ALL: Bad Moves by Well Regarded Soap Writers/EPs

[Planet Soap]

It is amazing how Erica Kane when from the star of the show --she literally had the biggest picture in the photo album openings-- to a diminished character after (correct me if I'm wrong) 2000?

 

Why would this show do this? Some say it's because she got old. Similarly, Viki stopped being the center of OLTL after her DID story ended in 1996. But (again, correct me if I'm wrong) I feel like Viki was still more centralized than Erica. 

Agreed. She's an iconic character and I don't care to see the show without her.

[Khan]

Thank you!  And not as some Cortlandt relative we ain't ever heard of either!

I wouldn't have cut her either.  I loved Erica Kane (and Susan Lucci), and I always will.  But there did come a point when I wanted desperately for her to expand her world and prove to the folks at home that change, however difficult, was still possible.

[Vee]

I don't think Viki ever stopped being the center of OLTL (at least in my time) with the exception of a grim period in the mid-2000s where they seriously were shítting on her after Frons came in, who clearly wanted her backburnered as much as possible. Most particularly the Dena Higley years. Ron Carlivati gained a lot of goodwill immediately by coming in with a major frontburner story and romance for VIki in 2007. It felt like it had been ten years.

[Khan]

I don't know if she was diminished so much as she was trapped (again, by TPTB, who wouldn't allow her to mature, for whatever reason).

However, I do think there came a point when storylines involving Erica felt less character-driven than they had been in years past (although, you could make the same argument for pretty much every veteran character on AMC).

[Alan]

You definitely see the racial undertones in scene where Jill tries to have Mamie arrested. She gaslights her, lies to the cop, and then calls Mamie a threat to the Abbot family. Jill basically wrote the playbook for "Karen" behavior.

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[BetterForgotten]

If any OLTL diva suffered in the 00’s, it was Dorian/Robin Strasser. I don’t think they ever quite got Dorian right again when Robin returned in 2003.

[Vee]

Dorian at least had heavy story and several frontburner love interests. As soon as Frons arrived VIki had little more than Coma (then Dead) Ben and was relegated to talk-to stuff for years. Malone in his limited power briefly tried to bring in a couple rando new guys to play off her which didn't work out (first Marcie's bigoted dad then poor Kevin Dobson from Knots Landing, looking horribly lost), and Higley spent the bulk of her tenure having JVD's Clint shít on her with Dorian.

[Alan]

I have always wondered about that. On paper, it seems like AMC was the more traditional, marketable soap. Why did Nixon think that OLTL would be an easier sell? Was ABC looking for more gritty, "relevant" drama during that time? 

[DRW50]

Wasn't Richard Bekins in there briefly too?

[Khan]

The less I say about Viki's disastrous relationship with Charlie....

I think a BIG problem for Viki during that same period was the show's basic inability to write for her children or recast them properly.  Dan Gauthier turned out to be okay as a Kevin recast (although - and I say this about all the adult Kevins - I would've liked to have seen at least some of Joe Riley in their oldest child), but they never found the right Joey after Chris McKenna left; and Bree Williamson's Jessica was just wrong.

To me, it says a lot that the insta-daughter, Natalie, turned out to be the child of Viki's that had the most staying power of any of 'em!

Edited November 19, 2024 by Khan

[Vee]

Loved it.

Dan Gauthier ended up very popular as Kevin. It was the network that didn't like him and had him removed. They ended up bringing him back as often as they could.

I don't remember him.

[Khan]

True, but were they really her finest moments, lol?

Even the damage that Paul Rauch tried to do to Dorian before RS left the first time didn't compare to how TPTB treated her every run thereafter.

[Vee]

I don't think anyone had a ball in the Higley years. But Viki's situation was truly dire and humiliating (and before that, under Malone II, mostly rarely seen when she wasn't actively dying).

[Khan]

Oh, I beg to differ.  I think Trevor St. John had a high old time, lol.

[Vee]

Well, yes. Him and Renee Elise Goldsberry, and Michael Easton (and Bree).

Edited November 19, 2024 by Vee