YR - Fetus in the fireplace with Ashley and Adam drove me away for a while, didn’t come back until JFP became EP. Didn’t miss an episode again until Mishael Morgan was killed off as Hilary and have only sparingly tuned back in since.

GH - I never missed an episode until shortly after Garrin Wolf took over. When Frank and Ron joined I stopped watching full episodes for a few years its only been recently that I’ve kind of gotten back into it.

Days - When EJ raped Sami I took my first break. Now I’ll randomly watch for a few months when characters I like pop in for visits.

AMC - Was never the same when production moved to LA. When it got cancelled I felt guilty for abandoning the show

Passions - When they made Whitney and Chad brother and sister it was just too much lol, couldn’t do it. 
 

Guiding Light - Somewhere around Peapack I just had to give it up

I never cared for Bill on B&B, Liam was okay for a while, but if the show had tiered storylines they weren’t so bad. Has Bill even served a purpose in recent years? 
 

OLTL:

I started watching during the stint heavy Higley years and once the stints wore off and Evangeline was sent into a coma I couldn’t really hang on anymore but the Gigi/Rex/ Charlie/Viki story in Paris, TX got me hooked back in full-time, then Tina’s wasted return (not having watched her OG run but having been a fan from YouTube) I was bothered, then Todd constantly threatening Cole and Starr was a hard pill to swallow. In 2009, Viki hitting the backburner and the snoozer KAD Killer was blah to me, but the Mayor race and Nora/Bo reconnecting and Mitch’s return drew me back in, that didn’t last with Dorian posing as a lesbian, Mitch trying to rape Jessica causing that dreadful Teen Jess crap, the Ford brothers, Starr as a sappy heroine taking over and Kelley Missal as Danielle being the only talented younger performer IMO I dropped the show until early 2011, which I actually enjoyed a lot until the end. Summer 2010 was just unbearable to me and I was ready to never look back. 
 

RC’s tenure was just beyond hit or miss. 

Dool: The Iraq storyline and Ejami 2008.

Gigi and Rex on OLTL

Came back when A Martinez was hired.

 I'm off and on with B&B. Right now off.

 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, detroitpiston said:

 

 

Guiding Light - Somewhere around Peapack I just had to give it up

Same. I couldn't take how horrible this show had become. I didn't see any of it and I believe I didn't even see the finale. I saw bits and pieces years later after it was cancelled.

Guiding Light:

San Cristobel... a stupid 80's story idea that I believe was a Paul Rauch idea.. it just screamed something he would do.   I found it worse than the clone story because at least with that.. we got to really see into the obsession/sickness that Josh had toward Reva.

All My Children:

When Kendall/Ryan/Greenlee/Zach ate up the show.

Days of our Lives:

After Kristen left in 2012.. the show never really recovered because she was the focus of the show for a whole year.. and once she left, the show couldn't restructure... except toward Daniel Jonas.

1 hour ago, Soaplovers said:

Guiding Light:

San Cristobel... a stupid 80's story idea that I believe was a Paul Rauch idea.. it just screamed something he would do.   I found it worse than the clone story because at least with that.. we got to really see into the obsession/sickness that Josh had toward Reva.

I don't know whose idea that danged island principality was but it hurt the show by spreading it over 2 locations. I did this meme that was "The Bennifer wedding reset the timeline to 2004, what are you going to reset in your favorite show?" So, in my version San Craptobel was gone & with it Bradley Cole & David Andrew McDonald. Then I got rid of the mob. Danny turned out to be a grandson of Mike Bauer. 

Anyway, I only posted to say this: CBS forced the clone story on the show. 

22 hours ago, MichaelGL said:

GL:

Garden of Eden Murders once it was revealed that Ben was a serial killer, and Marty West's Shayne got with Marina. 🤢 I was already half there with Alex being turned into a drugging, gaslighting, stalking, mustache twirling villain, that just sealed the deal for me. Thank you ConWest. 

Agreed... I hated the Clone, the Mob and San Cristobal but none of those were outright negative and ugly as the Conwest years were. Alex being a shrieking monster, (and dumb...) Brad Cole playing a misogynistic pig who we were supposed to see as a cutting edge hero (Cole did not have the chops to pulll of anti-hero thing) Ben, a legacy character reveal as serial killer (of female sex workers of course) who attempts suicide and then has the "hero" of the show berate him as he is dying...nasty, nasty stuff, which you can't say about the Rauch, the King of Chesse's stuff at its worst. 

