Soaps have one big advantage over primetime: History. They have decades of it. Some fans can say they have been watching since childhood. That’s a kind of brand loyalty that is rare in scripted television. The history of a show is arguably the greatest resource a show has. Each soap uses it to varying degrees and in different ways. In this column, I’ll talk about each soap’s use of history and how it could be improved.
The Bold and the Beautiful
B&B is trying. I’ll give them that, but as is common with Brad Bell’s writing, it is taking one step forward, then diving face-first down a flight of stairs. Finn and Steffy had baby Hayes recently, who is named after his maternal grandmother Taylor. Sweet, right? Wrong. Taylor got the surname Hayes from her first marriage to abusive Blake Hayes. You’d expect someone at the show to remember considering Brad has been at the show since his father Bill created it in 1987. It is embarrassing to have a child accidentally named after an abuser.
A better attempt at using the history of the show is Sheila’s return. Her last stint left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths. Why would you make one of the greatest soap villains of all time serve mozzarella sticks? It was a baffling choice. This time they’ve set up Sheila to have more of a narrative drive in making Finn her biological son born from an affair with Jack, who passed Finn off as a baby he found to be adopted to his wife Li.
Finn is now in the ranks of Sheila’s other retcon children, Daisy and Ryder. I do wonder where Finn’s birth fits in on the “Sheila’s reign of terror” timeline. Was he born after Sheila left town with baby Mary in 1998? Or was it post holding Brooke and Ridge captive in South America in 2003? I wish the show specified this just so we could know when Sheila was working an office job and banging her boss.
I do feel like not having any of Sheila’s other children around is a weak point for this story. I know this show likes to pretend the post-2005 Y&R stories didn’t happen so Daisy and Ryder are out, but there’s still Mary and Diana. Shouldn’t Finn be asking about his siblings? They are just leaving obvious potential stories on the floor, which is a bad habit for this show.
I do like that they used so many flashbacks to Sheila’s past crimes, from killing Lance with bees to shooting Brooke and Taylor. They needed that to make the fact that she is the grandmother of Hayes have the biggest impact that it could possibly have. Imagine the horror you would feel at your husband’s mother turning out to be the woman who once shot your mother, which led to her being presumed dead for years. Steffy is right to want this woman far away from her family.
The setup for the story is obvious. Finn will feel bad for his newly found mommy and resent Steffy being mean to her. Homeless Paris will comfort him with her homeless vagina. Does this make Finn look like a Liam-level idiot? Yes. When you learn someone has shot multiple people in a family, the response should be to tell her you never want to see her ever again. Not to look at her like you want her to push you on a swing while you yell “Higher, Mommy! Wheeee!”
I do appreciate the effort B&B is making. Hopefully, this story has a lasting impact and it doesn’t have the same ending as Sheila’s 2017 return which was just literally nothing. Sheila just disappeared with no exit. There’s nowhere to go but up when compared to working at Olive Garden.
Days of Our Lives
This show’s main use of history lately has been the history of Ben and Ciara. Stans for this pairing enjoyed all the flashbacks to them falling in love as Ciara’s memories returned. People who have less charitable thoughts about the serial killer and the ingenue were annoyed at more flashbacks for a pairing that has only existed for three years and flashbacks in that damn cabin that is still standing despite being set on fire multiple times. I can see both points of view. Ben and Ciara have been apart for a year because of explosions, kidnappings, a plexiglass cage, and amnesia. Stans deserved a romantic reunion. However, I do understand why other fans would be tired of seeing flashbacks from 2018 that Days has played before.
The other use of history going on is retconning a retcon with making Paulina the real mother to Lani. In 2015, Lani arrived in Salem as the retcon daughter of Abe and Tamara. No paternity test was performed. Abe just immediately accepted her as his daughter. Usually a retcon child story on soaps has a DNA test done, but this was the fall of 2015 when the show was in the midst of Ben killing women and one twink who’d eventually return to frame Chad and Bo was back. Then head writers Josh Griffith and Dena Higley likely skipped that story beat to focus on other things. That has opened the door for Ron Carlivati to rewrite the story.
Reactions to this story are mixed. Some don’t like that they are taking a child away from Abe to give to the new character Paulina. Others are looking forward to drama centered around a Black family, which is a rarity for this show. I’m in the camp that is excited about it. For too long Lani has existed as a passive character. Things just happen to her, like Gabi threatening to blow up Julie’s heart to get her to break up with Eli. Switching up her parentage could be the lane to get her to be a more dynamic character.
It helps that Twitter friend Jamey Giddens (co-owner of Daytime Confidential and creator of Ambitions) is joining the Days writing staff as a breakdown writer. Up until now, Days has been the only soap to have zero Black writers on staff. Adding Jamey will lend authenticity to this story that middle-aged white man Ron does not have. Jamey has been watching this show for decades so he knows Days like the back of his hand, and thus he’ll be an asset to utilize the history of this show in every story Ron wants to tell. I know from watching Ambitions that Jamey can write a soap, so I’m really looking forward to his contributions on the main show in November and in the limited series Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem streaming on Peacock next week.
