On 11/5/2025 at 10:09 PM, soapfan770 said:

That had actually crossed my mind as my first choice; however considering the utter preposterous  other retcon stories also had my attention, namely stuff like the backstory of Carly, Gwen, Iris, and I think his name was Cole…?? Or Dusty and Holden fighting over Molly in addition to Lily, Emily and Larry’s lost embryo, and Paul Ryan’s brain microchip that the existence of David Steinbeck became a lot more plausible than everything else. 

Oh, Good Lord, how could I have forgotten Carly's past in Oakdale!!! She was either around ten or nearly 16, watched Iris give birth, and then they went walking through some woods to get ice cream, where Iris managed to hide a newborn and make everyone in town think Carly had thrown it in some pond. All while calling it her "precious baby boy", but having a girl. And Carly was so traumatized she forgot everything until she was nearly choked to death by Les Sweeney.

And then---it turned out Iris really did have some rotten son, begetted from some nameless dude for no random reason other than to torment Gwen.

I've forgotten the whys and wherefores of the Jordan story, but Barbara and Paul went to some orphanage to check Jordan's birth date.

Edited November 7Nov 7 by P.J.

Adding another one... making Henry James' insta-son was a lazy rewrite, too. Yes, James was a lothario, but after two insta-flop sons (David & Jordan), James didn't need anymore kids. Poor Lynn Herring being wasted in that crappy role Henry's mom, Audrey, made it no better. 

ATWT becoming GH-lite in casting that last year didn't make sense to me at all. Then putting them in roles that made no sense was even dumber. I still say they missed the boat by not making Stuart Damon a recasted Don or Grant for Lisa to get her happy ending. And Billy Warlock could've been Scott Elridge or Caleb Snyder along with Wally Kurth being a Seth Snyder recast. But another topic for another thread. 

7 hours ago, P.J. said:

Oh, Good Lord, how could I have forgotten Carly's past in Oakdale!!! She was either around ten or nearly 16, watched Iris give birth, and then they went walking through some woods to get ice cream, where Iris managed to hide a newborn and make everyone in town think Carly had thrown it in some pond. All while calling it her "precious baby boy", but having a girl. And Carly was so traumatized she forgot everything until she was nearly choked to death by Les Sweeney.

And then---it turned out Iris really did have some rotten son, begetted from some nameless dude for no random reason other than to torment Gwen.

I've forgotten the whys and wherefores of the Jordan story, but Barbara and Paul went to some orphanage to check Jordan's birth date.

Wow I don't remember that story at all 🤯

On 11/5/2025 at 8:56 PM, Franko said:

AMC: The un-abortion.

of the soaps I've watched, this was the worst retcon of all.
so horribly offensive.

4 hours ago, janea4old said:

of the soaps I've watched, this was the worst retcon of all.
so horribly offensive.

I agree.  IIRC, even some "pro-life" advocates were horrified by that storyline.  

 OLTL:

Adrianna as Dorian’s daughter 

ATWT: 

Lucinda and James Stenbeck having an earlier affair which resulted in a pregnancy. 

 

9 hours ago, lilyredd said:

 OLTL:

Adrianna as Dorian’s daughter 

ATWT: 

Lucinda and James Stenbeck having an earlier affair which resulted in a pregnancy. 

 

I feel u with the Adrianna one but o do loved that character as a teen back then and she was a great addition though

Now while Ms. A was a bad rewrite...it gave Bitchy Bangs (eventually) so I don't mind it. 

Adriana was actually a popular rewrite. The fans and writers took to the bond with Melissa Fumero and Robin Strasser together as faux mother and daughter, and Malone quickly decided to make the 'hoax' (which Dorian had enacted to try to keep River and Adriana apart) true with the Santi saga.

On 11/7/2025 at 6:57 AM, dragonflies said:

On 11/6/2025 at 11:24 PM, P.J. said:

Oh, Good Lord, how could I have forgotten Carly's past in Oakdale!!! She was either around ten or nearly 16, watched Iris give birth, and then they went walking through some woods to get ice cream, where Iris managed to hide a newborn and make everyone in town think Carly had thrown it in some pond. All while calling it her "precious baby boy", but having a girl. And Carly was so traumatized she forgot everything until she was nearly choked to death by Les Sweeney.

And then---it turned out Iris really did have some rotten son, begetted from some nameless dude for no random reason other than to torment Gwen.

I've forgotten the whys and wherefores of the Jordan story, but Barbara and Paul went to some orphanage to check Jordan's birth date.

Wow I don't remember that story at all 🤯

i’ve blocked out so much of ‘world turns final years:)

Have we mentioned any of the primetime soap rewrites yet?

Obviously Dallas’ dream takes the cake alongside the indecisiveness over the Wes Parmalee character.

I also didn’t get the Richard/Angela twist on Falcon Crest either. 

On 11/7/2025 at 5:57 AM, dragonflies said:

Wow I don't remember that story at all 🤯

Well, it didn't make a damn bit of sense. But Carly's initial resentment of Gwen (Gwen wanted baby Rory/Billy back after Rosanna fell into a coma after Craig forced her into the ditch when she found out he'd switched babies) to the point she drugged Gwen to make her look like a bad mother and Jack lying to Carly when he found out she'd been suspected of killing her baby "brother", was the foundation of the HUGE CarJack breakup in '06.

Usually when the subject of ATWT rewrites comes up, the one I think is the stupidest is making Brad Jack's younger brother. When they were introduced, Brad was at least a decade older than Jack, and went to jail to cover for Delores, who'd run over their father in a drunken stupor. With Brad suddenly younger than Jack, it completely rewrote their history and dynamic. Brad was suddenly just a brainless idiot, and Jack the judgmental older brother.

All SORAS'ing is technically a retcon/rewrite that I wish never existed in the grand scheme of things.

2 hours ago, soapfan770 said:

Have we mentioned any of the primetime soap rewrites yet?

I don't even factor in the primetime soaps in these discussions. We know how those shows tanked and then went off the rails. 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.

As good as Emmerdale Farm was during the 1970s and 1980s it didn't stop them from doing some re-writing of established history.

The worst one was definitely the one involving Dolly Skilbeck and her illegitimate child. In late 1977 Dolly's ex-fiancee turned up and wanted to get back together. It was then revealed that she had given birth to a his child three years earlier and given it away for adoption. This was very explicitly stated in the dialogue on several occasions. Fast-forward to 1986 and suddenly the same boy appears on the show and is in his early 20s, meaning his birth was pushed back a decade. 

You also had the mysterious case of the missing third child of Ruth Sugden. When Ruth, who last appeared in early 1974, re-appeared in 1980 not only did she go by the name of Pat (explained away by giving her full name as Ruth Patricia) but she only had two children with her, Jackie and Sandie. But when she had appeared on the show in the very early episodes she had a third child, Tommy. But he had mysteriously vanished, and was seemingly forgotten by both his parents and his siblings.