What bad soap story was at the very least entertaining to watch.

My answer: Marlena's possession (DAYS)

GH-Casey the Alien. Introduced Faison, dealt a little with Anna’s past as a double agent and grief from losing Duke. It was implausible but as a kid I enjoyed it.

GH- The Panic Room. As much as I didn’t enjoy what the show was at that point, or what Liz had become, her seeing Carly was a thrilling cliffhanger.

Guiding Light: Mary Ann Carruthers story. Horrible retconning of history, with vets acting out of character, but I can't say I wasn't entertained by it. If it was for another soap with characters and families we hadn't known for 20+ years I would have been all for it. 

Passions wins for this one I think. 

3 hours ago, titan1978 said:

 

GH- The Panic Room. As much as I didn’t enjoy what the show was at that point, or what Liz had become, her seeing Carly was a thrilling cliffhanger.

I always ramble about how I liked the panic room story, lol. Can you expand on what you didn't like about it?

GL: Dreaming Death and Infinity.  In the mid-'80's, GL came after GH hard with plots that, even then, looked and felt out of place on a show that had been, for the most part, a very grounded and relatable show.  Nevertheless, as a grade-schooler, I [!@#$%^&*] loved them for the suspense that they offered, as well as the fact that they seemed to tie in a great deal of the canvas.

 GH:Pickle-Lila

Y&R's action/adventure storylines during the H. Wesley Kenney years (1982-1986). The police corruption/mob angles were tame in comparison to General Hospital and Days in that same era but action/adventure never really suited Y&R. I've often thought that adding action/adventure to Y&R was a CBS mandate to compete w/ General Hospital and Days.

5 hours ago, Planet Soap said:

I always ramble about how I liked the panic room story, lol. Can you expand on what you didn't like about it?

The overall misogynistic vibe the show was mired in. The fact that Ric didn’t really pay for what he did. I remember thinking Liz was missing her brain quite a bit. But that cliffhanger is one of my all time favorites on GH. I would put it right under the Labine era shootout with Brenda in the shower/Laura’s house/Stone and Robin outside the Club on my list of favorite GH cliffhangers. Clink/Boom being number 1.

4 hours ago, reallyhateskateonlost said:

 GH:Pickle-Lila

The original story was whimsical, which suited Lila. Plus it was wrapped up in Sean and Monica’s affair. The Tracy revisit was stupid and not fun to watch at all.

1 hour ago, kalbir said:

Y&R's action/adventure storylines during the H. Wesley Kenney years (1982-1986). The police corruption/mob angles were tame in comparison to General Hospital and Days in that same era but action/adventure never really suited Y&R. I've often thought that adding action/adventure to Y&R was a CBS mandate to compete w/ General Hospital and Days.

Or as Kay Alden told me about those days "nobody told Bill Bell what to do".

 

She told me that Bill liked to go out of the box at times. He was inspired to do Brad-in-a-cage when he saw her daughter looking at Kay's then - newborn son thru his playpin. 

1 hour ago, allmc2008 said:

Or as Kay Alden told me about those days "nobody told Bill Bell what to do".

She told me that Bill liked to go out of the box at times. 

Oh OK, so that explains the action/adventure elements.

1 hour ago, allmc2008 said:

He was inspired to do Brad-in-a-cage when he saw her daughter looking at Kay's then - newborn son thru his playpin. 

Brad in a cage was sort of a redo of Michael Scott in the dungeon. Bradley Bell dusted off his father's work on B&B w/ James in the dungeon.

9 hours ago, YRfan23 said:

Passions wins for this one I think. 

Let's go with Charity's posession. She wasn't a marquee heroine like Marlena, but it was fun to see the cloying Little Miss Sunshine cut loose.

3 hours ago, kalbir said:

Y&R's action/adventure storylines during the H. Wesley Kenney years (1982-1986). The police corruption/mob angles were tame in comparison to General Hospital and Days in that same era but action/adventure never really suited Y&R. I've often thought that adding action/adventure to Y&R was a CBS mandate to compete w/ General Hospital and Days.

My theory was that Bill Bell himself was attempting to compete with GH and DAYS (not to mention, primetime shows like "Miami Vice") but realized eventually that Y&R was its' own thing.

Yeah I don’t think anybody was telling Bell what to do. The only time his hand was fixed was the whole 1 hour thing.

Bill Bell was very complimentary about what Gloria Monty did at GH. In that joint interview he did with Claire Labine he clearly was familiar with the GH style and Luke & Laura. It would not surprise me if he just wanted to run some adventure through the show. I never felt Y&R had slipped into a GH clone as much as DAYS did.

GL:

I actually liked the Nursery Rhyme stalker story