They say hindsight is 20/20, but I think there are definite cases where you can point out how someone fumbled a good thing, and they should have known better. So, this month is all about the times soaps have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory this past decade.
20. Not Making Martin Be Anita and Vernon’s Son, Beyond The Gates
If you turned on a random episode of Beyond The Gates with zero context, you’d think Martin was Anita and Vernon’s son. He’s in way more scenes with them than his parents Nicole and Ted. This has been a conversation fans have had since the show started in February. Martin feels more like Anita and Vernon’s third child and not a grandson.
I will say they have made strides in making Nicole feel more like Martin’s mother. The scenes where Nicole embraced Martin after finding out what happened two years ago were wonderful. It was the first time I really felt like they were mother and son, and I would like to see more of that.
Martin and Ted haven’t had any breakthrough scenes like that. Ted feels more like a friend of Martin’s father who sees him maybe twice a year. It is very much “Do you still collect Pokemon cards?” energy. I do not think Ted knows when Martin’s birthday is or his favorite pizza topping. I guess, in that way, maybe Ted really does feel like Martin’s father if they are going for a typical clueless dad.
19. Cutting Brooke and Taylor As Friends So Short, The Bold and the Beautiful
Soaps share a lot of similarities with comic books. One of the biggest ways is that the status quo will almost always revert to what it was. Superman and Lex Luthor can’t get along for very long. Lex’s seething hatred of Superman is just too important to the mythos of that world to allow for it. It is very much like Brooke and Taylor on B&B. The mythos can’t sustain a permanent friendship between the two of them.
We all knew the friendship between Brooke and Taylor wouldn’t last, but it was such a refreshing change to see those two not arm wrestling over Ridge’s dong and being in competition over which of them is the most pathetic woman. I feel like they could have played it out longer and had a more interesting destruction of the friendship. If they had Jack return to Los Angeles set on torturing his biological mother and the woman who gave birth to him, that could have been soapy. Instead we got Brooke lamely deciding she wanted to compete over penis again at her advanced age.
18. The Rosales Family, The Young and the Restless
Mal Young’s idea to bring a Latino family to Genoa City was a good idea. It was just the execution that was botched. On British soaps, you can just introduce a whole new family and the fans won’t bat an eyelash. American soap fans have to be eased into a new family like a fussy child who won’t eat their vegetables. The way the Rosales family was introduced doomed them.
You first had Arturo who was in the bizarre story of Victor and Nikki having an open marriage in the twilight of their lives. Then there was Rey who had chemistry with Victoria, but they insisted on putting him with Sharon, despite the lack of chemistry. Lola started out being liked by fans, but dumping Kyle for buying her a designer purse tanked her reputation with fans.
You also had Mia played by the wonderful Noemi Gonzalez. She was soap gold as a vixen who will fight, but fans didn’t like her because she wasn’t nice and wasn’t a size zero. So she was quickly fired and the whole family was dismantled as they left town, and the last of the Rosales family was gone with Rey’s death in 2022.
17. Eve’s Delayed Revenge, Days of Our Lives
A mother going after the man who killed her daughter once he’s released from a mental institution should be a great soap story. Kassie DePaiva did great work in the one episode where Eve tried to kill Ben in the park. Then, Eve dropped it and went back to trying to get amnesiac Jack elected mayor in a really asinine parody of MAGA. Fans screamed about how stupid it was that Eve would just drop this and allow Ben to just go about his life with Ciara.
Ron Carlivati overcompensated for this criticism by having Eve blow up a church as Ben and Ciara were getting married, torture him and brainwash him in an effort to get him to kill Ciara. Ron is known for writing characters into corners, but the combination of making Eve into both a racist and a cartoony Bond villain destroyed her character. Eve can no longer be a regular character on Days.
16. Jason’s Two Returns, General Hospital
I’ve never been a Jason fan, but I recognize he’s a popular character so when Steve Burton returned to GH in 2017, I was happy for his fans. They revealed that Drew was Jason’s twin and Jason had spent five years in Russia being catatonic, which isn’t that different from him being awake. Then, Jason would go on to stare at Sam with zero chemistry for about a year, get together and then break up.
After that, Jason was with Britt for a hot second and had a marriage of convenience story with Carly that ended when Sonny strolled in like he popped out for beer and nachos when he was “dead” for 9 months. This return ended with Jason being presumed dead after Steve Burton refused to get vaccinated.
