Soap storylines everyone hated - except you (or stories everyone loved and you hated)

I loved Marge the impostor on Y&R. Bill Bell could drag out ordering dinner at The Allegro for three years, but he ended that one in about three days.

"MAH BAYBEEZ!!!" - Val on Knots Landing, after her twins were kidnapped. It was good at first but went on way too long.

I still hate Sam as Alexis’s daughter on GH. It was really contrived and clearly just a means for Brian Frons to keep Kelly Monaco on the show after flopping. IIRC, they never even did a DNA test. It was proven by a yearbook photo? Alexis as a teen mom — and especially pregnant by Julian Jerome! — never made sense.

Daytime: GH - Katherine Bell and Damian (hot piece of ass Leigh McCloskey) conning Scotty. I remember the soap rags printed some vitriolic letters regarding that storyline.

Primetime: Dynasty - Alexis and Blake battling over his South China Sea oil leases. In Dynasty threads on DL, people have complained this storyline was deathly boring and dragged, but I thought it was hilarious how Alexis would one-up Blake at every single turn.

Y&R: Everyone seems to universally hate the Clear Springs storyline, but LML's tenure was the last era of the show I can remember that I couldn't miss a day.

I never understood what was going on with the continuous retconning of skye chandler’s parentage.

Clear Springs was ok but wasn’t it around the same time as George Kaplan and Sarah Smythe?

The Leviathan storyline on Dark Shadows. It is very weird even by Dark Shadows standards, but I like it.

I agree that Val's stolen babies storyline on Knots was too drawn out. Half of it was filler and keeping Val off in Shula. The Gary/Val/Abby triangle, the way that it played out over almost five years and100 episodes, was one of the best soap storylines, for my money.

On Days, I liked the Hattie storyline with another Marlena look-similar, a frumpy oddball waitress played by Dee Dee Halls' twin sister. Stefano was giving her plastic surgery to look more and more like Marlena, Rolf was teaching Hattie how to pass, and Hattie was hot for Josh Taylor Roman. I enjoyed it but it didn't seem very popular and I believe was dropped when Joe Mascolo left in 2001. They went there later, but I'd quit watching.

Moldavia. Loved it.

R6 When GH went back on Alan being her father, they should’ve made her a Chandler again. It was very stupid.

I loved Dallas, season 9 (when Bobby was "dead"). Wish he had never returned to Dallas!

I loved Lily and Simon on ATWT. I think I was the only one. I also love Hunt Block's Craig and his shenanigans -- again, I was the only one.

Agree with r10 and r12. Loved Moldavia. It was campy and nothing like you had ever seen on a soap before.

And I love the dream season of Dallas. I loved that the women were front and center. And Pam became sassy and tough again (although, sadly, they chickened out with the Pam-at-Ewing-Oil story - loved seeing her spar with J.R.). It was amusing to see a woman (Angelica Nero) get the upper hand with J.R.

I loved that Luke raped Laura and then they became soulmates on GH. Especially because it happened at the disco.

I loved Casey the alien on GH.

I loved the abduction of Fallon by aliens/UFO at the very end of The Colbys. However, when she subsequently returned to Dynasty, there was no resolution/explanation of the alien abduction storyline. LMAOOOO!!!!

(R12) did they replace Bobby that year with John Beck?

R2 That was a popular storyline. But yeah, it dragged on for too long.

Most of Reva's over-the-top storylines, unless they involved Sonni or Annie.

R20, I loved the whole Sonni/Solita storyline.

Eterna!!! Loved all the late 80’s oltl iconic camp.

I also loved the Jess/Nat baby switch storyline, OP.

This really dates me but on General Hospital, I remember when Duke Lavery died and they brought him back with another actor, claiming Duke has facial reconstruction surgery. I think fans revolted but I thought the new actor was so hot. I was totally into him as a young gay teen. Duke was quickly “killed” again and written off.

On OLTL,- loved Viki/Niki in the 80"s. Loved the Paul Rauch era. ON GH, best storyline was unquestionably Death of BJ Jones.

