ALL: Characters who shouldn't have died.

[Planet Soap]

Y&R and GH rule this thread.

Y&R: Cassie, John, Rex, Brad, Colleen, Drucilla, Diane

GH: Justus, Emily, Alan, AJ, Georgie, Tony, Luke, Jake

Edited February 11, 2024 by Planet Soap

[soapfan770]

Thank you!!!!! I’m extremely embarrassed and ashamed to admit I didn’t mention Dru when I made my original post

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Cassie’s death was just a failed ratings/Emmy ploy and Diane’s murder was just a messy affair.

I hate the “I forgot I had twins” cliche was used for both Mariah and Amanda when it would have been better if Cassie and Hilary were still alive, no matter the ridiculous circumstances presented lol.

Given so many of the writers and producers responsible are now either dead (Hogan, Rauch) or riddled with poor health (MAB, Smith, Pratt, Latham) makes me wonder if Bell cursed everyone from beyond the grave.

[DramatistDreamer]

I won’t list the ones that have already been listed so:

ATWT: Bryant Montgomery and Marshall Travers- yes Marshall Travers, they took a charismatic (albeit a cad), good looking character who had smoldering chemistry with Jessica Griffin and reduced him to a rapist and throwaway character. One of the few. Black men on the show. Just disgusting. I have spoken at length in the ATWT thread about how much of a mistake I believed killing off legacy kid Bryant Montgomery to be. I also hated that the character SORASed, but that’s another story.

Y&R: John Abbott and Nathan Hastings. The show should have given John Abbott a few more years before expiring the character. Bringing him back as a ghost to “haunt” Jack (which amounted to yammering on and nagging him) was beyond silly. I am not disparaging the idea of the paranormal and connection with the supernatural but Jerry Douglas was still able to handle the work, why not really use him, even if in a reduced capacity. 
Imagine if Nathan had been maimed by the accident instead of merely killed and done away with? Olivia would have had more to play off of if, as a doctor who had sworn an oath the provide care now had to care for this cheating husband who she now detests? Imagine if she had this emerging budding friendship with Malcolm that’s clearly turning romantic, while having to deal with this? The character still could leave, or be bundled off to a rehab facility in Switzerland eventually but the departure of Hastings always seemed so hasty and abrupt, which despite his vile act, never gave proper closure to a character who had been on the canvas since the early/mid 1980s, nor did it give proper closure to his relationship with Olivia.

[Paul Raven]

ATWT 

Melinda Grey Kim's niece, Frannie's half sister. She drowned in a boating accident in June 1980. Brad was suspected of being responsible for her death. Instead she is in a coma, regains consciousness and clears Brad (or maybe not) Perhaps she has a memory block at first and isn't sure. Anyway, she could hang around or leave town and perhaps return a few years later, giving Kim/the Hughes another character to deal with.

[Xanthe]

For AW, I would say Felicia's first husband, Zane, for sure, and probably also Julia Shearer and Sally Frame. I understood why they killed Sally in the sense that it provided closure to her romance with Catlin, but it basically choked off any story with Aunt Liz or Kevin and really the entire Matthews family until Russ popped in a few years later. But it was badly handled and Catlin just went on with his life until he was sent off with Brittany as if that were a happy ending.

[Mitch64]

I always thought that was an odd choice as Melinda had ties to everyone...Kim's niece, Babs sister, Bob's stepdaughter, Frances sister., Lisa's employee...and everyone was just kind of."Oh that's too bad...now let's talk about boring Dee and Annie." I know the decision came because the actress was causing trouble in the Zenk/Schultz push and pull to be the star of the show, but just sit all three down and tell them to stop their [!@#$%^&*]! 

[Khan]

Plus, I think Taylor Miller was unpopular with fans, and Mary Page Keller likely made it clear she wasn't coming back.

I would agree with you, except I think Claudia never truly fit into what became of DYNASTY after its' first season.  Without Matthew and Lindsay, she didn't have much of a purpose on the show.

But I do think her actual death was one of the show's stupidest, lol.

Edited February 14, 2024 by Khan

[Efulton]

Sally could have left town after finding out that Catlin got Brittany pregnant.  Leaving the door open for her return with a new actress down the road.  However, Margaret DePriest always wrote for short term shock value instead of long term impact.

[Xanthe]

And Thomas Ian Griffith was unlikely to renew his contract since he was presumably going to follow her to California as soon as he could. But Catlin's support of Kevin had been such a key part of his relationship with Sally that it just felt ugly that when Sally died Liz took Kevin away and Catlin never thought about him again. Dealing with Sally's death properly should have enmeshed Catlin with the Matthewses and/or brought him into conflict with Liz or Alice over Kevin's upbringing. 

 

Don't get me started. 

[Paul Raven]

Taylor Miller signed for a year and any chance of her continuing was shot down by her disappointment with the writing for the character.

She would have been better coming on as a new character than try to take the place of one half of the most popular character on the show. Although that didn't work for Sharon Gabet.

In any event AW should have known she wasn't going to renew and slanted the writing towards Sally leaving rather than killing her off.

[KristinG79]

B&B: Taylor in 2002, Macy, Phoebe, Stephanie, Ally, Darla, Caroline 2

[1974mdp]

B&B...

Macy. Killed her off. brought her back. Killed her off again.

Caroline 2.0...what was the purpose of killing her?

 

Y&R...

Colleen. SOOOOO short-sighted and just felt plain wrong to kill Tracy's only child who could have also become a lead heroine.

 

[Liberty City]

It's because Linsey Godfrey joined Days of Our Lives, so as revenge for believing Godfrey would just wait for nothing, Bradley Bell killed her off.

[All My Shadows]

AMC:
- Jesse should not have been killed off in 1988. Not even ten years later, they were already trying to put DW and DM back together on Loving and The City, and when that flopped, they had ghost Jesse popping up on AMC. They realized they made a mistake and finally brought him BFTD in '08, but imagine if Jesse and Angie could have just been reunited without a convoluted storyline in the mid-90s. There's no guarantee that they would have stayed through to the end, but it's likely they would have.
- Simone Torres. She really became a good, classic Nixonian character, serving as comic relief when needed but also involved in the light romance storylines, but there was a stupid serial killer storyline to be told...
- Anne Tyler. This one is tough. The general consensus is that she was all out of story by the early 80s, and the show didn't seem interested in finding a suitable long-term recast, but Anne's death kinda solidified Phoebe as just Brooke's wacky, bourgie aunt when she could have had more to do as Anne's mother. The show also lacked women who were older than Erica, Brooke, and Ellen but younger than Phoebe, Mona, and Ruth.

[Vee]

I wouldn't quite call Jacob and Angie a flop. It was definitely a Xerox couple at best but they worked for me on both LOV and TC and had a real following simply because of Darnell and Debbi. It was not a situation like what was going on with Stefan and Katherine further down the schedule. But yes, it was right to just bring Jesse back (even if the explanation and storyline were ludicrous and still don't make a lot of sense to me, and I watched that storyline everyday).

Edited February 15, 2024 by Vee