Jason’s second return has been mostly him just standing around and doing paperwork. There have been positives like Jason moving into the Quartermaine mansion, which is the closest we’ll get to him being in that family, since his memories of them post-car wreck will never return. Otherwise, he’s been a supporting player.
It is absurd to botch the return of a popular character twice. He doesn’t even get to be in scenes with Elizabeth that much. I wasn’t a fan of them together, but they are popular and I think fans would rather see them interact even platonically than see Jason doing paperwork.
15. The Allie/Chanel/Johnny Triangle, Days of Our Lives<
A woman being torn between a brother and his sister was so modern and soapy. Unfortunately, the potential of this story was squandered by having the Devil possessing both Johnny and Allie and dumping Chanel twice. In fairness to Ron Carlivati, the return of Satan was allegedly foisted upon him so it isn’t all his fault that such a messy storyline was ruined by supernatural hijinks.
14. Sheila’s Other Children, The Bold and the BeautifulÂ
It is insane that Sheila has four other children and Brad Bell hasn’t used any of them in either of the two times Sheila has returned in the past decade. He’d rather have her serving breadsticks and getting her toes kissed by Deacon than have Mary, Diana, Daisy and Ryder show up. Sheila even has a granddaughter in Genoa City! Yet all of this potential story will never get used.
13. Allie, The Young and the Restless
Josh Griffith went to the trouble of creating a daughter Keemo had to finally settle fan complaints about Jack’s half-Vietnamese son rarely being mentioned in twenty years. Allie was a kindhearted heroine archetype and was paired with Noah. Josh wasn’t invested in them so the majority of their screen time was the navel gazing conversations he’s known for. He then fired Kelsey Wang and Rory Gibson to allegedly pay for Trevor St. John’s contract.
The thing that still pisses me off about this in 2025 is he’s writing Claire, a woman who poisoned her own mother, like she’s a Debbie Macomber heroine. If he had kept Allie, he could have the kind heroine and have Claire be a bitch or morally grey. It makes me think Allie was only created to get fans to shut up about Keemo and then get off the show quickly. American soaps have a long history of treating Asian characters like trash, but to create an Asian member of a big family and treat them the exact same way as her father is low.
12. Not Having Willow and T.J. Cheat, General Hospital
Willow’s cancer story was stupid and insulting to every person who has ever had cancer or known someone with cancer. However, they could have made lemonade out of this lemon if they had used it to have Willow and T.J. fall in love. Katelyn MacMullen and Tajh Bellow did have chemistry and they could have done something with it.
At that point, Willow didn’t have chemistry with Michael, who was played by Chad Duell. T.J. had been with Molly for far too long for a young soap couple. I think Willow cheating with T.J. would have been better than her eventual affair with Drew. Her relationship with Drew is gross, controlling and abusive. Willow cheating with T.J. would have been messy, but ultimately could have been romantic. There’s also the factor that T.J. is in her age group and not old enough to be her father. It was a missed opportunity.
11. Not Recasting Will In 2015, Days of Our Lives
Guy Wilson was a huge flop as Will Horton. He was good in love scenes, but other than that, fans did not care for him as Will. Thus when Josh Griffith and Dena Higley came on as head writers, they decided to have Ben kill him in the Necktie Killer story. This decision was highly controversial and was reversed when Chandler Massey returned to the role two years later in a story written by Ron Carlivati. Chandler stayed for a few years and then left for a regular job. Now, Will is a character that pops in for short visits.
Guy Wilson flopping convinced The Powers That Be that Chandler is the only actor to play Will. I’m not convinced that is the case. If they had just recast Will in 2015, there’s a decent chance he’d still be a regular character. There are absolutely actors who could have taken on that role and committed to it. He is the son of Sami Brady and Lucas Horton! Will should not be a character that shows up for a few episodes like an elderly character that was popular in 1985.
10. Ruining Quinn and Carter, The Bold and the Beautiful
Quinn and Carter were a really hot affair and fans loved them. That was until Brad Bell decided to make it disgusting. Eric had boner woes so he ordered his Black employee Carter to have sex with his wife like they were in a very problematic porn scene. This choice ruined the pairing, and it wasn’t that long until they offered Rena Sofer to just be recurring and she refused and returned to GH. It is still upsetting to think about it.