13 hours ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

So, in my version San Craptobel was gone & with it Bradley Cole & David Andrew McDonald. Then I got rid of the mob. Danny turned out to be a grandson of Mike Bauer. 

I would had Reva on a fictional Florida key, in a mouldering mansion with a Gothic family(though Reva and gothic don't mix, she has a history with Kyle and CB's Alan who were both of that type.) Still could have the same storyline, I would keep DAM, but loose Cole, who is incredibly weak as an actor, and replace him with one of they guys they originally thought for the role, he played Cass on AW.) The storyline would go as originally planned with Eddie dying. Then instead of hooking "Richie" up with Malibu Barbie..it would be he and Holly, which would be hot. They would not be royalty but heavily invested in Spaulding which would bring them to SF. 

I would go with the mob. but Carmen would be trying to get out of it, and using Danny's marriage to Chele to get into legitimate SF society, and Mike, the head of the good ole crime commission would come back to investigate them. 

Oh what might have been.

1 hour ago, Mitch64 said:

I would had Reva on a fictional Florida key, in a mouldering mansion with a Gothic family(though Reva and gothic don't mix, she has a history with Kyle and CB's Alan who were both of that type.) Still could have the same storyline, I would keep DAM, but loose Cole, who is incredibly weak as an actor, and replace him with one of they guys they originally thought for the role, he played Cass on AW.) The storyline would go as originally planned with Eddie dying. Then instead of hooking "Richie" up with Malibu Barbie..it would be he and Holly, which would be hot. They would not be royalty but heavily invested in Spaulding which would bring them to SF. 

I would go with the mob. but Carmen would be trying to get out of it, and using Danny's marriage to Chele to get into legitimate SF society, and Mike, the head of the good ole crime commission would come back to investigate them. 

Oh what might have been.

Agree about DAM vs BC. So, Stephen Schnetzer was considered & the FOOLS did not grab him?!!! Aii yii yi. And, just in general, I am loving your reset, not as much as I love my own, of course, but a close second! And, yes, Holly automagically adds a hot factor. Oh, yes, if only ... 

1 hour ago, Mitch64 said:

Agreed... I hated the Clone, the Mob and San Cristobal but none of those were outright negative and ugly as the Conwest years were. Alex being a shrieking monster, (and dumb...) Brad Cole playing a misogynistic pig who we were supposed to see as a cutting edge hero (Cole did not have the chops to pulll of anti-hero thing) Ben, a legacy character reveal as serial killer (of female sex workers of course) who attempts suicide and then has the "hero" of the show berate him as he is dying...nasty, nasty stuff, which you can't say about the Rauch, the King of Chesse's stuff at its worst. 

And, that that dear boy Matt Bomer had to do that! Similarly, that poor Scott Bailey had to do [cough] sock puppet! Whoever it was at P&G who hired John Conboy for GL at that point in its budgetary history, should be taken out & shot. 

1 hour ago, Mitch64 said:

I would had Reva on a fictional Florida key, in a mouldering mansion with a Gothic family(though Reva and gothic don't mix, she has a history with Kyle and CB's Alan who were both of that type.) Still could have the same storyline, I would keep DAM, but loose Cole, who is incredibly weak as an actor, and replace him with one of they guys they originally thought for the role, he played Cass on AW.) The storyline would go as originally planned with Eddie dying. Then instead of hooking "Richie" up with Malibu Barbie..it would be he and Holly, which would be hot. They would not be royalty but heavily invested in Spaulding which would bring them to SF. 

I would go with the mob. but Carmen would be trying to get out of it, and using Danny's marriage to Chele to get into legitimate SF society, and Mike, the head of the good ole crime commission would come back to investigate them. 

Oh what might have been.

Reva wouldn't fit in the gothic stories...but maybe Reva with amnesia would have fit in....maybe in flashbacks.

Stephen Schnetzer would have been perfect in it...because he did play in a gothic mini story on AW during the 1988 strike..did do a orient Express esque arc in the early 90s..and did do a 40s esque fantasy episode. 

 

I think the first time I actively chose, as in not being driven by being a child in school lol, to stop watching a soap was when AMC had Janet kill her former prison mate with a giant candy cane and then writing out the entire Dillon family. I loved them and thought Tim was hot and was sorry to see them go.

I think that was Agnes too! Or Broderick.

I felt for their fans but tbh I was not shocked, because I remembered the Jane Cox story very well and had always felt Janet was still fuckin' crazy lol. I never really bought into Trevor and Janet as a result. Robin Mattson was a great performer but Janet always spooked me because of that early story. Looking at their romantic material today a lot of it is really great and the show did do the character work on Janet, but I felt what I felt.