I adored Mitch the crazy cult leader on OLTL. Did everyone love it?

OP - I agree with you. But I think they made a mistake giving Jessica DID, (split personality). With all the childhood trauma Natalie went through, it would have made a lot more sense for her to have had it. It could also have explained why she was so nasty and evil when first coming to Llanview, and would have bonded her to Viki. They could have done so much more with that storyline, but took the coward's way out.

I loved Casey the Alien.

R17, there was one line later on Dynasty where Jeff actually made fun of her for the claim - to her face. It felt like vindication for everyone who hated the story!

I loved OLTL stories that put the Viki-Dorian-Tina triangle front and center. I thought they missed opportunities to connect Todd and Tina who were, after all, full brother and sister. And I feel they should have brought in CJ Roberts at some point -- a true Lord-Buchanan.

I loved the Reva/Dolly clone story on GL but only because I had just moved to NYC and ran into Peter Herman who played the doctor in the deli on the ground floor of my building. This was before he married “up” and moved out of Hell’s Kitchen. He was the first “celebrity” I’d ever seen in person. We were both buying a box of spaghetti.

Yes!! Post 29. We lost a lot of possibilities when they just wrote off Tina Lord Robert’s. The dynamic of the Lord siblings could have been gold. Crazy we got all these irrelevant male characters and never CJ.

I never liked everyone's fave Cecile DePoulignac, but I did like Rachel getting together with Carl.

GH should do what GL did way back and move the location of the show from Port Charles to Nixon Falls. It’s a much more exciting town and is in need of some new blood.

R33 I'm sure Nixon Falls will soon be phased out. Phyllis will come to Port Charles to visit Nina to get away from Nixon Falls and the memories of Lenny now that the Tan-O has burned down. She'll end up staying in Port Charles

I hated when Florida married Carl and left the kids to fend for themselves for the sake of Carl's health, came back one season later and they all acted as if Carl never existed.

I think Florida came back and they said Carl died. Then again, I could be imagining shit.

I was intrigued when they were going to pair Neil with Victoria on Y&R. Apparently racist viewers hated the interracial coupling and it was nixed. Which is a shame because it could have led to some great storytelling -- Victor vs. Neil, Victoria vs. Drucilla.

R37 I remember that one. I think it could have been great. I recall the soap mags reported on how CBS had been receiving hate mail from fans against the interracial pairing.

I can't recall if it was loved all that much-but I loved the Terror Island storyline on Sunset Beach.

R32 I also liked the Rachel/Carl pairing up until they had twins.

Everyone groaned at Courtney Thorne-Smith's attempt at playing alcoholic on "Melrose Place."

I thought she was so bad she was fabulous. Drunk Allison Parker was the best Allison Parker, especially since C T-S seemed to be playing a random drunk in community theater.

R37 Forget that one, I wanted Mamie and John Abbot to get it on.

On "One Life To Live" Karen Wolek's sister Jenny gives birth to a baby that dies. The former hooker Katrina is also having a baby, which it seems she'll give up for adoption. Her baby survives. Karen and Marco (who is pretending to be his identical brother Mario, a doctor) switch babies, making it seem like Katrina's had died and Jenny's had lived. It was Karen's idea. I thought it was a truly repugnant storyline. Karen and Marco behaved like sociopaths. As I recall that storyline (will the truth about the Jenny/Katrina baby ever come out?) went on FOREVER. I never did find out how it was resolved, if it ever was resolved.

Yeah, r42, the Mamie and John story being dropped was another head-scratcher. They really just dropped that story quickly. Jill offering Mamie money and then she took off? I didn't buy that.

I guess they got more racist mail for that, but I can't see why viewers would hate John with Mamie? It made sense. The Abbott kids loved her.

I really hated the way they wrote off Mamie. It didn't seem in character.

R44 Yes, plus people claim it was the old racist people in the South, but most of the old people I knew like John and Mamie. It was probably just a very small group of people writing multiple letters and freaking out the network.

ETERNA!!!! OLTL in the winter fall/winter of 88/89.

I fucking loved that storyline- it was ridiculous but it was fantastic.