9. Fumbling Elizabeth’s Parents, General Hospital
Fans had wanted to see Elizabeth’s parents Jeff and Carolyn for years, yet no regime would bring them on. Many characters got family members brought on in those years, including various retcon siblings and even Connie got a retcon son. It got to the point that it was absurd that we never saw Jeff and Carolyn, even when they introduced Jeff’s daughter Hayden. It should have been an easy win to bring them on and please the fans. Yet no one would consider what we got a win.
The first aspect of fumbling Jeff and Carolyn was in the casting of them. Fans had suggested various soap actors over the years like Robert Newman and Colleen Zenk. Instead, we got William R. Moses and Denise Crosby. I wouldn’t call them bad actors, but they were underwhelming in the roles. We had waited for years to see Jeff for the first time since 1981 – and the first time to see Carolyn at all – and the result was a disappointment.
The second aspect of fumbling the return of Elizabeth’s parents was making it all about Finn. GH has a terrible habit of making stories that should be centered around Elizabeth into stories about her love interest at the time. They did it with Franco when Elizabeth’s rapist returned to Port Charles. They couldn’t help themselves this time and they did a retcon where Jeff was banging Finn’s wife and had her falling down some stairs.
At least when GH made a story that should be about Elizabeth about Franco that pairing had a fanbase. Very few people liked Elizabeth with Finn. Yet they chose to ruin a moment that fans had been begging for years to service him as a character. It was unforgivably stupid.
8. Ana, The Young and the Restless
If you can look at gorgeous Loren Lott, who is playing the sister of a billionaire and daughter of a crackhead, and say you have no stories for her, you are either a liar or utterly incompetent. That’s all I have to say on the matter.
7. CBS Blocking Good Stories, The Young and the Restless
To be fair to Josh Griffith, CBS has allegedly blocked good ideas he’s had, such as Jack and Lauren having an affair. Lauren has been so stagnant as a character in her marriage with Michael. Jack and Lauren being AARP sluts together could have been so fun and given her a purpose on the show. Alas, they wanted the show to be boring.
Josh Griffith wasn’t the only head writer to get blocked by CBS in the past decade. Sally Sussman wanted Devon to get shot by a cop and live. It would have been timely and likely gotten Bryton James another Daytime Emmy. CBS said no so Devon just got into a boring car accident instead of a powerful story about police bias and racism.
Soap fans are hard on head writers, but sometimes the good ideas those writers have are blocked and we get “safe” material instead. There’s a reason why you’ve seen a lot of baby switches and paternity reveals. Those are the things that network greenlights.
6. Nixon Falls, General Hospital
They could have used Sonny’s nine-months as an amnesiac in Nixon Falls to get him out of the mob. Those nine months could have been where Sonny got to be charming and fall in love with Nina in a way that didn’t involve using his past as a manipulation tactic. It would have been a great off-ramp to excise the mob from this show. They decided not to do that and now Sonny is flirting with his upteenth Brunette Law Enforcement Lady, but this time he’s elderly. It just reminds me of Y&R pretending Jack was still in his forties for 20 years.
5. Not Doing A Murder Mystery With Peter, General Hospital
We had to suffer through years of Peter and they couldn’t even give us the satisfaction of a murder mystery. Most of the town wanted that shitty retcon dead, and it took Felicia to hit him with a tire iron to put him and us out of our misery. I just don’t get the thought process of having the canvas hate a character while the fandom screams bloody murder about him and not pulling an Agatha Christie.
I don’t think this bodes well for the chances of getting a murder mystery with Drew who has basically become the new Peter. Ninety-five percent of Port Charles despises him and gets away with everything just like Peter did. I want multiple monologues about how he must be stopped while holding a gun, but GH might just have Drew die by slipping on a banana peel. This show consistently has a problem sticking the landing when it comes to story climaxes.
4. Chance’s Run Since He Returned In 2019, The Young and the Restless
Phillip “Chance” Chancellor should have been a big character on Y&R. The grandson of Jill Foster Abbott and the son of Nina Webster and Phillip Chancellor III. His entire existence is linked back to the biggest feud in Y&R history between Jill and Katherine when Jill banged Katherine’s husband and gave birth to Phillip the III. Yet Chance has been a C character since he returned in 2019.