18 hours ago, detroitpiston said:

GH - I never missed an episode until shortly after Garrin Wolf took over. When Frank and Ron joined I stopped watching full episodes for a few years its only been recently that I’ve kind of gotten back into it.

I was sooo disappointed in Garin Wolf.  When he was the scab hw during the last writer's strike, I was sooo impressed.  I've never liked the desperate attempt at copying "The Sopranos," but GW took Bob Guza's material and really elevated it to the point where it remains one of my fav. periods of GH.  Sonny was actually shown to be the problem, Carly realized she literally put her sons' lives at risk every day in pursuit of her own selfishness and power with Sonny and Jason, Jason & Liz got brought back down to Earth because Jason IS a hitman and Jake would be in the same line of fire as Michael, etc., etc.  And there were fun new developments like Kate/Maxie and he wrapped up the Text Message Killer beautifully with kinda climaxing the Sam/Jason/Liz/Lucky rectangle.  Of course, there were huge misses like whatever was going on with Ric and his dad, Trevor.  But I was such a fan.  And all the little beats that played during Michael's shooting were mesmerizing.

So once he became hw, I was thrilled . . . and the first month or so was great, and then . . . omg he was sooo bad it was incredible.  Biggest letdown ever.

And I don't hate on RC like many on this board because his highs are usually pretty high and while I disliked many periods on OLTL and now on "Days," it's usually kinda inspired, so I'll give him credit for his attempts.  But I actually stopped watching his GH and I've never meaningfully returned.  Whatever he thought he was doing with the hybrid OLTL-mob-legacy show . . . omg none of it spoke to me.  While I hated most of Guza (& Pratt's) egregious attempts of dismantling anything that wasn't Sonny/Carly/Jason worship, I guess that was the GH I grew up with . . . a dark, sorta urban show.  The circus that RC's GH instantly became was so off-putting to me--the tone was all wrong for GH.  I came back for AJ's (my all-time fav. character) return, but the disjointed wackiness of the show drove me away.  I've watched the special episodes, which were special (RC usually does well with those) . . . but I never came back.  And now the show feels utterly unrecognizable in what I assume is FV's bid to well and truly remaking GH into HIS show.  I'll give him props for the visuals--while it usually never translates to anything character-driven and can appear random, none of the soaps' cameras move as much as GH's and he really uses a lot of different angles, too.  But that's all I got.

I just think 2006 and onward as a whole started to damper my love of soaps. I feel like 2005 was the last year where anyone actually tried to give soapy drama that was centered in reality. 

For me, it was really when Y&R sent Dru over that cliff, followed by Brad being killed in the ice pond, and Adam heinously gaslighting Ashley, etc. 

Then on World Turns, we had Luke and Noah constantly petting each other or yearning for each other to the point they killed any momentum. Then we had Janet Ciccone and her brat, Liberty, eating up the show alongside Katie. And the stories felt more episodic than long-term. 

B&B had bored me for the longest with the constant Taylor v. Brooke over Ridge. The halo being knocked off Taylor's head brought me back in for a second, but that was nuked with embryo crap with Nick, which went nowhere (we don't even get a mention of the child). And Stephanie (even though I loved to hate the character) inadvertently causing Brooke to be raped. The icing on the cake was Oliver banging Brooke and not being able to tell the difference between her or Hope. 

Guiding Light was just painful to watch after Ellen Wheeler took over. Tammy/Jonathan was gross. Gus/Harley grew tiring. I didn't even care for Josh/Reva, and Cassie getting with Josh was so out of character for her. 

 

Other soaps:

*AMC and Dixie dying via pancakes. I just felt that was a waste of Cady McClain's talent and time. 

*POC characters being tossed aside for White counterparts on OLTL. I grew tired of watching Evangeline and Antonio getting cast aside for Natalie and Nash getting the upper hand. But I guess they got the last laugh as Natalie later caught hell from Marty and Nash died, so there's that. 

*Like many others, I grew tired of the show being all about Sonny/Carly/Jason/Sam. What really ended me watching GH was when they heinously murdered Georgie and made Diego the killer. They totally tossed aside the fact that Diego once had strong feelings for Georgie and would've never killed her. Per usual, Georgie always got the short end of the stick under Guza. 

*With Days, it was Sami falling for her rapist (EJ). Then it propelled to Lucas being the third wheel to their pairing and being cast aside when he is a HORTON. Lucas should be driving story and be the actual lead on this show. I never understood how Days didn't see the value in Bryan Datillo.