Maybe it's because I was 11 years old, I don't know..

Eventually, Jennie, after many twists and turns, did find out that her baby had died and that was raising ex-hooker Katrina's baby. Of course, she did the noble thing and gave the baby, Mary, up to the now reformed Katrina. It was heartbreaking.

Nixon Falls.

Time travel Reva.

Stupid devil.

Tina returning in 1985 to OLTL and turning out to be Victors daughter was good.

Reva becomes a Talk Show hostess.

I thought it was creepy (not romantic) for viki to get her husbands heart transplanted into her.

Especially since she had been married to and later reconciled with his own brother.

I hated the reforming of serial killer Ben on DOOL.

Agreed. So terrible. He could be any other kind of twin or lookalike.

Devils, Aliens, vampires…. No thanks.

I preferred Todd and Tea to Todd and Blair on OLTL.

The current Lydia/Adam/ Sarah infidelity storyline on Coronation Street.

The redemption of Olbrectht on GH....She kept Duke strapped to a bed for years...And now she is some sort of hero and even friend to Anna? Give me a break...

I hated Colin and Troy on OLTL.

I loved all the retcons surrounding John Black. Was he The Pawn? Or Roman Brady? Or a priest? Or Forrest Alamain? Or John Black DiMera?

The ridiculous storylines fit Drake Hogestyn's ridiculous acting style. Watching his eyes bulge, then close as he takes in the news of yet another identity. Listening to his heavy breathing -- the visceral sighing as he attempts to emote. It's good shit.

Erica Kane as supermodel.

I really liked Karen Witter's recast as Tina. No, she wasn't Andrea Evans, but she had a real warmth to her that they kind of steered into for a while. And at least she wasn't goddamn Krista Tesreau.

And while I eventually loved Kassie DePaiva before all others, I remember not being crazy about her at first. And let's face it, if they tried to recast an Asian character with a white actress in 2022, they'd get the network burned down, and probably rightfully so.

I think part of the problem with John and Mamie (outside of race) was it didn't develop. It was just whomp - John and Mamie were in love. Yeah, they'd been in the same house for the last forty years but there'd been no real depth or nuance to the relationship. I just don't think the storyline between the boss and the housekeeper rang true. Plus, focus group of one, but I found the actress playing Mamie at the time so seldom played any warmth in her. Original Mamie was kindly and very sweet. It was hard to root for Mamie2.0. Finally, it was hard to take John Abbott's relationships seriously. He got married every other week. Mamie would have been his fourteenth wife and definitely not the last.

The clone on GL. I was a little kid who loved sci if, so I thought it was cool and didn’t realize how cringe it all probably was. Plus I loved Joie Lenz as the teen Reva and had a little gay boy crush on her — I was thrilled a few months later when she showed up as the new Michelle.

I loathed the GL Reva Clone story. And Reva time travels. And just about every Reva story after she came back from the dead. They ruined her character.

[quote] I hated the reforming of serial killer Ben on DOOL.

Not a regular watcher but yes, that seems like it's way over the top. If they would have revealed his father did it instead, that would be one thing. But to have him still be guilty and blame it on a brain tumor.....no.

R41 did they really? I watched it last year and I loved her, especially when she was a drunk trainwreck feuding with Amanda.

Billy and Bo on DOOL, Crystal Chappell was so boring on that show, and he was so boring with her. God.

R68 she was Carly, not Billie. Lisa Rinna was Billie before her collagen implants.

You're right, senior moment. I still hated it.

Gwen/Cleo in Branson on ATWT. I thought it was hilarious. Stupid, yes, but hilarious. And I loved the original Jade and don’t know why they were so quick to get rid of her.

I loved Buzz and Reva married on GL. It only lasted a hot minute but KZ and JD had incredible chemistry. They should have gone with it longer.

The Stuart and Marion love story. Marion went from this fun loving character to a shrew who went around berating Adam. Stuart himself was a bit overrated. I thought Davd Canary had some good acting moments as Adam, but Stuart never came off as a real person. It was just mugging, slumping of the shoulders and spouting off some home-spun platitude.