First, Chance returned to town played by a man who looked 50 and was a country bumpkin. Then, it was revealed he was shooting blanks so they had to use Devon’s sperm to have a kid with his wife, Abby. The old looking actor was replaced by Conner Floyd who is so handsome he’s been on romance novel covers, but he’s not the strongest actor.
After the breakup with Abby, Chance has just been hanging around. He had a fling with Sharon for a hot second and warmed Summer’s bed after her divorce from Kyle. When he wasn’t slinging consolation dong, he had a brief businessman period, but went back to being an incompetent cop who couldn’t find his own ass if you poked it with a stick.
Now Chance has been killed by a dayplayer who worked for Cane during this poorly thought out White Lotus ripoff. Why would Cane lure a cop from Wisconsin to France as he kept multiple rich people hostage in a garden maze? Even if you were to forgive the stupidity of this story and that they killed off a legacy character, this death will have no impact. Jill and Nina aren’t on the canvas. Cane will likely suffer no consequences for basically causing two deaths. This whole thing is maddening.
3. Bo and Hope’s Botched Reunion, Days of Our Lives
I am so happy that Bo and Hope got to have a proper reunion this year, but I haven’t forgotten the botched reunion from two years ago. Ron Carlivati had a whole plan that would have given a lovely reunion and scenes with Ho’s dad Doug back in Salem. That plan was kiboshed by a certain person and we ended up getting Shawn shooting a brainwashed Bo and him going into a coma. It was horrible to watch a show basically punch itself in the crotch when they had a setup for an easy win.
2. The Avant Family, The Bold and the Beautiful
In 2015, Maya and her family the Avants were the hottest thing on soaps. They revealed that Maya was trans and set off a good two years of pretty stories for a show that doesn’t usually feature Black characters. Then Brad Bell’s infamous short attention span kicked in and he didn’t want the Black family in his toy box anymore. He wanted to write stuff like trying to get us to like a baby thief and Sheila serving breadsticks. I would have rather seen Sasha and Nicole feuding or Julius stepping out on Vivienne again.
To add insult to injury, Maya returned to the show for a hot second in 2020 to do nothing. She just announced her divorce from Rick and that was it. Julius returned briefly to basically pat Zende on the back for divorcing his daughter Nicole. They created a new Avant named Xander who did absolutely nothing on this show. Brad Bell took a good thing, stomped on and pissed all over it. Truly his own worst enemy.
1. Pulling The Plug On Michael Hating Sonny, General Hospital
The other hot story of 2015 was Michael hating Sonny for murdering his biological father A.J. That was a rough year for GH, but it was so amazing to see Michael reading Sonny and Carly for filth and taking custody of Avery away from Sonny. It was the best work of Chad Duell’s career and he even won a Daytime Emmy for it.
The problem was Maurice Benard hated the story. I don’t need to put it as alleged since he publicly admitted it. So Michael forgave his murderous adoptive father and Ron Carlivati was fired. Maurice publicly celebrated this firing! I’ve certainly had my issues with Ron, but even I consider that to be tacky.
The reason this ranks number one on my list is they tanked a story they could have gotten years of storylines out of for an actor’s feelings. They should have just told Maurice to stay in his lane. What would Maurice have done in 2015? Days wouldn’t have been able to afford him. Y&R had already spent money on Steve Burton and that cast would have brought out torches and pitchforks if they hired Maurice. He isn’t the type of actor Brad Bell likes. He probably didn’t want to retire then. He wouldn’t have done shit.
When they redid the “Michael hates Sonny” story after Sonny got with Nina, it didn’t hit the same. If Michael can forgive Sonny for shooting his biological father three times in the chest, Sonny leaving Carly for Nina is nothing. I suppose by that time Maurice had a change of heart or Frank Valentini had told him acting was his job, but it was too late. They had fumbled a dramatic story they could have dined off of for years because Maurice was in his feelings over it. The sad thing is Maurice would have benefited from the story, but he couldn’t get out of his own way.
Dispatches From Soap Land
*I’m so annoyed that Kat on Beyond The Gates lost her virginity to Tomas. Hopefully next year she can find real love and ditch the social climber.
*I do not believe for a minute that Jill Farren Phelps is just happy to be a supervising producer on Y&R. She’s been an executive producer six times. People who are used to being the boss don’t tend to like being lower on the totem pole.
*Rory Gibson had better have a sex scene this year. You do not hire a man who looks like that and has actual charisma and leave him sexless. GH had better have a plan.
