I came up with the idea for a topic like this, and a quick search yielded no results for a similar subject existing. So... let's discuss rewrites. I've noticed that some people commend shows that can abruptly change direction and introduce a new nuance to the storyline that enhances it. I've seen praise on that topic in the Bold monthly discussion. However, this thread focuses on those instances when a rewrite was so poorly executed or illogical... it severely impacted the quality of the narrative. Events we previously witnessed were suddenly disregarded, and we were compelled to accept a new "reality" that bears no relation to the established facts. Let's examine these bad examples. Which are soaps' worst rewrites ever?

Edited November 5Nov 5 by Maxim

On 11/5/2025 at 10:07 PM, BoldRestless said:

B&B: Maya starting out as a homeless woman looking for her child, with every reason for the audience to believe she meant a child she birthed, and then making her biologically a man.

Yeah, that was a big plot hole! B&B could have still done this storyline but with Caroline Jr instead of Maya. That said, Karla Mosley did a great job with the story.

The Karen story on B&B was very dumb and rushed. Blake sees Caroline's portrait for the first time at Bill Sr's, and in the next episode he runs into Karen in Texas(!). Never mind that no one else seemed to know about this despite Bill being well known when it happened and it was in the papers.

AW's Justine being an exact clone of Rachel. Gee, you think that would have come up. As bad as that writing was, Wyndham was epically awful and those ticks persisted until the end of the show. The only time I can remember in soaps that someone went from being a good actor to someone that Ron Moss could dunk on.

The Salem Stalker rewrite (was it right before Doug was killed?) was silly even for Days.

This is probably the winner though:

On 11/5/2025 at 11:56 PM, Franko said:

AMC: The un-abortion.

2 hours ago, kalbir said:

Those of us that were spoiled watching the best of daytime soaps are going to find flaws in the primetime soaps from a writing perspective. We can't really hold the primetime soap writers to the same standards that we hold Bill Bell or Douglas Marland to.

Perfect example: our recent discussion about Bobby and Betsy Ewing's kidnapping in the KNOTS LANDING thread.  Even though that storyline arguably was the peak both for KL and for primetime soaps in general, we still have unanswered questions about it.  Issues, if you will, that would've been all the more glaring had it played out everyday rather than just once a week.

Daytime and primetime soaps might have had some things in common; at the end of the day, however, they served two entirely different kinds of audiences.

Edited November 8Nov 8 by Khan

2 hours ago, bongobong said:

This is probably the winner though:

When you write an abortion story that manages to piss off pro-lifers AND pro-choicers, you're either a mad genius, or just plain mad, lol.

22 minutes ago, Khan said:

When you write an abortion story that manages to piss off pro-lifers AND pro-choicers, you're either a mad genius, or just plain mad, lol.

THIS.

 

Even I remember the backlash.

On 11/6/2025 at 11:15 AM, NothinButAttitude said:

I need to go back and revisit the Cecile return arc back in 1995, but they didn't know each other prior to Bay City, did they? I always heard they didn't. 

When Cass first arrived (not long after Maggie was born) he appeared to be very familiar with Elena. However the AWHP synopses for 1982 describe him as "[taking] a liking to Cecile" the following week, so it's not clear to me whether at the time the story established that they had never met before or not.

 

On 11/6/2025 at 11:15 AM, NothinButAttitude said:

I did like how they teased Cass being a surrogate parent for Maggie, but that's all he needed to be.

That was the best part of the storyline and it would have been nice if that had held up. 

I don't think Cecile did it because she wanted Cass for herself. I think she had some kind of financial motivation, but I can't remember how it was supposed to work because surely Maggie as a Cory would not be impoverished.

Edited November 9Nov 9 by Xanthe

I would nominate Bobby Reno/Shane Roberts on Another World.

It set the precedent for GH and Roger Howarth/ Michael Easton.  A prior actor was cast in a new role, which is confusing enough.  Then, that role gets re-written into a new role and a carpenter is suddenly a doctor, and spoiler, dies.

Oh my god. I hadn't opened this topic since the day I started it probably... and now I'm making a bag of popcorn and starting to read all of you guys' responses! YEEEES.

OLTL: Yesterday I watched Erika S's interview with Television Academy and she made a somewhat subtle remark about not being a big fan of the rewrite that Viki had a twin daughter whilst she was unconscious by Mitch ('Not very smart'). 

Would've loved more tea like this from those big profile actors. I get the sense from that interview that Erika was a very down to earth actress who took the work seriously.

31 minutes ago, BadBoy93 said:

Would've loved more tea like this from those big profile actors. I get the sense from that interview that Erika was a very down to earth actress who took the work seriously.

Erika spilled plenty of tea in her fan newsletter which went under the radar for many years until it didn't. And even more in the wonderful Llanview in the Afternoon, Jeff Giles' OLTL oral history conducted just after the show went off the air. When she was off the clock and the show was over, or whenever certain creatives were gone, she was always quite candid.

She was the same very recently in an interview with SOD re: her happy reunion with Roger Howarth and Tuc Watkins while filming at GH in LA - with OLTL gone, she was happy to acknowledge that Howarth, who she has long been very friendly with and complimentary of, was 'a bit of a pain in the ass' when he was young.

Edited Monday at 10:19 PM2 days by Vee

I'd love a link to these if there are any floating around. Would be fun to read what Erika has to say. Fabulous woman.

You can find a lot of what Erika has to say in Jeff GIles' book Llanview in the Afternoon. Her website (erikaslezak.com) also has her fan newsletter where she's often been very candid, which is part of what led to Dena Higley's firing in the 2000s.

The SOD interviews, I believe, are in this or last month's GH spoiler threads in the spoiler section. Or in the OLTL thread.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Vee