This fall, Days will be revisiting one of the most famous stories they’ve ever told: the possession of Marlena. It will be interesting to see how this particular story is translated to 2021. This could either be a disaster or a triumph. Either way, I’m excited for Days to be taking a risk. I don’t always agree with every creative choice Ron makes (hence that column last year where I made a case for his dismissal), but he does care about the history of a show more than most head writers. He’s always had that going for him.
General Hospital
This show decided that it would be best to just ignore a bunch of white people knowing Shawn was innocent and that Nikolas was the one that had Hayden shot. In this new alternate reality, all these white people didn’t just go about their lives as a Black man rotted in prison for six years. Now they are angels who knew nothing about what that meanie Nikolas did. You remember Liz, Sam, and Laura knowing Nikolas was guilty in 2015? Well, your eyes were lying to you according to head writers Dan O’Connor and Chris Van Etten.
It is just so insulting to fans to sweep a whole story under the rug because of the terrible optics. I realize this mess was caused by Ron Carlivati when he was running on fumes during his last year on the show, but I don’t agree with the revisionist history approach, especially for such a recent story. If they wanted to pull this for a story that happened in 1975, they’d likely get away with it. 2015?! People have vivid memories of it. They have jeans that are older than that story.
Fans fundamentally like shows acknowledging the history of the show, even if it is ugly. They could have milked this for drama, the fact that all these people let Shawn rot in prison for six years and did nothing. To be fair, Shawn did plead guilty when he knew he was innocent and he was there to kill Drew so it wasn’t like he was at that garage for a picnic. Imagine the drama of Shawn publicly confronting Laura, who is the mayor of Port Charles, for knowing he was innocent and doing nothing all to protect her son. They could have told a story where Laura is recalled for her actions and suffers for it. The sweeping under the rug route is unsatisfying because it lets everyone off the hook.
The other use of history is slightly better in revealing that Austin is the son of Jimmy Lee Holt. Fans have been suggesting the show bring on a spawn from the hillbilly branch of the Quartermaine family for years. The problem? Roger Howarth is a bit long in the tooth to be playing the son of Jimmy Lee and Charity. The character should be in his 30’s and not yearly-prostate-exam old. The other problem? Austin feels directionless. That’s understandable considering the show had to scramble for a new character for Roger when the decision came down to kill Franco, but Austin just feels like he’s there. He could walk into a bathroom and never come out and it wouldn’t matter at all.
The last use of history that GH has been using is the history between Jason and Carly. They’ve had a codependent relationship for years. Jason puts Carly and her children above his own kids and any love interest he’s ever had. You know that “[Bleep] those kids!” Michael Jordan meme? That’s Jason’s attitude when it comes to his own kids. Meanwhile, he was there for Michael like he was his own son from the beginning. If you came out of Carly’s cooter, Jason becomes a surrogate father automatically.
Jason and Carly are entering into a marriage of convenience to strengthen the Corinthos organization’s position in the mob world and it is looking like it will turn into a real relationship. I fully support this. When I interviewed Laura Wright last year on the podcast The Chat, I asked her about the potential of a Jason and Carly affair. She answered that the writing would have to be good. I asked this because Carly and Jason as a pairing makes sense. They will always be each other’s number one above all others. Carly practically pees a circle around Jason whenever he’s with another woman. When you add in the factor of Sonny being alive out there in Nixon Falls, it is a powder keg waiting to explode. I can’t wait for the mess.
The Young and the Restless
This section is going to be short since the use of history on Y&R is abysmal. The only thing they’ve really done lately is bringing back Stitch to kidnap Mariah in a dumb plot to get Abby back. Initially, I was thankful that Josh Griffith was willing to use history that he didn’t write, but when you write a kidnapping story and make it boring, that’s a problem. A pregnant woman being kidnapped by a character who has suddenly gone nuts should have a sense of urgency. You’d think Mariah had gone to a spa with the way characters were acting.
When you add in protein bars as a plot point and a five-month pregnancy, Josh totally lost the plot. What was the point of this? It wasn’t exciting. It didn’t make the surrogacy plot any better. Some of people’s favorite soap stories of all time involve a character being locked in a room or cage, but this show can’t even manage a passable version of what should be a slam dunk plot-driven story.
This is so unfortunate because Y&R has a bunch of history any head writer could mine for a future story. Sharon has a father out there who is a blank slate with no name. Jack has a son named Keemo that hasn’t been seen since Bill Clinton was president. Devon’s mother Yolanda is a drug addict who hasn’t been in town since he inherited billions of dollars years ago. Nikki has killed multiple people. What if a true crime show did an episode about her? Victoria’s husband Ryan was killed by psycho Tricia. They could bring Tricia back to terrorize Victoria. Do something, Y&R!
Dispatches from Soap Land:
*I’m liking the potential triangle of Allie/Chanel/Johnny on Days. Two siblings fighting over a woman is the kind of mess I enjoy. Though, they need to find something for Tripp to do other than be the perpetual unwanted Raisin Bran. Lucas Adams is too hot to be the boring one.
*Nicholas Chavez is a real find. Kudos to GH casting director Mark Teschner.
*If vaccine mandates happen on all four soaps, it is going to be fun to see which actors suck it up and get vaccinated and which decide to go for the unofficial career path of unemployed soap actors, which is getting a real estate license. I think most will cave, but there’s a chance a few would rather be unemployed than get vaccinated.