I am the only person in the world who liked Johnny and Chelsea as a couple on GL. After all the shit Phillip put her through, I thought it was nice for her to be with someone sane and stable.

I liked Josh as a minister on GL, but it was at absolutely the wrong time. It was after he was dating nuCassie.

Craig and Nancy‘a original pairing as schemers , get that Chief of Staff Job from Mike Horton, on Days of Our Lives

They always had stupid lines, obviously aimed at the fat fraus in the audience, from Craig about how sexy and beautiful his overweight wife Nancy was, it was excruciating

The fall 1995 batch of teens on AMC, they didn’t last long, Laura Kirk was the most annoying and badly acted of them all, stomping around Pine Valley with her Joan Osborne hair, and lecturing everyone, she was a pre SJW character, especially when it came to the gay teacher storyline, Laura was hip and down with gay people and was against bigotry and homophobia! And yet it became all about her! I usually avoid drama fueled SJW type straight women like that like the plague in real life

The shrink, whom played Karen’s brother on Knots Landing, who brainwashed Viki to kill Kevin on OLTL, horrible, even Erika Slezak hated it

Valerie being revealed to be a murderer on BH 90210, she had killed her molesting rapist father in self defense years prior, was also dumb and a retcon of history, it was clearly stated that he died from suicide for years with Valerie flashing back to him shooting himself, so she had flashbacks to something that never happened?

Georgia & Nat, the posh incestuous student couple off of BROOKSIDE.

Was *obsessed* with that s/l as a kid, and on rewatch it still holds up now. These days no-one does a soap like Phil Redmond did.

R73 that’s a storyline that you hated that everyone else ostensibly loved… opposite of the topic. GET 👏 IT 👏 TOGETHER 👏 R73.

R76 see r78

R2 see r78

R54 nobody liked that storyline, including you. OFF-TOPIC!!!! Can you not read?! Are you like Lauryn Hill and you need Nancy Hughes to rap to you to teach you?

R78 - you might want to look at what is in the parenthesis of the thread title.

R61 Yeah, I found the priest storyline to be entertaining in a campy way.

[quote]Craig and Nancy‘a original pairing as schemers , get that Chief of Staff Job from Mike Horton, on Days of Our Lives

[quote]They always had stupid lines, obviously aimed at the fat fraus in the audience, from Craig about how sexy and beautiful his overweight wife Nancy was, it was excruciating.

I wasn't a fan of their storylines. I remember debates on soap message where some people didn't buy an attractive handsome guy being with an average looking overweight woman and there were the fraus that defended the pairing. The Nancy frau fans of course aren't happy these days with the Craig being gay storyline.

Speaking of OLTL, I hated how Vicki's sons Kevin and Joey pretty much never acknowledged their deceased bio father Joe Riley.

I hate any story line that involves twins or doppelgangers.

R86 I dislike most, but I did love Frannie and Sabrina, and Sonni and *dramatic hand motions* Solita!

Fake Silver Kane.

Even the most dedicated As The World Turns fan hated the Carolyn Crawford story, a rare Doug Marland misfire.

The problem was that no one cared much about Darryl, or Carolyn, the most boring person alive. And then it dragged out for what seemed like a century. We also really didn't care about nuFrannie, who was a pale comparison to Julianne Moore (seriously).

Did most people not like the Solita/Sunny storyline? I for one remember it being a multilayer incredible story. I loved it.

I'm not a huge fan of twins or doppleganger storylines. But, I did like the storyline of on Y&R of Ashley and the twins Rick and Blade.

Lit-ra-ly am the only living person who wanted a Ben Mitchell/Johnny Carter endgame on EASTENDERS.

The couple was on the cards and seeded and kept humming in the background for years (2014-17), and in the end nothing much substantial came of it beyond one drunk FWB birthday hookup and a sad platonic cuddle in an alleyway. They ended up parting as friends, and not even tearfully as besties either. For a landmark Millennial gay couple, they really fizzled out and sadly ended up a pointless footnote.

