said something like "she'd be needing a hell of a lot of make up at this point." There was something so spot on about Darlene's delivery, it made me laugh out loud. A real gem.

[MichaelGL]

How could I forget the marvelous Darlene? It was both the part of the writers, and Darlene for infusing so much humor and actually making it work on B&B back in the day. 

[All My Shadows]

As far as I'm concerned, Dorothy Lyman and Darlene Conley are probably the most comedic actresses to ever grace daytime. Then, of course, you consider how easy they were able to turn the tables back to drama.

[Faulkner]

Is there a great example of Dorothy Lyman’s Opal in a very serious, dramatic scene? I haven’t seen anything of hers where she wasn’t playing comedy. It’s a shame she wasn’t around for Jenny’s death. Did she only submit comedy for her two Emmy wins as Opal?

[Contessa Donatella]

Not AMC/Opal but on AW she played plenty of drama.

[Faulkner]

Yeah. I’ve seen a bit of her on AW and other soaps like Generations. She’s definitely capable of playing the drama but I was curious. Jill Larson had a lot of dramatic moments as Opal later on.

[All My Shadows]

I can’t go looking on YT at the moment, but I was thinking about Opal’s introduction and first year or so where she was presented more as a menacing, unsympathetic character than comic relief. There used to be a string of episodes out there from late summer 1981, but I believe they’ve been taken down.

[DemetriKane]

Period.

[1974mdp]

For me, Santa Barbara wins this category hands down. The show could be really laugh out loud at times, and they had many actors who were very gifted when it came to comedy. The hijinks of Gina and Kieth, the Lockridges, Mason and Julia...just top notch.

I feel her passing left a hole on the show that has never been able to be replaced. B&B needed the Spectras, the up and comers, to balance out with Forrester Creations. The Spectra gang 2.0 just didn't have the same spark, but I'm not sure they gave it enough time to develop, either.

[allmc2008]

For a while her first week or so was up on YouTube.

Plenty of balance. She was hysterical when she banged on the Martin's door, hurting her hand, after criticising Jenny for doing it too softly. And pronouncing marijuana as Marriage-u-ana after learning that's why Tad was in jail.

 

But a few episodes later, when she was convincing the owner of Foxy's that Jenny was legal age, she slapped Jenny across the face when he went away for not cooperating.

[DaytimeFan]

I remember that scene. Katherine digging into the bucket of fried chicken, her long nails digging in while her diamonds sparkled...she was palpably relieved to be eating something fattening. It was laugh out loud funny.

I believe AMC is the soap that integrated humour into the DNA of the show. Many characters were light and comedic. Marian was one of my favourites.

Darlene was just really good at everything she did. Towards the end of her run as Sally, when Marc MacLaine confessed to helping Stephanie fake her heart attack, Sally drove Marc in her Cadillac away from the Forrester mansion, pulls over on the Santa Monica Freeway, has him get a bottle of scotch out where the spare tire should be and laments: "Another fallen idol. First, Martha Stewart, and now this!"