Also wanted Ben’s proper boyfriend/fiancée Paul to stay alive and thrive on the show (instead of getting brutally killed offscreen in a homophobic way😞), but that’s a popular opinion.

I'll agree that twin storylines usually suck, but Another World's Marley/Vicky reveal was some of my favorite soap ever.

R93 I forgot about Marley and Vicky and that was an entertaining twin storyline.

Few remember this old storyline on AMC. Sage advice giver Myrtle (the Boutique owner who was in her 70's at the time), started dating an elderly gentleman who had lost the Christmas Spirt. He moved into her boarding house for a few weeks and she cheered him up and made him happy again. Turns out he was SANTA CLAUS and Myrtle saved Christmas. I hate most Christmas movies, but she was a great actress, so it was fun.

Wait? Did he cheat on Mrs. Claus? I never thought about that before.

I actually did not mind the Mrytle dating Santa story either. It gave Mrytle something to do besides being a talk-to to Erica or whoever was staying at the boarding house. and was clearly just meant to be a fun holiday story line. The actress was pretty frail at the end (years after this story) but she never lost her ability to act. Sometimes the older actors lost something and ended up just flatly delivering lines once a certain age, but she was good until the end. Speaking of twins and dopplegangers, I believe the actress had a quick scene as Mrs. Claus coming to chew her out for flirting with her husband.

It was a nice change after the overuse of the Dillon Christmas angel that was trotted out about ten years in a row, although I always like a Kate Collins return. Certainly a lot better when a few years later when they had a creepy Santa show up in random places implying there would be a Christmas miracle and it ended up being something like Tad and Dixie's child's adoptive parents being killed in an accident to clear an obstacle from Tad getting his daughter back.

R90 I think most GL fans liked the Sonni/Solita story.

Although looking back I really don't think I could explain it well.

I read this a few years ago and agree with it.

I fucking hated AMC and its UGLY look (something from 1994 came to my "check out list" on Youtube- and my god that show was cheap and ugly. I don't know how people loved it so much as it looked so utterly ugly. Especially in the early to mid 90's.

HOWEVER- it was my grandparents show, as well as my mom's.

Myrtle and Phoebe RULE. That show had some kind of human comfort level attached to it- It felt like a warm blanket- and a big part of that was Myrtle, Phoebe, and Mona. As a little boy I loved those old ladies! Bad lighting and cheap sets and all. They were awesome.

And I agree with poster above about Tina's return to OLTL in 1985. OLTL from 85-87 under Rauch and Peggy O'Shea was probably the most underrated awesome soap opera of all time.

I would spend a month every summer at my grandparents and would suffer through AMC (other than those old ladies above) and just count the seconds until OLTL and its cool background music and Mitch's cult and Tina and Maria and Viki... Great memories.

Bump

Luke raping Laura.

I hated the Marlena possession in 1995 (I was 16) and I hated the retread of it this past winter. I have no idea why people find it so amusing.

Much better was the first part of Aremid (before Missy Reeves and her deep throat ruined it); that town was creepy as fuck, had all those weird people, and the name was DiMera spelled backwards. I wish they'd do Aremid again.

I for one loved the Laurelton murders storyline on GH, especially as it eventually brought Lucy Coe to the show.

I thought Patrick & Kevin were so hot, & kept waffling back & forth on which one was the killer. I was hoping it was Patrick, as I found Kevin to be a bit hotter, but, alas.

I still remember dusting the house on the scorching hot summer day when Terry pushed Kevin over the cliff on their honeymoon...

I hated the late 90s/early 2000s storylines involving Craig and Nancy on DOOL.

Luke, Laura and that Greek guy crap around 1985...I stopped watching GH when it lost the soap and tried to be a thriller.

I loved when our Dee Dee Halls played trashy Hattie Adams on DOOL. She deserved the Daytime Emmy for that.

*snickers* at R105

Pretty much any Reva story after her first stint on the show.

Aside from the triangle with Josh/Annie, some of the scenes with Jonathan, and her yanking the plug on Richard, the stories were a mess.

Cloning, time travel through a painting, Reva forgets she was the queen of another country, Amish Reva....the list is long.